Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

I just wanted to let Shrapnel know that I have confirmed that my own particular problem is NOT a bad disk. It is a code problem with the CD check of the CD driver letter.

Since I never use my CD writer to install software, I thought it would be safe to try remapping the drive from S: to H: and re-install the game to see if it would then work. Based on own suspicions and what Phoenix-D tried yesterday to confirm them, Any drive letter below J: should work.

Sure enough, after installing it from the remapped H: drive, the game now starts and runs just fine on my system. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

I've not seen anything posted here from Shrapnel or MM confirming this, but based on my own experience, I think it's now pretty safe to say that this particular problem is indeed the CD check on all those PC systems whose CD drive letters are mapped greater than J:

-ColdSteel

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

How does one go exactly "remapping" drive letters? What do you do?

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

gregebowman, it depends on which OS you have. In WinXP/2000, in Administrator mode, go the the Administration Tools under Setting, Control Panel, select Computer Management, then Disk Management under Storage. In the lower window, scroll down the list of drives until you get to the CD-ROM drive you want to change. Right click on it and select the "change drive letter" option. You don't have to reboot.

Under Win 95/98/SE/ME, you have to do it though the hardware config management screen. Right click the "My Computer" icon, select Properties, select the Hardware tab, look for the CD-ROM drive and right click on it. Select Properties and I believe you can change it there if I remember right. You may have to reboot.

If you have a CD Writer like I do, and just use it to burn disks and not to install software from, this is a pretty safe option. If you have only one CD drive, changing the mapping will screw up all the applications that you installed from that drive that require a CD in the drive to run.

Good luck, hope this helps, I feel your pain. I'm having a bLast playing the game at long Last. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

-ColdSteel

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

well, I guess I'm screwed then. I only have the one cd-rom, which is also a writer and dvd-rom. I sent an e-mail from the guy I bought the computer from, since he probably configured the drive letter in the first place. Hope to hear from him soon. Thanks for the info though.

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

Greg,

What is that drive letter? Just follow the directions from the other gentleman and you should be able to change it.

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

I had my cd-rom on P: and my cd-writer on Q:, with the same problem as noted here. Changing the cd-writer to I: solved the problem.

As for gregebowman's situation, whether his applications will find the CD on another drive as Z: depends on the applications in question, some programs are looking at all cd-rom drives available.

When the Windows (98se) CD is required it will look at the drive it was installed from. When this fails it will ask for a valid location. You can give the new drive in this case, possibly with subdirectory. I installed windows from D: and renamed the drive later on to P:.

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

gregebowman,

If you have only one CD drive, it doesn't mean you can't remap the drive. But, you'll just have to be very careful to remap back to Z: when you want to use one of the other apps you installed from Z: (ones that require the CD in the drive). You'd probably also want to remap back to Z: whenever you install new software. Also, just be careful because if you ever needed the Windows CD or MS Office CD in there for drivers, etc., your Windows registry will only recognize them coming from Z:

It's a bit of a pain but if you REALLY want to play the game now, mapping back and forth will tide you over until Aaron can patch it.

One final thing, if Aaron just removes the CD check in the patch, we're good. If he doesn't, but just fixes it to include all drive letters, we'll have to uninstall, remap our CDs back to where they were, and then reinstall. You'll need to make sure to copy your save games so they don't get wiped out in the uninstall. Needless to say, I hope he just removes the CD check.

-ColdSteel

[ October 12, 2003, 13:51: Message edited by: ColdSteel ]

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">WEll, my drive letter is Z, and my system is Windows ME. I did attempt his method he described, but there's nothing in the properties to change the drive letter. I'll just have to wait for the patch, I guess.

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

Right click "My computer"
Click Properties in the menu
Click "Device Manager" tab.
(wait a sec)
Click the plus beside "CDROM"
Click your CD drive in question.
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http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newup...1066008685.gif
-----
Click the properties button at the bottom (or ALT-R)
Click the "settings" tab
Look at the bottom, and you will see "Reserved Drive Letters"
- "Start Drive Letter" and "End Drive Letter" should be set to whatever range of letters you want the drive to fall into. (Set them both the same to force a particular selection)
http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/newup...1066008719.gif

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

Just for reference, that does not work in 2000 and XP. You have to use the Disk Management feature in the Computer Management administrative tool (it is in the right-click menu for My Computer on the desktop). http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

I did try that, but when I got to that second screen, nothing showed up that would let me change the drive letter. So I'm giving up until the patch is released. Got an e-mail from the tech support people, and they said that Aaron is aware of the problem and that a patch should be on its way soon. Hopefully it won't be too long

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

You guys are too quick, you beat me to the fix! Yes the dumb CD checker is only checking drive letters up to J:. The simple fix is to remap your drive to a lower letter. This will be fixed for all drive letters in the official patch coming later this week.

Aaron

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Yippee!! Can't wait for that patch to come out. It's bad enough to have to wait months for the game to finally come out to discover that I couldn't play the game as is. Thanks Aaron.

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

Ah, first time seeing Aaron post for me....

.........

*Glomps Aaron like an Anime Fanboy/girl*

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">Ha, us Betas are used to it. In your face! hahahah http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon6.gif

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

My bad. I was looking at the below screen wrong. I was finally able to find the screen to change the drive letter. I"m still leary about changing it, however, so I'll wait for the patch to come out. I was able to d/l the demo, but after starting the play button, all I got was a black screen and apparantly my computer got locked up. I know someone mentioned it in another thread, but how do I change that from happening again?

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

What worked for me is alt-tabbing out, then back in. Or setting my resolution to the same as SF was using.

Re: Problem with CD Drive Letters: CONFIRMED!
 

<font size="2" face="sans-serif, arial, verdana">I had to set my resolution to 1078, and then the demo worked fine.