Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

Hi, I'm a newbie using the CD version of WINSPWW2.
My game ran fine on a direct install from the CD until I patched it. I applied the patches in order and shutting down and restarting PC after each, to allow things to settle. So I install 1.1B, 2 and 2.5, and then find that, after launching the program, I press on "Play SPWW2" it crashes straight to Desktop.
Several tries after reboot come to the same result. My drive has no errors,recently defragged and cpu/system temperature all ok.
As the game won't run, I decide to uninstall and reinstall. The uninstall program starts and stops with an error message about insufficient memory to perform the task (I have 768MB RAM, and at least 80% free so this is wierd!)All the uninstaller seems to have done is remove the uninstall shortcut from the WINSPWW2 folder in "Start/Programs"!
I think my only way forward is to manually delete the WINSPWW2 folder and its contents and try a reinstall adding one patch at a time to verify it still works. Any advice much appreciated! (Has anyone else tried the uninstaller after patching with all 3 patches?)

Thanks,

17 Pounder

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

One of your patches is either corrupted or was intalled in the wrong place so yes, deleting the WINSPWW2 folder then re-installing everything one patch at a time and verifying the game runs for you after every upgrade would seem the best course of action.

Don

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

Ah. manually deleted the whole folder, shut down and rebooted then attempted a reinstall of the CD version. The install locked up at 97% and then required a reboot (ctrl/alt/del did nothing). Again the missing uninstall shortcut, but still visible in the folder. As only 97% install game won't run. Looking in add/remove programs, I can see WinSPWW2v1 CD edition and WinSPWW2 Ver 1.1b (odd!).(Avoid trying a remove here, it really upsets the Registry!)There are 2 files in the WINSPWW2 folder vcl50.bpl and vclx50.bpl that may be to do with it, but I have no idea what they do.Clearly, the uninstaller didn't remove some element that then messes with a new install. Its a shame, I did enjoy game when it ran!

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

sounds like you may have hard disk corruption - either lost clusters or a bad sector.

After removing the files, run your disk scanner to remove any errors (The test for bad sectors takes forever - so run overnight, if selected). Best to run once with "automatically fix file system errors" and then a separate overnight scan with "scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors" if required.

Also - if you are going to do all this, then you may as well do a defrag of the drive as well.

cheers
Andy

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

this may take a little time. The previous attempts to resolve this also appear to have incapacitated both my CD drives (system worked fine before all of this). Odd, I had run a full scan and defragged after my first removal manually. No errors popped up then.Once i get my system straight again, I'm a little wary of reinstalling WinSPWW2 tbh.

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

That would be remarkably odd, as the game makes no registry entries, nor does it install any drivers or CODECS, relying on the windows default CODECS etc (which has caused some problems with MP3 sound, as some third party applications have installed their own ones that interfered with Microsoft DirectPlay, hence our reversion to the larger format wav format in later releases).

The files you identified in an earlier post are the bog-standard Borland C++ builder support libraries. Those get installed to support the application, which is built using Borland's C++ builder development environment.

So I would look elsewhere on your system for any problems. We do not do anything that would interfere with your CD drives etc, the game is a standard windows DirectX application.

Hoewver some forms of game copy protection are known to cause CD reading/writing problems on some systems. Which you seem to have had?. So if e.g. you have installed anything that uses the starforce copy protection system then that may have been your problem - google on "starforce". This link is to a page which lists such games (site itself is rather anti the scheme! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif )

You may also want to re-download your patch files again, on the off-chance these have been corrupted on your hard drive (especially if the defrag shows any errors), just to be 100% sure.

Cheers
Andy

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

Given what you've told us so far I don't blame you but also keep in mind that thousands of people ( not hundreds, thousands... ) have upgraded their games through all the patch updates without encountering the problems you have so the problem is at your end. Since the CD installed and ran fine and the problems only appeared after you patched the problem would be in the patching but since you patched them all then ran the game there is no way for us to say which patch may be corrupted OR for us to check how you did the patching so Andys recommendation that you DL the patches again would be wise since we have had people get bad DL's of the patches before but in those cases they were only patching up one level not three at once

Two questions

1]What operating system are you using?

2]Did you use the default installation location ( ie C:\Program Files\Shrapnel Games\The Camo Workshop\WinSPWW2 ) ?

Don

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

Thanks, guys. I honestly appreciate the time and thought you have put in on trying to help me out. My system in running Win 98SE (Retained for older game compatability) and I did run to the default installation location. The cd rom problem really manifested after my (misguided) attempt to use add/remove programs after the uninstaller failed. Starforce is an interesting thought. I do have Silent Storm on my drive, so it's another lead. Once I get my CD roms running I'll have another look.
Cheers

Zin

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

Yay!

After a long time thinking about it, I installed SPWW2 on my XP system-works like a dream. No crashes and install smooth as anything. Used up a lot of time over the Seasonal Break!:):):)

Looks like my previous install on my Win 98SE system fouled up due to my having 768MB RAM installed-this messes up a lot of programs.

Something to watch if you keep an old PC for compatability issues.

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

Or you have an old programme. I have a perfectly good office 95 CD, and everything works bar Access database - because the new PC has >1 MB of RAM, the old version of Access throws a memory error. Only cure is to pull RAM from the PC! :(.Only found that out because I needed to use Access the one time (I normally use Paradox).

Cheers
Andy

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

Mobhack, well known limitation of Win95/98: in theory, you can have 2 gigs (should be 4 for 32 bit addressing, but I digress ;)), but bugs in the memory manager makes it a game of russian roulette to install more than 512 megs of RAM in such machines.

From the horse's mouth : http://support.microsoft.com/kb/253912

Re: Post patch crash and uninstall problem
 

I found that - but as Access is only useful for student training, or for single users (has problems when multiple users try to do simultaneous updates we found, paradox did not and came with Delphi but did not have fancy visual design tools) then the Open Office Suite version does the same job (forms and table designers for student teaching of concepts), and is free.

Cheers
Andy