StarFury CD check is screwed up!!

gregebowman · #1 October 10th, 2003, 05:12 AM

Cold Steel, I feel your pain. I'm having similiar problems myself. I guess I'll also ask for a replacement disc tomorrow. I just hope it's as simple a problem as a bad set of discs.

Taz-in-Space · #2 October 10th, 2003, 06:00 AM

I don't know if this is related to the previously described problems, but my disk would not work in my old computer. (Win 98 SE - 1GHZ AMD cpu)
When I placed it in the drive the install screen came up but I heard a very fast whine and very noticable vibration from my CD Drive. The Install kept slowing down and pausing until, at about 75% done, It stopped entirely!

Concerned, I took the disk out and looked at it:
It was NOT warped or visually defective.

I next put it in the CD/DVD combo drive I have in my new computer. NO Problems!

(I did hear the drive speed up...) Since I was going to play it mostly in the new computer, I didn't try to return it.
Just thought you might be interested hearing about this...

ColdSteel · #3 October 11th, 2003, 01:31 AM

Just to update on my situation:

I got a very nice email from Shrapnel this morning saying that my replacement CD is on the way. They really are an excellent publisher/company and none of my frustration over any of this was intended to indicate anything otherwise. I can only wish that the Ataris of the world were more like Shrapnel. They're super. This is what builds customer loyalty.

I decided to try to load Starfury on my old P3 450 rig just to see if it would run on there by some chance. I got the same identical problem there I have on my new rig. I'm hoping like mad that this means it's just a bad CD.

What worries me though is that I can see no defect at all on the disk. No scratches or anything, even when looking at it with a powerful magnifying glass it looks perfect (though I did notice a kind of faint wavy watermark pattern like an amoeba around the center of the disk). And it did install fine without hanging at all on any of the files. I can browse all the files on the disk with an editor without hanging. Very, very weird. At least I'm not the only one having problems, it appears.

What I'm still afraid of is that this may not just be something as simple as a scratched CD. Maybe something in the creation process?

Well, I should hopefully know for sure when the replacement gets here next Tuesday at the earliest (no US mail delivery on Monday, just my luck).

In any case, I'm not unhappy with the game or with Shrapnel or MM. I've just been frustrated by my pure, dumb, bad luck.

-ColdSteel

Tim Brooks · #4 October 11th, 2003, 01:49 AM

Hi Guys:

A customer just sent Support a response to this problem that works for him. He was in 800x600 res, and the problem was related to the game switching to a higher res. He changed his resolution to 1024x768 and vialoa, no problems.

You may want to try this, before we send cd's 'cause if that is the problem the new cd won't work either. It seems to be a video card problem, not a cd problem.

If you can try it this morning let us know. If we don't hear from you by 11:00 am, your cd is on the way...

[ October 10, 2003, 12:50: Message edited by: Tim Brooks ]

gregebowman · #5 October 10th, 2003, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Tim Brooks:
Hi Guys:

A customer just sent Support a response to this problem that works for him. He was in 800x600 res, and the problem was related to the game switching to a higher res. He changed his resolution to 1024x768 and vialoa, no problems.

You may want to try this, before we send cd's 'cause if that is the problem the new cd won't work either. It seems to be a video card problem, not a cd problem.

If you can try it this morning let us know. If we don't hear from you by 11:00 am, your cd is on the way...

Hmmm, I'll have to try that tonight to see if that works for me too. Keeping my fingers crossed until then......

ColdSteel · #6 October 10th, 2003, 02:21 PM

Tim,

Unfortunately, this doesn't work for me. I always run my desktop at 1024x768x32. I tried changing to an even higher resolution but it made no difference at all. Same error.

Also just for kicks, I just now tried installing it from my PlexWriter CD writer instead of from my Pioneer-DVD (hoping against hope). No go, same error message.

So, unfortunately, I'm afraid I'm going to need that replacement disk.

-ColdSteel

it depends · #7 October 10th, 2003, 06:33 PM

Quick add-on, poosibly related

Aopen 52X CDROM, Plextor 48/24/12
AMD Barton 2500, A7N8x-Dx Rev 2, Nforce 2.45 drivers, BIOS 1004
Win2k, Sp3 , patches ...
Desktop 1024*768 @ 16 bit colour
Starfury also @ 1024*768

3 things seem to happen with my Starfury CD on running the program.
1. Happy happy joy joy
2. Clunck-chuggedda-vrrrrrrrrrrr-zoooom-vrrrrrr, but it still loads, and once it's running, the CD stops making interesting noises
3. No cd detected in drive. Pop out tray, pop back in, and go back to step 1 or 2.

I also haven;t heard any CD's make noises like the one coming out of the AOpen when it;s working on Starfury. It whrrrrs like a blank disc sometimes, but then makes sounds unique to it.
As i said though, it does play.

[ October 10, 2003, 17:35: Message edited by: it depends ]