CMBB Install Problems

[Blackcloud6]

Can't get CMBB to install.

I am trying to reinstall after putting XP on my machine (fresh install of XP)

I've tried all the suggestions in the trouble shooting guide and here on the forum.

I have the firewall and virus scan off.

Four tries today, here's what happened:

I washed and dried the disk.

1. Normal install from my RW CD drive (drive F). Got almost do and went installed up to WAV\00090507. Once here the drive just spins with the CD and HD lights on but nothing happens for a significant period of time. Go to task managetr and it says the program is no longer responding.

2. Tried to copy the insatll program to the hard drive but when it gets down to 10 seconds remaining, it justs starts spinning and the the time to completeting starts changing to 2 minutes, then 35 seconds etc. Finally an erro pops up and says: cannot copy CMBB installer, invalid DOS function.

3. Tried to install to my second HD usding the normal installer. I shut down as many processes as I could.wav and it spins for awhile then I get a red error: Read Error, Incorrect function stopped.

4. Unplugged all USB equipment except the mouse. This one got to WAV\00092606 and I get the same error as the above in 3.

What's funny is the game is actually on the drive after all of these and I can start it but there are no scenarios present.

I thought that this may be a damaged disk but it seems it is noot as it makes it to different files each time.

Great game when I could play it.

Any ideas?

[ May 17, 2004, 09:04 PM: Message edited by: Blackcloud6 ]

[Schrullenhaft]

Do you have anything running in the background, including antivirus utilities ? Is this the CDV (retail box) version or a copy purchased directly from BFC over the internet ?

Have you installed CMBB with this particular CDRW drive before ? Have you checked to see if there is any newer firmware for the drive (from the manufacturer's website) ? Sometimes these firmware updates correct certain read problems, but they usually fix recording/compatibility problems for CDRWs.

It's very strange that you can't copy the file from the CD to the hard drive. This suggests that there is either something wrong with the CD, the CDRW drive or the software environment (something interfering with writes, etc.).

Here's Microsoft's generic advice for CD read errors under XP (though none of the errors directly corresponds to the ones you've received).

[junk2drive]

if you have mcafee, disable virus scan is not enough maybe. task mgr will show other "mc" things running. just an idea.

[Blackcloud6]

Yes, I've turned off all virus programs.

I did install the game using the smae drive to this computer but it was a Win 98 machine then.

It looks like the disk is bad. I tried it on a laptop that has Wind 2000 and I got a read error. I'm trying to copy the install file to that machine now.

[Andrew Kulin]

You washed and dried the CD????

Sounds like that "might" be one thing that could be ailing you if you actually did so. How does the disc look? Any scratches? I hope when you washed and dried the disc you did so by going from center to the outside edge (radial motion). Never rub a CD/DVD in a circular motion because if you get scratches they will be along the tracks of data and you can defeat any error checking redundancies built into the disc and get a crash. One final thing about scratches on a CD/DVD is that occasional light scratches should not be a problem because the laser is unfocused when it hits the plastic surface (it comes to focus inside the plastic on the aluminized data layer) so these types of scratches should not affect its ability to read the data (if you wear glasses and have slight scuffs on them you'll know exactly what I mean).

Another thing to consider is the age of your drive (hours used). The lasers used have a certain lifetime and as they start to go you will experience read problems on certain discs even if these discs are fully in specification with the optical disc standards.

Also take Schullencraft's advice and update your drive's firmware/drivers.

Finally see if you can try and load it on some other machines, preferably XP. I have never had any issues with loading the games on my XP machines so my feeling is that it is something more to do with your hardware or disc.

Good Luck

[Blackcloud6]

I washed it the way it is supposed to be. I was unable to insatll from this disk a few months ago and am now trying again. It has the smae failures on three different computers and four different drives. There are some scratches on th edisk but none deep, but I've read on another board that CMBB disks are easy to damage. I think it is a disk gone bad.