PC Pals Forum
Technical Help & Discussion => Windows PCs & Software: Help, News & Discussion => Topic started by: WeaveP on November 21, 2003, 14:33
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When loading / installing games from my CD drive,
the start up screen will appear briefly then i am returned to the desktop, and the programme appears in the task bar at the bottom of the screen. Pressing control / Alt / Delete telles me
the programme is running, but i cant see it.
This problem does not allways occur, ie there are times when the programme runs fine.
I would be grateful for any suggestions.
Thanks.
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:welcome:
Hopefully one of the techies will be here soon - Adept :adept: is around.
Is it XP Home you are running and could you give an example of a game that it happens with?
Cheers
DJ
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:welcome: WeaveP :)
When you say the program is in the task bar, does that mean you can right-click the program and maximise or restore the window?
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Thanks for the quick reply.
Yes i am running XP Home edition.
When i right click on the task bar programme
i get the option to maximise / restore. When i do this, the programme briefly re-appears with some music before returning to the task bar. I have tried restoring my computer to a date a few days after i received it ( i have only had it for 1 month ) the programme ran fine, but after shutting down and re-starting i am experiencing these problems intermittently. Examples of the programmes are Tiger Woods 2003, and Emperor Rise of Middle Kingdom. I have also tried changing the screen resolution which had de-faulted to the lowest setting.
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So this only applies to when a CD has an autorun feature that will pop up an install screen (usually a square window in the middle of the screen)?
Very strange.
This "install screen" that is appearing is just a simple program that gives a window. It generally should behave the same as any other program that runs in a similar fashion, however - it doesn't do it to any other apps...
... I would suggest that there is a problem with the "autorun" feature. Difficult to know where to start for a solution to this one.
Firstly, close the program.
Then RIGHTCLICK on the CD DRIVE in MY COMPUTER, and select EXPLORE from the drop down menu.
Now go in, and run the SETUP program directly.
See if the program now behaves properly.
Get back to us! :D
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Thank-you - i will try that.
Do you think i should remove and re-install windows from the CD ?
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Not at this stage, especially if everything else is working apart from the games :)
Have you checked that you have the lastest Direct X installed, as that can give problems on movies/games etc ???
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I think the version of Direct X is 8.0 but i will check that. I find the most frustrating thing is that sometimes the programme will run, and sometimes appear in the task bar, but i do not think i am dong anything different, or loaded any other software in the meantime that may cause a conflict. I winder if there could be an intermittent problem with the CD drive itself, but when i look in MY COMPUTER at the CD drive, the programme icon appears there, so the computer is detecting it. Also the computer says the programme is running when i press Control / Alt / Delete but is non-responsive. Thanks again for your interest.
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This might be a daft suggestion, but do you have a pop up stopper running? Have you tried loading the games with the pop up stopper disabled? Some pop up stoppers block new windows under a certain size, which could account for your splash screens failing to show.
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My money is on a DirectX/Graphic driver issue.
WeaveP, could you tell us which graphic card you have so we can direct you to the right sites to download the latest drivers?
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( WeaveP ) I don't think i have a popup stopper running. My graphics card is Radeon 9200 Series.
Driver is ati2dvag.dll version 6.14.0010.6378
Direct X version 9.0
I am not sure whether this is connected to the problem but when i start up my system i sometimes get a message : Debug Assertion failed to do with Natural colorload.exe Also the system takes to be busy for quite a while when the desktop appears, ie the egg timer displays as if performing other tasks. If a wait for a time before loading the game, it generally runs ok.
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First of all try removing and re-installing your current graphics driver. There should be an ATI entry in Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel to remove them.
If that doesn't make any difference, go to www.ati.com and download the latest drivers for your card and install them instead.
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I will try that. Is the graphics driver the same as the display driver ? When i run dxdiag, the display tab tells me my display device is Radeon 9200 series, driver version 6.14, but the control panel information in add/remove tells me the ATI display driver is version 7.93. I am not sure why these two versions are different. Do i have to remove a driver before installing a new one, and how can i re-install the old one ?
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Do i have to remove a driver before installing a new one, and how can i re-install the old one ?
I haven't used an ATi card for a while, but they used to ship with a driver CD, which simply autoruns, detecting your card and installing the correct driver automatically.
It is often better to remove the old driver first, but you might want to try installing with the old driver in place. It may just work :)
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I will remove and re-install the driver from the CD i was given with my computer system. Do you think a problem with the driver could cause the intermiitent nature of the problem i am having ? I have also noticed that if a pop up message appears during the game, the game is sent to the task bar, but i can re-start it from there. I wonder if my system is performing other tasks when i am trying to run the game, particularly as it takes quite a long time to finish its start up. The problem with the Tiger Woods game has been partially resolved by removing and re-installing, but it will not autorun, i have to start it from the programme menu.
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For a list of all the programs running in the background you may find this website useful:
http://www.pacs-portal.co.uk/startup_pages/startup_full.php
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I have removed and re-installed the ATI driver that came on disc with my system. Everything seems OK, though its hard to tell when you have an intermittent problem. Thanks very much for your help. Is it best to restart the computer when finishing one game, then starting another one ?
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If you mean when changing from one type of game to another then it may help, if you are playing the same game again then no.
When some applications close, XP doesnt always release all the memory that its been using, so if you start a different game it may not have all the memory available.
There is a program that makes it release it if you click on the dump memory icon of the program but I cant remember the name of it at the moment :(
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Dont know if this is the one I have seen in action or not but it sounds similar, its a free trial but its not a free program :(
http://www.contactplus.com/products/ram/
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An earlier reply mentioned autorun. I know that most games on CD will autorun wil put into the drive, and this is the case with most of mine, but there are a couple ( Tiger Woods and Emperor Rise of the Middle Kingdom ) which have now ceased to do this, though i can start them on the START / PROGRAMMES menu by double clicking on the game name. The Emperor game used to come up with a box asking PLAY / UNINSTALL / QUIT
but it has stopped dong this, although i haven't changed anything, though i did install a firewall and WINZIP from a free CD. Do you think i should uninstall and re-install these games, and could the autorun have been disabled for these particular games when others are not affected. Thanks again for your help.
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Its strange that you got your problem sorted in the way you did.
I wouldn't have said it was a graphics issue because you are not actually USING the game yet, just trying to install it from a simple autorun/setup program....
oh well.
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I think some problems still exist, maybe all connected to the same cause. When i insert the disk for Emperor Rise of Middle Kingdom, i get a message "failed to initialize properly" though i can start the game on the START/PROGRAMMES menu by clicking on the game icon. Another game, half life, keeps saying "insert CD" even though its already there.