Can't install a game.

Ok,
Just looking for info on a Saturday afternoon. I had a gaming pc set up with an asus mobo. I was running Brothers in Arms Hell's Highway on it for a while. The rig crashed, and after a bunch of amateur diagnosis it turned out to be a Corsair memory stick. They replaced both 1gig sticks for me, good company.
But by then I had bought a new mobo, newer version of the other one. I think I put Norton Utilities on the new rig, and then uninstalled it. Anyway, the same game that ran fine on the previous older setup ran way slow, unusable. I tried uninstalling it and re-installing it. Now, last time I tried, it starts installing and just stops partway through! Just returns to the desktop. It won't install. Why is this?This new rig runs the older version of Brothers in Arms , Earned in Blood; mostly OK, except for it hangs once in a while.
I'm wondering if it's data transfer problems with the cheap dvd rw/ player in the system, but it ran ok previously.
I'm thinking of a complete reinstall of XP, maybe that will do the trick.
There's one scene in the game with a bazooka team and I would like to blast the Nazi machine gun nest in the church tower again...

Man, I haven't played that game in a while. Was playing it on the 360 but got stuck on a mission and shelved it. I do that a lot actually, when I can't get past something. I just put it away and forget about it. Currently did that on Battlefield Bad Company 2 on the snow mission. I'm trying to get to my comrades but have to find shelter. I keep getting killed by bad guys....

As for your motherboard issue. Have you changed the settings in the BIOS? Any settings in XP still pointing the old MOBO? I know major hardware changes like that will usually mess up settings in the operating system or BIOS. You might want to start there.

If Norton is still running in the background that could be your issue. Norton is a well known resource hog.

Send some more data on your rig and the OS you are using. Are the memory sticks set up for dual channel?

Do you need more resources? Try increasing your paging file. It should be 2-3 GB for the memory you have installed, maybe more.

I'm On Fire wrote:Any settings in XP still pointing the old MOBO?

Fresh install of XP SP3 on fresh formatted hd on this new mb. so I don't think that's it.

It's an ASUS P5G41-M LECSM MOBO.
INTEL CORE2DUO 3GIG E8400 PROCESSOR
ASUS EN8400GS SILENT VIDEO CARD
SEAGATE 160GB HARD DRIVE
CORSAIR 2GB DDR2 MEMORY
GENERIC DVD PLAYER
GATEWAY 19" CRT MONITOR
(This is parts I got from MWAVE.com mostly, I always cheap out and look for cheap components. )

I increased the paging file range, max was previously 3gb.

I had Norton Utilities installed, but removed it. I heard some of it may remain and there is a prog you can get to really get rid of it. Not sure about this.

wlape3 wrote:Are the memory sticks set up for dual channel?

How do I do this? In the bios?

All my crazy stupid troubleshooting lead to this. One day the pc wouldn't boot and I thought it was the monitor. Ended up replacing:
power supply, video card, mobo; just found out it was the one memory stick almost by accident.

Damn machine has been quirky since new rebuild, crashes, error messages.



Thanks for the replies!

I'm On Fire wrote:when I can't get past something. I just put it away and forget about it.

I know! I put away FAR CRY - couldn't get past the last level even though I knew what to do! I'm just not fast enough!

This shouldn't affect the install, but make sure your video drivers are up-to-date. Go to their website and grab the newest drivers there. That looks like an NVIDIA card; you can get the drivers from nvidia

CCleaner is very good at getting rid of crap on your PC. Use it carefully, though. http://www.filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/

Run MSCONFIG and see what's loading in the startup tab. Also check the services that are loading to find any orphaned Norton (or other) services that are loading.

If it were a problem with a hard drive or I/O, I would think that it would just hang. What happens if you copy and paste a large file from the DVD to your hard drive? Does it hang, give up, or go okay?

Can you start-up in safe mode and attempt an install?

I'm On Fire wrote:I do that a lot actually, when I can't get past something. I just put it away and forget about it.

http://www.cheatcc.com/

Actually, a slow computer can be caused by a failing hard drive. My wife's computer was booting slow and running slow. The HD passed most of the tests but was slowly failing. Replacing the HD finally fixed it. The failed drive was a 160 GB Western Digital. A twin installed in the same machine was fine.

Dual channel involes using matched memory sticks. Some boards require them to be installed in adjacent slots while others want them staggered. I use an ASUS too and mine are installed in slots 0 and 2, then 1 and 3. I have 8 GB.

Is your video card AGP, PCI-Express or just PCI? If PCI or PCI-E there could be conflicts. If your MOBO is SLI enabled make sure your single video card is installed in the 1st slot, usually closest to the CPU.

Another thing to consider is when you switched MOBOs did you put a fresh coat of Arctic Silver or similar heat transfer grease on the CPU? If you reused the old one it's possible the CPU is not making good thermal contact with the fan and overheating just enough for the BIOS/OS to slow it down.

Thanks again for replies.
Cpu has heatsink compound always, heat is Ok in the hardware monitor.
I went to Norton and ran their uninstall utility.
I went to windows Update and got every update. I had to try over a few times with some of the updates. Got some error messages I should record.
I went to Asus and got newest drivers for the vid card. There is a utility with the vid card, don't think that would stop the installation of the game though.
Cleared all temp files.
I went all through the bios setup and didn't see anything it might be.

Only two memory slots on this board , set is matched from Corsair.

Vid card is PCI express in the one PCI express slot on the board.

Seagate hard drive is quite new, but it's on the one IDE cable slot on the board.

The Optiarc DVD player is on a SATA cable.

Brothers in arms earned in blood ran fine today.
But my attempt to reinstall BIA Hell's Highway failed again!!!! It starts to install, shows files being written, then just vanishes!!!! Goes back to desktop with no error message no nuthin. The cd disc has very minor scratches, maybe that's it.

Dann757 wrote:But my attempt to reinstall BIA Hell's Highway failed again!!!! It starts to install, shows files being written, then just vanishes!!!! Goes back to desktop with no error message no nuthin. The cd disc has very minor scratches, maybe that's it.

Could be, but I would think that you would get an error message "File not Found" or something similar. However, if other games and programs are installing, you might be on to something. Anyone close by you have a copy you could try?

I'll keep tossing this one around my head.

Thanks Horace,

I cleaned the cd disc, it's not scratched. something to do with the file transfer speed maybe.

Something's going on with this PC, I might revert to the previous motherboard to see what happens. This board is newer though. I should have a look at the CPU heatsink grease too. I'm playing the first game now, it gave me trouble last night after reinstalling it. It seemed to reinstall fine. Glad I saved my game progress during the reinstall. Right now I'm trying to take out a Tiger Tank with a Panzerfaust. I've got the German FG-42 machine gun lol. There's a nazi field gun that will take out my Sherman if I'm not careful.

Problem solved,

I went to Microsoft and got the Directx updates the pc needed to run the game. Directx doesn't automatically get updated with Windows Updates I guess.

Thanks for the help again!

Dann757 wrote:I know! I put away FAR CRY - couldn't get past the last level even though I knew what to do! I'm just not fast enough!

I beat Far Cry a dozen times. That game was awesome.

Lately I've been playing the crap out of the new Medal of Honor game and Call of Duty: Black Ops. Although I got frustrated with Black Ops, I'm at the mission where I find the down airplane and I have to go in and retrieve the neurotoxin and the game just kind of ceases to advance. The game doesn't crash, it just stops moving forward.