SOLVED: Can't launch game I've got the game loaded on my home PC and it runs great (I just installed it last week). I tried to load it on my laptop so I could play while I'm traveling, but I cannot get it to launch. The install works fine. I followed the instructions found here and tried launching the game at every step. It just gives me a mouse cursor + hourglass for a bit, then the CD spins up, then the cursor becomes a spinning CD, then it returns to normal, and finally the CD stops spinning. Sometimes I will get the game to show in the taskbar for just a second, but most times not. I have tried the NoCD crack, and that didn't help. I'm running XP SP3 with all the latest updates. I'm set for 85Hz refresh rate. I've followed the Troubleshooting checklist. I've sent my log file to SecureROM and they assure me that the problem is not with SecureROM authentication. I've got the latest BIOS, video drivers, sound drivers, and DVD drivers/firmware. Any suggestions?
Ooo, a lurker This is why we don't just delete requests for the no-CD crack: there are legitimate moments people who own the game need it. It should fix your problems. We can't link to it, but do a search on Google (or even on here to get more information) and you should find it.
Oh yeah. I've been lurking forever. I have tried the no-cd patch and it doesn't change the behavior at all. That's why I'm stumped.
Ahhh, you said that the first time - my apologies. No idea why it is going for the CD if you have the crack. :shrug:
Are you launching the game from the TOEE icon or the TFE-X shortcut? If you are using the TFE-X shortcut, it shouldn't spin up the cd at all. If you're using the TOEE shortcut, the first thing the game does is run the intro movies, so maybe you have a problem with the video. I would d/l and install the Bink/RAD video drivers and codec and see if that helps. If you can launch TFE-X, try to disable the intro videos and see if that changes anything.
I did try launching it both ways. I tried TFE-X with the videos disabled and had the same problem. BTW, when I launch TFE-X it does not spin up the CD. It just changes the cursor, then the cursor returns to normal and nothing else happens. I may still try the Bink/RAD drivers and codec anyway.
Just out of curiosity, once you double click to run the program, the cursor changes and changes back, when you hit crtl-alt-delete, does it show one of the program applications running? This would show whether the application crashed, or is still running in the background... Not sure if this applies, but I have found that sometimes running multiple copies of a program can cause similar problems, and sometimes it takes a minute to launch the application. I hate to say it, but also sometimes a complete uninstall, delete all folders toee-related in program files, then reboot and reinstall helps. IMO one of the constants with ToEE is bad installs -EdCon
Someone had a thread not too long ago about issues with ToEE on a laptop, I think. Search for that and maybe you'll find some answers. The sad fact is that there do seem to be some systems that ToEE simply won't run on, for whatever reason.
Here's the solution! I want to post here to help other people who may be having a problem. I started by thinking it had something to do with the CD or the optical drive. This is mostly because when I tried to run it, the CD would spin up but then nothing would happen. Then I realized that even with the nocd crack, it still wouldn't start. That made me think that it didn't have anything to do with the CD. So what else could it be? I ran DXDIAG and that's where I found the problem. When I went to the "Display" tab, it said that DirectDraw was unavailable. I had installed a new video driver, but I later found that the new drivers don't work with this old video card. So I uninstalled the video driver and installed an old driver and now it works great. So if you cannot get the game to run both with the CD and without (using the NOCD crack), check DXDIAG for problems. Thanks everybody for the suggestions!
