A big frustrating problem

[licenturion]

Hello,

I have a big problem. I purchased yesterdag the game. I installed the game and was very anxious to play it. Installation went well, but then the problems begun.

When I launched the game nothing seemed to happen. My mouse pointer stays just an arrow and that's it and there is no disk activity. So I installed the patch. After doing this when I launch the game a turning disk appears on the screen and keeps on spinning and spinning and spinning... And nothing really happens :-(
I have recently a new PC that costed over 2500 euros. It has the latest Radeon, 512 MB, 2.5 Ghz processor and many other extras. I got recently my hard drive formatted and the only thing I have is Office and Windows XP... So I thought my system isn't the problem. Apparently the game has the same effect on my old PC and my notebook from work (with a GeForce). IT JUST NEVER RUNS!!!

It is very frustrating to buy a product and see it isn't working. It has just the same effect on me as buying a car and notice it doesn't start. :mad: :mad:

Now, I want to get the game running as soon as possible, so I can spend my time in playing the game instead of messing around with it. I've looked around the internet and there seem to be a lot of people who have the same problem. So I guess the technical staff of Tilted Mill have already a quick and simple solution to adress this problem. I already found something on the Internet but I'm not in the mood for doing 1000 of settings with programs to make the game work, cause I'm not a computer expert.

So please help, but keep in mind I'm not a computer expert!!! :eek:

[Blair Evans]

Hi licenturion.

Sorry to hear you're having trouble getting the game up and running. If you could attach a copy of your DXDiag we can get a better sense of what may be causing the problem for you.

To do this, go to your Start menu and select Run. Once there, type in 'dxdiag' and let that run for a couple of minutes. When it is done analyzing your system (loading bar will stop), please use the Save All Information button to save a copy of the information. Then please attach that file in a reply to this post.

[licenturion]

This is the file from my home PC...
It doesn't work neither on my new portable, so I included that file too.

Is this gonna solve my problem? And why have a lot of people the same problem? I may consider this as an unsolved bug???

Thanx for the quick reply though! :)

[Blair Evans]

Thanks for the information.

Often these sort of 'game doesn't run at all' problems have been hardware or driver issues, and not truly a bug with the software per se. We're usually able to pinpoint the issue from the DXDiags, so hopefully we will be able to help you get the game running as soon as possible.

[licenturion]

It's a strange thing. The demo worked perfectly... Installation went perfectly... And when it try to start the game there is that CD-icon I don't understand. The game installed 727MB on my harddisk for Christ sake, so I did some forumresearch and I guess the game checks first for the CD and then runs from my harddisk without needing the CD anymore.
A lot of my games use this principle, but none gives me problems except this one. :( I understand that this protection is necessary for companies and I can live with it as long as it works and doesn't hurt legal customers... Well in this case it does!!

I understand perfectly that it's not your fault Blair. But I really want to state my opinion so that the next time the company puts the customers on their top priority list and not the piracy people...

Thanx

[Hans Schroeder]

Could you run a quick test for us? Uninstall the game and try installing and running it from your other drive (it appears as though you have both a CD-RW and a DVD drive) and let us know if that solves your problems. This still leaves the laptop though.

There are some issues we’ve been seeing with people not able to start Children of the Nile, and Blizzard Entertainment has a technical support page (http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=awr0648p) for similar issues with Warcraft III. In it, they have detailed step-by-step instructions for troubleshooting this problem. You can try these steps and see if they solve your problems. If not, let us know and we’ll go from there.

[licenturion]

The good news: it works on my home PC (second CD-drive), after a long wait
The bad news: the graphics suck :mad: . I have a GeForce 4 MX and all the options must be (like water) be low.
That's the reason why I wanted it on my notebook in the first place. I've got the latest ATI Radeon as I mentioned earlier, on my notebook and want to enjoy my game in full detail.

I've already looked at the warcraft page before I posted my problem. Every setting seems fine...

Is there a simple way I can turn this CD-check off? It think it will run perfectly then on my notebook, scince the demo ran fine.

Greets

[Hans Schroeder]

Unfortunately, if it were easy to get around the CD check, the copy protection would be useless.

You've done the SecuROM analysis (right clicking on the CotN.exe and selecting launch analysis?) If so, please send us the file created so that we may follow up and hopefully solve your problem.

Thanks,
Hans

[licenturion]

I've tried the 'launch analysis'. The famous disk-icon appears again and lasts there forever and my DVD-drive makes strange noises...

If I replace the demo EXE with the game seems to work for now :)
It's a little tricky, but it works eventually

Jippie, let the playing begin! ;)
Thanx for your help...

ps: what card do you need to set the water detail to high?

[Hans Schroeder]

you need a video card that supports Pixel shading 2.0 (which is to say an NVidia FX series or better or a Radeon 9500 or better.)

[wolf7]

Hello, I am having the same problem with the SecureRom reading off of my DVD burner. It is the only drive I have installed for space reasons.

The spinning disk icon did not appear until the first patch. It will spin for a while and then say that it could not authenticate the cd. The cd has no scratches or smudge marks and it works fine (post patch) on another computer (on the DVD drive) in the house. If I click to retry it will say the disk is invalid.

Here's the kicker--I can take the disk out (or just retry multiple times) and after a few minutes it will work. When it does, though, it takes an awfully long time to authenticate it.

I have tried the workarounds on the warcraft site (even updating my DVD), but it still gives me the same problem. I emailed tech support sat, but have heard nothing.

Here is the info you usually request.

Thanks for your help,

wolf7

PS, it won't let me upload the file analysis--I can copy it to a txt file if you wish

[WackoTacko]

im having these same problems
i followed the instructions from blizzard's site which apllied to me
ran dxdiag and launch analysis
so i will post my info here

ive read around other places on the net and it seems as tho it has to do with the cd-r or dvd-r that is used to run the game and im afraid that may be my problem

whatever the problem is any feedback would be appreciated

thx in advance
EDIT: spelling mistake.. and as above i realised the launch analysis extension isnt compatible with these forums maybe i can save it as .txt and u guys can change the extension?

[licenturion]

It is tilted mill their first game so I understand this issue. But I hope that they learn somthing from all this... There are a lot of unhappy customers with this and this situation could have been perfectly eliminated...

They hurt their customers a lot more than they hurt the warez-community, cause they will crack this system easily!!!

I'm happy that I'm not the only one with this problem. If you search this forum and the internet, you will end up with tons of threads about this issue.

Greets

[mouse]

Your going to find all games are using some sort of copy protection and each type has problems with some hardware. If you want to be mad at someone it should be the drive manufactures that know of the porblem and won't fix it. For example some Sony drives have had a problem with secu-rom copy protection for years and Sony refuses to fix the problem.

[C Franziskus]

Neverwinter Nights went so far as to disable the cd check in one of their updates to get things smoothed and worked out... :cool:

[wolf7]

My DVD burner worked perfectly before the installation of the patch. It's so much better than any other drive that I removed them all. It's a Ben-Q 8/4/12 DVD burner and it rocks! :)

Anyway, this is a great game and I find myself thinking about it often when I'm *not* playing. Many times I've asked myself what I'd do if... Or what the ancient Egyptians would say...(for example electricity).

This game has sparked a passion about Ancient Egypt and I find myself delving deeper into their culture. I learned that they were the first society to culture honey from bees.

I live in the desert and could not imagine going 1 day in the summer without air-conditioning. Not only did they NOT have cool air, but they had to work long hours in the heat.

All of this is great, but having to remove the disk 10 times to get the game started is making it harder to get into the game when it does finally boot up.

By screwing with their customers like this they are actually promoting the one thing they're trying to prevent.

It's like England and their gun policy. It's not the average citizen owning a gun that I'm worried about. :eek:

wolf7

[Hans Schroeder]

Now we just have to work on getting it to start more easily for you...

You said you were thrilled with your DVD drive and, as a result, removed all your other drives. Could you put one back in and see if that fixes your problem? Just as a test. Thanks.

[Hans Schroeder]

and as above i realised the launch analysis extension isnt compatible with these forums maybe i can save it as .txt and u guys can change the extension?

You can zip the file up and post the zip. Probably the easiest solution.

[wolf7]

I'm pretty certain it would work.

I upgraded to a new computer and brought my old drives. The way it's set up I had to choose between 2 HD's or 2 optical drives. I will, however, swap the other drive--just as a test and see how that goes.

By the way, I haven't had a single crash. That's rare for any game on the market. The only ingame problems I've had were (pre-patch--haven't tried post) getting the large statue to dedicate the large temple. I read about the workaround on the boards here of building a large-seated pharaoh. Then at about a 10-1 clip they started pulling out large stones (I had 6 laborers--5 would want to quarry small statues and the rebel wanted large (can I give him a raise? :D )

Even with the patch, I still have some treadmilling problems. They seem to coincinde with "deciding what to do."

I will swap the drives and report back.

wolf7

[wolf7]

OK, I swapped the drives (It was a DVD-ROM that came with the computer) and it worked fine. The spinning disk icon came up for maybe 5 seconds, then disappeared.

Like I said, I flashed my DVD with the latest update.

Here is the zip you asked for.

One other problem that I have, that hasn't been addressed in the patch is that of the brightness not being recalled from a save. I have to manually go into the settings menu (I don't have to do anything, just open it).

Thanks,

wolf7