C&C TFD Generals won't run

[akking 0]

Can anyone out there help? I've confused a quite a few tech supports on this one... I have C&C TFD and it used to fully work on XP. Now I've bought a desktop and a laptop that already has Vista on them. Now all games except Generals and Zero Hour will run on Vista. I have two of the same disc (both originals) and both discs do the same thing on both Vista machines. Tried all the basics stuff (safe mode install, administrator tweaks, updates, drivers, firmwares...). Now the weird part: if I use an external dvd drive, the game works perfectly. The external drive is older than either the laptop or desktop. So I believe the trick to getting the game to work is figuring out why it works on the external drive. The game was NOT installed using the external drive and I don't have any emulation software that I'm aware of. Any ideas?

 

Here's a little more about the issue...

 

* I own two discs both worked on a no longer owned XP

* the game is command and conquer the first decade, the only game that won't play is generals and zero hour

* first always got "insert correct CD" when trying to play Tiberian Sun, Generals, and Zero Hour

* found that if I go to "games" and use the shortcut installed there, Tiberian Sun will play normally, but Generals and Zero Hour doesn't install any shortcuts

* after a mix of some of the fixes I will mention, Generals stopped prompting to "insert correct CD" and just disappears after the splash screen (in safe mode I was given the crash info included a few emails below)

* neither disc will play generals or zero hour on my vista laptop or vista desktop

* the game, including Generals and Zero hour will play if its through an external dvd drive (but of course I don't intend to attach an external dvd drive to a laptop which is what I use primarily)

* both the laptop and the desktop far exceed the requirments of the game, and the internal dvd drives in the desktop and the laptop are new and exceed the specs of the external drive that does play the games

* all patches are installed

* all drivers are up to date

* manually uninstalled the game and then reinstalled it using safe mode

* manually uninstalled the game and then reinstalled using a new administrator account after deleting the old administrator account so they wouldn't conflict with each other

* I've done all these steps running as administrator and in compatability mode and in every possible combination

* found a safedisc download and used it even though it wasn't where your support documents on your website said it would be

* looked on chat forums and found something about an option.ini file being in the wrong place and tried to create and fix that

* upgraded to vista sp1 and then re tried all steps

* I own the generals disk as the stand alone version and tried inputing it when was prompted in "insert correct CD"

* no emulation software exists in my computers that I'm aware of (Nero, Daemon... is there any others? Roxio movie creator came installed on the laptop, but I don't believe that's actually emulation....)

* dvd drive firmware is up to date

* video card drivers are up to date

* disabled DMA to switch to PIO (what ever that means....) and back again

* deleted lower drive filters and no upper drive filters existed to delete (what ever drive filters)

* closed one eye, crossed my fingers and toes, held my breath, and stood on my head.... with a partridge in a pear tree......

 

Hope that helps......

[akking 0]

anyone... anyone... anyone.... ideas? PLEASE?!?

[akking 0]

When I install in safe mode and then try and play in safe mode I get this crash error:

 

Problem signature:

Problem Event Name: APPCRASH

Application Name: Game.dat

Application Version: 0.0.0.0

Application Timestamp: 43739525

Fault Module Name: ntdll.dll

Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000

Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a7a6

Exception Code: c0000005

Exception Offset: 00068516

OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.256.1

Locale ID: 1033

Additional Information 1: fd00

Additional Information 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

Additional Information 3: fd00

Additional Information 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

 

Read our privacy statement:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?link...3&clcid=0x0409

 

Anyone know what that means???

 

[BioBen 3]

I'm no tech genius but practically nothing works in safe mode so that answers that question, um hopefully someone else will see this and help.

[Sonic 295]

You a copy of the original Generals release? Install the game from that and forget about the TFD version.

[akking 0]

Tried that........ Of course not with all the "fixes" that I tried with TFD. What's the easiest way to get the original to work (and please don't say compatability mode as administrator...).

Thanks for the reply...

 

I'm no tech genius but practically nothing works in safe mode so that answers that question, um hopefully someone else will see this and help.

Thanks. Wonder why EA support would have suggested it then?.........

[C@rsten Svendsen 0]

Yeah Hi!

 

If I read correctly, you said emuliaion tools. What the hell do you wanna do with those? The only thing I see, is that you can make an image file of the C&C TFD CD, and then mount it.

 

I do not see how that would help, but I know some emuliation tools too: POWERISO and MACIGISO. The easiest way to make an image file, is by using FOLDER2ISO 1.4. It makes all folders into an ISO file. Then you can mount it, but I do not see how that would help. Maybe it's just because you're using Vista. Not all programs works on Vista. I thought you knew that.

[Nmenth 291]

Did you know there is a patch to TFD? I don't remember it fixing anything to do with Generals and I'm too lazy to look it up again, but if you don't have it, try downloading it and see what happens.

 

If you did know about it and did download it, then maybe it is at fault...

 

On my TFD (non-patched) on Vista, TD, RA1, Renegade, and Generals all work, but TS and RA2 don't. I think Vista is just a piece of junk. I play all the old games on XP and only use the Vista for Generals and Tiberium Wars cause it is a higher quality machine.

[akking 0]

OOPS! Never posted the solution.... Don't know why I had to do it this way, but here we go: I installed the game on an older desktop running XP. I opened the file location and started looking around. Didn't see anything too unusual, but remembered a post where someone suggested creating a .INI file. That didn't originally work for me. I ended up looking for and finding the file that I was told I might have to create, and copied it to an SD card. I then went into my laptop, looked for where the file that I copied SHOULD have been and sure enough it wasn't there. Copied the file from the SD to the laptop in the appropriate place and BINGO!!!! The whole game and all games in the game work perfectly (without compatability mode or safe mode or a different laptop/desktop with a different chipset or disabling antivirus or closing background programs/processes or patching or updating or drivering... or any other lame suggestion a paid EA support technician could give). Thanks everyone!

[Fatburger3 0]

so which file is it that i need to replace because mine doesnt work either :gen:

[Nyerguds 102]

It's an options.ini it creates in the My Documents folder. It's in the sticky thread at the top of thios board, more specifically in this post:

http://forums.cncnz.com/index.php?s=&s...st&p=182855

(see first post for the full ini, but follow the instructions in the post I linked to)