VC virgin install won't load...

[ghost of delete key]

See if you ever heard of this one:

 

I have III, VC, and SA all installed on Win XP sp3 and running fine for quite some time.

 

I use Alcohol 120% virtual SCSI drives to mount the discs for III & VC (have done so for years without issue), and the compact/noCD exe for SA (since I can't archive that disk with Alcohol).

 

Recently I installed IV to poke around the files, even though I knew I can't run it.

 

After uninstalling IV, I went to run some tests on VC, and it failed to run.

 

Thinking I may have borked the install (NOPing bits in a copy of the exe), I uninstalled, and did a fresh install; also restored the original gtavc.set file...

 

VC STILL wouldn't run.

 

I checked SA, and it runs fine. The same with III.

 

Thinking it may be a virtual drive issue, I re-installed Alcohol AND Vice, and it still won't run.

 

After poking around the web a bit, I came upon several horror stories about the newer SecuROM (v7) protection that IV uses... apparently after uninstalling a SecuROM v7 product, pieces are left behind which sometimes interfere with legitimate operation of other SecuROM-protected products (VC is SecuROM v4), SOOoo...

 

I got the appropriate tools and instructions, and proceeded to rip the little bits out by their roots.

 

A reboot and a fresh install later and...

 

VC STILL DOESN'T FOOKING RUN!!!

But of course, III and SA do.

 

Now if I unmount the disk, of course I get the expected "insert disk" error box.

However, with the disk mounted, all I get is the lousy animated CD mouse pointer(which hangs until reboot), and no VC. A look in the process explorer or the task manager shows that the exe isn't even running (or so Windows says...)

It was working fine a few days back, and the only thing I can think of that changed was installing IV.

 

I tell you, this has got me at wit's end; I've never seen this before, and can't wrap my soggy little brain around it.

 

Has anybody come across this before?

(PLEASE somebody say "yes"!)

 

The only other thing left to do is to nuke C:\ drive, and I'm NOT about to start that mess. I got enough to do without that crap. Reinstalling 200+ proggys? sheeeeeeiiii...

 

<edit>

Looking at fault #11 in the bug thread, it looks like this, but satisfies none of those conditions that I can tell.

I'm running a HP mobo, with the boot optimizer off (through msconfig). I have all unnecessary processes off that I can.

Edited January 27, 2010 by ghost of delete key

[Spuds725]

Assuming you tried a system restore to before the IV install... about the limit of my advice for this....

 

[ghost of delete key]

Yeah, this is XP... System Restore doesn't work.

 

XP has a notorious bug which requires (on most installations) that the drive(s) to be defragmented to less than 1% before and after restoring, otherwise the restore point fails.

 

The only defragger I ever had that got the job done successfully was with Norton System Works 2003...

so I have System Restore turned off to save resources. I only back up data and registry, and keep a library of installers.

 

It's a losing battle.

[NTAuthority]

You did try getting out your original disc, did you?

[ghost of delete key]

 

You did try getting out your original disc, did you?

Yes, of course - as mentioned in the OP. But forget that...

 

PROBLEM SOLVED!

 

I finally put aside some time to do the tedious task of troubleshooting the platform with msconfig.

 

For those of you who don't know, this involves running the msconfig utility and setting the Windows configuration to boot with only essential drivers and services.

 

Having done this, I ran VC, and it started fine.

 

The next task is to begin re-enabling services one by one (or in small groups), then re-booting and trying to run Vice again.

 

Several hours and a million reboots later, I hit upon the problem child - Java Quick Starter. This service is a pre-fetch engine which helps Java programs and web apps to load faster. If you have machine that doesn't suck, you really don't need this luxury.

Somewhere along the line, something changed my configuration to run this service, which I normally keep disabled. Sometimes the Java runtime likes to update itself without warning, so there you go.

 

If you ever have this problem:

To run msconfig, go to the Start menu, and select Run... In the text box, type msconfig and hit OK.

 

The configuration utility will appear, and if you have the Java Quick Starter service, it will appear in the Services list. Simply uncheck the box and hit OK.

 

 

Next time you reboot, you'll get a message box telling you that you made changes, etc.

There will be a checkbox at the bottom that says not to show this dialog or run the msconfig utility on each reboot. Simply check it, and OK your way out; you won't be bothered again when you start your machine.

Problem solved.

 

Now, go play Vice and pop a few cops to show Sun Microsystems who's boss.

 

<edit>

 

@ the MODS:

Maybe you can add this info to the bugfix list at Bug #11? That would be sweet.

Edited January 29, 2010 by ghost of delete key