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Help with Windows XP

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Guest BobL

AllI need some help. And before anyone says contact Sierra, I already have. Ten emails in the last two weeks (one a day) with no results. The problem is...that I think they are troubleshooting the wrong problem. They keep focusing on hardware.Here's the story. I have a stand-alone computer that my son uses for homework and gaming. It's not on the internet and has no external connections (modem, cable, telephone, etc), no peripherals except for MS Sidewinder. No virus protection running. It's completely stand-alone. It's a Gateway PIII 1000 with 512 MB RAM, GEForce2 and SB Audigy-Gamer. He (my son) was having a significant problem with lockups and freezes. Seeing some of the posts here, I decided to upgrade to XP Home. So, also relying on advice I had seen here, I uninstalled everything and did a clean install of XP by deleting the old operating system and installing XP clean. I then updated the sound drivers and video drivers to the latest on the web (not leaked but genuine signed drivers).I then reinstalled everything except the game Empire Earth and it's expansion pack. On a predictable, repeatable basis, the install for that game hangs at 66% with the following error message inside a dialogue box that is entitled Component Transfer Error. The message is:Component: Main ComponentFile Group: DataFile: d:data2.cabError: Data Error (cyclic redundancy check)You would think this would be easily fixed by Sierra but I keep getting emails about a Network Card not functioning (I gave them a printout of an *.nfo file). Of course it's not functioning, it's not connected a network. I've told them this five times now and I can't seem to get through to them. I know that EE is XP compatible as I see at the EE forum, people playing it on XP and my son has a freind in school that has it on XP. I thought about putting this on the EE forum, but the last time I put something there, I found myself dealing with, uh-h-h, some immature help, if you know what I mean. So, I thought I would turn to some the XP gurus here that I've noted are able to fix everything. Because EE ran fine under WinMe and I have evidence that others have it under XP, I am convinced it's a WinXP issue not an EE issue.So, any ideas? EE ran fine under WinMe but now, won't even install although it does try.Some things I've already tried...Disabled DX Video, Disabled DX Sound Acceleration, and cleaned the CD drive. It does the same thing time and again - hangs at 66%. Any help will be much appreciated. Thank You to allBobL

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Guest lwhelan

Bob,If you are getting a CRC error from a .cab file then I would presume that either the information on the CD is suspect or your CD-Rom drive is having a problem reading it?Is it possible to copy the entire contents of the CD to somewhere on the hard drive and then run the setup from the hard drive instead of the CD-Rom drive? I would also presume from your comments that once installed it would run OK - it is just the setup that is causing errors.Laurie WhelanBrisbane, Australiahttp://jdtllc.com/images/RCsupporter.jpg

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Guest BobL

LaurieGreetings from SC in the USA. Believe it or not, your suggestion was the first credible one I've had in two weeks. Thank You so much.Now for the bad news...it didn't work either. When I tried to copy it, I got the same cyclic redundancy error on the same file data2.cab. Does this mean my CD is hosed? Am I going to have to buy another copy of this game?BobL

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Bob,Was your new WinXP installation up to SP1? You can check by viewing the General Tab page of Device Manager. If not, you need to install SP1 and any pre-SP2 updates to the computer. Secondly, Open Device Manager and make sure you don't have any contentions in the Devices list, i.e., "!", "X", "?". If any of the devices should a contention, you need to install a separate driver for that device. You would need to know what cards are installed in the computer. Search the computer manufacturers handbook for those details. Since you are using an updated OS, you would need to download and install the proper drivers for those peripherals. You may also have to install updated drivers for the controller chips, sound, graphics adapters, NICs, modems, etc. If that is the case, you could temporarily install a NIC or modem to download the drivers. I usually install a NIC and connect to my LAN and high speed internet to update the drivers, then remove the NIC before returning the computer.Do you have another computer with WinXP? If so, try installing the software to that computer. If not, do you have another computer that you can load the software? If so, if the *.cab file is corrupted or the disk corrupted, I would think it would cause the same problems on any computer.If you can load it on another computer, try changing the state of the CD-Drive from using DMA. For WinXP, open Device Manager, open the IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. Select either the primary or secondary IDE channel. If you have a disk drive and a CD-drive, the manufacturer may have placed the disk drive on the primary IDE channel as device 0 and the CD-drive as device 1. The manufacturer may also have placed the CD-drive on the secondary IDE channel as device 0. In any case, select the Advanced Settings Tab, and look for the Transfer Mode box for the CD-Drive. If the Transfer Mode isn't using DMA, try using DMA or vice versa, click OK, Reboot the computer. Try loading the software again.If after all that, you could go back to a clean install of WinME!

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Guest Barney1

1) A visit to the site below indicates that the base program is not meant for Windows XP. However, the expansion program is. Could this be a case of the expansion program being a requirement to operate within XP? It also appears that you must be on-line to upgrade.http://empireearth.sierra.com/support.php2) A "Google.com" search using the following as the key words:data error cyclic redundancyreveals a slew of messages within several fora that point to disk problems, or disk formatting problems. This is not to say that there are "damaged sectors", or similar defects necessarily, since error messages are quite generic....they can't always be specific because the programmers can not anticipate every single contingency. But depending upon how you formatted the hard drive prior to installing XP, the EE program may not be able to load. In other words, there's a mis-connect between the disk and the info on the CD Rom.3) You don't mention what caused the lock-ups origianlly with ME. Is it possible that the disk is indeed damaged?4) How big is the hard drive? XP takes a ton of room!5) In conclusion, if upgrading doesn't cure it, you may need to partition the hard drive such that a FAT 32 partition with enough space to accomodate EE is made available.Good luck.

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Guest

Bob, I know you've already had answers like this, but indulge me for a minute.Seems to me you have a hardware compatibility problem, and this problem that appeared with XP probably because of the drivers. In short maybe the new drivers that XP use are making your hardware to conflict with each other or with the game... Tipically this will happen with the video and sound card, but can also happen with the memory banks (altough i don't bet on this one because the problem is not consistent throughout your software (it only happens on the particular game). My solution would be to try and remove or change part of the hardware for testing (try to remove the sound card and if possible and know how to, try to change the video card and see how it behaves. If any of these experiments work you've got the solution... If not, try to get newer (if possible) drivers... if all things fail, try to remove the drivers you have installed and let the devices work on the drivers XP assigns for them... Well if all this fails, it's clear... i don't have the faintest idea what else could be :)RegardsFrancisco Leit

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Guest BobL

Well, I am at my wits end. I installed the game on another machine that is still Windows ME with no problem. That proved two things:1) it ain't the CD and 2) It's got to be XP related. As for video and sound drivers, I have the latest from Nvidia and Creative that are for XP. I would have thought that if I had a hardware conflict that it would 1) show up in the device manager and 2) the other games wouldn't work either.I guess I'm going to have to put it on the shelf. Pity..it was pretty decent game......BobL

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Guest

Hi Bob,I think a CRC error is very unlikely to be caused by software. My guess is that the CD /DVD drive is not fully clean(ed), or has been damaged.Judging what you've said, especially the fact that another guy with XP could install the game, I focus on the CD /DVD drive you use in XP. Therefore I suggest you take the CD /DVD drive from the computer on which you run ME, and put it in the other computer. If this doesn't work, then your computer has a very weird problem (could be a DMA issue or similar, as suggested by others here). Otherwise, enjoy.The possible problem with the drive might be located on such a spot that most CDs will work anyway. (For instance if the whole disk is not used.)Good luck.Dave (David Vuorio)

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