System does not recognize Hinterland CD

[magna]

I placed the CD into the cd-rom and not only would it not auto-run but when looking at the drive it does not even recognize there is a cd loaded. I read through the forum posts and installed the DX9c and updated my video card drivers. I am running on Vista 64.

I have attached my dxdiag.

Thanks

[Keith]

Make sure you are attempting to install and run the game as an "administrator" on your computer. Try installing and running the game from the XP compatability mode.

Try installing from another CD drive if you have one. Does the drive recognize other CD's? If the game comes on a DVD cd a CD-ROM drive will not be able to read it or recognize it. You will need a DVD-ROM or DVD burner drive if that is the case.

If by chance you have any sort of virtual drive software like Alcohol 120%, Blind Write, Daemon Tools, Game Jack, Clone CD, Game Jackal, Xoom Game Clone, CD Space, Virtual 7 CD, Fantom CD or Anti Blaxx, or one of the others installed and or running, you may have to disable or uninstall that software. Most of the games from TM use SecuROM security software and it will detect these virtual drive programs and prevent the program from loading.

It might be also that something has happened to your CD drive driver software and it is no longer recognizing the autorun file on the disc. You should try reinstalling the CD drive drivers in that case. Or your drive may need a firmware update. Firmware updates are provided by the manufacturer of your CD drive and/or computer.

Look at your CD's data surface. If the disc is scratched or dirty the drive may be having a problem reading the disc. If it is dirty clean it with a soft cloth by wiping from the center hub outward towards the outer rim...across the disc surface. Never wipe around the CD. If the CD has a scratch it could prevent the reading of the disc. There are disc repair kits out there that will fill scratches and sometime allow a disc to return to use.

If you can get the drive to display the list of files on the disc at all there may also be another option to send info to SecuROM about your system in the event there is a conflict with something on your system. If you can get it to view the list of files on the CD in the drive, right click on the hinterland.exe file and select Launch Analysis from the right click menu. It will run a utility that will create a C:\AnalysisLog.sr0 file in the root folder of your C: drive. Put that file into a zipfile and email that to support@securom with the name of the game as the email message title. They will look at it and get back to you in a day or so.

[magna]

Hi Keith, thanks for the reply.

I logged in as system admin and my system still does not recognize the CD, through auto-run nor does it even recognize a CD is even in the drive. I am not sure how how to try and install the game in the XP compatability mode?

As far as virtual drive software I don't think I have any. I have not installed any and I do not see any of those you listed in my programs.

I only have 1 drive so another drive is not an option. I can run with no issues other CD games, cd music as well as DVD's games and videos. The game cd is brand new and looks brand new, meaning I do not see any visible scratches or dirt or anything like that. I also checked for updated drivers and none new drivers were found.

Unfortunately I still cannot get the cd rom to recognize the cd so I do not see a list of files. When I click on the drive it just opens and asks me to insert a cd.

By the way, I was reading through some more of the threads and saw that updating the audio drivers might help. One of mine was outdated so I did update it and have attached the new dxdiag file. Unfortunately it had no effect on being able to recognize the game cd.

[Keith]

Ok. And, yeah, in this case if the drive is not recognizing the disc there is either a problem with the disc itself or the drive, or the drive firmware, or the drive driver software. You can check the disc by using another machine and see if the disc is recognized by the drive on that machine. If it is then the problem is with your drive.

The compatability mode isn't going to work without being able to see the files on the disc itself.

One has to right click on the setup.exe file or the hinterland.exe file then pick the properties option, and under the compatability tab set the mode to XP compatability.

The next step is specifically for XP users, but it may work for Vista users too. I have XP myself.

Use MSCONFIG to close applications at startup, and then try the game again. Before starting the game go on the desktop to START/RUN and type in 'msconfig'. When the menu appears, click on the GENERAL tab, if it is not already at the front. Under STARTUP SELECTION, select SELECTIVE STARTUP, and UNCHECK the selection LOAD STARTUP ITEMS. Click APPLY and then OK, and reboot the system and retry the game. At any time, you can always go back into the MSCONFIG menu to change back to NORMAL STARTUP, or SELECTIVE STARTUP and replace the checkmark next to LOAD STARTUP ITEMS.

Try making changes on DMA setting for the CD-ROM/DVD-ROM drives.

Right-click on the My Computer icon and select Properties.
Click the Hardware tab and click the Device Manager button.
Go down the list and find IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers.
Double-click on Primary IDE Channel.
Click the Advanced Settings tab.
From the Transfer Mode drop down menu, select DMA if available and click OK.
If DMA is already selected Select PIO.
Repeat these steps for the Secondary IDE Channel.
Note: If changing these settings does not resolve the problem you may want to set them back to their original settings.

Again these steps were created for XP users, and I'm not sure they are the same for Vista users.

[magna]

Ok, so I tried the CD is my wife's laptop with Windows XP and the drive recognized the CD no problem so the CD is fine. I know my drive is fine because it recognizes other CD's.

Any other suggestions?

[blitz100]

Not every CD/DVD will work in every CD/DVD drive. Hopefully your computer and your wife's laptop are on a network. If so you can share the laptop's DVD drive so you can install it on your PC. An easier method is to copy the CDs contents to a flash drive and install from the flash drive, but Keith indicated that the game has copy protection so this method might not work. Another possible problem is that you are using the 64 bit version of Vista. Many programs do not work with 64-bit operating systems. This is a budget game so there is a good chance it might not be compatible with your OS.

I strongly recommend against using PIO mode since it makes your DVD drive about 4 times slower. For example, burning a DVD in DMA mode takes about 7 minutes depending on the speed of your PC, but it takes about 30 minutes to burn a DVD when you use PIO mode. However it is OK to try PIO mode for testing just remember to switch back to DMA mode.

Windows has a bug where DVD drives sometimes get stuck in PIO mode and you can't switch back to DMA mode. This problem can be solved by going into device manager and uninstalling the IDE driver that your DVD drive is attached to. Windows will automatically reinstall the IDE drivers when you reboot and you’ll be able to use DMA mode again.

[Keith]

Since your drive won't recognize the CD, use your wife's compuer to copy the files to a flash drive as blitz100 suggests, and install from the flash drive. The only other problem there is that the disc is required for the game to startup so even if you get it installed you won't be able to run the game.

Normally, if the drive can recognize the disc, you could just copy the files to a folder on your hard drive and install from there. But that won't work in your case for obvious reasons.

It is also true that not every disc drive is 100% industry compliant. Sometimes manufacturers make alterations to their drive firmware and drivers that can cause problems with some discs. Sometimes they issue firmware and driver updates to fix a known problem.

[blitz100]

The CD does not need to be in the drive for the game to start. I've played this game a lot and it has never prompted me to insert my CD.

[Keith]

Ok, got my games mixed. I forgot we are talking about Hinterland, a digital download, and not Caesar IV.

[magna]

I was able to copy the files onto a flash drive and install on my computer. Everything is working great and I finished my first campaign.

Thank you Keith and Blitz