But I Put In The Danged Disc!!!!!

[imhotep3147]

I just got a brand new computer less than a week ago. The first thing I did was install CotN. It played fine for about 3 days. Now all of a sudden I put the disc in and the comp's not even recognizing it. First it gave me the "cannot authenticate in timeframe" message. Then when I hit retry it asked me to put in the disc. I tried restarting my computer....same thing I put in the CotN disc, get the first screen that allows me to choose play/uninstall/directx/etc....I click play and either nothing happens at all or I get the message asking me to put in the CotN disc. It worked absolutely fine before. I downloaded the patch and installed it....play a few games. Now it's tripping out! I tried to run a dxdiag but instead of the nice little list I would get on my old computer I get a whole screen with all kinds of tabs and options, can't even highlight anything to copy it and no way to attach it! As a last resort I've uninstalled the game and reinstalled it but that hasn't helped. It can't be the drivers already can it?!! Anyone out there got any ideas??

[sitearm]

Imhotep3147: On your tabbed dxdiag screen, at the bottom there's a button that says "Save all information". Click that and it will come up with a Save dialog on where to put your save file that you can upload. Welcome to XP!

Originally Posted by imhotep3147

... I tried to run a dxdiag but instead of the nice little list I would get on my old computer I get a whole screen with all kinds of tabs and options, can't even highlight anything to copy it and no way to attach it!...

[imhotep3147]

But I had xp on my last comp and it didn't give me that.....bah I'll go get it.

EDIT:
OK....here....but I swear that's not the problem

How the heck ya'll can understand what most of that means is beyond me.

[tobing]

Can you remember what else you did when the CotN-CD stopped to work correctly? Maybe you installed other software/games? Might be that some other sw caused some messup in your system (which should not be possible in XP, but it is unfortunately). I would guess that somehow your CDROM-driver got messed up, maybe because of some copy-protection of another game?

[imhotep3147]

What I did was install all of my games onto this computer the day I got it. Then went back after and got all the patches. I've played several games since then, including CotN, and have had no problems. I've played SimCity4 and Tropico since the whole debacle without any hangups so I'd imagine something went screwy with the disc. Only thing I can think of is an update notification came through right as I was about to play CotN....it asked if I wanted to restart for my updates to take affect....I clicked "no" I'd restart later. Then it all went downhill from there. That's when I got the "cannot authenticate" message. So I just ejected the disc and put it right back in thinking it got "stuck" because of the message. That's when it started asking me to put in the disc (but it was in there!). I took CotN out and restarted my comp, put the disc in again, and ... nothing...no auto run...nothing. So I went to Start/Programs/.... to do it that way....the screen came up....I clicked "Play"....it thought for a while....spun the disc (no skips, it was spinning smooth with no hiccups) then asked me to put in the CotN disc....and again....I ALREADY PUT IT IN!!!! ACK!.....it's annoying me now. Have uninstalled and reinstalled twice now to no avail. Help please.

[tjs204]

Hmm...

I doubt I could be as much help as the official techies at TM, but I do remember this happening to me before...

I cannot remember which game it was that refused to function when I installed it the second time ( a re-install about a month after I delelted it) but it refused to run.

Now that I am thinking about it... it could have been Call to Power, by Activision. I never got it to do anything but play the tutorial after re-install.

Sorry for the little bit of sad news... hope TM can get ya fixed. Happy New Year!

-tjs204

[Raccoon_TOF]

Check in your CotN.ini file, make sure that the lines:

Installed From Directory	\GAMES\CHILDREN OF THE NILE\
Installed From Volume	D:

match your installation path properly (the location the game is installed to, not the location of your CD-ROM unlike the section names might suggest...).

The next thing to check is your SecuROM settings in the registry. (NOTE: BE CAREFUL WHEN EDITING REGISTRY! BACKUP IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!) Under the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\SecuROM\Keys\" check to see what is listed there. The key for CotN is "74623EE8" I believe. If that is listed there, RENAME the key (don't delete, in case it doesn't get rebuilt properly), and try loading again (it will automatically recreate the key when you load the game with the CD properly inserted and everything is working correctly).

Check to see if either of those help, and let us know what you find...

[Keith]

That "unable to authenticate" error message that came up indicates to me that your game and hardware are having SecuROM sercurity issues. You should visit the site at the following link and use the 12 steps there to help analyze the problem:

http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=awr0648p

The site is designed for their game World of Warcraft, but the steps there should help you sort it out.

[Raccoon_TOF]

Looking at the DxDiag again, it looks like you have an Intel 925X series chipset on the motherboard. Take a look at the link below (also at Blizzard) and follow the directions there for installing the Intel Application Accelerator software (seems to solve problems with improper detection of some CD/DVD drives.)

http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=awr0648p3

[imhotep3147]

Ooookkkkkk......I can't get the Intel Accelerator thing because it's not compatible. I checked the CotN.ini file and that info is correct. Where do I get to that registry thing Raccoon?

[imhotep3147]

Update: Ok I did a system restore to a point before everything went screwy and reinstalled the game and the patch. Now...I get a message saying CotN has caused an error and asks if I want to send an error report...I ended up sending it in after the fifth time of getting it just to see what'll happen. New development....Emperor:RotK will not work either....I didn't attempt to play it before all the difficulties so I can't say whether it worked or not. On the plus side, Pharaoh/Cleo works fine as does Tropico and SimCity4....and Locomotion and a handful of others. I'm about to lose my mind here....I mean this thing is brand new and already there are problems?

[angelisis]

can i just say that if it were me and I only got the computer a week ago I would not be messing around loading this that and the other I would be taking back to the place where I got it and have them fix it...it would be still under warranty and as you said above....for the first three days you played evrything just fine...take it back and save your self the frustration.

Originally Posted by imhotep3147

I just got a brand new computer less than a week ago. The first thing I did was install CotN. It played fine for about 3 days.

[imhotep3147]

There's nothing for Dell to fix.....everything else works fine.....just not CotN and apparently Emperor. I mean I'm using it now without any problems it's only these games. I was hoping that it was a simple driver type issue that could be easily solved but now it doesn't seem like it. Bah humbug on compatibility issues and the like.

Edit: Just a random thought but could it possibly be because I have a DVD-rw drive as my only optical?? Do I have to go and get a regular CD-rom for this to work right....cause I was contemplating doing that anyway.

[Raccoon_TOF]

It is possible that your DVD/RW is not fully compatible with the SecuROM encryption system, yes. However, that should not be causing the CTD problems that are requesting the error report to MS. It might, however, be the root of the original problem...but I don't know why you were able to run it ok for the first 3 days in that case. You might try rolling back the drivers for your DVD/RW in case Windows Update automatically updated them. To do this, right-click on My Computer, select Properties, go to the Hardware tab, and click the Device Manager button. Then double-click on DVD/CD-ROM Drives, right-click on your DVD/RW in the list, and select Properties. Go to the Driver tab, and click the Roll Back Driver button. Let me know if that fixes it. If not, I can try to walk you through the registry, but I'll warn you in advance that if you mess something up in the registry (easy to do by mistake) that you can make it so your system will not even boot up anymore...not recommended if you don't know what you are doing...

EDIT: Did some searching online and it does appear that the Philips DVD8631 that you have for your DVD/RW is not fully compatible with the SecuROM encryption software. If you are looking to get a separate CD-ROM drive anyway, I would guess that would likely fix the authentication problem. In the meantime, rolling back the drivers for the DVD/RW to the windows default drivers might allow you to play until you get the separate CD-ROM drive, though you may lose some advanced functionality on the DVD/RW. Also, once you do get the new drive, you may have to uninstall CotN, and then reinstall using the new drive, in order to get the game to check the proper drive for the CD, rather than the DVD/RW.

[angelisis]

Originally Posted by imhotep3147

There's nothing for Dell to fix.....everything else works fine.....just not CotN and apparently Emperor. I mean I'm using it now without any problems it's only these games. I was hoping that it was a simple driver type issue that could be easily solved but now it doesn't seem like it. Bah humbug on compatibility issues and the like.

Edit: Just a random thought but could it possibly be because I have a DVD-rw drive as my only optical?? Do I have to go and get a regular CD-rom for this to work right....cause I was contemplating doing that anyway.

how can you be using it now without any problems and not be able to play games...heh....seems like a problem to me.
For the not so computer savy like myself I would not know to download or update drivers blah blah blah...I would and have done in the past, take it back to the dealer and have them resolve the issue.
but thats just me I hope that you, with the help that others here have offered will be able to resolve the issue.

goodluck

[Chris Harvey]

I've seen this problem posted one other time on the forums here, and the root of the issue was the DVD drive. In my research, I found the same thing that Raccoon posted, that some DVD drives just don't handle SecuROM very well. If you're looking to add in a second CD drive, that should do the trick.

Good luck and keep us posted on how it goes!

Cheers!
Chris

[imhotep3147]

*gives a world weary sigh* Well, hell. I'll try that. Since I was looking into it anyway I'll go pick one up tomorrow. Can you guys suggest a brand that would be compatible with the SecuROM and with Dell's stuff?

[Raccoon_TOF]

I don't currently have a CD-ROM in this system, just the CD/DVD-RW, but I know that my older Mitsumi 52x (forget the model number) worked in the other system for other SecuROM titles. You might try contacting SecuROM directly once you have a drive model picked out (before purchase) to make sure it will work.

[sitearm]

How 'bout using CD/DVD drive brands that Dell puts in their systems... I've got a Dell and disk works ok with CotN... several other folks too...

* what you might call an inexact approach to hardware specification, but hey... *

[Keith]

Hmmm... What model Dell does he have? Each model seems to come with a different brand DVD+RW burner. My Dimension XPS came with a NEC ND1100A.