I already updated Windows not that long ago but I will check to see if there are any more updates for it.

I would like to Thank everyone for their help and suggestions and if you think of anything else to try...please let me know.

From the site.

If you are still having trouble with this issue, please contact Technical Support directly either by phone (416-638-1170, Monday to Friday 1 P.M.-5 P.M. EST) or by e-mail using the support pages at: http://www.adventurecompanygames.com/tac/support/index.php.

Well I just send them an E-Mail and hope they get back to me.
Should be interesting to see if they do and what they say.

I don't think that "Update Rollup" that I linked you to is a regular Windows 2000 Update. I'm thinking it's something that you have to take your own iniative to install (i.e. not an automatic update). I have no idea if it'll help, but maybe it's worth a try.

Also, are you running Windows 2000 Service Pack 4 (SP4)? SP4 is also something you might have to take your own iniative to install. I don't think it's part of regular updates either, though I could be wrong. You can probably check by right clicking on My Computer-->click properties.

Hi,

I just checked in properties and it says SP4 so I do have it.

I do see some updates there but they are not urgent so haven't bothered with them.

I have updates alerting me to download them so I keep up to date with them.

-------------------------------------------------
Well so far I have not heard anything from The Adventure Co. but that could be a good thing. Maybe they are looking into it and who knows maybe, just maybe they may come up with an idea?

Has anyone else heard from them?

---------------------------------------------------

YES!!! I have heard from The Adventure Company finally.

Here is what they said so far.

Thank you for contacting DreamCatcher Interactive’s Technical Support department. Due to the increased volume in e-mails that we have received, we have experienced great delays in our response time. We regret any inconvenience that this has caused you.

Our records show that you were experiencing a problem with your game and your issue has not yet been resolved. Are you still unable to play your game? If so, please provide us with an updated status of your problem along with all troubleshooting steps that you have tried thus far, along with any error messages that are generated.

Sincerely,

Philip Priest
Technical Support
DreamCatcher Interactive Inc

I have just sent them an email back with pretty much the same stuff I said in the first one but at least they are responding.

Man, that's what I call fantastic customer support. You send them e-mails begging for help with a game you paid them your hard earned money for...then they respond...what?...two weeks later? Asking if you still need help. I would tell them...."no, what I need now is a refund"

It was only 5 days ago that I sent the email so that was fast.

I will wait and see what help they come up with first before I ask for a refund.

Who knows....maybe they will come up with a patch or something.

I was just kidding, VHL. I should have included a smiley face. I hope they can help you. If you get it sorted out, do let us know how you fixed it.

Oh you bet I will let everyone know because I mentioned that the message board I belong to has at least 2 or 3 other people that are having the same exact problem so maybe that triggered something in them? Who knows.

I don't really espect to get my money back from the game company or the store.

I thought I would ask them nicely to see if they will help or not.

Well its worth a shot anyway.


------------------------------------------------------

Well just heard from them again today and now they want the DirectX Diagnostic file so they can take a look at it and see if they find a problem.

Watch...they will tell me I need new drivers. My video card is only 8 months old but I bet that is what they will say.

Hi all - remember me? From weeks ago....

Finally got a response from Customer Support today! I exchanged emails and DxDiag files with Philip Priest, as well as asking about getting my money back. This is their response:
"From the description that you've provided, it appears that your game is not functional with your computer’s video card. I would like to offer you a replacement game in place of your current game."
Beats eating the $30 I guess....

Assuming you're still trying to run the game on the computer that has the 7600GT video card, that card is powerful enough to play this game without breaking a sweat.

If what he meant was your Win 2000 computer cannot support a newer driver version than the 94.24 version you're using with the 7600GT, then that might make sense. It certainly is NOT because that video card isn't fast enough.

Well cwky at least there is some hope of getting something to replace a $30.00 frisbee.

Well lets see what they say I should do.

I lost my patience with Philip Priest as he didn't answer me for a long time. I wrote to the general techsupport address. I am solving the issue with Chantal. Maybe I should try to ask her the same way as cwky BUT I installed XP SP2 to a partition and the mouse does not freeze anymore.

I am still waiting for Mr. Priest to look at my Direct X Diagnostic and tell me what he thinks is wrong.

I have Windows 2000 so the XP SP2 may not be for me. Don't know.

I think what Hurka was saying is that he/she install Windows XP with SP2 on a separate partition to get the game to work, not SP2 by itself. Hurka also has Windows 2000.

Oh sorry about not understanding LOL.

Well I think I will still wait to see.

You could try the updates to service pack 4.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260910/en-us

I have heard from The Adventure Co. and they gave me 2 things to try.

1. Get new drivers for the video and audio cards (I knew they would tell me this).

2. Restart your computer using a clean-boot procedure.

Well at least they have gotten back to me with something to try.

As for the service pack 4.....I will keep it in mind to try if the above doesn't work.


-----------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

Just to give you an update on my problems.

I have just gotten my new drivers for the video and audio cards and have installed them.

There was no change on the game but at least I now have the newest drivers.

They have received my dx diagnostic in a previous email.
I just finally sent them my system information so I think that they now have all the imformation about my computer that there is.

I could not start in a clean boot because my computer doesn't even have a msconfig on it. I did a search on the C drive and none could be found.

I told them all the above and now am waiting to see what they will come up with next.

Well at least they haven't given up on me yet. Hope they come up with something. Hope this game is worth all of the trouble.

Click your Start button, then run. Type
msconfig
in the box and OK it.

msconfig should appear.

That is just what I did and got a message that msconfig could not be found or one of its components is missing.

The Clean boot procedure TAC gave you instructions for will not work in Windows 2000 because Windows 2K does not have msconfig. Whoever the tech was that advised you to do that apparently needs to be reminded what operating system you have.

What you really need to do is get Windows XP, then you won't have to worry about these issues.

I found this
http://www.techadvice.com/win2000/m/msconfig_w2k.htm

They say you can download the msconfig for XP and put it in C:\winnt\system32
to have msconfig in Win 2000.

Do you think this would work, Robert?

I wouldn't try it. Windows 2000 and Windows XP are completely different. She might end up not being able to boot to Windows at all.

Here's an article on how to clean boot troubleshoot Win 2K.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/281770

I think this is an inherent problem with this game and Windows 2000 since 3 people in this thread have reported the exact same problem....all of them using Windows 2000. In my opinion it's time for these folks to upgrade their OS. They're going to have to do it sooner or later if they want to play the new (and future) games.

**edit**
Those suggestions TAC gave her were just canned answers, anyway. I don't think TAC has any clue what the problem is.

2000 and XP are not completely different and often use the same drivers. But there are differences that may make a difference with some games.

Also if a current game says it's compatible with Win 2000, it may only be compatible if you have SP4 installed. And some driver installers will not work properly unless you have SP4 installed as well as .NET and maybe an updated version of the Windows Installer.

I'd be interested to hear from someone who has managed to get this game to play in Windows 2000.


I think it may be a problem with drivers. It must have worked on somebody's Win 2000 computer, or they wouldn't list it as compatible.


No argument there. It's 8 years old. Game specs used to be for Win 2000/XP but more and more I see them for XP and later. I think Win 2000 is fine for those who can troubleshoot their own game problems, but not so much for those who can't. For my main gaming computer I'd want XP.

I was just referring to how one would go about doing a clean boot. Sorry, I should have made that more clear.



That sounds plausible. However, we have 3 different people with three different hardware and driver configurations. It's a shame TAC can't be more helpful with tech support. It seems about all they're good for these days is giving out canned answers.



In reading back through her posts, I understood her to say that she is running SP4. She said there were some updates available, but said they weren't "urgent".



I was a bit perplexed by that statement. It seems she wants to resolve this problem very badly, but does not seem to want to bother with getting all of the updates that are available. "Urgent" updates are usually, if not always associated with security and have nothing to do with game compatibility. She needs to be trying ANY updates that are available in an effort to find a solution.



Maybe we could out a call on the adventure games discussion board and see if we get any hits.