Now What?? T2 install OK on XP, but not playing

PeterVanX on 27/2/2007 at 13:18

New Laptop, new problems - Please jump to my new 30 Aug 2008 entry, below.

Thanks,
PeterVanX

OK, so I'm trying to load T2 on my work Laptop, which is a WinXP machine. Regardless of whether or not I do the "run d:\setup -lgntforce", I end up with a "Severe Error: Failed to load CUSTOM.DLL" (a .DLL on T2, CD 1) before any actual installation begins. It will then go as far as prompting me to accept the license agreement, but when the form comes up the license text is blank. The install goes rapidly downhill from there...

Question 1: Does anyone know why this is happening, and more importantly, how I can get around it?
Question 2: If I can't get the install to work, can I just copy the files from the CDs over to the appropriate folder structure, thus simulating the results of the install. If so, does anyone know what that file/folder structure would look like?

Thanks in advance to anyone who can help!

PeterVanX

bikerdude on 27/2/2007 at 18:48

You may have a dirty or damaged CD..

# try giving it a clean and then try again.

# try the cd in another pc - to rule out CD & CD drive compatability error

biker

PeterVanX on 1/3/2007 at 00:50

Thanks for the suggestion. I tried cleaning the CD, but that didn't work. Then I remembered to try running Setup in WIN95 compatability mode - Ta-Da! Worked like a champ, T2 successfully installed.

But...

Now, I can get through the mission briefs and the pre-mission "store", but when I try to actually start the mission, the screen goes blank and the program hangs. Hafta <ctrl><alt><del> out to task manager and stop the task from there. Same thing happens for both OMs and FMs.

I have the T2 convict.osm file (which I downloaded from thief-thecircle.com) in the Thief2 directory.

I am running the executable in WIN95 compatibilty mode.

I am setting the "Affintity" of the process to only use a single processor (I have a Core Duo processor inside).

The graphics adaptor in this laptop is a Mobile Intel 945GM Express Chipset Family. I tried uncommenting "safe_texture_manager" in USER.CFG, per the Tech FAQ.

What am I missing? :confused:

PeterVanX

SlyFoxx on 1/3/2007 at 13:25

Sounds like video card / driver issues is the next thing to look into. Search recent threads regarding card and driver issues.

PeterVanX on 1/3/2007 at 16:44

Thanks for the tip -

More empirical data:

Last nite, in frustration, I deleted everything from my computer: T1, T2, Darkloader, etc. Started fresh w/ T2 and Darkloader, put the T2 Convict.osm in the right spot, fired up T2 (not in Win95 compatibility mode, just as a plain ole XP app), and it worked, with a FM.

Once.

After that:
- Every time I ran T2 in WinXP mode, it said "T2 needs xxxMB of hard disk space, you only have 2MB available". (not true, of course)
- Every time I ran T2 in Win95 mode is starts, gets through the supply store at the start of a mission, then dies when it tries to start the actual mission.

???

PeterVanX

ffox on 1/3/2007 at 17:05

(http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75031#diskspace) Here's the answer to the disk space problem.

It ought to run OK in XP. Mine dies just like yours in Win95 mode.

PeterVanX on 6/3/2007 at 13:27

Thanks, ffox, that did the trick.

T2 is now up and running on my laptop. Yippee!!!! Now I can finally start to dig in to the pile of T2 FMs!

PeterVanx

PeterVanX on 30/8/2008 at 13:57

OK, so I now have a new Dell laptop. This one is a Centrino Duo (the old one was a Core Duo) with an NVidia Quadro NVS 135M graphics adapter.

I got T2 to install fine. Now it's time to run and I'm having problems:

- If I just try to run "normally", the screen flashes briefly then I get a failure window that pops up saying "sorry, program can't run".
- If I set the compatability mode to WIN 95 I get all the way past the intro movies and the load-out. Then when it goes to start the mission the screen goes blank and nothing happend. I have to ctrl-alt-del out to task manager to stop the program.

I've already added "skip_starting_checks" to the user.cfg file, and commenting out "safe_texture_manager" had no effect whatsoever.

Any ideas from anyone????

Help!!!

PeterVanX

thievery on 31/8/2008 at 06:51

I've got exactly the same problem on my dual core laptop, crashes under normal start, black screens after loadout under win 98 start

Please resurrect my dreams of thieving at university :D

Edit: Woohoo! I finally figured it out... change compatability mode for thief2.exe to NT 4.0 (service pack 5), and magically, it works!