Problems in Tiberian Sun land

[Kassia]

Hi,

I'm not a real gamer, and don't have too many games on my system, but I was given Command and Conquer, Tiberian Sun. It can be played, multiplayer/online, or just by yourself. Problem is...I'm having probs installing it. It has a yellow GDI disc, and a red NOD disc. I followed the instruction manual and when I go into programs to find the game...all I get is the registration url. It says it installed the game, but I can't find it, even when I search thru the file it installed to. I've installed and uninstalled both discs. They seem to have very similar information. Yet neither one of them will give me a game start icon. I've even tried to just follow the registration url, but it says my serial number is invalid. Thanks in advance.

[Toaster]

Hello Kassia,
Is that the original CD's or copies?
If original, I seem to remember that the jewel case had serial numbers which had to be used. If copies....your on your own! (you know the rulez)

[Kassia]

Hey Toaster,

The CD's are original. I used the numbers from the back of the jewel case, and it came back as invalid. I tried twice.

During the install, it asked what you want to install...(this is from memory, so forgive me if I'm not entirely accurate)....but, when the screen came up, asking what I wanted to install, it listed 3 things...1) tiberian sun. 2)Some kind of Westwood interactive thing. 3) something about music from the hard drive?? I tried to install just Tiberian Sun....wouldn't let me. So, I added the music thing. It said installation successful. But there was no game start icon to be found.

I don't know...I've never had a game that was such a pain to install.

[Kassia]

An added note: when I was searching thru the installed files, I found what seemed to be like an introduction clip. A short intro movie played. When it was done, a box popped up and asked that I put in disc 1 now. I just assumed it was the other disc, so I placed in the other disc. The disc started up, then locked up the ROM drive. I couldn't open it. I had to reboot, then I could get the disc out.

[Tiretool]

It won't show up in your start menu as "Tiberian Sun". It will show up as "Westwood". When you click Westwood, there should be a Tiberian Sun folder there... See if you've got that.

[Kassia]

I've finally got! I uninstalled everything, cleaned it out of the registry, then started from scratch. I shut down everything I possibly could in the background, then re-installed it. For some reason I hit pay-dirt! I appreciate the help from both Toaster & Tiretool. Thanks guys!

[Kassia]

I've got Tiberian Sun installed, but now I'm having probs with the computer. My zonealarm true vector shuts down, the computer stalls out and freezes when I try to shut it down, and some of my programs freeze. I suppose it could be a coincidence, but all was well before I installed the game. And, if someone plays the game, these freeze ups are worse. Any ideas?

Thx in advance.

[morriswindgate]

I have seen that problem in other games that want to connect to the internet for Multi-player sessions as part of the start-up. Try turning off Zone Alarm before you start the game and see if it quits.

[morriswindgate]

There is also a patch available at http://westwood.ea.com/ for it, but it doesn't tell you what the patch is for.

[Kassia]

Thanks morris, I'll give the patch and your suggestion a shot.

[Kassia]

Ok, I installed the patch and turned off Zone Alarm. The Z-Alarm is alright now, but I'm still having probs after the game is played. Things freeze, the browsers run really really slow. It even interferes with Windows, freezing when I try to shut-down and reboot.

[Kassia]

It seems to be worse now. When you hit play on the game it crashes the computer, bad. I actually have to turn the switch at the back of the tower off and on before I can do a hard boot. And most times, I have to hard boot twice. What is it about the game that's causing all this??

[Nuclear Krusader]

Can you please provide your sys specs, Kassia?

I have this game (Platinum Edition) and it never gave me a problem. I patched it once just to be able to play online.

[Penguin]

Kassia,

Make sure that there are minimal programs running in your sys tray. I have this game, and found that after playing for a while the system will lock up or reboot.

My fix was to turn off programs in the sys tray.

Like Nuclear Krusader said, post your spec and we can try and figure it out. I play all of the C&C games and had to tweak a few thing s to get the older ones to run.

[Kassia]

Intel Pentium 3, (ASUS P3B-F JumperFree ATX motherboard), 550mhz, 128 MB RAM, 20 GIG hard drive, Soundblaster Live, Rage 128 ATI, Windows 98 SE.

Just an added note; got a blue screen, and it mentioned an error in the Kernel32.dll. I also got the same error from a couple of other programs since installing the T-Sun game. Also, Penguin, how many progs can I shut off in the sys tray? And what should stay on? I really appreciate this guys. Thanks a bunch.

[Nuclear Krusader]

I only left these programs in the sys tray: the clock (which you can't deactivate), the Creative SB Live! icon and that's it. I deactivate almost everything. Try turning off the Antivirus background protection.

Kassia, I remember last year a post from you, where you were having probs with this game. Were those the same probs you're having now?

[Penguin]

Kassia,

Turn off programs that you don't need to run for the game or the internet unless you are plannig on playing online.

For example if realplayer is in the sys tray on startup exit from it. You don't need it to play the game. I don't know what you have loaded so I really can't say what to turn off.

If you want to post what is in the sys tray we can tell you what to turn off.

However, the kernel thing is what is bothering me. I don't know if that is a windows problem, or the game caused the problem for windows. Hopefully some else can shed some light on that.

[Kassia]

N-Krusader - No, it was a diff game. It seems like my computer doesn't like games. LOL.

Unfortunately, I hate to uninstall T-Sun. Today, after the game was played for a couple of hours, I couldn't access ANY of my other programs.....NONE. Blue screens every time I clicked on any program. I uninstalled the game, and everything went back to normal. Very strange.

[Nuclear Krusader]

Very strange indeed. I feel kinda sad there hasn't been a better solution.

Best regards.

[Kassia]

Turns out, I was having a prob with another program, which in turn, was causing probs for the game. I reinstalled T-Sun, and did as was mentioned and turned off pretty much everything in the background. The game is working fine. Thanks for all the help, guys.