Very strange game install....

[pam123]

I just spent part of last night troubleshooting a new install of Earth & Beyond, it was a present.
The game installed with no trouble and the registering the account part and signing up at EA was no problem.
We created a character and got ready to play.
The computer froze.
Okay, we rebooted, the intro movie runs and we get to the game, we get one black frozen screen. Sound but no pictures.
Before leaving I e-mail tech support for the game, full particulars, specs, etc. .
This morning I get the e-mail.
Did we have updated drivers and did we have the correct install of DX .
I updated all the drivers myself when I installed his new 9700, it's running the catalyst 3.0s with DX9.
They have us run several test, DxDiag. and something called EAsy_EA. The first comes back with the expected everything's fine but the second is weird.
It identifies the OS as Win2000 instead of XP and it informs us that DX 7 is installed. It also tell us that since the OS is based on the NT kernel the test will be incomplete.
Just what is going on here?
A file that has to be renamed?
A damaged CD?
Something wrong with XP?
If anyone's ever had a problem like this I'd really like to here from you.

[Alienware_Dude]

Maybe a stupid question, but is the game XP-compatible?

[Tuf]

I don't know anything about the game but after looking at it's site there are a few known issues. It does say there are problems with XP and an AMD processor. It says that SP1 should address this problem. Have you upgraded to SP1?

They don't really answer if the game is DX9 compatible other than to say it should be.

The other thing that comes to mind is on Windows Update is a hotfix for XP hanging in games at the intro video. It doesn't sound like exactly like your problem but I would apply it if I were experiencing problems with games.

[pam123]

A_D ,
Xp/ME/2000(SP2)/98 are the OS supported.

Tuf,
Yes it's a recent XP disk and they all have SP1. Says so in those holograms they put on them.
I also remember reading some post on the game site, about being unable to install the game in XP and having to switch to 98se, so I'm wondering if EA doesn't have a problem with how they manufacture game CDs.
I'm leaning toward the idea that game disk it at fault but I won't know till EA tech gets back to me.
I'll go check out Windows Update, thanks for the tip.

[pam123]

The problem is now solved.
I used restore to return the computer to the date before the upgrade and installed the drivers off the CD, thus dx 8.1 and the 2.4 catalyst drivers. The game now runs.
I don't know if it's dx9 or the 3.0 catalyst drivers but Earth and Beyond didn't like any of it.
There an addendum to this.
I also updated my own computer and had to do a restore on it as well.
I may, I said may, update to the 2.5s but I don't plan on going near dx9 till it's out on game disks. That also eliminates the 3.0 catalyst drivers for now.