Civ3 errors on reinstall - help needed

[JackRules]

Here is my sad story-maybe someone out there can refer me to someone who can help:

I play CIVIII on my work lap-top, which is the only computer I have. Recently I needed to have the hard drive replaced, and I lost all my CIVIII files. No big deal, I'll just reinstall it. Well I did that, and for some reason, during installation, I get some innocuous error message, but the installation completes and everything looks good. But when I attempt to play the game, I get a black screen and a frozen computer. I have reinstalled three times and the same results each time.

I really don't have any need for a home computer, but I can't go to my IS person and ask them to help me install CIVIII on my work lap-top. So it looks like either I drop a bundle on a computer just so I can play CIV, or I never play again. This just can't be! I am so p....d off right now, with season 3 starting and PTW on the horizon. Any suggestions out there?

 

[Chieftess]

What error is it? You could ask in the Computer/Civ3 TechSupp. section.

post successfully moved.

 

[JackRules]

When I begin to install, I get this message: "Error Extracting Support Files - Access is Denied". Then I hit "OK" and it takes me right back to the installation. It installs and when it asks me to register and I say "never" I get a message "Error 5l". So when I go to start the game (by any method) my screen goes black and when I hit "ctrl-alt-del" I get "CIV not responding".

Can any experts out there give me any hints? By the way, this is my own disk purchased with my own money; not a copy. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

(and thanks, Chieftess, for moving this post)

 

[Shastram]

Hey Jack,

Your post is really old, but I was wondering if you ever got a solution to your problem?

I just bought PTW, i come home, I try installing it and i get the error you got: "Error Extracting Support Files, ACCESS DENIED" I was like WTH..... Ok, so in my mind, I think hmm.. it needs CivIII to be installed, let me see if somethings wrong there .. so I uninstall CIVIII and then as i put the CIVIII CD in to reinstall it.. Guess what.. I get the SAME ERROR!!! and damn now i cant even play civ3, forget civ3ptw

So if you got any solutions for the problem, let me know please.. i even deleted every single reg entry for civ, cleaned up my reg with regclean (thinking there might be some leftover from previous installation that is interferring), cleaned up my temp directories... damn thing just wont work. Then I installed it on my laptop (worked fine there), so nothing wrong with my CDs ..

I really wanna put it on my desktop though...

Jack or anyone please?


Shastram

 

[ainwood]

An "access denied" error is often associated with limited user rights on a NT / Win 2000 machine. If you don't have admin rights, then this is probably the problem. Unfortutnately, there is no easy fix for that.

The other option is that it is trying to access a file that is in use by another app. Suggest you shutdown as many of those pecky files that the laptop opens on start-up as you can before you try to reinstall.

 

[PCHighway]

Hmm, I have the same problem this is how it started, recently I got the Civ III expansion PTW, going on a whim i decide to uninstall my Civ III, so when I play PTW it will be 'fresh'. Why? I have downloaded countless Scenarios and mods, not to mention changed my Civ3.mod file, so I was sure the installation of PTW wouldn’t work. when im done uninstalling, i go back to install it and about at 69% or 71% an error pops up, saying access denied, or rather ACCESS DENIED ,error reading file ----(the civilization chain, note i put it on D drive)/text/civilopedia.txt
So that means I can't install it? well, naturally, I decide to do a system restore, (im running XP, Sony VAIO) and restored it to yesterday, and sure enough Civ III is there. And i decide to install PTW without reinstalling CIV III first. The installation worked, and when i try to load PTW it gives an error (I unfortunately forgot what it was because at this point I started cussing at my PC, and Bill gates.) after A while I got my guts back, and suddenly decided to copy my entire Civ III file, and move it to an emergency backup folder, and tried installing again. Didnt work (surprise ) I would be grateful If anyone had any idea's, I have a couple thing I am going to try, Ill tell you if I find a solution.

 

[PCHighway]

This is the exact Error message As soon as i try to install, this pops up:

Error Extracting Support Files
Access is Denied

Then if I continue, I get this at 69% or 71%:

Componet: Min Install
File Group: Minimum Install
File: E:\sounds\build\AncECa.wav
Error: Data Error (cyclic redundancy check)

Well, naturally It hits me, If it says it’s a .wav file, that means its a sound file, and in the Minimum Install (which the error mentioned) it doesn’t install sounds.

So I try that, and I get to into the regular Civ III game, I see the movie, then I load the game, it stops at 100% but the bar isn’t completely filled. my pc makes strange noises and I restart my Comp, when I load up its fine, but Im not about to try Installing it again.

What’s good is now I know part of my problem, I’ve seen posts here before about the cyclic redundancy check, and about it freezing a 100%, I guess I just have to piece together the puzzle. If that doesn’t work, I have to send in an Error report to Infogrames support.

 

[Shastram]

Hi Ainwood,

I'm not using NT/2000 but ME on my desktop. I'm using XP on my laptop and it installs perfectly fine on my laptop.

thanks for ur input though

Shastram

 

[Shastram]

Ok, from all my searches on the net, I came to the conclusion that it was an "Install Shield" Error, which prompted me to upgrade all my InstallShield files. After I did that, I stopped getting the following error:

Error Extracting Support Files
Access Denied

This error was happening as soon as I would click on setup. But now that didnt happen, but midway through "setting up files for setup" i got another error:

Error Extracting Support Files
There is not enough disk space

well... i got like 8 Gigs on one harddrive and 12 on another! So no problem about space there. I searched the net again. I found similar errors on "InstallShield" site again and they suggested out of other alternatives to defrag the drives. I did everything including defrag but i still get the same error!! What the heck is going on?

FYI, Using Windows ME and the game was perfectly installed before, I just wanted to do a reinstall before installing PTW and thats when things got Screwed up.

Any response from any GURUS out there would be appreciated!!


Shastram

 

[PCHighway]

Well Shastram, It looks like you have the same problem (or almost) as me. I e-mailed Infrogrames but I am expecting them to say that my disk is messed up, 'scratched', most likely. I am going to try and install it on another pc, and see if it works. You -probably- don’t have to worry about ME, as the same thing is happening to me on xp. It might be my pessimistic side, but I don’t think 2 errors for two different reasons, happen like this. Unless something is wrong with the disk, what I would recommend you do, if you can, is save a 'system' checkpoint on this date, then go back to when you had Civ iii still installed, and try playing it then, (when I did this Civ iii didn’t work, hinting at a problem with my CD.)

 

[PCHighway]

Okay, I just checked it on a different PC Windows 98, it had the exact same problem at the exact same place, although this time it said, 'please insert disk 0 to finish installation' So It looks that I found out what my problem is, a corrupted or scratched CD.

 

[Shastram]

Hi PCHighway,

well me it cant be the CDs because i installed fine on my laptop with XP on it. I just hate playing it on my laptop (not a great videocard like my desktop has and no surround sound system if you know what i mean ;-)). Now, aobut my HD being messed, not likely, i ran a surface scandisk on it as well, no errors were reported, then i defraged, which takes hours on big disks like the ones I have! and no help. I'm thinking its an installshield error, somehow, a file has gotten corrupted and I wanna be able to fix it WITHOUT reinstalling my windows, i just have so many programs installed that I dont wanna go through the hassle again!! I just cant get my hands on a way to fix it without reinstalling, an option i'm dreading, but i'm certain that will fix my problem.

Thanks for your input on it though. Maybe someone else can help as well.

Shastram

 

[PCHighway]

Does your system have a restore program, that way you could Restore to before you uninstalled it, It certainly isn’t a long term solution, but might help a little. Im no expert on PC's, but if it’s a Install shield problem, try this Site. Im not sure, but I think you could post the problem there, and see if someone reply's. You need not say Civ3, just say a game. As someone said
"I had to delete the folder InstallShield created for the particualr program, which is located in Program Files\InstallShield Instalation Information, to get rid of the error."

 

[Shastram]

Figured out exactly what the problem was!! I knew it was an installshield problem cause everything was pointing me to it. One of the solution to fix this was to clean up my temp directory (in windows directory). Also i had contacted firaxis and this is what one of their tech guys came to me with also.

So ok, i said, I know i cleaned up my temp directory once, lets give it another shot. SO i browse to my temp directory: C:\Win\Temp ... once i got there, there was NO FILES in my directory. Hmmm! strange i say to myself what the heck is going on, this should be full of files. Ok so... i started thinking. Right away went in my REGISTRY file to see what is the default temp directory path! for everything, it was C:\Windows\Temp!! AHA!! and that path didnt exist!! so there was my problem. Changed path everywhere to c:\win\Temp and ran install again! VOILA its all fine and dandy!

I had installed windows again recently but not in the normal windows directory. I didnt want to do a format before doing a clean install, so i installed windows in a different directory called win. I didnt delete the Windows directory at that point. A few days ago (just before buying PTW) i deleted the Windows directory, and with it, the path for the temp directory was gone.

Well thanks for the help ppl gave here and i just wanted to post here exactly what happened with me just in case someone runs into similar problems.

Always check your temp path ;-)

Ciao
Shastram