Author Topic: FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5  (Read 75015 times)

FinalFantasyRox

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« on: 2002-10-27 00:51:05 »
HOW TO GET 'FINAL FANTASY VII PC' RUNNING ON YOUR WINDOWS 2000/NT 5 SYSTEM


1.1 Introduction
1.2 Document's Purpose
2.1 The 'Problem'
2.2 Is This Your 'Problem'?
2.3 My 'Problem' Is Different
2.4 How To Fix The 'Problem'
2.5 Other 'Problems' Now
2.6 Problems & Solutions
3.1 Open Document


1.1 Introduction

First of all, I would like to introduce myself as a person who loves the Final Fantasy series, especially Final Fantasy VII. I am also a person who had his Playstation console broken and couldn't play Final Fantasy VII anymore -- but -- like others during the time of Windows 98, I purchased the PC version of Final Fantasy VII. As the years went on, majority of people upgraded to NT 5 (i.e., Windows 2000, Windows XP) to take advantage of NT's power and reliability. A dream come true to Windows 9x users for sure, but a nightmare for those who play Final Fantasy VII for the PC. This documentation will help you run FINAL FANTASY VII PC on your Windows 2000 system and give insight to Windows XP users.

1.2 Document's Purpose

The reason I wrote this document is to help others who are having problems running FINAL FANTASY VII PC on their Windows 2000/NT 5 systems. I recently upgraded to Windows 2000 Professional from Windows 98 and I suffered greatly trying to get this game to run properly. I don't want any other Final Fantasy fan to suffer like I did. I hope this document will be deemed useful in the Final Fantasy community. (To read more information about this document, see section 3.1.)

2.1 The 'Problem'

Generally, the problem behind FINAL FANTASY VII PC is the fact that it was poorly ported from Playstation to PC by Eidos Interactive, Inc. The quick porting scheme resulted in the lack of backward-compatibility. It is worth noting that most old games run perfectly on Windows 2000 and Windows XP (with some exceptions, of course).

2.2 Is This Your 'Problem'?

For many people, the main problem to FINAL FANTASY VII PC on Windows 2000 is the crash during the first battle with the two MPs (Military Police). This usually occurs after the introduction movie ends, when the group gets off the train, and Cloud (the main character) has to fight the two MPs; a few seconds into the battle, the game crashes and returns you to the Desktop. If this is your problem, it is possible to fix it (see section 2.3). The game has other problems, too, but it is possible to fix those as well (see section 2.6).

2.3 My 'Problem' Is Different

See section 2.6 for a list of other problems and solutions.

2.4 How To Fix The 'Problem'

If your problem is of that listed in section 2.2, and you are running the Windows 2000 operating system (edition is irrelevant), then here is the solution to fix it:

* Make sure you are running Windows 2000 Service Pack 2. If not, upgrade (or downgrade from SP3) to Service Pack 2. Downloading and installing a service pack is provided by Microsoft for free. Visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/servicepacks/sp2 for more information.

* Make sure you have the rights to login as Administrator (if not, ask your Administrator to do the following). Simply login as Administrator and enable compatibility support on the system. This is done by typing the following command in the Command Prompt or in the 'Run...' dialog box located in the Start Menu: regsvr32 %systemroot%\apppatch\slayerui.dll

* Download and install Microsoft's Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit 1.1 located at http://msdn.microsoft.com/compatibility/act.exe.

* Reboot (restart) your system.

* After rebooting, launch the program called 'QFixApp' located in Start Menu > Programs > Application Compatibility Toolkit. From here, simply 'Browse' to the ff7.exe application (assuming you've already installed FINAL FANTASY VII PC), select 'CheckWriteFileBuffer.dll' and 'VirtualRegistry.dll' *only*, and click 'Run'. You should now get passed the first battle and play the game in its entirety.

Note: It is very important for all Windows 2000/NT 5 users to patch their ff7.exe with the Chocobo patch. See section 2.6 (A-4) for more information.

2.5 Other 'Problems' Now

If you have successfully launched ff7.exe via 'QFixApp' (as directed in section 2.4), but you are encountering other problems (e.g., movie not playing, no sound, etc.), there is no need to fear! These are easily fixed. See section 2.6 for a list of other problems and solutions.

2.6 Problems & Solutions

The following contains a list of common problems and solutions to various issues with FINAL FANTASY VII PC (in Question and Answer format):

Q-1: "How come the movies won't play (I see a black screen)?"
A-1: The reason the movies won't play is because you do not have the proper codecs installed for Windows Media Player. For this reason you see a black screen when you launch the game or elsewhere. Simply download and install Microsoft's Windows Media Player Codecs located at http://download.microsoft.com/download/winmediatech40/Install/8.0/WIN98Me/EN-US/wmpcdcs8.exe.

Q-2: "How come I don't hear the audio in the movies?"
A-2: The reason audio won't play in the movies is because you are missing a codec, have a bad codec, or in need of an updated codec. See A-1 to download and install Microsoft's Windows Media Player Codecs. This usually fixes all audio/video problems.

Q-3: "How come the movies and/or movie audio skip?"
A-3: Besides the obvious reason of a low-end system, this might also be caused by bad or outdated codecs. I suggest downloading and installing Microsoft's Windows Media Player Codecs. This usually fixes all audio/video problems. See A-1.

Q-4: "How come the game crashes during the Chocobo races?"
A-4: This is caused by a bug. Fortunately, a patch has been developed and is located at http://www.qhimm.com/ff7_chocobo_patch.zip. The Final Fantasy community is still thanking its developer for supplying us with such an outstanding patch!

Q-5: "How come I don't have the option to play in Direct3D mode?"
A-5: Assuming you do have a 3D video card, it is possible to use an updated ff7config.exe file to set up hardware acceleration. Visit http://www.eidosinteractive.com/support/search.html?gmid=44 and look for the nVidia Riva patches. It is also advisable to experiment with other drivers for your card. Getting hardware acceleration to work with FINAL FANTASY VII PC is a challenge and a game of its own!

Q-6: "How come I wasn't provided the solution to my 'problem'?"
A-6: Many people have varying computer specifications and configurations. It would be impossible to list *every* possible scenario. I would suggest you to visit http://www.eidosinteractive.com/support/search.html?gmid=44 and see if a patch for your 'problem' exists. I would also recommend searching Web sites, newsgroups, forums, and etc.

3.1 Open Document

As a closing note, I would like to mention that this document is strictly an "open document." By that I mean anyone is free to copy and post (or even modify) this document anywhere he or she likes. For the sake of integrity, all I ask is the original text be left unchanged and any modifications clearly stated as so.

I hope this documentation has helped people. I wish everyone the best of luck with FINAL FANTASY -- the best RPG in the past, present, and future!

- created 26 October 2002, <FinalFantasyRox>

prfsnlgd

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #1 on: 2003-03-13 11:53:41 »
I have a follow up question to this post, I have the exact problem that is listed in this post, unfortunately it seems that the Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit 1.1 no longer exists on the MS server, there is a new version 2.3 i think, but I am not quite sure how to get that set up to work with FF7, I was hoping if someone could help me out with this.

Sephiroth 3D

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Re: HOW TO GET 'FINAL FANTASY VII PC' RUNNING ON YOUR WIN2K/
« Reply #2 on: 2003-03-14 06:12:38 »
Quote from: FinalFantasyRox

Q-3: "How come the movies and/or movie audio skip?"
A-3: Besides the obvious reason of a low-end system, this might also be caused by bad or outdated codecs. I suggest downloading and installing Microsoft's Windows Media Player Codecs. This usually fixes all audio/video problems.


I have problem 3 in that my movies skip entirely, but then I'm missing the field that should display after it, and all music. (Everything goes black, save for the dialog and quit menu.) I can enter a battle sequence just fine, except I'm lacking music. The game then plays correctly, until the next movie where the problems start all over again.

I just recently installed Win2k, SP3, WMP7, and a bunch of other things. The movies play fine in WMP, so I know they work on my system. (The movies play upside down in Winamp, but that's nothing.)

Reccomendations?

oglsmm

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Similar Issue
« Reply #3 on: 2003-03-25 19:27:12 »
FFVII - Tried Plain Original FFVII, Tried with RIVA Patch, tired updside down movie patch, EVEN tried that FFVIII XP Patch

OS -WinXP Pro SP1
ATI Radeon 8500

Problem - Game starts, black screen. If I hit enter, i get New/Continue Menu. New Game = BlackScreen, if I load an old save game it loads and plays fine and sound works. (world map and battles anyways).

I've tired installing every codec I could find. I installed Directshow form FF7 cd, movies play in WMP ok.

Anyone have any ideas at all??


oglsmm

PS - Been quite a while since I've been here.... surpirsing how many regulars are still coming here after so many years.... thats cool.

Sephiroth 3D

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Re: Similar Issue
« Reply #4 on: 2003-03-25 23:01:15 »
Quote from: OGLSMM
New Game = BlackScreen,

Sounds just like my problem... No Solutions yet...

Mofokubik

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #5 on: 2003-03-25 23:06:44 »
sounds like a problem with the movies, is registry configured correctly?

oglsmm

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oh yea
« Reply #6 on: 2003-03-25 23:37:09 »
Yes I tried putting movies onto the HDD. I pointed the registry to the right path.

Sep... lets look for any commonallity...

I have my system partition on C: drive, FFVII and almost everything else is on my D: drive. Swap file is on a second HDD.

Running game with admin rights, not on a domain...... uh thats all I can think of that might be even remotely relevant.

oglsmm

Aaron

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #7 on: 2003-03-26 00:03:45 »
I have my system partition on the C: drive, FF7 and all my games on the D: drive, and the swap file disabled (I hate swap file, especially when you have a gig of RAM, it only slows things down).  Running game with admin rights, not on a domain, and it works wonderfully and always has, under Windows 2000 and Windows XP on this machine (Windows XP currently).

Stupid FF7.

[Edit] However, to get the game to work, I must disable 8-bit paletized textures in RivaTuner, and run the game in nVidia TNT mode.  I can run it without nVidia mode and the 8-bit paletized textures on, but it looks ugly.  If I try to run it in nVidia mode with the 8-bit paletized textures on, it crashes to the desktop after the Eidos logo movie thing.

Contra

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #8 on: 2003-03-26 02:17:03 »
When I disabled 8-bit palletized textures... all my pallets displayed the wrong colors... on a GeForce 2 MX/MX 400.

ye-roon

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #9 on: 2003-04-27 18:36:38 »
Quote from: FinalFantasyRox
Make sure you are running Windows 2000 Service Pack 2. If not, upgrade (or downgrade from SP3) to Service Pack 2. Downloading and installing a service pack is provided by Microsoft for free. Visit http://www.microsoft.com/windows2000/downloads/servicepacks/sp2 for more information.


well there is abit of a prob... do u know how i can downgrade from SP3 to SP2 since the SP2 install says: THe current version of windows 2000 is not supported...

ye-roon

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #10 on: 2003-04-28 14:03:57 »
wel the current version of QfixApp can only be installed on a win2k system with SP3 installed :/

then i tried to set those things correctly, but then the game doesn't run at all :/

'CheckWriteFileBuffer.dll' that thing isn't selectable in the program...

is it perhaps possible to send me the install of 1.1 version?? since it isn't downeble...

Cloud

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #11 on: 2003-04-28 15:11:20 »
just choose windows98 as layer and everything should be fine with the newest qfixapp, useing original ff7.exe of course.

ye-roon

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #12 on: 2003-04-28 17:35:10 »
did that, still crashes when i press menu button or after 2 sec in first battle :(((

Cloud

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #13 on: 2003-04-28 18:38:11 »
what are your system specs? ff7config and ff7 version?

ye-roon

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #14 on: 2003-04-30 12:05:46 »
AMD athlon XP 1600+ 1400 MHZ
512 MB
Geforce4 ti 4200 128 mb 3.3 ns RAM

and used all the different ff7.exe files :/

Archer

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Prob
« Reply #15 on: 2003-05-10 00:31:29 »
Straight to the point and list of all devices

Begin the game, crash. Change to Software Render, Black screen, hear music but movie playing real slow.

Win XP-SP1
GeForce 4 MX-420
384 Bus Ram
1.4Ghz P4
2 Drives, Install location:Default
Tried a lot of the patches but still don't work. Even changed it so that it runs under Win 95 but still don't work. Please I need the answer ASAP cause I been waiting for the game for around 4 months and got it.

Thank You for the time

Terminal Insanity

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #16 on: 2003-05-13 02:14:45 »
Im having a similar problem...

-Win2k SP3
-Hurcules Geforce2 MX (32mb)
-Application Compatability Toolkit 3.0
-Fresh install of FF7 (No Riva patches) (ill explain why no patches in a sec)
-Installed the codecs posted in the above FAQ.

Now for the problem...
I start a new game, It COMPLETLY skips the movie
black screen, and you hear the sound effects for cloud and the gang jumping out of the train
No background music
I can see the "Cmon newcomer, follow me" dialog box fine

If i open my menu, and then cancel back to the game, the game's graphics appear, i can see everything fine, but still no background music.
I can also blindly walk upwards to the first battle, and this also fixes the "black screen" but the background music is still missing until the battle finishes

I tried the Riva patch... "riva_TNT.exe", copyed the two executables (ff7.exe and FF7Config.exe) to FF7 directory and overwrote the originals, but the game wouldent run from the ACT at all afterwards. The FF7.exe process would be in the task list, but its only using 2.1 megs of memory and it doesnt appear anywhere, and i cant alt-tab to it.
However, it did start up fine when i ran the ff7.exe file manualy, WITHOUT ACT, but the the game crashes in the first battle scene, and the video/audio problems still exist.

I have went thru all of this with the following video modes...
320x240 Software (Fullscreen, With and Without riva patch)
640x480 Software (Fullscreen, With and Without riva patch)
320x240 Direct3D (Fullscreen, riva patch only)
640x480 Direct3D (Fullscreen, riva patch only)
Also, ive tried the "NVIDIA" fix (Both the RIVA 128 and TNT options in ff7config.exe, with all of the above options


Im about to try the other riva patch, "Riva_128_ZX.exe" and the "upside down movies" patch (downloading them on my 56k right now...) ill edit this post and post the results below when im finished testing them...

Same thing happens with the "Riva_128_ZX.exe" patch, it refuses to run from ACT... i noticed the Readme and the eidos FAQ notes differ... the faq says to only copy the ff7config.exe, but the readme says also to copy ff7.exe... I use the original ff7.exe and the riva_128_zx ff7config.exe and i can use the nice direct3d and 640x480 res, but the audio/video problems STILL remain...

-------
w00t! Its working!
The Upside Down Movie Patch has fixed the video AND audio problems...
win2k, SP3, ACT3, Geforce2mx, running ff7 crystal perfect as far as i can tell.
in ACT, (in the Compatability Administrator Tool), i created a fix using just "Microsoft Windows 95" under "Operating System Modes", clicked next thru the next few screens and finished
Im using the original, unmodified copy of ff7.exe, with the ff7config.exe from Riva_128_ZX.exe

Huge thanks to all of you that put so much work and time into this site!
:love:

One question remains, is there a way to make a shortcut that will launch FF7 from ACT? (im lazy lol, i dont want to have to open act up, load the fix database, and then launch ff7...)

Chrysalis

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #17 on: 2003-09-06 18:30:02 »
guys you sure qfixapp is needed? because I think act was removed as when SP3 was released as MS added the XP compatibility stuff to it so you can run stuff in diff modes to think its in older version of windows.  I will also mention ff7 works perfect on my geforce 2 card using DX8.1 and 2 patches these are applied in this order the 1.02 config patch (not the exe) and I untick the nvidia box and leave it in hardware mode then I patch ff7.exe using the chocobo race patch, after this the game works perfect in win2k and XP.

Synergy Blades

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #18 on: 2003-09-06 22:54:12 »
I needed this (2000) because no matter whether those patches were installed or not the game would crash reporting memory reference errors when in battle or going between screens.

ShinRa

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #19 on: 2003-09-07 19:12:03 »
I have the problem from Question 1 under 2.6, but the link to the codecs is broken now.  Does anyone know where to get them?

Chrysalis

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #20 on: 2003-09-08 14:47:42 »
to fix 2.6 all I did was install directshow drivers of the ff7 install cd, run the autorun menu then choose to install the directshow stuff, then it will work it dont even need a reboot.

Cloro

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ff 7 Pc Installation problem 112
« Reply #21 on: 2003-09-11 13:06:57 »
Hi Boys, i've got ff7 original version for the pc, when i try to install it, the initializing setup give me te error 112...

I cnnot install the game!!!! The setup don't run at all!!!!!! How can i do??

help me, please!  :isee:   :(   :(

Synergy Blades

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #22 on: 2003-09-11 13:30:07 »
Post in the thread you started here: http://forums.qhimm.com/viewtopic.php?t=2389

Cloro

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #23 on: 2003-09-11 13:38:02 »
THANK YOU! ThE SETUP RUNS CORRECTLY!!!!

You're a myth!!!!!!! THANKSSSSS :D :D :D

seanykc

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FAQ: How to get FFVII PC running on Win2K/NT5
« Reply #24 on: 2003-09-20 14:32:44 »
I'm really sorry about bothering you but I'm experiencing problems with my FF7 game after recently installing windows 2000. After reading through your FAQ I found your solution to the game crashing and returning to the desktop in the first battle, however my pc won't let me install windows service pack 2 (i think this is possibly because i already have it?), and as well as this I can't find Microsoft's Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit 1.1 anywhere (including http://msdn.microsoft.com/compatibility/act.exe.) and now I'm becomming a desperate man and am begging for your help:( .
Thankyou for taking the time to read this.
Sean -_-