FF7 for PC: Won't even install

[illusoryneptune]

Hello all,

    After finishing FF7 about five years ago, I've decided to play through the game again. Well, to my dismay, the game won't even install on my PC. When I place the install disc into the drive, I do get the screen with the "Install" option, as well as installation options for other programs. When I click on install, the computer seems to be processing something for about 10 seconds and then stops.  It won't load any information onto my computer.

The strange thing is, that when I proceed to shut down my computer, it seems to activate my disc drive, telling me there's no disc to read. Then another message pops up, but I can't read it in time because the computers proceeds with shut down. So I don't know if it's my system, the discs, or my disc drive that is causing the problem. I doubt it's the drive because I purchased it a few weeks ago, new. Here are my system specs:

Pentium IV: 2.40 Ghz
NVIDIA Geforce 4 MX 420
256 MB
Windows XP

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

IN

[Darkdevil]

Try cleaning the disc, or alternatively make a copy of the install disc, but use the original copies to paly

[illusoryneptune]

Unfortunately, niether worked. Not only that, I seemed to have placed my post in the wrong category. Will everything go wrong today?

IN

[Magus Spirit]

What if you tryed to copy the whole installation disc in a directory on your hard drive, then running the installation program from here ?

[Aaron]

In this thread, I suggested "manually installing" FF7, and gave instructions as to how to go about doing this.  I'm not sure if it really works, but I know you'll also need to download the upside-down movie patch to install the codec used to play the movies.

[Qhimm]

Moved to game tweaking.

[Messiah99]

I had that problem with FF8 before a few days back when I wiped my drive to upgrade from 2000 to XP (the fact that you cant upgrade from 2000 Professional to XP Pro without wiping is a whole different rant). But then I ran into a completely different stupid problem so now I still cant play it, but this isnt my thread.

My advice, from what I was able to tell, and I cant swear to this, but it seemed that something was wrong launching the Windows Install Shield. Something may have altered Windows, or it may just be a problem with that file. If you can, backup any and all important files, and give your HD a good formatting, reinstall Windows (process takes a good couple hours from the dozen or so times Ive done it in the past) and then give it a go that way. Best of luck if you follow my words!

[illusoryneptune]

All right, I tried copying the entire install disc onto my computer and running setup from there. Nothing. BUT, when I went to shut down, the Install Wizard popped up and allowed me to install the game. The computer must have become paralyzed with confusion and unwittingly allowed me to at least do an install. But alas, my system is fickle. I got past the configuration screen. When I went to actually start the game, the system prompted me to place disc 1,2, or 3 within the drive, even though disc 1 was in the drive. So close.

I'll attempt the rest of the suggestions later today. Thanks for the help.

IN

[Threesixty]

..You'll have to edit the registory...being that you installed using your C:drive,  It's looking at the C drive for the Cdrom.


http://support.eidosinteractive.com/GI/CustomerSupport/FaqSearchResults.jsp?problemType=5&searchText=&game=79&platform=3

click the last one and look at number 3...the last one....that's what you need to do.... You'll probably have to change more than movie path to look in the D: drive. But that is where all the FF7 stuff is at.

[illusoryneptune]

Well, this is it. I fiddled with the registry a bit, then I followed Aaron's advice in his other post. I got the game to run, but without the movies. So I proceeded to download the upside down/no movie patch and succeeded. However, when I try do install the patch, it jams up during the windows self-extraction. Yet again, I'm presented with the same problem that prevented me from installing FF7 from the install disc. When I shut down, the patch starts to install but it can't finish because Windows shuts down.  I have no idea what to do now, and I'm eager to start playing this game.

IN

[Aaron]

When you shut down, it starts to work...?

Go to the Task Manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del), Processes tab and eliminate unneeded processes to see if one of them is causing the problem.  Start with the ones running under your username (most of these can be permanently disabled with msconfig).  Then move on to the System ones (most of these can be disabled with the Services applet in Administrative Tools).

This is a good site for determining which ones you need and what they do.

[illusoryneptune]

Well, I'm happy to say I got the game to work and install normally from the disc. Turns out you were right Aaron. I went to the task manager, and when I shut down rundll32.exe, everything started to install normally. I've been having problems with that file lately during shut down and I really have no idea why. It sounds like an important file though, so I need to find a way to fix it. Thanks for the advice, though.

IN

[Aaron]

I've seen that file before, but I don't think it should be running all the time (it's not running on my machine right now).  It might have been launched by another application, but anyway, should be reasonably safe to kill I guess.

[Threesixty]

I think you picked up a worm that's posing as a Windows file. It's probably self-loading in the registery. Download Ad-aware, maybe it will find it for you....If not, you'll have to do it yourself. with Msconfig or some 3rd party start-up program that you can find on C-net.

[Aaron]

Actually, now that I do a bit of Googling, there are some viruses (W32.Miroot.Worm / W32.Legemer.Worm / W32.HLLW.Sanker / others) that show up as Rundll32.exe.  It makes sense that viruses would cause problems while they are running.

Are you running any antivirus software?  If you aren't, you should be

[Threesixty]

I had an anti-virus running and I still got a worm....found it a week back. Was pretending it was a kernal32.dll file.