WC 4 Cannot Install

G

George Samuels

Spaceman
I am now on XP Pro and tried to install WC 4 but keep getting an error that says something about a virtual device problem. I have tried everything that I can think of but still cannot install. I dare not try the older versions.

Does anyone have any ideas to help or to point me where I can get some?
 
George Samuels said:
I am now on XP Pro and tried to install WC 4 but keep getting an error that says something about a virtual device problem. I have tried everything that I can think of but still cannot install. I dare not try the older versions.

Does anyone have any ideas to help or to point me where I can get some?
Click to expand...

Yeah, there's probably info in the tech support forum. However, do you have the win95 version? If not, then you need the win95 patch here in the CIC's files section: http://download.wcnews.com/files/wing4/wc4win95.zip You also will need to set the compatability mode of the executables to either win95 or 98.


If you have trouble installing though and it's the dos version. Install the game in dosbox. Then run the win95 patch and run the game in windows from there on out. Please see this walkthrough: https://www.wcnews.com/techsupport.shtml#wc4 for more info about installing the game in dosbox. Once it's installed though you can pretty much ignore the rest and use the win95 patch.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Didn't work - DosBox

Thanks for the help.

I tried through Dosbox but it is saying that it cannot be run in DOS mode.
When I try to run through XP I get an error that is about the VDD Virtual Device Drivers. It states "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Virtual Device Drivers. VDD. Virtual Device Driver format in the registry is invalid. Choose close to terminate the application."

If I chose ignore it makes no difference.

Any idea what else I could try?
 
George Samuels said:
Thanks for the help.

I tried through Dosbox but it is saying that it cannot be run in DOS mode.
When I try to run through XP I get an error that is about the VDD Virtual Device Drivers. It states "SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Virtual Device Drivers. VDD. Virtual Device Driver format in the registry is invalid. Choose close to terminate the application."

If I chose ignore it makes no difference.

Any idea what else I could try?
Click to expand...

First off, what version do you have? Is it the windows version right off the CD? Did you set compatability mode? You need to do this on Setup.exe on the CD before you run setup to install. You will need to set it on the wc4.exe as well before you play the game. Right-click on the file, click properties and then the compatability tab. Choose either win95 or 98. If it doesnt work with one, try the other.
 
The Windows version was a hybrid, so you should be able to do either DOSBox or Windows. Make sure you're using the correct file in DOSBox ("install" instead of "installw" or "setup"). You might try something like CCleaner with a registry check that will go through and fix invalid entries. What happened when you tried different compatibility modes?
 
DVD Version

Sorry, I should have mentioned this before.
It is the DVD version.
Also, I have tried compatibility modes (both 95 and 98) for the runsetup, setup and the wc4dvd files.

I continue to get the same error.
 
George Samuels said:
Sorry, I should have mentioned this before.
It is the DVD version.
Also, I have tried compatibility modes (both 95 and 98) for the runsetup, setup and the wc4dvd files.

I continue to get the same error.
Click to expand...


This is the double sided DVD with the MPEG2 video? (the single sided one is just the CDs on a DVD basically) Mine installs just fine without compatability mode. But it's required to run the actual game in XP. You might want to restart your PC, delete any temporary files (just run CCleaner like chris suggested) and then try reinstalling. Also remember that you need the DLL for playing the videos without a physical decoder card.
 
Ran Cleaner

I ran the cleaner and no help.
I can run the movies off of the DVD and they look great.
The issue is the install error I keep getting.
I reset all of the files to install from XP and still the same error.
I am running XP Pro, could that be an issue?
 
George Samuels said:
I ran the cleaner and no help.
I can run the movies off of the DVD and they look great.
The issue is the install error I keep getting.
I reset all of the files to install from XP and still the same error.
I am running XP Pro, could that be an issue?
Click to expand...


I don't think its a problem with XP. Tell us a bit about your hardware. Do you need to update drivers? Is there some kind of funky setup going on with your DVD drive? Tell us anything you can think about your setup?
"SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Virtua l Device Drivers. VDD. Virtual Device Driver format in the registry is invalid. Choose close to terminate the application."
Click to expand...
You need to figure out which "virtual device driver" is messed up and/or in conflict.
 
Sys Info

AMD Proc Athlon 2100
768 Ram
GE Forge 5200 256 meg
2 hard drives 160 + 80
2 disk drives 8x DVD 52x CD

I am running SIW now to see if anything looks abnormal.
I am not finding a lot of help on Virtual Device Drivers.

Haven't found anything yet.
Also tried Hijack but nothing unusual.

This will probably be something really obvious and easy (at least I hope).
 
Need help with this

Just found that SIW says I have another CD rom device.

The info on it is:

Property Value
Friendly name MU1045T OAV452Z SCSI CdRom Device
Property Value
Driver {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}\0010
Property Value
Physical Object Name \Device\Scsi\dtscsi1Port2Path0Target0Lun0

I have 2 CD/DVD drives but this isn't one of them.
I tried deleting it earlier today but it reinstalled on startup.
So I assumed it was needed for one of the drives.

Hope that helped.
 
Did you highlight the installation program on the disc and specifically set that file to run in Windows 95/98 compatibility mode?
 
Yes at least I am pretty sure

Thank you for the help. I am getting to the point that maybe this is not going to work.

Unless there is some other file to install, I changed the compatability on the 3 executables that I mentioned before. There is an autorun file but there is no ability to change the compatability.

I just viewed some of the VOB (video) files on the DVD and they are excellent. Now I am pretty sure that the DVD version is much much better. I guess I am going to have to find the old box of CD's and make sure and maybe I will have to start over.

This was a great game and I knew when Chis Roberts went to Microsoft, it was over.
 
George Samuels said:
Thank you for the help. I am getting to the point that maybe this is not going to work.
Click to expand...

I'm sure it's possible to get it running. WC4 DVD's installation usually doesn't cause any trouble for anyone. You seem to have some particular conflict, so you'll have to be somewhat creative in your experimention to figure out what it is. Make sure you've disabled as much stuff as possible which could be interfering. You could try installing from the hard drive (maybe with Daemon tools if it doesn't like it in a plain directory).

George Samuels said:
This was a great game and I knew when Chis Roberts went to Microsoft, it was over.
Click to expand...

What was over? I don't think anything's ended. Chris Roberts left Origin after WC4, and then OSI went on to make things like Prophecy and Secret Ops. Roberts then went on to make the WC Movie, and was able to leverage his funding from the new Microsoft partnership to pay for part of it. Great breakthroughs that let people play things like the WC4 DVD on systems without a physical dxr board only happened in the last couple years, and now we're getting new Wing Commander releases again. Nothing's over.
 
Good Point

I noticed that that the differnce changed dramatically (in my opinion) when he started with Microsoft. Maybe I am not aware of the real changes but I thought that the creative differences before WC4 and Privateer were much different after.

I am an older fan so maybe it just is my perception.

I was told some time ago that perception is reallity and I disagreed.
Perception is only a face/illusion that you inially see.
I haven't seen a difference since.
 
George Samuels said:
I noticed that that the differnce changed dramatically (in my opinion) when he started with Microsoft. Maybe I am not aware of the real changes but I thought that the creative differences before WC4 and Privateer were much different after.
Click to expand...

I don't see what Microsoft has to do with that. Microsofts deal was with Digital anvil. Every WC game after WC2 was funded by EA.
 
Got it Working

I finally got it to install and is working with a few problems. I am not 100% sure which change I did made the differece, but I am happy it is working and I am on the 3rd mission. I forgot how great these games were. Anyway I updated everything I could think of as well as doing the above mentioned. I changed the compatability settings back to XP (no mode) and it gave me the same error. This time it worked after I hit ignore I tried ignore several times before but it would freeze/lock up. That was after I read the info on the following link http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q254914&ID=KB;EN-US;Q254914&

I never went into the registry to make the change but thought it was important to include.

The program runs great except the sound goes from too low to extreme. It makes a few problems with others in the home but at least it is working. If anyone has a clue on what causes this, my family would be greatly indebted (actually me, because if I play this in the evening or night, I will be hung. The sound extremes are wide in range).

Thanks again to all for all of the help and info.
 
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