Let me tell you how what started as a routine game installation has resulted in serious, frustrating technical problems the likes of which I have never before experienced.
So I bought the game Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. It's a PC game a few years old, but my PC was new the year it came out so I figured it would be compatible and I picked it up. I installed the game without a hitch and downloaded the official patch, then I went to play it.
The first few videos play, showing who made the game. Then, just as the menu's about to come up, it crashes to desktop.
Huh.
I try it a few times more and get the same problem. I try restarting the computer. I try uninstalling and reinstalling. I try it before patching, then I patch and try. Nothing.
So naturally, next step is to search the internet for troubleshooting tips. It turns out this game is so buggy that the hardest part of troubleshooting isn't finding a help site, it's finding the answer to your specific problem. I try setting my screen resolution down to 800x600. I try updating all of my drivers. Some people talk about a missing reg file, so I download it and at it to regedit. I even try installing a plethora of unofficial patches and a noCD crack. Nothing works.
At one point things get so out of control that I try to install the game but get a Not Responding error halfway through. I have to use ctrl-alt-delete to get out of it, so now all the game files were still there, but the Uninstall option Uninstalled itself. I delete all the files by hand to see if this lets me reinstall, but the CD still thinks the game is installed and offers no installation option. Eventually I manage to solve this problem by going into the CD itself and digging up a setup option, disconnecting it from the autoplay interface, and running it manually. So now I'm back to square one.
Well, not quite. There are new and far worse problems that now infect my computer.
For one, all of a sudden the invisible 'wall' on the far right side of my screen is gone. That means that my mouse can go off the right edge of the screen and totally vanished, lost in some limitless grid on the far side. You know when you want to close a window and you sort of throw your mouse to the top right corner and click? Now unless I intentionally aim it at the red X, my mouse keeps going into the 'realm beyond'.
Even worse, certain programs are starting to open in that space. I can't access Firefox because whenever I open it, it appears the window opens off in the empty space to the right. Nothing I can do will bring it back over (including moving to where I think it is, clicking, and dragging, or right clicking it on the taskbar and using Move or one of the other tools there). This effectively makes Firefox unusable. Since Firefox is my default browser, whenever I try to open any of the help documentation that came with the game, the window opens offscreen and I can't read any of it.
So now I'm basically in computer hell. No way am I reformatting just to play a simple computer game or fix what should be a minor problem. Does anyone have any advice?
Oh, and P.S. I leant this game to my sister yesterday. She installed it easily and got it working first try, played for an hour, then got bored and gave it back. Her computer is newer than mine, but they're both well above the required specs for this game. This merely adds insult to injury.
So I bought the game Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines. It's a PC game a few years old, but my PC was new the year it came out so I figured it would be compatible and I picked it up. I installed the game without a hitch and downloaded the official patch, then I went to play it.
The first few videos play, showing who made the game. Then, just as the menu's about to come up, it crashes to desktop.
Huh.
I try it a few times more and get the same problem. I try restarting the computer. I try uninstalling and reinstalling. I try it before patching, then I patch and try. Nothing.
So naturally, next step is to search the internet for troubleshooting tips. It turns out this game is so buggy that the hardest part of troubleshooting isn't finding a help site, it's finding the answer to your specific problem. I try setting my screen resolution down to 800x600. I try updating all of my drivers. Some people talk about a missing reg file, so I download it and at it to regedit. I even try installing a plethora of unofficial patches and a noCD crack. Nothing works.
At one point things get so out of control that I try to install the game but get a Not Responding error halfway through. I have to use ctrl-alt-delete to get out of it, so now all the game files were still there, but the Uninstall option Uninstalled itself. I delete all the files by hand to see if this lets me reinstall, but the CD still thinks the game is installed and offers no installation option. Eventually I manage to solve this problem by going into the CD itself and digging up a setup option, disconnecting it from the autoplay interface, and running it manually. So now I'm back to square one.
Well, not quite. There are new and far worse problems that now infect my computer.
For one, all of a sudden the invisible 'wall' on the far right side of my screen is gone. That means that my mouse can go off the right edge of the screen and totally vanished, lost in some limitless grid on the far side. You know when you want to close a window and you sort of throw your mouse to the top right corner and click? Now unless I intentionally aim it at the red X, my mouse keeps going into the 'realm beyond'.
Even worse, certain programs are starting to open in that space. I can't access Firefox because whenever I open it, it appears the window opens off in the empty space to the right. Nothing I can do will bring it back over (including moving to where I think it is, clicking, and dragging, or right clicking it on the taskbar and using Move or one of the other tools there). This effectively makes Firefox unusable. Since Firefox is my default browser, whenever I try to open any of the help documentation that came with the game, the window opens offscreen and I can't read any of it.
So now I'm basically in computer hell. No way am I reformatting just to play a simple computer game or fix what should be a minor problem. Does anyone have any advice?
Oh, and P.S. I leant this game to my sister yesterday. She installed it easily and got it working first try, played for an hour, then got bored and gave it back. Her computer is newer than mine, but they're both well above the required specs for this game. This merely adds insult to injury.
