just received the game in the mail from UBI . When attempting to install the game, I get as far as the first Disc and loading 33%. When it asks for Disc 2 to be installed once I insert disc and hit enter, my computer freezes up. I have direc9x. any suggestions?

one thing you can try is: after you insert the second disc, do not hit enter right away. watch the flashing light on the front of the CDROM Drive and wait at least until it goes solid for a few seconds (until it stops the rapid flashing) before you hit enter.

that has help me once or twice.

-myster3

Thanks for that idea Myster3 but alas, it didn't help. I think I will have to mail the game back to Ubisoft because I believe the discs are defective. My HP computer is only about 18 months old so I don't beleive that is the culprit. Even when I insert Disc1 the install window does that appear. I have to access the Disc thru my F drive and open up the properties and then double click the set up icon. More involved than any other games I have ever purchased, Just finished playing Ni-Bi-Ru from "The Adventure Company" and had no problems at all with that game.

i'm having the same problem.
my computer seems to truely despise the discs.
it gets all twitchy when i try to access it.
only once did the first disc automatically do what it was supposed to do.

Same problem as well, except for that I had successfully installed the game the first time. I had to uninstall it do to another problem, but now everytime I try to reinstall it, it always freezes when I go to put the second disk in at 33%.

Not that I want anyone else to have the same problem but it does make me feel that at least I'm not going nuts. Maybe someone from Ubisoft will read these posts and come up with a suggestion or a patch. If not, they are going to receive a lot of games back for replacement or a refund. Appreciate the feed back folks.

Suggestions, some or all of which may be necessary:

1. Do steps 1 through 7 under Overall Windows and Hard Disk Tune-up in Myst V: Clean Boot Install/Re-install With Win XP.

2. Download and install the latest firmware update for your DVD drive from the drive or your PC manufacturer's website. This is especially important if you have a DVD-RW drive.

3. Create a User Account with all the rights/privileges you can give it, and reboot. (See How To Create and Configure User Accounts in Windows XP for details.) Then install EoA to the new account from a clean boot. (See Myst V: Clean Boot Install/Re-install With Win XP for details.)

Heimdall

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Heimdall G,

With all due respect this is WAY more effort than should be required to load a game. This computer has all the current files you have mentioned and changing the system.ini or win.ini files to make it work to me is not a good idea. Currently when going into the add/remove programs the game is not even showing up so there is no ability to remove it. This is probably due to the fact that the installation process never gets past disk one and never past 33%. No other games, and believe me I have played many, require this kind of gymnastics. It is rediculous. Either UBISoft comes up with a patch or lots of people will be sending this game back.

Considering that almost every game released has a certain number of issues that are not easily identifiable that affect a small portion of the population with something bizarre about their computer. Those steps are one of the easiest ways to figure out what's wrong and fix it.

If you aren't satisfied with the Volunteer help you are receiving here, feel free to contact Ubi technical support or attempt to take the game back. *shrug*

quote:

Considering that almost every game released has a certain number of issues that are not easily identifiable that affect a small portion of the population with something bizarre about their computer. Those steps are one of the easiest ways to figure out what's wrong and fix it.

Ironically, the only "bizarre" thing about some of our computers is that we've owned them for a while, and bits of the hardware and OS have been superceded by newer versions that the games are now coded for. In a lot of cases we can update the offending components, like video and audio hardware and drivers... or in my case, my Java stuff. But the frustrating thing is that many adventure game fans would no sooner modify their system software than work on their own cars. In an ideal world, PCs would be as stable as game consoles, where the hardware and OS design is frozen, and software developers can shoot for a standardized target. It must be frustrating for developers to test a new product exhaustively, then release it only to have their service desk be immediately swamped with complaints.

You get the idea... Ideally, the product box should now include not only processor and graphics card specs, but also a list of compatible driver sets for each video card; or a specification that you need X.XX.X version of Java to run the installer, version XXX.X firmware for your DVD drive, and instructions like Heimdall's describing how to install from a clean boot. Needless to say, they can't do that. And I would wager that a huge number of copies of Myst games go right back to the store for a refund -- and a loss of profit for Cyan/Ubi -- when all it would take to install and run the thing would be some specialized hand-holding from our gurus here on the forum. But how many frustrated customers actually take the time to find this forum and drill down to a solution? A minority, I'd guess.

Anyway, it's not a perfect world. I'm glad I have enough technical savvy to fix things like this with some guidance (and sometimes without!), and as a result, I've greatly enjoyed all the Myst games. But I'll admit that it would be great to have one install and run error-free the first time.

This is for some of you that are experiencing install and run errors with Myst V and hopefully point you to one possible solution. I also had a similar issue on my system with a single combo DVD/CD-RW drive.

I discovered that if you go into you drive property and disable any program or driver that allows writing to a DVD/CD drive, essentially turning your drive into a DVD/CD read(play) only drive, the install and run problems disappear. In my case it meant disabling DLA access to the drive and configuring the DVD/CD write software to ignore my DVD/CD-RW drive as a DVD/CD writable drive.

hope this points some to a solution.