Hi. Having built myself a new PC running Vista 64-bit as the OS a few months back, I recently decided to install my copy of BIA-RTH30 on it, since I fancied a re-play.

I didn't have any install problems, I patched to v1.11 without incident, and assumed I'd be playing in no time. No chance though! I got the same problem others have seen. The "hourglass" shows for a few seconds, then nothing. I could see from task manager that "bia.exe" was running; it just wasn't doing anything.

I was determined to try to find a solution. I spent about two hours searching for solutions/clues, fiddling with INI file settings, and trying out different compatability mode settings. No luck with any of that, so I decided to try more extreme measures. In the end I found a strange solution!

In desperation I actually used a (newer) file intended for "Earned in Blood" instead, namely a version of "EIB.exe" (421,888 bytes, modified 08 ‎October ‎2005 ‏‎00:22:32). I put that file in the \System folder of my RTH30 installation, ran it, and was happy to see that RTH30 suddenly worked.

Now, there may be many out there who (like me) don't own "Earned in Blood". You have the right to be able run software you do own though (i.e. RTH30)! On that basis I've no problems in explaining that I obtained this "EIB.exe" from GameCopyWorld. Please note I'm not in anyway condoning illegal or improper activities, I'm simply flagging this as a viable solution for legitimate RTH30 owners running Vista in the absence of responsible support from Ubisoft.

I have no idea if this is a reliable solution, but I hope this helps out somebody struggling with RTH30 and Vista somewhere.

(Vista 64bit Home Premium (SP1) )
(AMD Phenom 8750 )
(ATI Radeon HD 4850 )
(ATI Catalyst 9.5 )

Thank you for the reply and the possible work around.

Thanks for offering a solution to this problem. I'm struggling with it too. Where did you find the EIB.exe file you mentioned. I've found several EIB.exe files....but none on that date/time. Thanks again for your help.

Stroker_Ace again....let me clarify one thing from my previous posting. I understand that you got the file from GameCopyWorld, but I wasn't able to find it on their site. There is a EIB.exe patch that was created on the date you suggested, but it's only a 71k file. Thanks again for your help.