Settlers 7 PTOK - won't start / run Win7 64bit | Forums

[Perkinma]

Hi all, have raised a ticket with Ubi Support with no joy so far so hoping someone in the forums can help.

Have just installed Settlers 7 PTOK on a brand new Win7 64bit system. Installation worked with no errors but when I went to play the cursor pointer changes to busy for about 5 seconds then just returns to normal. Nothing. No error messages, no screens popping up, nothing.

Downloaded the 1.11 stand alone patch and run that. No change.
Donwloaded the 1.12 patch. No change.
Turned off Norton 360 firewall. No change.
Uninstalled and reinstalled GameLauncher as per the Ubisoft FAQ section. No change.
Gave Settlers7.exe, UbisoftGameLauncher.exe and S7GameUpdate.exe admin rights. No change.
Gave Settlers7.exe, UbisoftGameLauncher.exe and S7GameUpdate.exe full access rights to the internet with Norton. No change.

Ubi Support have had me do the following, all with no change:
- disable all startup applications from within MSCONFIG
- delete all temp files
- disable Norton 360
- uninstall all input devices except one keyboard and one mouse
- turn of any emulation software (didn't have any so not applicable).

If anyone can assist at all it would be greatly appreciated.

Given that there are no errors (or any indication of anything happing at all other than S7GameUpdate.exe *32 appearing in the task manager task list) its kind of hard to chase down. Is there a startup log file somewhere that might give more clue's as to the problem?

[sings_in_tune]

I run the game in Windows7 64 bit.
My newest log file is:
C:\Users\Admin\Documents\Settlers7\Logfiles\Settle rs7_AGame_2012-06-15_20-09-00

When the game is running, the processes in task manager are Settlers7R.exe *32 and Ubisoftgamelauncher.exe *32, so it looks to me that you are stuck in the update. The first line in the log file tells you which version you are in. It should be 1.12.1396.
I never had problems with the game launcher, but I have had trouble getting the patches to run. Not the last time I did it though.

You say you reinstalled the game launcher, but did you try reinstalling the game? Support will probably tell you to do that sooner or later.

[Perkinma]

Hi sings_in_tune, thanks for the assistance it is greatly appreciated.

No I hadn't tried uninstalling / reinstalling the game so have now tried that. This time it was slightly different in so far that the autopatcher actually loaded this time, whereas last time it did not.

However it got to the end of the massive patch download (1.3Gb or so) then crashed with the error "Autopatch system has stopped working". And now exhibts the exact same symptoms as before, ie double click the game launcher, 5 sec or so of busy cusor then nothing at all, no errors or windows or popups or anything.

I couldn't find the folder you referenced (logfiles) anywhere, but perhaps that is because I am yet to actually get the game to launch. And certainly with the latest install attempt it appears that the patcher did not run at all, at least the icon is still "Die Siedler 7" whereas after I ran the manual patches last time it had updated the icon to "The Settlers 7".

If you have any further suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.

[sings_in_tune]

If you don't have the Settlers7 folder with the logfiles in it, I guess that implies that your launcher is not working.

I am afraid to suggest anything as I have no idea what I'm talking about and might just make your situation worse than it already is. Except hang in there with support and maybe they will eventually figure it out.

[pennygod]

Hello Perkinma

To resolve this issue, you may need to manually install the GameLauncher software, which handles the online authentication in the game. Please note that this software MUST be installed to play the game, and cannot be uninstalled or disabled.

First, you will need to uninstall the "Ubisoft Game Launcher" software from the 'Add/Remove Programs' (Windows XP) / 'Installed Programs' (Windows Vista and 7) icon in your computer's control panel. It's possible that the "Ubisoft Game Launcher" software will not be listed if you have already uninstalled it, or the game. If so, you can skip this step.

After uninstalling the software, you will need to manually delete any leftover files in the C:\Program Files\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher (32-bit versions of Windows) or C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher (64-bit versions of Windows). Please do not skip this step, it is very important.

Once you have manually deleted the files left in that folder, you can reinstall the GameLauncher software from: http://static3.cdn.ubi.com/orbit/lau...rInstaller.exe and then you should be able to start the game.

[Perkinma]

Thanks everyone for the assistance. pennygod, I had tried uninstalling / reinstalling the GameLauncher software as per the Ubisoft FAQ but this did not resolve the problem. However after much troubleshooting (about 8 straight hours) I found the issue.

The conflict was caused by a program called VirtuMVP by ASRock. It is software (shipped by my motherboard manufacturer ASRock) used to utilise both the integrated GPU and the discrete GPU to produce higher frame rates and higher quality graphics. Even though I was disabling it in the msconfig startup list it was still loading for some reason (must load somewhere earlier in the boot process).

I disabled the VirtuMVP setting that was causing it to load when The Settlers 7 was starting (the control panel has a list of hundreds of games that can be enabled / disabled) and this resolved the problem.

Thankyou everyone for your assistance with troubleshooting, it was greatly appreciated and very happy to finally get it working!!

[pennygod]

Awesome troubleshooting Perkinma. I am glad that you are up and running. Thanks so much for the update. I will pass this along to the development team.