[deimona]

Hey guys,

I had alot of games installed on my pc and was able to play them with no problem whatsoever.
About two weeks ago when I wanted to get into photoshop the pc used to freeze, i cleaned some registry keys with free windows registry cleaner (dont know if this was the solution) but photoshop is now working perfectly. except for games, my pc freezes when launching them.
The games I had were old games such as caesar III and pharaoh. the newest game was from 2002 and my laptop was released in 2005 maybe. I have an HP pavilion dv6000.
Can you guys please tell me what might have went wrong? because there is no reason for a game to work for more than 1-2 years and then stop working.

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Hello.
Ill take a wild quess that your free windows registry cleaner messed something up would be good idea to paste the errors maybe eventviewer shows can help a little bit.
But if the reg cleaner messed something real bad up then it would be easier to use windows recovery cd or go to last good know settings.

Edited by kalju24, 01 March 2010 - 08:42 AM.

[kalju24]

Hello.
Ill take a wild quess that your free windows registry cleaner messed something up would be good idea to paste the errors maybe eventviewer shows can help a little bit.
But if the reg cleaner messed something real bad up then it would be easier to use windows recovery cd or go to last good know settings.

Edited by kalju24, 01 March 2010 - 08:42 AM.

[rshaffer61]

A registry cleaner will not increase your system's speed or performance, and has the potential to break your registry to the point that your PC is no longer bootable.
We strongly advise that people stay away from any of the registry cleaners out there.
Go HERE to get more information about why registry cleaners aren't needed.


Thanks to Sari for the explanation

Now that the formalities are out of the way try the next two steps and let us know what the results are.
Is this a name brand system and if so what is the make and model?
Do you have a Genuine Microsoft Xp Installation cd or is yours a Recovery cd?


Go to
Start and then to Run
Type in Chkdsk /r Note the space between k and /
Click Enter ...It will probably ask if you want to do this on the next reboot...click Y
If the window doesn't shutdown on its own then reboot the system manually. On reboot the system will start the chkdsk operation
This one will take longer then chkdsk /f

Note... there are 5 stages...
It may appear to hang at a certain percent for a hour or more or even back up and go over the same area...this is normal...
DO NOT SHUT YOUR COMPUTER DOWN WHILE CHKDSK IS RUNNING OR YOU CAN HAVE SEVERE PROBLEMS
This can take several hours to complete.
When completed it will boot the system back into windows.

Let me know if this fixes the problem





Go Start and then to Run ("Start Search" in Vista),
Type in: sfc /scannow
Click OK (Enter in Vista).
Have Windows CD/DVD handy.
If System File Checker (sfc) finds any errors, it may ask you for the CD/DVD.
If sfc does not find any errors in Windows XP, it will simply quit, without any message.
In Vista you will receive the following message: "Windows resource protection did not find any integrity violations".

For Vista users ONLY: Navigate to C:\Windows\Logs\CBS folder. You'll see CBS.log file.
Usually, it's pretty big file, so upload it to Flyupload, and post download link.


If you don't have Windows CD....
This applies mostly to Windows XP, since Vista rarely requires use of its DVD while running "sfc"
Note This method will not necessarily work as well, as when using Windows CD, because not always ALL system files are backed up on your hard drive. Also, backed up files may be corrupted as well.

Go Start and then Run
type in regedit and click OK


Navigate to the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Setup

You will see various entries Values on the right hand side.

The one we want is called: SourcePath

It probably has an entry pointing to your CD-ROM drive, usually D and that is why it is asking for the XP CD.
All we need to do is change it to: C:
Now, double click the SourcePatch setting and a new box will pop up.
Change the drive letter from your CD drive to your root drive, usually C:
Close Registry Editor.

Now restart your computer and try sfc /scannow again!


Thanks to Broni for the instructions

[deimona]

the games are working again and you have no idea how much I apreciate it!

But I REALLY need to ask you. what was that scan or whatever you want to call it?
What exactly did it do to make the games work again?
And if this ever happens again to me or to anyone else is this the way to fix it?

Thanks alot friend!


EDIT:

So I had the game folder on desktop (caesar 3) and when I moved it to c: and created a shortcut for it the pc freezed again just like usual. I rebooted my pc and accessed C3 on c: and my pc freezed again. It wouldn't work until I moved the folder back to desktop. Why is this happening? and what if I want to install new games? would this happen again?
P.S: I use XP, and only have this installed on my pc.

Edited by deimona, 02 March 2010 - 05:09 PM.

[rshaffer61]

chkdsk checks the integrity of the hard drive and the folders to make sure they are correct.
SFC /SCANNOW now checks the windows core files to make sure they are not corrupt or missing. It replaces them with working good copies if found.
When you first installed it the path to the working folder is to your desktop. You can't simply move a folder and the program work as it will be looking for the original location of the folder.

[deimona]

One last note. I did not do the SFC /SCANNOW I only did the chkdsk.
If I install another game and it doesnt seem to work I'll let you know. For now I just wanted to thank you for the help.

Cheers.

[rshaffer61]

Wy did you not run sfc /scannow?

[deimona]

"When completed it will boot the system back into windows.

Let me know if this fixes the problem





Go Start and then to Run ("Start Search" in Vista),
Type in: sfc /scannow
Click OK (Enter in Vista)."

I understood this as in if this doesnt work for you try the sfc scan now.
Should I do it?

[rshaffer61]

ahh ok now i understand. Sorry a old age moment. So everything is now working correctly for you?

[deimona]

Well the game that I had already installed is now working. The game was extracted that's why I wanted to change the folder to c: (I thought it would work). I still haven't installed/extracted other games. If I get into trouble I'll definitly post it here.

And just to make sure, is what I did correct? so I don't have to do the sfc scan now right?

[rshaffer61]

Nope don't need the sfc since everything is working now.
By extracted what do you mean?

[deimona]

The game was compressed and I extracted it (winzip, winrar and such)

[rshaffer61]

OK so you don't have the original Retail installation\setup disk?

[deimona]

I do for age of empires and some other games. They're cheap
But games such as caesar you can't find anywhere so no I don't.

[rshaffer61]

oK so are these downloaded from p2p?