Universe gone mad!

[Andrew Boulton]

All these posts about Universe inspired me to have another play with it, but it doesn't want to play with me.

If I try to run it the computer tries to install something from "Microsoft Game Studios Common Redistributables Pack 1", which it fails to find, telling me "The feature you are trying to use is on a network resource that is unavailable", and suggests I look for rds1enu.msi in c:\program files\microsoft games\freelancer\. This doesn't exist, of course, because I've uninstalled Freelancer. This seems to have killed Universe, too. Any suggestions?

 

[Ben W Bell]

Completely reinstall Universe, that should hopefully fix it. Sounds like Freelancer was using a DLL that had the same name as one of Universe's DLLs. Have you ever run Universe since Freelancer was first installed?

 

[Hemdian]

I've never even heard of this "Microsoft Game Studios Common Redistributables Pack 1". As Ben says, a complete reinstall of Universe might do the trick.

However, if a DLL (or other component) has been changed a reinstall may not fix the problem (Windows should keep the newest version of each component). If the problem persists (and you are feeling inclined) you could download the Version Description Document for Universe 1.5 (a Word2000 document), scroll down to the Configuration Index (Section 5), and manually check the versions of the installed 3rd party components ... there are 19 of them (8 DLLs, 8 OCXs, and 3 TLBs) There is also MDAC_TYPE.EXE (which is a mini install in its own right, so who knows what's in there). If any of them are different we can then look at how to proceed.

I know that all sounded horribly techie, so please don't try this if you don't feel comfortable looking up component version numbers. Regardless, please let me know how you get on in case anyone else encounters this problem.

Regards PLST

 

[Andrew Boulton]

Well, reinstalling Universe helped a bit. I still get all the MS bollocks when I try to launch it, *but* when I cancel them the program does actually run.

 

[Hemdian]

I'm still looking but so far the only reference to this I've found was on the PlanetMars web based forum 6 months ago. It seems someone else had this problem (manifesting in other programs like Office).

Opinions were divided: some thought it was a virus (but I haven't been able to confirm that), some thought reinstalling Windows XP over the top of the existing installation would fix the problem, and one person came up with the following:

Originally posted by Klemmax (on PlanetMars):
This behaviour is part of the "intelligent" windows installer behaviour, it is trying to fix a broken (or recognized as broken) installation of any ⌧@#g msi compliant product.

Hit ok when it asks for "rds1enu.msi" (it looks like a MS Game redistributable pack1) and look carefully to the required package path, serch for it in your registry and you get the name of the package in your windows installer cache (usually under %windowsdir%\Installer).

Now run the msi and it will fix your system.

In other words, if you still have the offending MSI file somewhere on your system (or on a CD for that matter) if you reinstall it once the problem goes away.

Does that help?

Regards PLST

 

[Ben W Bell]

Hmm. I received Universe there this morning and have installed it. I had problems installing it. First time it didn't want to set everything up. Upon reinstall it worked but I had to go into the registry and change the locations of the databases as it had appended a 1 to the end of them in the registry.

Now whenever I close some windows I get errors and the program just crashes. Using my VS.Net debugger it tells me it is performing an unhandled dividing by zero and thus crashing. Have you come across this?

 

[Hemdian]

Originally posted by Ben W Bell:
Hmm. I received Universe there this morning and have installed it. I had problems installing it. First time it didn't want to set everything up. Upon reinstall it worked but I had to go into the registry and change the locations of the databases as it had appended a 1 to the end of them in the registry.

That doesn't sound very good. Can you be more specific about the events and errors encountered on the first install attempt?

My first thought is that it sounds like either InterBase (or the ODBC driver) wasn't installed, or it was installed but not automatically 'started'. Thus the subsequent attempt to 'restore' the sample database from the supplied backup saveset would have failed ... yet an entry in the Registry (and a DSN entry) would still have been created. Each time you rerun the installer it will add/increment a counter to the end of the database entry in the Registry. If this is what happened then, once InterBase had been started you can use TUmanager to add and remove databases and their matching entries in the Registry without having to muck about in the RegEdit.

In any case, you may find you have orphaned DSN enties in Control Panel --> Data Sources.

Now whenever I close some windows I get errors and the program just crashes. Using my VS.Net debugger it tells me it is performing an unhandled dividing by zero and thus crashing. Have you come across this?

This sounds like a known problem. Are you running on a Windows 2000 or Windows XP machine? If so take the File --> Preferences menu option from the top window and ensure the 'Windows 2000/XP fix' is checked. Also, if you have Windows XP, did you read the supplied notes on System Restore, etc?


Regards PLST

 

[Ben W Bell]

I think on the first install it is what you said. InterBase probably didn't launch properly but it had the registry entries for the databases. It may not have helped that I chose a different install path to the standard one. Still that is sorted now and hopefully it will work.

Point 2. Doh! I did read about the Win XP fix thing, but didn't realise this was the problem it pertained to. All working now.

As for the restore thing, it's just going to have to be restored. I'm a programmer myself and that feature is just too handy to not use.

 

[Hemdian]

Originally posted by Ben W Bell:
I think on the first install it is what you said. InterBase probably didn't launch properly but it had the registry entries for the databases. It may not have helped that I chose a different install path to the standard one. Still that is sorted now and hopefully it will work.

Hmmm ... I will re-examine the installation process prior to Universe 2 being published. I have used different drive letters without issue but perhaps different directories cause some problem.

Point 2. Doh! I did read about the Win XP fix thing, but didn't realise this was the problem it pertained to. All working now.

Ah, good.

As for the restore thing, it's just going to have to be restored. I'm a programmer myself and that feature is just too handy to not use.

I think its a terrific feature, and not just for programmers. Okay, you may experience performance issues: specifically a slight delay when you start Universe (caused by the application GDB file and the security GDB file being 'backed up'). Hopefully this wont be too bad. At some point in the near future there should be a MSSQL alternative which wont have this problem (and can be used with MSDE2000 which is redistributable).

Regards PLST