Can not start game without disk in drive

... but the manual tells me i don't need to have it in there

from Sins Forums

OK i have a series of issues / questions (i will post separately as i go):

IF i don't have the disk in the drive when i start the game all i get is a blank screen and a lot of hard drive activity. But after 3-5 minutes i still have nothing on my screen. When i Alt+Tab out, and go back i get an error from a Visual C++ Runtime, telling me that the Runtime requested the program terminate in an unusual way. I don't seem to have any ability to interact with the full screen game, other than press enter and the whole thing terminates.

IF i insert the dvd and use the autorun feature (instead of the shortcut from the games menu in the startup menu) it takes about 40 seconds (again a lot of disk activity) but the game starts.

There is a difference (besides the nothing happening) when starting from the shortcut on my desktop, with OR without disk in drive: i hear some sound which sounds to me like an error message (it's a windows sound)

My system is:

Core2Duo 2.4 GHz; 4GB RAM; sufficient HDD space, Pioneer DVD drive, running Vista Home Premium 64bit with all the latest updates (though not the service pack? AFAIK... i never got an option to install it), Nvidia 9600GT with the latest driver (174.74)

I'm rather new to Vista, i rarely use Windows, i'm a Mac / Linux weenie, this is running on a desktop system, not a mac (just in case).

 

 

technical
2,263 views 5 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top
Are you sure you went through the install and it successfully completed? There's no way after a proper install that the game will want the DVD in the drive.

-HM
Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top
Uninstall, and install from Stardock Central.

Use the DVD to hold drinks or something! LOL
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top
PS i disabled UAC, made no difference. Going with the re-install option (hoping that will sort out the lack of scenarios vs the number indicated in the manual).

AND no, there were no errors during the install but the DVD drive was making odd sounds ...? There are no significant scratches on the disk, two or three faint ones (i'm guessing the disk came of the holder in shipping. No grand canyons :)
Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top
OK, re-installed of the disk:
1) faster install
2) starts quickly
3) as soon as i update to the current version it fails to run with no disk in the drive

is there something dodgy about the 1.04.022 as well as 1.04 patch?