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Patch Hell horror stories: Halo Combat Evolved (PC)
CZroe
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
PC games are a mess, and I'd like this thread to be for the current horror stories and your eventual solutions. Even obtaining the patch for many games is a chore due to the website just being an advertisement and the distributor / developer relationship sending you to two more places to hunt (one usually significantly in need of an update). To top it off, most don't even feel the need to host patches for download on their webspace FOR THEIR OWN PRODUCT. They'd rather send you through hoops to get it from websites that try to get you to pay for premium download services and crap. SUPPORT YOUR OWN PRODUCT.
My recent issue was with Halo: Combat Evolved for PC. Not exactly a "horror" story, but has anyone ever successfully autopatched Halo? I'm really looking for "horror" stories from you guys. Go ahead; shame the industry.
Even though I am fully patched, the error continues on Vista x64 and Microsoft's Halo support is still unaware of the issue. To top it all off, they continue to offer an autoupdate that simply doesn't work on XP Pro or Vista. It's clear that their autopatcher for all versions other than 1.5 needs a previous (and unavailable) version of itself to work. They should be ashamed. It's simply inexplicable to me why their autoupdate feature exists and refuses to work out of the box no matter what OS you are using. How do they catch an incompatibility with 1.5 and then BREAK it with all versions in their follow up and then NEVER detect that? Where else was PATCHW32.dll supposed to come from if not from one of the previous patches it is mean to skip?! I should not have to download it from an untrusted source and register it to run the autopatcher and even if I should, they should be aware of it (they weren't and still aren't due to tech support proceedure) in order to instruct you to do so. That's not even possible with Vista x64, so they should at least update their site to provide the 1.07 patch without the autoupdate.
So, does anyone have an OLD version of the Halo autoupdate so that I can use the new version?
[Edit: SOLVED.]
My recent issue was with Halo: Combat Evolved for PC. Not exactly a "horror" story, but has anyone ever successfully autopatched Halo? I'm really looking for "horror" stories from you guys. Go ahead; shame the industry.
I finally just decided to get it for $15 because I thought it would make a good test of 64-bit Vista gaming compatibility... being a flagship title of their own making which they should still care about lest customers laugh at their "Vista for Gaming" ethos.
Upon launching it, it reported in a dialog box that I did not have enough memory or virtual memory to run the game (4GB was reported as "0MB"). Yes, Vista 64 does memory differently to support 4GB, so that kind of issue was easy to expect/understand. Luckily, you can click "continue anyway" and there is a convenient "do not ask again" check box (not checked until I'm done testing).
The game works, but I wanted to see if they were aware of it and if one of the latest patches fixes it. I also wanted to see if I could get some anistropic filtering because that would make a huge improvement (looks like I'll have to force it in drivers if possible). The installation includes web-links that take me to a Halo site with information about the latest auto-update. "Hmm, I didn't see an auto-update feature" I thought. Sure enough, there was both an auto-update and a full patch for v1.05 users (due to an incompatability with the auto update). They mentioned that it was added in a previous version, but they did not specify which and did say that it should work with all previous versions. Finding my version to be 1.0, I downloaded the smaller autoupdate and it did not work.
haloupdate.exe - Unable To Locate Component
This application has failed to start because PATCHW32.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.
OK
OK, it's probably a 32bit DLL that Vista x64 doesn't have. Strangely, I couldn't find it on my XP machine. I downloaded it and tried to register it and was told that it is incompatible. Hmm... So I go to my XP machine and install the game to see if I get PATCHW32.dll and I did not. I find that the Microsoft Knowledge Base linked to from Halo's support pages and the downloads provided hasn't been updated since v1.04, despite the current version being 1.07. They likely rolled back to avoid that issue with v1.05, but it's no excuse for the only patch archive to be so far out of date. Not knowing which version may have added autoupdate support, I started with the lowest, v1.02, installed and unsuccessfully tried the 1.07 autoupdate again. I repeated this for the 1.03 and 1.04 patches, each time finding that the autoupdate still didn't work. I then had to go back to the Halo site to download the only other option: The update for 1.05 users to get 1.07. It worked, but the autoupdate STILL will not execute or install on either system.
I tried and discovered most of this while trying to see how MS handles these issues through telephone tech support. The number in the manual is no longer in use and you get another number. The technician on that line just gave me free Vista x64 OEM (!) support and connected me to another number, even though it turned out not to be a Vista x64 issue. As a result, the Halo support database is still completely unaware and the Vista support database doesn't have anything to add (it's a problem in both XP and Vista relating to the game not having/providing the files it needs).
Upon launching it, it reported in a dialog box that I did not have enough memory or virtual memory to run the game (4GB was reported as "0MB"). Yes, Vista 64 does memory differently to support 4GB, so that kind of issue was easy to expect/understand. Luckily, you can click "continue anyway" and there is a convenient "do not ask again" check box (not checked until I'm done testing).
The game works, but I wanted to see if they were aware of it and if one of the latest patches fixes it. I also wanted to see if I could get some anistropic filtering because that would make a huge improvement (looks like I'll have to force it in drivers if possible). The installation includes web-links that take me to a Halo site with information about the latest auto-update. "Hmm, I didn't see an auto-update feature" I thought. Sure enough, there was both an auto-update and a full patch for v1.05 users (due to an incompatability with the auto update). They mentioned that it was added in a previous version, but they did not specify which and did say that it should work with all previous versions. Finding my version to be 1.0, I downloaded the smaller autoupdate and it did not work.
haloupdate.exe - Unable To Locate Component
This application has failed to start because PATCHW32.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem.
OK
OK, it's probably a 32bit DLL that Vista x64 doesn't have. Strangely, I couldn't find it on my XP machine. I downloaded it and tried to register it and was told that it is incompatible. Hmm... So I go to my XP machine and install the game to see if I get PATCHW32.dll and I did not. I find that the Microsoft Knowledge Base linked to from Halo's support pages and the downloads provided hasn't been updated since v1.04, despite the current version being 1.07. They likely rolled back to avoid that issue with v1.05, but it's no excuse for the only patch archive to be so far out of date. Not knowing which version may have added autoupdate support, I started with the lowest, v1.02, installed and unsuccessfully tried the 1.07 autoupdate again. I repeated this for the 1.03 and 1.04 patches, each time finding that the autoupdate still didn't work. I then had to go back to the Halo site to download the only other option: The update for 1.05 users to get 1.07. It worked, but the autoupdate STILL will not execute or install on either system.
I tried and discovered most of this while trying to see how MS handles these issues through telephone tech support. The number in the manual is no longer in use and you get another number. The technician on that line just gave me free Vista x64 OEM (!) support and connected me to another number, even though it turned out not to be a Vista x64 issue. As a result, the Halo support database is still completely unaware and the Vista support database doesn't have anything to add (it's a problem in both XP and Vista relating to the game not having/providing the files it needs).
Even though I am fully patched, the error continues on Vista x64 and Microsoft's Halo support is still unaware of the issue. To top it all off, they continue to offer an autoupdate that simply doesn't work on XP Pro or Vista. It's clear that their autopatcher for all versions other than 1.5 needs a previous (and unavailable) version of itself to work. They should be ashamed. It's simply inexplicable to me why their autoupdate feature exists and refuses to work out of the box no matter what OS you are using. How do they catch an incompatibility with 1.5 and then BREAK it with all versions in their follow up and then NEVER detect that? Where else was PATCHW32.dll supposed to come from if not from one of the previous patches it is mean to skip?! I should not have to download it from an untrusted source and register it to run the autopatcher and even if I should, they should be aware of it (they weren't and still aren't due to tech support proceedure) in order to instruct you to do so. That's not even possible with Vista x64, so they should at least update their site to provide the 1.07 patch without the autoupdate.
So, does anyone have an OLD version of the Halo autoupdate so that I can use the new version?
[Edit: SOLVED.]
CZroe on
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Basically, you needed the patch, or else removing the game would wipe your C: drive.
I seem to remember Pool of Radience would do the same.
Only if you had it installed to the root of C:
And honestly, if you do that, you deserve to be clusterfucked.
You have to install each successive version one at a time. There are something like 10 different versions out now. One or two of them can be skipped, but you can't find out which until you've installed them and read the readme.
As a question, did they release a patch for Dark Messiah that makes the game, you know, not fucking suck? I'm not talking about gameplay, either; I have never actually got past the first training level of the game since the game likes hard crashing every single time. Across three different operating systems, mind you.
mine's running about 6.77 GB
Unfortunately, no. There was another patch scheduled to be released, bu then Arkane stopped all development on Dark Messiah, and switched over to Dark Messiah: Elements, the 360 port of the game.
As for the crashing, try turning your graphics down. Pretty much every setting. For whatever reason, nearly all crash bugs with the game seem to stem from the game trying to use the decent textures and stuff, irrelevant of how good your pc is, or how well it runs the game, the high quality stuff crashes it.
If that doesnt work (Medium everything finally let me finish the game) then there are a ton of other fixes posted on the games forums, absolutely none of which would do pretty much anything at all to help in my opinion, but your mileage may vary.
Now, why call it "autoupdate" without making it automatically check for updates or at least give you a way to run it in-game? For Christ's sake, there's not even a God damn shortcut on the Start Menu! Then the website acts like the full patch download is only for those v1.05 users that can't autoupdate and it then provides the autoupdate.exe right after saying that v1.05 users can't autoupdate and should download the hotfix instead... Dur dur dur, so of course I'm going to assume that the autoupdate will download the latest patch is for everyone else when executed. It turns out that BOTH patches were for the v1.05 users and that, being a v1.00 user, I was expected to run the autoupdate that was already in my Program Files Halo install directory. Why would I go hunting there for a patch that I never downloaded and that was never even hinted at by the Start Menu, website, manual, etc? Why should I be forced to poke around in a non-user directory as the only way to launch the update checker? How could I expect to find something like that in a folder that I shouldn't be required to poke around in? Isn't finding and executing it that way very "manual" and not "automatic" at all? Just because I ran a program to download it is no different than using an FTP or a web browser but the obsfucation makes it FAR from "automatic."
To further complicate things, while on the phone with Vista support, we searched for PATCHW32.dll after making sure that hidden system files, protected operating system files, and just plain hidden files and folders were visible and found nothing. It was right there in the Halo Program Files directory. If the search had found it, the solution would have been obvious. God damn Vista search function hand-holding users... "Nah, users don't want to search system files. They couldn't possibly be looking for something in Program Files. Let's just search My Documents and the Desktop even though they specifically chose to search the entire computer. We can assume that they didn't mean Program Files because they're just ignorant little users." I discovered it when I saw some user reporting in comments for an alternate download of autoupdate.exe (found using google) that the autoupdate must be run from the Halo CE folder (incorrect; user assuming that all users are playing multiplayer mods). I didn't have CE installed, and I started to wonder if I should when I discovered it in the normal Halo directory in Program Files. Either way, it is clear that all the users commenting on that file download didn't know that they already had it (stupid Microsoft/Bungie/Gearbox Software).
So yeah... there's a note going into my Halo box to warn me in the future when I forget this (or any future owner I might sell it to). WHAT THE FUCK?! I expected a Vista 64 problem, not just plain undocumented file/location incompetence.
IIRC doesn't Halo autoupdate if you try to look for a multiplayer game?
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BlindProphet
Well, if it's anything like DOW, it's because it has to unzip all the program files, add the new patch files, and then rezip everything back up again. It's the reason why requires something like 4 GB of free space to even start the patching.
What I hate is when you need a patch just to install the game, like Lego Star Wars: The Original Trilogy. And if that doesn't work then you're suppose to go in and manually edit the installer.
http://steamcommunity.com/id/BlindProphet
I wouldn't know... I still had single player to complete like any other sane person who just bought it. If that's the case, it's still a failure in program design and usability. It launched it's own window when I ran it and I can't imagine that it is something it would minimize the game to show, so it must pass an argument to it. That said, if the screen was ever meant to be seen, then they designed it with an aspect for users launching it outside the game and for that to happen there should have been a Start Menu shortcut.
It makes me mad.
My friend and I uninstalled (due to bad mod) and reinstalled DOW, WA and DC (and Lights of the warp) in about 15 minutes.
I should post a screenie when I get home of my big ass "games" drive.
Raven Shield and its expansion were like that
I have to wait like 5 minutes before it does anything, it's like it's sneaking around and then decides to ninja patch.
Seriously - they never update the clients, and then you have to download patches for 30 fucking hours straight. After that is complete, as they are decompressing it all, you're bound to get some asian gibberish that essentially tells you "You file bad is game! Do over please again!."
The same can be said for WoW for a while there. A full re-install of the game + expansion + patches can be a nightmare when they are busy. And it still takes forever.
Actually, that's precisely why I chose to test it. It was a Microsoft product that is still supported and I wanted to see how they handled it. I laughed hard during the Vista Beta when it added Unreal to the games control panel thingie (still familiarizing myself with the terminology). Why bother recognizing and jumping through hoops for a game that you know doesn't work and is unsupported? Of course, then Unreal Anthology came out, so perhaps it does now.
Unpatched, the game's single player does not run. A patch was then released to fix this issue, which broke the multiplayer.
I am completely serious.
To this very day I can not play Single Player. I have tried every forum, every trick, every patch/fix/hack/etc. I can NOT get Single Player to run correctly. It's an OpenGL issue and it just fucks up all the 3D with glitchy flashing and replaces some of the textures wrong. My main character has a fucking 3D island attached to his head for fucks sake.
Multiplayer runs fantastic though, and a good Jedi Battle is a great way to start the morning. I look forward to that new Jedi they are making. It looks fantastic.
I was especially fond of the patch that broke the master server list for a good 6 months or so, making an essentially multi-player only game nigh unplayable.
I have no idea how they failed that game so hard...
I got to play the tutorials, but when it came to play online I had to install a patch. To this day, no matter what computer I use or what method of installation/patching I could NEVER get it to work. I paid $50? for that game and only got to play the tutorials for an hour or so before I was never able to run the game again. To rub salt in the wounds I lost my account info and they don't provide a way to retrieve it, even though I have the CD key.
That RTP patch system is so ridiculous. It takes forever to do the simplest operations and rarely works (especially on Tribes 2), but in general RTP patch is problematic no matter what game is being patched. I hate RTP patch so much.
SC2 NA: exoplasm.519 | PA SC2 Mumble Server | My Website | My Stream
That's my patch directory.
Subtract maybe a couple/three gigs for mods & demos, the rest are patches for those series of games.
Jesus fucking christ i wanted to throw my computer out the window when I got this game. I spent a large portion of an entire week trying to get this game to work. Every fucking trick and method of installing patching and sucking driver cock. Fuck. Jesus fuck. I even tried on my friend's computer, and it crashed as soon as it loaded up. I still have the disc, just to remind me of the pure hatred I harbor for the programmers.
no way, I have directories for pretty much all those games and more and I only come to 6GB or so. you must have a lot of other stuff in there or redundant patches or something
But still, minus that - and by the looks of it - 6GB of mods at a quick add up, I'm still left with 10+ GB of patching (keeping in mind each of those folders contains a series of games (BF folder has patches for 1942, Vietnam & BF2 for instance. But damn you still have more games than me :O ).
Why? A selected few points:
- Can't just download them the usual way, but have to use the updater.
- If the connection to the server drops at any time during the (100MB+) downloads, it starts all over again...from the beginning!
- If the patching process fails at some file, it deletes the downloaded update and forces you to start all over again instead of re-trying.
- You can't select your download server manually, so no matter your connection speed it may in some cases connect you to a slow-ass server even if there are better ones available.
Overall, I hate it.
For example, when Armoured Fury came out for BF2 (by EA Downloader only) I was able to go in to Program Files and copy the cached download from there. When I formatted, I was able to reinstall from that - just like a patch independent of the download service.
Steam files can be backed up too (actually has an option, woo!). I'd imagine you should be able to with NWN as well...?
Keeping important things, especially in large volume on the C drive is a bad idea if you ask me.
And no one did, so I will shut up now.
If you have to do an emergency reformat/installation, you gotta sift through and back all that up. which is a pain in the ass if Windows isn't starting. I don't have a single thing worth backing up on C, so if Windows fails in such a way that I have to reformat, I'll just throw the disc in and do it, as all docs, emails, patches, drivers, profiles, whatever, are on a different drive (or at least partition).
Plus Windows runs nicer on a cleaner drive.
but I think what you and him meant was "dont keep a single copy of anything important"
to which I would say "jeez I would hope everyone knows that"
and also "everything on C is backed up to E (internal) and also H (external)" so it's not a concern for me
windows won't run any faster if the partition it's on is more empty.
conversely, putting applications on other partitions would cause them to boot up slower if anything.
lastly, C is 2 150GB Raptors in RAID 0
Actually yes it will. See, there's this bug with Windows versions up to at least XP where if you have less than 2 GB free (I think that was the number) it will start slowing down quite a bit. Also, even if it shouldn't be noticeable in most cases, data does not get read at the same speed over the entire plate so certain parts of the OS or your applications will always slow done ever so slightly when the drive starts to fill up.
yes, don't fill up your windows partition past 9X%