Despite the Windows 7 and games thread above, which states that Frogwares games are Win7 compatible, I'm 0 for 2. Never got Sherlock Holmes Awakening to work and can't get Dracula Origin to work either. Hopefully someday I'll be able to get my WinXP up and running again. I miss it horribly!

That's not necessarily anything to do with Win 7. It could be down to hardware/software/drivers. Both those games ran on Win 7 (and Vista) for me. Having said that I'm running 32bit Windows, I would imagine 64bit would have a lower compatability rate. Is that what you have?

According to the Windows 7 and Games thread,

Have you tried using the patch?
http://www.gamershell.com/download_18590.shtml

You could also be having this problem, depending on what error you're getting when you start
http://mail.frogwares.com/support/kb_article.php?ref=6755-JKCV-7391


The problem with Dracula Origin may be due to PhysX incompatibility
http://mail.frogwares.com/support/kb_article.php?ref=9758-YUGZ-2061

There is a patch for Sherlock Holmes : Awakening , for playing on Vista , that would likely work on Win 7 . I played Awakening on Vista Ultimate x64 back in the day when I did use it , applied said patch , no issues . Follow Jenny100's link for getting the patch . As for Dracula : Origin . I played it on Vista , but I'm a bit fuzzy on what tweak(s) I made , if any .

Jenny100 , I clicked on the link you listed for the patch , and eventually got an error that "The authentication key you used was not valid" when I clicked the download link itself . Maybe it's just me ? I found another link from Shack News , Only quibble , I had to wait 30 seconds to download .

Dracula Origin ran perfectly for me on 64-bit Windows 7. It was the original disk version.

The only issue I ran into with Sherlock Holmes the Awakened was that it refused to start after I updated my PhysX drivers. Reinstalling those distributed with the game resolved it.

The gamershell link for the patch is the same one they direct you to on the Frogwares website. I had no problem downloading the patch.
http://mail.frogwares.com/support/kb_article.php?ref=5576-WUKZ-4470

I just clicked on the red Download button on the gamershell webpage and then on where it said "Your download is ready, click here to begin" after it appeared on the next webpage. I don't know why it didn't work for you.

But as long as the patch is the same, it shouldn't matter.

I'm fairly sure that with both of them it has to do with the PhysX drivers. I uninstalled both of the games (SH was some time ago and I was able to play it in XP although not so good in there either) and shut down my computer last night. When I brought it up today it still had a pop up saying something about blocked driver due to incompatability.

I also had this error with Dracula Origin: program can't start because NxCooking.dll is missing from your computer.

When I go into programs and click on AGEIA, it lists a bunch of installed engines but says that I have "No AGEIA PhysX Processor Installed". Not sure what that means.

Didn't look yet at the above links. Will do so now but don't know if I'm going to spend a lot of time and effor with this because this stuff is just too above my head these days.

Trouble is I have three more Sherlock Holmes games I haven't play that probably won't work either.

Thanks for all of the input though.

If the problem is with PhysX, you need to reinstall PhysX. If it doesn't show up as installed, you may need to use a registry cleaner before installing (like the registry cleaner in Ccleaner).

The game should have installed the version of PhysX that it needed, but it won't if you have a newer version of PhysX installed. Unfortunately PhysX is not 100% backward compatible to earlier versions.

I don't know if I have any PhysX installed at all or if the game installed any at all.
I am not comfortable with CCleaner because there are so many things checked and I don't know if I should leave them checked when I run it or not and I don't know what most of them are in order to check or uncheck them.

Does a computer automatically come with PhysX installed? If not, and the games didn't install, then I don't have it.

oldbroad, you can be comfortable with running CCleaner... just leave everything checked and clean it up.

But is it going to remove everything that is checked? I'm pretty sure I don't want that.

Yes - and actually that's exactly what you do want. Now, if you're running it on programs and you want CCleaner to leave some of your cookies alone, you can do that by going into Options and then Cookies. Move any that you want to keep over to the right side. Gameboomers would be a good example of one you want to CCleaner to leave. Otherwise nuke everything - it's just junk that accumulates on your computer over time.

I always run it on the registry after I uninstall something too - and I let it remove everything that is checked.

If you're having problems uninstalling or reinstalling something, the most important thing to run in Ccleaner is the Registry cleaner.
Highlight the second selection down on the left of the Ccleaner window, then click the button for "Scan for Issues." Then Fix all issues. Repeat the process until there are no more issues to fix.

Here's a pictorial guide
http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/tour/registry-cleaner

This driver incompatibility bubble that keeps coming up now every time I boot my system is about Tages. Is that from the Dracula CD?

My program compatibility assistant checked for solutions online and brought me to
www.tagesprotection.com/main.htm.

What am I supposed to do now or shouldn't I even do this?

Thank you.

Yes, the Dracula Origin disc uses TAGES.
You may need to update your version of TAGES to work with Windows 7.

Start at http://www.tagesprotection.com/main.htm

Click on "Drivers" in their weird-looking menu near the top of the page.

Then click on the link for the 64-bit drivers (I'm assuming you have 64-bit Windows 7)

Or try downloading directly from here
http://www.tagesprotection.com/5.5/TagesSetup_x64.exe

Once downloaded, you can run the TagesSetup_x64.exe file to install it. You may have to right-click it and choose "Run As Administrator" or it may just prompt you for a password.

Thank you Jenny100. I didn't have to install it; I just "ran" it. I reinstalled Dracula Origin and it seems to be working now. I went through the intro but didn't really play. Need to get up early tomorrow and I've since got involved in a different game so this one will have to wait now.

The default in set up for this game is 1920x1080. This is a square in the middle of my wide screen. Can I change the size and what would I change it to? I don't know how screen resolution works - never changed it. (Big surprise right?)

With regard to the Ccleaner. Just about every box is checked. Does it actually remove that stuff or is it just cleaning stuff up inside of those checked items? For instance a few of the checked items are recent documents, adobe reader, office 10. I don't want those items removed. If I run Ccleaner and those items are checked, will they be removed or just cleaned up somehow but still installed in my system?

Running it installs the driver.


I don't remember if Dracula Origin allows you to change the resolution from the game menu. If it does, that would be the best way to change resolution.

This site shows how to change desktop resolution (scroll down to get to the Windows 7 instructions)
http://www.petri.co.il/quickly-change-screen-resolution-in-windows-7.htm



If you're running the registry cleaner part, it will remove any unused keys. If you look at a document, your registry will keep track of the fact that you looked at it. Ccleaner will remove the reference to your having looked at the document, but it won't remove the document itself. Of course maybe you want to keep the reference to recently viewed documents so it stays in a "Recent Documents" menu somewhere. If that's the case, you can uncheck the box in Ccleaner.

Sorry. What I meant is, what size would stretch the game out so it's not a square in the middle of my screen (but not distort it)? It defaults to 1920x1080 in the set up. It can be changed but I don't know what size to select. I have a 23" wide screen. There are 12 size options available starting with the 1920x1080 going down to 640x480.

I hadn't even looked at the registry cleaner part. Those items I mentioned are checked under the part that just says Cleaner on the Windows tab and the Applications tab. I'll try to figure it out better.

Thanks.

Check the picture here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vector_Video_Standards2.svg

It shows various resolutions, both widescreen and standard screen. If the game is only 1024x768, you'd need your screen to be as close to that as possible.

See how 1366x768 looks, if it's in your list of possible resolutions. 1920x1080 and 1366x768 both have an aspect ratio around 1.77.