Today is the day for gaming problems. I just finished posting about Rhiannon.

Anyway, after intalling all 3 CD's, I click on Play The Abbey. First, nothing happens for about 20 seconds. The the option screen comes up. I press ESC key. Instead of Play, Save, Load, etc., my screen goes blank (black). I can hear the music playing. I imagine its the background music that plays while waiting for the gamer to press PLAY. This continues on forever if I would let it. When I try to ESC this, it won't work. I have to reboot to get out it. I have installed, uninstalled 4 times. Each time the same thing.

When I go to uninstall it under Add/Remove Programs, it's not there. It's not in the registry either. I have to go to START, Program Files, Adventure Games/Uninstall Abbey. This tells me it doesn't completely install correctly. My goodness, I have never had a problem like this! LOL. Turned off Firewall. My virus scanner is done manually every few days. I don't have it running in background. Any ideas?

WinXP SP 3
Intel 3.00 GHZ
2.00 GHZ RAM
nVidia G Force 7100 GS video card and drivers

My husband installed it on his computer with firewall, etc. and it installed and played just fine. It was listed under Add/Remove programs as it should.

I'm not sure if it will help, but have you tried installing it to your user's My Documents folder instead of to Program Files?

I'd have to check whether this game puts its uninstaller in Add/Remove. Most games do, but not all.

Did the game offer to install DirectX 9.0c while you were installing it? If it did, did you allow it to?

Hi Jenny
The game is supposed to be in the Add/Remove programs as it was in my husband's computer. I tried installing using the DirectXD and tried NOT allowing the DirectX. Nothing changed

I'll try the My Documents folder instead of program files. Thanks!

**update** Jenny, tried installing the My Documents...same problem. This is just too weird. Well, I've spent nearly all day on computer problems. I am done for tonight.

Thanks for help everyone. I am exhausted.

If you have a restore point that was taken prior to the install, use it. It will remove any entries that the game added to your registry (I'm betting there are some). Once that's done you'll have to manually delete the Program Menu shortcuts as well as the install directory(s). You can try to reinstall it again after that.

Were you logged in as an administrator when you tried to install the game?

You'll find system restore under All Programs, Accessories, System Tools.



Can you post the content of your DXDiag - or email it to us?

It certainly is weird. Even if there were a problem with your video card, that shouldn't prevent the game from showing up in your Add/Remove Programs.

Does your husband's computer also have XP SP3?

Yes, it does.

Inland, I will do that tomorrow. Earlier on I look for "abbey" in the registry and found no entries at all. I will look again tomorrow. Yes, I'm administrator. Will do a restore just to make sure and post back tomorrow

I will also post DXDiag also.

Ok, Inland, I have everything possible out of my computer for "abbey". Even the registry I was able to clear out.

Ok, tell me how to email my DXDIAG log to you? In the meantime, I am going to try installing Abbey again. If it still doesn't work, I will give up for today. Thanksgiving is here! LOL

Check Inferno's DXDIAG tutorial here
http://home.earthlink.net/~eddie1231/general_drill.htm#DXDIAG

It has pictures of DXDIAG.
You see the "Save All Information" button at the bottom of the General tab of DXDIAG? Clicking that button should produce a text file that you can copy to your Desktop or somewhere else where you can find it. Then you can open the file with Notepad, copy the contents, and paste them into an email or forum message.

Click my member name, View Profile, it will be listed there. Or... just cut and past into a reply.

Thank you, Jenny! I got it and sent to InlandAZ per request
****forgot to mention: when I click on "Play the Abbey", before it seems to freeze, there's a split second "blip", if you will...a quick flash like the computer hiccups. I don't see anything, just something too fast for the eye to see. Then nothing happens for about 15 seconds, the option screen comes up. I press ESC key persumably to go to the PLAY, LOAD, etc., screen. The screen stay black while music play in background. Stays that way until I reboot to get out of it

I've had issues with the same set of drivers (178.13) that you're using. Try updating to 178.24 (I'm currently running them on a GF 7600 GT without issue).

If that fails to support the game, roll the drivers back to version 94.24, it's the one of the more rock solid set of drivers for the GF 6 & 7 series.

GeForce Release 178.24

ForceWare Release 94.24

Wow, Inland, you are good. Thanks for the links. I will check them out. I know I haven't updated the drivers for this software.

Thank you!
***ok, I have updated driver and I will try one more time to install Abbey today. I am not sure if I want to roll back driver to older version as I have no problem on this computer other than Abbey. I'll get back to you how it goes

Sorry Inland and Jenny, updating driver is nice but didn't help with this game. Still had the desktop freeze of about 15 seconds after a split nano second of a blip. After the freeze, went to Options (instead of Play Load, Save, etc. Pressed ESC to get out of options, black screen with intro music in the background.

Had to reboot to get out of there. ESC does not work in that case.ever LOL

Thank you so much for working on me. Just nothing seems to work. This is so surprising to me as I just don't have problems with games Hmmm......

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I am back with a problem. First, I never could properly install Abbey. My husband could on his machine. Herein lies another problem. He started the game just fine. He went to save a game....clicked on an empty box, it turned a greenish color. He waited and waited and waited. A saved "picture" did not appear in the box nor did it go back to the game.

He closed the game, went to LOAD, and of course, nothing to load ::sigh:: I am beginning to think this game has a lot of problems. Anyone else have this lovely thing happen to them?


Thanks!

I don't recall if he was running XP or Vista, but if it's the latter, you'll need to ensure that your save games are placed in a folder that you have write access to. Some games automatically detect this under Vista, others do not.

If the game installed to a sub directory under C:\Program Files and he’s running Vista, you’re probably going to have issues.

In general I install all games on Vista under my User Account directory:

C:\Users\UserName\GameFolder.

On the other hand, if he’s running XP, I’ve not seen any similar issues posted.

Yes, running XP. So far, this game is full of bad bugs. First, it won't properly install nor run. Now, he is unable to save games. I would return it, but it's been handled too much, etc. I was going to try another new one, but I think I will pass.

Thanks for your help, Inland, but I think it's of no use. I am now soured on this game anyway LOL

Did your hubby double click on the save spot ? Or try a different save box ?

Yes he did. Also tried several just to see what would happen. I have given up and put it on the shelve. I may get a another new one and try it. If that doesn't work, I will return that one and toss the first one. All other games work for both of us. Just this one won't and we've tried two computers. We definately exceed the minimum and recommended requirements.

The game played beautifully for hubby until he wanted to save. It's off his computer now and collecting dust on the game shelf LOL

Can I ask what your hubby's system specs are ?

Uh let's see:
WinXP IE 7,SP3
Video card: 9250 Radeon
2.5 G Ram
Pent IV

Do you have at least 64 mb's on your video card ?

We both do, definately. I believe at least 128

One more question. Do you have an onboard video card (soldered to the motherboard) or a seperate video card ?

Separate. We've always liked a separate video card. Any card we have always had and never given a problem. Like I mentioned before, I can play any game I have ever had...except Abbey LOL. I have no idea why. Perhaps I got some bad disks? That's the only reason I can come up as to why both of us have a problem...albeit different problems unique to either of us.

Thanks, Cathy!

That's sounding like the game doesn't have write access to where it's trying to save. Even if you have XP, Microsoft could have created an update that is causing trouble. (I'm assuming you have your antivirus, anti-spyware, software firewall, etc. closed when you play the game.) Did he install the game to the Program Files folder or to My Documents? And is he playing from an account with Administrator privileges?