I cannot install Black Mirror, I have googled the problem (agds.exe) and seen that other poeple have the same problem, I have tried downloading an older driver but no help. I have windows XP-2 and NVIDIA drivers, which I updated recently. any ideas?

What specific error message do you receive when you try to install the game?

It sounds like ***this error***. The problem was never solved, but you might try

1. using older drivers
2. Installing the game into the user's My Documents folder instead of into Program Files
3. Installing and playing from an account with Administrator Privileges (if you are the only user and only made one account, you are already the Administrator in XP)

Aren't computers wonderful?! Jenny100 that thread reads like people thrashing around without doing appropriate testing. I have just installed The Black Mirror on a WinXP SP2 nVidia system using 175.16 drivers. There have been no problems of any kind.

The game installs a config.exe file which when run offers choices of
Game 800x600x32 or 800x600x16
Cut scenes 800x600x32 YUV or 600x480x32 YUV or
800x600x32 RGB or 600x480x16 RGB
The defaults for me were 800x600x32game 800x600x32 YUV cut and they work.

Whether the video configuration is the heart of the problem is hard to say. I can't run tests as I'm not having any problems.

There's another thread on Adventure Gamers about this same error message, along with possible solutions that worked for some, one of which was to rename some file(s) in the game after installation. It's a lot of muck to wade through, but here is the thread:

BLACK MIRROR ERROR MESSAGE

In particular, look at the post on this page from fov regarding renaming files (the last one on this page).

I just installed it on a system running Vista. I installed it under my documents but when I try to start the game, it tells me I have to be an administrator to run protected files. Any ideas?

Tells you, or asks you... IIRC it should the latter.

Try to right click the shortcut and select Run as Administrator.

Thankyou for all your comments, but I can't even start to install it, when I put the disc in I immediately get the message 'agds.exe has encountered a problem' and it takes me out again, I have asked many people but no answer so far, just thought some one may be able to help, I am sure it is my drivers but then I am stuck.

Hold down the Shift button to disable autorun when you put the disc in the drive. Then start the Setup (Install) manually by browsing to the CD contents and using the right-click/Run as Admin on the Setup file.

To me this sort of implies that the game is already installed. Otherwise, inserting the disc should launch the setup program. It's been a while since I played the game however, so I could be wrong.

Have you checked to see if there is an uninstall entry in Add Remove Programs, or a Program Group on the Start menu?

Also, because you're running XP, the Run as Administrator option will only be of use if the current account does not have administrator privileges.

Thank you InlandAZ, I checked add/remove and yes it is installed, although when it did that, I have no idea since it never took any time before the error message came up. I tried right clicking to use Run as adminstrator but no luck. Again I'm out of ideas - do you have any more?

Only the one that Marian pointed you too (Fov's post at Adventure Gamers). Did you try renaming the file as she suggested?

Monbron, you are not responding to all suggestions so it is impossible to tell exactly what you have tried. Some of the suggestions are very important and perhaps solve your problem, but at least will enable obtaining more information about your problem.

The first thing you should do is immediately try to uninstall the game. That's so you can start from a clean slate. If the game will not uninstall even though it is in the uninstall list, at least delete the directory in which the game or parts of it were installed.

Second be sure to disable the CD auto-run feature or at least follow the suggestion to temporarily disable auto-run while inserting the game CD.

Now that the game CD is in the drive and there was no auto-run, can you read the CD with Windows Explorer? If you can see all the files, report exactly what happens, step by step, when you double click on setup.exe.

Please indicate what video hardware is in use and the specific nVidia driver. Indicate what screen resolution is active while attempting to install/run the game.

Without a step by step troubleshooting approach to your problem, you will not solve it. How badly do you want to play this game?

Robert, thank you for your comments, I have tried to comply, I have uninstalled, and then re installed whilst disabling autorun, I ran it in explore and double clicked set up (no setup.exe) same problems, my nVidia driver is Geforce 6200 turbocache, driver 178.13, I don't know how to determine screen resolution whilst installing but normal screen resolution is 1024 by 768. Any further help would be so much appreciated.

By default Windows does not show common extensions like .exe .com .bat and so on. If you want it to show extensions you have to configure it to do so. Here are some instructions for doing this in XP
http://www.fileinfo.net/help/windows-show-extensions.html


It should tell you your screen resolution on the Display tab of DXDIAG, where it says
Current Display Mode:

Black Mirror uses 800x600 resolution.

Robert you gave me hope with you comments I tied to comply with all you comments, didn't always succeed but you didn't come back to me with any other comments. Any more help 'cos I would like to play Black Mirror

Monbron,

Sorry but I've been busy.

If your nVidia driver was correctly installed, there should be an nVidia icon in your systray. That's the box lower right side of the screen when you bring your mouse to the bottom of the screen. Click on the nVidia icon and a panel will open permitting adjustment of the video driver.
The game runs in 800x600 so you could try changing resolution before starting the game. That is not necessary on my system but you can try it.

This has been stated over and over in this forum but you can't leave anything ambiguous or up to the imagination of the readers.
What do you mean by "ran it" and "same problems"?

Do you mean that installation exited with an error? Do you mean the game installed but could not be started? If the game did install, did you try to run Config.exe from the installed game directory?

It is absolutely essential that we know exactly (not vaguely) what you have done and what happened. That is the only way to troubleshoot a problem. Knowing the exact sequence of events with results permits eliminating most possibilities so you can concentrate on the critical factors. As yet we don't have enough information from you to do this.
Yes one could do a Google search to see what others have done with this game. You might get lucky. However, just because something worked on one system does not mean it will work on all systems.

Thank you Robert for replying, I tried changing the nVidia to 800x600, same message - 'agds.exe error' when I click on set up -same message, in fact everything I try gives this same message, whatever it means, I'm not sure how to run config.exe from the installed game directory, I went into My Documents but Black Mirror does not show and it does not show if I explore the 'D' directory, so what would you suggest I try next?? I do appreciate your time and trouble - grovel, grovel

It looks like the game never gets installed based on what you report. It depends on whether the agds.exe error occurs immediately when you double click Setup or whether it is at the end of the setup process.

When you double click on Setup in the CD, do you at least get the panel displaying "Welcome to the The Black Mirror Setup Wizard"? If you see that and click next, do you see the Dreamcatcher license agreement? If you get that far and agree, the next panel will select the destination directory. The default seems to be on drive C:.
If you got this far, then you know where the game was installed. If you repeat this process, you should see the directory you chose.

The next step selects a Start Menu Folder with the default being "The Adventure Company\The Black Mirror". Then you get asked whether to create a desktop shortcut. The last step prior to actual installation is the Ready to Install panel. Have you gotten this far?

When you then click on the Install button you should see the file extraction process. You would see gfx1.grp - gfx6.grp being moved into your game directory. You might get a read error during this process. Did that happen to you?
Unpacking the grp files takes about 99.99% of the installation time. The remaining files takes a few seconds to transfer and you then see the readme file which you can scroll.
Click next and you get Completing the The Black Mirror Setup Wizard panel. Click on setup and the process is complete.
At no time during this process will you get an agds.exe error because that program is not run.

==================
If you got this far, you will have a directory on your hard drive which has the game files including agds.cfg, agds.exe, and config.exe.
Let's at least establish that you have gotten this far! Your messages including your last one say that you don't know where the game is on your hard drive or even if it got installed.
If you can now find the game directory, double click on config.exe and report what happens.

Hi Robert, sorry for the delay, my partner is in hospital (heart -serious) so I haven't been concentrating on my games...
I uninstalled Black Mirror and resinstalled, yes everything happened as you said and I got the grp files and no read error message. However I am not sure about the directory on my hard drive, I do have it in my listings with the normal play, read me, uninstall etc., and I have gone into My Computer and looked for it but it is not obvious - where should be looking? Oh and in answer to your first paragraph I get the error message when I press play.

Monbron,
Best wishes for the speedy recovery of your partner.

OK, it is looking more and more like a problem with Starforce rather than the game. However, I still would like to get the results (when you find where the game installed) of double clicking on both config.exe and adgs.exe.
If the error only occurs when double clicking on adgs.exe, then the problem almost certainly is with the Starforce protection scheme. In that case, you should go to the Starforce site, get the removal tool, and run it to completely remove Starforce from your computer.

With Starforce completely removed, try reinstalling the game and running it. If you get the same error, then there is some hardware/software configuration on your computer that is not compatible with Starforce.
At this point in the troubleshooting process, the bug has been isolated to one area, copy protection. Now we can search the Internet for any information on Starforce problems and how to deal with them.

Thank you once again Robert, would you have any hints as to where else I can look for the programme on my hard drive??

Monbron,
Jenny just told you, assuming the game has been added to your Start Menu, right clicking on the game icon and selecting Properties will show you where the directory is located. The same can be said if an icon was added to your Desktop.

If the above is not the case, you are just going to have to use Windows Explorer to find the game directory. Use the Search function.

Now if you are referring to the Starforce programs, you need to go to http://www.star-force.com/support/drivers/ where you can get both the removal tool and the update tool.
I suggest per previous message that you run the removal tool, run the update tool, and then try the game. That is the first line of attack to getting over Starforce problems.

Robert thank you, I found the installed game on my hard drive and double clicked and decided to try starforce, it is very confusing for a ludite like me, but I printed off the instructions and will go in again when I think my brain is not so scrambled.

Hi, I can install this game with no problems but the moment I try to open and play it my Anti virus (AVG) pops up and tells me that there is a generic trojan and gives me the options of ignore,heal or send to virus vault regardless of what action I take the same message keeps appearing,short of disabling AVG any ideas of a way around this please?
Cheers,
Ray