Dead Reefs will not run

Has anyone had trouble running dead reefs? It installs fine but when I click on it to play a windows message says "Dead Reefs exe. has stopped working" then another message that says "A problem caused Dead Reefs to stop working"....weird.
I am playing as administrator-I followed all of the tasks on the Dreamcatcher website and emailed them with no response yet (2 days)

I am playing on a new Vista laptop (HP Pavilion DV9500) 1.5 ghz x 2 drives. with Nvidia GE Force 8600
Processor is the Centrinio Core Duo

I had to install this game in Safe Mode/Administrator but then I played the game in Normal Mode.

I didn't get the error message (I don't think I did ) but it was the only way I could get the game to play. Also I played in XP and not Vista.

Linda

thanks Linda,
You know I hate to admit his but have never had to do anything in safe mode before..do I just stop the windows log in and go to safe mode?? and then install?
I will give it a try. I have done everything. It says on the system requirements that you can play on Vista however......
Thanks for your help.

From Blackmac,
I too have trouble with "Dead Reefs' and have sent 8 emaile to
Adventure company/Dreamcatcher, and they always seem to blame the machines,and i have tried 3 machines,all with excellent video
and sound.What I did,after activating the game I would get a blank screen,but when I hit the Spacebar a couple of times the game started playing, weird. Tried "Safe Mode" but my machine wasn't impressed,and told me to restart in "Normal " mode.
Good luck,

thanks blackmac- I have'nt gotten a blank screen just that irritating windows vista pop up that trys to see if it can solve the proble (but so far never has....hmm I am at a loss. Safe mode didnt work either.

When I installed in safe mode it got all the way to the end and then said it could not copy the video/vision.avi files. Still no reply from Dreamcatcher games.

That sounds a little like an installation problem. When I had that happen, dreamcatchergames support told me to wash the CD with a drop of dish detergent and smoosh it with my finger and water, rinse well and dry with a lint-free cloth. I thought they were nuts but what did I have to lose - by golly it worked.

You could also have a bad CD, that does happen sometimes and they replaced mine for free years ago with another game.

Lastly you can google your error and see what others have done. That too can help a lot. Ok, I googled it for you and found This Thread at Mystery Manor with a couple more suggestions.

Linda

Before you do anything below, disable your anti-virus program and any other programs running in the background, or do a clean boot. Here's the instructions for the clean boot procedure in Windows Vista.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/331796

Everything closed? If so..read on

1. Put the game disk in the drive. When the autorun comes up, just cancel out of it.

2. Go to start-->my computer. Right click on the game disk and select "explore".

3. Find the "setup" icon (a.k.a. "install" icon), then right click on it and select properties, then select compatibility.

4. Select Windows XP from the drop down menu. If there is a box that says "turn off advanced text services for this program", put a check in it. Then click apply-->ok.

5. Now right click on the setup icon again and select "run as administrator". Then run the setup file. Do this even if you are already logged into Windows as admin.

Thanks you SO much for your help Linda and Robert, I will try the washing of CD and go to the site you googled (that was nice).
I did theclean boot and the combatibility to XP when the problem first started, was sure thast would do it!)

It's best to include all the things you've already tried to do to resolve your problem when you post. That way you won't get redundant suggestions. It'll also save someone some un-necessary typing as well

thanks Robert, you're right. I actually did each task when I recieved the info. with the exception of the clean boot, that I remembered from the last game I had problems with.
So far I have washed the cd.
attempted to run in Windows XP compatibility
installed and tried to run in safemode.
installed game into my documents and tried to run.
changed the display properities.
I have not tried the unisntall and used cClean (Iread that on another forum and don't know what it is).
I cannot believe support from Dreamcatcher has not responded.
I am leaving town for a few days-when I get back I will try the cd on another computer.
Thanks for all the good advice!

Here ya go.
http://www.ccleaner.com

It may not help with this particular issue, but CCleaner is a great program to have for cleaning up your registry and temporary files folder.

**edit**
Have you tried installing the new SP1 update for Vista? It's a long shot, but you never know.
http://technet2.microsoft.com/WindowsVis...3.mspx?mfr=true

Great I will find cClean AND the vista update! Thanks Robert.

Well so far so good....I downloaded the Update, still did'nt run, but as soon as I did a few other steps that all of you advised (changed compatibility to windows Xp-Changed display settings to 1024x768-and opened the game's file to run from launcher, which also gives you the option to change display settings) clicked on play...and it actually worked!!!!!
Thank you SOOOO much!!!