LotR:BfME noDVD 1.02 question

[kenmeller]

I am using sp4.

[Joe Forster/STA]

What's the result with the official 1.02 update but without the no-CD patch for 1.02?

[kenmeller]

Hi Joe,

Using the officially updated game.dat, I get the the splash screen, the CD/DVD emulation software present warning, click ok and the game closes.

Using the noDVD version 1.02 game.dat, task manager gains an entry of lotrbfme.exe which disappears just over a second later - end of story.

Any ideas?

The hardware might be the same running under both Win2k and WinXP but there's a world of difference in the apps (and possibly drivers) installed in each partition.

Ken.

[Joe Forster/STA]

Hi Ken,

What I wanted to aim at is that, perhaps, something is wrong with your Windows 2000 installation and the game wouldn't run on it anyway. You know, an application, a driver, a config setting, whatever... I suggest that you temporarily remove CloneCD - or only its registry entries, after backing them up; see relevant threads on this forum! - and try again with or without the 1.02 update, with the original CD and without a no-CD patch. Does that work?

Joe

[DABhand]

I tried BFME on 2000, it worked fine both original and mini-image, but if I was on as a limited user, well all hell broke loose.

[kenmeller]

Joe,

I tried removing CloneCD - no change, I still get the CD/DVD emulation warning - but then again I do also have VirtualCD, Daemon Tools and Alcohol (plus various other CDRW tools) installed. I am loathe to remove them all in case I have problems re-installing - do we know to which apps the game specifically objects?

Last night I was going to try an LOtR:BfME installation on my second HDD under another (cloned) Win2k partition which sits alongside WinXP and then remove all of the CD/DVD apps from there. Unfortunately, that version of Win2k wouldn't boot - it looks like the registry hive is corrupted.

So it looks as though I'm going to have to re-think my setup and probably use an OS loader to keep the second Win2k (which is used as a testbed) and WinXP (also a testbed) completely independent.

I don't use copied games and I don't give them away but when publishing houses cause me so much grief, it makes me want to - just to get back at them.

Ken.

[pyrokinesis]

You are quite right that EA detects CD/DVD Emulation software. Only one it seems to ignore is Daemon Tools. You will probably also find that once you have installed the No-CD/DVD patch and regenerated the LOTRbfme.dat file the game will work, however other EA game's that you have installed and backed up, no longer work unless you use the original disc. So in this case it would be better if you continued to use the original disc, without the patch.
Maybe one day this problem will be fixed