HELP!! Ghost recon patch and no-cd crack ruined my video display

[rob10024]

Recruit
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I recently downloaded the Ghost Recon patch to my computer and I am wishing I had not.

The game played well prior to the patch on my system: a 1.8 Ghtz Pentium 4 with 512 RDRAM, and a 64Meg GeForce3 Ti 200 video board.

However, after downloading and installing the patch, the game wouldn't play. Instead, the display becomes very fuzzy, and is offset so that half of the game is now off of the screen on the left side. What is more distressing is that this has affected the computer, and not just Ghost Recon. Now when I boot up windows, the startup screen has the exact same video problems. Also, my other games are now affected by this display problem (such as Max Payne).

I tried reinstalling the Nvidia display drivers, but to no avail.

I uninstalled Ghost Recon, but this also did not solve the problem. Also, my Windows XP add/remove programs utility does not recognize the GRPATCH as a program that I can uninstall, and I don't know exactly what it did to my system, so I have no clue what to do in REGEDIT.

I might go and buy Nortons Systemworks, to see if it can hunt in my registry for any changes.

I am quite upset, and have emailed UBISOFT to see if they can help.

I am hoping they publish a uninstall utility for the patch.

Anyone have any other ideas?

[rob10024]

I tried uninstalling the video board display adapter several times, and I also tried the Windows XP System Restore utility, and unfortunately I can't fix the problem.

I ran the dxdiag from the RUN command line, and found that the DIRECT3D tests fail with the same display problems, i.e. - fuzziness, and the screen is offset to the left and shrunken.

I am thinking that I need to do a clean wipe of my system and reinstall Windows XP, which will not be fun.

oh well.


The administrator from the Ghost Recon board wrote:
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That's a weird one, what a nightmare.

Are you positive it was the patch. Did you change any other settings that day, new drivers, any other games or patches, etc etc?

From what JeffRSE posted it seems the patch only adjusts files on the Ghost Recon installation, not any system files - so it is weird that it appears to have affected your display. Thousands of people installed the patch on release day, and I never saw anyone else have the same trouble which makes this hard to track down.

Computers eh?

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Here was my response:


Rocky,

Thanks for your note. I will tell you a little bit more about the saga. I think the problem might be due to the "NO-CD CRACK" I used to play the game. I know this is against the rules of Ubi Soft, but I purchased the game legally (I can even email you digital pictures of the original CD, manual and I think I have a receipt somewhere in a shoe box), but it wouldn't work without the crack. So I downloaded the crack, and the game worked fine. Then I downloaded the patch. The game stopped working. I executed the crack and now my computer is totally screwed.

It's frustrating, because I think the game is great, but it just wouldn't work in my Dell Dimension 8200 without the crack. Dell says it's a software issue, i.e. Ubi Soft's fault. (I had this same problem with May Payne, so I think it has to do with the CD Rom Drive's interaction with the software's anti-piracy mechanism). What is weird is that I can play Everquest without a crack, but I guess they don't worry so much about piracy since I'm paying $10 a month for subscription fees.

I emailed customer support at Ubi Soft, and got no response, so I tried the crack.

Maybe if I do a clean install of Windows XP on my Dell, it will work without the crack.

This is a sad tale of a guy who just wanted to play a game he bought legally (why would I ever want to save $50 and go through this hell), and now has to spend several hours backing up his hard drive, wiping it, and starting all over from scracth with a new install of the operating system (and of Turbotax, Microsoft Money, MS Office, Age of Empires II, Olympus Camedia picture software, you get the gist)

I totally appreciate UBI soft's anti-piracy stance, but I know that several people have been unable to play the GR game (with the original purchased disks) without the crack, and Ubi Soft's customer support for these customers is pretty pathetic. Even a google search will turn up several customers with similar tales, but I think mine is the first where a crack / patch has altered video display drivers rendering the 3d capabilities useless.

At the same time, I realize it could also be partly a Dell issue - because Max Payne (also purchased legally) had the same problem without the crack.

I guess the only solution is to play Playstation 2 or give up video games.

Frustrated,

Robert

[BOT]

It won't be caused by the fixed exe either.
Anybody who buys Dell, HP, Compaq, Acer, IBM Aptiva, etc shouldn't be surprised if they have problems.
None of this type of machine can be regarded as being 'true' IBM pc compatible.
You probably have some sort of crap onboard video and sound causing these problems.

[Einstein]

Hi there.
Hmmmm, this is a strange one.
It might have changed the refresh rate for the monitor.
Right click on the desktop & select Properties.
Select the Settings tab.
Click the Advanced button.
Select Monitor tab.
This will give you the monitor type & the refresh rate.
Try changing the refresh rate to 70 Hertz (This will depend on the refresh rates available in the drop-down menu & also the capabilities of your monitor).
Also, you could try removing your monitor from Device Manager & shutting down & rebooting.
This may not work but is worth a try.
Hope it helps.
Regards,

Einstein