Launch of the Screaming Narwal will not start

theshow

I'm unable to begin a the game for the first time. The game stops responding shortly after I click the "Yes, I am!" button on the "Ready to start a new game?" screen. Check out the attachments below for more details.

Will

Well your computer is certainly up to spec and it doesn't look like your drivers are drastically out of date (though it couldn't hurt to try updating them).

So for the moment, let's just assume it's a corrupt download. Could you try clearing your temporary internet files and redownloading the game from scratch?

theshow

O.K., I decided to just start from scratch. Before I installed ToMI ch. 1, I set a manual System Restore point. I uninstalled ToMI ch. 1 via Control Panel -> Programs and Features, and then restored my computer to it's state before the ToMI ch. 1 install including the DirectX update that comes with the install. Next, I followed your instructions to clear temporary internet files. I have IE and Firefox, so that meant clearing temp internet files in two places. Then I downloaded a new version of ToMI ch. 1 from this site and installed it but chose to not let setup check for the latest version of DirectX, but rather to continue with the install and I encountered a different problem.

Since I'm new to troubleshooting these sorts of problems, I decided to take a more cautious approach and not update any drivers or DirectX versions. Some of the other posts hinted that updating DirectX through ToMI setup was a bad idea. Not sure exactly why that's the case, but I'm unsure how else to acquire the latest DirectX in another way or if it's necessary in my case considering I'm running DirectX 10.

As far as drivers for my graphics and sound card, the only way I know to update those is through Windows Update in the optional section. Again, not sure if that's the preferred method.

I feel compelled to provide some background about the configuration of my system that may aid in troubleshooting:

I'm running Vista 64-bit Home Premium SP 2
NVIDIA Geforce 9800GTX
Configured in dual monitor mode, or more accurately, one monitor as primary and an HDTV as secondary both being fed by a VGA cable.

Since I'm unsure if ToMI conflicts with a dual monitor setup, I have decided to simplify things by resetting my computer back to single monitor setting for the second attempt at running ToMI.

The new issue I'm facing is after launching the ToMI desktop shortcut, I'm presented with a dialog box stating that MonkeyIsland101.exe has failed to start because it could not find d3dx9_41.dll. Should I go ahead and update my Video and Audio drivers, and then update to the most current DirectX to fix the problem? If so, please specify a good way to do so. I'll attach my current dxdiag output and a screenshot of the dialog box.

theshow

Some other things I forgot to mention. My computer was purchased at a retail store, however I added more components to it over time. Here is a list of the hardware upgrades I have made:

Power Supply - Antec NeoPower 650 Blue
Video Card - NVIDIA GeForce 9800GTX
Internal Hard Drive - Seagate SATA 3.5" Internal HD
Wireless Keyboard/Mouse Combo - Logitech Y-RAK73

I've noticed that the added (This is not the C: Drive) internal HD seems to generally remain in idol most of the time. However, it tends to "wake up" at some seemingly random moment. When this happens, everything else, i.e. Keyboard, Mouse, Applications, and Downloads, are put on hold for the approximately 5 seconds it takes the HD to "wake up". The only reason I bring this up is because some devices or applications respond strangely when interrupted by my internal HD.

Leak

theshow wrote: »

I've noticed that the added (This is not the C: Drive) internal HD seems to generally remain in idol most of the time. However, it tends to "wake up" at some seemingly random moment. When this happens, everything else, i.e. Keyboard, Mouse, Applications, and Downloads, are put on hold for the approximately 5 seconds it takes the HD to "wake up". The only reason I bring this up is because some devices or applications respond strangely when interrupted by my internal HD.

Hmmm... do you perhaps have (part of) your page file on that drive? That would be the only reason I can think of that your drive waking up should be able to make the whole system grind to a halt - and if that's the case, you might want to set your page file to use your C: drive exclusively...

Will

Well first and foremost, you have to update directx. I could go on a little "directx is weird" tirade, but the short of it is that even if you have dx10, you still need to update your dx9. The updater we use just connects directly to Microsoft's Web updater, but if you want to go directly to the source: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=2DA43D38-DB71-4C1B-BC6A-9B6652CD92A3&displaylang=en

If just updating directx doesn't solve the problem, then we can see to fiddling with the drivers. One doesn't necessarily need to come before the other, and updating DX is much safer and easier.

theshow

Whooo Hooo!!!! The game is working!!! Thanks for the help Will. After many trial-and-error attempts to fix the problem, the solution was, as weird as it may seem, the dual-monitor configuration I had set up. I'm running the game now off of one monitor and it works like a champ. After hearing so many great reviews for this game, I can't wait to get into playing.

@Leak: Not sure where the page file would be located, maybe at the root of the drive. I may have to Google around for some more answers or see if a manual is available with the packaging material.

Leak

theshow wrote: »

@Leak: Not sure where the page file would be located, maybe at the root of the drive. I may have to Google around for some more answers or see if a manual is available with the packaging material.

It's a hidden system file named pagefile.sys in the root of every drive that is configured to hold (part of) the pagefile.

See this MS knowledgebase entry on how to configure it.