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Error - This program has been damaged by a bad sector of the hard drive."

kevinliu2336kevinliu2336
edited February 2007 in Game Support
When i start the game i get the message, "This program has been damaged by a bad sector of the hard drive or by a virus . Please Reinstall It" well i have reinstalled it about 10 times and have tried 4 different mirrors and did a virus scan and still no dice. my specs are

CPU: Intel celeron D 2.66 GHz.
Memory:1,024 MB.
Video card:Nvidia 5200 256mb.
Direct X:9.0c
Hard drive 300gb. Seagate

Comments

  • MelMel
    edited December 2006
    I'll offer some amateur advice but you may want to completely delete the setup files and game files and retry. You may have done that already but until someone who is much more knowledgable comes along, I'll throw that in. :)
  • MusicforMovies@aol.comMusicforMovies@aol.com
    edited December 2006
    I am a bit mad right now.

    I purchased the full season.

    The 12 Steps to Insanity

    Step 1.) Download game

    Step 2.) Install

    Step 3.) SUCKER!!! It won't run do to hard-drive or virus error Message.

    Step 4.) Go to Tech-Support page.

    Step 5.) Ah.. Emily, she seems nice, says to download from a mirror page.

    Step 6.) Download from Mirror Site - Rinse and Repeat as stated above.

    Step 7.) Insanity starts to slowly kick in. (Same darn message)

    Step 9. ) Ok. De-activate Virus scanner, Firewall, delete Steam, delete originally installer, delete original game files.

    Step 10.) Re-download once again from a different site.

    Step 11.) Pray.

    Step 12.) Curse Tell-Tale or the Internet gods, or whom-ever. Game still won't run.

    :o) Please help me. Thanks!

    Specs - Pentium 4 - 3.3 Ghz 1 Gigabyte Ram, Radeon Card, 180 GB Hard-drive. HP Computer. Have a nice day!
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited December 2006
    :confused:

    I'm sorry, this is something I've never seen before.

    Could you post a screenshot of the error message? I'm wondering if it's coming from the software or from Windows.
  • MusicforMovies@aol.comMusicforMovies@aol.com
    edited December 2006
    Dear Emily:

    The message is as the first person at the post posted. Basically, something about there possibly being a bad hard-drive sector, or virus - please re-install.

    I know it is not both. Maybe a corrupt file? (Even though I know you said that your file the server is fine).

    Thanks for your help.
  • MusicforMovies@aol.comMusicforMovies@aol.com
    edited December 2006
    Dear Emily,

    I copied the original game installer to my wife's computer and it works fine. I wonder if it is McAffee? The Anti-Virus program? My wife doesn't have it, but I do. I wonder if the original poster has the same program. Has Sam and Max been checked against that program?

    Peace.
  • kevinliu2336kevinliu2336
    edited December 2006
    actually yes i do! That Might be the problem!
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited December 2006
    Thanks for the info. Since we never heard about this problem until now, I wonder if McAfee could have had an update in the past few days that's causing the problem?
  • kevinliu2336kevinliu2336
    edited December 2006
    On second thoght. I tryed it on my laptop without mcafee and it worked but i uninstaled it on my desktop and it worked the first time then back to the same error. Any ideas?
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited December 2006
    We're going to have to investigate this issue further, and due to the holidays it may be a few days before we have a chance to look into it. My only suggestion right now is to try turning off the virus software (if you feel comfortable doing that) and installing the game with it turned off. If it does install, we'll know McAfee is the culprit...
  • kevinliu2336kevinliu2336
    edited December 2006
    kevinliu2336 wrote: »
    On second thoght. I tryed it on my laptop without mcafee and it worked but i uninstaled it on my desktop and it worked the first time then back to the same error. Any ideas?
    ITS ALREDY INSTALED.
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited December 2006
    Okay, then, I should have said if it RUNS with the virus protection turned off.

    I don't understand exactly what you did. It ran on your laptop, which doesn't have McAfee? Then you tried on your desktop and it worked at first, but then stopped working?

    It can be hard to troubleshoot a problem like this when you're not standing in front of the person's computer. I'm just trying to get enough information so we can figure out what's going on here.
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2007
    Hi guys,

    Someone in the office has McAfee so I had him test it, and he didn't get the same error. If you could tell us anything more about your systems (and also the version number of McAfee, when you did your last update, etc.), that would be very helpful.

    Anyone who hasn't posted yet but is reading this thread and has had this problem... please chime in! The more we can find out about the problem, the better equipped we'll be to fix it...

    Here's what Dave B., who tested it here, says about his McAfee:
    Apparantly my McAfee is up to date. I only have anti-virus and anti-hacker though, I dont have anti-abuse software or anti spam.

    Do either of you have anti-abuse software or anti-spam turned on?
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2007
    Hi again...

    We're starting to think this might be related to AOL's version of McAfee. Is anyone else who had this problem using the AOL version of McAfee?

    Please chime in... we won't be able to diagnose this until we get some more info from the people having the problem. Thanks.
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2007
    Hi everyone,

    We just learned this morning that this error is caused by antivirus software detecting the game as a virus (even though it isn't). We're trying to get more information but in the meantime, one solution would be to turn your virus software off before running the game.

    There are also some workarounds that we've been provided with but they depend on what antivirus software you're using. If you could tell us that, we might be able to suggest a workaround that will resolve this.

    Please understand that this is not an error with our software, it's a conflict between the activation system (which is made by another company) and certain antivirus programs (which are of course completely out of our control). This makes it extremely difficult for us to track down the problem. The fact that it's taken a little while for us to figure out what's going on isn't because we don't care, it's because we honestly don't know what the issue is and sometimes don't even know where to start looking.

    Anyway, we've been told it could be a couple of months before this can be resolved. If you don't want to run the game with your virus protection turned off and would rather get your money back, send an email to support@telltalegames.com and request a refund (explaining why). Thanks.
  • JtavennerJtavenner
    edited January 2007
    I am experiencing the same error with Episode 1(see attachment). Episode 2 executes with no problems.

    I am running Windows XP with AOL Safety and Security Center ver 210.5.2.1. As I understand it, this is actually McAfee anti-virus.

    I have tried turning off Virus Protection and running Episode 1. I have also tried turning off Virus Protection deleting and reinstalling Episode 1. I still get the error message.

    There does not appear to be a way to actually turn off AOL Safety and Security. I stopped all related services from the Services control panel and ended all AOL/AV processes through the Task Manager, but it still won't run.

    It was mentioned in Emily's last post that there are work arounds. Do you have work arounds for AOL Safety and Security Center?
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited January 2007
    I hope to get more information about this problem this week. AOL's version of McAfee is definitely one that seems to be experiencing problems.

    Interesting that episode 2 is working for you but not ep1. I have had a lot of reports of ep1 working but not ep2.
  • petejhnicholaspetejhnicholas
    edited February 2007
    Hi All!

    I've had Episode 1 Installed on my PC since it became available on the Telltale website. Today, my virus checker has started to flag it.

    I'm using Avira AntiVir Personal Edition Premium,
    and on Engine Version 7.03.01.34, VDF Version 6.37.01.15.

    I've had to agree to quarantine the exe because AntiVir won't stop complaining about it! It's not too bad for now 'cause I've long finished it, but I will want to play it again sometime, probably after Episode 4. Will this be fixed with VDF updates? What's happened with the McAfee problem? And this won't be a problem for new Episodes will it?
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2007
    Are you getting a specific error message from the virus software? What virus is it complaining about?

    We can get the company that makes the activation software to contact virus companies and ask them to fix this, but it has to be done on a case by case basis. I have no idea if it'll be a problem with other episodes but if the more specific information we can provide to the activation software people (for them to send on to the virus protection people), the better the better chance that this will get fixed.
  • JtavennerJtavenner
    edited February 2007
    This morning, AOL issued an update to the AOL Safety and Security Center. This appears to have fixed my problem. I can run episodes 1, 2, and 3. The version number of AOL Safety and Security Center is 210.5.2.1.

    I hope this information is helpful!
  • EmilyEmily Telltale Alumni
    edited February 2007
    Thank you for letting us know!

    I had heard that AOL might be fixing this soon, but wasn't sure about the timeframe.
This discussion has been closed.