Sam & Max Season 1 - Corrupted Installer?
Hi,
I can't install Sam & Max Season 1. First of all, the disc won't autoplay; when I look in AUTORUN.INF on the CD it seems to point to SamMax101.exe which doesn't actually exist on the disc. What it DOES have is SAM_AND_.EXE. When I run this file manually from explorer it will stop installing when it tries to extract "amd_office_dream.aud" with the message, "Error decompressing data! Corrupted installer?" I am then forced to cancel the install.
I found this other thread here regarding the same error message - I have tried to copy SAM_AND_.EXE to the desktop and installing from there, but it gives me the same error message. It did it right away (on the first file) the first time, then I copied it again and this time it gave me the error message on the same file.
I am running WinXP Service Pack 3. The CD drive had updated firmware about a year or so ago, and it is no longer in production (the BENQ website no longer lists the model) so I doubt outdated firmware is the issue. Besides, it also was problematic running from the hard drive.
I am now afraid that I may actually have a bad disc, but am wondering if there is anything else that can be done to help. Thanks!
I can't install Sam & Max Season 1. First of all, the disc won't autoplay; when I look in AUTORUN.INF on the CD it seems to point to SamMax101.exe which doesn't actually exist on the disc. What it DOES have is SAM_AND_.EXE. When I run this file manually from explorer it will stop installing when it tries to extract "amd_office_dream.aud" with the message, "Error decompressing data! Corrupted installer?" I am then forced to cancel the install.
I found this other thread here regarding the same error message - I have tried to copy SAM_AND_.EXE to the desktop and installing from there, but it gives me the same error message. It did it right away (on the first file) the first time, then I copied it again and this time it gave me the error message on the same file.
I am running WinXP Service Pack 3. The CD drive had updated firmware about a year or so ago, and it is no longer in production (the BENQ website no longer lists the model) so I doubt outdated firmware is the issue. Besides, it also was problematic running from the hard drive.
I am now afraid that I may actually have a bad disc, but am wondering if there is anything else that can be done to help. Thanks!
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
I bought the game from a sale at GoGamer.com a little over a month ago. They occasionally have extremely cheap deals so I buy a small bundle of games from them every so often, and as far as I know, they're a very reputable dealer.
If it helps at all, I have a second disc that says "Bonus Extras" on it. This one autoruns fine without any problems. It has trailers and music from all 6 episodes so it probably means all 6 episodes are on the game disc as well.
First of all, did you try the DVD in another computer?
If it works there, you know that the DVD is not broken.
If it doesn't you should ask your retailer to exchange it.
There is also something i found out.
I assume this is the version you bought?
There it states, that the publisher is "Dreamcatcher".
Then i found Sam&Max Season 1 on the website of the Publisher, but the support link there doesn't work.
They also have a forum about Sam&Max which doesn't look used much. There's a patch mentioned, but i don't know if that is right for your situation. Since it can't be downloaded anymore that doesn't help much, except that we know there can be such an issue.
Therefore i followed the Link to where the patch was supposed to be and found the Adventure Company Website.
There is a valid link to the patch with further instructions.
There also is a valid support form which let's you choose Sam&Max Season 1 where you can ask about your bug.
I hope that wasn't too much to process, but it was necessary so you can understand what i researched.
Edit: I just found a forum entry here which explains the patch better and contains Fotos of the DVD/CD boxes
Maybe it is possible that you cd drive or its driver can not process long file names.
Can you tell us the exact brand and model of your drive?
Is there only that one file on the cd?
Assuming the installer checks the file name, you might also try to copy the file to your desktop again and rename it to SamMax101.exe as expected from the *.inf file, before you try running it.
That's a good idea and I wish I'd thought of that. So I booted up the PC partition of my Macbook and sure enough it installs fine and plays great! I'm sad that the CD does not work in my main computer though
That looks to be the case. When I open the CD on the Macbook the actual file name is "Sam and Max - Season 1 Setup.exe", which definitely means my drive had truncated the actual name. I think this is rather strange behavior, though. My drive is only a few years old and should have no problems with reading long file names.
When I copy the file to the desktop and rename, there's still no joy. It stops installing at the same file. I doubt it's actually checking the name of the file, otherwise the install wouldn't even start.
For what it's worth, the drive I have is a Benq DVD DW1640, and it looks to be incompatible with Sam and Max, so I guess I just have to play it on the Macbook.
You can still find some stuff for it on the BenQ uk site. You can compare your firmware version with that one.
But let me take a deeper look. Some BenQs where able to be crossflashed with similar drives firmware.
I just went through my hardware archive and plugged in a similar drive, the DW 1620 with B7W9 firmware dated 5.9.2005. I put in my Telltale Season 1 DVD and it worked just fine. It shows the long file names as expected and the installer starts. I even installed it from that drive with no issues.
I still don't know whether the type of file names is handled by the operating system (which i assume) or by the drive, but i'll ask in the forum of my computer science faculty. Maybe someone knows such strange things, because i could not find any information on that.
My tests were under Vista 32 bit by the way.
Here's a strange idea but those are always the funniest. Try changing the drive letter to something different. Maybe in some wicked way Windows remembered the format from a USB stick that used the letter before or anything like that.
I just contemplated these lines a bit and had a different idea. Maybe there is some error on the DVD. Your MacBooks error correction can fix it, your BenQ can not.
First you can take a look at the DVDs readable side and see if you find any, even tiny, irregularities. You might even let light shine through it to see if there are any holes in the reflective (silver colored) material.
Then you should try this:
Put the DVD in your macbook and copy it's contents to a USB stick, or any other portable media that suits you.
If my theory is valid then you should have non corrupted files which you can install on your other computer after that procedure. That would be enough reason to get the DVD replaced.