Sim City 4 installation does not complete

[ManMadeHuman]

When I attempt to install simcity 4. The installation will end and shut down by itself.

When the install status bar reaches 100%, the screenshot will close and the "The Please Wait" screen appears.

After that, the installation just quits with no messages. There is no confirmation screen afterwards.

The Start Menu items are put into place, but the launch icon does nothing.

So it appears that the final tasks of the installer do not complete.

An entry does appear in the windows event viewer that states.

---------------------------
The description for Event ID ( 0 ) in Source ( ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: 7.
--------------------------

There is no event: 7 in the Even View lists. (unsure if that is normal or not)

I have even tried to install after a fresh format and reinstall of windows.

The program installs correctly in my Vista installation, and on a laptop running Xp Sp3.
I have 2 Disc Drives.. I have tried to install using both drives.

Any help would be appreciated.

___________-
Stats:

Windows Xp Sp3 (Did the same thing before Sp3 on Sp2)
AMD Athlon 64 3800+
1GB Ram
Nvidia GeFore 7600 GT

 

[tipstir]

Are these the original CDs? As you know they are copy protected for that reason! Other than that they won't install at all which defeats the purpose to protect the copyrighted software! Hence author doesn't want everyone to use his stuff for free.

 

[ManMadeHuman]

I didn't come here to be accused of using downloaded software. Though I understand ya'll probably get a lot of that.

No these are the originals cd's. I bought this game when it came out years ago. I could take a picture of it with me smiling and holding a sign just for you if don't believe me . I have never used pirated games. I don't even play games very often.. I don't have the time to do it.

My wife uses it to create new neighborhoods for the Sims 2.

Right now she is having to use our laptop to do that.. then copy the file to the filserver to import into the sims 2. It's a pain because the laptop runs SimCity4 very poorly.

It has nothing to do with copy protected discs. They install fine on our laptop.... and They installed fine on the Vista install I had on this PC for a while.
With only 1GB ram, The Sims 2 didn't run good for her on Vista.. heh... if it wasn't for that game.. the only thing that would be on this PC is SUSE. But i do it to keep her happy heh

The first time we tried to install this on this computer it did the same thing. I reformatted (i wanted to go ahead and wipe the HD before installing SUSE 11 anyway.) and Reinstalled XP and it still does it. It has done the same thing on SP1, SP2, and now SP3

I have searched all over for a similar problem online and can't find one.. I'm finally fed up and I want to solve it because i don't see a logical reason for this to happening... especially on a fresh install....When it works on other computers. At first i thought the media may have damaged. But i have 2 optical drives in the computer and tried install from both of them with the same problem. Everything else we have installs and runs fine.

 

[ManMadeHuman]

The discs run fine on every other computer I try.

They install fine if I Vista install on this system..

It is just this system + XP (all service packs) VERY strange

Though i FINALLY got it fixed last night.

After it's normal immediate shut down before the installation would complete... I would normally uninstall and try somthing else.

Even after the non-confirmed install.. I tried the SC4 patch.... did nothing... uninstalled and tried something else.

Last night... I installed the patch after the non-confirmed install... which didn't work. BUT instead of uninstalling it... I left all of the files (including patch) and manually removed all
registry entries related to SimCity4

I then reinstalled and it works now.

I've tried removing registry entries recently and reinstalling but it never fixed it...

So what it took was ......

Non confirmed install..... Install Maxis Update Patch.... Remove all SC4 registry entries.... Reinstall... Install Patch again... game runs.

I tried all varations of that before and nothing.... needed this exact sequence of events... very strange indeed. Though it still never gives me an install confirmation.. But heh... it works now.