Microsoft KB Archive/321083

= Dungeon Siege: &quot;Decoding Error - Compressed Data Is Corrupt or Unreadable&quot; Error Message =

Article ID: 321083

Article Last Modified on 4/13/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Dungeon Siege
 * Microsoft Dungeon Siege: Legends of Aranna

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This article was previously published under Q321083



SYMPTOMS
While you play Microsoft Dungeon Siege, you may receive an error message that is similar to one of the following error messages:

Error message 1

Fatal Error has occurred and the application must be shut down.

Decoding error - compressed data is corrupt or unreadable.

Error message 2

Unable to open file ''

Check your nodes_misc.gas file for a typo. Cannot continue, the program will now exit.

Error message 3

Decoding error! Compressed data is either corrupt or unreadable, possibly due to hardware failure. Try replacing or repairing the resource file (reinstall?) to fix this problem.

You may also experience one of the following behaviors:
 * During installation a resource file (*.dsres) does not copy.
 * The game or computer stops responding (hangs).
 * There is no sound during game play.



CAUSE
This issue may occur if one or more of the following conditions are true:
 * Dungeon Siege resource files that are currently being stored in memory are becoming corrupted because the settings on the computer hardware are incorrect.
 * Dungeon Siege interacts extensively with almost every system in the PC and as a result, is very sensitive to the hardware configuration.
 * There is a corrupted resource file (.dsres).



Verify Files
To see whether the resource files are corrupted, run a cyclical redundancy check (CRC) on the files. To do this, follow these steps.

Note Because there are several versions of Microsoft Windows, the following steps may be different on your computer. If they are, see your product documentation to complete these steps.
 * 1) Right-click the desktop, point to New, and then click Shortcut.
 * 2) Click Browse, click DungeonSiege.exe, and then click Open. By default, the path is &quot;C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Dungeon Siege\DungeonSiege.exe&quot;.
 * 3) In the Command line box, to the right of the quotation marks (&quot;), type a space, and then type verifydata=true.
 * 4) Click Next, and then click Finish.
 * 5) Double-click the new shortcut.

The CRC takes several minutes to complete.

If any of the files do not pass the CRC test, the files are corrupted. To remove and reinstall the game, use one of the following methods:

Method 1
 Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel. Double-click Add/Remove Programs. On the Install/Uninstall tab, click Dungeon Siege, and then click Add/Remove. Click Uninstall, and then click OK.

NOTE: Do not click to select the Remove saved games check box. After the removal is complete, verify the integrity of your hard disk to look for lost clusters and errors. To do this, follow these steps:  Double-click My Computer on the desktop, and then click the hard disk where you will install Dungeon Siege.</li> On the File menu, click Properties.</li> On the Tools tab, click Check Now under Error-checking.</li> Under Check disk options, click to select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box.</li> Click Start.</li></ol> </li> Reinstall Dungeon Siege.</li></ol>

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

258496 Games: How to troubleshoot Setup problems in Microsoft games

Method 2
<ol> Insert the Dungeon Siege disc 1, and hold down the SHIFT key to prevent the autorun program from starting.</li> Copy the resource file or files, as appropriate, from  \DSIEGE\RESOUR_1 to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Dungeon Siege\Resources: <ul> OBJECT_1.DSR</li> VOICES_1.DSR</li></ul>

Note If you receive errors copying the files, there may be a problem with the disc or drive. For more information about how to troubleshoot CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

218617 How to troubleshoot CD-ROM or DVD-ROM read issues

321641 How to troubleshoot issues with reading CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and DVD discs

</li> Insert the Dungeon Siege disc 2, and hold down the SHIFT key to prevent the autorun program from starting.</li> Copy the resource file or files, as appropriate, from  \DSIEGE\RESOUR_1 to C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Dungeon Siege\Resources: <ul> LOGIC_1.DSR</li> SOUND_1.DSR</li> TERRAI_1.DSR</li></ul>

Note If you receive errors copying the files, there may be a problem with the disc or drive. For more information about how to troubleshoot CD-ROM and DVD-ROM drives, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

218617 How to troubleshoot CD-ROM or DVD-ROM read issues

321641 How to troubleshoot issues with reading CD, CD-R, CD-RW, and DVD discs

</li> Right-click each of the damaged files, click Rename, and then change the file name to end with .OLD.</li> <li>Right-click each of the new files, click Rename, and then change the file name as follows: <ul> <li>OBJECT_1.DSR is changed to OBJECTS.DSRES.</li> <li>VOICES_1.DSR is changed to VOICES.DSRES.</li> <li>LOGIC_1.DSR is changed to LOGIC.DSRES.</li> <li>SOUND_1.DSR is changed to SOUND.DSRES.</li> <li>TERRAI_1.DSR is changed to TERRAIN.DSRES.</li></ul> </li></ol>

Set Hardware to Default Settings
If you have a retail computer and have changed the configuration of the CPU clock rates and other BIOS settings such as memory, contact your computer manufacturer for help restoring the factory default settings.

If you have a non-retail computer, such as a computer that you built yourself, and you have configured the CPU clock rates and other BIOS settings such as memory, contact your hardware manufacturer for help in configuring these settings.

Install the Dungeon Siege Update
Install the latest Dungeon Siege Update. For more information about the Dungeon Siege Update, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

324477 Dungeon Siege 1.0: Availability of the Dungeon Siege Update and the fixes included in the update

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MORE INFORMATION
For more information about other causes of these behaviors, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

321084 Dungeon Siege: Game stops responding

For information about how to contact your hardware manufacturer, click the appropriate article number in the following list to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

65416 Hardware and software vendor contact information, A-K

60781 Hardware and software vendor contact information, L-P

60782 Hardware and software vendor contact information, Q-Z

Additional query words: msgame performance sound audio

Keywords: kberrmsg kbprb kbsound kbconfig KB321083

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