Article ID: 325734
Article Last Modified on 1/7/2006
APPLIES TO
- Microsoft MechWarrior 4: Black Knight
- Microsoft MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries
- Microsoft MechWarrior 4: Vengeance
This article was previously published under Q325734
SYMPTOMS
When you try to start MechWarrior 4: Black Knight, the program may stop responding (freeze) on a black screen that displays an hourglass, or you may receive an error message similar to the following:
CAUSE
This behavior occurs if your installation of MechWarrior is faulty or incomplete, or if MechWarrior is having trouble automatically configuring your hardware. This behavior may occur when an open program or background program interferes with the installation process, or when your hardware is not responding to configuration queries from MechWarrior.
RESOLUTION
To resolve this behavior, use the following methods in the order that they appear.
Add Command Line Parameter -noautoconfigure
You can use the -noautoconfigure command line parameter to run the game in Windowed Mode.
To manually add a parameter to the command line in the MechWarrior 4 shortcut, follow these steps:
- Insert the MechWarrior 4 CD-ROM in the CD-ROM drive. Press and hold down the SHIFT key as you insert the CD-ROM to prevent the program from starting automatically.
- Right-click Start, and then click Open or click Open All Users.
- Double-click the Programs folder.
- Double-click the MechWarrior Vengeance folder or the Black Knight folder.
- Right-click the MechWarrior icon, and then click Properties.
- On the Shortcut tab, in the Target box, press END, press the SPACEBAR, and then type the -window parameter.
For example, type the following line, wheredriveis your hard drive where you have installed MechWarrior 4 Vengeance or Black Knight:For MechWarrior 4 Vengeance, type:
drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\MechWarrior Vengeance\MW4.exe -noautoconfigure
For Black Knight, type:
drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\MechWarrior Vengeance\mw4x\MW4x.exe -noautoconfigure
Note Parameters are not case-sensitive. You may receive an error message that states that Options.ini [graphics] is a required page. After you successfully start MechWarrior 4 one time, you should run autoconfigure from the following folder:
start\programs\microsoft games\mw4
To resolve this issue, remove MechWarrior, clean-boot your computer, and then reinstall MechWarrior. 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.
Remove MechWarrior
- Click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add/Remove Programs.
- Select MechWarrior Black Knight in the list of currently installed programs, and then click Add/Remove.
- Click Uninstall, and then follow the instructions to complete the removal process.
- Repeat these steps to remove MechWarrior Vengeance and any other MechWarrior programs that may be installed on your computer.
- Locate and then delete the following folder
where drive is the drive on which MechWarrior was installed. This path assumes a default installation, and may vary depending on your installation.
drive:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\MechWarrior Vengeance
Remove Temporary Files
- Click Start, point to Programs, point to Accessories, point to System Tools, and then click Disk Cleanup.
- In the Select Drive dialog box, select your system disk (the disk on which Windows is installed), and then click OK.
- Under Files to delete, click to select the Temporary Files check box, and then click OK.
- Repeat these steps for any other local drives on your computer.
Use a Clean Boot to Start Your Computer
When you start Windows normally, there are a number of programs that start automatically and run in the background. These programs, which may include antivirus and system utility programs, may sometimes interfere with the installation of a new program.
When you perform a clean boot before you install a new program, you prevent these programs from starting automatically. For additional information about how to perform a clean boot, click the following article numbers to view the articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
310353 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP
281770 How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows 2000
267288 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows Millennium Edition
192926 How to Perform Clean-Boot Troubleshooting for Windows 98
243039 How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows 95
Reinstall MechWarrior
- Insert your MechWarrior CD-ROM into your computer's CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.
- If the Setup program begins automatically, go to step 5.
- If Setup does not start automatically, click Start, point to Settings, click Control Panel, and then double-click Add/Remove Programs.
- In the Install/Uninstall window, click Install.
- Follow the instructions to complete the installation process.
MORE INFORMATION
For additional information about similar games error messages, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
228985 Games Err Msg: Please Insert the Correct CD-ROM, Select OK and Restart Application
Additional query words: msgame performance setup installation
Keywords: kberrmsg kbhardware kbsetup kbprb kbconfig KB325734
