Removing Hot Fixes so some games will play.

[dug]

The Adventure Company Games site tells me I must remove
Hot Fix KB824141 in order to run my game on Windows XP
(Home). However, Add/Remove Programs will not give me the
option to remove this hotfix. The "remove" button is
missing. How do I get this HotFix temporarily off my
system?

 

[Chris H.]

I sincerely doubt they know what they're talking about. The patch in the
Knowledge Base article you cited is for buffer overruns, and is a security
issue. Which game are you attempting to play, and specifically what
problems are you having with it?
--
Chris H.
Microsoft Windows MVP
Tablet Creations - http://nicecreations.us/
Associate Expert
Expert Zone -

 

[dug]

The game is "The Mystery of the Mummy". The launcher comes
up alright. I click on Play and it freezes.

 

[Guest]

Actually, I lied. If I let the animated logos play thru(
which do weird things like flash icons off the destop into
the display), I can get as far as the first options
screen. When I click on an option, any option, the screen
minimizes into the Start bar and will not remaximize. The
task mgr says the process is running, but it won't display.

 

[Just mee]

He is indeed correct in stating that The Adventure Company is telling
users to remove that specific hotfix:


http://www.adventurecompanygames.com/tac/support/sherlock.html

Excerpt from the above page:

<begin excerpt>
3: I have installed the game and when I launch it, it takes me back to
my desktop. The game will not run.
A3: The problem you are experiencing is related to a Windows XP update
that Microsoft released October 15th. Hot Fix KB824141of this update
for Windows XP leads to display problems in a few of our games
rendering them unplayable. The immediate solution is to remove the Hot
Fix.

To Uninstall the Hot Fix:
1. Open the Start Menu
2. Go to Control Panels
3. Open Add/Remove Programs
4. Select Windows XP Hot Fix KB824141
5. Click Remove
6. Follow the prompts to remove the Hot Fix. If you get any error
message regarding win32 or user32 getting corrupted you must stop
immediately and click on the start menu button -> all programs ->
accessories -> system tools -> system restore -> restore system to an
earlier configuration.

Removing the Hot Fix should not place most users at undue risk. Per
the Security Bulletin, "An attacker must have valid logon credentials
to exploit the vulnerability. The vulnerability can not be exploited
remotely."
<end excerpt>

hth,
JM

 

[Eric Renken]

They should really put out patches for their games to work around this.
Removing hotfixes is not the best idea.

--
Eric Renken
Microsoft Associate Expert.
Expert Zone
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/

 

[Just mee]

I am certainly not arguing that point... Yes, they certainly should...
However, what they *should* do, and what they *will* do are
two very different things..

TheAdventureCompany is very well known to *not* patch their games
properly when problems occur.. For example, their "fix" for leaving
a very necessary graphics file out of one of their games was to
provide users with a "save game" file for directly after the point
that the game would generate an error because the file was missing..
Unfortunately, they (TAC) do not have much *real* competition in the
adventure genre, so we (people who like adventure games) are
more or less stuck with trying to work around problems..

Some of their latest releases use a very *buggy* copy protection
scheme (called StarForce), which has caused users no end of problems
trying to get their games to install and/or uninstall..

(getting off soapbox)

My .02 cents..

JM

 

[dug]

From a parallel response ---
Actually, I lied about the immediate freeze-up. If I let
the animated logos play thru(which do weird things like
flash icons off the destop into the display), I can get as
far as the first options screen. When I click on an
option, any option, the screen blacks out and minimizes
into the Start bar. If I maximize it, I get a black screen
again. The task mgr says the process is running, but who
knows what it is doing.

It sounds like my best bet is to complain to TAC and then
find another game to play.

 

[JustMee]

Do let us know how you make out with TAC..
From my own past experience, you will not get
much satisfaction from them, but I wish you all the luck.

They really ought to fix their games, and not send us running
in circles.

JM

 

[JustMee]

TAC has posted some information regarding the 824141 hotfix
"problem"...

Below is an official response taken from the TAC forums:

*********************************************
If you experience problems with The Mystery of the Mummy, The Omega
Stone, or Cameron Files 2 after having installed Microsoft's KB824141
hotfix, there is another hotfix available from Microsoft that will
correct this problem.

Update: You will need to contact Microsoft to obtain this update as it
is not available for the general public:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;833509


**********************************************

hth,
JM