Diablo 2 problem and replacement CD question

[martini]

I'm one of those who had the "Please insert play disc" problem with D2, using a CDRW/DVD-Rom.

I've tried everything on the Blizzard Support page for this problem:

• Latest patch (1.09D) for LoD installed
• Original disk used
• User ID set as "Computer administrator" for XP
• No viruses detected
• Gateway and Kenwood fixes N/A
• Real mode driver fix N/A (XP)
• Protected Mode drivers fix N/A (can't follow directions - not written for XP, can't find anything similar to change)
• Sync data transfer - Primary and Secondary IDE channels set to DMA if available
• Intel Ultra ATA fix N/A (not listed as Ultra ATA controller)
• CD-Rom drive letter fix N/A (can't follow directions - not written for XP, can't find anything similar to change)

Emailing Blizzard only resulted in their repeating the above fixes, one at a time, and telling me to disable my joystick (no gameport joystick installed), and finally they just ignore me since I've told them I've tried all their fixes. It's really frustrating that none of their instructions are written for XP, when the LoD case lists XP as one of the supported OS's.

Additional things I've done:

• Clean install of XP Home
• updated video and sound drivers to latest from manufacturer's site
• updated system BIOS
• updated firmware for Samsung SN-308B CDRW/DVD-Rom (this said it would fix problems with Diablo 2 - exactly what problem wasn't specified, but my problem is exactly the same as before the update)

A couple of times, I stopped before the LoD install and tried to start D2 by itself, and it ran, which makes me think there's something wrong with my LoD disk, despite the fact that the install goes fine and both the install and the game ran fine on my desktop (I've since uninstalled them).

I've been assuming up till now the problem was my combo drive, since so many other people had problems with them and D2, but I've tried all the commom fixes for my system - should I get my disk replaced? I remember reading somewhere that Blizzard will replace your disk for $10US, but I couldn't find anything about it on their support site. Can anyone point me to the info I'm looking for? At this point, it's worthwhile to try almost anything, given the amount of time I've spent on this.

Or, if you have any other suggestions, I'd be happy to try them - it's been months that I've been trying to get this stupid thing to run.

Thanks!

 

[Rapmaster]

If you go into the properties of a shortcut to the game, is there a "Compatibility options" tab? Try playing around with that.... it sometimes helps.

If you have access to another CD ROM drive you might want to try that out :/ The copy protection thingy Blizzard uses has trouble with some drives.

try this too: Copy the D2Music.MPQ
Open My Computer from the Windows Desktop
Right click the CD ROM drive containing the Diablo II: Lord of Destruction Disc and choose OPEN
Right click on the D2XMUSIC.MPQ file and choose COPY
Open the drive letter onto which Diablo 2 has been installed and then open the Diablo II folder
Right click on a blank space within the Diablo II folder and choose PASTE
Select the D2XMUSIC.MPQ file and press F2 to rename the file to D2MUSIC.MPQ.
Install and play the game

Optimize Access Pattern
Right click "My Computer"
Left Click on "Properties"
Left Click on the "Performance" tab
Left Click on the "File System" button
Left Click on the CD-ROM tab
Change the "Optimize access pattern for:" pull down menu to "No read-ahead"
Set the Supplemental Cache Size to Small
When you click OK, you will be prompted to reboot
Install and play the game

Unmark Read Only
Right click on the D2MUSIC.MPQ in the Diablo II folder and select properties.
Unmark the box checked READ ONLY and choose OK.
Install and play the game


I don't think a replacement disc will help (try it in another computer if you can) but the information is here: http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=msi0133p

 

[Guest]

I've tried the compatibility settings and copying the music file, but I'll try mucking around with it as you've suggested.

I don't want to buy some crappy CD-Rom for my laptop just to play Diablo, but it's looking like that's going to be my only choice, because of Blizzard's stupid overzealous copy protection. The only real "fixes" I've seen for this involve hacks, and I really don't want to go there.

 

[martini]

Whoops! Forgot that I'd re-installed, and only posted from work, but that was me - I'll update with any progress. And thanks, Rapmaster! (I forgot that before!)

 

[martini]

I've tried the compatibility options again, and the music file suggestions - no go.

For the "Optimize Access Pattern", I couldn't find any of the options suggested under the System folder (I'm running XP), and nothing similar under the device properties either.

I reinstalled just D2 last night, and it worked (albeit slowly starting up), so if I can't get a fix by the weekend, I'll have to just give up on LoD. But I'll be sad to not be able to run LoD, when I paid for the thing - stupid Blizzard.

 

[Memnoch]

A possible fix/ suggestion.

As many people had difficulty with the cd's in D2 I had also had times with the game where it would not see the CD while it was in, or odd cd related issues would continue to ruin it for me.

So to combat this issue, I used another product.
http://www.virtualcd-online.com/

This product will allow you to create a virtual image of the CD on the hard drive and then allow you to mount that image on a virtual drive.

This then seems to remove any issues I had, period.
The added ability to no longer need to fumble with changing CD's for different games.

The product allows you to create more then enough virtual drives to handle a gamers needs.

Along with a number of other features Virtual CD has offered a solution for those who can't seem to get around the CD issues in D2.

 

[martini]

Virtual CD - works with LoD?

On the virtual CD site's help articles, it says that it doesn't work with Diablo 2 and other games with newer copy-protections - is this true of the Lord of Destruction CD? Have you tried it? That's the one I'm having trouble reading.

Thanks!

 

[Memnoch]

I run win2k and use version 4 and have no issues with any game, except Black & White. (No big loss) Really bad game anyway.

I did nothing to modify the program, I just did as the directions explained.

 

[martini]

Well, it's definitely worth downloading the trial version to see, at least... but not till the weekend, I think. I'm sort-of in rage mode at the game at this point - I need a break!

I'll let you know how it goes when I try it.

 

[martini]

Virtual CD fixed the CD problem (for now!)

Thanks for the suggestion, Memnoch - I've downloaded the trial version of Virtual-CD, and have been happily playing LoD all afternoon.

I'm not sure if I'll shell out for the license, though - it's a bit pricey for a tool to help me play a game that I've legally purchased, but I have 30 days to think about it!

For anyone who's going this route, I got error messages when I installed D2 from the disk and then tried to play LoD, which I installed from the Virtual CD. However, when both installs were from virtual CDs, everything went fine.