Windows Vista Weird problem with .exe on discs (such as games) on Vista 64bit...

Moonfrost

New Member
Hi everyone, I wasn't sure where else to put this, if it's in the wrong section please if there's any mod out there you can change it to where it might belong to.

Anyway, the issue I'm having is one of the strangest I've seen on an OS.
I all of a sudden had a problem with a certain game and a certain mod which I wanted un-installed but the only way to un=install it is to actually re-install the game.

So I went backed up my files and un-installed my game and then inserted the original game disc in the drive to re=install it.

Now a lot of weird things happen, it just takes too long for the autorun.exe to actually "run", so I go to Computer and check if the disc gets recognized, but the whole "Computer" window is blank...I just eject the disc tray and the whole window comes alive again.

So I try again with another game (also tried this with an anti-virus CD) and something similar happens except this time the whole window freezes and then tells me Explorer is not responding, so I choose to close it (since it's supposed to re-open again automatically) but even though it re-opens it's frozen.

I then had to shut down the PC by holding the power button, turned it on again and then windows loads but takes longer than usual and my wallpaper is missing (black screen) so I eject the disc again and everything is dandy. I put it in again and it takes forever for the autorun.exe to actually run and when it's about to a window asking me what to do (if I want to open the folder on explorer or I want to run "install.exe") and I choose to run Install.exe, which never works and again freezes explorer, I again eject the disc and it doesn't work.

I then restarted the PC and tried 2 different boot discs, one a Vista disc and another Linux live disc...they both work perfectly, also when Windows booted I tried discs that don't have any executables in them such as data discs, audio cds, movie/video DVDs and all of them work perfectly so it's not the drive.

I then tried a lot of other discs that have "exe" files on them and none of them work and show weird behaviour, games, applications etc...it seems Vista doesn't want or doens't know how to open an executable that's in a disc!

I have never seen this before so I kinda doubt anybody has had this problem, I also checked for Viruses and nothing...not even spyware or trojans or anything and I also went to my linux partition and all this discs get perfectly recognized as Windows software (as usual) and nothing's wrong with them or the drive at all it seems.

I can't install my game or anything at this moment that is on a disc (I also tried exploring and sometimes explorer tells me it's a blank disc! or otherwise it shows me the exectuable which I can't execute!).

If anybody can help with this rather odd problem I would appreciate it quite a lot! but I'm afraid I might have to re-install the whole thing, I just hope it let's me backup my stuff!
 
Hi Moonfrost,

I did a liitle googling and it came up with a few links with the best one perhaps being this one:

Vista Won't Recognize Dvd But Can See Cd

It doesn't seem to have a solution as such but a few things you could try.

In order to help you further, if the above doesn't help, please list DVD drive, game you wanted to install as well as your pc specs.
 
Hi Moonfrost,

I did a liitle googling and it came up with a few links with the best one perhaps being this one:

Vista Won't Recognize Dvd But Can See Cd

It doesn't seem to have a solution as such but a few things you could try.

In order to help you further, if the above doesn't help, please list DVD drive, game you wanted to install as well as your pc specs.

Hi, thanks for the reply.

I forgot to say that they are both modern games, one is Stranglehold which came out in late 2007 and it comes in 2 dual layer DVDs, the other one is a backup copy of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas (which came out in 2005 and it obviously doesn't have a 16bit installer) which gets used all the time and was actually used ten minutes before that started happening with no problems.

I keep trying and it seems the drive (or Vista) doesn't like these 2 specific games, because everything else works flawlessly.

This is the drive: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe - CD / DVD Burners
 
Excellent, a Samsung. These are so simple to update. Here is a link for your model:

Link Removed due to 404 Error

Checkout the firmware upgrade options as it may help. If this still doesn't cure the problem then it may be a securerom issue and it may help if you go to each games website to see if there is a update/workaround. If nothing is mentioned on the games website then see if there is an official forum where you will amost certainly find the solution.
 
Excellent, a Samsung. These are so simple to update. Here is a link for your model:

download centre SAMSUNG

Checkout the firmware upgrade options as it may help. If this still doesn't cure the problem then it may be a securerom issue and it may help if you go to each games website to see if there is a update/workaround. If nothing is mentioned on the games website then see if there is an official forum where you will amost certainly find the solution.


Sorry I couldn't reply before, but I've tried the same day you posted this but the forum kept giving me database error every time I tried to submit the reply.

I upgraded the firmware but the same thing happens, I've tried XP now and it's still the same...although it reads everything else I throw at it and it has burned both CDs and DVDs without any problems at all and they all work.

I still don't know if a faulty drive should freeze explorer or give me other strange behaviour on the OS unless I eject the disc...it again only happens with both Stranglehold game DVDs and the San Andreas backup...I don't know anymore if to buy a new drive or what, but both XP and Vista have issues with these specific discs...

Also, many times when I try to "explore" the disc (if it lets me go that far) I double click either the install executable or the autorun executable and Windows (either XP or Vista) gives me an error saying it's not a valid Win32 application!

I wonder if the drive somehow damaged the discs? I see no scratches or some kind of indentation on the discs at all, they look perfect.

Anyway, thanks a lot for you trying to help!
 
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