I'm posting again since the problem is somewhat different than I thought it was and I want a caption that reflects the problem correctly. Apologies to anyone who already saw this problem buried in a thread with a different caption.

With disc 2 in the machine I click on the exe file or shortcut (same result). I get a checking disc message and a little bar that goes maybe 1/5 of the way across. After a few seconds I get the hourglass for maybe 1/2 a second then I'm back on my desktop.

I might have assumed disk 2 was bad but it was good enough to let me install the game and play once without this happening. Of course, <sigh> it could have suddenly just gone bad but discs don't go bad that often these days unless you are playing Wizardry 8 <sad smile> (a game notorious for the low quality of the discs although famed for the high quality of the game).

Any ideas?

Did you re-boot the computer and shut down all non-essential programs before trying to start the game?

Yes.

Do you have any CD burning software, virtual CD software or anything else funky of that nature installed?

Have a different CD-ROM you can try?

She said in a different topic she only had the one drive.

Do you have access to a different computer you could try? That would at least help determine if the CD itself was the problem, rather than a conflict between the copy protection and the optical drive (though if that was the case, it shouldn't have worked the first time). Perhaps re-install the game? Maybe install the patch after rebooting the computer on install, but before trying to run the game (or try the unpatched game first if that was what you did).

I think the StarForce copy protection that BD uses just doesn't work on certain drives, especially some DVD/CD-RW combo type drives. May be out of luck if you cannot find another drive to use, I don't know if there's any workaround.

Again, thanks.

This disc was good and the drive was good.

After uninstalling and installing the game it now works again. After about 15 seconds it goes from the disc screen to the loading screen and all seems well - for now <hopeful smile>.

Maybe deleting the copy protection folder helped <broader smile>. I hate pirates as much as the next person but hey - I did just buy the game today - have the receipt to prove it - so that folder is history (I assumed it would wreck something and I'd have to reinstall but that didn't happen).