Demo - Error (won't install)

Redownload would probably be your best bet.

What else have you tried?

 

That's odd. Usually the "error" error is when you're installing the full game over the demo

I don't think a re-download will fix it, but it's worth a shot. Some antivirus has been known to interfere, so it also wouldn't hurt to try disabling everything.

What would you suggest?

Tried disabling AVG and S&D, and that doesn't help.

As a note, in case it isn't obvious enough from the screenshot-that progress bar is at 0%.  It's doing this as it's beginning the install.

And yes, I have the latest .net (3.5), if that's relevant.

Redownloading it now...got my fingers crossed.

 

I'm somewhat disappointed that Impulse doesn't have a direct install option for demos like SDC had, though.

My kingdom for a working edit button.

I may be wrong on the SDC comment-it doesn't appear to work -now-...but I remember it working in the past.

The case of this error message when installing the full version over the demo is the case of registry values already being there from the demo. But since you're installing the demo itself I can't fathom how there would be a registry conflict. Impulse is just now starting to roll out demos and such, perhaps a separate post in the Impulse forum (so it gets seen by people who can do this) will get them to publish the Sins demo on it.

You can also try e-mailing [email protected] and see if they'll help, I honestly don't know if they care that it's the demo and not the retail, but it's definitely worth a try.

SoaSE demo was appearing for me in Impulse. Hit the options, Show Demos on your install just to be sure.

 

Oh snap! Well, that settles that then

Yes-tried that.  It just auto-saves the file-in fact, in Impulse, it opens FF to do so, which seems odd to me.  Virtually the same thing happens in SDC, except that the file download appears to be handled within SDC itself.

Got it redownloaded and the same error is still occurring at the same point in time.

I sent SeaBass a PM (since according to one of the stickied posts in the Impulse forum he's the guy to talk to about Impulse suggestions) and asked for a direct install option via Impulse for this and other demos, since apparently this is no longer working this way in SDC-if it ever was...I'm still not 100% positive I remember that correctly.

But I figure at best I'm waiting on an update for Impulse and it might require an entire new build (though I doubt it) so at this point I don't exactly have my hopes up.

I can't fathom why it isn't working, either.

Although we can rule out rebooting as a solution...

Yeah, I'll send them an email next...but first, one last thing to try.

Just for laughs, what registry entrie(s) would I be looking to fix up here if it thought for some reason I was installing the full version over the demo?

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Just as an addendum...would I be correct in assuming that the installer is not supposed to take 5 or 6 minutes to verify its contents?  I'm running a Q6600 (& x1950GT) here, so that strikes me as unusual.

Try searching the net for the demo from a third party. So odd...

 

Ah, the joys of 768kbit internet.

Though I suppose I'm fortunate it's not 56k.

Installer downloaded from Filefront does the same exact thing.

Once, I'm willing to accept a corrupt file.  Twice, I'm willing to accept a corrupt source.  Three times...

 

I guess it's support time, then.

Another program is probably interfering with installation. Other than anti-virus/spyware/adware, I don't know what.

 

I don't remember the full path, but it's in HKEY_LOCAL_USERS I think, the defaul Program Files path and I think it should be listed under Dregnin there somewhere. Sorry, I didn't catch this post while I was home so I can't be more specific, just going off memory.

As long as we're shooting in the dark, though, when was the last time you ran windows update? There was a poster not too long ago that couldn't install the game no matter what, and it turned out all he needed to do was update the Windows installer from Microsoft.. so you never know, maybe it's something weird there?

I have autoupdates set to notify & ask, and it hasn't had any activity in at least ten days.

Went to softwarepatch and got WInstaller 4.5 (just in case I didn't have it already; last one I remember was 3.xx).

Only entries in \Drengin.net are GCII and TPM.

And, yeah...still doesn't work.

Tried safe mode, just because.  Installer complains that the installer service can't be accessed, and says this might happen in safe mode.  Tried manually starting the installer service, but Windows returns an error and tells me I can't start it in safe mode.  (Silly Microsoft, I WANT to start it in safe mode!)

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On the bright side...the insanely long "verifiying" that the installer does would not appear to have much, if anything, to do with the problem.  On the not so bright side, extracting the files from the downloaded executable with Winrar and then running either the setup.exe or the .msi produces the same results as before...only faster, since now I don't have to wait for it to check the file integrity every time.

And sent an email to support after my last post-already got the autoreply back (two actually, the one where they tell you someone will look at it and the one where they tell you to check the FAQs).  So hopefully they can find it, and maybe before we do.

"I haven't failed, I've just found ten thousand ways that don't work!"

Well, then, at this point the only suggestion I've got is to take a monkey wrench and start bashing your case shouting "This is how we fix problems!" at the top of your lungs - but I wouldn't recommend it

I'll be honest, in the half a year or so the demo has been out, yours is the first post with this installation problem. So I'm at a complete loss.

Seabass is a good man, though, and SD support is great too. Will be interesting to see what they say!

This is strange, but I suggest using the Impulse demo (and not the outside download).

• Click on the My Games tab.
• In the upper-right, click the arrow button.
• This will display a bunch of options. Click the Options button and select Show demos.
• You should see a demo for Sins of a Solar Empire.
• Select this and click Install.

This should do the trick.

I had this exact same problem, but -in the words of Papa Lazaru- I've fixed it now. It seems the Windows firewall -I'm using Vista if that has any bearing- was causing the problem - as soon as I disabled it (after disconnecting from the internet, of course- the demo verrified perfectly (if slowly), and then installed without a hitch. Once it had, I switched the firewall back on and reconnected to the internet... and the demo still works fine. I'd already told the firewall to allow the demo through, but that, it seems, wasn't enough - only totally disabling it worked.

Hope this is of help.