characters.pbo, among others. Can't start ArmA.

[Psycho_ 0]

When to start ArmA, this happens:

I spend hours of browsing fourms to find the solution of this problem and finally, i find a topic in the unspeakable language of french, stating that this error will solve it self if I just update the game. Alright!

Updating to 1.05. "Error found in file characters.pbo". Though, the game says the update worked. Ok then. Trying to start. Doesn't work. Surprise!

Installing 1.08. This happens, in the order shown bellow.

Yeah, that's error messages. Now, I've tried reisntalling several times, but no difference whatsoever. I have also tried:

- Draging the game disc to the harddrive and installing

- Mounted the cd-device with deamon tools

- Installed it as it should be. And yeah, that means directly from the game disc.

Ok, so. Help please?

[W0lle 1050]

You maybe are using the US 1.08 patch on the european version or the International patch on the US version.

I see "european" in the patch window but you don't say what version of ArmA you have.

For the european version of ArmA which is v1.05 by default you need the Patch 1.08 (International).

You say 1.05 giving you errors too, probably you already started with the wrong patch there too.

What version of ArmA you have when you do a clean install? The version number you see after ArmA is started in the lower left screen.

There were also some patch issues in the past when using a 64bit windows. If you're using such an OS it might be good to tell too.

[Psycho_ 0]

Well it's bought from a swedish retailer so I assume it's european version.

OS Win XP 32-bit

And no hardware that could mean an issue (ie, multicore or 8000-series graphics card).

"the european version of ArmA which is v1.05 by default"

You sure about this? Becouse I tried updating directly to 1.08, but the game said I needed to install 1.05 first. Can't find any info about the game version though.

Forgot to say, this happens right after installation (or rather at the end of it):

I don't know if there's another file too that doesn't work since it's not at the end of the startup "checklist"? And it works draging the files directly to the hard drive and installing from there, so I guess it's not an issue with my DVD-drive eihter.

Maybe someone could send me their "characters.pbo" by msn? Since it seems to be the issue it might work just replacing the file.

[Cormega 0]

If you have the Euro version (505 Games) it should definitely be 1.04. So you'd need patch 1.04-1.05, THEN the 1.05-1.08 patch.

The error problems your having is from a corrupted download. It seems that 90% of all the patches for ArmA are corrupted. I had this same problem, try downloading from Gamer's Hell. The patches there worked fine for me.

God forbid BI address such as small concern as this <- sarcasm

[W0lle 1050]

Cormega is right, the european version is 1.04 by default, not 1.05.

I suggest you deinstall ArmA, and then install it again from scratch. Start it without patching and check what version you have. Then it's easier to tell you what patches you need.

[Psycho_ 0]

Installed a new DVD device and it seems to be working now. Very strange indeed... maybe my old one was outdated

[thompa 0]

Also have the .pbo errors.

When I try to install the 1.05 patch I get

Quote[/b] ]

Please be patient. This update may appear to take a long time to complete. It is updating and installing very large data.

European DVD Version

Verifying ArmA: Armed Assault, version 1.04...

Error found in file AddOns\air.pbo (96587d7e!=7cd47382)

Error found in file AddOns\air3.pbo (e2ac47a3!=1369b275)

Error found in file AddOns\animals.pbo (b346117a!=3f699962)

Error found in file AddOns\Anims.pbo (5b5fdf06!=0f6a6a6e)

ArmA: Armed Assault: Updating version 1.04 to version 1.05...

Update 1.04-1.05\ADDONS\AIR.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

Update 1.04-1.05\ADDONS\AIR3.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

Update 1.04-1.05\ADDONS\ANIMS.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

And during the 1.08 I get

Quote[/b] ]

Please be patient. This update may appear to take a long time to complete. It is updating and installing very large data.

European DVD Version

Verifying ArmA, version 1.05...

Error found in file AddOns\air.pbo (fe592cae!=7cd47382)

Error found in file AddOns\air3.pbo (a61efcf8!=1369b275)

Error found in file AddOns\animals.pbo (b346117a!=3f699962)

Error found in file AddOns\Anims.pbo (97baf62e!=0f6a6a6e)

ArmA: Updating version 1.05 to version 1.08...

Update 1.05-1.06\ADDONS\AIR.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

Update 1.05-1.06\ADDONS\AIR3.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

Update 1.05-1.06\ADDONS\ANIMS.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

Update 1.06-1.08\ADDONS\AIR.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

Update 1.06-1.08\ADDONS\AIR3.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

Update 1.06-1.08\ADDONS\ANIMALS.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

Update 1.06-1.08\ADDONS\ANIMS.PBO.UPD cannot be applied, error xdelta3 returned error code: 1

I have tried reinstalling the game and tried patches from a dozen different sites, still always the same errors.

I have the 505 european game, and of course the patches I have downloaded have been the right versions.

32 bit Vista Ultimate, but got the error when trying to patch it under XP 32 bit too.

[thompa 0]

So I suppose there's no solution to this then.

I tested with the patches from Gamer's Hell, but no.

Last thing to try is to download an illegal copy and try with that, but that doesn't exactly feel right.

Otherwise it would be nice if you could get the specific files yourself in some way and just copy them to the right destination.

Or is there any program that you can use to manually extract the patches to som temporary path and then pick out single files?

[W0lle 1050]

If you get the errors already when trying to apply the 1.05 patch then most probably the installed files are corrupt. If you can, try installing it from another dvd drive.

The addon files are as .gz archives on the dvd in the \arma\addons folder. You can extract them using WinRAR (other software might work too).

The other files and folders are uncompressed in the \arma folder, you just can copy them over.

[Maddmatt 1]

...

Are you sure the version of ArmA you have is European 1.04? According to those errors it isn't.

Uninstall, then re-install. Before applying patches, start up ArmA and check the version number at the bottom left of the main menu. If it is 1.04 and you still get the messages (and the game plays fine), then the problem is happening during patching and your original install is fine.

If it's the patching process thats having problems, well it could be your system having problems with the patching software or something. I don't know anymore about that.