Webwing

The truth is nobody knows exaclty what causes the problem. It is related to VIA chipset motherboards, this much we know but it seems that even some people with motherboards with other chipsets have similar problems. I tried basicaly everything I read here and in other posts. Nothing worked for me so far. (Yes, I tried to change the RAM speed...) But for now I gave up the search since I installed the game whith all the patches in another computer that doesnt suffer from this compatibility problem and then copied all the files to my home computer. So now I'm spending my time playing the game (with the benefits of the 1.3 patch) which in my opinion is a lot more fun than the time I was spending trying to fix the problem. Of course I'm still curious about the problem...

It sais that the value should be: HCLK and not HCLK+PCICLK is that right? but I could not find a place in my BIOS to set that.

Definetly this proves that there is a compatibility problem between the patch instalation program and my home computer. Again, I have not found a way to really fix the problem justa way round the problem. Still this might be a solution for people who have access to a way of transporting large files from one computer to the other. All that said I'm still curious to know why is it that my computer, the chipset, or whatever, is picking only the sound.pbo file. Cause the instalation program and the check instalation program from BIS only find a problem with this specific file and no other. (comp specs= Athlon 1.2 GHZ, Motherboard ASUS A7V 133, ASUS V7700 GeForce2 GTS, 256 Kingston Memory, IBM Destk Star 45 G - ULTRA ATA 100, Sound Blaster Live X Gamer).

So far I had tried everything that anyone sugested, spent a lot of time and to be honest none of the explanations for my problem seemed to make much sence to me. My problem was everytime I tried to install patch 1.2 I got an error with the sound.pbo file saying it was corrupted. I got another instalation CD and the problem was the same. The only file to be corrupted was the sound.pbo. Today I took my CD to work and at the end of my day installed the game on my computer and the patches, 1.2 and 1.3 without any problem. I couldnt check if the game was working since I had no graphics card in that computer(a PII 300). Anyway I copied all the game files to 4 Zip disks, used WinZip to compress the data.pbo file that was to big to fit in the zip disk. Once home I copied all the files to my hard disk and unzip the data.pbo. The chances of geting corrupted files were enormous I thought. Well, I have played 3 missions so far, messed with the editor (now wizard) and havent had any problems so far!!! I did not "fix" the problem but at least found a way round it and got what I wanted: the 1.3 game. So if you are having problems and nothing seems to work try this. Hope this helps other people.

I mentioned in another post that the problems mentioned in this forum about the VIA chipset were related to Sound Blaster Live. From what I read they(VIA) were trying to fix a compatibility problem between the chipset and the sound card and ended up with a curruption problem when copying files. But if you dont have problems instling the patches and havent experienced any problems with the sound, dont even bother reading about it.

You dont give up easily do you, Spitfire? Thats good. It didnt even cross my mind to through my computer out of the window so far! If you could see how it plays IL-2 Sturmovik, you'd understand... ;) Well, the thing is I cannot have my hard drive and my Cdrom drive in the same ribbon since my main hard drive(where i have windows) is connected to the Ultra ATA 100 connector(its an IBM Deskstar) and the cd is connected to the "normal" IDE connector. Motherboard is Asus A7V133. But I'll try to remove the sound card, since the error is always with the sound file and the Sound Blaster Live is one of the culprits in the VIA chipset problem. thanks.

I followed the link and read about the ASPI layer. I downloaded the 2 programs, the one the checks the system end the exe... well, it didnt make any difference. I also tried some hacker sites and used unsafe disk dumper and rebuilder. it works fine if you dont want to put the cd in all the time but it didnt help me with the patch. someone else sugested the Clone CD in the system tray as you start the patch... nothing. Maybe they could just release a patch that wouldnt check the integrity of the files. They could leave all the security stuff in. I dont know. I'm getting really fed up with this issue since Im spending more time trying to figure this out than to acutally play the game.

it didnt work for me. but then, I'm still trying to install 1.2 patch... By no I have even tried the Unsafedisk dumper and rebuilder... it is realy ironical that you by an original name with a nice box and everything and then you need to resourt to hackers stuff to try and install a patch. but even that did not work.

First thanks Spitfire for your answer. Your reasoning makes a lot of sence but the only thing that still puzzles me is that if the problem, like you said, happens with big files then each time I tried to install the game the problem should occur sometimes in other files too not only in the sound.pbo file. Inside the DTA folder you have the data.pbo which is 100 Mgs, the music.pbo 44 Mgs and the voice.pbo 32 Mgs. The sound.pbo is 17 Mgs. Why is it that it doenst matter how many times I transfer the data.pbo file, for instance, from the CD to my hard disk it never so far had any corruption? It sounds pretty odd to me. I'm using the check instalation utility from BIS. My conclusion was that the CD media was faulty so I went to the shop and got a new copy and you know what, I still get a sound.pbo file currupted message!!! Now, why is my defective VIA shipset only picking on this specific file? Sorry if I am missing something here but it just doesnt make no sence to me at all. I'm not saying there isnt a problem with the VIA chipset, I read the posts and the statements from the VIA site. Again it just sound odd that the corruption only occurs with one specific file. Any sugestions will be welcome since I am genuinely trying to fix and understand this. Mind you, the only thing I havent tried so far is to install the game in another computer to see what happens ( I'll that tomorrow) and if ok, copy the files to a zip disk and then copy them again to my computer. I sure know that there are many problems with computer componets and the whole complexity of the thing. I'm also no specialist but I managed to assemble my own computer so I'm not completely iliterate in the matter. In case you are wondering about the specs: Motherboard : ASUS A7V with a VIA chipset KT133A( there it is!!!) Processor ; Athon 1.2 GHz Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Live Gamer - which is blamed to have started this whole process with VIA. Memory : Kingston 256 Hard Drive: IBM Deskstar 45 GB Ultra ATA 100 3D: Asus V7700 GeForce2 GTS Thanks again,

OBiJuan, This is the troubleshooting thread. YOU say you have no problems, with patches or anything. The only reason for you to be around would be to help people solve their proplems or at least try to. I tried virtually everything that was posted and still have the problem. Another issue is that most people here now more than average about computers and will mess around with BIOS settings and the likes but what about the guys that just bought the game dont have the time to waste looking for somenting nobody seems to know what it is?

OBiJuan, Lets not get taken away here, please. How do you know 99% of the people dont have the same problem? Maybe 50%, or 30% or.... ####, we just dont know , do we. How can we know how many people are having the problem? The fact is there is a lot of people having it and the "solutions" to the problem that are being posted just dont work for most people. I have tried all the possible solutions posted. When copying files there is sometimes the possibility of data corruption but not always on the same file and even from diferent CDs. I have this machine for some time and I've been working with  all sorts of programs from Photoshop and 3D Max to games like Flight Sim 2002(that I installed - 1.8 GB - without any problems) plus transfering massive files through a network. I seems strange to me that only now with OFP this curruption issue will show up. On the other hand I must say that this is one of the best games I ever played without any patches and I'm not going to go on here why I think it is so outstanding. I love it as it is even with some "bugs". And it is a lot less buggy than most games in the market. I'm not among those who say they wont buy another product from BIS again because of the patch problems. These things happens since the programs are so complex and user machines so different. All that said I still havent had a logical explanation for the problem. Period.

I found this in the Troubleshooting FAQ thread in this forum: Q: When I try to install patch 1.20, I get error message like "Error found in fileDTA\Sound.pbo (2e091cb6!=6c2ebbc9)". I am unable to install patch. A: The problem is caused by corrupted data already stored on your hard disc. If you have a VIA chipset, this may be caused by bug in VIA drivers / chipset. Disabling DMA for both hard drive and CD ROM often fixes the problem. See al http://www.flashpoint1985.com/cgi-bin....topic=2 for more information about VIA chipset problems. If you have other chipset than VIA, reinstalling game should help. If not, you should probably ask for replacement disc, as your media seems to be corrupted. ----------------------------- Are they going to insist that the problems whith the patches are actually "our" problem. And poor VIA! It works fine with all the software I tried but BIS needs a scapegoat...

I have the same problem and it is pathetic that we are posting this in the "oficial" OFP forum and no one will give us a decent aswer for the problem. Instead some people here will sugest that is not the copy protection crap that is causing the trouble but the VIA chipset! Do they think we are idiots or what? (Edited by Webwing at 2:30 am on Dec. 6, 2001)

Hm, thanks for the answers. I read the posts about the "problems" with the VIA chipset but they sure dont convince me. I have this machine for quite a while now and I work with many programs(Photoshop, 3D Studio Max, etc) and have installed many games and I do transfer large files(where aparently the problems occur)too. I never experienced any problems like this. Just as an example I installed Flight Simulator 2002, a massive 1,8 GB and had no problems whatsoever. So, to blame the chipset for a problem that only occurs whith the upgrades of one game seems like a lame excuse from the part of the developers. A real shame when you think how good the game is.

sorry, read the post bellow. (Edited by Webwing at 1:39 am on Dec. 6, 2001)