Game launcher continously trying to access my floppy drive ? Won't install without it

chrisell

C
I ran the launcher for the first time in a few weeks today to grab the update to the full game and it's just been hammering my A: (floppy) drive like crazy (sounds like a machine gun - like it's continuously starting and stopping the drive motor). The launcher stalls out while it's spamming the drive and only when the drive goes quiet does the launcher start trying to sync files again. So far it's taken 4 hours trying to sync files to launch the game so I gave up and opened up my PC and unplugged the floppy.
Now the launcher just gives me endless error messages about the "A: Drive door is open - close drive door to continue". My machine doesn't have an A: Drive - I unplugged it - but now the launcher won't do anything.
I know this was reported in the Gamma forums but the thread is short and was closed without resolution (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=73404)

What gives? Why does the launcher need to access the floppy drive while syncing files off the server?
And how can I Get around this so I can actually install and play the game?

Commander Irritated-Because-The-Betas-Didnt-Have-This-Problem
 
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worldoflard

W
chrisell said:
I ran the launcher for the first time in a few weeks today to grab the update to the full game and it's just been hammering my A: (floppy) drive like crazy (sounds like a machine gun - like it's continuously starting and stopping the drive motor). The launcher stalls out while it's spamming the drive and only when the drive goes quiet does the launcher start trying to sync files again. So far it's taken 4 hours trying to sync files to launch the game so I gave up and opened up my PC and unplugged the floppy.
Now the launcher just gives me endless error messages about the "A: Drive door is open - close drive door to continue". My machine doesn't have an A: Drive - I unplugged it - but now the launcher won't do anything.
I know this was reported in the Gamma forums but the thread is short and was closed without resolution (https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=73404)

What gives? Why does the launcher need to access the floppy drive while syncing files off the server?
And how can I Get around this so I can actually install and play the game?

Irritated.
Click to expand...

Did you travel in time from the 90's? A floppy drive?
 

Dr Zachary Smith

Dr Zachary Smith
That's weird I haven't had a floppy drive in the PC for about 5 years, try reinstalling with it unplugged perhaps :) looks like some drive seeking activity in the installer :) or it could be a sign of malware.
 

Yachats

Y
Since you unplugged it, try reinstalling the launcher and/or running the hardware check again. It might remember you had one.
 

SENTER

S
I haven't had a floppy drive since about three years ago when my PC caught fire and melted my hard drive. Its amazing how floppy a hard drive gets when you burn it. This may sound like a silly question and im not taking the mick but have you downloaded the latest launcher? I ask because I had similar problems with various parts of my PC not allowing the program to run because the launcher was out of date.
 

chrisell

C
Yachats said:
Since you unplugged it, try reinstalling the launcher and/or running the hardware check again. It might remember you had one.
Click to expand...

Tried that. Went into the BIOS and disabled the old interface too so as far as the PC and Windows is concerned, it has no 3.5" drive now. Re-downloaded the installer and ran it again - just dozens of error messages again about "drive door is open" and a file-sync bar that's doing nothing :(

What's really irritating is that none of the betas did this but as soon as they did the gamma installer, this behaviour happened and now with the released game it's become worse ...
 
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Ghanji

Ghanji
did you follow the steps in the manual?

Place the disk in the drive and close the hatch.
Type: LOAD "*",8,1
The game will start as soon as loading is complete.
When loading is complete, you will see a rotating space ship.
Click to expand...
 

chaseydog

chaseydog
Sounds like there is a config file that keeps telling the installer to look for the floppy drive. Give this a try, delete the installer, delete the Frontier folder in C:/Users/username/local (may be hidden). If there are two Frontier folders delete both. You may want to make a back up of your custom bindings file first if you have custom bindings. Try reinstalling.

Good luck.
 

aMinDAmoK

aMinDAmoK
One thing to try. First uninstall Elite. Then, find every folder and file related to Elite and delete it (there is stuff everywhere including your user folders). Then, perhaps, run something like CCleaner to scan and clean the registry of any unnecessary references. This might work. Something that used to cause this is some antivirus programs. An other possibility is you have some sort of virus. I hesitate to suggest it because I know it sucks. But, it is also quite possible that you may need to reinstall windows in order to correct the problem. Before trying that though and after making sure you have everything from Elite removed. Try and roll back the computer to an earlier date.
 
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chrisell

C
chaseydog said:
Sounds like there is a config file that keeps telling the installer to look for the floppy drive. Give this a try, delete the installer, delete the Frontier folder in C:/Users/username/local (may be hidden). If there are two Frontier folders delete both. You may want to make a back up of your custom bindings file first if you have custom bindings. Try reinstalling.

Good luck.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the first bit of constructive help. Interestingly in the appdata/local there was "Frontier_Developments", "Frontier Developments" and "Frontier-Developments"
I deleted all three, deleted the program files folder rebooted and did a clean install.
Now I don't have as many errors (they're still popping up though - about the A: drive bay door) but my download speed is now stuck at 0Mb/s. At least before it was downloading something, now it's downloading nothing. I've opened a support ticket.

Ugh.

All the pleasure of having been on the beta program was just undone by a broken release installer :(
It es me off because I would expect this from someone like Electronic Arts, but having gone all the way through from the first kickstarter, through all the betas to the release without a single real problem, to get to today and find I can't even install the release is kick in balls.
 

chrisell

C
gmrussell said:
Try disabling the floppy drive support in Bios also, even if you unplug it legacy support may be enable still in Bios.
Click to expand...

Already done. No different.

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Nasher said:
This isn't a problem with the launcher. Something is wrong with your system or windows config somewhere.
Click to expand...

My system is unchanged since the betas and the beta installers didn't have this problem.
 
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