Strange install problem

[Ergates]

Whenever I try to install (or uninstall) Bioshock, the first thing it does is try to uninstall my wireless lan adaptor!

First time I installed it, I wasn't really paying attention and clicked OK before I realised.

You need an internet connection to finish the installation, so I had to swap disks part way through, put the LAN adaptor back on, then swap back again.

Now I'm having to reinstall it, after AVG decided to **** up the bioshock.exe (Thanks guys, much appreciated!) and it's doing it again! I click cancel it drops out of the whole installation. (When I uninstalled it I wasn't paying attention again and removed the adaptor, again!)

So my question is this: WTF is going on? What does Bioshock have against my LAN adaptor? This can't possibly be deliberate can it? This is now getting on my tits, AVG has already pissed me off by ****ing up the first install.

Specs:
E6750
Abit IP35E
2 Gb RAM
ATI X1950 - 512Mb
Belkin G+ USB Wireless adaptor
WinXP - clean install yesterday afternoon.

[neildittmar]

So my question is this: WTF is going on? What does Bioshock have against my LAN adaptor? This can't possibly be deliberate can it?

This sounds like the Wireless LAN software installer has/had the same Installshield Product GUID as BioShock. In other words, when you run the BioShock installer, the first thing Installshield does is checks to see if it already has an entry in the registry for that Product GUID. If it does, a flag is sent to setup indicating that the product is already "installed" and it needs to display the options to remove/uninstall (possibly repair or modify depending on how the installer was compiled on the developers end).

An easy way to verify this is using Regedit:

1. First, affirm that BioShock is uninstalled and your Wireless LAN software/drivers are installed.
2. Next, insert the BioShock DVD into the drive. Use Windows Explorer (right click the Start button - Explore) to view the contents of the game disk and look for a file named setup.ini. Open this file in notepad by right clicking on it, selecting Open With..., choosing "Select the program from a list" and clicking Notepad.
3. Locate the field labeled "Product GUID", highlight the value associated (typically a long-ish alphanumeric key seperated by hyphens) using your mouse, click the Edit menu, then Copy.
4. Open regedit by clicking Start - Run - typing in "regedit" (without the quotes) - Ok.
5. Click the very top of the folder tree in the left pane (should say "My Computer") to highlight it and click Edit - Find.. - right click on the "Find What..." field where the cursor is, click Paste (should have pasted the Product GUID value), and click Find Next.

Once this has been done, notice if anything is found in the registry particularly concerning your Wireless adapter. If it is (and it's not BioShock related), we know that a Product GUID duplication has occured. I should be able to give you a workaround so the game installs without blowing away your Wireless adapter software and drivers. However, I'd like to confirm that this is the case before giving you further advisement.

[Tech Richard]

Neildittmar's post sounds correct for this type of problem. I would also expect this to be a problem with the GUID's being the same (rare but sadly happens).

The other solution for this problem is to just run the setup.exe from the disk. Its often the autorun which does the GUID check, so place the disk in the drive. Goto "My Computer" --> "DVD drive".
Find the setup.exe file and run this. Follow the instructions as normal.

[Ergates]

Sadly, regedit didn't find any matching keys.

Tried just running the setup.exe a few minutes ago. Seemed to install OK, but then had the problem when it downloads the patch (invalid version or whatever it is - other people have had it). Didn't do that yesterday!!

Will try again.

[Ergates]

I'm now just repeatedly getting the "Invalid signature" error on the downloaded patch.

This is REALLY getting on my tits now. It worked fine yesterday.

Thanks AVG, thanks for wasting my entire evening.