tr III no cd??? how do I fix this???

[.chio.]

I bought the game and began to play it, everything went ok, but after some time I had a virus problem and had to format the hard disk so when I isntalled the game again the message: tr III cd? appears! Does anyone know how to fix this? I tried with the tr III patch but it doesn't seem to work!

[eurisko]

What OS are you running? I had this appear and I'm running 2K. I turned on Windows 98 compatibility mode for TR3 and it's worked since.

[.chio.]

mine is windows 98, but I had office 98 before and installed office XP now, I also have only one cd driver which is D I used to have D and E (which broke down) before.

[Rooi Willie]

I've experienced this exact same problem with TR3 - I bought the game on the Sold-Out.co.uk label a while ago and am running Windows 2000. After being unable to resolve the crashing problem when trying to run the game, I also tried installing every possible patch, both official and unofficial. I also did the compatibility fix that you guys suggested, but nothing seems to be working - it no longer gives an error, but after installing the patches it now prompts me for the CD. Seriously, what the hell? If any of you know the answer to this, I will be VERY much in your debt.:confused:

[Dino]

When did you purchase your Tomb Raider III CD?

The tomb3.exe file on my TR3 CD, purchased in July of 2001, is the same as the official Eidos patch. After the patch was issued, it probably went into all new production as it should.

Does your TR3 CD have a COKeM International Ltd. logo?

If it does, then your TR3 CD doesn't have the phony directory entries of the copy protection scheme on the original TR3 CD's. The tomb3.exe file has a later modify date (12/3/98, 965,632 bytes) than the tomb3.exe file of the patch (12/2/98 966,656 bytes).

The patch tomb3.exe file enforces the copy protection, requiring a TR3 CD with the phony directory entries to be in the CD-ROM drive. If the patch is applied to an installation where the TR3 CD doesn't have the phony directory entries, you will get the "Tomb Raider III CD ?" message.

I don't know anything about the Sold-Out.co.uk label, but if it is recent production and doesn't have the copy protection scheme, and you apply the official Eidos patch which enforces the copy protection, that may be the cause of your problem.

[.chio.]

ouch! mine is one of the first appearing on market it is so old and hasn't that label on it... I suppose I'll buy a new one when I get some money ...
but it used to work ok! I don't know what is happening, lost artifact crashes to desktop! and it used to work fine anyway I saw the games in the market lately and all of them are in the same package as a music cd, with all the labels and so on, but all the tr games I own have a piramid like box???? should I buy one of them?

[The Master]

Originally posted by Rooi Willie
I've experienced this exact same problem with TR3 - I bought the game on the Sold-Out.co.uk label a while ago and am running Windows 2000. After being unable to resolve the crashing problem when trying to run the game, I also tried installing every possible patch, both official and unofficial. I also did the compatibility fix that you guys suggested, but nothing seems to be working - it no longer gives an error, but after installing the patches it now prompts me for the CD. Seriously, what the hell? If any of you know the answer to this, I will be VERY much in your debt.:confused:

There are a lot of problems with Windows 2000 and the earlier TR games. Have you tried the patches available from
http://www.tombraiderchronicles.com/tr3/fixes.html ?
Their forums have some very knowledgeable people as well.

[Rooi Willie]

Hi guys

Just to let you know that I posted my question in a couple of threads and managed to get my game to work. Go to this thread:

http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?s=&postid=252504#post252504

It was the one that helped me the most and I also posted the steps I took to get my game to work there. It may be of some help to you.