Game won't start -- hangs computer

[Spryboy]

I just installed Prey, and it looked like it installed fine, but the game won't run. When starting up, it goes to the full screen "Prey" graphic and just hangs. Hard. I have to power off the computer and power-own to get any control back.

I can't uninstall because it says that "CDKEY.DLL" is missing. Also, the game doesn't appear in the Add/Remove Programs list in the control panel. I copied that file over manually from the CDROM and was able to uninstall. I then re-installed, but go the exact same problem.

I'm running it on a brand new Dell XPS 400 with ATI X1900XTX graphics board, SB XFi sound card, 2gig of Ram, and a Pentium-D 3.0Ghz ...

Is there something I can do to figure out what the problem is?? It's very disappointing that I've spent two hours and countless reboots trying to get the game to run, and it not only won't start, it locks my computer HARD.

Help?

[Spryboy]

Okay, I found out it's not hanging or locking-up the computer. It's just freezing the video display on that graphic, and then the game evidently exits out from underneath it. I can't get back to the desktop no matter what I do (Alt-Tab, Alt-Esc, Ctrl-Alt-Del), but I've discovered that I can "type blind" and use the keyboard to do things like call up cmd windows and stuff, explorer, etc. Of course, it's not very useful, because I'm totally blind. I can see the mouse cursor if I move it around, but all I see is that frozen "Prey" graphic.

So is there some way I can get the computer/graphics-card to go back to the desktop (maybe some utility or app or command I can invoke from the cmd shell while 'blind'?) I'm guessing there's some error message. I tried copying that CDKEY.DLL to the Prey folder, and to the Prey/Base folder, but that didn't help.

Is there some command line argument I can add to get a logfile of the startup, so I can try and track down what's failing?

This is VERY frustrating. There is absolutely nothing unusual about my system, and every other game has alway installed and run just fine. Please help, someone!

[Dropkick]

May sound stupid but could check your firewall and manually allow or deny the prey exercutable access to the network. So it does not pop up with a message do you want to allow the acess to internet message. Then try the game again as it does not like to minimised

[Spryboy]

Yup, it was the firewall. I found out by "blindly" launching another full-screen game (F.E.A.R.) and then exiting it. When it existed, I saw the McAffee firewall dialog prompting to allow access to Prey.exe.

UGH, did they not TEST this thing with firewalls? Every other game swaps back to the desktop so I can dismiss the dialog... not sure why this one doesn't.

They need to put a sticky up about firewalls... EVERY computer should have them and should be running them, but not everyone uses the built-in Windows firewall...

Anyway, it's running now. That was an unnecessary and frustrating waste of four hours of my life... and I doubt I'm the only one that will experience this problem. Virtually all Dell computers these days are sold with McAffee firewall enabled...

[jonnycox]

Yeah, I had the same problem... CA Firewall was haulting the game but for some reason prey wouldn't minimize to desktop so I wasn't able to see the prompt screen. Thanks for posting this Spryboy... I was just about to write up my own... just glad I don't have to wait for an answer! :) Thanks guys.

[roadcoder]

I also had the same problem, only I'm using Norton's firewall. Thanks for posting it all, Spryboy.

As far as whether or not they tested with a firewall, maybe they did, but with a corporate-style firewall and not a personal one. The business firewalls usually don't give you a pop-up like personal firewalls.

[Ronstar]

Yup, it was the firewall. I found out by "blindly" launching another full-screen game (F.E.A.R.) and then exiting it. When it existed, I saw the McAffee firewall dialog prompting to allow access to Prey.exe.

UGH, did they not TEST this thing with firewalls? Every other game swaps back to the desktop so I can dismiss the dialog... not sure why this one doesn't.

They need to put a sticky up about firewalls... EVERY computer should have them and should be running them, but not everyone uses the built-in Windows firewall...

Anyway, it's running now. That was an unnecessary and frustrating waste of four hours of my life... and I doubt I'm the only one that will experience this problem. Virtually all Dell computers these days are sold with McAffee firewall enabled...

This is generally an issue with the DooM³ - Engine, there are minimizers for that kind of problem...., well you need to know in the first place ;)

[Spryboy]

The odd thing is, I don't recall having this issue with Doom3 itself! Weird.

[laggerific]

I have a very similar issue, with the stopping at the prey splash, while having the cursor available to me. This happened even when I disabled my firewall software.

[Spryboy]

Do you have multiple firewalls running? I know some people have had that issue... I dunno if a hardware firewall would have this problem since it's not going to try and pop-up anything on your desktop.

[cavicchi71]

Same problem here with McAfee firewall. It did not prompt me to allow game. just froze at splash screen.
I allowed game in McAfee settings and now runs fine. btw it runs on my DELL 2.0Ghz. I have a cheapo sapphire 9600 on this PC. 2Gb RAM.
Great Game! Good luck!