DescentBB

been playing descent3 demo for a while; lovit. just purchased from interplay.com descent3/descent mercenary. after attempting to install these i get to the choose play screen i click play: i then get an error message: "unable to set temporary directory to C:\Games\Descent3\Custom\cache". i don't know what to do at this point.. i have tried to contact interplay as per their instructions & my email bounced back as undeliverable. i have a dell w/ enough stuff to run the program....any assistance will be greatly appreciated.h e l p. tnx

guess you need to install the dual-jewel patch for d3 1.0 from interplay first:

http://ftp.interplay.com/pub/patches/d3 ... _djfix.exe

and then update to 1.4:

http://ftp.interplay.com/pub/patches/d3_us_1.4.exe

that should work then. and have a look in multiplayer too, meet us at pxo and get killed errrm have fun

oh forgot: welcome to d3

This error occurs because you didn't go to the SETUP option in the Descent3 Launcher that comes up and specify your settings in the following tabs...

Video/Audio/Controls/Speed/Network/Misc

Once this is completed you can click OK on the dialog window and THEN click play. It's a stupid bug, I know.

I had that done to me a couple times, so I used my task switcher to see what programs were running, and main for d3 was on there, so I ended the task and it worked after that.
May not be your problem but it has happened before to me.

thanks for the help. i am going to make a go of it this p.m. .i am soooooooo illiterate w/ my dell. i hope i can pull this off. i'll be in touch if this doesn't work. descent3,to me,(all i know is the demo so far) is the perfect game! again, thanks.

guys, i've downloaded the patches& current stuffit."are you sure you wish to patch D3";yes. tried to unzip 1.0-djfix"cant create output file:\Games\D3\main.exe." i then try 1.4 patch & i get error x "old file does not exist."... i also went thru the setup option then got error"cannot find C\Games\Descent3~1Hlp file, do you want to try& find it yourself? got a bit furtherin the install phase. got to prompt C:\Games\Descent3\d3.hog then at 25% set up "an error occured during move data process:-132"......do i have system problem? two bad disks? operator error or whut?......while reviewing my notes i found another obstucting item:"cannot find the DESCEN3~1.hlp help file.check to seethat the file exists on your disk. if it doesn't, you need to reinstall it that is if one could get the thing to respond in some other way than it already has....PHEW!!! whado yall think?

Ok...listen very carefully.

1. Uninstall your current installation of D3 using Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel.

2. Re-install Descent3. If you have D3 Merc, install that once you've finished installing D3. If not, ignore that and just make sure D3 is installed.

3. You probably have the Australian version of D3, this is what usually gives the "Old file cannot be found error". Either that or something happend during the install. (Some Australian copies were accidentally sold in the US by mistake). Once D3 is installed you need to download the Australian 1.4 patch for D3, here is a link...
http://www.dfiles.de/download/d3/patche ... 4patch.zip (extract the zip file to your desktop and run the patch).

4. Run D3, the D3 Launcher window should come up. It's the window that has Play/ViewReadme/Setup/InstallDrivers/Auto-Update and some other stuff on it. (NOTE: Auto-update DOES NOT WORK, do not try to use it, download the patch via the link I provided above).

Click SETUP on the window and make sure the correct settings are in place on the Video/Audio/Controls/Speed/Network/Misc tabs. Then click OK, this will avoid the CACHE directory error you mentioned earlier.

You should be all set, click PLAY and see if the game will run. Make sure you follow the directions carefully though.

i uninstalled merc3. i had to throw d3 in the recycle bin.."uninsallation log file:"c:\games\descent3\uninst.isu is not valid ,or data has been corrupted. uninstsllstion will not continue." who'd a thunk it? however as per your instructions step #2 started install...as the bar got to 26% the program became unresponsive!so i ctrl/alt/del. out.while writing this i try to start again i get the original unable to set tempory directory message. please pardon my plodding. do you think these are faulty disks or is my macihne missing something? thanks

i have followed your instructions fully .this is almost maddening!!! i get the same results as before i do appreciate your help v.much. thanx

Did you check your Direct X to see if it is operating right?

It sounds like you could possibly have a bad disk If the install keeps hanging up at the same spot, that could be a good indication.

Yeah, I'd say the bad disk theory is as good as any.

Would help if we knew your system specifications...

Processor
Operating System
Memory
Video Card

etc...

It does sound a lot like bad disks, but you indicated you had installed it before just fine and just happend to be getting that cache error. Considering you had just gotten the game from Interplay, those disks should be just fine.

Tyranny wrote:This error occurs because you didn't go to the SETUP option in the Descent3 Launcher that comes up and specify your settings in the following tabs...

Video/Audio/Controls/Speed/Network/Misc

im wondering if he doesnt relize a custom command switch is possibly entered in the MISC tab?

thnx again... i have a 1 yr old dell w/ xp home w/1.99gig intel4 processor 512ram(sic) nvidia rage card etc.120gig harddrive 10% full .. i know this is wierd... i'm not sure what the issue is. i'm going to re-down load the demo so i can have something to do in the meantime till i get this thing figured out.

The surest way to rule out disks is to try installing on another PC. Did you try removing registry entries?

You can also take a can of air and blast out your CD-ROM. Dust & debris on the laser can produce read errors and cause the symtoms you're experiencing.

rec'd new copy of d3m3 from amazon. tried to install.exact same issues. ...while originally trying to install. i went tooooo fast a screen that said i couldn't uninstall.... so now i get "C:\games\descent3\uninst.isu is not valid or data has been corrupted.uninstall will not continue." have tried everything i know, which isn't much. is there any hope for me here?
i really don't know what to do. i had a mac performa 475 for 10 yrs. then i got this dell4550(fully loaded) last yr. so i'd really appreciate ANY help here. being somewhere around 40w tree light.

Just delete the old D3 folders, dont bother with the uninstall.

Every time I got the "unable to set temporary directory to C:\Games\Descent3\Custom\cache" I just deleted all the files in that folder. Worked for me?

(This may have already been mentioned, but I'm too lazy to read all the thread)

</useless comment>

Yea I'm kinda guilty of skimming also, however at some point I have read this entire topic. I stick with what I said tho, delete C:\Games\Descent3 then attempt to reinstall with the new disks.

After you think you have deleted everything go to "Find file" and type in descent and see if you missed anything.

Quick question: Did you uninstall the demo before trying to install the full game? I'm kinda shooting in the dark here since I don't know if the D3 installer will error out if you try to install it to the same directory as the D3 demo.

I think that MD might be on to something. Course, I would hope that the D3 demo was infact 'C:\Games\Descent3 Demo' by default and in this case he would be installing C:\Games\Descent3 as is the default for the retail D3.

Of course there is always the possibility that he did indeed do what MD thinks just by mistake. I hope for his sake he is 'deleting' D3 rather then just placing D3 in the recycle bin expecting it to be deleted right then on the spot. I also believe he might not have the correct hardware to run D3, though with his specs I can't imagine why not. Everything should be good to go...*scratches head*

I'll give him a little bit more credit and the benefit of the doubt that he does know how to use a PC. If not, then it might be a good time to admit so here so we can run through the quick basics to help you utilize Windows and hopefully trackdown what the cause of this issue is and get D3 running for you.

finally.
after having done all the deleting & patching i could do, i wildly inserted d3 in the dvd tray. voila'. as mentioned above my basic skills level w/ the pc are minimal at best. i just muddle thru... i usually find wher i want to go...it just take a while. thanks to all who have aided my journey...
d3/m3 just did not install as per my presupposition.
however in d3 level, ive found 2 keys but i usually get killed before getting to the 1st insert. how do you insert the right key? been all thru the acid pools & every where i think i can possibly go in the mine. guide bot takes me to the same place but can't get a key out to insert. is there a third key or wha'?

wow cool, hope to see you soon in d3-multiplayer

the answere to all d3-singleplayer questions can be found in moons descendarium:

http://moon.descent-3.com/d3howto.html

gl!