NHL 2001 - Quick game only, no tournament mode

[kearos 0]

Dear all,

 

I just went to pick up EA Sports NHL 2001. I know the box doesn't say Win2000 supported but I decided to take a chance because the demo ran beautifully.

 

I install the game and run it with absolutely no errors. To my surprise, when I clicked on "Season" mode, it gives me "Error: hard drive is full" once I've gone on to the second screen; AFTER entering Season name and inputting season parameters. This happens to all the tournament modes as well.

 

Strangely, when I play in "Quick Game" mode, the game runs flawlessly. Moreover, I booted up into Win98se, installed NHL 2001 onto that partition and NHL 2001 has no problems. I play NHL 2000 among many new and old games, and I have never had a problem like this. I have read on other forums and friends who are experiencing the exact same problem in Win2k as well. Has anybody else experienced this in Win2k with NHL 2001?

 

 

I find it hard to believe that EA Sports would leave out the entire Win2k community. I know all previous versions of EA Sports NHL hockey series runs fine in NT since NHL 97. I am extremely disappointed because I have bought every single EA Sports game since NHL 94. Also, the error isn't like NFS High Stakes where the installer wouldn't install in NT. NHL 2001 installs fine and it even RUNS fine in Quick Game mode. It's just PART of the game that is flawed. This leads me to think that it's not a critical design flaw that cannot be fixed. So why didn't they fix it?

I quote my friend, L|ghtning, regarding this:

"There are basically 2 scenarios:

1) They had no idea, which means that their design process is incredibly incompetent. OR

2) They knew about it all along and didn't care - which means even worse, that they don't give a sh*t about their customers."

 

Thanks for your time.

If anybody has any good ideas, I'm all ears.

All I have to say now is that EA Sports has just lost a LOT of respect from me.

 

Yours Truly,

 

Kearos.

 

and btw, I have 2.5 gigs free on my HD.

===================

 

My system specs:

 

Intel Pentium II 450

Abit BE6

384mb PC100 SDRAM

WD Expert 418000 on UDMA4

Diamond V550 (5.30 ref drivers)

SB Live Value

Pioneer DVD-113

Adaptec 2940UW

Matsu****a CDR-7502B

3Com 3c905B

[DeadCats 0]

Wish I could help you out kearos, but those games are not what I play.

 

IMHO, it's Microsoft's fault. They've been pushing Win2K as a business platform, stating that Win98 (now WinME) is more suited to gaming. And apparently some developers are listening to them.

 

Now, we all sat here listening to that crap from Microsoft, all saying, "Hey, that's wrong! Win2K can do BETTER as a gaming platform that Win98!" But it seems only a few developers were listening to us. Those like iD, Raven, etc.

 

You may or may not find a fix for your predicament. I hope you do. It's frustrating buying a program that SHOULD run great under an OS, and find out it doesn't.

 

You'd think with the preeminence of Whistler, they'd all be producing true 32-bit programs, but I guess not.

 

I remember when developers of DOS programs made that mistake with Win 3.0 and Win3.1. They listened to the naysayers, "Windows will NEVER work," and they lost their shirts.

 

As an example, DBase was THE database program at that time; nobody else even came close. But it took 1-2 years after Windows 3.1 came out for the developers of DBase to finally come out with a Windows version, and by then it was too late. They'd lost the race, and didn't even know it.

 

In the meantime, these gaming companies have one future choice: Develope for Whistler, develope for consoles, or get out of the market.

 

------------------

"This year will go down in history. For the first time, a civilized nation has full gun registration. Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead into the future!" -Adolph Hitler, 1935

[kearos 0]

Hi Deadcats,

 

I completely understand what you're saying and thanks for your support.

 

And speaking of DOS, DOS was never a "gaming platform" as opposed to Win9x/ME being touted as a "gaming platform" by Microsoft.

 

However, games were developed under DOS and if a game DIDN'T run under DOS, everyone would be *****ing and complaining like no tomorrow.

 

Here is the same situation. Win2k is being touted as the "business platform" but there's no reason why it wouldn't run games. Now, I go and complain about a game, which was specifically labelled for Win9x/ME, to the mass of people out there, and I would start getting responses telling me that Win2k/NT is not a "gaming OS" therefore I shouldn't use it for games. That sort of comment is absurd and illogical.

 

Coming back to the idea of DOS, it wasn't 'MEANT' for gaming but it runs games wonderfully. Why would people give in to Microsoft's absurd allegations that Win9x/ME is "more" suited for games?

 

People tell me that Win2k doesn't have as wide support of driver development and wide range of software and I somewhat agree because there are *some* programs that conflict in Win2k and drivers aren't as abundant as compared to Win9x. HOWEVER, the reason for the drivers is because Win2k wants good, stable drivers instead of some half-assed drivers written by a room-full of monkeys on typewriters.

 

I strongly believe that there is NO reason for applications and games to NOT run in Win2k. Heck, it's got the same API and NHL 2001 was MADE using NT workstations!!

 

Regards,

 

Kearos.

[kearos 0]

actually, one more remark. READ THIS!!

 

under section 15 of the NHL 2001 readme, this is what it states:

 

"Although not officially supported, we have tested NHL 2001 on

Windows 2000 and have not encountered any major problems. Occassionally,

NHL 2001 will start up minimized. Click on the NHL 2001 taskbar item to

maximize it. To install and run NHL 2001, you must have administrative rights."

 

This statement in the readme makes me furious!! What kind of QA would miss entire SECTIONS of a game not running in Win2k?

[In2Deep 0]

I have the same problem as do many people with W2K that I have talked to. The game does not recognize any free hard drive space so I can't save a season, tourny, etc yet I can save my user stats and the changes made to lineups, etc. Odd to have one and not the other. EA may release a fix,one can only hope, if not, maybe DirectX 8.0 will provide assistance. I read an article comparing WinME to W2K with and without DirectX 8.0 and with the new directX W2K performs games as well as ME. Lets hope the final version of DirectX does not disappoint.

[kearos 0]

agreed, In2Deep.

 

Thanks for the support.

[peejay 0]

I to am having the same problem as everyone else with NHL 2001 that it will play just fine in quick game mode but gives the hard drive is full error if you attempt to start a season.

 

I took a chance in buying the game as it does say on the bottom of the box that 2000 is not supported do technically EA does not HAVE to do anything to correct the issue. I personally hope that is wrong because for the whole game it seems to be the ONLY problem that I have come across.

 

Lets keep this thread alive and if anyone finds a way around it please let us know.

[kearos 0]

peejay, I agree with you completely for the fact that EA is not *obliged* to do anything as they have covered their a$$ rather well over this matter.

But as I said earlier, I can't BELIEVE they left out the entire Windows 2000 community here. Also, there's really no reason for the tournament modes to be faulty because other functions can read the hard drive space perfectly, such as user database and save game.

 

Therefore I conclude that if they don't fix this 'bug' already blown to large proportions on forums and message boards around the net, then they've really shot themselves in the foot because I swear I will NOT support another EA Sports game if they don't rectify their mistake.

 

Also, I wish they never included section 15 on NHL 2001 readme. They clearly stated that the game is "not officially supported", but they DID state that they "did not encounter any major problems." Having two-thirds of the game non-functional in a major Operating System is a pretty major problem on my list. They've pretty much proved to all of us how incompetent they are by including that statement in the readme.

 

Anyway, enough ranting for tonight. I'm going to sleep.

 

Thanks for the support everyone.

[iam4u2nv 0]

The error you are getting about the hard drive is NOT a Win2K issue. Others have had similar problems with Win ME & Win 98. If you checkout the forums at nhl2001.com you will see this problem has been stated often. Unfortunately, the only solution for now is to re-install the game and hope it works. One guy there said that on his fourth try, it worked.

 

My 2 cents...keep the change

 

Troy

[kearos 0]

Dear iam4u2nv,

 

Thanks for your input but I have already tried reinstalling in Win2k as well as trying on Win9x/ME.

 

I have both Win98se and WinME on other hard drives and I can install NHL 2001 with absolutely no errors whatsoever. I know OF some complaints regarding the same error ("Error: hard drive is full") when using Win9x/ME but I honestly question their authenticity because I have not run into problems with Win9x/ME.

 

Anyway, thanks for your support.

 

Cheers!

 

Kearos.

[In2Deep 0]

I was at an NHL2001 forum (www.nhl2000online.com) and some others seem to have same problem. Though I dont know for sure what o/s they are running. Perhaps running W2K and not mentioning it due to as reported earlier, it is not supported. I heard one possible solution that I will try tonight when I get home for work. I have been installing the patch immediately upon install, but I read a fix that said install game and try to save a season then. ONce you can save a season, update with the patch. I will try that and hopefully it will work. I can't imagine all these games not including W2K on their compatibility lists, Microsofts Xbox game console coming out is going to be based on W2K o/s so the companies better start liking it soon. I am also hoping DirectX 8 solves some issues.

[In2Deep 0]

Well, I just posted a subject over at the NHL2001 forum asking everyone with the DISK FULL ERRORS to report their system specs and the common link was unfortunately W2K. So unless EA releases a patch to support W2K which they have said they don't support, it looks like we are all SOL!

[mello_j 0]

I dont have the game yet, so I cant test it out, but I plan on getting it this week.

 

But Could it be that the game cant access data on an NTFS partition?

I remember Quest for Glory MOE had the same problem, also saying that the hard drive was full, and when i installed it on a fat32 partition it worked fine...

 

Anyone test that out?

 

 

[This message has been edited by mello_j (edited 02 October 2000).]

[Mr. Music 0]

Have you tried up[censored] NHL 2001?

[kearos 0]

Hi mello_j,

 

I have FAT32 setup but I know others are having the same problem with NTFS so I don't think it's the partition problem.

 

Hi Mr. Music,

 

I have just updated NHL 2001 using their EA.com auto-update but unfortunately, the error remains. However, I'd like to get some more input regarding the update. I have already spent far too much time diagnosing the problem over the weekend and I'm not about to do that again with their first patch.

As far as I know, even with the patch (without restalling the game) the problem remains.

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Cheers.

[mello_j 0]

Ok guys here is a fix...

it works for some but not for others...

 

However it DID work for me.

basically run this file from your main nhl directory....

 

hope you have success...

SEASON HERE I COME!!!

http://members.nbci.com/mcmcc/nhl2k1fixw2k.zip

[kearos 0]

Thank you mello_j.

I really appreciate your help.

That patch works for me too.

 

I still think it's ridiculous to have to patch anything. And to think, that fix was intended for a pirated version of NHL 2001.

 

*sigh*

[mlbargas 0]

Morning Fellas,

 

Been having the same problems as everyone else here with season mode and nhl2k1. I just came accross this possible work around at another forum. I haven't tested it yet but it sure looks like it should work. Thanks CrazyD!! Here is his post:

 

"I reinstalled the game a zillion times, and it didn't help. But BizE correctly reasoned that just because you can't *create* a season doesn't mean that you can't *play* a season. So he zipped up an empty unplayed season that he created on win98, and put it on the web.

http://easportsblows.tripod.com/nhl2k004.zip

 

Just unzip the file to the "db" sub-directory in your nhl2001. When you run NHL2001 and select "season", you will now have an option to play "nhl season #1". Enjoy!"

-cd

 

I can't wait to give this a try.

[kearos 0]

hi mlbargas

 

The fix that mello_j posted actually lets you create a season. It works for me and I've already played 8 games, 5 min/period and made several transactions to test it out. That fix seems to work perfectly.

 

I recommend you give that a try. A 'pre-made' season isn't the best option, in my opinion.

 

Cheers!

[mlbargas 0]

Thanks Kearos,

I did try the mello fix but it didn't work for me. It gave me an application error when I tried to run it.

 

That's why I'm going to try this other 'fix/hack'.

 

Thanks though,

[irish3one 0]

I too get the application error. I am trying the pre-filled season, but I am hoping that someone can help figure out the application error and I can enjoy ALL of NHL2001.

[kearos 0]

I'm sorry to hear that the fix posted by mello_j doesn't work for some of you.

 

I still think EA should be releasing a fix, for the sake of thousands of loyal fans out there and most definitely for ALL the Win2k users out there.

 

Now that I know a fix works for some people, then I know some fix *can* be applied to rectify this problem. Therefore I think EA should release a good fix because some guy without the source code can cook up something, then it should be even easier for EA programmers.

 

Cheers!

[NLA 0]

Hi kearos and mello_j

the link to the patch to fix the problem does not work..

can you one of you please mail me the patch.. if its not too big and don't wantto send u don't have to.

but please i really want to play NHL 2001 in season mode.

 

Thanks...

 

 

------------------

// NLA

[Mark W 0]

I too get the error. This is getting depressing. Does anybody know what causes the error and if someone can write a similar patch avoiding the error?

[Mark W 0]

I just had a thought... Is there a correlation between the patch/fix working and whether or not you have run the EA update? I have run the update and the patch did not work. Has anybody got it to work after running the update? Do people that have not run update also have problems with the patch/fix?

 

Just a stab in the dark...