Repacks Troubleshooting

This page will help you solve typical problems that can appear while installing repacks (mine included) and running installed games.

Essential advice

Before reading further, make sure you’re through the following steps

Your Windows username has to be Latin-only (numbers allowed too)

Many games and cracks (especially the latest CODEX ones) do not properly work on accounts with non-Latin symbols. Also complex repacks can use additional software which also may crash while running in the “ВАСЯ” username folder. So change your username once and for all. Or better yet, create a new Latin-name user in Windows and completely switch to it. That way the folder name will be a good one and all the above-mentioned software and cracks will work.

Re-hash the downloaded torrent

Torrents download content in blocks. Sometimes some blocks download with errors. If you try to unpack the data from the damaged archive, nothing good will happen. So rehash. This procedure checks each downloaded block for completion. Broken ones will be automatically set for re-download.

Steps for rehashing in uTorrent (other clients are very similar)
  • Open uTorrent and select the downloaded repack
  • Stop this download
  • Press the right mouse button and select “Force Re-check”

After rehashing is complete, it will be either 100% (GOOD, OK TORRENT) or incomplete (like 99.8%). In that case, start this torrent again and let it finish. Then rehash again to make sure that NOW it’s complete. If the rehashing always drops down from 100%, you have a bad memory module (DIMM) and should replace it as soon as possible.

Disable antivirus

Most likely you have at least one antivirus active. Or even two, like default Windows Defender + AVAST or Malwarebytes or something else. While installing MY repacks (or repacks from other safe groups, listed in my FAQ), disable them. WD and MWB are the only two AVs, which block parts of my installers, while other AVs don’t give a damn. Of course, it’s a false positive reaction to my “run.exe” program, which allows the s execution of multiple compressors/decompressors on all your CPU cores. Check the VirusTotal report on this file.

Windows Defender can be properly disabled/enabled with this tool.

My thoughts on AVs in general

Modern AVs are paranoid. They usually see danger in safe files and skip real malware. This is more actual for compressed/protected software and cracks, especially from Chinese groups, such as 3DM.

This may sound scary, but in the real world, THERE IS NO ANTIVIRUS, which will protect you from modern trojans, bitcoin miners, and similar stuff. In most cases, harmful apps won’t be blocked, but safe programs – will be, as false positives. And since AVs usually work silently, without even notifying you about blocked stuff, you will wonder why the installer doesn’t work or why the game doesn’t want to launch.

One of the biggest downfalls of AVs is their resident mode, when ALL open files, even not executables, arc checked on the fly. This mode can slow down a fast installer for HOURS because every unpacked file will be checked with the AVs engine. Complex repacks do lots of HDD read/writes, and it alone is not fast, but coupled with AV will ruin your experience.

The best antivirus is your brain. Don’t download suspicious software, don’t open attachments in your email, keep your browser up-to-date, and disable Flash and Java. This will protect you from 99% of potential malware. You can use antivirus in scan mode on daily basis, with VERBOSE mode, when you will see, what AV counts as a real danger.

One more thing – NEVER EVER trust only one antivirus. False positives appear more frequently than any real virus. Upload the unsuspicious file to virustotal.com and only then take action.

If you still need AV for scanning, I’d settle for Dr.Web or ESET tools, working in VERBOSE mode, and not killing stuff automatically.

Set UAC to a minimum level (Never Notify)

UAC (User Access Control) is another system, “protects” you from suspicious software. It may be somewhat useful for total noobs, who see the PC first time in life, but if you’re here downloading repacks, I guess you’re not a total noob anymore.

Complex repacks require the execution of different (de)compressors from the User Temp folder. Default UAC settings restrict those files from execution, stopping the installer.

Make sure you have enough Virtual Memory

If you have 4 GB of RAM, set virtual memory to 8 GB (Custom size: set both initial and maximum size to 8192)

If you have 8 GB of RAM, set virtual memory to 16 GB (Custom size: set both initial and maximum size to 16384).

If you have 16 GB of RAM, set virtual memory also to 16 GB (Custom size: set both initial and maximum size to 16384)

If you have 32 GB of RAM, set virtual memory also to 8 GB (Custom size: set both initial and maximum size to 8192) just in case.

Do not set “System managed size”, cause it’s slower. Fixed VM size is the most efficient setting.

Why Virtual Memory is important?

Upon execution, any EXE in Windows requests a certain amount of memory from OS Memory Manager. If free RAM is enough, the application will receive it. If no VM is present and free memory is below the app’s request, you’ll see a crash. VM (also called pagefile) is a RAM imitation, saving you from such problems. The application doesn’t know if it received actual RAM or a virtual one. With large VM files, you usually won’t see memory-related crashes. Slowdowns (due to a slower HDD access speed) – sure.

Use the 2 GB Memory Limit option

For a while, my installers have had the option of limiting the RAM usage to 2 GB. If your machine has 8 GB of RAM or less, always use it. 8 GB RAM is a very low amount nowadays, with browsers alone eating half of that size.

Run the setup with Windows 7 compatibility

If you’re using Windows 10 and have errors with missing files or something like this, run the setup.exe with compatibility set to Windows 7. And run it as admin.

Run the setup in Safe Mode

Some antiviruses can’t ever be turned off completely and will delete necessary files even when you think you turned them off. You didn’t. They know better. So in that case reboot in Safe mode and install again. No crapware will interrupt the installation process.

Make sure you have enough free space on the target drive

DO NOT ignore the “No enough disk space” message, if the installer says so. Also, it’s recommended to NOT install repacks on drives, which have just a few more Gigabytes of space left after installation. During installations with low memory, the available installer may eat more free space it stated.

Turn off any heavy load on the target drive

If you have torrents active on the same physical drive, on which you’re installing the game and this drive is not SSD – expect a LONG installation. Any application, creating a constant heavy load on your disk will drive you mad while your installation. You can continue seeding after you install the game.

Try to install the game NOT to C: drive OR specifically to C: drive

Windows rights system is a tricky thing. If you’re not a proper admin in your OS, some folders/drives may be limited for your account. Sometimes games cannot be installed on C: only on other drives, and sometimes – vice versa, only on the system drive. And of course, avoid installing games to Program Files\Program Files (x86) folders. This folder usually has the most limited rights.

Check your Windows folder (and below) for unarc.dll – if this file exists, delete it

My repacks use custom unarc.dll, NOT compatible with other unarc.dll, which you could download in the hope to fix the “Unarc.dll Error”. Remember, there are SEVERAL types of those errors, they mean different things. And other unarc.dll won’t help.

Run setup with proper rights,  as shown in this image

Typical errors and solutions

I can’t run the setup.exe, it’s missing or nothing happens when I try to launch it!

Your Windows Defender/SmartScreen (or similar protection software, even browser) blocked it.

1. While the file is on your desktop or in one of your user folders, right-click or press and hold on the file, and click/tap on Properties.

2. Under the General tab, click/tap on the Unblock button, and click/tap on OK.

 

NOTE: If you do not see an Unblock button, then the file has already been unblocked.

More info on the subject can be found here.

It is not found any file specified for ISArcExtract

 

There are four possible reasons for that popular error. Listed by popularity:

  • Your download is broken, some BIN files are not complete. To solve it, rehash the torrent, following the instructions are written far above.
  • You didn’t download all the necessary files for your selection. Say, you’re installing the game in Engish but didn’t download setup-fitgirl-selective-english.bin from torrent or filehoster. Download the required file and try again.
  • You’re running the installation from a folder with a weird name, like “C:\Users\ВАСЯ-ПУПКИН\Downloads\__[rutor.is]_Super Fitgirl Repack [FitGirl Repack]\”. In such cases, setup.exe can’t see it’s BIN-files and can’t proceed with them. Move setup.exe + all BIN files to a shorter path, like “C:\Repacks\Super Repack” and run the installer from there.
  • You have an antivirus or UAC active, which preventrebuildinging of temporaarchivesive (I use them a lot) and thus that archive can’t be extracted. So, disable AV or UAC and reinstall the game.

Visual C++ Runtime Installer

I also recommend you install all C++ Redistributables. You may try this small All-In-One pack or get them separately from the Microsoft site.

WINE Troubleshooting

Under WINE the full-screen background takes over the desktop completely so that no other program (including the installer window, or even native Linux apps running side by side) can’t be used. The solution to this is to open winecfg -> Graphics tab -> check to Emulate a virtual desktop.

The installer gets stuck on “Checking admin rights…” if something newer than Windows XP is emulated. (Wine doesn’t handle UAC and admin checks properly yet – every program runs as admin even if Windows Vista/7/8/10 is emulated.) The solution to this is to open winecfg -> Applications tab -> set the Windows version to Windows XP globally (as the installer spawns other processes with mismatching Windows versions – this usually ends badly).

Also, you should replace WINE’s cmd with the original one by executing the following command:

winetricks cmd