This works for those with the original C&C Gens and ZH CDs. Most have been having the same problem as me with getting the multiplayer part to work without crashing with the tech difficulties box showing up. I checked the MS Vista Games Support Forum and found this as the solution and it does work for 32 bit version of mine and a 64 bit version person said it works also.

Download the Generals 1.08 patch and the ZH 1.04 patch from EA (http://www.ea.com/official/cc/generals/us/demos.jsp?state=6) and right click on each separate patch and choose 'Run as Administrator' to update which allows multiplayer mode to work again. The in game and patchgrabber will mess up the updates.

Also make sure you set both C&C to 'Run as Administrator' to ensure they work correctly. I have run them both with success without using compatibility mode.

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Thanks for posting these tips. I myself have no problem running Generals or ZH on Vista here though. I have 2 PCs with Vista, 1 that installed using the normal Generals and ZH disks and 1 that installed using the TFD pack:

PC 1:
Intel Pentium D 3.2Ghz
2.5Gb of 667Mhz ram
ATI Radeon X850XT
Windows Vista Business 32-bit
(Normal Disks.)

PC 2:
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4Ghz
2.5Gb of 667Mhz ram
ATI Radeon X800XT
Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit
(The First Decade.)

Both play fine when networking and online. I'm suprised some people are having problems with the normal disks and patching.

Yeah, I'm with AA. I installed vista last night along with generals and zh and everything works fine. The only problem I have is that the Ion Cannon beam shows up pink for no reason.

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It might be missing some textures then, try a reinstall.

My zero hour single player runs fine. But when I say play online it says could not connect. I installed the patches and set generals to administrator . Whats wrong?

AA, its a driver issue, not a missing file issue. It shows up pink because the crappy vista nvidia drivers dont understand the words that be comin' out of ZH's mouth.

chromedomer, windows firewall might be blocking it. Open the control panel, then Windows Firewall. Ad a rule about unrestricting generals.exe.

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Check Firewall settings. Make sure that generals.exe and game.dat both are allowed through.

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For some reason I cannot get Generals to work with Vista! I have tried everything. I am dying over here. I made sure everything was running as Administrator, i have the newest drivers, tried running it with and without the patches. The game installs fine, and when i double click it, i get the initial splash screen, which goes away...then the 2nd bigger splash screen shows up. But right as it's about to load the opening video, it just sits there with a "Serious Error." Both Generals and ZH encounter this. Can anyone please give me a hint here???

Specs:
Core 2 Duo E6700 @ 2.66 GHz
4 GB Dual Channel RAM at 667 MHz
Nvidia GeForce 7900 GS (256 MB)
SoundBlaster X-Fi XtremeMusic

Check "ReleaseCrashInfo.txt" in Documents/Command and Conquer Generals Data and Documents/Command and Conquer Generals Zero Hour Data and post the contents here.

Nice setup by the way.

See, that's just the thing. It does not creat a ReleaseCrashInfo.txt. What happens is that the 2nd splash screen comes up and the hourglass says vista is working on it...but then it just sits there, and another message comes up but pops under the splash screen. The only reason I can see what it says is due to Vista's thumbnail view that comes up when you highlight the window at the bottom. i just right click the error window that comes up and close it from the taskbar at the bottom. Then no ReleaseCrashInfo is generated. Any suggestions?

Thanks by the way about the setup!

ALSO, TO FIX THE HANG ON 2ND SPLASH SCREEN PROBLEM ON VISTA:

Go to your /documents/generals zero hour blah blah blah/ directory

Delete everything. Create a new file called options.ini

Open it and paste the following:

AntiAliasing =
DrawScrollAnchor =
GameSpyIPAddress = 0.0.0.0
Gamma = 50
IPAddress = 0.0.0.0
IdealStaticGameLOD = High
LanguageFilter = false
MoveScrollAnchor =
MusicVolume = 55
Resolution = 800 600
Retaliation = yes
SFX3DVolume = 79
SFXVolume = 71
ScrollFactor = 50
SendDelay = no
StaticGameLOD = Low
UseAlternateMouse = no
UseDoubleClickAttackMove = no
VoiceVolume = 70

Save and exit,
Then send me a check for $500 and play the game.

($500 is optional of course)

To Trig

Thanks!! This worked. Not sure about the $500, but you have my appreciation for solving a frustrating problem.

VISTA 64-bit
EVGA MB w/ Core 2 Duo Quad E6800
PNY nVidia GTX8800 768mb

EA should hire you into SQA

Pleas help! I'm having the same problem as Timm31 but only with Zero hour. I think the thing that TRIGRHAPPY sent might help, but...I don't know what a directory is, so I don't know where to put all that stuff. Also, when I do past it, do I past it in a text file?

I also have a problem trying to run this in Vista; I know this is an old topic but I need some help. At first I couldn't run the game at all since there was no options.in, so I followed the above instructions and got the game to run. Now the problem is that the game would freeze a few seconds into the game, and the error reported by Vista said game.dat is not responding (it was also a problem with that file for the options.ini error as well). What the hell is wrong? I got the lastest patch for ZH, and this is a clean install. I also set it to run as admin.

This is the exact error:
Description:
A problem caused this program to stop interacting with Windows.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: AppHangB1
Application Name: game.dat
Application Version: 0.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 4230c05b
Hang Signature: 0be3
Hang Type: 2048
OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.2
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Hang Signature 1: 73f163e4f31f1c595abae0d635be7b62
Additional Hang Signature 2: 5a37
Additional Hang Signature 3: f9c66b4d95751217d86114832698a5a4
Additional Hang Signature 4: 0be3
Additional Hang Signature 5: 73f163e4f31f1c595abae0d635be7b62
Additional Hang Signature 6: 5a37
Additional Hang Signature 7: f9c66b4d95751217d86114832698a5a4

Thanks - create the ini file - DUH why didnt I see that one - simply copied it off my laptop and BINGO

off to kill my brothers now 🙂

Thanks

I was refered to this thread by EA Allmighty's forum moderators and told to follow your sugestion... but it didn't work and they sent me back here. This is the exect original Error message

Technical Difficulties


You have encountered a serious error. Serious errors can be caused by many things including viruses, overheated hardware and hardware that does not meet the minimum specifications for the game. Please visit the forums at www.generals.ea.com for suggested courses of action or consult you manual for Technical Support contact information.

This only appers when I am trying to run the Zero Hour Expansion. and in addition to the INI file there arenow two text files named RealeseCrashInfo and RealeseCrashInfoPrev. both say

Release Crash at Wed Oct 03 14:29:11 2007
; Reason Error parsing INI file 'Data\INI\Object\airforcegeneral.ini' (Line: 'Object AmericaClusterTomahawkMissile ')


Last error:


Current stack:

what should i do now

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Vista/32 multiplayer/ online issues with C&C Zero Hour.

Where to start.

Zero Hour and Generals run perfect, except;

When I join a custom match/ quick match and try to join the mulitplayer game by clicking "accept", I never connect to anything. I can't play online at all. I then have to CTRL/ALT/Del out of the game and restart the game.

-I applied everything as "Mr_A1" recommended.
-I tried the file "Kane lives in death" recommended.
-Running both Generals and Zero Hour in compatability mode for XP SP2.
-Running everythng as Admin.
-Made exceptions in Firewall/ disabled fire wall.
-No spyware or viruses, turned off all anti virus and spyware security systems.
-Removed Windows Defender. (what a chore).!!
-Removed User Account Control. (What a chore)!.

Everything worked great on my old XP PC, when I bought this new machine and reinstalled with Vista 32 Home Premioum, I simply can't connect to any online matches but I can play single player, and it works fine.

My computer is upper/mid end gamer, two GTS 8800's, Core 2 Duo 2.4, 2 gig ram, etc, etc. My boy and I play ALL "Steam" games COD 4, DOD: S, Orange Box, and.. MOH: Aiborne, all run great and I can play all the other online games I have perfect but ........C&C Generals Zero Hour "Online".

Any more help would be great, I would really like to get this going, my boy and I liked this game.

Sincerely, Pern.
pern1971@yahoo.com

P.S. Vista has no advantage that I can find. Its full of issues, dificult to use (for gamming). If I had a copy of XP sitting on my desk....I would install it and put Vista back on the shelf and wait for the update/ fixes!

erm refering to TRIGRHAPPY's solution for the hang on the 2nd splash screen, the file that i make, is it a folder, a text document or something else. (sorry for this dumb question, i've tried many methods for my problem which is the game doesent load and it gets stuck on the 2nd splash screen before closing). thanks

You're creating a text document (not "rich text"). When you "Save As" name it options.ini

Make sure you don't save it as options.ini.txt by accident or it won't work, it MUST be "options.ini"

Or just right-click "save as" on the link below, and save it to your Zero hour/generals folder in "My Documents". If it asks to overwrite, say yes. Then load it up and play. This fix works for Generals and Zero Hour. Good luck folks

http://www.ospora.com/dimento/cstrike/options.ini 

hi i have vista and when i try tp play, i get a pop up box saying update needs to re-start the computer, and if you click the(x) it still reboots the computer over and over.
acer
1.6 dual core
250 gb hd
windows vista premium

please help im going through withdrawls!!!!!!!!!!😠