Now that's rare... can't uninstall lol

[SaturnBeat]

Ok well here's my problem. For ages I've been having small problems running my favourite Warcraft 3 TFT and today something just went totally wrong. Everytime I put the CD in, I will get this message telling me whether I want to install the game, actually tells me to install WC3 ROC first, here's a pic:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...achine/lol.jpg

However as you can see by the icons I have both of the games installed already. Nevermind that, this is just a minor thing that's been happening. Now to enter the game I need to double click on the icon on the desktop. Fair enough, I get an error telling me the CD isn't in, but after a couple of tries, it starts up. I found out that this is due to Blizzard's protective measures agains copying and blablablabla....

Back to the point of this thread, today I got a FATAL ERROR crashing the game in the middle of my pwnage! Now that frustrated me to every bit. Not only that my ISP is *** enough, but I get crashes as well... nahhhhh... I'm angry!

So I look around the technical support site on Blizz, and I find out that patching should fix this problem. However I've been running the latest patch for 3 months already. And there's not a new one yet. My final idea was to uninstall the game, and re-install it, re-patch and so on. BUT... something rare here, I can't uninstall the game, because there's no uninstall icon, neither in the folder, nor in the Add/Remove Programs in control panel. NOWHERE! LOL... here look for yourselves:

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b1...nounistall.jpg

Can anyone please.... pleaaaaaaaase try and help me here. This is beyond my knowledge. Thanks in advance!

[SoSo09]

It sounds a lot like you had the game installed on a seperate harddrive or partition, reinstalled Windows, and just used the existing game files. That usually causes that.

Try this: Start -> Run -> Regedit. Navigate to Current_User -> Softwarez -> Blizzard Intertainment Sucks. There should be a folder of the game's name in there. If there is, delete it, along with all of the Warcraft stuff on your harddrive. If there is no Warcraft info in the registry, just delete the harddrive stuff.

[Colossus]

I might not do what SoSo has said.. But sometimes there is a uninstaller.exe in the WCIII folder, so just browse to where ever you had installed WC3 and check if that .exe exsist. I am not saying there should be one, but sometimes there is.

Also some games dont always place a uninstaller in ADD/REMOVE... But they do include a uninstaller icon within the program shortcuts on your start menu.

[I4one]

OMFG!!!!!!11111111

this is a F' KEN Gaming forum and No One can tell you HOW to uninstall WORLD oF CRAP

WHAT a F'KEN DUMP!!

THe Sharky SERVERS are BROKEN .......FIX them you BOzOs

@S-M;
answer the others and then PM me, we'll fix it

[SaturnBeat]

Weeeeelll.... I feel this to be my lucky day. Haha, just yesterday I got this fatal error and today as I accidently went to battle.net prior to checking back on this thread, I saw that the new 1.19 patch has been just released! So, what I'm gonna do is patch it up and see what happens when I enter a game. If it still crashes then I'll be back here trying to solve it.

Thanks for your comments anyway, erm Colossus, there's absolutely no .exe uninstallation type of file under the directory my WC3 is installed. If it was in my Start > Warcraft 3 then it would show up, but it's not there. My other Blizzard games are there, Diablo 2 and Star Craft, and each have uninstall .exe's, but my WC3 is just not there. And believe me I've looked as deep as it goes inside all the WC3 folders, Nothing, Nada, Scheisse! LOL...

Now about the just deleting the directory, I thought of this, but I'm so sure that I've read somewhere it's not the way to get rid of programs!

Anyway, we shall see after I patch the game. Thanks all! Oh and I4one, don't be mad like that man!

[SaturnBeat]

Nope:

"An error occured while trying ty patch the game. Please re-install the game and try re-patching it."

So I'm back to zero basicly....

[SoSo09]

Try what I told you. Windows thinks there is no trace of World of Warcraft on your computer. Just see if there is a World of Warcraft dir. in your registry. If there is, go to File -> Export and backup your whole registry. Then delete the World of Warcraft folder in your registry. Then delete the World of Warcraft folder on you harddrive (don't empty recycle bin if you don't feel safe). And of course reinstall everything

[SaturnBeat]

Ok let's see here. Erm, btw, it's Warcraft 3, not World of Warcraft. I don't suppose this makes much of a difference but anyway, just so it's all clear.

SoSo, I'm afraid to do this. It's just I know it's so not good to simply delete it off the registry and then the folder itself. (BTW, where the hell was that registry?)

Besides here's how it stands. Deleted or not, whenever I insert the CD, it'll always tell me that I need to install the game. Remember what I said in my first post, and the picture I posted. So in other words, I wouldn't have known whether the operation was successful or not, because I will install the game either way again!

Something else I had in mind was to try and install the game again, and then see what happens. But I remember this is what happened the first time. I had the game installed twice, in 2 directories. I have no idea how this happened, I do not remember actually installing it twice. So I uninstalled it from the Add/Remove programs but then I found the second installation in another directory. Now there's no uninstall cuz M$ thinks I've already uninstalled it.

Jeez I'm just so lost, I wanna play lol! Your help is much appreciated, believe me, it's just I'm afraid to do this. I'm about to post in Blizz's technical forums and see what I get there, but I know you guys know what you're talking about. Thanks anyway!

[I4one]

since you're not looking to permanently remove all traces of it, like some malware or such....easiest is to;
reinstall and reboot -
then uninstall and reboot again....
and eventually Reinstall from scratch. You will need to find out why you're getting that 'fatal error' (BSOD). -- more at bottom

*edit;
reinstall into the SAME PLACE, logged in to XP and evrything else as the SAME USER
*/edit

then clear all your temp/recent/history/temporary intermet files, etc -- if you have more than 1 username/userprofile installed, I suggest you logon under each and do the same removal...perhaps Crap cleaner can help ease the pain with that.

start | run CMD
then type in CHKDSK C: /r for each partition (e.g if you have C:, D:, and E:, run it - takes forever btw - then run CHKDSK D: /r next, etc)

a few possibilities/guesses come to mind, as to why this occured;
* got a bug and your ant-virus/anti-spyware software app removed it along with some components of the game - like uninstallable exe.
* xpoop and wmp DRM crap is infiltrating
* xpoop is upchucking b/c it doesn't know how to handle many diff browser settings/add-ins, and diff usernames - especially when networking settings are involved.
* xpoop put the actual uninstall exe beneath one of the the many thousands of "start menu" folders - not the one your expecting - (e.g. AllUsers folder)
* it is possible the command string is still in the REG - but more later if necessary.
* some extraneous xpoop networking / firewall settings thinks you are doing something to customize your box - and they'll have none of that.
* you installed that aspect of the game under a diff username - or xpoop thinks you did - or you had to do some repairning through safe mode at one point, in which case AllUsers is likely affected (booting to safe mode = logged on as default admin - not username)
above is all merely speculation and atleast half to 3/4's of them are wrong - so...just mentioned it to explain a bit more to ya

as far as ERRORs;
If you get a BSOD - be sure to jot down the STOP:xxxx error code

start | run EVENTVWR
check the log for specific errror messages and EventIDs, then paste here (ggle too).

start | run DRWTSN32
allow the bugger to sit in the systray and when xpoop takes a dump - dr. watson will auto take a 'snapshot' and will give you 'some' info - perhaps about the main "module" the error occured in atleast - (e.g. Kernel32.dll caused blahblahblah....)
----------------------------------

yes reg-diving can be cleansing - but even trying to export the whole reg in one-shot is dangerous, should you need to replace it after accidentally mucking up the reg (isn't that what xpoop has system restore for ?) ...plus - there'll be many many caverns and abysses in the reg that you may need to dive into (and get lost/confused) for clearing the issue.

that's my .02

[Spineshank]

Why dont you just reinstall it into the same directory?

[SaturnBeat]

I got it fixed! Finally... I did it as SoSo suggested through the registry. In my mind I was so confused whether something might go wrong, but after taking a good look at all the support pages that come with the game, and in the Uninstall/Install page, under the Only For Experienced PC Users, basicly do the same thing that SoSo said. I was a little stuck at one point, as it said that I should delete both WC3 and Battle.net folders. But I use battle.net for SC and Diablo 2 as well. I left it there and removed the game from HDD, re-installed, re-patched and it's working fine at the moment. So yeah, thanks a lot man!

I4one, dude your $0.2 are like a $$$ 1,000,000 for me and you know it! Hehe... the whole thing was kinda my fault as well as I didn't look through all the support pages Blizz has. Anyway, you think my AV could've cause this? Damn that's ridiculous. It has served me well so far, but if this continuous to happen, I'm gonna have to switch. Hey btw that's something new about the Dr Watson... lol... why the weird name? I mean I've seen the name before, but never really knew what it was all about. So it fixes stuff... hmm... cool! I'll look through the M$ pages to find out more about him.

Anyway thank you all for baring with my stupidity! I shall be less lazy next time when I'm looking at support pages. Thanks!