Amiga Forever 2009 suddenly won't boot any games. Help needed.

Hi all
Two days ago I had no problem running .adf-games in Amiga Forever 2009, but yesterday (and today) nothing happens when I start up any game - just a black screen and nothing starts loading.

I have Vista, DirectX 10 and newest driver for gfx card installed.

No changes have been made on my computer between two days ago and yesterday.

Have any of you tried this with Amiga Forever 2009 and how do I fix it? Any help much appreciated! The help / troubleshooting pages on Cloanto's site have nothing helpful on this issue.

[TCD]

Hi AmigaAddict and welcome to EAB.

Originally Posted by AmigaAddict

No changes have been made on my computer between two days ago and yesterday.

Are you 100% sure about that? No programs installed, no updates? Anyway, maybe you just want to try a reinstall first.

[zipper]

Check your paths - I've had problems when using removable drives and the default letters of the drives have been changed.

Thanks for replying guys, and yeah - great to be here.

Yes, I've tried 3 times to reinstall Amiga Forever 09, but nothing. Maybe I should mention that it seems like my comp won't recognize / cannot find my ROMs (the ones that came with AmForever09) - when I open my WinUAE config, I get the message that "One of the following system ROMs is required.. KS ROM 1.3 etc."

As zipper wrote, I have checked the paths and chosen the ROM directory, but after a rescan of ROMs, it lists all ROMs as unavailable - and I still get a black screen. What to do, what to do...

[TCD]

Is the rom.key in the same path with the roms?

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Is the rom.key in the same path with the roms?

I'm not sure what you mean. There are only 3 files present in the directory pointed to by the System ROM path in WinUAE, and they are

amiga-os-130.rom
amiga-os-310.rom
amiga-os-310-a1200.rom

Do I need a rom.key file?

[TCD]

Yep, for the Amiga Forever kickstarts you need a rom.key file in the same folder as your kickstarts. It has to included in your package.

[prowler]

Originally Posted by AmigaAddict

There are only 3 files present in the directory pointed to by the System ROM path in WinUAE, and they are

amiga-os-130.rom
amiga-os-310.rom
amiga-os-310-a1200.rom

Do I need a rom.key file?

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Yep, for the Amiga Forever kickstarts you need a rom.key file in the same folder as your kickstarts. It has to included in your package.

Yes, AmigaAddict, TCD is right. That's definitely your problem.

Search the Amiga Forever CD for the rom.key file and copy it to your WinUAE ROMs folder. That should fix it. (However, I'm not sure how the rom.key file got missed during the installation(s). )

By the way, welcome to EAB!

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by prowler

(However, I'm not sure how the rom.key file got missed during the installation(s). )

Just a stab in the dark... Maybe it was originally there and was removed by virus / spyware software. I'd check your logs to verify.

[TCD]

You mean his AV software removed the file after it was already running without a notification? Well, if that's the case I would surely rethink if I want to use that program then

[prowler]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

I would surely rethink if I want to use that program then

The AV software, Amiga Forever or both?

[DamienD]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

You mean his AV software removed the file after it was already running without a notification?

Yeah, I've seen it happen before when the AV software does a background scan. Like I said above, just a suggestion.

Can't think of any other reason why it used to work but doesn't now. The "rom.key" had to be there at some stage...

Originally Posted by prowler

The AV software, Amiga Forever or both?

Definitely both

[Pyromania]

Windows Vista is so much fun huh? Amiga Forever 2009 runs fine on XP & Win7 here.

[TCD]

Originally Posted by prowler

The AV software, Amiga Forever or both?

No comment

Originally Posted by Pyromania

Windows Vista is so much fun huh? Amiga Forever 2009 runs fine on XP & Win7 here.

I highly doubt that Vista deletes files all of a sudden.

[Pyromania]

@TheCyberDruid

You never know, M$ could be detecting that your running Amiga and getting pissed about it.

[Toni Wilen]

Keep your stupid MS comments in other forums, thanks.

[Pyromania]

Sorry about that Toni, will do. Was not trying to offend.

All right guys, new knowledge have come to my attention, that I didn't know about before. First of all, I think Damien is on to something here:

Originally Posted by DamienD

Yeah, I've seen it happen before when the AV software does a background scan. Like I said above, just a suggestion.

Can't think of any other reason why it used to work but doesn't now. The "rom.key" had to be there at some stage...

Apparently my girlfriend used my comp a few hours before all this started, and seing the screen was black (the screensaver was on), she just shut it down manually (by physically pushing the power button) - WHILE MY AV SOFTWARE WAS DOING A FULL SYSTEM SCAN

So maybe this deleted the rom.key..

But that still doesn't explain why an uninstall and then reinstall of AF 2009 won't work, right?

Anyway, I'll try and find the rom.key in the AF 2009 package...

And thanks for all your suggestions so far

Well, no luck trying to find the rom.key in my AF 2009 package - I bought the Value Edition of AF 2009 and that came as a downloadable Windows installer (.msi file), not as an ISO image file or a physical CD, so I can't search through the package to find it (at least I don't know how). Just strange that it doesn't reappear in my Amiga Files folder after reinstall.

I have now mailed Cloanto support for a solution, hope that helps.

[prowler]

Hi AmigaAddict,

If you'd rather try it without waiting for a reply from Cloanto (they do sometimes take their time), PM me you email address, and I'll send you the rom.key file.