Can't get Mafia to run

[AxeWound]

I have been trying to get Mafia to run on my girlfriends computer for a bit now and I just can't get it to. I have downloaded and installed the latest version of the JRE and Mafia. I have even went back to older versions of both. Nothing.

Her computer is a Vaio running windows Vista.

Any ideas?

 

[fewyn]

Might help if you tell us exactly what it does, does it not open up? Does it give an error? What does it do. If it doesn't open up kill all java processes in the task manager and try again.

 

[AxeWound]

It doesn't do much at all. It will start to create the folders that it normally does, but stops after the first file (GLOBAL_prefs in the Settings folder). There isn't any error given. There isn't even a process running for Mafia.

I tried both .jar and the .exe.

No idea why it isn't working.

 

[AxeWound]

Still can't get it to work. Anyone have any idea what could be the problem? I've looked into permissions in vista, different versions of mafia and JRE, running the .exe and the .jar and can't get it to work. I can't even find anyone else that had a problem like this.

Anyone?

 

[Rinn]

Where did you install mafia to? If you added it to the program files directory, Vista might not be allowing files to be written into that directory.

 

[dangerpin]

You might try (temporarily) disabling security products like antivirus, antispyware and anything offering "Internet Protection" or security.

Disable the Vista firewall at the service level. (Start, Run, services.msc, find Windows Firewall, double-click, stop and change startup type to Disabled)-OK this one probably isn't really for you, but I put it in for the person who finds this thread with a search and has a more basic connectivity problem.

Sometimes uninstalling all versions of java, restarting and then installing the latest version from java.com helps.

Have you run a checkdisk yet? It could be caused by disk corruption.

If none of those work you might actually have a bit of malware interfering with mafia, use SuperAntiSpyware or MalWareBytes to do a full scan and clean.

It could also be Vista's Data Execution Prevention, to turn that off from a command line type "bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOff"

 

[AxeWound]

Tried all of that. Still can't get it to work.

 

[AxeWound]

Still no ideas. Every time I go over to her place I end up trying for an hour or so to figure out why it won't even load and I can't for the life of me figure it out. Why wouldn't a java app load? I have installed the newest JRE, tried it in different directories, disabled all other programs to see if they were interfering, run several bug checks, and disabled Vista's DEP. There has got to be something I am missing?

 

[dangerpin]

You've tried running as administrator, right? Right click a shortcut to the program, choose run as administrator?

You've tried configuring it before opening and simplifying the Main Tabs/Startup in tabs choices? Maybe take out anything in Startup as a window as well...


Also you can look over this link and see if you can use compatibility mode to help you out...
http://www.pctipsbox.com/run-an-older-program-in-windows-vista/

 

[AxeWound]

Tried all of that as well. This is confounding. I can get it to create the settings folder and the GLOBAL_prefs file but it contains nothing in it. That's where it stops. And this only happens if I right click and run as an administrator. I was thinking it stopped because of permissions or something but it has full write access. Any more ideas?

 

[jasonharper]

Try running the program from a command prompt rather than double-clicking it - possibly there will be some output displayed there, that would simply be lost when the program is run normally.

 

[dangerpin]

Run msconfig from the run command as administrator. Go to the General Tab, choose diagnostic startup, reboot and see if it works running as administrator after reboot. If so there is some service or startup item interfering with Mafia. If it works you can try using selective startup and turning items back on one at a time with each reboot until you pin down the offender.

Vaio is pretty notorious for packing in as much crap as they can.