I am posting this info in case somebody else ever has the same problem I had.
I borrowed a laptop to run a show but to my dismay I found that when I tried to launch SCS it would crash just after displaying the splash screen, while it was still drawing the main screen.
I had already done all I could to disable start-up items and background processes, run Registry Mechanic, installed all the latest Windows patches, etc., so I was starting to worry I might have to run our sound from CD.
I noticed that a Microsoft Office dialog box flashed briefly before the crash and further investigation proved that MS Office was trying to install some component it thought it needed. It turns out that the process which controls this action is msiexec , which is the Windows Installer.
A bit of Googling found this Microsoft support page on the subject
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/555175/en-us
This says it is okay to disable the Windows Installer and lists a few methods. The one I used is this:
- - Go to Start Menu
- Run...
- Type "services.msc", press Enter
- Select Windows Installer
- set Start Up Type to Disabled
Since disabling the Windows Installer this way SCS has run fine (fingers crossed).
There may be some way to fix the underlying problem on this PC and re-enable Windows Installer, but as our show opens imminently I don't have the time to find it. In the mean time, this fix seems to work well.
Hope this may help somebody else some day.
Cheers,
Matt
P.S. (Plug the Show) http://www.southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/rev ... ragedy.htm