Can not get into the game since installed "4.87 update7a". (Solved)

[csknife]

I have installed the game newly, and I got stuck in getting into the game since I installed the patch "update7a".
My OS is win7 x64, and my steps are:

1. Installed a clean Freelancer. (1.0 and 1.1, I've tried both.)
2. Installed Discovery 4.87 mod. (I can get into the game at this stage.)
3. The game requires me to upgrade the patch "update7a", and because of the issue of lost connection, I downloaded the patch directly from "http://discoverygc.com/updates/487update7a.zip" and then I unzipped it into my "Discovery Freelancer" folder.
4. After I clicked "Freelancer.exe", I can see the logo screen and then I got stuck. and the game got "not responding". I have to kill the freelancer process from the "Windows Task Manager", and I found the process "freelancer.exe" will not disappear from the process list even though I have killed it.

I have deleted any file under freelancer's "Save" folder (actually I've not installed any other MOD, it's newly installed FL), but the problem still can not get solved.
Do I need to install the previous patch before I install "update7a"? (e.g. update1 / 2 / 3, etc...?)
What I missed? or can any one give me some advice or help? thank you!

[Praetor]

Try right clicking "Freelancer.exe" and going to 'Properties'.
Select "Run in Compatibility mode" As Windows XP.

See if this helps,also logs would be helpfull.

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[csknife]

Try right clicking "Freelancer.exe" and going to 'Properties'.
Select "Run in Compatibility mode" As Windows XP.

See if this helps,also logs would be helpfull.

Thank you, I've already done that, it didn't help, I also selected "Run as administrator", that didn't help either.
I have downloaded update1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 7a, and unzipped them one by one, but there is still no miracle.
I have no idea about it... and where is the log? I find one in "Documents\My Games\Freelancer\DSAce.log", it says:
"Initialising
Options:
-logchat off
-logtime off
-localtime off
-logappend off
-showinfocards off
Freelancer Started"
Or is there a log feature that I need to switch on? thanks.

[csknife]

I have reinstalled the game just now, and I can get into the menu screen and I can see UPDATE pops up.
Then I installed update1, and I can get into the menu screen and UPDATE pops up.
Then I installed update2, and I also can get into the menu screen and UPDATE pops up.
But when I installed update3, the problem reproduced and I can not get into the menu screen I got stuck at logo screen and NO UPDATE pops up.
I haven't tried update4, and I believe that's the patch casued the problem, but I don't know why, is there any component that I need to install first? thanks

[Dogbite10]

Are you using a full version of the game to install? I don't think the demo will work.

Are you installing the game to the correct folder? On my windows 64 machine the files go under something like user/local/discovery4.87. They aren't installed to the regular Freelancer folder.

Is your anti virus deleting the file "DSace.dll" ? Some anti virus scanners pick it up as a false positive and remove it. This causes many problems with the updates and usually means you have to manually unpack them again after setting that file as an exception in your anti virus software.

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[csknife]

Are you using a full version of the game to install? I don't think the demo will work.

Are you installing the game to the correct folder? On my windows 64 machine the files go under something like user/local/discovery4.87. They aren't installed to the regular Freelancer folder.

Is your anti virus deleting the file "DSace.dll" ? Some anti virus scanners pick it up as a false positive and remove it. This causes many problems with the updates and usually means you have to manually unpack them again after setting that file as an exception in your anti virus software.

Thank you for your reply, I downloaded the freelancer from another forum and that's what I can find, as it's a very old game and there is no too much resources that I can get from the internet. and I can not find it in discoverygc.com either...
It's a 589MB ISO, and I think it's not a demo copy. I would appreciate it if you can provide me a download link.

I've installed Discovery FL into a new folder "E:\Discovery Freelancer\" not the original folder, since the installer allows me to change the folder, then I don't willing to install the game into driver C... the game works fine in v4.87 and update1 & 2, but it got failed since update3, you can find that in my pervious posts.

And I can see "DSAce.dll" in the folder "E:\Discovery Freelancer\EXE" which mean my anti virus software hasn't killed it yet.

I can not figure it out why it can only run within 4.87 and update1 & 2...

[csknife]

I troubleshot for a long time, finally I got problem solved!

It's my firewall software, it conflicts with FL's full screen mode, FL will try to get internet access, and FW will try to pop-up a window to allow user to choose the authorization, and Update3 (as well as update7a) has changed "Freelancer.exe", which means my FW will try to pop-up the window and ask me about authorization again, but somehow its window's popup conflicted with the latest FL's full screen mode, they were stuck with each other, FW can not pop up window and FL can not proceed either, they got deadlock...

The solution is adding "-windows" in the property of FL, run FL as Windows mode, and then the FW's window can pop up successfully. and once the FW got your authorization, it won't pop up again untill the exe changed.

Well done! I hope my finding can help someone who has the same problem.