Potential Difficulties with the New Updater

Hey All,

We are in the process of rolling out a new version of the updater to handle upcoming changes to the game. There is a chance that you will run into one of the following problems, depending on how your computer is set up:

Any of the following errors:

"Error opening 'C:\Programs\City Of Heroes\CohUpdater.tmp'"
"Failed to rename C:\Programs\City Of Heroes\updater.exe to C:\cohtest\cohupdater.prv"

Please note that "C:\Programs\City Of Heroes\" will be replaced with wherever you have installed City of Heroes.

It's a pretty easy fix once you know the problem. This is only for folks with Vista+ who have renamed the updater to avoid the Admin prompt.

1. Open your game directory. (Just right click on your shortcut and pick 'open file location.')
2. Rename your file back to CohUpdater.exe.
3. There will be a .prv file in the directory with the name you used for CohUpdater. Delete it.
4. Run CohUpdater.exe directly. Enter your admin password and let the updater start up.
5. Don't bother starting the game, just quit.
6. Rename your CohUpdater.exe back to something else, like CohStarter.exe.

That's it.

If you also run against the test server, you can just copy the exe over. Or, in step 4, you can make a shortcut to CohUpdater.exe, add the -test command line switch in, and then run via the shortcut.



Other problems updating may be caused by particular anti-virus and anti-malware software. This will have different effects depending on what is interfering with the update.

Most of these issues are caused by software firewalls blocking the update, or after the update occurs, the firewall ‘quarantines’ files that it thinks are possibly malicious due to them changing.

The first thing that should be done is configure your firewall:

Make sure that both cohupdater.exe and cityofheroes.exe are added as trusted programs, with full access to the Internet. Sometimes old entries remain, so you may need to remove all current entries for these applications and re-add a new one. Disabling the software does not always allow free access across your program files. If the errors persist after this you could try temporarily uninstalling your firewall software.

Next, if you still see checksum errors, delete the file coh.checksum, then find the file that the checksum is failing on, such as cityofheroes.exe in the game’s root directory, or player.pigg in the Piggs directory and delete that file as well. Once deleted run the updater again, and the files should download properly.


If you are still experiencing an issue after configuring your security software, temporarily uninstalling your security software, and deleting the game files that are causing an error, please submit a question to our Technical Support Team here: (http://help.plaync.com/cgi-bin/playn...nduser/ask.php) so that we can address the issue on an individual basis. Please include the following information so that we may better assist you.

We have a small utility that will run traceroutes, pathpings, and port tests to our servers; please run this test so that we will have some data regarding your connection. Make sure that you are connected directly to your modem during this process. To download the network tool, please browse to the following link:

Network Tool

Right-click the "netinfotool" file and choose Save As. Save the file to your desktop. After the download is complete, double-click the file on your desktop. Follow the on-screen prompts. The tool will take from 5-15 minutes to run. It will create two new files, one named "EULA" and one named "network_data_coh", in the same folder where you saved the test utility. Please include this file in your support question.

Please also send us as much of the following information as possible:

A thorough description of the problem, including the exact text of any error messages received.
What type of connection do you have (cable, DSL, dial-up)?
Are you on a home, campus, or business network?
Are you using a router?
Who is your Internet service provider?
Where are you located?
Are you connecting through a router or hub? If so, what is the name and model number?
What firewall software do you have installed?



Finally, If you are using the NOD32 virus scanner:

The first thing that should be done is configure your firewall:

Make sure that both cohupdater.exe and cityofheroes.exe are added as trusted programs, with full access to the Internet. Sometimes old entries remain, so you may need to remove all current entries for these applications and re-add a new one. Disabling the software does not always allow free access across your program files.

* If you have NOD32 installed you will need to configure or disable the IMON feature in that program by doing the following:

1. Open the NOD32 program
2. Click on IMON -> Setup -> General
3. In the column "Exceptions," click on "Modify"
4. Make sure that cohupdater.exe and cityofheroes.exe are added as exceptions or disable the IMON feature altogether.

If the errors persist after this you could try temporarily uninstalling your firewall software.

Next, if you still see checksum errors, delete the file coh.checksum, then find the file that the checksum is failing on, such as cityofheroes.exe in the game’s root directory, or player.pigg in the Piggs directory and delete that file as well. Once deleted run the updater again, and the files should download properly.

Hope this is helpful, please let us know if you have further questions.

Thanks,

this problem also occurs with running Cedega Engine 7.3.3 with the Windows Xp identifier against the test server. Checking to see if the same fix works.

***

Okay. Not really. Using the test server under Cedega, this is the way I got around it:

Directly deleted the cohupdater.prv file from: /home/(username)/.cedega/(cedega install folder)/c_drive/Program Files/CohTest

Copied the CohUpdater.exe file from /home/(username)/.cedega/(cedega install folder)/c_drive/Program Files/CohTest to /home/(username)/.cedega/(cedega install folder)/c_drive/windows/

Started up the installer in Cedega... and the patch went through.

Interestingly, the problem did not appear on two other installs against different computers...

When will we see the new updater?

Will the new updater be tied into the PlayNC Launcher, so we can automatically download and patch our clients while we are away?

hasn't the updater gone through multiple backend iterations already? i'm not sure this will be much different...unless i missed something about a different 'looking' updater with different front-end functionality...which is entirely possible, i've been away for a bit. :-)

...in other words, same old same old...just with a sticky to explain the problem that has arison from this situation before. :-)

Speculation here but... An updater update could mean a EU/US server list merge.

There was something mentioned a while back that they would have to change the updater to allow that to happen.

I noticed the updater for test updated itself today. No problems so far for me.

I have the problem on XP. I did'nt rename anything. I think it's because the name of the updater is:

CohUpdater.EU.exe



ಠ_ಠ
How can I fix it?

How about for the Mac client? Having the same problem here.....

Nope, doesn´t work. I guess I´ll just wait for the Live version and hope it works better than this.

@Redcap

Is this 'Potential Difficulty' the reason why my Updater is hanging at 'Connecting.. #1'?

I think so.

Same problem here.
Renaming -> doesn't work.
Copy to c:\whereeveryouwant\ -> doesn't work.

Same as you Cupcake i'm on euro server + using Win XP so nothing at all works so far, i tried bypassing launcher, i tried the copy to Windows stuff, i tried renaming to cohupdater.exe, making shortcuts, etc... nothing.

I'm not even getting a .prv file.

In the thread 'COH Updater will not finish loading' there is an updater bypass fix posted by Part_Troll on the 3rd page. And, it does work...for NA servers at least, may work for EU too, it's worth a try anyway.