Hi.

Where to start... Ok.

I encountered this problem a few days ago. I tried to reinstall Rome: Total War PC game. There was something wrong with the uninstallation so I just deleted its folder and cleaned the registry with a reg. cleaner. Then I tried to install the game again. I put in the cd and clicked on 'Install' when it autoplayed. This came up, nothing unusual: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/Lambda/demoshield.jpg.

Right after that, I got this error message: "_is5E.tmp has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience."And the next time I try, it says this: "_is60.tmp has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience." So basically it changes the last two characters before .tmp in the filename, like this: _isXX.tmp.

Well, I tried to search for those files with the Windows XP search function, and I found out that the files are in C:/WINDOWS/Prefetch folder. The _isXX.tmp files actually have a -XXXXXXXX.pf ending, X's being numbers or letters. Example: the latest .tmp file created by RTW installation is this: _IS77.TMP-0F6E10A7.pf. Deleting these .tmp (or should I say .pf?) files and then starting the installation just creates a new file.
And I'd say that that 'is' part of the filename indicates it has something to do with the InstallShield installing, which has something to do with the DemoShield pic I showed you.

Just recently I found out that the problem isn't just Rome: Total War specific and that my installation CD is not BROKEN, but it's in fact something wrong in the system files or something. I was trying to install Doom 3 - it has exactly the same problem. Both Doom 3 and RTW installation show the DemoShield picture right before the error message, and their installation CDs' layout is similar:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v101/Lambda/inst_cds.jpg
Both have the .msi packages, setup.exe and .ini files and launch.exe and .ini files etc.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think DemoShield was used to create the installation process on both of the CDs, and InstallShield is the program that actually handles the installation process, and that there's something wrong with the InstallShield.

So I have a few questions.

Are there any logs created by problems such as this, so I could get more info on what actually is wrong?
Is there any way to delete InstallShield and install it again to get rid of the problem, assuming that there's something wrong with InstallShield?
Can you help me with this?

Thank you!You said there was a problem with the uninstallation of RTW. What was it? It seems to me you missed something when you just deleted the folder and the game isn't fully uninstalled.If I remembered what the problem actually was, I would describe it, but I don't remember. I just recall there was a problem.

And also, I did point out in my post that the problem isn't RTW specific, because the exactly same problem OCCURS with Doom 3. So I don't think I have to dig for some still uninstalled RTW files to get rid of the problem

EDIT: and I have also run a series of registry cleaning tools and tools that clean all files that have no use etc. My COMPUTER should be pretty clean and optimized right now, at least relatively, compared to what it has been.Turn off all other running programs, especially antivirus stuff and then try installing again.
I think you're on the wrong track blaming demoshield for this.
Gotta run, late for work. Well I think that your registry cleaner that you used "cleaned" things up too well and messed up your installshield. It probably removed what it thought was a useless file that was tied up with that problem you had with the uninstall of RTW and it took something Installshield needs.

Try to install some other things. See if they install. Try something other than games as well. See if you can install anything at all. That way you can rule out all I've said above. Otherwise......

Also you can go here to see what you can find. I found the site you do the searching.

http://consumer.installshield.com/default.asp

I've installed lotsa things recently, but just Doom3 and RTW are the ones that won't work so far. They're also the only ones that have shown the demoshield pic during installation.

And disabling antivirus didn't help.

That consumer site you posted.. not much help I think, at least at a glance.

In the Who to Contact part they say that it's most probably the software vendor I should contact and not InstallShield's makers. And they say that if the software vendor is UNABLE to provide solution, I should encourage them to contact InstallShield to we can together form a solution. Bah.
I really think this has to do with InstallShield and they can provide the solution. I don't think this really has anything to do with Rome: Total War or Doom 3 specifically, but InstallShield.As I understand it the shield comes with the game so it's highly unlikely you would have 2 broken ones.
Interested in your comments on this.
Reading, unpacking & writing files is very hardware intense, have you tested your ram, is it possible to try with another cdrom?I don't understand what you're saying.

What does my RAM has to do with this? I have a gig of ram running at 333MHz, would be 400MHz unless my mobo restricted it.

Try with another cdrom? You mean try the cd in another drive..?

EDIT: By the way, I'm going to reinstall WinXP today, since it's a long time since I did it last time. Now's good also because of this problem.. I'm pretty sure that it's fixed once I have the new Windows installed - and if it's not fixed, we KNOW that the problems's not in the system files but somewhere completely else.You could have as many gigs of RAM as you want. But if it's faulty it's not going to do you any good. Test your RAM.

Anything being installed uses your RAM.

Hopefully a fresh install will fix your installshield issues. Let us know how it goes.Ok, I'm done with the fresh Win XP install. It was a very good thing to do, it runs so much faster now. I got rid of gigs of junk that I had on my pc, and I reformatted and repartitioned my other harddisk and made it NTFS, like the other one I have. I have now free space. Lots of free space.

Pretty much done with installing everything and setting things up too. Just have to install the games.

And I just successfully finished the installation of Doom 3, so it would appear that the problem is solved and that it was something in the system files. Woohooo!!!1!1

And I even remember to backup my bookmarks!


A good reinstall will fix most Windows problems, for a while.