I have been trying to install MERCS for 3 days!

I can load it but I keep getting a fatal exception error when I attempt to start the game... have removed and re-installed 3-4 times.

cleared a full 20 gig from my drive....

Can you give us a little more information? What's the exact error message?

...and exactly at what point do you receive the message?

(at startup, after the EULA, etc.)

After EULA and it runs the autoconfig..... it spins for a while and then gives the error message (which I will get tonight when I try again). I had just deleted MERCS to allow me to loadup another game and try.... and now it hates me...lol

I think a similar issue is discussed here. Try changing the target for your desktop shortcut as described in that thread. If your problem is before the main menu, it may be related to a video compatibility issue.

Also to Spiff's point, if you could post the exact error message that would help too...

I worked through it, I finished installing MP3 and it comes up fine now, but now it will not let me take the graphics down (it is stuck on ultra-high) which really makes for laggy play on my computer.... I have went to the config and changed it and it still goes back to ultra-high....

It'll default to whatever it thinks your computer can run whenever you fire up Autoconfig. As long as you change the settings to what you want, it should keep them until you run Autoconfig the next time.

Then perhaps I have a different problems... I run the autoconfig and take it down to medium but there is still a lag player even in single player, heck even the mech in the mechlab rotates very slowly... we are talking like 2 minutes to revolve one time.

I thought it was my vid card going bad but it runs other games (Morrowwind and the likes) just fine. I have a old rig and I am using a 64mb GeForce 3 card .

What resolution are you trying to run it at? I'd say you probably need to take it down to at least 1024x768, maybe even 800x600. Make sure anti-aliasing and detail textures is off too.

If that doesn't work, you might have to bite the bullet and run it on low. It's just not any fun when the mechs jump about 100 meters between frames.

I'm betting that's it. I had the same problem once on a reinstall.

Try checking to see if you have AGP fast writes enabled in your BIOS and in your video options. If it is, disable it in both.

Fast Writes are responsible for a great number of system stability issues. Turning them off has a negligible effect on performance, yet greatly improves system stability, particularly in games.

EDIT:

Oh! And one other piece of advice I thought I'd pass along. I had a bunch of problems when re-installing Mercs a couple of weeks back. I still don't know what the real source of the problem was, but the game wouldn't load and just kept crashing.

On the re-install I ran the game once before instaling PR1 or anything else, went through the auto-config, and created a user in the game. After that after every thing I installed that changed the game (maps are fine) i.e. PR1, MekPaks, NetMech IV, I would run the game after installing each and go through the auto-config. Worked for me that way

Hey Freelancer, have you had any issues switching from NetMech IV to MP3.02a? I haven't loaded NMIV yet and I don't want to mess up my MP3.02a install because of the MWL drops. I guess I'm just trying not to have a bunch of installs.

Thanks Gwydion and freelancer.... it was the anti-aliasing that was throwing it out of whack.... plus I went int and did what Freelancer suggested and ran the autoconfig and created a player...ran sweet after that.

Thanks guys!

To be honest I really haven't tried. Though I'll give it a shot tommorow night

But from what I know, it can now handle being installed with the latest mekpaks and should work just fine. Though there are always exceptions to the rule....

Yeah I just found out an exception on Ronin....