Can’t install Viva Pinata

Created on Wednesday, May 13, 2009.
Filed under Life Skills.
 

There is a common installation problem with Viva Pinata where the install program might freeze partway through and leave you with a half-installed game that can’t be uninstalled. I’ve found the solution.

 

There is a common installation problem with Viva Pinata where the install program might freeze partway through and leave you with a program that is on the computer, so you can’t overwrite it with the install program, but incomplete, and therefore you cannot uninstall it. I’ve found the solution.

Was it DLA?

If you get an error mentioning something called DLA when you try to switch discs, go to My Computer and right-click on your CD/DVD drive, and select Properties. Go to the DLA tab and uncheck the Enable DLA on your drives checkbox. Apply the changes and click OK.

This will stop DLA from holding the disc in your drive, making it possible to swap the discs during the installation. DLA is silly anyway, so you’re not missing out by leaving it off.

Step 1: Run Regedit

So you’ve now got a half-installed copy of Viva Pinata that can’t be repaired or uninstalled by the program. Congratulations!

Go to the Start menu and click Run. In the textbox, type regedit (short for Registry Editor) and click OK.

You’re now in the Registry Editor. All of the folders on the left-hand pane of the screen represent the infrastructure of your computer. If you delete or edit the wrong thing it could stop programs from running, or even prevent Windows from booting up, so don’t mess around.

Step 2: Find Viva Pinata entries

At the very top of the left-hand pane there is an icon called My Computer. Click on it to make it active. This tells Regedit to search the entire registry.

Now go to Edit -> Find and search for viva (do not match the whole string) and click Find. Your job now is to delete any entries or folders that come up, but there are some rules to this:

  • DO NOT touch anything that is in a folder called Autorun.
  • If there are many other blue entries in the folder, delete only the blue entry that came up in the search.
  • If you turn up a folder named with random letters and numbers inside a parent folder called Installshield Installation Information, delete the randomly-named folder together with all of its contents.

Step 3: Reinstall

Even though Viva Pinata is still present in the Add/Remove Programs tool, you should now be able to run the installation program from the Viva Pinata disc. After the installation finishes successfully, that faulty icon in Add/Remove Programs will be replaced with the proper, working one. Well done!

That's all there is, there isn't any more.
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