Greetings!
I already have some sound-trouble with Gabriel Knight 2 and now Gabriel Knight 3 wants me to "Please Insert CD1" right after I try to launch the game. What to do?
I'm happy at least Gabriel Knight 1 is playable :-)
Best regards,
Chris
Hardware information:
Operating system: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3
Processor type and speed: Intel(R) Atom(TM) CPU N280 @ 1.66GHz (2 CPUs)
RAM memory: 1016MB RAM
Graphics card: Mobile Intel(R) 945 Express Chipset Family
Sound card: Realtek HD Audio
Graphics driver version: 6.14.0010.4906 (English)
DirectX version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Edit: GK3 wants me to "Please Insert CD1", of course! :-D

Apparently the game doesn't «like» running on PC's that don't have an optical drive. Here's the solution that worked for me:

Simply install a CD emulation program (in my case, it was Daemon Tools Lite) and reboot if necessary.

The game launched with no problems after this.

It sure helped me. I consulted the GOG team prior to using it, they said go ahead, problem fixed.
Thanks for sharing, Pal.

This worked for me too.

I contacted tech support and they told me that the game was not compatible with Windows 8 and gave me a credit for another game. I'm happy with that solution, although I wish I could play the game.

While this did allow the game to run (as I do not currently have an optical drive connected and the modified EXE linked farther down from your post did not fix the issue on its own), the DT Lite installer also stealth installed browser-hijacking crapware onto my system and may have installed two other pieces of malware as well (unfortunately this is not the only thing I've installed from the internet since I last checked for malware, so I cannot be sure of this second bit). I've cleaned that off (wasn't terribly hard, for a change), but it's still worth noting...

Thanks!

I know this is an old topic but for me the solution was not that straight forward. I use a laptop without the CD drive.
I had to do two steps to make this game run:

1) install the patch mentioned above
AND
2) use a CD virtualization software to mount any CD iso image

I hope it may save you some time.

More than 6 years on after the start of this thread and the problem still exists. GOG is still selling games that won't work for some people. DRM stops being an important issue with people when you can't even play games that you bought. Back to Steam I go.

This solution worked for me (not sure if all steps are necessary)
1) I tried to run the patch mentioned above. I got an error message.
2) I downloaded and installed virtual clone drive. I couldn't figure out how to use the program to play GK3 but I noticed when clicking on the "my computer" icon that I now have a second CD-Rom drive.
3) reboot computer
4) The game still didn't work. Then it occured to copy the patch in to gk3 game folder c:/gog games/gabriel knight 3. I said yes when asked if I wanted to replace previous file.

Not sure if steps 2 and 3 are necessary. My laptop allready had a cd-drive.

Damn! now the game crashes after the intro. I guess i'll just try it on another pc.

How can GOG say this problem is solved when none of the solutions work.LOL

Can't run the game, it doesn't work for me.
I have desktop computer, optical drive even virtual clone drive in my pc but the problem still persists.

What OS do you have? Win8, Win10 or older?

Thank you! It works now!

Oh my f**king god this game... Long story short:

1. First I get the Insert CD 1 image right at start up while trying to run normally or in Win 95 compatibility mode.
2. After changing the compatibility to Win 7 the game runs, woo!
3. Less than 24 hours later the game starts normally, but when reloading, I get the Insert CD 1 again. Woo... Also if pressing the Intro or Play buttons it demands the CD that it did very well without just last night.

Today I did some minor Win 10 updates that I cannot believe would be the cause of this, and it seems I can't roll them back.

I suppose nobody has any solution to this one, but I felt like venting my frustration just after getting excited about an unplayed GK game.


EDIT: Ok, apparently it's a true workaround that running any ISO file before starting GK3 takes care of the problem. I might have fooled around with some last night before getting it to work but I forgot to make the connection now. So it works now, woo!

So I dug up my XP Mini and threw GK3 on it - and got that CD1 error. Tried the "fix" EXE mentioned.
Same.

So I threw in my USB CDROM - launched and it worked.

Yanked out the CDROM. Still works.

So... now, as long as I don't reboot I don't have to carry around a CDROM, I guess? :)