Hello,
I have bought this game lately and I've encountered weird error. It doesn't start on my ACer Ferrari One netbook. Itruns on my normal PC (win 7 64bit there) but it won't launch on my netbook (win 7 64bit here also).
Does anyone know solution to this issue? I tried compatibility mode and even renamed s3.exe to siedler3.exe but it didn't helped.

And I can see s3.exe running in task menager but I can not close it - I have to reboot my system.
Please help :)

i dont know why all peple are so fixated on the s3.exe and renaming it. From what i have gathered about the GoG version of settlers 3, the game is started through the single.exe in the game directory or the shortcut made by the installer. you could try that one.
another possibilty might be that another process is "blocking" settlers from executing, i have seen something like that in the past at my friends computers. back then it was miranda iirc. it looks like the settlers 3 (and 4 for that matter) have issues there.

I have read somewhere here about that renaming files so I tried that too.
What do you mean by that blocking s3.exe? This is the only game that did not run properly here

i know, it must sound confusing.

as i have mentioned, i experienced a case where even the game installer wouldnt show up (im talking about the original cd version) until you closed miranda (a chat client) and hokus pokus the installer suddenly came up. somehow it must have been blocking the start up. i dont know how and why, it just did.

yes, it was just a longshot, but when its about playing old games you just have to try and consider everything :)


another guess is the netbook itself, because, well, they are not well known for their gaming capacities. yes i know its an old game and the hardware should get along with it, but..well..

Have you tried running "SetupS3.exe in the game directory and changing some of the options there? "Wait for vertical blank" is an option what causes problems for some people either on or off. Also try the monochrome mouse pointer if it's not already set to that or turning off the intro.

none of this has helped :/ I can only see s3.exe in task bar and I cannot even close it. if it runs older games and more demanding ones ie. system shock 2 it should run settlers 3. But it ain't. Everything installs well butgame itslef won't launch.

i dont think that will do much as the game doesnt acutally start.

system shock is a 3d game using direct3d. settlers 3 is using direct draw, which is pretty old and far less supported by chips and drivers now than older directx versions.

have you actually tried shutting everything unimportant off (ie via task manager) before starting the game?

Well my gold edition won't start at all if I change some of the settings, particularly with the mouse pointer for some reason. Guess he doesn't have the same problem. My next suggestion would of been this. Particularly with anti-virus and the likes.

ok guys. something helped. last thing I did was switching most of the stuff using msconfig and after reboot settlers 3 worked. in apps I closed was stuff from apple, f secure and bunch of other apps I don't know since its my bro's pc.

anyway thanks for your time and advices, they helped. obviously :)

The error fixed by that is completely unrelated. In that case either the single.exe is in the taskmanager or the explorer.exe if you try to start s3.exe, with full CPU load, and nothing happens. Also, only XP SP3 seems to be affected by that.
The s3.exe never even starts in that case, so it obviously can't be in the taskmanager.