After patching Poser P5 with SR1 on my Windows 2000 system, my computer freezes when I try to start P5. Ctrl-Alt-Del no longer works, the only exit is a hardware reset. The same happens when I start AvatarLab which worked fine before installing P5. I am lucky that my Poser 4 Propack has not been harmed. Removing the patched Poser 5 version and reinstalling the original P5 from CD has no effect, the computer still freezes. I think there is a problem with the registry, but I don't know how to solve it.
To restart from scratch, I installed a new partition with Windows 2000 on my computer, reinstalled Poser 5 and there it works. This solution could be a workaround for other users who have problems to run Poser in the original or patched version, even if it's rather unconfortable to restart the computer to change the program environment, for instance to switch from Photoshop to Poser 5.
I would be grateful to get some hint's how to clean my registry and to reinstall Poser 5 and AvatarLab in my main Win2K partition.
Marco B.

I'd say your primary partition and registry is pretty hosed. I'm running W2K and I haven't had that problem. The only diff I see is that my poser files are on a seperate hdd from the OS.

Try System Restore. Reset your computer back to some point before you installed the "Patch". It should work! You can find it through the help section.

I wonder if anyone runs the runtime directory from across the LAN?

Err, Win2k has no 'System Restore' function. That's an ME and XP thing, if memory serves. Your best bet is to start rooting around in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE within the Registry, jerk out each and every reference to Curious Labs and Poser 5, then re-install Poser. HTH a little... /P

Bothellite, My "Render Box" is accessing it's runtimes over a LAN connection. If you're asking if it works, Yup it does. ... BUT ... The way Poser saves PZ3 files is a pain. it uses absolute file paths. I don't know why, but it does. Every other Poser file uses relative file paths. This means before you try to open a PZ3 in a different copy of Poser you have to point it's file refrences to the correct drive letter. I have a Macro that I wrote for TextPad that does this in a couple of clicks.

No System Restore? That bites! System Restore was one of the best things that has ever been done for an operating system.

i had the same problem (bluescreen-freeze-hardware reset on my Win ME. CL sent me another tkpd.vxd - file very fast; installed into windows/system and the problem was gone. Maybe it's a similiar thing on your 2000 system; you should ask the tech support, they seem to know the reason of a lot of problems meanwhile :-)))... oh yes, obviously it is a problem not with P5 itself, but with this f***d Interlok protection key shit...

Yep! Just got the same Win ME fix here hpdrag and it worked great. :) me happy now!

Marco, The EXACT same thing has happened to me. I have contacted CL Tech Support, (copy of e-mail at end of this post) but it takes a while to get a response. Meanwhile, I am without Poser 5 (fortunately, none of my other programs seem to have been affected). I have tried everything I know to restore the old working environment, including restoring my System State data and program files from last weeks backup (I backup the whole system on a weekly basis). Even after doing this, it still freezes. My OS is on a separate drive from my Applications like lalverson's, so that's not it. I hate to think of having to reformat my C: drive and reinstall W2000. Your workaround might be preferable to that. One thing... I had taken advantage of Poser 5's library file system capabilities to customize my file structure. Because of this, I ran into errors when I tried to install the figures part of the patch, and think this may have been part of the problem. By any chance did you experience this too? I'll try Penguinisto's suggestion next. If anyone has any other ideas, please post them here. I'll post any progress here also. Thanks, Buck copy of e-mail to CL tech support Hi, I have a Win 2000 machine; Pentium4, 2GHz, 1.5Gb RAM, I was running Poser 4 and Pro-Pack. When Poser 5 was released, I installed it in it's own directory and both versions ran fine. Last night I downloaded and installed the Poser 5 patch (the two part version). Now, when I try to start Poser 5 the system hangs and requires a power down reset. I decided to start from scratch, uninstalling Poser 5 and reinstalling the original without the patch. The system still hangs!! My original Poser 4 still works fine through all this. I just can't get up and running on Poser 5 again. Help please, Bob Bulkley

hpdrag, I just did a file search for tkpd.vxd and I don't have one on my system. Where should it be located? Buck

It should be in the Windows/system directory. Also try looking for a tkpd.sys file, you might have that instead.

oops, sorry, i mispelled it; it is: Tpkd.vxd!! (not tkpd); great ol' c-style cryptic names :-))... look for it in windows/system. just for information, i don't know if such an info makes sense for other systems: the NOT working version nr was: 4.401.2.1075 the working, i got from CL is: 4.300.7.840, obviously the older version was better.

Lol! I looked at your typo and did the same thing. : Tpkd is right.

Thank you so far for your comments and helps. I mailed a bug report to CL tech support. Reply to Buck: I used the full patch.exe file. The problem seems not been related to the two-part version of the patch.

OK, I found a tpkd.sys file in my winntsystem32drivers directory. It is version 4.1.1.1074. Could someone who has Poser 5 installed and running on Win2000 please check theirs and let me know the version? Thanks, Buck

Mine is 3.0.7.840 and its TPkd.sys

That's with Poser 5 installed and no patch. I'm not sure I want to run the patch just yet.

I'm running Win2K Pro, with the patch and the patch to the patch and my version is 4.1.1.1074 No problem here except for the occasional abrupt exit from the program when entering the Hair room.

EricofSD, Could you send me a copy of the file please? buck99@telocity.com Thanks, Buck

Buck, you should get it from CL not EricofSd. Contact there Techsupport.

I checked TPkd.sys on my system. It's an Interlok system file Anti-Piracy from PACE. Both Poser5 and Avatarlab use the same registration procedure and both programs have problems. I guess they are related to this file.
The TPkd.sys version in my old WinK2 partition is 4.1.1.1074, in the new one 3.0.7.840. Don't ask me why these versions are different, I used the same CD and patches to install Poser 5 on both partitions.
I now replaced the 4.1.1.1074 version with the 3.0.7.840 in my main WinK2 partition and, oh wonder, Poser5 and AvatarLab are now running. It was not a problem of the registry.
I have put the 3.0.7.840 TPkd.sys version on my website

http://www.saraproft.lu/download/TPkd.sys

to help other users who experienced the same problem (hi Buck). I hope that this support will not violate any copyright.
Marco B. , Luxembourg

I copied EricofSD's file into my system and it worked! Thanks much, Eric. So Poser 5 is up and running unpatched. Now, with trembling hands I am off to install "The Patch From Hell". Thanks to all, Buck

Dear Marco, Distributing the file may hamper our efforts to track down the issues with the drivers and provide updates for our users. Further, the old drivers may or many not work in all cases and the new drivers may not cause problems in all places. Please REMOVE these files. We at Curious Labs are working very hard to get everyone their updates as quickly as possible and to track down and resolve these issues once and for all. I and others are working through the weekend to speed things up as much as possible. I know you're trying to help and I really do appreciate the sentiment. ;-) Anthony Hernandez Curious Labs

OK Anthony, I have deleted the file from my website. I appreciate that the Curiouslabs people are working during the weekend to solve the problems and I wish you good luck. sincerely yours, Marco B.

Thanks, Marco! Again, please know we're working as fast as possible. Anthony H.

I wonder when developers are going to realize that their protection schemes are nothing but trouble to the honest consumer. Securom sucks, SafeDisc REALLY sucks, and well, looks like this one does too. Big shock. Get rid of them already and stop screwing the honest user over. It's not like it's hard to get around them anyway, sheesh. I can name game after game where the protection was either removed by the developer BECAUSE it causes problems or the honest consumer was forced to find "alternatives" because of the damn protection screwing things up. I know, it's a fruitless battle. /me wanders off to read more threads.

What frustrates me is that even though there is a work around - Anthony tells the users they can't use it because they want them to experience bugs so they can fix the new Interlok system. Um - why do I get the feeling Poser 5 users are nothing but 'paying' beta testers?

Ok, so Poser and Roxio and Symantec and AOl and yada yada like to overwrite the standard ms dll's and sys' with their own tweaked codes. This is a practice that needs to stop. Stay with a standardized protocol. (not that I think MS should be the standard, but until someone else comes along to set an industry spec, we are stuck with M$). So, what happens when program x of the future has version 5.00.3.xxx of this file and it overwrites when loaded? We all get hosed again. I remember some years ago when Norton 95 came out and AOL 3 I think. Tons of problems. I called Norton, they pointed the finger at AOL. Back then, Steve Chase was personally available so I called him, he pointed at Norton. I set up a conference call to both and they agreed to rewrite both programs. It was a dcom file issue as I recall. You know, this really sux. Just go standard and if you need something special, write your own dll/sys and don't overwrite the existing ones!!!!!

Curious Labs now has the Older TPKD file as a download on their website. However they list it as being for Win98/Win ME only. FYI

Yes, we are also experimenting with Windows 2000.

experimenting?

EricofSD, The VXD drivre in question isn't a standard Windows Driver I believe, it is a VXD/sys file which is created by Pace for their Interlok security system. There are different drivers updates from their site - depending on how Curious Labs uses the InterLok System really depends on which version should be on there or not. This reminds me off the issues Cd-dilla had with their copy protection, too many versions being used at once, and not enough companies implementing them correctly. Thus they were over-writing one and other ... :)

Movida, that file is a vxd driver file - last time I checked NT OS platforms (like WinXP and Win2k) do not support VXD drivers. I believe there are other drivers which the Interlok system use for WindowsNT OS platforms. Ther tpkd.sys file should be the NT version - I presume Curious Labs is making sure the older version works first before releasing it. ------- I'm not sure I kinda understand some things - maybe Curious Labs can answer these... 1) Does Avatar have a new version of Interlok drivers installed then Poser 5? 2) Could updating the Interlok drivers from Pace's homepage help with the problems (since they have a update for their Interlok system) 3) Is the "Dongle" Curious Labs was/is thinking about the Ilok system? Is it tried and tested, how much would it cost users? Etc etc... Thanks

It's not that I want people to experience bugs. Quite the contrary. We know the workaround is good for users with Windows 98 and ME. What we DON'T know is how it works with Windows 2000/XP, which is an entirely different operating system. We are conducting our own tests to see if the drivers can help with Windows 2000 issues and are working very hard to get everyone experiencing problems up and running as soon as possible.

Anthony, There are at least 2 of us W2000 users here who were unable to launch Poser 5 after installing the patch who are now able to run by dropping back to the old version of tpkd.sys. I don't understand why you don't advertise this as a workaround until you guys figure out the ultimate solution. If I had waited on CL I would have been down for 3 days now. If you're scratching your heads on why some W2000 users are affected and not others, I'd take a look at who has installed W2k SP3 and who hasn't. I have, and I have the problem. Buck

Well, buck, I have windows 2000, and I have installed the W2k SP3 and I have installed the Poser 5 SP1, and have not experienced any problems. So it's not as simple as that I'm guessing. Let CL experiment. It's what we paid them to do. *8-)

Just out of curiosity volfin, what version of tpkd.sys do you have on your system?

WiNC, thanks for the explanation s

Anthony, Assuming that you want to know successes as much as failures to troubleshoot this thing, while holding my breath (after making a back-up copy of TPkd.sys), I loaded the patch on my WinXP Pro AMD 1700+, 512 MB system. No problems noted with a simple scene. Didn't need the TPkd.sys back-up.

Well, it looks like I have version 4.1.1.1074.