Cannot install Som City 3000

I've had this yearing to play the game recently but SimCity 3000 won't install on my system (insert crying).

The autorun starts and when I click "install" the cursor turns into a hour glass for a few minutes then goes back to the pointer.

CTRL-ALT-DEL shows the setup.exe and wowexec.exe (XP 16 bit managing system). Neither use any processor (0%).

From the CD I can navigate to setup/eng - right click setup.exe and set it for Windows 98 compatibility mode and it still won't work (same results as above).

I even toned down my graphics to 16K with the same results (even down to 8K and that didn't help).

This seems to be the same issue with many older games - even ones I've used on XP SP2 before (including NeverWinter nights, Baulders Gate etc..). Something changed with the older compatibility when they went to SP3. I'm wondering if that wowexec.exe is a buggy version or something?

Check out post #15 here - http://forums.invisionpower.com/topi...nd-windows-xp/

Thank you CCT but it did not help - Sim City 3000 hasn't been installed on this PC since I reloaded Windows about 6 months ago so I can't change the files on the C: drive but I did with all the ones on the CD-ROM. It did run in 640X480 until I clicked "install" and it went to my normal resolution - nothing in the task manager shows that it was running.

I bought an older game - King's Quest VIII - as I recall it would only work in XP if run in 640x800 without any emulation/compatability.

I tried that and it didn't help. I even tried to install Sin City 2000 and I get the same results.

I was able to install Sim City 3000 on another computer. That PC is on XP SP2 while my main one is on XP SP3.

I know that, when inserting the cd, you can get out of autorun and then look at the installer properties on the cd and tell it to install in so-and-so a way (rather than the way it wants).

Or something like that. I tinker with old games in XP also.

I'm doing a test right now.

I have the game working on a computer that is on XP SP2.

I am upgrading that PC to SP3 (I don't care if I need to reinstall Windows on this PC). I'll see if it works afterwards and/or if I can install it. If I can, the issue is with my PC. If I cannot, then it is an issue (most likely since the 2 PCs are different models) it is a SP3 issue.

BTW - can one of the mods please edit the title to say "Sim" and not "Som"? :)

Edit: OK, I was able to run the installed version. I uninstalled it and I'm re-installing it and it seems to be working fine.

Hmmm.. so it's my PC.

I did a fresh install of XP last night and went up to SP3 with that PC - it is installing now. Not sure what it was but I'm glad it's over. :)