Had to Reinstall Windows, Now FGU Won't Install

[AsmodeusUltima]

I am having the same difficulties as the folk in this thread from 2020: https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?53727-FGU-won-t-install-correctly-No-EXE-updater-crashes

Running Windows 10. Downloaded FGUWebInstaller.exe for Windows, ran the program. Said it needed C++, but failed to install that when I told it to. So I downloaded the C++ redistributable from Microsoft and installed it, ran FGU installer again. Finished installing, said it would run Updater and... nothing happened. Checked the install folder and there is no regular exe, just the updater. Tried running that, it fails every time about half way through the first update. Tried uninstalling and it froze the uninstaller, had to delete everything manually. Reinstalled, same thing. Disabled Windows Firewall (no other virus protection program running) and tried again (including redownloading the installer), still no luck. Even tried the link in the thread I mentioned that some people said worked for them and, unsurprisingly, it was broken.

The program worked fine on the exact same computer a few days ago. Windows became corrupted, didn't have the tools to take care of it myself, so I took it to a computer repair place. I asked them specifically to transfer the SmiteWorks data folder to my other drive before formatting the C drive and reinstalling Windows... which they failed to do. So I need to get the program reinstalled so I can painstakingly remake the map, enemies, and characters I spent weeks making in time for my upcoming campaign start. :/

[damned]

Darn that is an unfortunate sequence of events.
What version of Windows is running? Click start button and type "winver"

[AsmodeusUltima]

You don't know the half of it.

Windows 10 Version 21H1 (OS Build 19043.1865)

[damned]

We are most likely in different timezones. But if you are on Discord you can ping me and do a screen share and we can see if we can get to the bottom of it. Otherwise log a ticket at https://support.fantasygrounds.com/ and see if they can help you.

[ddavison]

Can you try downloading the latest installer from the website and then try that. The thread from 2020 was with a very old, early version of the installer when we first launched.

[AsmodeusUltima]

@damned: Thank you for the advice. Unfortunately I am unsure how a screenshare would help: there are no error messages or any such thing, only exactly what I described already. I will go ahead and log a ticket.

@ddavison: I was using the latest installer from the website. I only looked at that thread after I had already experienced the problem.

[Laerun]

Did you happen to reboot your PC after you installed the redistributable C++?
Is it possible that your new PC setup might have needed more updates before installing the FG app?
The request that you asked for from our PC tech is not as quickly or as easily done for your computer tech. The older FGU data should be installed on a similar version of FG before dumping the older data onto your new setup.
Did you or were you able to drag your campaign folder onto a backup device or a USB drive before the reinstall work was performed? The state of your computer before you had to reinstall windows is not exactly one for one or identical to what it is right now, especially if there are any pending updates, drivers, and other things present before you reinstalled windows. One can easily have some version mismatches regarding drivers and security updates.
Best of luck!
Laerun

[ddavison]

It might be a permissions thing or an anti-virus program quarantining the files.

If you try to run the installer from scratch again, look in the Event Viewer for Windows after it crashes and see if anything shows up around that time that might point to the issue. If it gets far enough, there will also be log files under
C:\Program Files\SmiteWorks\Fantasy Grounds\ that you can attach to your ticket at support.fantasygrounds.com.

[AsmodeusUltima]

@Laerun: Yes, I have rebooted the computer between attempts at installation. I am aware that the system I have now is not identical to the system I had before the corruption. And no, I unfortunately did not think to back up my old data folder myself as I thought a professional computer repair company could be trusted to do so when I requested in writing that the folder at User\AppData\Roaming\Smiteworks be transferred. Unfortunately it seems that trust was unfounded as they transferred about 200 GB of other data, but not that specific folder, losing all my progress regarding both a campaign I was in the process of running and one I had been hard at work designing from scratch. I guess I was hoping that since this is an issue that was experienced by others before that the team might already have an idea what causes it.

@ddavison: I have installed no anti-virus program, so if anything is interfering it would have to be inherent to Windows 10 base installation. The only idea I had was to disable Windows Firewall, which did not help. I checked the folder you specified and the only files contained therein are FantasyGroundsUpdater.exe and the FGUpdaterEngine folder. Nothing that resembles any sort of log. And to clear, there are no crashes during installation: there is no indication that anything has gone wrong until the updater says it will launch and then fails to do so. I then check the installation folder to find it almost empty, containing only the items I mentioned earlier. Even when I tried running the updater it did not really crash, per se, just restarted the download every time at about the halfway mark of the first update. And when I tried uninstalling FGU via add/remove programs it brings up an uninstaller which hangs indefinitely.

[AsmodeusUltima]

Okay, update:

The official support was being... less than helpful, and in frustration I started playing around with new things. The Force App Update button under the Troubleshoot tab actually seemed to cause progress, so after using that I ran the updater. Didn't restart at the same spot as before, but my computer just reset all of a sudden. Rebooted and tried again, seemed to keep going where it left off, so I ran it a little longer until the system crashed. Kept doing this until, through sheer brute force, the program is installed with all the updates and even forge subscriptions. Time for the laborious process of trying to rebuild the complicated maps with LoS and the like that I lost with my data, right?

Well, yes, except a new problem has arisen: after a few minutes of running the program my system freezes. Only seems to happen when running FGU; Steam, games, video editing software, etc all work fine. Complete freeze, even ctrl alt del doesn't work, have to hold the power button and restart completely every time. Please, I am at my wit's end. I have ten players between two campaigns relying on me and the amount of work I have to redo is really depressing, but having technical issues stop me from even starting to tackle the issue is the worst bit of all.

[Zacchaeus]

Did you install the correct version of C++ redistributable?

You might want to try completely uninstalling FGU (just delete all the folders) and then uninstall the redistributable; reboot your computer and then re-install the redistributable and the try installing FGU again.

[ddavison]

It sounds like your system is not behaving properly in general. In support and up thread, we asked for you to look in the Event Viewer to see if there were any clues as to what might be causing those issues. Support is also where we suggested using the Troubleshooting tab. Some of those also collect logs. Unless you find the root cause for your system issues, I fear you are only going to have more continued problems. The logs and the event viewer might help point you (or us) in the right direction.

If FGU ran fine on your same system a few days ago and hasn't run fine since, then there is still something wrong with your PC. There are no changes with the installer in a very long time and the core executable for FGU hasn't changed since June. If there was a general problem with the exe, then we would have thousands of reports by now. There could be a hardware error like faulty ram, a loose CPU heatsink, etc. that causes your system to crash when it reaches a certain threshold of memory usage or CPU utilization. There could be a hardware error on your hard drive. When you took it in do to corruption, what did the tech find that was wrong? I'm suggesting that there might still be issues unresolved.