Known issues and solutions - FAQ

[alimac]

I've done a search but can't find a solution:

All my player photos have suddenly dissapeared. They were all pre-loaded and not add-on pictures and I've never had any problems until now they have all gone. The strange thing is that all the other teams photos are still there - both add-on and pre loaded, it's just MY teams pictures that have all gone!

Please haelp as it loses all the appeal when the pics have gone.

Anyway of getting these pics back? :-)

[Neil Brock]

Anyway of getting these pics back? :-)

What team are you playing as? Also have you added any other player pics? Have you changed the skin at all?

Also have you tried refreshing the 'Skin Cache'? This can be done by reloading it in the preferences. Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

[Chocolate_Leg]

Are you running the game through Steam or straight from the disc?

Cheers for the reply.

Straight from the disk.

[alimac]

What team are you playing as? Also have you added any other player pics? Have you changed the skin at all?

Also have you tried refreshing the 'Skin Cache'? This can be done by reloading it in the preferences. Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

Thanks for the reply Neil.

I'm using Bradford City. All the pics were pre-loaded so were already in the game, that's why I don't understand why they have dissapeared..

I am using other facepacks for other teams and the flex skin but have used them fine for a while now not had any problems before, just when I turned it on last time they had gone. I have tried refreshing the skin but no joy.

Thanks for your help :-)

[ceders]

I have just bought a Laptop and decided to try and install FM09.

On my main PC no issues

This lap top is a nightmare.

When I get to the activation I put the code in and I get this certificate nonsense cannot connect to internet, however I have explorer 8 and none of the things happen that occur in the suggested fix. When I click on link (https://fm2009.sa01.softanchorinsight.com/) all i get is a screen asking me to sign into softanchor, but I have no username or password, I've tried deleting old certificates. I've installed and uninstalled about 5 times, I've even tried stream and get same issue. Any thoughts

Thanks

[Chocolate_Leg]

These peeps have had the exact same problem as me.

http://community.sigames.com/showpos...postcount=1632
http://community.sigames.com/showpos...postcount=1647
http://community.sigames.com/showpos...postcount=1669

I just reinstalled my OS again for this godforsaken game. I know my machine can run it because it worked before. Have installed the latest driver for my graphics card, DXSDK March '09 and Microsoft Dot.Net framework.

Really hacked off. Have spent the best part of the past four evenings trying to sort this out. I know my PC is **** but as I said, it worked before. Guess I'm just going to have to go out and buy a new PC tomorrow because I can't be arsed with this anymore.

It had better work on the new one.

[Adam91]

I'm trying to load my game and it keeps telling me The Save Game Could Not Be Loaded. I have 2 other games on the same computer and they are working fine, but this one isn't loading. Any way I can get around this?

[ceders]

I have just bought a Laptop and decided to try and install FM09.

On my main PC no issues

This lap top is a nightmare.

When I get to the activation I put the code in and I get this certificate nonsense cannot connect to internet, however I have explorer 8 and none of the things happen that occur in the suggested fix. When I click on link (https://fm2009.sa01.softanchorinsight.com/) all i get is a screen asking me to sign into softanchor, but I have no username or password, I've tried deleting old certificates. I've installed and uninstalled about 5 times, I've even tried stream and get same issue. Any thoughts

Thanks

Fixed it!!!!!

[Annexe]

Needless to say...i have a valid DVD and have inserted it, alas. I've also tried reinstalling the program - although steam makes this hard; only deleted local content and reinstalled.

The program used to work fine...now it, obviously, doesn't work at all...any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Neil Brock]

Thanks for the reply Neil.

I'm using Bradford City. All the pics were pre-loaded so were already in the game, that's why I don't understand why they have dissapeared..

I am using other facepacks for other teams and the flex skin but have used them fine for a while now not had any problems before, just when I turned it on last time they had gone. I have tried refreshing the skin but no joy.

Thanks for your help :-)

Might be worth enquiring in the Skinning Hideout as someone in there may have had a similar issue. I would suggest removing all custom graphics/skins for now (obviously not deleting them, just placing them elsewhere for now), and trying to re-load again via the preferences.

Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

[Neil Brock]

Fixed it!!!!!

Could you inform us how you fixed it in case someone has a similar issue? Thanks

[Neil Brock]

Needless to say...i have a valid DVD and have inserted it, alas. I've also tried reinstalling the program - although steam makes this hard; only deleted local content and reinstalled.

The program used to work fine...now it, obviously, doesn't work at all...any help would be greatly appreciated!

You're going to have to be a bit clearer with this, I'm not certain exactly what your issue is. If it's asking you to activate again I'd suggest checking THIS thread, else look in the Known Issues thread.

Either way, the more information you give me, the more chance there is of me being able to help! Thanks.

[Neil Brock]

These peeps have had the exact same problem as me.

http://community.sigames.com/showpos...postcount=1632
http://community.sigames.com/showpos...postcount=1647
http://community.sigames.com/showpos...postcount=1669

I just reinstalled my OS again for this godforsaken game. I know my machine can run it because it worked before. Have installed the latest driver for my graphics card, DXSDK March '09 and Microsoft Dot.Net framework.

Really hacked off. Have spent the best part of the past four evenings trying to sort this out. I know my PC is **** but as I said, it worked before. Guess I'm just going to have to go out and buy a new PC tomorrow because I can't be arsed with this anymore.

It had better work on the new one.

I suggest deleting your cache files by doing the following:

First of all you need to turn on hidden files and folders. Go to My Computer and at the top select 'Tools' the 'Folder Options'. The go to the 'View' tab and select 'Show hidden files and folders'

Windows XP:
1. Open “My Computer”
2. Navigate to : “Documents and Settings\<Username>\Application Data\
3. Go into the “Sports Interactive” Folder.
4. Go to the “Football Manager 2009” Folder.
5. Delete the 'cache' Folder found inside here.

Wndows Vista:
1. Click “Start”
2. Click your username on the start Menu
3. Click on “AppData” and then “Roaming”
4. Go into the “Sports Interactive” Folder
5. Go to the “Football Manager 2009” Folder.
6. Delete the 'cache' Folder found inside here.

Again keep me updated as to how you get on. Thanks.

[stonini90]

Is there a thread for suggestions to implement on FM10?

[Annexe]

You're going to have to be a bit clearer with this, I'm not certain exactly what your issue is. If it's asking you to activate again I'd suggest checking THIS thread, else look in the Known Issues thread.

Either way, the more information you give me, the more chance there is of me being able to help! Thanks.

Thanks for replying, apologies for being vague. Whenever I boot up FM - after loading or creating a save file - the game gives me a message saying: 'copy protection failed...the copy protection system was unable to verify your copy of football manager. Please ensure you have a valid DVD in your drive when the game starts'. I have the original DVD and the game has worked perfectly for many moons prior to this.

I have tried searching for many fruitless hours but it seems I am alone in having this problem.

[alslammerzredux]

It says it was activated twice within minutes of one another (I've only tried this on one computer though) and when I hit deactivate it laughed at me and said it was unable to deactivate.

I tried deactivating them together, and each one individually to see if there was just one that was unable. Not so much, all three options gave me "unable to deactivate."

Edit: Okay, tried uninstalling. One active running disappeared (the earlier of the two, so I'll assume that's the Steam authentication) but the other one is still "unable to deactivate."

Which I guess means delete the certificate (again)? Which brings me back to square one of I followed that path and got nothing for my troubles.

If it helps, to get the Soft Anchor to accept the download, I (on this install) did the phone activation, which seems to be the one that is un-deletable.

Hey so any suggestions about this? At all? Since you know, Sega apparently took a summer vacation and their customer service has done nothing and I haven't received a response to me telling you folks that your plan isn't working and didn't work.

It's not able to deactivate the code. Better still, it tells me that the code is already in use, but then it adds an activation to my account. And gosh jolly gee, that activation code can't be deactivated either. And Steam is not letting me fully uninstall this wonderful game and if I do it through my computer, Steam still thinks it's there. If I delete the certificate, I can get one of the activations to go away. I cannot convince your lovely security program to get rid of all my activations completely, installed or uninstalled. I've uninstalled, deleted certificates, and then reinstalled to the point of sheer frustration.

On the bright side, least you and OOTP had that amicable split so that I didn't have to jump through hoops to get that game going. I probably would have broken my computer in half if I had had problems like this for two games and had gotten such wonderful responses from all the companies involved. (Well to be fair to Steam, they did get back to me. They said they didn't handle this and referred me to your FAQ, where it tells me to uninstall, delete the certificate, and reinstall. Useful that was. ) Please, I'm begging you, help, someone. This game is the biggest timesink and I don't mean it's addicting to play- I mean I've wasted days of my life trying to get my $35 purchase or whatever it was to work.

Thanks in advance.

[M.J..]

Hi, Im not sure if this has been brought up already on the FAQ, but I was advised to get help form here

I have a problem with both Football Manager 2008 and 2009 on my new laptop

08- I have installed fm08 before on this laptop and it worked perfectly. However, yesterday, I started up football manager 08, and during the startup, it came up with an error box, whic said, 'Unable to change to full screen'. The game then shut down when it got to the main menu screen. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling, as well as shutting down the laptop. I think my screen resolution has changed, but Im not sure why or how I can rectify it, or even what to rectify it to.

09- I installed fm09 on my computer because I was unable to get fm08 working. I installed it with steam and downloaded the game. However, when I asked steam to launch the game, it said 'Launchign Football manager 2009', and then did nothing. I then looked in my processes in task manager, and it said fm09 was running, but it wasn't. I then uninstalled it and tried to install it with unicon, but this didnt work either. Once again, I uninstalled it, and tried to install it wiht steam, but this time, when trying to download upgrades for steam, it said there was an error, soemthing abotu a code i think. I have tried to install other manager games, such as the old championship managers, and they havent worked because of something to do with the screen resolution also.

Im actually getting quite desperate, and im already quite annoyed because i was doing briliantly on fm08 game.

Please help, any feedback would be most welcome.

[Neil Brock]

Are you running FM09 or an earlier version of the game? You shouldn't need the DVD to run FM09 once it's been activated.

Thanks for replying, apologies for being vague. Whenever I boot up FM - after loading or creating a save file - the game gives me a message saying: 'copy protection failed...the copy protection system was unable to verify your copy of football manager. Please ensure you have a valid DVD in your drive when the game starts'. I have the original DVD and the game has worked perfectly for many moons prior to this.

I have tried searching for many fruitless hours but it seems I am alone in having this problem.

[Annexe]

Are you running FM09 or an earlier version of the game? You shouldn't need the DVD to run FM09 once it's been activated.

FM09...it says I do. No idea what's wrong mate...any help would be mucho appreciated

[Alex1990]

hi, sorry if this has been asked/solved before but ive just bought an asus eee pc 1000h, but having troubles running fm 2009. i will try to explain as clearly as possible:
downloaded game from steam that i had already authorised on old computer
changed my screen resolution to 1024x768
when i try to run the shortcut on the desktop, game appears to be booting up, but never does, even though the process is hogging 200000mb of my virtual memory according to task manager
i then downloaded .net framework 3.0 on advice of someone on an eee forum, still no joy
then, changed the shortcut target to "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -small_screen -windowed" -small_screen -windowed as advised, but the game is still loading the process, but no fm window actually opening. no error messages either.

basically, im lost does anyone know how i could solve this problem?

thanks in advance

[Neil Brock]

hi, sorry if this has been asked/solved before but ive just bought an asus eee pc 1000h, but having troubles running fm 2009. i will try to explain as clearly as possible:
downloaded game from steam that i had already authorised on old computer
changed my screen resolution to 1024x768
when i try to run the shortcut on the desktop, game appears to be booting up, but never does, even though the process is hogging 200000mb of my virtual memory according to task manager
i then downloaded .net framework 3.0 on advice of someone on an eee forum, still no joy
then, changed the shortcut target to "C:\Program Files\Steam\Steam.exe" -small_screen -windowed" -small_screen -windowed as advised, but the game is still loading the process, but no fm window actually opening. no error messages either.

basically, im lost does anyone know how i could solve this problem?

thanks in advance

I'd suggest looking at the Known Issues thread for help with this issue. Let us know how you get on, thanks.

[Neil Brock]

FM09...it says I do. No idea what's wrong mate...any help would be mucho appreciated

I'd suggest completely uninstalling the game, putting the disc to one side then downloading the game from Steam. You'll then be able to activate the game with the activation code on the back of the manual and it should run fine. Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

[Annexe]

I'd suggest completely uninstalling the game, putting the disc to one side then downloading the game from Steam. You'll then be able to activate the game with the activation code on the back of the manual and it should run fine. Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

Cheers for the reply. Unistalled it - using add/remove programs - and dowloaded it again using steam. The problem is still there...although it didn't ask me to activate it again...merely mentioned that it was installing some activator thing but the key was obviously still on the comp. Very confuzzled...

[Neil Brock]

Cheers for the reply. Unistalled it - using add/remove programs - and dowloaded it again using steam. The problem is still there...although it didn't ask me to activate it again...merely mentioned that it was installing some activator thing but the key was obviously still on the comp. Very confuzzled...

Delete the following:

First of all you need to turn on hidden files and folders. Go to My Computer and at the top select 'Tools' the 'Folder Options'. The go to the 'View' tab and select 'Show hidden files and folders'

Windows XP:
1. Open “My Computer”
2. Navigate to : “Documents and Settings\<Username>\Application Data\
3. Go into the “Sports Interactive” Folder.
4. Delete the “Football Manager 2009” Folder.

Wndows Vista:
1. Click “Start”
2. Click your username on the start Menu
3. Click on “AppData” and then “Roaming”
4. Go into the “Sports Interactive” Folder
5. Delete the “Football Manager 2009” Folder.

Again keep me updated as to how you get on. Thanks.

[Alex1990]

I'd suggest looking at the Known Issues thread for help with this issue. Let us know how you get on, thanks.

nothing that really helps there unfortunately.
i asked the same question on steam but havent got a reply yet, if anyone could shed some light on the proiblem here would be greatly appreciated.

[ROESIDER]

'The save game could not be loaded.'

This happened me a few times now on several games.

I am on FM 09 and play with only 3 league running and a large database.

Before I finish my game I save game and save game as to be careful so that I haven't lost everything.

Could someone please help , it's getting really frustrating !

Can't continue with my saved game and just having to start a new game everyday and play it only for 1 day which is no good !

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

[Jo_Myers]

With the XML parsing error, the target path is "C:\Program Files\Steam\steam.exe" -applaunch 10540, which is different to the one posted. When I paste in the one you posted or just add --reset_preferences, it says it cant find the path.
Any help?

[Bayicarus]

Please post here even if you've posted in another thread and we're yet to help you.

Hi,
I just bought fm2009 yesterday and have been trying to activate the game since. I am still getting Error: - [703] how long should I continue to try to activate the game?

[Bayicarus]

Still looking for a solution to ERROR -1003, you made any progress with it yet?

thanks

Hi,
I have done the above steps countless times.... and I am still having problem with activating the game. I am still facing with error: -[703] .... this is getting frustrating. Have you guys be able to solve the problem yet? Should I just return the game and download the pirated version with the crack along with it? It'll definitely be less frustrating than to support fm... thanks

[Neil Brock]

'The save game could not be loaded.'

This happened me a few times now on several games.

I am on FM 09 and play with only 3 league running and a large database.

Before I finish my game I save game and save game as to be careful so that I haven't lost everything.

Could someone please help , it's getting really frustrating !

Can't continue with my saved game and just having to start a new game everyday and play it only for 1 day which is no good !

Thanks guys. Much appreciated.

Do you have the 9.3 patch installed? Also are you using the 'Save As' option when saving? I'd suggest always saving back ups if you're having this issue and then seeing if any of them load. Also never save and exit, always save first, and when the game finishes saving, then exit.

Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

[Neil Brock]

Hi,
I have done the above steps countless times.... and I am still having problem with activating the game. I am still facing with error: -[703] .... this is getting frustrating. Have you guys be able to solve the problem yet? Should I just return the game and download the pirated version with the crack along with it? It'll definitely be less frustrating than to support fm... thanks

Please don't speak of pirating the game on these forums. Thanks.

In regards to your issue, please email me your issue and activation code to neil.brock[at]sigames.com

Thanks.

[Neil Brock]

Cheers for the reply. Unistalled it - using add/remove programs - and dowloaded it again using steam. The problem is still there...although it didn't ask me to activate it again...merely mentioned that it was installing some activator thing but the key was obviously still on the comp. Very confuzzled...

Could you please email your activation code to neil.brock[at]sigames.com and I'll look into it for you, thanks.

[Neil Brock]

With the XML parsing error, the target path is "C:\Program Files\Steam\steam.exe" -applaunch 10540, which is different to the one posted. When I paste in the one you posted or just add --reset_preferences, it says it cant find the path.
Any help?

Sorry could you be a bit clearer, what exactly is your issue? Is it when starting Steam or FM? What process do you go through to get the error message and where did you previously post an error?

Let me know, thanks.

[mark1234]

hi i just bought football manager 09 using steam
every time i try to launch the game fm.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. we are sorry for the inconvenience.
can you help?

[ROESIDER]

Do you have the 9.3 patch installed? Also are you using the 'Save As' option when saving? I'd suggest always saving back ups if you're having this issue and then seeing if any of them load. Also never save and exit, always save first, and when the game finishes saving, then exit.

Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

Yes I have the 9.3 patch installed.

When saving , I used the 'save game as' option and the 'save' option , just to be on the safe side.

BTW what you mean saving 'back - ups?'

[Neil Brock]

Well essentially what a 'back-up' is is a save game from before the save your currently playing with. For example, I 'Save As' after every single match I play, that means I have many 'back-up' saves in case my latest one corrupts or breaks or anything.

[Neil Brock]

hi i just bought football manager 09 using steam
every time i try to launch the game fm.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. we are sorry for the inconvenience.
can you help?

What type of system do you have? What specification do is your system? Could you PM or email me your dxdiag (email address is neil.brock[at]sigames.com)

Your dxdiag, you can find this by going to Start -> Run -> Type Dxdiag

Then click 'Save All Information' and you can save the information as a text file

[ROESIDER]

Do you have the 9.3 patch installed? Also are you using the 'Save As' option when saving? I'd suggest always saving back ups if you're having this issue and then seeing if any of them load. Also never save and exit, always save first, and when the game finishes saving, then exit.

Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

Well essentially what a 'back-up' is is a save game from before the save your currently playing with. For example, I 'Save As' after every single match I play, that means I have many 'back-up' saves in case my latest one corrupts or breaks or anything.

Ok , and another thing , Neil.

Apart from that problem I have which won't let me load up my saved game. I have one other problem.

Once I start up a new game I get this , 'not well formed (invalid token) at line of Profile1.xml.

Any idea what that is all about ?

Thanks mate.

[Neil Brock]

Ok , and another thing , Neil.

Apart from that problem I have which won't let me load up my saved game. I have one other problem.

Once I start up a new game I get this , 'not well formed (invalid token) at line of Profile1.xml.

Any idea what that is all about ?

Thanks mate.

Whenever I load or attempt to start a game. I get this message:

'not well informed (invalid token) at line 1 of profile. '

It means one of your 'Profiles' has been corrupted. Shut down FM, delete the cache files and this should solve this issue (but you'll also lose stored profiles that are selectable from the drop down menu when you start a new game).

Details on how to delete your cache files:

First of all you need to turn on hidden files and folders. Go to My Computer and at the top select 'Tools' the 'Folder Options'. The go to the 'View' tab and select 'Show hidden files and folders'

Windows XP:
1. Open “My Computer”
2. Navigate to : “Documents and Settings\<Username>\Application Data\
3. Go into the “Sports Interactive” Folder.
4. Go to the “Football Manager 2009” Folder.
5. Delete the 'cache' Folder found inside here.

Wndows Vista:
1. Click “Start”
2. Click your username on the start Menu
3. Click on “AppData” and then “Roaming”
4. Go into the “Sports Interactive” Folder
5. Go to the “Football Manager 2009” Folder.
6. Delete the 'cache' Folder found inside here.

Let me know how you get on, thanks.

[mark1234]

What type of system do you have? What specification do is your system? Could you PM or email me your dxdiag (email address is neil.brock@sigames.com)

Your dxdiag, you can find this by going to Start -> Run -> Type Dxdiag

Then click 'Save All Information' and you can save the information as a text file

email now sent
thanks

[ROESIDER]

Neil - What exactly is the 'cache folder.' Is it just everything in the Sports Interactive folder ? And how do I delete all that completely off my computer so I can install the game again from scratch. Thanks.

[Neil Brock]

Neil - What exactly is the 'cache folder.' Is it just everything in the Sports Interactive folder ? And how do I delete all that completely off my computer so I can install the game again from scratch. Thanks.

The cache folder can be found within the Sports Interactive folder, basically what it contains is certain data for the game (such as user profiles) which sometimes needs removing when an error occurs. You can relatively safely delete all folders found within the Sports Interactive folder (except Installer Launcher which you don't need to worry about) but this may cause you to have to re-activate the game.

[ROESIDER]

Tried un installing the game and did everything you said. But I still get the same xml error thingy come up in a box when I have started my new game , and the 'save could not be loaded.' Thanks for your help anyway Neil. Think I'll just keep the game uninstalled because no matter what i try it still doesn't work , lol.

[Neil Brock]

Did you uninstall all the folders, or just the cache folder? Let me know.

[ROESIDER]

Did you uninstall all the folders, or just the cache folder? Let me know.

I just deleted everything in the Sports Interactive folder , Neil.

Wasn't sure if that included the cache folder or not , as i couldn't find it , so just deleted the entire folder and all my skins , graphics etc.

But still same problem.

[Ameno]

Hi guys

I've still the problem 'xml parsing error'. I've tried thing for a several hours, but nothing seems to work. First the game run without any problems. I got XML errors like 'syntax error at line 1 of channel unit testing output.xml', 'not wel-formed (invalid token) at line 1 of channel-unit testing.xml', 'not wel-formed (invalid token) at line 1 of channel-OPEN_FILE_CHANNEL.xml etc.. I tried the solution with reset preference, but it don't work (error that the name can't be that)

Please, HELP ME!

Ameno

[Jo_Myers]

Sorry could you be a bit clearer, what exactly is your issue? Is it when starting Steam or FM? What process do you go through to get the error message and where did you previously post an error?

Let me know, thanks.

Whenever I load a game, the message comes up and it goes out of full-screen mode

[Neil Brock]

First of all you need to turn on hidden files and folders. Go to My Computer and at the top select 'Tools' the 'Folder Options'. The go to the 'View' tab and select 'Show hidden files and folders'

Delete the following folder:

XP: C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\settings

Vista: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009\settings

This may solve some issues regarding the XML Errors, let me know how you get on. Thanks.

Hi guys

I've still the problem 'xml parsing error'. I've tried thing for a several hours, but nothing seems to work. First the game run without any problems. I got XML errors like 'syntax error at line 1 of channel unit testing output.xml', 'not wel-formed (invalid token) at line 1 of channel-unit testing.xml', 'not wel-formed (invalid token) at line 1 of channel-OPEN_FILE_CHANNEL.xml etc.. I tried the solution with reset preference, but it don't work (error that the name can't be that)

Please, HELP ME!

Ameno

[Bolsson]

First i want to appologize for my English, hope you can understand anyway, im Swedish.

I have a huge problem, i have read the "knows problems thread" but nowere is there an answer of this, if there is somewhere, please link it to me. I have searched the webb and asked in the Swedish forums but no answers were to be found.
I have bought every single game in the series and i have never had problems until now.
Now to the problem:
A few days ago when i was launching the game i get the message "FM 09" is already running every single time, when is claery wasn`t. I then disaded to reinstall the game but now i dont get it to start, every time "Football manager 09 has stopped work and windows are searching for a solution" comes up.
I have tried everything, installed via steam and not, tried to installed my friends Cd but it doesnt work, my cd does work on his computer thoe!
I noticed that the FM icon isnt the usuall when you click on it, noe it is a "tools icon".
The installation says that the installation is finished but have some failes, read the Log. When i read the log its 1 minor fail in the :

com.sigames.InstallAnywhere.WindowsGameExplorer
Status:FEL
Ytterligare information:FEL - class com.sigames.InstallAnywhere.WindowsGameExplorer NonfatalInstallException RegisterWithGameExplorer() failed: Failed to add game to Game Explorer


I have Vista. Someone, please!

[de_bu]

My football manager game seems to only work when I am at home. I am
currently abroad and gives the error of:

information regarding the condition of fm.exe when the problem
occured; the operating system version qnd computer hardware in use;
your digital product ID which could be used to identify your license
and the internet protocol (IP) address of your cmputer.

How do I go about fixing this?

[Ant89]

is there any way i can download the 9.3.0 patch without the torrent as i tried to use bittorrent last night and it told me it would take over a day surely there is an easier way???????

[RDXCougar8173]

is there any way i can download the 9.3.0 patch without the torrent as i tried to use bittorrent last night and it told me it would take over a day surely there is an easier way???????

did you leave it settle down as when using bittorrents they can fluctuate in the time required to wait for the download but if you dont want to use bittoorent they try http://rapidshare.de/files/45876435/..._Installer.exe as i get it from there and on my connection speed i can download it in about 5 minutes or less

[Ant89]

did you leave it settle down as when using bittorrents they can fluctuate in the time required to wait for the download but if you dont want to use bittoorent they try http://rapidshare.de/files/45876435/..._Installer.exe as i get it from there and on my connection speed i can download it in about 5 minutes or less

ye i left it for 2 hours and it only managed 8% do u know ur connection speed as i was using a new t-mobile dongle i dont know if thats slower then normal internet around 20mb last night? sorry but im not very technical minded

[RDXCougar8173]

ye i left it for 2 hours and it only managed 8% do u know ur connection speed as i was using a new t-mobile dongle i dont know if thats slower then normal internet around 20mb last night? sorry but im not very technical minded

My download speed is 20Mb thats why its so quick for me to download the file if you need to test your speed try www,speedtest.net i ddnt know using a wireless dongle w capable of speeds higher than 10Mbs

[Ant89]

My download speed is 20Mb thats why its so quick for me to download the file if you need to test your speed try www,speedtest.net i ddnt know using a wireless dongle w capable of speeds higher than 10Mbs

ok thanks 4 the help

[zacmonder]

Hi there,

I have just been trying to get FM09 working on my Samsung NC10 via Steam, having successfully installed and played the game on my desktop months ago. I managed to install and activate the product just fine, but when I click on Launch, the sandtimer briefly appears but then nothing happens and the game doesn't load. I have noticed also that fm.exe remains in the processes that a running, and actually to end the process before I can try launching again. Still no luck. Any ideas? My laptop runs XP.

Thanks in advance.

[messi]

Hi I'm controlling growing anger here so bear with me...
In November I bought FM 2009 and got a refund after getting severely infuriated by the activation issues. However, this morning I decided to rebuy 2009 due to 2008 boredom. However, I am still having problems. I own a Compaq Presario with no internet access so I had no alternative but to activate by phone. I complete the installation period and I get the message "Installation Complete!" I then click on the FM09 game icon to open it up and begin playing. Guess what? I get the "SoftAnchor" screen and it is asking me to begin the whole process again.

What do I do? This is infuriating, I have just finished GCSE's and would really like to be able to play the game that I've spent good money on. Please help. And SI, for god's sake, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please don't have activation in FM 2010!!!!!!!!

Many thanks for your help.
Messi

[Bolsson]

First i want to appologize for my English, hope you can understand anyway, im Swedish.

I have a huge problem, i have read the "knows problems thread" but nowere is there an answer of this, if there is somewhere, please link it to me. I have searched the webb and asked in the Swedish forums but no answers were to be found.
I have bought every single game in the series and i have never had problems until now.
Now to the problem:
A few days ago when i was launching the game i get the message "FM 09" is already running every single time, when is claery wasn`t. I then disaded to reinstall the game but now i dont get it to start, every time "Football manager 09 has stopped work and windows are searching for a solution" comes up.
I have tried everything, installed via steam and not, tried to installed my friends Cd but it doesnt work, my cd does work on his computer thoe!
I noticed that the FM icon isnt the usuall when you click on it, noe it is a "tools icon".
The installation says that the installation is finished but have some failes, read the Log. When i read the log its 1 minor fail in the :

com.sigames.InstallAnywhere.WindowsGameExplorer
Status:FEL
Ytterligare information:FEL - class com.sigames.InstallAnywhere.WindowsGameExplorer NonfatalInstallException RegisterWithGameExplorer() failed: Failed to add game to Game Explorer


I have Vista. Someone, please!

Well, 30h later and still no reply, another day wasted trying to get this game running, i have searched on the SI Forum but no solution for my problem.
there is nothing wrong with my computer, bought it the same day FM was released, Bummer!
I have set Windows to a pevious point when FM was working, but now it doesnt. All other programs runs smoth as a newoiled engine, Estside Hochey manager and FIFA, but not FM.
I have tried to delete all the Cache and Documentsfiles. BUT IT STILL DONT WORK. same fail every single time i try to install. Its rubbsih! give me a tip of what to do, or else i will demand a full refund and boycott this game for all eternaty!

[Neil Brock]

Could you send a copy of your dxdiag to neil.brock[at]sigames.com and I'll look into it for you?

You can get your dxdiag by doing the following:

You can find this by going to Start -> Run -> Type Dxdiag

Then click 'Save All Information' and you can save the information as a text file

Let me know, thanks.

Hi there,

I have just been trying to get FM09 working on my Samsung NC10 via Steam, having successfully installed and played the game on my desktop months ago. I managed to install and activate the product just fine, but when I click on Launch, the sandtimer briefly appears but then nothing happens and the game doesn't load. I have noticed also that fm.exe remains in the processes that a running, and actually to end the process before I can try launching again. Still no luck. Any ideas? My laptop runs XP.

Thanks in advance.

[Neil Brock]

Well, 30h later and still no reply, another day wasted trying to get this game running, i have searched on the SI Forum but no solution for my problem.
there is nothing wrong with my computer, bought it the same day FM was released, Bummer!
I have set Windows to a pevious point when FM was working, but now it doesnt. All other programs runs smoth as a newoiled engine, Estside Hochey manager and FIFA, but not FM.
I have tried to delete all the Cache and Documentsfiles. BUT IT STILL DONT WORK. same fail every single time i try to install. Its rubbsih! give me a tip of what to do, or else i will demand a full refund and boycott this game for all eternaty!

Well as the disc works on your friends PC, there is clearly something wrong with your system that is causing this issue. Despite it not running from games explorer have you tried running the game direct from the exe? This can be done by going to C: Program Files - Sports Interactive - Football Manager 2009 - Fm2009.exe

If this doesn't work I would suggest completely uninstalling the game once again, then running it without the disc by downloading it from Steam and then activating the game:

You can download the game in Steam without using the disc using the game code you have from your purchased game.

Download Steam from here - http://store.steampowered.com/about/
Install Steam on your computer
Once installed, open up Steam
Go to My Games
Go to Activate a product on Steam
Enter your Activation Code found on the back of the manual. (Use http://keylookup.fm2009.softanchorinsight.com/ to see you got all the 0's and o's right)
Steam should now download your game.

Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

[Neil Brock]

Okay, there is a way of doing this, if you can access a PC with internet access and have a USB stick or some other way of transferring files to your non-internet connected laptop:

Please download the fix here:

http://www.footballmanager.com/fixv3.zip this is v8.0 - we haven't changed the url as other posts are linking

To use the fix, please do the following:

1) Download the file to your desktop

2) Unzip the contents of the file - You must unzip ALL of the files... (ActivatorDLL.dll, FootballManager2009.jpg and RunMe.exe)

3) Click RunMe.exe

4) Enter your license key under the panel that reads "Step 1"

5) Press the "Save" button

6) Save the "Request.txt" file to your desktop

7) In Internet Explorer - go to http://keylookup.fm2009.softanchorin...eactivate.aspx - You may also click the link under the panel that says "Step 2"

8) In the web page that you have opened, please use the "Browse" button to upload "Request.txt" to the server

9) Press "Upload" and upload the file to the server

10) The server will then ask you to save a file called "Response.txt"

11) Save this file to your desktop

12) Next, go back to the fix program. Under the panel that says "Step 3" press the "Load" button and then find Response.txt on your desktop, or wherever you saved it to in step 11, for Vista users the default is the ‘download’ folder in Users Documents, for XP users the default is typically the desktop.

13) Once you have loaded the file - the application will tell you if you have been successful.

14) If you are successful - Please start your game.

15) If you are not successful - please email us the error code at errors@uniloc.com and we will continue to try and help you.

If you can manage this your game should run, please let me know how you get on. Thanks.

Hi I'm controlling growing anger here so bear with me...
In November I bought FM 2009 and got a refund after getting severely infuriated by the activation issues. However, this morning I decided to rebuy 2009 due to 2008 boredom. However, I am still having problems. I own a Compaq Presario with no internet access so I had no alternative but to activate by phone. I complete the installation period and I get the message "Installation Complete!" I then click on the FM09 game icon to open it up and begin playing. Guess what? I get the "SoftAnchor" screen and it is asking me to begin the whole process again.

What do I do? This is infuriating, I have just finished GCSE's and would really like to be able to play the game that I've spent good money on. Please help. And SI, for god's sake, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please,please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please don't have activation in FM 2010!!!!!!!!

Many thanks for your help.
Messi

[Bolsson]

By some magic FM now seems to be working again, after a week of trying, i havent done anything of that you writed Neill, when i restart the computer today, it just worked. Happy as a kid! thanks for replying thou! I notice that it runs very slow but i dont know if i dare to reinstall it again now.
Greetings from a sunny sweden!

[bardock]

Does anyone have a solution for the whole changing view thing during matches. It gets sort of frustrating.

The view keeps on changing from the 2D (the one I prefer) to TV view 3D at different times. Most times before the match but it happens at halftime in full time every now and then too.

[3rd season]

You are receiving an Error [-1003]

Fix: You are entering the key incorrectly please visit the following URL to correctly identify your key - http://keylookup.fm2009.softanchorinsight.com/


Error: You are receiving the Error ‘Product Key already Active’ message

Fix: You need to delete the certificates and re-activate the game

1) On receiving the error, please uninstall the game
2) Please navigate to the following directory:

XP users: C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009 Certificate
Vista users: C:\Program Data\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009 Certificate

3) Please ensure that it is the \certificate directory you are located in

4) Delete all content

5) Reboot the machine

6) Re-run the installation program and retry activation - ensuring you have 'verified' your key using the following website: http://keylookup.fm2009.softanchorinsight.com/

7) You should now be activated



I HAVE DONE THIS 3 TIMES NOW, THE WHOLE PROCESS AND NOTHING IS WORKING!!!!

WHAT CAN I DO?????????

[gazza26]

had this pop up a few times my computer is a lot over recommended specs for fm and not changed or addedd anything to it been playing it for ages now suddenly popping up any help please.

[zike]

hello

played FM for a while now but once a while my pc crashes for random reason. It happened last night again but while i was playing a match.

Now this morning i get this message.

"not well-formed (invalid token) at line 1 of database_location.xml"

i think thats cuz i didnt quit the game properly as my pc crashed so now i can click on "Ok" then the game loads up but theres no saved games anymore, i have to start new one and not really up for that... ill have to do that if theres no other choise but i thought maybe someone could help me first.

Tnx

[Twiss]

Hi, I don't know if anyone can help me. I am trying to play my saved games from my XP computer on my Vista laptop. I have FM09 and the 9.3.0 patch installed on both machines. but when I try to play the game, it freezes while loading. I have read somewhere that you can try to create the same name directory that my XP installation has, but Vista doesnt allow for the Documents and Settings directory. It uses Users instead. So anyway, I created the same username in the Users directory, and copied all Sports Interactive contents to it, but it still crashes. Even if I change the default directory in FM, it still crashes.

Can anyone help?

[spinky_birmz]

when i go to open my game i get a message saying E:\perforce_data\FM\dev\projects\games\fm\branches \fm2009\patch3\sios\generic\actions\render_action_ manager.ccp, 46 running action: 0x0551c058, class SIOS::INITIALISE_SIGFX
_SHADER_ACTION then my game wont open i have tryin uninstalling and still nothing can any1 help please?????????

[TOUGHGUY]

I'm experiencing severe lag in menus. The selection highlight trails the cursor by half a second, the menus don't respond or do so with a delay. It doesn't happen all the time but quite often nonetheless.

Now my system specs (athlon 3000+, 2 gigs of ram) are nothing to write home about but I'd expect problems to occur during a match or while calculating things, not when simply browsing through the game.

Anyone else had this problem/knows a solution? I'd appreciate even a pointer in the right direction, keywords such as slowdown, lag or menu aren't exactly the greatest thing to feed the search function if one's looking for a specific answer.

[aemud]

Everytime I enter a game and hit play the view mode goes into tv mode, and I have to select for myself another screen (stats or 2D) 'cause I just don't like the 3D view...how can I un-default it?

Edit: my bad, solved it...forgot about the view match option

[Jack.B]

Everytime i start a new game, after about a week i go to load the game and it says, Save game could not be loaded, so i have to start a knew game.
Any help?

[Neil Brock]

Have you edited your database at all, either with the pre-game editor or an in-game editor like FMM? Let me know, thanks.

hello

played FM for a while now but once a while my pc crashes for random reason. It happened last night again but while i was playing a match.

Now this morning i get this message.

"not well-formed (invalid token) at line 1 of database_location.xml"

i think thats cuz i didnt quit the game properly as my pc crashed so now i can click on "Ok" then the game loads up but theres no saved games anymore, i have to start new one and not really up for that... ill have to do that if theres no other choise but i thought maybe someone could help me first.

Tnx

[Neil Brock]

Have you tried running the game in windowed mode via the game preferences? Please let me know, thanks.

Hi, I don't know if anyone can help me. I am trying to play my saved games from my XP computer on my Vista laptop. I have FM09 and the 9.3.0 patch installed on both machines. but when I try to play the game, it freezes while loading. I have read somewhere that you can try to create the same name directory that my XP installation has, but Vista doesnt allow for the Documents and Settings directory. It uses Users instead. So anyway, I created the same username in the Users directory, and copied all Sports Interactive contents to it, but it still crashes. Even if I change the default directory in FM, it still crashes.

Can anyone help?

[Neil Brock]

Everytime i start a new game, after about a week i go to load the game and it says, Save game could not be loaded, so i have to start a knew game.
Any help?

Have you got the 9.3 patch installed?

[Neil Brock]

Are you running any programs in the background? Also do you have the 9.3 patch installed? Let me know, thanks.

I'm experiencing severe lag in menus. The selection highlight trails the cursor by half a second, the menus don't respond or do so with a delay. It doesn't happen all the time but quite often nonetheless.

Now my system specs (athlon 3000+, 2 gigs of ram) are nothing to write home about but I'd expect problems to occur during a match or while calculating things, not when simply browsing through the game.

Anyone else had this problem/knows a solution? I'd appreciate even a pointer in the right direction, keywords such as slowdown, lag or menu aren't exactly the greatest thing to feed the search function if one's looking for a specific answer.

[Jack.B]

I downloaded the knew patch but can't get it too work, i launch it but everything is the same, how do you get the 9.3 patch to work?

[Neil Brock]

Well first of all you need to make sure you've downloaded the correct patch. If you are running FM via Steam it'll patch automatically, if it's via the disc you can download it via this link on rapidshare - http://rapidshare.de/files/45876435/..._Installer.exe

Once downloaded, you can run the .exe file and it'll find the game and all you'll have to do is click the 'update' button.

Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

[Jack.B]

Ive downloaded it, now how do you update it?

[Neil Brock]

Double click the .exe file that you've got, then a box will appear. In the bottom right-hand corner you'll see an 'update' button - click it. Let me know how you get on. Thanks.

[Jack.B]

Still not working.
Having problems downloading and updating.
Does it matter where you download it too, as in the file.
Because once on rapidshare it tells you to browse for a file to download it to. (does it matter which file?)
Then when i click on the .exe file it takes me back too the start of rapid share, no box appears.

[RDXCougar8173]

Still not working.
Having problems downloading and updating.
Does it matter where you download it too, as in the file.
Because once on rapidshare it tells you to browse for a file to download it to. (does it matter which file?)
Then when i click on the .exe file it takes me back too the start of rapid share, no box appears.

you goto teh rapidshare site then wait for the countdown timer to get to Zero then a box appears with and arrow saying download,click on that box then select the destination folder you want to save it to normally C:\Users\YOUR USERNAME\Downloads then once its downloaded just goto the folder you have saved it to and double click the file and it should then bring up the FM updater program

[Jack.B]

Is there another way of downloading apart from rapid share and steam?
And could someone give me screen shots of how to do it using rapid share?
Because this is really starting to P!SS me off!

[RDXCougar8173]

Is there another way of downloading apart from rapid share and steam?
And could someone give me screen shots of how to do it using rapid share?
Because this is really starting to P!SS me off!

you got MSN if so add me and ill help you

[dandec]

Hi there, I have a problem with my fm game, whenever i click the shortcut on steam it says the game is unavailable please try again later. Similarly when I try to load up the game via a non steam application it says " This application has failed to start because saAuditMD.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem." Can someone helps me solve this problem. Thanks

[Neil Brock]

Hi there, I have a problem with my fm game, whenever i click the shortcut on steam it says the game is unavailable please try again later. Similarly when I try to load up the game via a non steam application it says " This application has failed to start because saAuditMD.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem." Can someone helps me solve this problem. Thanks

You are receiving the error: ‘This application has failed to start because saAuditMD.dll was not found. Re-installing the application may fix this problem’
Fix: Please download the file from here and place in the following folder: C:\Program Files\Sports Interactive\Football Manager 2009

http://downloads.sigames.com/download/saAuditMD.zip

[dandec]

I have just tried what you suggested, when I extract the download with winrar I get a "WinRAR diagnostic message" with the following "http://downloads.sigames.com/download/saAuditMD.zip Cannot create saauditMD.zip access denied." What do you recommend I do now? Thanks for your quick reply I'd appreciate further suggestions.

[Neil Brock]

Worked fine here, I'd suggest downloaded it again and extracting it into it's own folder. Let me know how you get on, thanks.

[RDXCougar8173]

I`ve just tried it and it worked ok for me as well when you download the file right click on it and select the 3rd option down extract to saauditMD.
the go into that folder and just copy the file to the folder neil said

[dandec]

The saaudit download has worked however when I attempt to start fm via steam it still says the game is unavailable. Then when I try to start it offline it says that essential data is missing. What do you advise I do now? Thanks

[Neil Brock]

I'd uninstall FM and Steam and re-install from scratch, sounds like there may be some Steam errors as well.

Let me know how you get on, thanks.

[gazwefc]

This is covered in the first post in this thread.

Fix: Please download the following update from the Microsoft Direct X SDK: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5493F76A-6D37-478D-BA17-28B1CCA4865A&displaylang=en

You should also check that you are running the latest graphics driver, you can do this by visiting the computer manufacturer website, or by visiting the graphics card manufacturing website.

what happens if i dont have internet connection? is there a way to download the whole file onto cd to transfer onto my other PC?

[Neil Brock]

Yes I would suggest downloading said file and moving it onto disc. Whilst doing this I would also suggest doing the same for the 9.3 patch which I would very much recommend for the game. This can be downloaded via links found in this thread - http://community.sigames.com/showthread.php?t=106355

[kalmfang]

ok, so i bought the game finally a few days ago and i have it installed properly as far as i can tell
i had a problem getting it to accept the key but the fix fixed that for me
the problem is that whenever i try to start up fm09, my computer turns off

at first i thought it was a power failure but it happens every time i try to start the game
i have updated all the drivers and my computer meets the system requirements
i have tried it without the patch and with the patch and it makes no difference
and i have looked everywhere for an answer but it seems like nobody else has this problem
well nobody apart from one guy who had a really old card
i only got mine last year though and it is well fit for fm09

so please, i am desperate now, can anyone help a fellow manager out?

[TOUGHGUY]

Are you running any programs in the background? Also do you have the 9.3 patch installed? Let me know, thanks.

Nothing in the background bar the usual windows processes, not even potential resource hogs like AV software or firewall. And yes, I have the 9.3 patch.

I use a custom skin but the problem appears even with the default one. Sometimes the menus are completely fine, but I was unable to pinpoint when or why specifically.

In fact right now they are okay – which is a bit puzzling since I have got a ton of FF tabs open and I'm installing something so the resource usage is high.

Not the most useful of descriptions, I know. And considering it doesn't seem to be directly linked with memory/cpu load I don't really expect a magical solution. Unless it's a well known issue and someone has dealt with it in the past.

[Konja 04]

in Error: (-821) how do i uninstall the game? ive been looking around and cant find it

[AHW1]

Hi, I'm new here.

After reading through the best part of 51 pages, I am still no better off in solving the MAJOR problem I am having with FM2009.

I installed the game last week (through steam).

It got to just before season kick-off but it was running extremely slowly. So I bought an additional 512mb DDR RAM. ( I only had 512 ddr ram prior ).

I started a new game as I made some changes in the data editor and downloaded a facepack and logo pack through FM Base.

Things were working fine until the first friendly game. I keep getting kicked out either during or after the first friendly (sometimes it gives me tillthe second friendly).

This is extremely frustrating as I have spent HOURS searching the internet trying to find a solution and no-one seems to have an answer although its obviously a common problem!

I have uninstalled (complete uninstall (except deleting registries as I have no idea how)) the game about 12 times!!

I have tried installing with steam, without steam, deleting everthing from the apps folder (settings, cache etc).

I have tried a new game with small medium and large base. Without Italian Serie c (aparantly a problem).

I have checked the RAM and that seems to be fine. I only get problems with FM2009.

I really have come to the end of my patience as I have wasted hours without success.

I could really do with some help and i need to know where to find the solution and how to carry out a solution.

I would appreciate a quick response as im about 10 mins away from carrying out GBH on my pc

my computer specs are

Pentium 4 3.0 GHZ
120GB hard disk 7200 rpm ( I have 54 GB FREE )
512MB DDR memory ( I have also fitted an extra 512mb so 1GB essentially ).
SIS 661FX graphics cip on board ( also recently updated that driver ).

Im not sure how to tell exactly but I seem to be running microsoft. NET framwork 3.5 SP1.
In my control panel (add/remove) there is the above and also microsoft. NET framwork 2.0 service pack 2 and 3.0 service pack 2.
I have XP home service pack 3.

If you can please help me and let me know what I need to do and how to do it.

Many Thanks
Aaron

[Konja 04]

Dear SI games,

i got the Error : [-821]

i followed your steps, and when i re-installed the game it still asked me to put in my key code, i did and i got the Error again, please help me, i really want to play this game....

[rik85]

NIEL

hi i have installed FM2009 and done the phone activation every thing went fine now when i try to run the game i get the following msg

fm.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close?also i get the facegen msg

anybody help

please

thanks

[rik85]

this has to be the worst site ever for help!

[Konja 04]

this has to be the worst site ever for help!

i agree is there a phone number we can just call?