[hmt321]

I can't get Halo 2 to work
brand new dell desktop pc, win 7 home premium
I removed the McAfee anti-virus (i use AVG free)

I also removed the preloaded dell software, and Mircosoft live, instant messenger, etc

I picked up a copy of HALO 2 for vista and it installed, i tried to play and get this message:


Live Gaming on Windows failed to initialize. This may be because another
LIVE Gaming on Windows application (such as the Halo 2 dedicated server) is
running on the same machine. Otherwise, reinstalling the game may fix this
problem.

what i have done so far:

- download Windows Live Gaming (3.0) and installed, same message
- uninstalled halo2, and Windows Live Gaming (3.0), reboot pc and reinstall halo2 and Windows Live Gaming (3.0), same message
- uninstalled halo2, and Windows Live Gaming (3.0), ran ccleaner and cleanup, re-booted pc, re-installed halo2, and Windows Live Gaming (1.0) located on halo2 dvd, same message
- downloaded patches for both halo2 and Windows Live Gaming (3.0) and installed, same message


I have done some google searches and i did come across a forum post where someone re-names a few files and got around this problem but i cant find it again.

I currently have avg free 9 running (disabling it did not fix the problem)
I run firefox for a browser
I try to not have other programs running when i don't need them though

halo2 is the first game i have installed
anyone have any advise?

thanks

[AntonFZS]

Have you logged into LIVE and started the program try now to play the game.

[AntonFZS]

I Found THIS message on a MS forum not mine,read everything carefully! MESSAGE BELOW

I had a similar problem, but, after a lot of trial and error, got everything
to work eventually.

Here's what worked for me:

1) Be sure you have uninstalled both Halo 2 AND Windows LIVE. (I tried
reinstalling Halo 2 twice and got the same error UNTIL I figured out it was
LIVE causing the problem.)

2) Reinstall Halo 2 from scratch. I did this as a complete custom
installation followed by a quit, to be on the safe side.

3) Start up Halo 2 normally. Be sure to follow ALL of the LIVE setup
prompts exactly.

4) At some point in here LIVE will want to update itself. Follow the
prompts and let it do this.

5) Following the LIVE updating, restart Halo 2 and login to LIVE. You
should get an option to update Halo 2 automatically. Do so. Once you done
this, you should be good to go.

n.b. I think the root cause of the problem was when I did my intial install
as a "play while you install" setup. Somewhere in there I bailed without
properly setting up LIVE. I then tried to install the Halo 2 patch manually
over the still un-updated LIVE setup. When I uninstalled and reinstalled
Halo 2 (only) I got the "LIVE gaming failed to initialize" error message
every time. Uninstalling LIVE, then reinstalling Halo 2 fixed this.

Best of luck.

[hmt321]

I have logged into LIVE prior to starting Halo2 and it is still not working

Ok i have uninstalled both programs again,

after i have installed halo2 i am not prompted to do anything at all with Live, I just get this message

Live Gaming on Windows failed to initialize. This may be because another
LIVE Gaming on Windows application (such as the Halo 2 dedicated server) is
running on the same machine. Otherwise, reinstalling the game may fix this
problem.

so this is what i think is going on,

somewhere in the bowels of windows 7, there is either a installed copy of LIVE Gaming or the remnants of it that is incompatible with halo 2, that could be why i am not getting a prompt to install or update Live when i start halo2.

anyone else have any ideas?