Whoops -- just noticed another comment about that. Never mind!

Lawrence Carter,

Hi Lawrence, I did mention to BKR that Avast commonly did this to Toomky games. Though it seems his comment and my reply have disappeared.

BKR,

Hi BKR,
Sorry for the late reply, I've been really busy helping my two university kids with their exam revision; both are in their final year and have finals this month and next, so I've not had much time to respond to any queries.

I didn't delete your post. I never delete a comment without leaving a reason for doing so. Also, I did respond to your comment asking whether you pay for the enterprise version of Virus Total, because when I use the free version of Virus Total I'm only able to upload file sizes of 650MB. As the game was well over 650MB I wasn't able to check the game for malware. Still eight hits from approximately 70 scans isn't significant and I would still say that indicates a false positive. If all the hits were from well respected antimalware suites I'd be more concerned; but the only well known one Avast regularly tags Toomky games and MyPlayCity games.

I've downloaded hundreds of TooMky games over the past several years and have never had any security issues with any of them; plus the giveaway team have always checked any downloads before allowing them out to the community ever since they started the giveaway site in 2006. They have never given away a game that was malicious.

Also, it would have been a good idea to post a link to the Virus Total results that you received like I do when I'm able to upload a file to be scanned,; the reason being that the community can see the proof. Unfortunately the trouble with our internet is that there are malicious people out there that spread lies, so you should always cover you back with evidence. I'm not saying you were one of those, just trying to suggest that next time you post such information you back it up with a link to the scan you made as evidence.

Regards

W.R.

p.s.

Probably all of the games from sites like Toomky Games and other free game sites will include remnants of low level adware that is not malicious in the sense that it injects malware into your computers system. I've found that most of the 60 plus scanners that the free version of Virus Total employ (70 with the enterprise version) will give them a clean bill of health. I've noted since posting Total Virus scans that it's nearly always the same several antimalware suites such as Jiangming, Zillya, Bitdefender Theta and VBA32 as well as a few others that give a positive result. All of the big names (apart from Bit Defender) give these free games from free game sites a clean bill of health.

The adware that remains in these games from Toomky Games and others such as MyPlayCity, FreeGamePick, Gametop and others is ring fenced by the games; i.e. that the low level adware is only active during the start-up and end phases (when you close the game down) of the game There's nothing malicious about this adware; it's put there for a purpose that is so that the original developer of the game can get paid for allowing the game to be downloaded for free.

BKR, Avast did the same for me.

MJ,

Hi MJ, Really sorry to hear that.

I had a similar problem the other day where I'd been preparing a tutorial document regarding updating a particular game called The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall to the Unity version, which I was intending to add to the Free Game Project. The Unity version of Daggerfall is a lot better than the original version, so I thought I'd prepare a tutorial on how to convert the Bethesda version to the Unity version. I'd been working on the tutorial for over four hours using WordPad, which unfortunately doesn't automatically save your progress, and I was so intent/engrossed on finishing it that I committed a cardinal since in that I wasn't saving my progress regularly.

Then a rare BSOD occurred , which lost all of my work (apart from around 20 screen captures). I usually save my progress, especially if I'm multitasking; but I'd neglected to in this instance, so paid the price; so I can empathise with your situation.

MJ,

The black screen sounds like a compatibility issue but the rest is strange. Just an FYI for the future, when I can't close a game, or anything, in the regular way, a last resort is to right click on the program's icon in the taskbar and then on " X Close window" and that will do it. I also try to be disciplined to save anything I am working on and create a restore point before installing anything. I know that may not help you in this case but perhaps in the future. I hope so!

Whiterabbit-uk,

Thank you, I didn't even want to try the game again and feel sooo sad because it looked wonderful!

I can absolutely relate to losing everything to a BSOD. I had them occur a few times a week when I got my previous computer. And it's so frustrating because with Windows 10, which is what I was using (and am using that here), a BSOD takes a very, very long time to go through the process before it begins to reboot. But everything is at a standstill in the meantime.

Hope you were able to rebuild all of your work with a minimum of trouble.

J,

Thank you, but it was even worse than that, sniff, sniff.

I had nothing at all, no icon, no "X close window," no taskbar, nothing. It was a completely black screen, white cursor and no keypress would do anything, except for ctrl-alt-del. Even the Windows button on the keyboard did nothing, and that's the way I generally recover a "sticky" hidden taskbar that won't make an appearance when the cursor gets to the bottom of the screen.

All ctrl-alt-del would do was give the menu screen, but if I tried to choose the task manager to shut the game down...black screen, white cursor. No task manager.

In the end I wound up using the "power" icon in the lower right hand corner of the screen from the ctrl-alt-del menu, which gave options to shut off the computer, restart, etc. I cursed at it a lot and let it restart. Aside from pressing the computer's physical power switch to shut it down, that was literally the only option available.

Not sure why this game doesn't like the computer, which is a crying shame because the game looks soooo wonderful.

MJ,

As for Win 10 BSOD's yeah, the wait is excruciating; especially when it happens when you're playing a co-op game with friends.

As yet I'm so disgruntled, I've not restarted the work I lost. It's not be all and end all stuff, just a tutorial I was preparing on how to get the best out of Elder scrolls II: Daggerfall. I'll get around to re doing it sometime soon. I have too much on a the moment with two kids both doing the=ir final exams over the next several weeks. Will be glad when it's all done and dusted. (Reminds me too much of my own finals)

Whiterabbit-uk,

I can't imagine getting a BSOD while playing a game with friends! It's frustrating enough when I'm in the middle of writing something timely and it interrupts my train of thought...at least that only affects me and not others.

Absolutely, it sounds like you've got some very time critical stuff to get through with the kids. Hope all goes well! And I understand about being too frustrated to get back to doing what you had been doing. There are things I seriously have never have gotten back to from BSODs in the past...um...years. Embarrassed to say that, but it's the truth!

Best of luck with everything and thank you for being so helpful all the time!

MJ,

Yes it was very frustrating; especially as one of the guys can only play on that particular evening, so didn't want to spoil his game time.

As for the kids; yeah; especially as they are finals. Thankfully all will be done by the end of June. Cal starts his year of pre registration mid July. Em hasn't found a job yet, but she's not even applied for any yet.

:)

Whiterabbit-uk,

Hope the guy was able to enjoy the game, then...just wish you'd been able to, also!

Finals are the worst...been a long time for me, but not so easily forgotten. Please don't get too stressed out and hoping your kids won't, either! :)

Oh! And I meant to mention that there's an extra chapter to the story to be played besides the other Collector's Edition items. That's about the only time I care about CE games, if there's more story to be had. Of course, you have to unlock it by playing the base game first, but that's the usual requirement.

sailorbear510 aka Jason,

Hi Jason, Thank you for posting some feedback; appreciated.

It took about 30 seconds for the check to be made for me then installed in about 45 seconds. The installed size is 1.21GB.

sailorbear510 aka Jason, after hearing about the 'extras' included that I have zero interest in having, I don't feel bad any more about passing up this one. Your info was very helpful - thank you!

Whiterabbit-uk, My gaming laptop broke :( I am saving up for a new one. In the mean time I have a Lenovo Ideapad 1 14 in laptop that I got at Best Buy for $119 on black Friday a couple of years ago I think it was 2020. It was meant for a backup laptop but now it's my primary one. I install games on an external WD My Book hard drive so it may take awhile to install the games but all the games I've installed since switching over to this laptop have been working great.

sailorbear510 aka Jason,

That's good to know.

Do you know what was wrong with your broken laptop? While playing a coop game with a friend of mine, a few months ago he suddenly disappeared. He then messaged me via his phone to say that his laptop had died on him. Turns out it was the CPU cooler that was clogged with so much dust it wouldn't start up again; so, the laptop wouldn't boot up again. When he took it to his local repair shop, they also said that the cooler was not working properly, so he had the cooler replaced; (it wasn't speeding up enough to cool the CPU). Apparently it is quite common. Maybe you had the same issue?

My daughters MSI gaming laptop stopped working last year. I discovered that it was the SSD drive that had burnt out. I replaced it with a new one and it worked perfectly again (While cleaning it out I also found a spare slot for an M.2 drive, so bought her one of those so she had more storage space, installing the OS onto the M.2 drive instead of the standard SSD, which boosted the boot up time significantly).

Does your broken laptop still boot up, but then comes up with an error message, usually in a DOS like format; or, can you boot into the BIOS, or is it completely dead? If you can still get into the Bios, you can see if it's your internal hard drive that has the Operating system installed on that is the issue.

I learnt to fix my own computers, thanks to a friend who built his own after getting a very expensive bill for repairing my very first computer; an old intel 286 from the mid 80's.

Whiterabbit-uk,

It started when I dropped my iPhone on the top of keyboard near the monitor. Big mistake, the screen went scrambled. I started cussing and then held the power button to turn off the laptop. Then waited 2 minutes and turned back on, and it was back. Then the Bluetooth went out. And on several boots it went right to the bios diagnostics from dell. Funny thing is that it passed all tests at the time so I don't know what's wrong. I think the motherboard may be damaged from dropping the phone on it.

In case it helps at all...

I believe the long wait before the actual installer runs is due to the encrypted installation files being read into RAM, where they're run. More & faster RAM reduces that amount of time -- less/slower RAM increases it.

One somewhat painless way to tell if a PC/laptop is having problems with the OS [Windows/Linux] or hard disk/SSD, is to boot to another storage device with its own OS. Examples include Linux Live, WinPE, Windows To Go, or even the bootable USB stick for your backup software. Note: on many [most?] devices Windows will alter the BIOS, hiding any drives connected via USB -- you have to reset the BIOS to its defaults for it to show up so you can select to boot from a USB device. Maybe take a snapshot of all the settings with your phone beforehand, so you can put the settings back to what they should be.

One thing to watch out for, especially with laptops & all-in ones, is the amount of heat generated by some SSDs, particularly NVMe [M2] drives. Research before you buy, as some run Quite hot. Not only is excessive heat bad for components, but it causes fans to speed up, which increases the amount of dust etc. the device inhales, plus if the cooling is marginal, it can lead to the CPU being throttled.

If the device uses an AMD chipset, be aware that the chipset drivers often set the minimum CPU speed at or around 90% in the Control Panel -> Power advanced settings. That's bad for battery life as well as keeping things hotter than they should be. Usually set the minimum to 0, leaving that decision to the hardware.

The free CPUID HWMonitor shows you a wealth of info, including temps on all components with temp sensors, so you'll be easily aware of problems. The BIOS is responsible for increasing fan speeds as temps rise -- a bad BIOS firmware version can be broken in that respect.

sailorbear510 aka Jason,

"I am saving up for a new one."

Wait for benchmarks & reviews of actual shipping products, but the new AMD laptop APUs [what AMD calls their CPUs with graphics processor built-in] are supposed to be killer. Or go for a desktop, so when one part breaks you can replace just that part.

"It started when I dropped my iPhone on the top of keyboard"

THAT's the problem -- you dropped an iPhone on it... if you'd have dropped an Android phone everything would still be OK. :) Seriously though, while the Bluetooth chip going out may have just been one of those things -- the main (only?) concern during manufacture is lowest cost -- for the display to go haywire sounds like maybe something physically broke, perhaps one of the board's traces, or just a wire connection coming loose. When you turn a PC/laptop on [from a power off state], the BIOS runs through a brief inventory of everything that's attached, adjusting a few settings if needed. Some components have to be there, e.g. a GPU -- if not it'll normally issue a special beep code -- manufacturers have tables which tell you what each code means [some PC motherboards even have LCD screens to tell you what's wrong]. The next step for the BIOS, after that sort of inventory [called POST], is to find the boot files for an OS, searching the drives in the order set in the BIOS settings. If it doesn't find any boot files that causes another error. You'd have to research based on your laptop's model number, & possibly serial number, to find out which error triggers Dell's diagnostic routine. If it's the 2nd, not finding the OS boot files, could be just the hard drive's flaky. If it's the 1st, if you're lucky something's just loose, making electrical contact sometimes, sometimes not.