Links Not Starting

[Mootz]

Links 2003 will no longer start. Everything was fine until about 2 weeks ago. I have not made any changes to Links or my system. Links begins to start then I get a small screen/box with 3 options... restart links, troubleshoot or exit links. I have restarted Windows 10, re-installed Links 2003 with all updates. Not sure what is causing this. Any suggestions? Thanks

[Adelade]

First things I would test if it was me would be:
-Try different compatibility settings, in particular launching Links as admin
-Try launching Links from both LinksLauncher and LinksMMIII
-If you have any USB devices connected, try launching Links after unplugging them.

Also make sure you have the 1.07 and Nvidia patches after the reinstall.

[GoBucks]

First things I would test if it was me would be:
-Try different compatibility settings, in particular launching Links as admin
-Try launching Links from both LinksLauncher and LinksMMIII
-If you have any USB devices connected, try launching Links after unplugging them.

Also make sure you have the 1.07 and Nvidia patches after the reinstall.

This does not include mouse/keyboard. Trust me. People have done it.

[pmgolf]

Mootz, you didn't provide anywhere near enough information to help someone help you with your problem. Laptop or desktop? Intel CPU or AMD CPU? Have a video card or just intel graphics? But based on knowing nearly nothing about your problem, I would say that there is a good chance that something in the following thread link will help you. Part of it is known as V**D** (with the asterisks changed to o's), but for Christ's sake don't type it out like that because the Google search engine goes crazy when that word is in a post! (It causes problems!)

viewtopic.php?p=7232#p7232

There is a good chance that microsoft has made some kind of change and updated your operating system.

Pete

[Mootz]

Thanks, Pete for looking at this issue. Here is some additional information regarding my system. I have Links 2003 installed on my Lenovo desktop running Windows 10, Intel CPU with all current MS updates. I use an nVidia Geforce GT730 graphics card. As I stated before I have exhausted all ‘fixes’ that I can think of. I have re-installed Links, applied all of the Links updates and the nVidia update. I also tried a Radeon graphics card... same problem. The Links install and updates install without any issues. Links will not start!

[pmgolf]

I clicked on the link I gave you and the first and second posts seemed to have information that looked promising - especially the cut and paste part from Andy. I'm not having trouble running Links so I can't follow those instructions. If you don't want to do it, that's ok. My other suggestion is to try and find a used computer that has Windows 7 as it's operating system. All you need to find is the box with the motherboard and Windows 7 and attach your own peripherals.

I have 2 machines: Desktop: Intel CPU with a nVidia GT750 Ti video card and Windows 7 (my backup) and
AMD Ryzen 5 2600 Processor
Gigabyte X470 AORUS ULTRA GAMING ATX Motherboard
GeForce GTX 1050 Ti 4 GB Phoenix Video Card
Windows 10 Pro

Older machines run Links very well!

Pete

[GoBucks]

Links 2003 will no longer start. Everything was fine until about 2 weeks ago. I have not made any changes to Links or my system. Links begins to start then I get a small screen/box with 3 options... restart links, troubleshoot or exit links. I have restarted Windows 10, re-installed Links 2003 with all updates. Not sure what is causing this. Any suggestions? Thanks

Is Links the only software that is giving you problems? No driver or any other types of updates just prior to this happening? Power outage?

[pmgolf]

I had a thought. Before this problem, how often did you play Links? Re-reading the things you have said, it suddenly dawned on me that no one had mentioned a corrupted file. Do you use the same player each time you play - or are you trying to play the same course? Don't dismiss the possibility without checking it. Skies: rename the exiting Skies folder to /old Skies/ and add a new empty one named /Skies/. Put a single Sky file in it, like Partly Cloudy 2.sky. See if Links will run.

Do the same thing for the /Courses/ folder. When you rename the original folder with "old Courses", Links doesn't look at it. Put a single course in the new /Courses/ folder, but not one you play very often. Again, see if Links will run.

When Links boots up, it should be looking for the files it was using the last time the game ran, so the corrupted file could be something other than a system file.

Do that, see what happens, and come back here.

Pete

[Daniel]

Try putting ticks in the DPI setting for Links 2003. Right click on the Links start icon go to properties then compatibility you will see the change DPI change them and then look at the change DPI for all users and tick those boxes see if that works, it worked for me and for others I have helped in the golf team I play for.

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It will not harm your system in any way so it is worth a try it only applies to Links 2003