Problems with VC on iPoker

tonc76

I firstly could not register for any tourney's and then managed to get into a cash game. In the middle of a hand that I was involved in the play stopped. A warning message came up stating "this table is closing for maintenance" and the table was gone!!

Anyone else having problems?

(Not a good start for ipoker)

Tried to use manager chat to find out about tourneys and got no reply

charlesanto

yes - it's running like sh1te
can't crank up a game at all !!!

RasTa

Lost my username, although i need to do some more bonus whoring.

Imposter

My first impressions ain't good:
- Lobby is a mess. You see a table with 2/6 sitting - you click it and it's full!

It's not very multitabler friendly either:
- The cards for the opponents as well as the button is tiny and it is easy to overlook stuff.
- The chips are also not as clear. I was donking about in limit and every bet was one chip. Not easy to spot raises etc.
- Plus each table is a little larger than 800x600 making it impossible to fit 4 on a 1600x1200 monitor.
- Bet/raise/etc.. buttons look a lot like the player boxes. Hard to see what is what.

ArmaniJeanss

Argggghhh, Can't get it to run.

Anyone very technical able to help, or at least clarify my thought process? Get the following message during the installation, or when trying to run the application.

"The Casino.exe file is linked to missing export Shell32.DLL:shgetfolderpathA"

I'm running Windows98 on Pentium2, a bit ancient I know, but not had a problem with Tribeca, and NoblePoker does download OK.

Had a quick google of the Shell32.DLL:shgetfolderpathA part of the error, and people seem to have received this error before, not playing poker but other games, and generally been told its because the game doesnt supprt W98.

However the fact that Noble runs would lead me to think thats not the problem, unless VC have some snazzy new features that Noble doesn't.

Any of you studenty whizzkids able to shed some light for an old duffer?

EDIT. I'm planning on not calling the support desk unless its unavoidable, they tend to be unhelpful !!

HiCloy

I got on fine but wish I hadn't now - its even more rigged than Tribeca was! rivered when all in twice in the 1st 5 hands

charlesanto

Just re-visited ...

All is workin well ...

The hand history thingie is pretty cooool ....

Fug me my eyes are sore ... its really hard on the eyes :eek:

breadmonkey

ArmaniJeanss wrote:

Argggghhh, Can't get it to run.

Anyone very technical able to help, or at least clarify my thought process? Get the following message during the installation, or when trying to run the application.

"The Casino.exe file is linked to missing export Shell32.DLL:shgetfolderpathA"

I'm running Windows98 on Pentium2, a bit ancient I know, but not had a problem with Tribeca, and NoblePoker does download OK.

Had a quick google of the Shell32.DLL:shgetfolderpathA part of the error, and people seem to have received this error before, not playing poker but other games, and generally been told its because the game doesnt supprt W98.

However the fact that Noble runs would lead me to think thats not the problem, unless VC have some snazzy new features that Noble doesn't.

Any of you studenty whizzkids able to shed some light for an old duffer?

EDIT. I'm planning on not calling the support desk unless its unavoidable, they tend to be unhelpful !!

Don't you have a pentium 166 or something?!:p

breadmonkey

Is it just me or do these tables run REALLY fast?

ocallagh

i think it's a huge improvement, i just hope they manage to iron out all the little bugs soon enough. agree with imposter, the mini view was designed badly.

DeVore

This is basically why GJP wants to move last. Im hoping that by Friday these hiccups will be ironed out. We redesigned our table design because of the acidic nature of their table layout on the eyes!

Mike has been multitabling with it to test it for several weeks in fact

DeV.

ocallagh

I would avoid cash for the next while. played some 2/4. bought in for 400.

I played about 100 hands, had $385 on the table. Made it $16 pre,and I had just placed a $16 coninuation bet on the flop and my opponent had folded, but before the pot was awarded to me the thing just froze. I waited 10 minutes before closing the table. As I was closing the table, an alert box told me I was leaving with $353 whereas I should have been leaving with $403. I clicked ok and now my cash history has been deleted and support are saying my account is showing up with a €305 loss this morning!:eek:

NeVeR

vc poker wont load for me. Keeps coming up that it's updating !!!!

DizBuster#8

I had the same Shell32.DLL:shgetfolderpathA error message on Tuesday after the upgrade - also running Win98.

I spent about an hour on the telephone to their "help" desk that night with a very unhelpful operator who wouldn't listen to what I was saying.

I've just called them again having had NO REPLY to my email to their tech support.

This time they told me that Windows 98 wasn't supported (despite what the technical FAQs say) and it sounded unlikely that it would become supported in the foreseeable future

I have been promised a reply from their tech department so I will let you know if I ever get one. To those still on Win98, don't hold your breath.

As an aside, I'm a programmer and believe that it shouldn't be THAT hard for them to support Win98 - there seems to be a different DLL that they should link in to get it to work (though there may be further problems down the line once they get past that obstacle)

ArmaniJeanss

Interesting stuff, Dizbuster, at least it proves to me that Win98 is the problem.

Have you tried to download Noble Poker by the way (in theory its the same software)?, downloads fine for me.

I think our best bet is to wait until PaddyPower do their upgrade.

Either it'll work fine, in which case you'll be able to tell the VC Tech people that it is possible to be 98 compatible and they may make an extra effort to link in the 'proper' DLL(s).

Or else PPP will have the same problem with W98, in which case their people (especially the handful who post here) will genuinely make an effort to solve it when they get a chance.

DizBuster#8

FYI I got the following reply from Tech Support at VC..

I have received the following reply from our technical department:

The poker client has limited support for Windows 98. There are a few steps you should follow to make sure the poker client works for you:
- Make sure that you have a SECOND EDITION of Windows 98 installed. Our software does not run on the earlier version.
- Make sure you have downloaded all the fixes/updates for the operating system. We are aware that Microsoft ended the support for Windows 98/ME on July 11, 2006. There are 3rd party sites that have all the updates up to that date and beyond available however.
- Make sure you have the latest Internet Explorer version available for Windows 98SE installed.

We strongly advise an upgrade of the operating system however as even if you will get our software to work with it, it's still very unstable and unsecure considering the lack of updates/development.

Also, as you are using an old operating system like that, please check if the computer meets all the rest of the requirements:

Intel Pentium II 400MHz or faster CPU.
At least 96 MB RAM.
An SVGA monitor or better (800x600 or higher resolution, 16-bit color).
At least 30 MB free space on the hard drive.
Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.2 or newer.

I hope this resolves the problem for you.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me,

Needless to say, my computer meets all these requirements, so it seems we are no further i getting a fix.

DizBuster#8

Well Surprise!!! (not really)

After the PPP upgrade, the exact same problem occurs

I wonder if the PPP tech support people have any more say in the development of the software (does anyone know who is behind the identical software for at least two different sites?) than VC did.

If there is anyone else reads this that is still on W98, bombard them with complaints - maybe they will listen and go back to more usable software. BTW I've heard of other people on more up-to-date operating systems than I, being far from satisfied with the new software

Clareman

I can't get on because of a completly different reason, but in work I came across the exact same error with Windows 98 on something completely different and discovered that uninstalling Internet Explorer and installing the latest version from the internet sorted it.

Please note that this was a while back, make sure you can download IE still.

Neil3030

I don't like this new software at all. I just wasted my free dirty dozen token because I got disconnected from the server about 5 times when the blinds were high, leaving me very much in the red zone. The tables look like ****e and they don't give you enough time on the cards. The Hot Keys appear to be gone, and they've got that infuriating one-for-all dialogue box with chat, stats, your hand, the board and about 4 bazillion things all rolled into one, like they have on Mansion. Bring back the old software I saw nothing wrong with it; quite to the contrary, it was my favourite of all the rooms I ever played.

ArmaniJeanss

DizBuster#8 wrote:

After the PPP upgrade, the exact same problem occurs

Ditto for me, obviously.

This really shouldnt have happened because A) it was flagged as a problem 6 days ago giving ample time to sort it and , it doesn't occur with the Noble Poker download so it really shouldn't have been a major problem to fix, just a case of finding the right DLL.

Don't particularly want to open a Noble Account as I like the handiness of deposit/withdrawal with GJP and PPP.

However its soul destroying looking at some of the results of $20 STTs and seeing people who I murder that seem to be cleaning up tonight.

Please sort it out over the next few days PPP

AJs.

DizBuster#8

Don't bet on PPP fixing it.

I finally got notification from VC that they weren't going to fix it for W98 and their advice was to "upgrade my operating system"

I closed my VC account.

As it is the same software, I'm assuming the "owners" of the software won't create a fix for them

DizBuster#8

I also raised an error report with PPP. They haven't even had the decency to acknowledge the report yet

ArmaniJeanss

DizBuster#8 wrote:

Don't bet on PPP fixing it.

I finally got notification from VC that they weren't going to fix it for W98 and their advice was to "upgrade my operating system"

I closed my VC account.

As it is the same software, I'm assuming the "owners" of the software won't create a fix for them

Dizbuster, if its any help, the Betfred client seems to install perfectly OK.
It's the same software so you'll be playing the same people that you played on VC previously, and for me anyway it has an advantage over NoblePoker in that Betfred has been a reputable bookmaking company in NorthernEngland for a long time, whereas I don't know the first thing about Noble.

According to ElStuntman on one of the other many threads, the Betfred bonuses are better than on VC as well.

Mildly interesting that I've been able to install Noble and Betfred, but not VC, PPP or GJP. Seems that the migrating Tribeca skins were all given the same version of the client, and that it differs from that of the existing skins.
Possibly Betfred etc are a version behind and the same problem will eventually apply to them as well.

Nerd that I am, I downloaded a Hex Editor in order to compare the 2 .exes - there are definitely differences in that the SHgetfolderpathA thing isnt a part of the Noble .exe. I tried to edit the VC.exe to make that section of it the same but its a tricky enough thing to do even with a Hex Editor and I failed !.

Maybe its time for me to bite the bullet and buy a more modern PC

AJs,

P.S. By the way, I wouldn't be too harsh on PPP for failing to respond yet, they probably have a backlog of 1000s of calls/emails to get through.

DizBuster#8

Thanks for the info

DizBuster#8

I tried the BetFred poker client last night. It installed no problem but I found it totally unusable

Looks like I'll have to hang-up my poker hat

ArmaniJeanss

DizBuster#8 wrote:

I tried the BetFred poker client last night. It installed no problem but I found it totally unusable

Out of interest, by 'unusable' do you mean that you hated the software layout/buttons etc like some people in the other threads, or is it unusable in the sense that theres specific problems running it on W98 which render it unplayable.

If its the former I don't mind, personally I always get used to a new client within hours (no real different to a new mobile phone), if its the latter then theres no real point in me setting up a BetFred account - pity, cause I was looking forward to getting 'back in the game' tonight !.

DizBuster#8

Sorry it took me a while to get back to you - the board didn't seem to notify me of a reply

By "unusable" I meant that it was EXCEPTIONALLY slow - and the tables all seemed very busy. I started on the play money tables as I wasn't prepared to give them money until I was happy it would work for me.

Many of the price-rages for play money didn't appear to have any tables associated with it - and the ones that were there, I had difficulty actually sitting at a table - they were so busy that by the time it decided to let me join and try to sit, the place became occupied by someone else.

maybe it was a particularly busy time - I don't believe the issues were necessarily W98 related.

I also found the different "skin" a little confusing - but as you said, I cuold live with that and soon get used to it. The inability to play though made me give up BEFORE I got used to it.

I'd be interested to hear your own experience if you DID attempt it; I am missing not being able to play on VC (or PPP)

ArmaniJeanss

I got sorted with PPP/VC as per page 8 of this thread.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055061548&page=8

I quite liked the software (in truth when your first 2 pocket pairs make a set then you get a favourable impression !!) though there were probably a few issues with my PC/W98 - e.g, it took about 30 seconds to swap from normalView to MiniView and I missed a hand because of this, so in future I'll stick with one or the other.

I'm fairly sure that I was playing at the same speed as everyone else once I was in an STT, no-one was 'zzzzzzzzzing' me, which they tended to do on Tribeca if you were continually slow.

The lobby refresh rate is very slow, but they've admitted that that is a problem they are working on.

Good luck to you anyway whatever you decide to do.
AJs.

DizBuster#8

Armani - I did reply to the other thread but not got an answer there yet. Do I understand you correctly that you fixed your PPP/VC installation problem (the SHgetfolderpathA problem) by reinstalling IE6 on Win98? Or have I misunderstood something?

ArmaniJeanss

Dizbuster,

I did the following.

1. Removed PPP using Add/Remove programs.
2. Downloaded IE6 from here (unzipped it and ran it obviously).
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/ie6/downloads/critical/ie6sp1/default.mspx
3. Re-booted.
4. Did a full reinstall of PPP from their website. (at some stage it asks do you want to continue from a previous install or do a full re-install? i picked the latter).
5. It worked.

gl.

DizBuster#8

Yes it worked for me too! Thank you!

Can't say I like it much so far though :S