[SOLVED] Launcher Inoperable, 16 bit autoupdate issue?

[Paganist Sniper]

Howdy y'all,

As of today I cannot run the MBII launcher, every time I try, I get this message:

When I hit yes, I then get this message:

Leading finally, to this message:

Should I hit no, the launcher will launch, but I will be unable to do anything whatsoever with it, like so:

The links all work, but none of the bottom row buttons do, and obviously the play button doesn't.

I can run MBII - albeit with loss of my config - through running Play_MBII_CustomOJK.bat (Play_MBII.bat does not work, just tells me to modify my steam launch options and launch from there, obsolete instructions?), and while I can connect to a server, I cannot play due to the requirement of having the launcher running. I have not tried leaving the inoperable launcher running while attempting to play.

I have attempted to download a fresh MBIILauncher.exe from the Download page of this website, but the .exe is the same as the one I originally had, and no matter how many times I delete and redownload a fresh one, I get the same series of error messages, every now and then having to guide the .exe to JKA's root folder if I try and run it from my Downloads folder.

My little brother said he had the same issue, but was able to fix it by just redownloading the .exe, which does not work for me.

My OS is Win 7 Home Premium with Service Pack 1, this is my Gamedata folder:

Is this enough to explain the issue, or do I need to add anything else?


UPDATE: Ironically, immediately after I posted this, the MBIILauncher.exe executed perfectly, and I was able to launch the game (and my config was intact). However, when I went to see if the problem had magically resolved itself, running MBIILauncher.exe an additional time caused the problem to reproduce. I am mystified, and believe I must either be a moron or hallucinating.

 

[Puppytine]

My little brother said he had the same issue, but was able to fix it by just redownloading the .exe, which does not work for me.

Weird...

Anyway, try deleting these folders:
Jedi Academy\GameData\MBII_Launcher
C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\Local Settings\Application Data\Movie_Battles_Team

On next Launcher start you will be prompted that Movie Battles isn't installed, it's ok.
Click "Install", Launcher won't download files already on drive.

 

[Paganist Sniper]

Thank you for the prompt reply! I attempted your instructions by renaming the MBII_Launcher folder MBII_Launcher - backup, and deleting the Movie_Battles_Team folder, which was located in Users/Name/AppData/Local, if it's worth anything.

The issue reproduced, and the MBII_Launcher folder was made anew with an empty cache folder, see:

Additionally, a new Movie_Battles_Team folder was created in my AppData/Local folder, with a single folder with another folder with a single file:

Also, I'll draw attention to the update I edited onto the main post:

UPDATE: Ironically, immediately after I posted this, the MBIILauncher.exe executed perfectly, and I was able to launch the game (and my config was intact). However, when I went to see if the problem had magically resolved itself, running MBIILauncher.exe an additional time caused the problem to reproduce. I am mystified, and believe I must either be a moron or hallucinating.

 

[Puppytine]

running MBIILauncher.exe an additional time caused the problem to reproduce.

k, let's try deleting "AutoUpdate" file as well...

 

[Paganist Sniper]

Before:
JKA/Gamedata

AppData/Local

Attempting to run MBIILauncher.exe reproduced the error again, and I ran through attempting to update the launcher, which resulted in the typical chain of events.

After:

I did not notice before, but it seems the AutoUpdate.exe is also a part of the error.

I reset and attempted to hit "no" this time when the prompt arrived, and got a new thing, the EULA:

Then I got the unresponsive launcher.

 

[Puppytine]

Damn that's gonna be hard...

Try rebooting computer.

When did you start experience those issue?
Were you able to play MBII normally earlier?
Did something changed just before Launcher started acting like that? New software, new hardware? Maybe a new router? Or new ISP?

 

[Paganist Sniper]

Already tried rebooting before making the topic, but after keeping the machine shutdown overnight, the error would still reproduce.

I started experiencing the issue yesterday, I was able to play MBII normally even while having this issue - but I cannot stay connected to any server due to the requirement of having the launcher running. I received no errors of any sort while JKA was running.

The only thing I can think of network wise that would've changed is that it is possible I had the launcher running during a connection loss, but this has happened before. Yesterday, when the program worked perfectly, after I exited MBII the launcher told me that it detected a new version and required an update, and upon restarting the launcher, the error reproduced. I was unable to get a screenshot of this, but I will if I can get it to work again. So far every time I try to run MBIILauncher today, I just get the same error.

I'll update this rather than make another post:
If I leave the inoperable launcher running and launch the game via Play_MBII_CustomOJK.bat, then I can play the game with no issues - however I cannot see the server list. I can still connect directly via IP or through my favorites list, however. This is extremely confusing.

 

[ent]

Go to the launcher file properties and check if it's running in any compatibility mode - maybe it's the issue.

 

[Paganist Sniper]

These are the properties of my MBIILauncher.exe:

I originally believed that I ran the program at Administrator level already, but looking at this I can see I was not. Immediately after changing the Compatibility properties to run it as an Administrator, like so:

I was able to get a perfect launch of the MBII Launcher. However, after closing it out and trying again, the error reproduced. I am baffled and confused.

 

[Puppytine]

I am baffled and confused.

And I am as well...

Anywhore, I blame your network for some reason.
Are you sure you weren't changing anything just before Launcher became broken?
New anti-virus, firewall, router, any editions to a settings?
Try shutting down firewall and anti-virus completely (if any), try rebooting router (if any), try plugging Internet cable to the computer directly (no Wi-Fi) (if applicable).
Try installing anti-virus (if you don't have one) and run a full scan.
Try reinstalling .Net 4.0: Download Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer) from Official Microsoft Download Center

Place your "AutoUpdate.exe" to .zip archive and upload to this thread, just like in my post.
Replace your "AutoUpdate.exe" with the one I've provided and see what happens then.

 

[Paganist Sniper]

With that AutoUpdate.exe I still get the error, though it did actually try to update the launcher when I first ran MBIILauncher.exe. It also created an AutoUpdate.cache this time. I'll upload that as well in case it could somehow help. Could you supply an AutoUpdate.cache from an install that works?

I don't believe I was changing anything, but I'm not sure. My router is dynamic, and there's no ethernet port where I am for a LAN connection, but resetting the router and removing firewalls/anti-viruses didn't seem to do anything either. I will try running a full scan now, and will reinstall .NET Framework 4

- - - Updated - - -

Interesting. After the attempted update, MBIILauncher.exe is now reportedly incompatible with my version of windows.

Redownloading MBIILauncher.exe from this website and replacing the malformed file only reproduces the error when I try to update it. I have uploaded a .zip of the malformed file here. No idea what it did to the other 3 MB and change a proper MBIILauncher.exe should have.

- - - Updated - - -

.NET framework would not install, the message I received was that .NET 4 or equivalent had already been installed on this machine. I had no option for a reinstallation.

 

[Puppytine]

Well, that all is very sad and frustrating...

Could you supply an AutoUpdate.cache from an install that works?

I don't have one. Maybe because my version of Launcher is treated as latest, or maybe because of some other reason, but I think it's not the point anyway...

The most important thing that all three files you've uploaded are binary identical, and they have nothing to do with Movie Battles.
I've changed extension of one your files to .zip, then opened it in WinRAR.
It's displayed one file in archive, opened it in text editor, a html page came out.
Page is displayed blank in browser, but code is pretty short and clear (shown below): it's from site called "meetcircle.com".
I have no idea what the hell meetcircle.com is, and why MBII Launcher downloads it instead of a new version of itself. Maybe you know?

So it's a little more clear now: for some reason, Launcher get pages from meetcircle.com instead of moviebattles.org, and it's driving its nuts.
You need to double-check everything that is related to your network.
Maybe your computer is infected by a virus?
Maybe default DNS server is replaced?
Can you open this link in different browsers, and what content of file do you get: http://update.moviebattles.org/launcher/AutoUpdate.exe ?
Check file "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS". Any suspicious records?
Have your ISP something to do with that? Could you get an Internet connection via some other ISP, just for testing? USB modem, probably?

Alternative way to decompress your AutoUpdate.exe:

1. Encode in base64 here: Base64 Online - base64 decode and encode
2. Then decompress here: Free online text compression tools - gzip, bzip2 and deflate.

Spoiler: Unexpected HTML

<!DOCTYPE html><html><!-- develop.515d5ae-2017.04.12-11:41:19 --><head><base href="/"><meta charset="utf-8"><meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width"><meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><!-- Icons --><link rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed" sizes="144x144" href="https://meetcircle.com/media/apple-touch-icon.png"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="https://meetcircle.com/img/favicon.ico"><title>MyCircle</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="/nojs/style.css"><style>*{visibility:hidden}#mpreloader,#mpreloader *{visibility:visible}</style><script>var MYCIRCLE_VERSION = "develop.515d5ae-2017.04.12-11:41:19";
var MYCIRCLE_VERSION_URL = "https://github.com/meetcircle/mycircle-client/commit/515d5ae";</script><script async="true" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script><noscript><style> * { visibility: visible; } </style></noscript></head><body><noscript><div class="loading loaded"> <header> <div> <div class="logo"><img src="/images/logo.svg" height="40"></div> <div class="user"> <div class="avatar username-avatar">?</div> </div> </div> </header> <div class="warning nodevice active"> <div><h2>Looks like Javascript is disabled.</h2><span>Enable Javascript in your browser to resume your MyCircle experience.</span></div> </div> </div></noscript><div id="main" class="container"></div><div id="mpreloader" style="visibility:visible"></div><script type="text/javascript">var db = document.body;
var dbs = document.body.style;
if (window.location.hash) {
document.getElementById("mpreloader").style.display = "none";
dbs.backgroundColor = "#e5e7e7";
} else if (self === top) {
} else {
document.getElementById("mpreloader").style.display = "none";
dbs.backgroundColor = "#00b7d9";
db.innerHTML = '<div style="margin: auto; width: 60vw; height: 90vh; background: transparent url(\'http://static.meetcircle.com/index.jpg\') no-repeat 50% 50%; background-size: 60vw"></div>';
}</script><script>(function(i,s,o,g,r,a,m){i['GoogleAnalyticsObject']=r;i[r]=i[r]||function(){
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})(window,document,'script','//www.google-analytics.com/analytics.js','ga');

ga('create', 'UA-66182607-2', 'auto');
ga('require', 'linkid');
ga('send', 'pageview');</script><script src="/vendors.91141ec1aad3c11b64f5.js" defer="true"></script><script src="/app.b08939de1dd01aceb7ab.js" defer="true"></script></body></html>

 

[Paganist Sniper]

The most important thing that all three files you've uploaded are binary identical, and they have nothing to do with Movie Battles.
I've changed extension of one your files to .zip, then opened it in WinRAR.
It's displayed one file in archive, opened it in text editor, a html page came out.
Page is displayed blank in browser, but code is pretty short and clear (shown below): it's from site called "meetcircle.com".
I have no idea what the hell meetcircle.com is, and why MBII Launcher downloads it instead of a new version of itself. Maybe you know?

So it's a little more clear now: for some reason, Launcher get pages from meetcircle.com instead of moviebattles.org, and it's driving its nuts.
You need to double-check everything that is related to your network.
Maybe your computer is infected by a virus?
Maybe default DNS server is replaced?
Can you open this link in different browsers, and what content of file do you get: http://update.moviebattles.org/launcher/AutoUpdate.exe ?
Check file "C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\HOSTS". Any suspicious records?
Have your ISP something to do with that? Could you get an Internet connection via some other ISP, just for testing? USB modem, probably?

So I looked it up and talked with a few people and apparently meetcircle.com is the website for the Disney Circle, which is a parental control thing. Someone hooked it up to my network without my knowing. Apparently it works by hijacking all the traffic across my network and routing it through its own device, and any machine connected to that network has to be routed through it as well. So we all got assigned to a default filter group, which filtered out Moviebattles.org, and when the launcher tried to access Moviebattles.org, Circle would intercept the traffic and rewrite the entire file. I didn't notice this because I run my browser through a proxy, which somehow circumvents the Circle, but since the launcher isn't browser-based, it was caught in the filter.

Everything's fixed now that I got my machine taken off that nonsense. This was ultimately very silly, but thank you for all the help!