Having Problems with Football Manager 08?

have noted a number of common problems with Football Manager 2008 and we will update this thread as they are solved or with further information to help you diagnose and resolve your issues.

Please ensure you provide ...
a brief explanation in the subject of your issue.

For example:
“The game does not install.”

“The game freezes after displaying the splash screen.”

“The installer freezes when trying to launch.”


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Microsoft Windows Vista Post Installation

I cannot find the Football Manager 2008 shortcut to launch the game?

Microsoft Windows Vista and the Games For Windows scheme handles installation differently to previous Windows operating systems. The game information is stored in the Games Explorer, which is new to Microsoft Windows Vista.

It is completely normal for no game shortcuts to be placed on the Desktop or within the Start Menu.

To find the Football Manager 2008 shortcut on Microsoft Windows Vista you need to browse to the Games Explorer.

Because there are various flavours of Vista however, including Vista Home, Vista Premium, Vista Ultimate, etc, the Games Explorer may be found in different locations (also depending on whether you’re using the Classic Start Menu or not).

The most common ones include:

- Start -> Games

- Start -> All Programs -> Games -> Games Explorer

Alternatively you can search for Games Explorer by going to:

- Start -> Search -> type “Games Explorer” (without the quotes)
- Select “Games Explorer” when it appears and it should open.

You can also manually browse to where Football Manager 2008 is installed on your system and by default it is installed to the following location:

- C:/Program Files/Sports Interactive/Football Manager 2008/

Inside the folder “Football Manager 2008” you should see the game executable which is called “fm.exe” or simply “fm”.

Right-click on “fm.exe” and from the pop-up menu, select “Create Shortcut”.

This will create a shortcut called “Shortcut to fm.exe” or “Shortcut to fm”.

You can now place this file anywhere on your computer, such as your Desktop and double-click on it to launch the game.


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My Installer Starts then Closes down with no warning.

This usually indicates that something is conflicting and preventing the installer from running.

If you go to:
- Start --> Run (Vista - Start -> Search Box)
- A pop-up box will appear. Type in "msconfig" (without the quotes) and select [OK].
- The System Configuration Utility will appear.
- Select the "Startup" tab.

This will give you a list of programs that are running on startup.

Then go to:
- Start --> Run.
- Type in "taskmgr" (without the quotes) and select [OK].

With both those pop-ups open you will be able to compare and match what's running on your machine. Close anything that you do not need to run, particularly software related items, such as iPod/iTunes/anti-virus/printer related applications.

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I can't install the game and I have Windows XP 64Bit

There is a known problem here. If you are getting this please follow these instructions.

- Create a temporary folder on your machine, such as C:/FM2008.
- Copy the entire contents of the CD into this folder.
- Once that's finished, go to the following location:
- "C:/FM2008/Disk1/InstData/Windows/VM/"
- In here you should find "setup.exe".
- Right-click on "fm.exe" and from the pop-up menu select "Properties".
- A window will appear. Select the "Compatibility" tab.
- Select the 'Run this program in compatibility mode for:" and choose "Windows XP" from the available options).

The game should now install Normally. If this is not the case please post the issue in the Technical Support forum.

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My game installs, but then won't get past the splash screens.

This is a rather common issue and in most cases you can resolve this by updating your graphics card drivers.

You can look at the date of your driver by viewing your dxdiag results.

The dxdiag analysis tool provides you with non personal computer information, such information like what operating system you are running, how much memory you have, what drivers you have on your machine and other technical information. It DOES NOT supply any personal information about you or your computer to us.

To get your dxdiag.txt file follow these steps:

1. Select Start.
2. Select Run (This is the 'Search Box' on Microsoft Windows Vista).
3. Type "dxdiag" in the prompt box.
4. Select [OK].

At this point the dxdiag analysis tool will launch. It will take a short while to analyse your system and this is highlighted by a progress bar.

Once that has completed, select “Save All Information” and you will be promoted to choose a location to save the information to a text file, such as “dxdiag.txt”.

Choose somewhere on your machine to save the file, so that you can retrieve the information from it.

The information you are interested in is the manufacture of your graphics card and the driver version and date.

The majority of graphics cards are based on the ATI or nVidia chipsets or integrated on-board Intel chips.

Their websites will point you to the latest drivers for their graphics chips.

Download ATI Graphics Card Drivers Here

Download Intel Integrated Graphics Chipsets Drivers Here

Download Nvidia Drivers Here

Note: Some laptop manufacturers will provide their own versions of these drivers and therefore if you are using a laptop, you should visit the manufacturer’s website and check for any drivers available for your laptop model number.

Please follow the instructions on how to update your drivers on the specified websites. If you are really stuck and don’t know what you’re doing, please provide us with your dxdiag information (the text file mentioned above) and copy / paste its contents in a thread on these forums.


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My game installs, but I get a black screen.

Please follow the steps to the issue above (My game installs, but then won't get past the splash screens).


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The Installer will not run and / or I am getting a Java Error.

In some cases you may be advised to try to uninstall any current Java version on your system, and install the latest version of Java from Sun. This describes how to do this.

Uninstall Java Runtime Environment

1. Click the "Start" menu.
2. Click "Settings" and then "Control Panel".
3. Double click "Add/Remove Programs".
4. In the "Add or Remove Programs" dialog, scroll down until you find the program called "Java Runtime Environment".
5. Click "Remove" to uninstall "Java Runtime Environment".
6. When asked to confirm removing Java from the system, press "Ok".

2. Install the latest Java Runtime Environment (JRE) manually

1. Download the latest Java from Sun's Java download page.
2. Install Java by double-clicking on the file you just downloaded, and follow the instructions.

Uninstall the Java SDK

1. If you have a Java SDK installed, then this may also be causing some problems in some cases.
2. In this case, do the same as in step #1 above.
3. Once in "Add/Remove Programs", choose to uninstall anything that starts with "Java".
4. This should mean that, combined with #1 above, you now have not got any Java installed.
5. Now Try to Run the FM08 Installer

Install the latest Java SDK (JDK) manually

1. As a last resort, you may want to try to install the full Java SDK (JDK) rather than the (smaller) Java Runtime Environment (JRE). In some cases this has been reported to help.
2. Go to the Sun Java download page, and click "Download" for the latest "JDK Update" (Currently this is: "JDK 6.0 Update 3").
3. You will be taken to a download page for the JDK installation.
4. Click on the link that says "Windows Offline Installation, Multi-language".
5. Download this file to your computer somewhere (e.g. the desktop, or another folder).
6. Once the download has completed, double click the file you just downloaded.
7. Follow the instructions in the Java installer dialog to install Java on your computer.
8. Restart your machine once Java is installed.
9. Now try to run the FM08 installer.


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My game installs, but I get a white screen.

This is commonly a Java issue. Please follow the steps above to resolve it.
(The Installer will not run and / or I am getting a Java Error).


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My Game Installs, I start a New Game and while it's loading I get a white screen.

This is the VISTA 'Not Responding' response, please wait for a while and your game should load normally (Even though it appears to be doing nothing). If this is not the case please report the issue.


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My Installer appears to be having problems starting.

Please make sure you are installing the game on a User account that doesn't have and special characters. For example.

Instead of:

Usérá

You should make it:

Usera

Special characters can cause a conflict when running programs.

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SecuROM Errors

In the first instance of this happening please quit Football Manager 2008, eject your disc, and then re-insert your disc. In many cases this appears to be making the game work correctly. If this fails please reboot your machine and try again.

If this fails again then please follow the steps outlined by SecuROM below.

How To: Solve the "Please insert Original Disk" Security Error:
You will need to send a few pieces of information to SecuROM themselves to help with this issue. To do this please follow the steps below:

If your software title launch problem cannot be solved with the hints given on the corresponding message section, please send a detailed error description and a SecuROM™ analysis file to support@securom.com. Please consult the following steps to generate this analysis file.

We developed this easy-to-use and effective error analysis tool to retrieve information necessary to locate the problem. The information contained in the analysis file is compressed and encrypted.

1. Make sure the original disc (play or launch disc) is in a local CD or DVD-ROM drive.
2. Please reboot your computer and do not start any additional applications.
3. 'Right-click' (click the right button of your mouse) on the desktop shortcut (icon) of the program/game or the actual SecuROM protected executable which can be found in the installation directory of the program/game.
4. A dialog menu will appear. Choose 'Launch Analysis' from the menu choices.
5. After selecting 'Launch Analysis', a disclaimer window will appear.
6. To proceed, please click onto the 'Yes' button.
7. The program will now generate an 'AnalysisLog.sr0' file within the root of your C:\ directory.
8. Please 'zip' (archive) this file (to avoid email corruption) and send it to our official email address support@securom.com together with a description of your problem (e.g. screenshots, further details).

Alternatively you can install our Patch and this will remove all the SecuROM errors.


If you are having any problem other than the above then please open a Discussion on this forum and we will do our best to assist you.

this information take from sigames.com