Links 2003 and Links 2001 won't launch

[sagevanni]

What do you mean by "unplug your USB".....?????
I have a USB mouse and various other USB thumb drives in use...............

Sage......

[Still Linksing]

What do you mean by "unplug your USB".....?????
I have a USB mouse and various other USB thumb drives in use...............

Sage......

It doesn't affect most people. If Links is launching for you, you have no problem with any of those USB devices. Wireless headphones appear to be the worst culprit from USB devices that may cause issues.

[sagevanni]

Thanks "aka"..............I've never had any probs with APCD or Links.............But other games and stuff from the old days.....YES....!!!!!!!!!!!

As I have said before I hate the modern day windows. I wish the world was Linux and NOT b. gates...............

Sage.....

[Mailman]

I can tell you there is no fix for this problem other than unplugging your USB. This problem has been around since Windows Vista was released. It affects many games from that particular time period. Back in the day, there were likely hundreds of thousands of users who could not play their fav game with no idea why it wasn't working. No one ever understood what the problem was and there were no solutions. Links 2003 had many threads on this problem along with a ridiculously long one with Alienware computer owners. It pretty much seemed to affect every Alienware PC.

I never looked into the issue until I eventually had the issue myself. It took a lot of work but it is Windows legacy components carried over from Windows XP that cause this issue with certain hardware. It affects every operating system from Vista right through to Win 11. It affects hardware components from 20 years ago to components available today.

No one can ever fix it as you need to get into and fix every Windows version itself from Vista through to Win 11 which Microsoft isn't going to let you do. Just letting you know as any further time spent on this is wasted time. The only solution is to unplug your USB.

If this is correct how on earth can you play the game? Or even start it in the first place if you cannot interact with the app/OS?

Is this still the case in the era of Windows 11?

[Adelade]

As far as Im aware, the USB issue is sort of rare, affecting only certain combinations of systems and USB devices. If you encounter the issue, you can likely solve it by trying different brands/models of USB devices, or ones that connect by other means (e.g. bluetooth).

[GoBucks]

This issue does not include mouse or keyboard. it pertains more to usb drives

[Mailman]

This issue does not include mouse or keyboard. it pertains more to usb drives