Left 4 Dead 2 Forum

first off i had incomplete installation error (2) in the demo then that got fixed with 8.1.0 and so i bought the game and now it comes up with incomplete installation error (53) =[ im at a loss... someone help please... i ahve tried reseting my mac resting steam... i dont think re installing it will help =/

I got that error till I switched to my home internet and used 8.1rc3 so try deleting local content and then downloading and installing

Before re-installing, try verifying the game cache (right click on Left 4 Dead 2 on your Games list, then go to properties, then to the local files tab). if you're lucky, you'll just have to redownload some files instead of the entire game to make it work.

I also downloaded Left 4 Dead 2 even though I am getting the backbuffer issue that is plaguing most Source softwares (including L4D2, L4D, TF2, etc.) and am getting this error with 8.1. I am getting a little irritated that it would be suggested that I reinstall Steam and re-download more than 15GB worth of game files - with no guarantee that it will work. Verifying did not work, copying from a Windows installation (I can only play in Parallels at the moment) did not work and re-downloading just this game did not work. Anyone have any other suggestions?

Forgive my irritation, but no games in my current CrossOver installation are working correctly on any of my machines - this is extremely frustrating. (yes, I have submitted a ticket)

I'm getting the same error with the full game and crossover games 8.1.0

Lakin Wecker wrote:

I'm getting the same error with the full game and crossover games
8.1.0

That is, I'm getting the: "left 4 dead 2 incomplete installation error (53)" error.

As to try to be helpful here, the issue appears to be with Client.dll which resides in the C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\left 4 dead 2\left4dead2\bin\ - replacing it and only it from my Windows installation gets me as far as just before the Main Menu before it quits.

It should be the case that telling Steam to verify the integrity of the game's local cache files (from the game's properties dialog) fixes such issues.

At least one user is telling me that that doesn't work, no matter how much he tries to force the issue.

The file client.dll is the most likely source of these incomplete installation errors. I recommend that you delete it before you do the verify, forcing Steam to get it again. You can find it in:

Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver Games/Bottles/<bottle>/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead 2/left4dead2/bin/client.dll

Linux:
~/.cxgames/<bottle>/drive_c/Program Files/Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead 2/left4dead2/bin/client.dll

Folks on Valve's forums claim you have to repeat the verify until it comes back clean. Also, I've seen it say it verified successfully really quickly, but it was lying -- a real verify takes quite a while (5 minutes or more). So, make sure it does a real verify, then if it finds a problem and claims to have fixed it, do it once more.

Then, for good measure, quit Steam and restart it before trying to launch L4D2.

I found this information on the Wine HQ:

HOWTO

• To get past the "Incomplete Installation (53)" error:

Patch Wine-1.1.33 or later with this patch: http://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=24803

Ken Thomases wrote:

It should be the case that telling Steam to verify the integrity of
the game's local cache files (from the game's properties dialog)
fixes such issues.

At least one user is telling me that that doesn't work, no matter
how much he tries to force the issue.

The file client.dll is the most likely source of these incomplete
installation errors. I recommend that you delete it before you do
the verify, forcing Steam to get it again. You can find it in:

Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver
Games/Bottles/<bottle>/drive_c/Program
Files/Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead 2/left4dead2/bin/client.dll

Linux:
~/.cxgames/<bottle>/drive_c/Program
Files/Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead 2/left4dead2/bin/client.dll

Folks on Valve's forums claim you have to repeat the verify until it
comes back clean. Also, I've seen it say it verified successfully
really quickly, but it was lying -- a real verify takes quite a
while (5 minutes or more). So, make sure it does a real verify,
then if it finds a problem and claims to have fixed it, do it once
more.

Then, for good measure, quit Steam and restart it before trying to
launch L4D2.

I will try this out today. Thanks for the information.

Ken Thomases wrote:

It should be the case that telling Steam to verify the integrity of
the game's local cache files (from the game's properties dialog)
fixes such issues.

At least one user is telling me that that doesn't work, no matter
how much he tries to force the issue.

The file client.dll is the most likely source of these incomplete
installation errors. I recommend that you delete it before you do
the verify, forcing Steam to get it again. You can find it in:

Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver
Games/Bottles/<bottle>/drive_c/Program
Files/Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead 2/left4dead2/bin/client.dll

Linux:
~/.cxgames/<bottle>/drive_c/Program
Files/Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead 2/left4dead2/bin/client.dll

Folks on Valve's forums claim you have to repeat the verify until it
comes back clean. Also, I've seen it say it verified successfully
really quickly, but it was lying -- a real verify takes quite a
while (5 minutes or more). So, make sure it does a real verify,
then if it finds a problem and claims to have fixed it, do it once
more.

Then, for good measure, quit Steam and restart it before trying to
launch L4D2.

tried this on my Mac. no dice. did something change between rc3 and the final? i was still able to play under the release candidate versions.

X Y wrote:

I found this information on the Wine HQ:

HOWTO

• To get past the "Incomplete Installation (53)" error:

Patch Wine-1.1.33 or later with this patch:
http://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=24803

how do you apply the patch? copy and paste this somewhere..?

terry burr wrote:

X Y wrote:

I found this information on the Wine HQ:

HOWTO

• To get past the "Incomplete Installation (53)" error:

Patch Wine-1.1.33 or later with this patch:
http://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=24803

how do you apply the patch? copy and paste this somewhere..?

You would have to apply it to the source code and rebuild the source. This is something that's possible for end users that compile WINE from source. But it's not possible for end users of Crossover Games who just install a binary package. The developer of crossover would have to consider applying this to their backend code and making a new release. If it's just a hack to get around a bug - then I wouldn't expect them to do it, but if it is indeed the appropriate fix - I would expect they'll have it in the next nightlies or betas.

That help?

ah. more waiting then. thanks anyway.

no amount of reinstalling or verifying has fixed my incomplete installation (53) issue.

The meaning of my post was more informational to point out that there is a fix/work around for stand alone Wine. I gave CodeWeavers the information about the patch in my last beta report, so might evaluate it at least.

terry,

Do you have a friend with a copy of L4D2 installed on windows? I wonder if the client.dll from that install (if it's working) would work for you. If it is indeed a problem of a faulty client.dll - then I would suspect this would get it working for you.

I'm going to test this as soon as I get to my Desktop machine this morning.

yeah i get that. it just sucks that the game was playable under every release candidate earlier this week, but now refuses to run at all in 8.1.0.

Maybe you should re-install the release candidate for now then? Have you filed a ticket regarding this?

I can totally understand your frustration. I had the demo working great under the release candidates - and now I'm getting the same error.

I feel like I should point out that a lot of the issues surrounding the full game release are not the fault of the Crossover guys. Apparently the game is quite buggy on Windows as well, so many of these bugs are actually the fault of Valve - but people like us run into them on crossover. :/

Anyways, I'm hoping it gets fixed (one way or the other) really soon.

Lakin Wecker wrote:

Ken Thomases wrote:

It should be the case that telling Steam to verify the
integrity of the game's local cache files (from the game's
properties dialog) fixes such issues.

At least one user is telling me that that doesn't work, no matter
how much he tries to force the issue.

The file client.dll is the most likely source of these incomplete
installation errors. I recommend that you delete it before you do
the verify, forcing Steam to get it again. You can find it in:

Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver
Games/Bottles/<bottle>/drive_c/Program
Files/Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead
2/left4dead2/bin/client.dll

Linux:
~/.cxgames/<bottle>/drive_c/Program
Files/Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead
2/left4dead2/bin/client.dll

Folks on Valve's forums claim you have to repeat the verify until
it
comes back clean. Also, I've seen it say it verified successfully
really quickly, but it was lying -- a real verify takes quite a
while (5 minutes or more). So, make sure it does a real verify,
then if it finds a problem and claims to have fixed it, do it once
more.

Then, for good measure, quit Steam and restart it before trying to
launch L4D2.

I will try this out today. Thanks for the information.

I just tried this out on linux and no dice. It originally went into what seemed like an infinite loop - where it would say it was unlocking the game content, after it was finished it would launch, but didn't crash. After a steam restart it's back to the incomplete installation error (53).

Going to try the windows version of client.dll now.

Try closing Steam and deleting your ClientRegistry.blob (and then start Steam again).

Andreas Schneider wrote:

Try closing Steam and deleting your ClientRegistry.blob (and then
start Steam again).

I'm assuming you mean this file: ./drive_c/Program Files/Steam/ClientRegistry.blob

Lakin Wecker wrote:

terry burr wrote:

X Y wrote:

I found this information on the Wine HQ:

HOWTO

• To get past the "Incomplete Installation (53)" error:

Patch Wine-1.1.33 or later with this patch:
http://bugs.winehq.org/attachment.cgi?id=24803

how do you apply the patch? copy and paste this
somewhere..?

That help?

We wrote that patch; it is in CrossOver Games 8.1.0 final version. So that patch won't help. The question now
is why there is still a problem for some folks...

I swear Steam is messing with us. I'm having the same problems as the above. I bought the full game because the demo worked so well. I'm trying reinstalling and validating the cache, if that dosen't work than...I just commit sepaku.

Just kidding, no, I'll just roll back to rc3.

I kinda don't mind helping you guys out. I'm done with finals and I have nothing and I mean Nothing to do until Saturday. I love helping you make this a good product, plus it's good practice for me to get to know the process of debugs, beta, and builds because I hope to be a game developer someday.

Edit:
rc3 rollback did not work.
8.1 - Final did not work.

GRRRRRRRR

Also I cannot find the folder called common. As a matter of fact, I can't find any of my game data.

From the Steam Forums...

Close Steam
Go To ..\steam\steamapps
Delete left 4 dead 2 client.ncf
Delete left 4 dead 2 common.ncf
Restart Steam
Right-click L4D2 and Install
Let it sort itself out.

I am not at home to test this at the moment, but if anyone has the chance this is a possible solution.

Kenneth Stevens wrote:

From the Steam Forums...

Close Steam
Go To ..\steam\steamapps
Delete left 4 dead 2 client.ncf
Delete left 4 dead 2 common.ncf
Restart Steam
Right-click L4D2 and Install
Let it sort itself out.

I am not at home to test this at the moment, but if anyone has the
chance this is a possible solution.

We have already tested this, it doesn't work. Good thought, thank you!

Thanks, but thank the moderators on the Steam Forums as I found it there :)

The install went fine on my X1600 iMac, I am going to try copying the bin folder and NCFs to my home machine where I receive the error and see what happens. I am not sure if the files can be posted for download if it is a working solutions, although I doubt .dlls should be tied to any machine (NCF files might be a different story).

Attempting an install from my retail copy DVD. This should help get around having to do that extra install and then getting the error.

Ken Thomases wrote:

It should be the case that telling Steam to verify the integrity of
the game's local cache files (from the game's properties dialog)
fixes such issues.

At least one user is telling me that that doesn't work, no matter
how much he tries to force the issue.

The file client.dll is the most likely source of these incomplete
installation errors. I recommend that you delete it before you do
the verify, forcing Steam to get it again. You can find it in:

Mac:
~/Library/Application Support/CrossOver
Games/Bottles/<bottle>/drive_c/Program
Files/Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead 2/left4dead2/bin/client.dll

Linux:
~/.cxgames/<bottle>/drive_c/Program
Files/Steam/steamapps/common/left 4 dead 2/left4dead2/bin/client.dll

Folks on Valve's forums claim you have to repeat the verify until it
comes back clean. Also, I've seen it say it verified successfully
really quickly, but it was lying -- a real verify takes quite a
while (5 minutes or more). So, make sure it does a real verify,
then if it finds a problem and claims to have fixed it, do it once
more.

Then, for good measure, quit Steam and restart it before trying to
launch L4D2.

Okay, I did a clean install into a new bottle using the retail DVD. Then launched steam and then removed the client.dll. The game lunched played the opening stuff, but then it told me that it could not find the client library.

Verify the game cache did not make a difference.

However at one point a file containing the following is created:

[code][code]

Maybe this will make some headway...

I copied the directory ...left4dead2/bin and the NCF files from my other working installation to my non-working installation. I received an error about not being able to find launcher.dll. Perhaps this file is the key?

After doing this, I ran a Verification and it stated 60 files needed to be replaced. Afterwards I attempted to launch the game and it got stuck in an endless loop. I tried deleting the temp files it creates in the ...left4dead2/bin folder to no avail. I'm not sure what is different between my other system and this one.

before leaving for work i deleted l4d2 entirely and opted to reinstall from scratch. i'll report back when i get home if it all installed okay.

update: no difference, same error.

8.1.2 fixed the incomplete installation (53) error, as well as the witch error for me. i did have one crash since the 8.1.2 update during the dark carnival stage, but i'm not sure what triggered it. i had just been shot by friendly fire and had killed a smoker almost immediately before the crash, so it may have been game-related versus a problem with CXG. i'll test further and see what happens.