Have you installed any other games recently? maybe something with some annoying DRM is messing up your dvd drive. BTW you can safely uninstall WoW or any other online game of this type with no fear of losing your characters, they are all stored server side not on your computer. Your characters are not going anywhere, they WANT you to come back to them.
Actually, my experience using the $2 trial version DVD was that it did not, in fact, include a complete game (for example, I couldn’t join a guild, save people to a friends list, or use email), and when I upgraded to the $15/month version, the first thing that happened was a lengthy download. YMMV, but I think not.
Those limitations are put on the account, not the game itself. If you were to say, come over to my place and log in with the trial account, you’d probably have the same limitations. Otherwise they could easily be circumvented by logging into another computer (some of them are in place to prevent trial accounts from being used for gold farming). This mechanism is also in place with the expansion–you have to register your account for it before you can access that content.
As for the lengthy download…you didn’t happen to upgrade on a Tuesday, did you?
There are definitely limitations on what you can actually do with a trial account, but I’m pretty sure (and I asked a few other WoW players to verify) that the game is installed on your machine in full. (If they didn’t put the trial restrictions server-side, people could change them.)
Since you have a laptop, you can do what I do for big patches. Install the thing in one, then use a memstick to transfer to the other. Even with several trips, it’s much faster than a download!
There’s a lot of patches that you’ll be getting after an install. Right now the Huge Pre-Expansion Patch is making the rounds.
How could anybody expect that you’d be able to get WotLK without BC? WotLK gets to level 80 - and you need BC for level 70!
Welcome to the dark side, Quasimodem - here, have a stack of mana biscuits 
Have I installed anything else recently?
Yeah, when my system went kerflooey, I panicked and started downloading some of those spy-search , quick-fix things which tell you what’s wrong but won’t fix it till you pay…
One other thing: I talked to live support at Blizzard last night and he sent me the links to download both games, but I don’t know if they’re working. They are STILL downloading and at one point I got the message that my system is behind a firewall. How does one remove this and is that the reason for the lengthy download?
Thanks for all the help, y’all. It sure is nice to have online buddies!
Also, thanks for the mana biscuits. Are they good for what is ailing me?
Quasi
I bought the Battle Chest on Tuesday and tried to install that night.
Q
If you’re using the WoW Downloader to get it, your firewall might be interfering. Blizzard uses a peer-to-peer client, probably to save their own bandwidth, and such programs are popular targets for blocking since legal uses are rare. The other thing is that torrents go faster the more people are connected, and I doubt the full game is a highly downloaded file. Not to mention there’s probably a dozen gigs of files between the two games+patches.
If it’s just a straight download, well, not much to say 
Jayn,
I went to the support page and checked out the firewall problem and followed their instructions, and the exceptions for Blizzard are checked, so it must be downloading okay, even though eight now it is only 91 % finished.
The only thing bothering me is that when I click on the progress it says Blizzard BACKGROUND downloader. Background???
Should it say that?
Sorry to be so ignern’t.
Q
Yes, it should. It’s also used for patch data–they provide most of the patch data before the patch is released, so that those who wish (and the option can be disabled) don’t have to get it all on patch day. This feature runs in the background and launches automatically when applicable.
And don’t worry about being a newb, we all were at one time. Oh, and welcome to Azeroth!
Thank you, Jayn.
I am now at 93% downloaded, and I went ahead and uninstalled the trial version, thinking it might speed things up a bit, but apparently not.
I miss playing…
Would it screw things up if I got back on the trial version while my paid one is downloading?
Thanks again
Q
The restrictions are account specific, I believe. So if you’ve upgraded your account to a regular subscription, then you should be able to play fine. It might slow down the download though, or vice-versa–torrents can be bandwidth hogs. Which reminds me–are you downloading the game, the expansion pack, or both?
BTW, keep the downloaded files handy. Back them up. You don’t want to have to download them again in the case of a reformat, especially if for some reason you can’t use your discs (I’d also say the same about any patch data–there was a full gig between WoW and BC releases–not fun reinstalling that a month before BC release)
Jayn,
I am downloading the game first and then Burning Crusade.
I am now at 95% so maybe it won’t be too much longer?
Thanks for staying with me through this - it is really nice of you and everyone!
Q
Q,
you’ll get the game. Then you’ll install it (I really think you should just install the one you got as “trial,” I do promise it’s the same game and the only thing that’s different is your permissions on it). Then you install TBC (doing it in this order, rather than patching the original first and then adding TBC, saves you a couple downloads). Then you’ll open it (you did register that you’re now a Full Paying Customer with Blizz’s webpage, didn’t you?) and it will say “gotsa patchie, please click Restart.” Then you’ll click Restart.
It downloads another background downloader. It’s called a background downloader because if you’re downloading anything else at the same time (for example reading the Dope, getting music or playing another MMORPG) the downloader doesn’t slow the other application down - it’s very polite and lets every other data packet cut in line.
The new background downloader gets the next patch. Install. Open game. Please click restart…
Depending on your connection the whole process can take several days. I don’t recommend switching off the computer, if you usually do.
Optionally, you can install the game you already have, go through its patching cycles, then play while TBC downloads at the same time. This way will mean more total time but let you be hopping into the game faster You just won’t be able to make a draenei or blood elf until TBC is installed.
Here’s an update (and BTW, Nava: I have registered an account):
The game is still downloading and I am getting two messages:
- You appear to be behind a firewall
- This download is not authorized
But it is downloading - albeit slowly. I am at 37% and this has been going on for 24 hours now - but I understand now that it could take a long time, thanks for that information.
So I called live support and was told that the firewall may not be XP (I listed Blizzard as an exception with Windows and also with AVG), but may actually be inside my DSL modem.
THEN I went to tech support forums and guess what? Others have been getting the same messages and are having the same problems, so tech support confirmed that a problem exists with the downloader and they are working on it.
Wonder why the first tech person didn’t know this?
Also, I got my DVD-CD-ROM player to play an audio cd, so maybe the games on the discs will now worK/ Anyone know? I had to leave for work and cannot work with them again till tomorrow.
Thanks once again for ALL your help!
Q
Dealing with Blizz tech support, sometimes you have to wonder if the right hand knows what the left one is up to.
When I had problems with the Burning Crusade download, I ended up having to open ports in my DSL router as well as the operating system. It was working before I did that, but very slowly. Changing the firewall settings in the router made a huge difference.
WHEW:eek:
For my poor little ol’ Dell Dim 3K, it took 56 hours to get the 2 games downloaded, but I finally did, and I’m a **HAPPY BOY! **.
I wanna thank everybody in this thread for helping me out! Playing WoW was recommended as a good exercise for memory retention.
Incidentally, I saw where y’all have your own guild and was wondering if I could join, if you have room?
Oh! I almost forgot (joke - get it?:D): WoW let me create a character named … QUASIMODEM!!
As there are many, many Quasi’s (I* think *I had it first, though) I was surprised that someone hadn’t already snapped that name up!
Anyway, if you see a character named me, that’ll be… well… me!!!
I am also a warrior named Esilem.
So thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone for bein’ a friend and helping me with your advice and stuff, and I’ll see y’all in Azeroth!
(Hmmm… “*Y’all *in Azeroth” - just don’t sound right, do it?)
Q
Grats, Quasi!
If you want to join the Doper guild, create a Horde characer on the Cairne server.
We’re the Burning Dog Legion; you can find us by:
- Ingame, /join SDMB to join our chat and ask for a guild invite; or
- Ingame, type /who Burning Dog Legion to get a list of online guild members and /w one of them for an invite
We’re a very casual and newbie-friendly guild. Good luck!
Skammer,
Thanks, I did go to Cairn and re-created my character as one of the Undead (there sure isn’t any way to make those suckers look purty, is there?)
I am going to read the sticky on your guild and will join y’all as soon as I can.
Q