Help with Japanese cd

[phoenixfire92983]

Alright this has been an absolute nightmare, and this is the third forum I've posted at. I hope someone can help me here. You guys are probably my last stop before I give up all hope T-T

I recently attained a cd-rom that was released by Asian Kung-Fu Generation. Its not a music cd or dvd, but a cd-rom that is supposed to unlock a secret website. Here comes the problem. When I put the cd into my computer I get an error that says "cannot find the requested header" and the program shuts itself down.

I found a site that explains the cd and it says it only works on the Japanese version of Windows. Is there anything I can do to play this cd-rom?

I've tried the Windows compatibility tool and I already have Japanese text and fonts installed on my computer. I'm also pretty sure my dvd is still set to region 2, but I could be wrong there. I have also gone to regional controls and set Windows to extend its Japanese to other programs. Nothing is working. I don't think copying or ripping the cd would help any either since its licensed and I can't see all of the content.


Here's the site that discusses the cd-rom: http://www.dtjapan.jp/licd/

[GHDpro]

I'm not sure if you tried it yet, but also try setting the language for non-unicode
applications to Japanese (that's what you need to do to get Japanese games
working at least). You can find this setting on the Advanced tab of "Language Options"
in the Control Panel.

Er... the icon might also be called "International settings" or something. I can't verify
right now as the XP installation I'm typing this from is Dutch

[phoenixfire92983]

Alright, I did that but it is still giving the same error "cannot find requested header" @_@ I think the only other thing I could try is change my default language to Japanese, but I dunno if it would solve anything.

Is this "header" related to Windows, the cd-rom, or perhaps the internet? From the instructions, it seems like when you put the cd in your computer, internet explorer is supposed to immediately take you to this secret site. If the site has been shut down, then is it possible the cd would give this error?

[Ledgem]

It sounds like autoplay is failing, but have you tried opening the CD through Explorer? Also, if you have access to another CD device (preferably from a different manufacturer than the one you've made your previous attempts with), try accessing it through that. Too tired to read through the site and translate it, but I'd suspect that there may be some fun security BS on that CD, and it may be causing some problems to your current drive's ability to read it.

[phoenixfire92983]

I tried opening it both through internet explorer and windows explorer. It gives the same error.

I tried opening it on a older computer with a different cd device. Same error. Note, the older computer doesn't have all of the Japanese settings, but I don't think thats whats causing the error.

I dunno if this will help, but the contents I can view on the cd-rom are:
start.exe
start.ico (icon)
autorun

When I open autorun it says:
[Autorun]
icon="start.ico"
open="start.exe"

[PurpleLightning]

there seems to be 3 necessary components to open up this cd and they are 1. you have internet explorer as your main browser, 2. you have java installed on your computer, and 3. that sp2 is installed on your computer. if you meet these requirements and it still doesnt work then i'd suggest finding a mac somewhere to try and start up your disc hopefully at university or something. use start.exe to run the cd.

[phoenixfire92983]

I have all three things....

My luck...all they have at the University and library is Windows. Does anyone have any other ideas? Or would anyone like to buy it?

[Ledgem]

If you can view the contents of the CD, it sounds like the issue is just running the program and not reading the CD itself (which is what I thought it was). If you want, you could make an ISO of the CD for us and we can experiment to see if we can get it running. I don't endorse it as illegal activity, just as tech support. If you don't know how to do it and want the procedure for how to form the ISO, PM me for it. It isn't exactly uncommon information, but I don't care to sound like I'm endorsing ripping CDs and swapping them over here. (And for the record, while Asian Kung-Fu's music is fine by me, I don't really care about this website of theirs ;P )

[PurpleLightning]

first a few questions, having translated (somewhat) the contents of the page you listed... it seems somethings pop up. firstly the website was suppossedly to be up during the tour, and the tour in question seems to be sometime early 2005. also i'd like to know where exactly you got this cd of yours, itd help in determining its use as it states on the site that only the original purchaser of the cd may use it in the fashion it was intended to be used for. suppossedly it installs something or retrieves something from the internet or the cd itself each time you are to place it into your drive, does it try to initiate at all when you put it in? and i'm translating loosely, very loosely, but it states that it is a "special time limited tour period web sight" and no i didnt misspell sight it translate that way. so any other information about this cd or this website might help a lot in helping you.

[phoenixfire92983]

PurpleLightning:

-yes, the tour was last year, so there's a good chance that the sites not even up anymore.

-purchased it off of Yahoo Japan Auctions. I had actually assumed this to be a live music cd from the concert because the seller did not mention cd-rom and secret sites and such. T-T

-yes, when I put the cd into the computer it does actually try to do something. First this window pops up:


Then a few seconds later, it gives the following error:


-Um, everything on that site is the same as what is stated on the cover the cd came in. For windows it requires:
CPU: Intel Pentium/Celeron, AMD K6/Anthlon/Duron 400 MHz
OS: Windows 98SE, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP (Japanese version)
RAM: at least 128 MB
CD-ROM Drive: *I think its saying at least 8x speed*
Javascript and Cookies enabled


Ledgem:
haha, I agree that their official website is kinda sucky. Ironically though, its usually always rated in the top 5 websites from Sony.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by PurpleLightning

firstly the website was suppossedly to be up during the tour, and the tour in question seems to be sometime early 2005.

Ah, not sure why I didn't realize this until now.

The purpose of this CD is to access a hidden website, right? Given what PurpleLightning stated, it's quite possible that the website no longer exists. The message "Requested header was not found" didn't mean anything to me until I had that thought, either. The requested header error isn't something about reading from the CD or anything to do with your computer, I think: it's that it's trying to contact the main server, and it's essentially receiving a "404: Not Found" error. Your screenshot also seems to confirm this: that "error message" you're receiving isn't something being generated by the OS, which is what I thought it was from your initial description. That looks like a message from the program itself.

We can still try more things, but you might be out of luck on this one. In that case, the best I can offer you is a sympathetic "that sucks" and a sad emoticon. Sorry.

[phoenixfire92983]

I have a bad feeling that you are probably right. The seller most likely was unable to access the site anymore and tried pawning it off as a regular cd.

[Ledgem]

Yep, that's what it is. I just loaded the CD ISO, and experienced the same thing you did. The difference is, I have my firewall set to paranoid, and the message didn't appear until after I'd authorized an outbound transfer from the program.

I feel for you, but at least we determined what it was. I give big-time credit to PurpleLightning for this one.

[phoenixfire92983]

Ah, that is sucky news T-T A hard lesson to learn about online auctions.

Arigatou minna-san for your help! At least the problem behind this was uncovered.