Servers not showing / stuck at "Setting up Game"

[Snooki]

Hey everyone,

When I refresh the server list or do a quick refresh the game tells me its getting information for about 7300 different servers. Problem is after it fetches info for all of these servers absolutely nothing shows up on the server list. As far as filtering goes, my game mode is set to all, the source is internet, and I'm allowing all options in the server filter menu. I've also made progress in the single player campaign. (I don't know how that makes a difference but I saw that asked of someone in a previous thread with the same problems)

I tried a stickied solution where you swap out the servercache.dat file and set it to read-only and when I did this I do in fact see servers, but the vast majority of them don't actually exist anymore. I think that servercache.dat file is old so I'm just looking at a bunch of old servers.

When I DO actually find a server I can connect to (which is usually just /connect their-ip-address:port) the game gets stuck at the "Setting up game..." stage and sits there indefinitely. I tried some suggested solutions where you reset your router but none worked. I'm not even using one at the moment, just directly connected to my modem.

I've also updated the game's punkbuster files (as far as I can tell, I did the instructions in this guide )

I'm willing to reinstall the game if necessary. I own both the retail and steam versions and reinstalling the retail version didn't fix anything.

I love this game and any help is appreciated. It seems like Laptop65 responds to most stuff. I sent you a friend request to ask some questions about it. If you or anyone else can help thank you. I just want to play!

Edit: I also verified the game cache, didn't have any effect

[(MPB) Plug]

If you do uninstall the game again run a registry cleaner before you re-boot and that should give you a clean sheet to start from again.

Try installing Xfire and then see if you can connect to a game via that (I use it all the time), don't forget that you will need to patch your game up-to the servers patch that you wish to play on.

[Laptop]

Reinstall it. You only need the Steam version now.

[Snooki]

Originally posted by Laptop65:

Reinstall it. You only need the Steam version now.

But what if I want to play on my favorite server which is running 1.2? Isn't that impossible now?

[Snooki]

Originally posted by (MPB) Plug:

If you do uninstall the game again run a registry cleaner before you re-boot and that should give you a clean sheet to start from again.

Try installing Xfire and then see if you can connect to a game via that (I use it all the time), don't forget that you will need to patch your game up-to the servers patch that you wish to play on.

If I'm trying to patch to 1.2, do I need to bother patching 1.1 first and then 1.2?

[Laptop]

Steam version auto patches you to the latest patch. In this case 1.7

[(MPB) Plug]

Originally posted by Snooki:

Originally posted by (MPB) Plug:

If you do uninstall the game again run a registry cleaner before you re-boot and that should give you a clean sheet to start from again.

Try installing Xfire and then see if you can connect to a game via that (I use it all the time), don't forget that you will need to patch your game up-to the servers patch that you wish to play on.

If I'm trying to patch to 1.2, do I need to bother patching 1.1 first and then 1.2?

Yes you will need to put in 1.1 patch first.

[cad80_99]

You can't use steam anyways unless you bought a steam version. I did not realize there were servers for older patches lol.

[(MPB) Plug]

Originally posted by {SOB} cad80_99:

I did not realize there were servers for older patches lol.

Yes there are still a lot of servers out their running with the old patches, CoD4 still has a big following even after all these years ;)

[cad80_99]

I new back in the day as most wanted to not update because glitches and things got fixed. As well as just wanted to make sure update was good to go. But by now I would have thought they moved on as it's much harder to get the patch especially if you get game thru steam.

I also believe you can download game to a different location or something and get both versions.

[(MPB) Plug]

Yes I used to run several versions on my PC but now I just stick with the 1.7 patch.

You use Xfire ? If you do you will see there are still a lot of servers running the older patches, Amazing really when you look at how old CoD4 is but then again it's the only one that has still got deddi servers running and long may they do so ;)

[cad80_99]

Yeah I use xfire. Never paid attention to version lol.

[Snooki]

Still unable to find any servers

Hey guys,

I posted a discussion here http://steamcommunity.com/app/7940/discussions/0/558753804023192266/ last week trying to figure out why my Steam copy of CoD4 was not finding any servers.

I just followed everyone's instructions in the thread exactly and still have come up with 0 servers found. I installed Xfire and Xfire is telling me 0 Server Responses / 2773 Servers Queried. Not even Xfire can connect to servers.

I've verified the game cache, and I did JohnWayne's instructions here http://steamcommunity.com/app/7940/discussions/0/648814845524100504/?insideModal=1 for updating PB.

At this point I'm seriously willing to pay someone $50+ bucks to give me a set of working instructions that I can follow so I can play this game that I've loved for so long but can't get working anymore.

I have a feeling that it has something with my ISP because neither the CoD4 client nor Xfire gets responses from any of the servers, but I can tracert the IPs of those servers and get responses just fine, so that just confuses me further.

I've tried adding all of you guys that frequently respond as friends just so I can talk to one of you to understand the setup that you went through so I can play. If you can help you have no idea how much I appreciate it.

Thank you for your time

EDIT: I just disabled windows firewall briefly thinking that maybe port 28960 is blocked for some reason and when I refreshed servers I got ONE result, and when I tried connecting to it it got stuck at "Setting up game..." forever. I'll try looking into if my router is blocking that port or something along those lines but other than that I'm open to any and all suggestions.

EDIT: I'm using a TP-Link Router if that helps anyone. If you use one how did you configure yours to play the game?

[Random Reference #98]

If Windows firewall is your only firewall then I think you are right to suspect a router issue. I'm not at all familiar with that brand but many/most routers have their own firewalls built in. Idk how you would do it for the one you have but often you can find router settings to disable the security(not the wireless security, that's different). I would try that and if that fixes it you can look into port forwarding or exceptions or w/e is needed get it working with your router. If that does not fix it then there is some likely some other issue not related to the router. You could also try connecting your computer dirrectly to your modem and bypass the router, if it works then you found the problem.

[Snooki]

Originally posted by Random Reference #49:

If Windows firewall is your only firewall then I think you are right to suspect a router issue. I'm not at all familiar with that brand but many/most routers have their own firewalls built in. Idk how you would do it for the one you have but often you can find router settings to disable the security(not the wireless security, that's different). I would try that and if that fixes it you can look into port forwarding or exceptions or w/e is needed get it working with your router. If that does not fix it then there is some likely some other issue not related to the router. You could also try connecting your computer dirrectly to your modem and bypass the router, if it works then you found the problem.

Thanks for the response!

I think it's actually a problem with my PC. I downloaded CoD4 via Steam on my Mac Laptop and it started working just fine right out of the box, no PB upgrade or anything. I'm reinstalling my retail version at the moment on my PC to see if I can just get that working again. If my windows firewall is disabled though I have no clue what else could be affecting it. Can PB affect the server list showing up or not?

[Random Reference #98]

Originally posted by Snooki:

Thanks for the response!

I think it's actually a problem with my PC. I downloaded CoD4 via Steam on my Mac Laptop and it started working just fine right out of the box, no PB upgrade or anything. I'm reinstalling my retail version at the moment on my PC to see if I can just get that working again. If my windows firewall is disabled though I have no clue what else could be affecting it. Can PB affect the server list showing up or not?

http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1979089
This seems like it's what you're looking for, first result on Google ;p

Edit:http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1811371
This post is more helpful than the other one.

Also: http://www.gametracker.com/search/cod4/
You can try using this to find a server then manually connect if those posts doesn't solve it.