I am a new poster to this group, and I hope that somebody can help me
out with this problem.
    I originally downloaded POVray about a year or so back and installed it
on my computer.  I have been using it pretty regularly with the occasional
"help file error" but it has been working properly.  Recently, I went to do
some rendering and the help file error appeared.  It had been sporadic in
the past, sometimes showing up but mostly not.  Now it was constantly
present.  I decided to reinstall the package but first I checked the POVray
site for any help in resolving it.
    The site pointed out that deleting the hidden file "POVRAY31.GID" should
end the problem, so I did that and it made no difference.  I finally decided
to reinstall the software and try again.  I went to the POVray home page and
downloaded a fresh copy just in case there were upgrades or revisions and
then did the install.  I had it install right over the old version and still
got the error.  Then I uninstalled completely and tried again.
    This time, the install halted with an error window that said:

 Install
  an I/O error occurred while installing a file.  This
  is normally caused by bad installation media or a
  corrupt installation file.

    I did a retry, but the same error appeared.  I moved the window aside to
read what file it was hung up on, and it said:

 Installing
  c:\...\POV-Ray for Windows v3.1\help\povray.31.hlp
     72%

 Finally, I hit Abort and it said:

   Abort - Corrupt installation file!

    So, I erased all POV related items on my hard drive, downloaded a fresh
copy and started over- I got exactly the same results.  I had the "one large
download" file so I decided to try the 1.44 floppy version just in case...
the results were identical.  Now, I cannot render anything because POVray is
no longer on my machine, and I cannot install it because any download gives
the same error.  I am stuck!
    I did download the 3.5 beta version and installed and ran it until it
expired with no difficulties at all.  It is simply that 3.1 will not install
or run on my computer now.  I have the same hardware, I have made no changes
other than installing a firewall (Norton Internet Security 2002,
professional edition).  All software was
disabled during installation, including Norton Internet Security, Norton
Anti-Virus, Windows Task Scheduler, everything.  I normally run SETI@home
but this was turned off and not running during installation.

  Here are the details of my machine.

software:
    Microsoft Windows 98 4.10.2222 A
    IE 5.5.00.2614.3500

hardware:
    AMD Athlon 1.2 GHz processor
    256 MB RAM
    40 GB hard drive
    Standard 3.5" floppy drive
    LS-120 Floptical drive

    This system has supported POVray 3.1 (not sure of the letter, it was
erased) for about a year or so, and now I cannot install 3.1 on it.  Once
again, 3.5 beta installed perfectly and ran with no problems.  Now that it
has expired, however, I have no means of rendering because I have no POVray
at all.
    I did a complete disk surface check (hours!) and a defragmentation.
There are no errors, I ran diagnostics, all RAM is okay, no hardware
problems.  Everything else runs the same as always.  Please help!

Cheers!

Chip Shults
My robotics, space and CGI web page - http://home.cfl.rr.com/aichip

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