The cyclic redundancy check error is one that's come up a number of times, including with my own copy. Indeed, I've mentioned it a few times over the years on these forums.
All I've been able to discern is that after a period of time some of the LAB files on the disc somehow get corrupted, and thus cannot be copied or read; as soon as the game tries to use data from those files, you get a sound loop, lock-up, crash, or all of the above.
Weirdly, my own copy
stopped exhibiting this issue when I tried it again a year or so later — still on XP. I never did work out what exactly caused it, but I do know that the operating system simply could not access those files on the disc. Maybe it was something as basic as a scratch.
The only way I managed to get it working was to obtain those files from elsewhere, which in my case was someone else who had the game. If this isn't an option, I'd personally be inclined to do the following:
- Ensure the disc has no physical issues
- Install Virtual PC (free from Microsoft if your Windows is legitimate) and load a barebone copy of Windows XP (also free from Microsoft) or Windows 98 if you have it, and see if it works through that
Note that the easiest way to check whether or not you've fixed the problem is to continue trying to install the game to your HD. If it fails, it's going to fail just the same when you try to read it off the CD in-game.
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