Problem Running Some Dos Games In Xp (.pif File Problems)

[Jeff The Ninja]

Im having some problem running some dos Games in windows XP (most notably Sim City 2000) with VDM sound. Everytime i try to run the game, i get this message

Invalid Program File Name, please check your pif file. Choose 'Close' to terminate the application.

Does anyone know what is going on. Its driving me mad. And DOSbox is not an option as my computer is far to slow to run it at a speed that makes the game playable.

[Scatty]

Try to run the files with EXE or COM extension under VDMSound, PIF files are Windows files, similar to BAT in Ms-Dos, and might not be recognized by VDMSound.

[The Fifth Horseman]

Delete the PIF files present in the program directory and try running the game again.

[Jeff The Ninja]

I deleted all shortcuts and I tried to run the exe's in VDMsound (like i tried to do before) but they wont work. And there were no .pif files in the program directory.

If I try to Run the game in VDMsound using a custom configuration (so i can get VESA Support up) it doesnt work, but if i do it and dont create a shortcut or anything, then it works but i get no video.

Any more ideas, im running on empty.

[Scatty]

How about Windows XP? Did you try to start the game there, after turning music and sound off first? Even better is to go to Start - Run and type CMD (typing EXIT closes it again), you change folders in it just like with DosBox, only no need to mount anything.
If the game doesn't run there too, there might be some problem withing the configuration of your operating system. For example, Service Pack 2 is known to cause many problems, not only with old games but also new ones.

[Japo]

"Invalid filename" makes me think of filenames with more than 8+3 characters, but I won't bet anything on that.

[Jeff The Ninja]

Apparently, when i get the message it tells me that the .pif file is in my temp folder. And when i look for it, it doesnt exist. And i will try that command line thing, it might help.