Extremely frustrating errors when trying to play XVI

I''ve downlaoded D2 clean, installed D2SE, put XVI in the mods folder (with the mpq file) and it comes up with a corrupt exe error.

I've tried to patch over the main D2 file with the XVI mpq and tried playing that way (After reverting to 1.13c) and all I get is a blank error window and an exception error 8000003 after.
Does anyone know how to fix this nonsense? Been itching to come back after a 4 year break but so far it is not going well, I want to play on the sin war server and I can't even play the bloody game!

Any help would be appreciated.

You can't revert to 1.13c if you installed via the latest blizzard installer.

Two options
1) Clean install diablo 1.14, copy median patch_d2 to your install dir. The mod will work fine but you cannot use any third party apps (plugy, d2se etc.) or play on realm
2) Find an older diablo source and install from there, then upgrade to patch 1.13c. Then you can use all third party software and play on realm

Yeah I've tried a few options on peoples posts to revert to 1.13c but none of it is helping.

Is there a common link people use to download 1.13c, or will I have to find it the hard way?

Thank you.

Install from the CDs, or download CD images or old version installers from torrent (watch out, some torrents are actually 1.14 installers).

Resolved now, thank you very much suchbalance.