I've been having problems playing NWN, when I run the game I can play for about 5 minutes before the graphics will start to act up, various things from the game locking up for a few seconds to nearly a minute, graphics just going nuts (looks like the screen has been scrambled) and finally the game crashes and if I'm playing online I get booted before or after the game crashes. I've also had the screen start flickering (in which case the game locks up and crashes). I recently installed Windows XP Pro, and reinstalled the game fresh, and haven't had it run correctly since I got it.

For NWN I've got all patches (except the CEP)
I'm using an NVIDEA GeForce4 TI 4200 (8x AGP) (128 MB) (most current drivers)
(800x600 res; varying levels of detail and special effects)
I've done a BIOS flash which corrected a problem I was having with Adobe Photoshop not running correctly. (I reinstalled the video drivers after doing the BIOS flash)
Since my sound card drivers caused some problems with Diablo 2 I made sure I had the most current drivers for that (Soundblaster Live! 5.1)

anyone have any suggestions? As far as I'm aware none of my other programs have had any issues (other than Photoshop, which was corrected) and in device manager none of my Hardware appears to have any problems.

[ 05-29-2005, 07:49 PM: Message edited by: Morgeruat ]

Sounds like overheating to me, have you moved your PC since it started happening? Or moved anything around in your PC?

I'm also using NWN with both expansion packs, HotU and SoU

No, I haven't moved anything around, and didn't have any problems in Win2k.

It sounds like a heating problem to me as well.

Maybe you should open up the case and check to make sure the card isn't overheating or the heatsink fan isn't full of dust.

I had a similar problem, and it was not a heating problem.

Make sure you get SP 2 (A clean install of XP had odd effects on NWN, so I upped it to SP 2), and patch it to the max. Also make sure you have DX 9C (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.aspx)

Also if you are using the beta NWN patch that might be the problem, a lot of people have been having odd problems with it.

For your nVidia card, are you using your manufacturer’s drivers or the nVidia drivers?

I'm using a clean install of xp, got SP2, all patches for NWN I might have the beta patch... and I'll have to check about DX9C, I know I've got at least DX9B, and ran the DX troubleshooter, which didn't help much or show that anything was wrong.

If it isn't overheating, might be your antivirus...

I really don't think it's overheating since I had absolutely no problems with Win2k, I'm using a corporate version of Norton AV I got from work (yes it's legal), same one I used under win2k, I'll try shutting it down next time I <s>play</s> feel like I need a kick in the crotch.

I am running DX9C (checked earlier while Brenna had her check-up), I will still need to check the patch version, and maybe go back if it's the beta version (or wait till it's out of beta, and get it)

Have you tried reverting your video card drivers to an earlier version? Sounds crazy, but this worked for me when I had similiar trouble with an Nvidia card.

First revert back to a non beta NWN version. Otherwise, it might be your antivirus. Disable it.
And finally if those options don't work, do what Chewbacca suggested.

Went to the NWN patch page (I have 1.65) and got the hotfix for SoU 1.65 since the symptoms sound similar, despite not occuring in chapter 2 (they screw my game up in chapter 1 of SoU and online) *shrugs* I'll give it a try and see if it fixes anything.

Hope if fixes everything. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Besides the AV, Chewbacca may be right. You are playing on GeForce TI you say? The latest drivers available are optimized for newer cards... so perhaps that could be causing the problem. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[ 06-09-2005, 12:56 PM: Message edited by: Bahamut ]

ah, perhaps I should dig out my driver disk then... if the current fix doesn't work that is.

If you can't find your disk, Nvidia lists all the old drivers somewhere on their site. BTW I had to rollback with a Gforce 3 ti200 card.

Good luck!

Did anything help you out or are you still unable to play?

I have had a very similar experiance to Morgruat this last week. I tried all the suggestion above and more, finnaly I went to the latest update (1.65 to 1.66) and everything now works. But it means I can not join in the undermountin mod IIRC or has that been changed?

I went back to the drivers on the disk that came with the card. It wasn't my antivirus (thankfully, although I didn't expect it to be since I never had any problems with my antivirus or firewall before).

Using the old drivers cleared up most of the problems from what I could tell. I haven't done a whole lot of playing, but aside from the computer acting a little "funny" after shutting down NWN things have been fine. I did play long enough to get to the point where the game would have gone nuts, and it didn't, so I'm a happy morgie. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Glad everything's back to normal gaming-wise. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Also I good website to get nVidia drivers is http://www.omegadrivers.net/ they optimize them for best things

sweet, if I ever have to go through this again I'll keep that website in miind.