Wish I could help but the SAME thing is happening to me. Either my game crashes while the outside area is loading or it crashes within a few seconds after I get the text warning about the "Mavin Sword" (I have all sound off until it stops crashing). I have tried all the fixes/suggestions that I've seen on here, HP's board, or the VN boards. So far nothing has helped. Maybe if we compare systems further we might find a clue...

My system is:
PII 350
64 MB
Viper V770 (with latest drivers from Diamond website, 4.12.01.036
Monster Sound MX-300 (with latest drivers from Diamond website, 4.06.00.2017)
Hitachi GD-2000 DVD-Rom
Microsoft Wheel Mouse (just upgraded to Intellipoint 3.2, wheel software support turned off at the moment)
Direct 7a (4.07.00.0716)

I am playing with the small install as I had the "Insert CD 1" hang up after trying the full install twice. It would never recognize that I had put CD 1 back in.

I am really stumped by this one. I play a fair amount of games and havn't had this kind of difficulty with one is a LONG time. Some of the other recent DirectX 7 titles I've played are Icewind Dale and Starlancer. You'd think that if a graphic intensive space sim would work then an RPG would be no sweat...

TIA to ANYONE who can help!!!!

Fyreball

Major problem: I start up the game, create a
set of characters with no problem, I can buy stuff in town, but as soon as I leave town, I crash to the desktop. This usually happens after I hear the narration just after leaving town and just as soon as I press a key to move. This happens every time, all the time.

I have already tried the following: Installed both small and large installs, checked my drivers, changed graphics and sound settings, tried using Software mode and Hardware mode.

I have the folowing setup:

PII 350 Mhz
Voodoo 5 Graphics card
128 Mb Ram

I know a lot people running on lesser systems and not having any trouble.

any help would be appreciated.

having exactly the same problem...

my system:

WinME
PII 400Mhz
128MB RAM
VoodooBanshee
+ enough HD space for Virtual Memory
and no overheating videocard/cpu and absolutely NO
problems with any other game...


this sucks

Don't know if it will help, but David Bradley has posted saying that making Windows manage Virtual Memory may assist in reducing desktop crashes.

Same problem. In addition, mine crashes when I try to don a helmet! For anyone.

I hope this is tracked down pretty quick. We have been waiting for this game too long.

I wanted to update my previous post with more environment info:

I have 1.3 GB of free disk space
Windows already manages my virtual memory.

Since Windows already manages my virtual memory, this negates Bradley's message in this case. I also think that this will not apply to others as well in connection with this problem.

Let's hope for a quick resolution.

This is happening to me, and like in the thread above, my game crashes to windows when i leave town. I have a rage fury maxx. The activision guy said clear out inactive display and sounddrivers from windows when windows is in safe mode, let windows manage virtually memory, and defrag. yet after doing all this i still only get the software driver option, and i crash every time

help!!

Well...I'm another member of the select group who can't play the game because I can't leave the town of Valeia. As noted by Stoopid earlier in this thread, equiping any kind of headgear also drops to the Windows Desktop.

Here are my machine stats:
* AMD Athlon 700MHz
* Windows 98
* 128Mb RAM
* 2.5 Gb free disk space
* Diamond Stealth III S540 (32Mb)
* Creative SoundBlaster Live!
I hope they fix this soon. I'm really tired of creating characters.

Speaking of creating characters! Here's what I've been doing while waiting for the patch!
I created six characters with stats sufficient for
* Warrior Barbarian
* Warrior Ranger
* Warrior Samurai
* Priest Paladin
* Rogue Ninja
* Wizard Warlock
Then, I immediately ascended the Barbarian, Ranger, Samurai, Paladin and Warlock. (I don't know where to promote the Ninja.) After that I equiped each character with maximum gear (except headgear). Now, you may be wondering where I got all that money. Well, I found a bug in the program that lets you accumulate all the mony you want. Here's how...

Go to the Inn and create the characters you want. Be patient and roll stats sufficient for the Elite Roles. Now create five dummy characters. Don't spend any time on them because all you're going to do is have them create an endless stream of money for your real characters.
Now, create a party with one real character and the five dummy characters. Transfer all the money to the real character. Dismiss the dummy characters. DO NOT DELETE THEM. Just take them out of the party. Now put them back in the party. Notice they have refilled their moneybags. Just have your real character take all the mony again. Now repeat as often as you like.
Since I can't do anything else in the game I took the time to ascend all my characters, except the Ninja, and purchase the very best available equipment for evryone (except headgear).
Well, it's not as much fun as playing the game but it's something to do.

I just talked to customer support and they said not to use the most recent driver for my rage fury maxx, but the one before that. that is after they told me to update my driver. they also suggested taking the hardware acceration ans sound acceleration back a notch. Since my problem is causing the game to crash when i leave town, I really hope that works.

I tried setting the sound acceleration down a notch and two, it didn't make a difference. I tried setting graphic quality up and down with no effect. Oddly enough a post from someone at the forum for W&W at the IGN.COM board said they had the same problem until he locked up his system updating his drivers. He reformatted his drive and reinstalled his drivers resulting in his game working. I don't think I'd try that just yet though. That is pretty severe.

Brem