Black squares on everything...anybody help?

[Black Swan Gauntlet]

After a long time away from the game, I booted up BG2 today, and I'm having some problems with the graphics. There are odd black squares appearing - they blot out sections of the local map I've already explored, they appear in the background of my inventory icons, they cover up the pictures of items when I examine them, they appear behind floating text onscreen. My other Infinity Engine RPGs seemed to be doing the same thing (at varying degrees - IWD blocked out some of the playscreen as well) when I checked them.

I'm running Windows XP (SP3) and installed an 8400 GS about a month back. My processor hasn't changed since last time I played, so barring some kind of computer damage I can't think of what else might cause this. Anyone got any ideas?

[Shadow Stranger]

You could go into Windows Explorer and try the Compatibility Wizard, right - click on the program listing then choose the Properties option. After that look at the Compatibility tab.

Is it all programs on your computer or only just the Infinity Engine rpgs?

[ElfBane]

Just as a guess, you may have to turn off Hardware 3D acceleration, and just go with Software accelleration. In other words, dumb down the graphics card and or the game graphics options until the problem goes away. Then re-enable graphics features till the problem reoccurs. Since the problem is affecting several games, I would start with the graphics card options. Also, if your graphics card has a fan...check it and make sure it is still running.

[Black Swan Gauntlet]

Thanks for the timely responses.

The problem only affected Infinity Engine RPGs. After trying various compatibility modes to no apparent effect, I opened up the 'configure' menu and found that 3D acceleration was disabled for the games in question - possibly a side effect of the new card? At any rate, re-enabling it seems to have fixed the problem. Thanks very much.