Help PLEEZE!

[seth11]

Can someone help me with the patches. is the soa patch different form the tob patch? how do i install? the tob patch said it included the bonus cd info (extra merchants) but only one showed up for me(in the adventurers mart) the one in the copper coronet didn't?!?! also, the biggest problem is the game pauses about every second while playing...this is indescribably annoying. anyway, lamens explanations please...not so good with computers. thank you very much

[Erydian]

Have you downloaded and installed the latest TOB patch (assuming you have TOB installed)? If you look in the list of fixes it is supposed to provide, one of them is similar to the constant pausing you are describing.

If you have applied the TOB patch and are still having this problem, it could be video card related (I'm guessing), in which case you might want to make sure that you have the latest drivers for whatever video card your computer uses.

What kind of computer are you using? Processor speed? How much RAM and free hard drive space do you have?

The TOB patch says that it includes Deidre, the merchant in the adventurer's mart. It does not say anything about the merchant in the Copper Coronet (who sells items from IWD), so I'm not certain that it was supposed to add him anyway. If you really want the other extra merchant, you can download an unofficial patch (it works, I've tried it) from Sorcerer's Place.

To install patches, simply download them, and run the program. It's fairly straightforward - there isn't any extra action required. Unless you got an error message while the patch was installing - you should be fine.

As to which patch you should be downloading - that depends on what you have installed. If you have *only* SOA installed, then download the latest SOA patch. If you have TOB installed, then install the TOB patch. TOB patches will include anything recent that might have been changed in SOA as well as changes that have been made solely to the expansion.

I'm no tech expert myself, but hopefully this helps. [img]smile.gif[/img]

Edit: This taken directly from Bioware TOB support page. You should examine each of these possible causes (aside from the bug that the patch fixes) and try their suggestions.

1.
Turn off virus scanners or other applications running in the background or system tray: Your processor will have a tougher time running the game if it has to run other programs at the same time. If you think you have shut down any active programs, don’t forget to also turn off the programs running in your system tray (i.e. these are the little icons at the bottom right of your task bar where it says the time). The icons represent programs that are running in the background. For example, you should see by default the Volume control there, which is a program that is running (you can leave this on though). The most guilty of these system tray programs for causing BG2 to stutter are virus scanners (e.g. Mcaffee or Norton). Turn these off and see if there is an improvement in performance.

2.
Turn off EAX of set the Ambient volume slider to 0: Some players have encountered stutter difficulties with EAX and have found that the difficulties disappear when turning it off. Another audio related solution that might work is to drag the Ambient volume slider (in-game Options Screen) to 0, which effectively turns off the ambient sfx.

3.
Voodoo cards using 16-bit textures instead of 32-bit textures: If you enable 3D acceleration in the BGConfig program and are using a Voodoo card, you must remember to uncheck the 32-bit textures checkbox and use the 3Dfx OpenGL drivers. Leaving 32-bit textures would cause problems, and by some reports, a stuttering of the game.

4.
Many bags of holding, gem bags, and scroll cases in inventory: The problem associated with having too many of these is fixed in the final patch. However, in the remote possibility of continued problems, try leaving these items in the containers in your Pocket Plane instead of in your character inventory.


[ 01-12-2002: Message edited by: Erydian ]

[ 01-12-2002: Message edited by: Erydian ]