Game freezes in Chapter 2

[Tiela]

I'm writing this as a last ditch effort to try to finish this game. When I get to Chapter 2, when the Valsharess forces finally attack (not a spoiler, I don't think, because that's what the whole game is about), the game freezes at the point when someone says that she has arrived.

I meet the system requirements. I downloaded the patch, and I updated my drivers. Nothing seems to solve the problem. I thought this game was so cool, and I'd love to be able to finish it.

Does anyone have any advice?

[Epona]

I find my game locks up quite frequently on the cut scenes - although I meet system requirements, it can't seem to handle them.

The best way around it is to hit the esc key when the cut scene starts - it worked for me. You won't be missing anything because I daresay you've sat through that scene countless times on the edge of your seat hoping that this time it's not going to freeze...

[Tiela]

Thanks, Epona. Unfortunately for me, the cutscene never even starts at all. Just some soldier says something like, "She's here!", and it freezes instantly before the cutscene even starts. It would be great if I had some kind of option to just turn the cutscenes off.

Thanks for trying to help, though. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Epona]

Mmmm, OK - sorry that doesn't solve it.

How are your system resources? You can be well within the requirements but still freeze up on the transition to a cut scene if you are running other stuff in the background or if your HDD is running low on space.

Try the following:

* Look to see what else is running in your taskbar, and close anything unnecessary

* Defrag your hard drive and do a bit of housekeeping - I find I have problems such as you describe when my HDD is nearly full

* Run ScanDisk to check for any bad areas on your HDD

* Uninstall and reinstall NWN and the latest patch (use the automatic update for this) - make sure you make a backup copy of your latest save game in a different folder first, just in case.

* Check that your RAM is running as it should by running DocMemory diagnostic test (google for it) - early symptoms of RAM failure can include locking up. When mine went it started out by always locking up when I was trying to enter the Blacklake district in the OC, within a couple of weeks it was doing it several times an hour at different places and I had to buy new RAM. It's unlikely to be this causing it, but if all else fails it's worth checking it out.

[philip]

Make sure your music settings are right. I think Miles fast was the fastest.

Try to find out what's causing it, is it the cutscene script or something you do and avoid that

Don't pause when cutscenes start (sounds stupid but that was my reason why they wouldn't work) as you can't see the game's paused.

[Epona]

Originally posted by philip: Don't pause when cutscenes start (sounds stupid but that was my reason why they wouldn't work) as you can't see the game's paused.

Ooh yes that's a good tip too (I tend to hit pause automatically when I enter a new area) - I've done that on occassion and thought it had locked up. Easily done. It's possibly not the case in this instance though, once you've done that a few times it's the first thing you check, this sounds more serious.

Right about the game/sound/video settings too, performance issues and lock ups can often be solved by turning off ambient sounds, shadows and static animations. If it works when you try that, it's almost certainly an issue with system resources.

[Tiela]

I tried everything that you all recommended. EVERYTHING. No results. I did manage to get a copy of the error report my computer wanted to send Microsoft when the system froze up, and here are the files it wanted to report:
C:\DOCUME~1\myname\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER33.tmp.dir00\n wmain.exe.mdmp
C:\DOCUME~1\myname\LOCALS~1\Temp\WER33.tmp.dir00\a ppcompat.txt
I don't know if that means anything to anybody.

Thanks to everyone who has tried to help me. [img]smile.gif[/img] Looks like I might be done with the game, though.

[philip]

nwmain is the main program which launches nwn.

Have you tried reinstalling the game? Also you mentioned downloading a patch, that wasn't a beta patch I hope?

[Tiela]

You're right, I never did try reinstalling, so I did that last night. After I reinstalled, I clicked "Play" in the menu and the game instantly froze. I tried several times to start it, but it wouldn't run. Then I uninstalled it, and accidentally clicked "No" when I was asked if I wanted to save my saved games. I meant "no" I didn't want to delete my saved games. So, there went my game I was trying to fix in the first place. Oops!

Anyway, I'm admitting defeat on this one, and moving on to my next game, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon. Thanks so much, phillip and Epona, for trying to help me out. [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Epona]

Oh no Tiela, I'm sorry to hear that. It's so easy to hit the wrong button by mistake.

If it makes you feel any better, after posting all that advice to you, my HoTU game started locking up! I then tried BG2 for a bit, and that crashed a few times too. I'm about to throw my PC out of the window, I reckon it's time for an upgrade that I can't afford.

I hope you enjoy Broken Sword and it doesn't give you as much trouble, I've never played it myself.