"Unable to open file" - crash

Sorry, I know this is not a technical forum but I'm going nuts here and need some help

Problem: Game crashes after 2-5 minutes with the message: "Unable to open file xyz". The regarding file is where it belongs and I don't think it has got anything to do with the files itself because the error occures randomly.

Cache size is o.k. (>400 Meg.), energy management for the HDD is turned off, DMA access is turned off and I can't figure what the hell is wrong - HELP!

Thanks in advance
tesla..out

You're running Win9x, of course, but what version? Any particular nifty service packs?

What, exactly, happens in the game? Where does the message appear; in the little message box at the bottom?

A general hint is to close all running programs, short of Explorer and Systray.

Final advice: when in doubt, reinstall. You can just copy your save folder, roster.dat, etc. and experiment with restoring your data (if you're far enough along that you want to keep it).

1. You said "files" so it's not one particular file that might be corrupted? Can you supply some of the file names?

2. Is there any particular point in the game where it crashes - such as a location or an action that the party or a party member takes?

3. What's your hardware and OS configuration? Any special graphics display or adapter?

4. Have you tried re-installing? (yeech - I know, last option...)

Hmm, stupid me. I should have given some more detail..

My OS is Win98SE and I didn't check if it is the same in W2K (but i will). No nifty stuff installed, especially on the system side, no rioting threads or tasks in the background. Did a full install twice.
Hardware is basic - AMD700, 128RAM, GeforceII MX, Gigabyte-Board, all IDE

The error appears in the message box at the bottom and I would guess that there isn't a problem with the files. Sometimes it's the rooster (no, wait, that's a male chicken isn't it? - so it would be roster? - I have to check), sometimes a bitmap, totally random. And the files are correct and uncorrupted (because the next time it works and crashes somewhere else). So it seems to by the way my system is accessing the HDD - which it did until now without complaints. Graphic drivers should be o.k. - I've been playing BGII, IWD, Alice and I checked the versions.

Thanks for your replies anyway

still hopefully
tesla...out

Tesla,

Just some thoughts (you've probaly done or checked these already) ---

- you're letting Windows handle your virtual memory settings; if not, is the swap file at least 150 MB on that drive/partition

- defrag and scandisk both show good stats

- you haven't changed any file or folder attributes in the WnW folder

- you haven't hacked and then loaded a save game

I get the "feeling" that it's a paging file problem as program overlays are loaded or threads (if they're even used) are started. Have you tried loading a memory-intensive program (since these problems started with W&W) to see if it's semi-reproducible?

That's all I've got....