WHY does my game keep crashing???

[Cerek the Barbaric]

This is becoming extrememly frustrating. I had problems with my BGII game several weeks ago. My party is fresh out of Chateau Irenicus and have gone to the Copper Coronet in search of further adventures. We've rested and are preparing to go help this girl Nalia clear some trolls out of her keep, but it's early evening as we depart - which means we get attacked by the Random Attacking Party that comes with the Tactics Mod.

EVERY time I get in this fight, my PC FREEZES and/or crashes - causing the machine to completely ReBoot. My 40gb HD was nearly full and I had a slower processer (1.2ghz) - so I thought it might just be a function of the machine. I took it to the shop and invested a LOT of money in an upgrade. I now have a 120gb and 2.4ghz processor. I re-installed BGII (after buying a second copy when my first copy buggered on me and would no longer function). I got the new game, Un-Installed the previous game and did a Full Install with the new CD's . Then I Re-Installed all the former Mods I had and added a few new ones. FINALLY - after many hours of work - I was ready to play again.

My party left the Coronet, walked across the street - got attacked - and.......
THE GAME FROZE AGAIN!!!!!!! AAAAAARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!! [img]graemlins/madhell.gif[/img]

WHAT IS WRONG WITH MY MACHINE?????

[pritchke]

I am thinking one of the former mods might be causing the problem.

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Which one? I originally just had Ease-of-Use, Tactics, Upgraded Items and Kelsey.

When I got my PC back from the shop, ALL of these had been erased!!! (although I later found they were saved in the file they created to hold my Saved Games as well).

The point is that I did a FRESH download and install on every single Mod since getting my PC back. Since my original copy of the game was buggered, I could only do a Recommended Install instead of Full Install. I did discover that UN-Installing BG2 WOULD NOT erase the Mods already Installed (just like it doesn't erase any games you have already played). When I did the Full Install, the Mods' mentioned above were still Installed (I did RE-Install Kelsey in order to remove the component with him and Solaufein since I don't have the his Mod also).

I've also added the aFixPack (which installed Roge Rebalance, Elven Resistance Fix, and several other components), Unfinished Business, Ascension & Redemption (I haven't actuall installed these 2 yet, but I did download them) and I've been attempting to download the Oversight Mod - but keep getting kicked out of the queu for some reason).

I have had a similar problem with other games, so I think it is actually a problem with the PC> The guy at the computer shop said it sounded like a problem with DirectX. I tried to download the latest version (9b) last night, but got interrupted and the download didn't get completed - at least I don't think it did. I was very tired and I honostly don't remember if that finished or not.

Anyway, I appreciate the suggestions. I certainly have NO problem Un-Installing and RE-Installing all of the Mods if necessary...I just want my game to work.

[Cerek the Barbaric]

{sigh} More bad news.

I downloaded DirectX 9b, but that didn't help my problem at all. I tried to play the game with my kensai 3 different times. The game froze and/or crashed all 3 times (causing the PC to completely reboot on the crashes). This party has just recently exited Chateau Irenicus. The only encounter we have had so far was with the dwarf and his party in the hotel in Waukeen's Promenade. From there, we went to Copper Coronet and added Anomen to our party. I also picked up Kelsey and freed Viconia. That's all I've accomplished so far. I've faced the Random Attacking Party, the Cowled Wizards (after casting a Protection Spell in the streets), and the two rogues you meet in the road outside of the Copper Coronet. I originally thought it was the size of the group I was fighting that caused the PC to crash - but it even crashed after I killed the two street rogues.

I tried the game a 4th time with my Assassin and his crew (my most advanced party in SoA). This group has completed several quests and the Unseeing Eye Cult is next on the list. When I loaded the game, I spent a few moments reviewing the items I had for each member and adjusting them as needed. This game worked fine, for a little while. My group starts out in the Thieves Stronghold (which I gained by killing Mae'var). I went through the Docks District and headed for the Temples to enter the Sewers. I got to that screen, advanced to the end of the walkway (just past the Temple of Lathander - which my assassin cleared out earlier in his adventures )....and the screen FROZE!!!! The game just quit responding.

I am getting really frustrated. I don't know if the problem is with my CD drive, the ToB CD (which has not been replaced and does have some minor scratches on it), or if it is something else.

ANY help would be greatly appreciated. I often go several months without playing BGII at all, but I've recently gotten the desire to play the game again - but I haven't been able to play for ANY length of time - except for new games I've started. Only one of those has advance past the Chateau and that group is still in Waukeen's Promenade.

{sigh}I'm very frustrated and very discouraged both. Any suggestions on how to fix this constant problem would be greatly appreciated.

[Lord]

It's probably the mods. Un-install all of them and then install everything in this order:

1. SoA (or ToB if you have ToB) Official Patch.
2. SoA (or ToB if you have ToB) Fixpack.
3. Kelsey mod (don't install the Sola mod IMHO, it's pretty buggy with the dialogues).
4. Ascension.
5. Tactics
6. Unfinished Business
7. Redemption
8. Oversight Mod (if you get it to work)
9. Rogue Rebalancing
10. Ease-of-Use
11. Items Upgrade

Let me know if it worked.

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by Lord: It's probably the mods. Un-install all of them and then install everything in this order: 1. SoA (or ToB if you have ToB) Official Patch. 2. SoA (or ToB if you have ToB) Fixpack. 3. Kelsey mod (don't install the Sola mod IMHO, it's pretty buggy with the dialogues). 4. Ascension. 5. Tactics 6. Unfinished Business 7. Redemption 8. Oversight Mod (if you get it to work) 9. Rogue Rebalancing 10. Ease-of-Use 11. Items Upgrade Let me know if it worked.

Thanks for the advice, Lord. I have three questions.

(1) WHERE do I find the offical patches and fixpacks for SoA and ToB?
(2) I do have ToB installed. Do I need to download the patches and fixpacks for ToB AND SoA individually and install each of them - or does the patch and fixpack for ToB include the ones for SoA?
(3) Regarding the Mods, should I completely erase them and do a FRESH download also - or just UN-Install them and then Install them in the order listed without doing the fresh download?

Thanks again for all of your help. This has been terribly frustrating.

One bright note - I played yet another Saved game - this one has a dwarven barbarian as the PC. This group has just defeated Improved Ilyich and crew. I managed to advance through the library, kill the cambion, go to the Planar Air Prison and see the djinni, return to the Chateau to retrieve his lamp, go BACK to the Planar Air Prison and exchange the djinni's lamp for a nifty 2-hand sword (for Minsc - my dwarf is a bit short for that one - even if he is a barbarian). I then advanced to Level 2, allowed Yoshimo to join the group, entered the next room and destroyed the Mephit Generators and Searched the room for treasure. We also found the dead body of Khalid and Jaheira had her brief mourning period.

ALL of that was done without ANY glitches and the game never crashed. Then when I tried to SAVE the game (cause I didn't have time to play any further) - the game crashed. :cry:

The reason I think it may be problem with the PC itself is that after one crash, the system ReBooted - then CRASHED AGAIN as soon as my Desktop appeared. I brought the PC to work with me today to try and do some work on it here. I will try your suggestions regarding the Mod Installations - but I also plan to call the shop that charged me a pile of cash to upgrade the machine and ask WHY I'm still having problems with it. THEY installed a BUNCH of extra software (like a Pop-Up Blocker) without asking me - and one of my crashes occured when the Pop-up Blocker activated during the game.

[LennonCook]

The Official patch and the fixpack are linked to in the forum FAQ (second post, I believe, under the heading 'Where do I get the patches'), and in millions of other threads about the place. [img]smile.gif[/img] If you have TOB, you should get and install the TOB patches only. But, since you I'm fairly sure you have been advised to download them before, I think it a fairly safe bet that you have them installed already. [img]smile.gif[/img]

As for your problem, it sounds like that fight has alot of stuff happening in it which your computer can't handle. This is very famous when they're alot of creatures moving or casting spells - such as every second fight in the Tactics mod. How much main memory do you have? How big is your swap file? And do you have any idea of anything about your processor's front side BUS? All of these can have an impact - having a flashily fast 2.4 GHz processor is all well and good, but not if your system can't get data to it quickly enough.

My advice would also be to tune down on your audio/video settings and see how the game runs. In case I didnt made any sense: the BGconfig [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Cerek the Barbaric]

Originally posted by LennonCook: The Official patch and the fixpack are linked to in the forum FAQ (second post, I believe, under the heading 'Where do I get the patches'), and in millions of other threads about the place. [img]smile.gif[/img] If you have TOB, you should get and install the TOB patches only. But, since you I'm fairly sure you have been advised to download them before, I think it a fairly safe bet that you have them installed already. [img]smile.gif[/img] As for your problem, it sounds like that fight has alot of stuff happening in it which your computer can't handle. This is very famous when they're alot of creatures moving or casting spells - such as every second fight in the Tactics mod. How much main memory do you have? How big is your swap file? And do you have any idea of anything about your processor's front side BUS? All of these can have an impact - having a flashily fast 2.4 GHz processor is all well and good, but not if your system can't get data to it quickly enough.

I thought the number of characters moving, fighting and/or casting were also having an effect on the game crashing. That is why I took it in to have it upgraded in the first place, but the fight with the two street rogues shouldn't have had any effect on this. I've played SoA all the way through once and had a full party through the entire game. THAT game was without Tactics, but I have played a 2nd party through a good portion of SoA with Tactics installed. This party also has six members. I've gained the Thief Stronghold, Planar Sphere, De'Arnise Keep, and even the Bard Stronghold (not to mention defeating the Shade Lord and Shadow Dragon). In addition to those battles, my assassin was outraged at the very notion of paying the Cowled Wizards for the privilage of casting spells, so I set up a series of ambushes and cast spells to lure them into my trap. I did that until they finally quit coming. I've also fought the Random Attack Party (RAP for short) several times with this party. I never had a problem at all with the number of characters and/or actions on the screen at one time until just a few weeks ago. Since then, I've had nothing BUT problems with it.

Also, as I pointed out previously, this ONLY seems to occur AFTER the Chateau for some reason.

As for my PC specs...I don't know how to determine all of that, so here is a breakdown of what my machine now has and how it is set up.


Operating System
Windows XP Home Edition (build 2600)

Processor
3.20 gigahertz Intel Celeron
8 kilobyte primary memory cache
128 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Drives
120.02 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
97.30 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space

_NEC DV-5800A [CD-ROM drive]
MSI CD-RW MS-8340 [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]

WDC WD1200JB-00EVA0 [Hard drive] (120.03 GB) -- drive 0, s/n WD-WMAEK2441716, rev 15.05R15, SMART Status: Healthy

Main Circuit Board
Board: SiS-645
Bus Clock: 132 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 01/11/2002

Bus Adapters
HPT372 UDMA/ATA133 RAID Controller
SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller
SiS 7001 PCI to USB Open Host Controller

Memory Modules
256 Megabytes Installed Memory

Slot 'A0' has 256 MB
Slot 'A1' is Empty
Slot 'A2' is Empty
Slot 'A3' is Empty

Local Drive Volumes
c: (on drive 0) 120.02 GB 97.30 GB free

Communications
Intel(R) 537 Data Fax Voice V.92 Modem
SiS 900 PCI Fast Ethernet Adapter
Network Card MAC Address: 00:50:2C:02:77:7B
Network IP Address: 10.0.0.5 / 8

Multimedia
CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device
Standard Game Port
Unimodem Half-Duplex Audio Device

Display
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400 [Display adapter]
Sampo KM-718 [Monitor] (15.7"vis)

Controllers
Standard floppy disk controller
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
SiS PCI IDE Controller

If any of that suggests a possible problem with the game, then PLEASE feel free to enlighten me. In the meantime, thanks for your advice and suggestions.

[Lord]

Your PC is better than the one that I'm running BG2 on, so that shouldn't be the problem.

Just un-install each mod and then re-install in the order that I mentioned earlier.

Someone told me to do this before, and my game has run better ever since:

1. Go to start-->Run
2. Type in dxdiag
3. Go to the tab on the top that says display
4. Uncheck the 3d graphics accelorator. This will make your game run faster, and it doesn't take anything away from game play because BG2 doesn't even use it.
5. Don't forget to turn it on when you go to play other games.