BG2 blue screen of death?

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Hey everyone. Haven't been here in awhile, so please forgive me if the answer to the following question is posted in an FAQ somewhere and I missed it...I've scoured the forums for topics concerning this but I couldn't find anything.

After a couple of years spent collecting dust, I've decided to once again replay Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal. I'm pretty rusty (OK, *very* rusty) and have forgotten most of the mods I have installed, but I manage. I'm in Chapter 2 at the moment, I think, and have been doing some quests around Athkatla. I've picked up Nalia and I want to go to her keep so I can finish her quest, because it's about time I got out there. So I make my way to the city gates, click on her keep, and a screen comes up prompting me to take out CD 2 and put in CD 3. No problem, right?

Wrong. As soon as I do this, and CD 3 registers inside my machine, a bright blue screen with white text on it that greatly resembles the fearsome Blue Screen of Death pops up and says there's been a "media error" or something like that and insists I put CD 2 back in the drive. So I do. And then I get back to the screen prompting me for CD 3 again. Round and round we go.

To escape, I press Alt + F4. I have now done this twice, and once I get back to my desktop I press Ctrl + Alt + Del and see that the program has completely locked up and is "Not Responding". I put it out of it's misery and send an error report to Microsoft because I can't resist the thought of harassing some poor intern with error reports about a game that's 7 years old. No matter how many times I clean my 3rd CD, and no matter how many times I reload the game and try to go anywhere that requires CD 3, even other parts of Athkatla, this blue screen pops up and I'm out of luck. It's becoming very frustrating, actually. Is my replay doomed before it really begins? What can I do to fix this problem?

In case it's important, I'm running Windows XP. I know sometimes games don't like XP, but I'm pretty sure I managed to play BG2 using XP a few years ago, so I think perhaps XP may actually be innocent for once.

 

Why didn't you do a full install? With full install there would be no CD swapping. But then again, if the CD is broken you can not even make a full install, I think.

 

Well, to be honest, I installed BG2 years and years ago, probably in 2003 when I first got it. Maybe the computer I had back then didn't have enough oomph to allow for a Full Install so I went for a smaller one instead and then just forgot about it. I don't think CD 3 is broken - there are no scratches, I've wiped it clean of all dust, it's not damaged in any way, and I remember using it successfully before. Obviously I couldn't have installed BG2 in the first place if it hadn't worked. Do you think I should uninstall BG2, uninstall my mods, reinstall with a Full Install this time, and go from there?

 

Yes, I do.

 

Reinstall it is, then. Since BG2 isn't nearly as fun in it's untinkered with state, any suggestions for must-have BG2 mods? (Aside from Dungeon Be Gone, of course -- I may be rusty but I'm not so rusty I've forgotten what a pain slogging through Chateau Irenicus was) I haven't played in awhile so I'm a little out of touch with what's good and what's not, mod-wise. Though if it helps I've already got Pocket Plane Group's website bookmarked.

 

Improved Anvil! It is the newest and most interesting mod around here, but it surely is NOT suitable for newbie players. True masters really love the amazing challanges and fresh breath it brings to our game.