Crashing problem

Remove all ads!

ok, this might not be just mod problem.. but I dont know where I can ask.

Basically whats happening is, I play bg2 and the game crashes out of no where. sound files still playing and according to sound the game is still running perfectly fine. but the graphic doesnt update. and I cant do anything, I cant even minimized it or stop the game. all I can do is pressing restart button. does anyone know what might be causing this and how to fix it???

currently I have UB, quest pack, kelsey, npc flirt pack, tsujatha and xan v5.

I've tried everything I can. reinstalled everything, scan disk, defragged, virus scan etc.... installed new driver... SOMEONE PLZ HELP ME!! I love this game and I want to play it ><

on the side note, same thing happens to NWN except a bit worse.... NWN crashed as soon as I load the game while bg2 crashed in couple of mins.

[ September 15, 2007, 21:42: Message edited by: Taluntain ]

 

Make sure there aren't any other programs running at the same time as BG2 (ie. Internet Explorer, AOL Instant Messenger, anti-virus, etc.).

Have you made any changes to your system lately? Anything like a hardware replacement or even a minor software install might be a cause. If you've made a major/minor change lately, undo it.

Or, what you might have is just a memory error or another piece of hardware malfunctioning.

 

I dont usually run anything when Im playing game. and as far as Im aware I didnt make any major changes except for installing chemdraw and office. thats about it. and I dont see how that might affect bg2 Oo but i could be wrong. and I thought it might be videocard and reinstalled new one but it didnt fix. thought it might be overheating but temp is fine.

 

Uninstall Chemdraw, try BG2. If it's still funky, it's safe to say it's not that. Then do the same with Office. If it's still funky after that, you know it's not that software. You'd be surprised the amount of software that SHOULD work together, for some reason or another, it just doesn't.

Another thing it could be is the Virtual Memory if you're using Windows. You might want to up that a bit. If you're doing that, might I also suggest you boot into Safe Mode and rename the "pagefile.sys" file to "pagefilesys.old" or something. That way your computer will make a new, clean one. I had a "pagefile.sys" (virtual memory file) corrupted once and it caused some problems like you're describing.

 

sounds complicated Oo but I will try that. I will try anything to fix this problem!

 

ok, more details to problem....

First of all, my comp specs:
AMD Sempron 2200+
512mb DDR ram
GeForce ti 4200
running under win2000
The mods i currently have installed are:
- Unfinished business
- Quest pack
- Kelsey SOA and TOB
- NPC flirt pack
- Xan (from pocket plane)
- Tsujatha

Now, the crash occurs completely randomly. Sometimes, i am able to play the game for half an hour or so, other times, the game crashes within the first 5 minutes.

The computer does not actually crash per se, but the graphics freeze while the sound plays at the back. The crashes occur mostly during battles, and we've tested that spellcasting effects DO NOT influence the crash rate. Modded NPCs are also not a factor, as we've tested with and without modded NPCs.

We've tried to run similar resolutions to the desktop, we have the latest graphics drivers (which were from two years ago, and that version worked with BG2 on another computer). The graphics card itself has been tested on another computer, same with the RAM. We've also tried to run without antivir, and closed down as many processes as we could.

We've tried alot of options (those posted on the list of random crash fixs on this forum) and we're really running out of ideas. We're going to try increasing the virtual memory next, but if anyone else has any ideas, that would be awesome.

BTW, this problem also happens with NWN, where as soon as i load a module, the game crashes, which the sound runs aswell. For NWN, i have the Gold edition, and usually try to run Cormyrean Nights.

We've tried changing the pagefile for windows, but that didnt seem to make any difference.
We've tried finding the pagefile itself and delete it so that windows could refresh it, but it didnt even seem to be in the root directory.

If there's any other info you need, post it, and we'll have it up in no time. I REALLY WANT THIS PROBLEM FIXED!

 

Blob, I've previously had that same problem with my computer. I'm going to explain what might be causing it and what you can do, but read everything before you try anything.

What happened was that on my motherboard, my 5V line dropped to under 4.5V causing parts of the hardware to hang, creating the symptoms you described. What you need to do is find a way to check the voltage on your motherboard voltage lines, right after a crash. Chances are one will be seriously under it's normal voltage. In my case I could just go into the bios where I had a monitoring page that told me the voltage on each line. My motherboard is an msi. If you can't see the voltage that way, try getting some hardware monitoring application that can tell you this information.

Now, in case this really is the issue, there are two possible causes. One is that your power supply is either broken or not powerful enough. This is easy to test in case it is the 5V or 12V line. In that case you can just take one of the free connectors coming from your power supply and going to your harddisks/cdrom drive and use a voltage measure tool to check the voltage. The black wire is the ground and iirc the red is the 5V line and the yellow are 12V. Might be the other way around. But anyway, if your power supply is holding out well, the voltage on these lines should be almost perfect. If it has dropped significantly, like the voltage on your motherboard, you need a new power supply, possibly a stronger one if you just upgraded or added some hardware.

Now, the second case was actually what was causing the voltage drop on my motherboard: voltage drop caused by the resistance created by the contacts of the ATX connector. In case you are wondering what that is, it's a big white connector on your motherboard, with somewhere between 16 and 24 cables arriving on it from your power supply. A connector always causes some voltage drop. However, normally that drop should be very minimal. In case that the connector connects badly, the resistance increases and so does the voltage drop. As such, in my case, the solution was easy: push on the connector till it connected properly again so that my voltage rose again.

In case this is the issue on your machine, just try pushing and juggling a bit with the connector without pulling it out until your voltage is close to its correct value again. If when you release the pressure the voltage stays correct, leave it at that and try using your computer. If the voltage doesn't stay correct, or you get the crash again, it probably means that your bundle of wires connected to the connector are putting too much strain on the connector, and then you might want to try to find a way to better support their weight inside your machine, like attaching them to something or putting them behind/on top of something inside.

I hope this is helpful to you. If you need further information about what I described here, feel free to ask.

 

oh, dear. that sounds really bad... thanx for the advice. I have no time till this friday due to big chem report due really soon. But yeah I hope I can fix it. At this rate I dont think I can run any games on my comp and there goes all my stress relief. sigh.

 

Well, if you're lucky, the easy juggling could fix your problem, although it might be temporary. You should try it, but if it works, save often, you never know when it will crash. It might just work enough for some stress relief.

 

I had the same problem a while back. Turned out my video card was overheating. The fan was going bad -- still spinning, but not fast enough. In my case, replacing the video card fan fixed the problem.

 

Bombur, if your fan isn't spinning enough, it might be enough to just clean out the dust with a vacuum cleaner. Why I prefer fanless cooling.

 

@Meatdog

Yes, that's a good thing to try before installing a new one. In my case the fan had actually run its course, but you're right that it's worth trying the cheapest fixes first.

 

Right. I think I have the same problem too. it seems graphic card was causing trouble. strange thing is, its working fine in other computers but not mine. so I think it may be the power supply problem. atm I've removed the graphic card and everything is working fine (except I have to play with really dodge graphic, but it still works!). so thank you everyone for the help. cheers!