Save Game Bug

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I'm having a problem that is ruining the game for me. There is some kind of bug in my save game files that is causing them to take nearly 5 minutes to save or load. I know this isn't a problem with my PC as I have some older saves from a previous run through of the game. These previous-game saves load in about 10 seconds. I could almost live with the bug except that there are so many automatic save/load points in BG2 (e.g. each time I walk into an Inn I have to wait for 5 minutes).

I contacted customer support and they checked my save game files. They said the files were corrupted (apparently I have 1200 people wandering around off screen) but they couldn’t do anything for me.

Anyway, I have looked at this and other forums and have only found one other reference to this type of bug. The advice there was to copy part of another BG2 save file - BG2 makes a Baldur.gam and a Baldur.sav in the save directory one keeps track of the journal and the party experience, the other tracks in games events and triggers. Unfortunately, this mucks up your current game in terms of what areas and quests you have done. Needless to say that's not really satisfactory. So has anyone got any ideas?

Food for thought:
a) I did briefly use the romance and extra goodies patches but removed them - besides, I think the problem was developing before that.
b) I have completed every quest I could find before starting chapter 3 including all of the Jaheira/Harper ones (I seem to remember that the original BG had a problem if you completed too many quests).
c) yep, I have installed the offical patch.

Any help greatly appreciated, thanks.

PS If anyone has a save game from the star of Chapter 3 for a Sourceror or Wizard I could maybe try the Baldur.sav, Baldur.gam idea above.
PPS if anyone knows how to disable autosave I could probably live with the problem (this is my second time through so I know when most of the really tough battles are coming.

 

well the only thing i can suggest is to Uninstall and start again.

completely clean out the whole of your Bg2 folder too before you Re-Install so it gets rid of your corrupted saves!

:sad:

 

Thanks Deano. I was worried that it might come to that. I think I'll wait a bit first though to see if anyone comes up with any other suggestons.

I might see how long I can put up with it anyway, I'd like to finish this run through off, before the expansion comes out, then start again. I'm currently playing with me and all the female NPCs (sad I know) and I can't face doing that again.

Maybe if I get a good book to read for when it saves/loads......

 

How about Robert Jordan; The Wheel of Time?
If you do uninstall the game, be sure to keep a few savegames on a disc, so you can add them when you reinstalled the game again.
If that doesn't work, I don't know what will!

 

Thanks for the tip Da Punisher. It's begining to look like there's no easy answer to the problem.

 

I was having a lock-up problem when loading a new level, and just did the reinstall today.

easy as pie, nothing to dread.

Just copy your "Saves" folder first, and maybe the "override" too.
don't sweat it, just do it and enjoy the game again.

 

I think toast´s right. Even a full install just takes about half an hour including installing patches and stuff. I had to do this twice for some other bug. Just back-up your savegames, portraits, sounds and maybe override - though they should remain in place in case you uninstall and reinstall the game in the same path.

So look forward to your new, hopefully more stable BG-2

 

Just an idea

In the settings there is an option (working off memory here) that allows scrolling to be better/quicker/smoother , but increases loading time. Could that be the problem ???

 

Thanks for all the ideas. I will do an uninstall/reinstall, but I'm sure I've already tried this. The problem is with the savegame file itself (hence the 1200 people that Bioware found). Anyway, fingers crossed Bioware did think it should sort itself out after I left Athkatla for Spellhold so maybe unistall/install will work now. I'll aslo try adjusting the scroll settings. I know the ones you mean as I did turn down all of the options to speed things up when the problem first appeared. Anyway, thanks again for all the help, I'll let you know how I get on.

 

Good Luck and may the Force be with you!

 

Unfortunatley I need to spend more time with Yoda as the force is not strong enough yet. Anyway, just an update for those who are following this.

I have uninstalled and removed all traces eg. override folders, save games, cache, etc. I have then reinstalled using all three options (minimum, recommended, full), with and without the patch. I have turned down all the options and lowered the pre-loading scrolling option thingy and....

Still no joy I'm afraid. Oh well at this rate I'll have nearly finished the second run through and then I can start another game. I read the reviews of the 'Wheel of Time' books and they get good reviews so maybe I will get one to read during auto load/saves. Thanks for everyone's ideas and help.

 

You really should reed The wheel of Time, I sometimes even reed it instead of playing BG2!

 

i have another idea...

how long is it since u defragged your system?

that may be a problem... also how much hard disk space you have left. BG2 neds one hell of a lot of virtual memory... and if you haven't got the HDD space it'll crawl along!

hope i'm giving a helpful suggestion!

[This message has been edited by Deano99 (edited March 08, 2001).]

 

Yes, I remember that defragmenting my HDD boosted up my BG-2 pretty much - and take care that you have more than the required 200 MB space left on your HDD.

However, I don´t know what Computer you have: - 48 MB RAM, as I had before, were pretty critical even during BG-1! Windows alone is consuming approx 18MB permanently, plus IIRC some 12MB (!) when you have Office installed - don´t ask me why.

 

i got one of them wheel of time books they aint that bad they don't have anything on dragonlance chronicles and legends though. can't help u wit the saved game problem though i think the backing up of ure saved files and checkin if they are corrupted is the best idea that was put forth

 

Dear all

Thanks for the ideas, please keep them coming. I have reformatted recently but to no avail. I also think I have plenty of ram (128mb) and hard disk space left (12gb). I'm also pretty sure that the hardware isn't the problem as I have a final save from my first run through and that loads/saves in about 15 seconds.

I have been considering upping the memory anyway (ram is so cheap again) and think this might help as I think part of the file corruption is something to do with all of the extra variables (1200 people that Bioware mentioned) that need to be saved. Before you ask my combined baldur.gam and baldur.sav game files are 1.24mb compared to 0.94mb for the final save files.

Anyway, thanks for all the continuing help and ideas.

 

Just a thought , don't know if you have tried this ,

but why don't you open on the saved game files in Shadow keeper , change a few thing , like add a spell etc or whatever and get it to generate a new saved game file for you.

It must recompile the file and fix whatever is wrong with it , don't know exactly how SK works.

Or get someone elses game files and then just modify them to what you had equipment wise, I have some pre chapter 3 files , with some quests still out standing , umar hills, spell hold , kangaxx , etc.

[This message has been edited by Mage_0 (edited March 08, 2001).]

 

Thanks Mage_0. I have tried editing and saving using Shadowkeeper and it didn't clear the bug. However, I do believe (like you) that I should be able to edit something using Shadowkeeper and Infinity Explorer. I have looked throug the details of my save game to find anything obviously wrong but, to be honest, it's beyond my knowledge of the game's workings. I also thought about comparing the problem save game to my last (not bugged) final save. Unfortunately there are so many different variables that this didn't help.

As to your other idea, I'd love someone to send a save game file. As mentioned at the start there is the technique of swapping Baldur.sav and Baldur.game files around (you don't even need shadowkeeper). As long as the new save games is in rougly the same place it's fine (only event triggers and places visited will be different). So if anyone has a save game from around the time of Spellhold (I am about to get the boat home) preferably with a mage or a sourceror, and would like to email it to me, that would be great.

Thanks again for all the ideas coming through.

 

I can send you my latest SG , when I get home.

 

Last guess--

Mess with your cache size...?