I recently decided to fire up Icewind Dale 2 (since I’ve never really played it and was in the mood for a good D&D-type game). It installs without any problems or errors, but when trying to play it, it frequently crashes to the desktop. Also, after fighting with changing the video settings, I saw that my processor was running at capacity until I closed ID2.
I’m running WinXP Pro on a P4 3.0 GHz Prescott with 1GB RAM, a Rosewill GeForce 550 256MB video card and a Sound Blaster Audigy sound card. I know when I played it before, I was running XP Pro, though it was on a PIII system and it didn’t have this problem.
I’ve recently changed to a widescreen monitor, but I don’t believe this is related as this started happening before I upgraded.
The sound and video drivers were as recent as I could find as of one or two months ago. I’m running DirectX 9.0c (ID2 shipped with 8.something).
I’ve tried running it in WinXP’s compatibility mode, which I’m admittedly unfamiliar with. Running it as either Win95 or Win98/Me caused it to run sluggishly. Running it as Win2k didn’t have any effect (it wasn’t sluggish, but it still crashed to the desktop).
I’ve tried all the video modes, of which there are only two, which is a little odd in itself: there should be 3 unsupported modes (1024x768 and up) and one supported mode (800x600); I’ve only got the supported mode (800x600) and one of the unsupported modes(1024x768) - the other unsupported modes are greyed out.
To make this even more fun, Interplay isn’t itself anymore and don’t have much of a webpage or any support available that I can find.
Can anyone tell me what I can do to get this to run ? Or am I doomed to never finish this game ?
Hadn’t thought of shutting those down. Oops. Yeah, I’ve got Norton AV and a few other micellaneous programs running. I can see what happens with Norton turned off (though I can’t leave it off - I’ve got a DSL connection). And I can go through the task manager and shut everything down that I don’t need and see iif that makes a difference.
Forgot to mention earlier that it seemed, until yesterday, to be much more stable running 800x600 in windowed mode. Yesterday, I tried running it windowed at 1024x768 and it was back to regular crashing and switching back to 800x600 didn’t correct that.
Also, I did load the latest patch for ID2 (2.01 ?).
Have you tried the various fixes suggested in the troubleshooting section of the readme file included with the game?
I’ve never had a problem running IWD2 in XP with any combination of screen resolutions and service packs, so we can at least rule out XP compatibility as the problem.
Does it crash during play, or before you’re even playing? Do you get any kind of error message?
It crashes during play with no error messages - I’m happily hacking-and-slashing along when all of a sudden, I’ll be looking at my desktop (instead of the game). No warnings, no error messages.
I’m able to go through the character generator; it’s during gameplay that it crashes.
I didn’t know there was a troubleshooting section in the readme. I’ll look at that and see what it says.
OK - I’ve checked the readme file and didn’t find anything there that helped. Similarly, I’ve closed all the applications I could close (and shut down all the services I could, including my anti-virus program (Norton, if that makes a difference)), and still ID2 crashes on me.
I noticed this time that I seemed to be OK until I entered the inventory screen. Don’t know if that relevant or not.
Any other ideas, dopers (please, someone tell me that there’s a fix for this)?
Could it be corrupt save files? You mentioned going through character creation, so it doesn’t sound like you were coming back to old saves, but I figured I’d ask.
Maybe a data file is corrupted? If you haven’t tried uninstalling and reinstalling already, back up your save files, your character files, and your custom portraits and/or sounds, if you have any, then uninstall the game and reinstall.
I’m running out of ideas, but I’ve been playing this game recently as well, and I’d hate for you not to be able to finish the game. I’ll keep trying to figure out a solution.
Thanks - I was thinking about removing and re-installing the game anyway. I’m starting it over from scratch, so there’s no real need for me to keep the save game files. In fact, I’m thinking I’ll try installing it onto my C: drive (it’s currently loaded on the second HDD).
Looks likeI spoke too soon. After playing for a few hours tonight, I’m back to the smae issue - going into the inventory screen causes the game to crash. sigh. Maybe I’ll just have to give up on it.
Does it always crash at the inventory screen? Are your characters carrying any quest-specific items (keys, notes, etc.)? Do your characters have any containers (gem bags, potion bags, bags of holding, or scroll cases)? I recall reading that having certain items in certain containers can cause problems.
Also, did you reinstall the 2.01 patch when you reinstalled the game?
It now crashes when I open the Inventory screen (I don’t get the chance to do anything else). I did just purchase a gem bag and a scroll case (the scroll case is empty, the gem bag has one gem in it). I don’t think I have an quest items (I haven’t gotten out of the first town yet, and I think I’ve only run across two or three total, so far)); it’s tough to tell now, though.
I did re-install the patch after re-loading the game. And it ran fine for 3-4 hours. Now it’s back to being a problem child.
Is there another computer you could install the game on to make sure it’s not just a bad disc? If it does turn out to be a bad disc, I can send you a copy of my disc.
Funny you should mention that - this weekend, I’m rebuilding the other three computers in the house. I’ll get at least one of them up and running and see what happens when I install it then. Could be another day or so, though, before I get back to you.
Most game problems has to do with sound (timing), so the first you should do is find out whether this is sound related or not. Load Device Manager from the Control Panel/System window. Locate your sound card, right click and choose disable (do not choose uninstall). Reboot. This will disable sound on your computer. Try the game and see how it works. Repeat the process and choose “enable” to get your sound back.
Have you checked various boards to see if anybody else has experienced something similar?