Unable to get the game to start, tried all work arounds.

Aesahaettr

I've been trying for about 4 hours already to get this game to work, running in all of the compatibility modes, editing the .ini file, downloading iTunes, the works.

I am running on Windows 7 64bit, GeForce 560ti, i5 650 @ 3.20GHz (4 cpus).

I have over 33 .dmp files that I packed up and sent to the support email, packed up nice and pretty for them.

Anyone have any other ideas?

Kerthal

Maybe you should tell us first if you get an error or something when trying to start the game and if yes, which one? That would be a good start

Aesahaettr

I agree. Sorry I'm just worn out trying to figure this out to the point that I'm sure my brain looks like something off of a McDonalds Menu.

When I start up the game, with windows 95 compatibility, I get an error box that says it created a .dmp file in My Documents, and to contact support. When I start it in Windows XP service pack3, it is in the task manager, but never opens, and Vista to 7, it opens in the task manager, then closes. The title screen never appears.

I know there are more compatibility options, but they all have one of these three effects.

The exact crash words for windows 95 are as follows: There was an error. A crash report was saved to: User\Me\Documents\Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition\crash\dump33.dmp. Please contact support@baldursgate.com

Kerthal

I'm running the game on Windows 7 64 bits too and my hardware is more or less similar. For the exe files (I did that for BGEE.exe and Baldur.exe), I pick to run them as Administrator + Compatibility Windows XP SP3 and in the 5 options below, I select the latest 3 ones (so everything except 256 colors and 640*480 resolution).

Did you check your drivers for your graphic card and other hardware?

Vindarten

Just send support the dump file and play something else. I have about the same specs as you and am in the same position. I was able to get the game running a few days ago, but the patch killed it (somehow).

From what I've seen there aren't any real fixes, just a bunch of random hacks that may or may not work for you and may or may not stop working for no real reason. Just move on until these guys get their game together, its not worth the hassle.

Aesahaettr

Kerthal: I just did everything you said, and the same crash for windows 95 came up. I did update my drivers for everything that wasn't already up to date. Nothing.

Vindarten: It's about to that point where a refund request is going to be made. I bought this game to play with my brother for these two days that I have spent trying to get it to work before we both get extremely busy in our schedules. I didn't fork over 20 bucks so I could have files just sitting on my hard drive for nothing.

This makes me miss the old days when games were as simple as download, patch it, and click play...

Nathan

Hi @Aesahaettr, have you updated your nvidia drivers lately? Could you do so at http://www.geforce.com/drivers and let me know if this fixes it for you? The vast, vast majority of crash at launch/shortly after character creation bugs we've been dealing with are a result of our of date videocard drivers for people.

Aesahaettr

Yes, this is one of the steps I've taken to try to get the game to work. The site's auto scan says that my card's drivers are up to date with their latest download.

Vindarten

Yeah, I have the most recent drivers available and nothing. I really really don't think the problem is something like an old driver or anything on the user end; the game is just fundamentally broken on some level. Even during the period when I could get it to run it was a roll of the dice (ha) whether it would start or not. That is not normal behavior.

Bytebrain

Aesahaettr said:

Yes, this is one of the steps I've taken to try to get the game to work. The site's auto scan says that my card's drivers are up to date with their latest download.

I would give it a shot anyway... Those types of scans for drivers isn't always that reliable.
Also, check their site for beta drivers, sometimes they have newer drivers not yet certified by windows.
Perhaps the scan they make on your system is for certified drivers.

Not saying it'll work, but I would think its worth a shot..

Good luck.

Vindarten

I have the latest (beta) Nvidia drivers and nada. I mean, you could try, to be honest it might work. I would not be surprised at this point. I'm convinced that this is less "something exceptional is causing the game to not work" than "this game is broken and something exceptional is causing it to occasionally work." If you do get it running I would suggest you never close it.

Aesahaettr

Yeah nothing is working for me. At this point I am at a loss of what to do, besides wait for them to come out with something, but as I said, I don't feel like I'm willing to wait that long.

Aesahaettr

Well I had decided to try again and redownloaded the game through Beamdog, and started it from the baldur.exe file, and it worked, up until I tried to connect to a multiplayer game, which caused it to crash. And now... it's back to square one. Same crash as before when I try to start the game.

TJ_Hooker

@Aesaheattr
Multiplayer is a lot more buggy than single player than what I've been reading, so you may be better off avoiding it for now. Also when you try starting a multiplayer session, did you try doing it while in windowed mode?

Aesahaettr

I'm not sure. All I know is now I can't even start the game again. ><

Bytebrain

You can force windowed mode in the ini file somewhere.
It's strange the game works and then won't start again after a crash...

veevito

Here's what I did after trying alot of different variations. This is what made it work for me on a similar system (win7, nvidia GTX560, intel I3):

1. Nvidia control panel for BGEE.exe and Baldur.exe I set vsync, triple buffering and FXAA to off.

2. BGEE.exe (right click properties), set vista SP1 compatibility, check box for disable display scaling on high DPi settings, run as admin.

3. Baldur.exe, no compat mode, disable scaling on high dpi etc, run as admin.

I've tried many combos of settings and this is what works now. Truly odd, especially the mix of compat modes. I might not need all of these but after getting it to work, I let it be.

Give it a shot though.

veevito

Oh and that's after installing the openAL thing from the beamdog website link.

fearless

Have you tried installing to a different folder - not the default one, as program files under win7/vista prob has the same issues as the vanilla BG1 and BG2 installations - in that it does not like programs writing changes to files under them.

I have Win7 64bit, GTX670, 8GB RAM and i install it in \Other Games\BGEE - i dont have any compatiblity settings checked, all left normal, nvidia control panel has all stuff set to application decides type settings, triple buffering is off by default and vsync is on by default. You could try adding an exception to your AV as well, install the visual c++ 2008 redist file. Only problem i had was screen flicker half way down main title screen, which i found to be an issue with MSI Afterburner - i put an exception in the OSD to disable FPS settings on screen for bgee and baldur.exe

Not sure if any of that will help. Let us know how you get on

Matthieu

Same here, the game doesn't load. It's in the process panel but fails to launch. My video cards (2*Radeon 4870) are up to date and I tried using various compatibility things. It was working until patched, now it's not working anymore at all. I've decided to just wait for another patch.

TJ_Hooker

Sorry if I'm just repeating things you've already heard, but with regards to compatibility settings (eg running in windows 95 compatibility mode) you are applying them Baldur.exe, as compared to BGEE.exe, right?

Matthieu

Right

karrick

Kerthal said:

I'm running the game on Windows 7 64 bits too and my hardware is more or less similar. For the exe files (I did that for BGEE.exe and Baldur.exe), I pick to run them as Administrator + Compatibility Windows XP SP3 and in the 5 options below, I select the latest 3 ones (so everything except 256 colors and 640*480 resolution).

Did you check your drivers for your graphic card and other hardware?

baldur.exe? ive got that but not BGEE.exe?

Aesahaettr

@veevito I tried what you said, as I have the beemdog client I didn't do the parts for the BG:EE, but for the Baldur executable itself, and I was able to start the game again. We'll see how it goes.

veevito

Good, I have the standalone launcher. This is the first game i've had to jump through these hoops. It's very odd, but I got it to work and it hasn't crashed since.

I'm a gamer, I have half a dozen or so mmo's installed and play regularly and probably a dozen or so SP games.

I really hope it works out for you. And continues to work out for me. Although I also currently have BG tutu with TOTSC and BG2 installed on another drive so I can always play.

Truly f-ing odd.

Aesahaettr

This is unrealistic right now. I changed nothing. Opened no new programs, and now it won't start again. x.X This is insane.

I'm pretty much the same @veevito , I have quite a few mmos and other games on my computer and never have I had to deal with this kind of stubborn.... you know.

CutlassJack

veevito said:

Here's what I did after trying alot of different variations. This is what made it work for me on a similar system (win7, nvidia GTX560, intel I3):

1. Nvidia control panel for BGEE.exe and Baldur.exe I set vsync, triple buffering and FXAA to off.

2. BGEE.exe (right click properties), set vista SP1 compatibility, check box for disable display scaling on high DPi settings, run as admin.

3. Baldur.exe, no compat mode, disable scaling on high dpi etc, run as admin.

I've tried many combos of settings and this is what works now. Truly odd, especially the mix of compat modes. I might not need all of these but after getting it to work, I let it be.

Give it a shot though.

Turns out This is the exact combination of settings that finally got the game to launch for me without being in 256 colors or having iTunes open. So thanks for pointing me in a useful direction!

And I'm on an ATI card so not just good for nvidia.