Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) Technical Problems Crashes back to windows

Hi there,
I've had a read through the forum and see that a few others are having the same problem. Whilst playing it crashes back out to windows and then windows offers to send a bug report.

I'm not doing anything specific during the game when it happens, I could be trading, talking to someone or just walking around. I have played right through this game before on a different PC with windows 2000 and it was fine. This is a new XP machine and I can't even get out of the village without getting too pissed off to continue as I lose my game all the time with it crashing and ughh it's just too annoying! (I've no access to the previous pc otherwise I'd be over there playing right now).


My specs:
- Windows XP with SP 2
- Intel Pentium 4 2.4Ghz
- 256MB RAM
- Radeon 9200SE
- DirectX 9.0c

I've reinstalled the drivers for the gfx card, turned off the anti-virus, firewalls, installed the latest DD patch, disconnected the internet. increased and decreased the video settings. Closed down every other unnecessary task.
Dang, I've tried everything but hanging it out the window attached to a llama while smoking a pipe!

I've played hundreds of games on here with no problems! It's just this one. As it seems to be happening to a few people will it become a known issue? I guess it's hard to pinpoint where the problem might actually exist. I don't see anything the systems might have in common.
I'm about ready to cry <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />

Welcome! Eeek, that sounds... bad.... Sorry, Can't really help you much, but, glad to like the forums!

Unfortunately, random crashes are the most difficult to track down...

It is the new system you've played hundreds of games on? If other games are currently working fine, it is likely not a hardware problem.

There may be some things you haven't tried in the topic Troubleshooting Tips (& manual install procedure).

Try it in 16-bit color mode (Right click on Windows destop and select properties in the drop down menu).

SP2-Did you say?
Is Norton (or any other AV) always running on your comp?

Wahey, you guys are quick to reply <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> What a great forum!

In answer to a few, yeah this is the computer that has had many games played on it. I'm an RPG buff so it's had a fair few played out. The computer has never had any unexpected problems running other games. Due to it being XP it is known to crap out occasionally, but nothing unusual.

I've tried in both 16 and 32-bit colour, no luck unfortunately. There does not seem to be an error log in any of the DD folders either. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" /> Tried a manual install as that page suggested, but it didn't help. It must be something deep down that it does not like. It's a shame I cannot pinpoint it to something!!!!

I uninstalled all my anti-virus and firewall, but that didn't help - of course I've put them back on now. Tried reverting back to an older DirectX version.

Hmmm, everything seems to be okay with the install, the files are all verified fine, there are no errors anywhere.

It's just sucky that it seems to happen no matter what I'm doing in the game, whether I'm trading, talking, walking, stealing stuff outta gardens etc. There is nothing specific.

I've deduced that it's not a hardware problem, it is definately something to do with software. Dang.

I want to purchase the expansion, but if I cannot get this working right then there isn't much point. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

[color:"orange"]I want to purchase the expansion, but if I cannot get this working right then there isn't much point.[/color]

Beyond Divinity is a separate game, not an expansion. A lot of stuff was changed or updated, so it is possible it would run fine on your system. Some of the game engine was carried over, though, so it could also crash randomly. Do you know anyone who has BD, that you could borrow it from to check out (or maybe a library or game rental place)?

There is a demo for BD. It wouldn't necessarily react to your system exactly as the full game, but may be a better indicator than DD.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

You obviously installed the latest patch. Didn't you?
Don't even think about starting the game without it.

Try to set the Sound acceleration at zero.
Then (if this work not) turn the Musik and the Voice in the Game off.
I solved it in this way at my PC.

@Stone
I need to know this too..
Who do we turn sound acceleration to zero? DirectX, but how?

Oh, this is diffucult, becouse i have the german XP Version. But i will try.

Startbutton
Settings
Systemcontrol
Sounds and Audiodevices
Then at the register Loudness, the Speakersettings the button "extended"
There you will find the Sound accelaration.
If the Translation is wrong, and you cant find it, ask Lady Rain.
I think she knows that

Alternately, click Start | Run, type in dxdiag and hit Enter, then switch to the sound tab.

Ahh yes, sorry. I was looking at NWN sitting on my table when I said expansion. BD is great, I have had a whack at it, its great to control two characters (good humour!)

With BD it crashes out to the desktop every 3-5 mins but doesnt exit and I can go back into the game clicking on it in the taskbar.

With DD it still crashes out and then quits altogether.

I've tried taking off the sound, 16bit colour etc. Yeah, it's also patched. I wish it would give me an error.txt so I could have a look at the log!

Thanks for all your help guys. If I can't get this sorted then I'll have to cry a bit and play Nox or something. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

If you just start either game and leave it sitting at the main menu, do they still crash / minimize to the taskbar? How about if you load a save and just stand around?

Could you just be accidentally hitting the Windows key? That would minimize the game to bring up the start menu, and some people have had problems task switching with DirectX games.
If you alt-tab out of either game, do you have similar problems? How about deliberately hitting the Windows key (assuming your keyboard has one)? If that is the problem;

r/e: hitting the windows button instead of alt key

Greetings and hello,
I have been very patient thus far with Divine Divinity however my patience is running thin and I would great appreciate any help:
The following error occurs regularly:

AppName:Div.exe AppVer: 1.0.0.34 ModName:slash4.dll Modver: 0.0.0.0 Offset 00002c1e

Now please understand...This is on a Windows XP Professional system and that is the "Error Reporting" program....I do have and will attach if need be an extremely complex and confusing word pad document that goese into further detail with this error.

Things I have done thus far;
A. Reinstalled game
B. Tried multiple graphics settings

I would like too thank any in advance who assist me with this problem.
V/R
KrondoxLC

Are you shutting down all non-essential programs (especially anti-virus) before starting the game?

A coupe people have had a crash involving slash4.dll when walking through doorways, which lowering the hardware sound acceleration a notch would fix (click Start | Run, type in dxdiag and hit Enter, then switch to the sound tab). You didn't mention a pattern, though, so I assume it is more of a random crash in your case?

Troubleshooting Tips (& manual install procedure)

Back for seconds,
I did as you suggested with the DXDiag. I closed everysingle program in my task menue that did not crash my system while closing. I unistalled. Re-installed. DL'ed patch, started new game. Still the same error occures. I do notice it can happen while going through doors, but you are correct in that it happens anywhere else also. Only resolution I have ATM is to save the game alot so I do not loose anything nice or important....Any further advice would be wonderfull. Also, would having the logged error file posted here help with more info?
Thank you in advance for your time,
KrondoxLC

haha i forgot to install the patch as u may maybe now
sigh omg is it realy so bad?
whats the % chance u think i will fail in completing the game
with no single patch and an old version of the game <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />

KrondoxLC;
Maybe try disabling hardware sound acceleration completely, and see if that makes a difference.

What is the logged error? It may not help, but it can't hurt to have additional information.



Freaker98;
I was half done the game before I installed the 1.32 patch. The only problem I ran into was that Finnigan's magic unbreakable lockpick broke; installing the patch restored it.
In the release version there were a couple potential game breakers, but there are fixes or workarounds for most of them.

If you toss a teleporter stone into the castle before getting an invitation, talk to Janus and accept a quest, it will break a required quest when you enter properly.
A couple people either killed friendly NPCs deliberately, or did not have their mini-map open in the Verdistis sewers and attacked friendly thieves, thus eliminating required NPCs or dropping their reputation enough most NPCs turned hostile or refused to talk to them. The patch adds protection for more plot-related NPCs and removes the thieves in the sewer (if the game is started after installing the patch).

Except for getting into the castle too early, there is a fairly low chance of running into an unfixable game breaking problem.

Hi All,

WinXp with SP2. All latest drivers.
I had the same problem. Same error codes.
Sound from realtek onboard sound.
Radeon 9800SE video card.
All latest drivers installed.

Bought new sound card Creative Live 24Bit.
Installed sound card disabled onboard sound.
Not a sound issue.
Still same problem. Falls through back to windows.
Lose game info played.

Then installed XP with SP1 default DX9b.
Problem solved.
Still have now and then sound crackle over speakers.
But I don't have to save that often anymore. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/XmasJump.gif" alt="" />

Regards


Josh

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/party.gif" alt="" />

I wonder if it was the re-install of Windows that cleared the problem, or sticking with SP1 / DX9b? In any case, hopefully this may help anyone else who runs into something similar.


Welcome to the forum. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

Hi All,

I had same error message as stated in one of the other post.
AppName:Div.exe AppVer: 1.0.0.34 ModName:slash4.dll Modver: 0.0.0.0 Offset 00002c1e

My XP with SP2 is a very recent installation with no driver updates.

This is why I bought another sound card, and disabled the onboard realtek sound card. This is why I know it is not the sound card problem. I have read in other post about the sound issue. To detune the acceleration. This did not help.

It is a video card problem under XP with SP2. Could be memory leakage. This happened ever hour or so. Then it fell through to the operating system. Game lost if you did not frequently saved.

What i will do install DX9c and see what happens.
I installed ATI version 4.8 drivers with XP and SP1.
I still get now and then noise over the speaker system.


Regards
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

I also know in the English version of the game the ogg sound file for either the caverns or the sewers isn’t clean, so it will always sound a bit crackly in one of those two spots, no matter what you do.

Tsel <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

First of all i'm new on this forum so i want to say hi to everyone
&#304;'ve got the same problem too,but worse.

My PC is:

P4 2.02ghz
ASUS P4S333 Mainboard
2*128mb RAM
Onboard 32MB SIS650 graphics card
Onboard sound card
40 GB harddisk

The game always crashes to desktop NO matter where i am,
it won't even start the game i've seen the main menu once or twice
in my life.It always crashes on the first loading screen.
I use both XP(SP1) and 98 still,it crashes on both.First i thought it was
because of CD's but on other PC's it works fine.

It gives no error messages and doesn't create an error.txt
I've tried patching it and so but still doesn't work.

Maybe my hardware has a conflict with the game engine because
It does the same on Beyond Divinity's demo.
I don't think its because of the GPU,it was still crashing
On my GF2 MX400.I've tried disabling the sound but it doesn't matters.
Could the RAM or CPU causing the problem?
Thanks for your help

Your Lickerman
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> Yalaram <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

It is more likely a driver conflict than with the hardware itself. Have you checked Asus' web site to see if there are any updated drivers?

The CPU shouldn't be a problem, unless it is overclocked, in which case other resource intensive programs would probably also have problems. This seems a little too consistent to be a problem with the RAM, especially if no other memory intensive programs crash or report errors (other than the BD demo). There are a couple memory testing programs you can try, though.

Memtest86 / MS Windows Memory Diagnostic


Are you shutting down all non-essential programs (especially anti-virus) before trying to start the game?

Did you look at the troubleshooting topic?

Have you scanned your system for viruses or spyware recently? (freeware anti-virus and anti-spyware programs)

MS has a patch for game video related problems in XP (which is included with SP2) that you could try, though if that was the problem, Win 98 probably wouldn't have the same type of crash.

Try setting your desktop resolution and the game resolution to be the same.

Check this topic to find out how to automatically skip the intro videos, in case that is part of the problem (either something with the videos themselves, or DirectX resolution switching to play them, etc).

I never had any kind of troubles with my DD, well besides the times I had a really messed-up CD-rom and it wouldn't read the cds right so I had to manually install the game...

but the game worked just fine on win98, winxp, sp1 and sp2

but sometimes, when I don't close all others background apps, sp2 gives me a bubble info(at the taskbar) during the game that involves virtual memory and that it's too low and that windows is increasing bla bla bla....
this could be a problem for you guys...I'm no expert but I'm just sharing my exp

cheers mates <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

First i want to thank you for your answers

I should've uptaded my mainboards drivers ages ago
but i never thought of it <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />
My RAM is working fine and my CPU is not overclocked
(I don't have the guts)

Yes i always shut down other programs before i play the game,
There are about 17-18 PROCESSES running and most of them are SYSTEM.
For the Viruses i had no once but it still didn't worked
Now my PC's breeding virus i am waiting for the next format so
i didn'tcleaned them up. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Vdeo's work fine but it crashes on the loading screen(The one with the sword)

My resulotion is 800*600*16 same as the game.
I'll try to roll back my GPU's drivers.

Did you run the configuration program and try switching to Software or Direct Draw, rather than Direct 3D? Try lowering the resolution, check 'Use AlphaBit' and uncheck 'Smoothness' (restore the original settings if that doesn't help).

If you haven't tried a clean reinstall of the game, you may want to check out the file verification method in the troubleshooting topic.

Hi All,

I did upgrade to DX9c all was ok with Radeon 4.7 drivers.

I then installed Radeon 5.3 drivers then I had problems again.
With XP installed with SP2 and Radeon 5.2 drivers also problems,
falling through to desktop.

So I'm back with Radeon 4.7 drivers.
So my problem is video driver related.

The strange thing is when video card is installed with Radeon 5.3 drivers,
no error message what so ever.

My setup PC.

2.6 GHz Intel CPU, Radeon 9600SE, Creative 24Bit Sound card, 512 MBDDR ram.


Regards