Larian Studios Forums Divine Divinity (English) Technical Problems this game's starting to tick me off

this is me tired, not much really, but totally irritated.

i guess i spoke to soon about the game being stable. i was just exploring the country side when the game suddenly decided to make me life a living hell. the game just keeps on crashing, no matter what i do or no matter what save i load even the very first save i made when i just started my second character. even my saves from my first character crashed.

and to make matters worse, somehow during my first uninstallation, my pc didn't quite acknowledge or recognize that i've already uninstalled the game. so now i'm losing two point something gigs of space in my hard drive.

and what @#$@!! is with those bees? everytime i encountered one and try to squash it to pieces the game crashes. and where is high and mighty lord seth?

and too capped it all off, i copied the wrong folder of savegames <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badsmile2.gif" alt="" /> when i thought of reinstalling the game, manually, the third time, tarnations!!!!with hopes that in doing so would wipe the frown, frustration, and irritation in me face. but alas, it just made it worse.

and one other thing, on impulse i installed the game on an older pc, an AMD k6 300mhz. and know what? it didn't have any problems with the installation. only this is that pc is not mine and if it ever were mine, i'd probably spend a handful of dough just to upgrade it.

a last one, really. about patching the game, should i download all patches or can i just use the 1.34 patch?

just get the new patch. those bee's ?? hmm. don't know, and Seth probably went away if u told general Alix, either that or he got killed by orcs. Can't help ya with the otehr questions. sorry.

Hi jared,

Did you try out the following suggestions during installation and playing <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/div.gif" alt="" /> ? ( Technical Support Faq)

5) Problem: Random crashes
We have had a number of reports on random crashes. Most of these could be solved by doing one of the following things :

* Make sure all your drivers are up to date and you have the latest service packs and windows updates installed.
* Turn down the windows hardware acceleration of the sound driver down by one notch.
* Make sure the color depth of your desktop is set to 16 bits.
* Make sure the integrity of your files is not compromised by executing a scandisk.
* Make sure you have no other applications running in the background
* Make sure you have enough free hard disc space
* Make sure you have full read/write access to the folder where you installed Divine Divinity

You also might want to check if there is a file called error.txt in the run folder of the folder where Divine Divinity was installed, as it might contain helpful hints.

Hope this helps you.
And yes, if you uninstall and re-install, don't forget to install the latest patch

Sorry for this inconvenience.

hi lynn,

i did all there is to be done. i've read the tech faq and and other post regarding crashes and manual installations.

drivers are all up to date.
aye!, 'tis been in 16bit mode as suggested in the faqs.
scandisked, defraged and all drives 'ave no problem.
no other applications are running when the game is being played 'xcepting maybe the explorer and systray.
about 15 gigs of free space would sure be enough.
now the last part, i am not exactly sure 'bout it. cuz i don't how to check if it is or it is not.

no error.txt has ever been lodged down me pc's throat ever since i installed the game and started playing it.

Same thing for me. Really Lynn, you always copy and paste that same procedures to do each time some1 ask a question about bugs. Seriously, I have 2 pc's, both has big problems running the game properly, it ALWAYS crashes no matter what you try to solve the problems. One is running a Radeon 9500 Pro and the other a Geforce so it's not a graphic card problem. I think it's just a game problem. This is not normal since ALL my other games are working PROPERLY. I'm very sick of this. This would have been a great game but all those bugs makes it like farris said a living hell.

so you've... uninstalled, shutdown, restart,

scandisk, defrag, reinstall, shutdown, restart,

update1, update2, update3...

in that order.....and ALL else is up to date? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />

I have the same problem, so you are not the only one.
My game crashes randomly too.
It crashes seldomly when i enter a new map, but the game crashes very often when i want to load or save a game.
When it crashes while i am saving, the save game is corrupted so i always save to two different files.
But strangely enough the longer i play the game the less it crashes.
When i just begin to play the game crashes within 5 minutes.
Then i restart the game and after a few minutes it crashes again while i am loading or saving the game.
After three of four crashes, i can play the game for three hours before it chrashes again

this is, by far....
one of the most quizzical tests of the larian team...... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

here's what i noticed whilst playing the game, keeping in mind though that i haven't gone far yet with the game.

first characterd, wizard.
-8 to 10 hours of gameplay, no crashes until i was in the last lvl of the catacombs and about to shown how the resurrection device works. after clearing the catacombs, and started roaming around, breathing the fresh air of aleroth and its surrounding woods, the game continually crashes at random. no crashes though while saving or loading a game.

second character, wizard.
-no crashes in the catacombs and while exploring the surroundings of aleroth, and even on the way to the barracks of general alix and the camp of miltox. but after encountering the first of the many bees that inhabit the woods, the game started to crashes, randomly. the first crash with the freaking bees happened when they emit some sort of greenish air(?) around my character. and one other weird thing with these freaking bees is that my character can't seem to hit them either with magic powers or physical attacks.
-i can play for atleast 4 hours or more if i avoid a confrontation with these bees. but there mere presence, even without a fight with them seem to cause a crash.
-however, after the first sighting and confrontation with these freaking bees, the game has become very unstable even without seeing a single bee.

just curious, was this game rushed in its release?

i'm gonna start a new character, a wizard, again. if after doing all those suggestions to make the stable yet the end result is still an unstable game, i may just quit and buy splinter cell.
i can stand buggy or unstable games in my pc like fallout series and baldur's gate and neverwinter nights if these games are really that good. but so far with DD i can't really tell since i haven't gone that far with the game, maybe i have only seen the tip of the iceberg but who am i to say if it is the tip or it's the iceberg itself. (no pun intended.)

hey i saw something like this about someone else that wanted to be a wizard,
and some of his installation files failed to de-compress, and the process had to be done manually.....is that you too? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" />

@jared:


It should be in the RUN folder where you have the game installed.
And about your last post: did this all happen with the same patch, the latest one?


@tayeule:


Yes, but usually these procedures solve the problem. I can imagine that I sound repetitive in here, with asking the same again and again, but I gave already support to many people and if the question isn’t asked in the same thread…, well I don’t remember all these names. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Ok, I’m looking further into the problem.

My only idea for Your problems jared is that U haven't got original game.It is almost impossible that DD is crahshing like this when its installed from original Cd's.
My friend here in Poland has pirate copy of DD and he had also big problems.I've lend him my copy and there was everything OK.
This happens occasionally but it happens <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

I have the legal version of the game, installed the patch.
And did all the things Lynn told me to do, still it crashes.
The hardware in my computer is state of the art, maybe that gives all the problems that i have with DD <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cry.gif" alt="" />

Same thing here again. I don't say that the game suck, but it would have been way better if we were able to play it more than 20 minutes each time.

Could you please send your system specs to support@larian.com and a description of your problem, or a link to this thread.

Hey i have two copys of Div, one isn't original and other is but my game always crash after yona's dungeon if i start to cast spells. I can fight but i can't cast any spell or the game crashs.


My not original copy work in the first time very well, after that when i installed again the game always crashs, and i formated my pc(all) and nothing happens, the game crashs again and again and again.

But i'll try something trick to pass altrough this problem.

Try to edit the Registry entries, in Windows® Regedit, of course you have to know the Registry.

You can do the same with Diablo2, try that with Diablo2 expansion or not,

copy from the cd these two files for your Diablo2 folder: Musicx.mpq and Video.mpq(something like this name, i don't remember now), now go to Regedit and look for HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE, Software, Blizzard Entertainment, and Diablo II, now get these two entries (if i remember) Diablo II Cd and Diablo II files and change these values for the locate of your Diablo II folder.

When i'll come to my home(tonight) i'll edit this post with right files and right entries, but this is right isn't the same name but don't have how to fail, because just have these equals names, it's something like
Entrie = DiabloII files or can be Diablo II Local.


Ah, i have to test this with Divnity, before confirm something.

poor people, they can't play the best game! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/disagree.gif" alt="" />

i think i may have found the reason why my previous characters keeps crashing after leaving the vicinity of aleroth.

on my first installation, i do remember importing a DD registry file for windows ME in my pc's registry that i have downloaded. and in my eagerness to play the game and in my frustrations in encountering the crashing problems i have inadvertably overlook a small but important detail. i forgot to edit the target folder of DD's registry entry. such that in doing so, the game has been stable excepting for two crashes early in the game. i've been playing a total of 12 to 15 hours, or more. and yet to encountering a crash.

however, as in the saying that, "as a door closes, a new one opens", so does my problem with DD right now. one problem solved and two problems rise up to take to take the place of the problem solved. to one problem elaborate:
--after installing the game, i had 3 or more hours of stable gameplay. then i had to stop cuz i had to go to class.
--returning from school i continued playing for 5 hours, more or less, again the game was stable-no crashes or freezes-then had to stop cuz my cousin wanted to watch some dvds.
--after watching a dvd, i again started playing. this time, however, right after loading a saved game my pc locks up or freezes when my character had taken few steps. he can use the portal stone and teleportation device, if he is near one, to enter a new area but just a step or two would freeze my pc. and even without teleporting to another area, just move a bit and my pc locks up which leads me to restart my pc. this happens to all my save games. i tried the suggested solutions, excepting defrag and scan disk, but nothing worked.

and riddle me this, after experiencing the problem mentioned above, i uninstalled and reinstalled DD, both done manually. i then edited the registry entry and patched the game. after that i started a new character, saved it. then i loaded save from my third character and would you know it? it worked! i mean the game didn't freeze or lock up. i have been playing for 2 hours and no crashes.

second problem:
-flickering. or that's how close i can describe it. the top and lower part my screen flickers every now and then. sometimes it just disappear only to return again after a while. i never did encounter this in my previous two installation of game. could it be video card? or merely the setting? the driver is up to date, last i checked. and i have the lastest directx.

um, u do have the latest patch right??? thats all I can think off. hope it gets fixed, maybe Raze knows something. its not the rainbow wash, but feezing with steps?? hmm. pm Raze, he's the tech guy.

ok, it happened again. on my 4th character, in my 4th installation. i played 30 minute game or less and the game crashed. loading from my latest saved freezes my pc. tried loading previous saves, still the same.

maybe i forgot to press R(always run mode) since my character was moving quite slowly and guess what?, the game didn't freeze. i tried it on my lastest save and it work. i can move my character around. however, when if press R the game freezes. then i tried it all on my saves and the results are if the "always run mode" is activated the game freezes, but if the "always run mode" is deactivated so that my character is only walking the game won't lock up or freeze.

so with this in mind, i created a new character(5th). turning "always run mode" off, i moved my newly created character around joram's cellar and outside his house. no problem(s) encountered. then turning "always run mode" on, to see if the game freezes as all my 4th character saves had done, but it didn't. again no problems there. weird, thought i. so again i tried to load my saves from my 4th character to see if the game would still freeze and it did. if run mode is off, no freezing, but if it is on, then the game freezes.

freaking weird, thought i again. so once more i created a new character(6th) to test if my 5th character was just a fluke. following the same procedure, run mode off, then run mode on, the result was like that of my 5th character: no problems encountered. but i used the same procedure to my 4th character saves, the game freezes.

the only solution i found so far for DD is reinstalling it. but it has side effect. my pc would now recognize if DD is installed or not thus reinstalling it again is like adding another 2 gigs into my hard drive.

If you are re-installing the game to the same path, it should not be taking up any additional hard drive space each time, and even installing it to a different path, the previous one should have been deleted. Try running ScanDisk and see if it is just an error in the free space listed (FAT32 in win 98/ME is particularly susceptible to this), or if there actually is more space used. The saved game folders are fairly large, as well, as additional saves will take up more room.

if you know how...
you could always edit registry and remove all ref's to DD... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

it's not something to play with if your not sure!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/suspicion.gif" alt="" />

Raze and to everyone.

i finally got the game working stable. and 'tis a blast!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> wonderful, totally wonderful.

thanks for a great game and for all your help. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wave.gif" alt="" />

for future refrences, how did u do it?

beats me.

all i did was reinstall the game a couple of times. but i think it has something to do with the registry entry i download for DD. at first i forgot to edit the target folder, maybe that's why the patch was not working then.

That would do it. The patch checks the registry for the install path, so it was trying to update files in the wrong folder. If the patch created the 'c:\Programme\Divine Divinity' folder (it shouldn't have), you can delete it.

another one saved from the evil registry..!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Where can I find that Registry entry you installed? I too would like to be able to play this game properly.

You should only need the registry file if you had to manually install the game, in which case, there is a link to download it in the topic below (the target path needs to be edited to correspond to the path you installed Divinity).

Troubleshooting and Manual Install Procedure