B&W1 [patch1.1] + WinXP: crashes after a while.

U-77

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Feb 1, 2009
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20
Hello.

I recently installed B&W1 under WinXP.
Installation OK.
Patch (1.1) OK.
No official or custom add-ons are installed.

Game starts, runs, and plays smoothly.
No audio or video problem what-so-ever.

Yet after sometime into play (from 20 minutes to over 2 hours), the game freezes.
The infamous dw15 window is in the background saying that an error occurred within runblack.exe, with the game music still going as if nothing happened.

Trying to narrow down the possible causes I have:
- terminated all unnecessary programs in background.
- stopped all noncritical services as well.
- disabled XP visual themes permanently.
- run a dxdiag (just in case) to see everything is in order.

- I also tried the compatibility modes.
None makes a difference, except win98/Me mode which crashes runblack.exe directly upon launch.

- Finally I tried to lower the video resolution, color depth and quality settings.

I got plenty of memory available, both virtual and RAM.
There's no firewall on this games-only system that may interfere.
Account used has full administrator privileges.

What else can I try?
Thanks in advance.


Ciao ciao : )
 
Hi, welcome to our forums. Finally.. :)

Why not use the V1.20 patch. It's more stable with XP.
 
Hello Kays.

"More stable", you say?
Sounds good enough to me.

For some reason I didn't want to upgrade to 1.2
I remember it'd do something I disliked.
Heh. I don't remember what "something" anymore, anyway.

I'm off to fetch the patch.
Ciao ciao : )
 
The only short coming of the V1.20 patch that I'm aware of is that the music don't play.

This can be resolved by copying the Music folder from the CD to the Audio folder in the game directory on your harddrive
 
Patch 1.2 was installed without problems.
I played for about 70 minutes, and then crashed.
This time a proper and sudden CTD, unlike the freeze occurring with patch 1.1

Music wasn't playing, as expected.
(I didn't bother to copy the Audio folder)

Moreover, this time the system Application log was filled with hundreds of errors, all reporting an unknown Event ID and other garbage data.
The timestamp of each error was that of the crash of B&W, no doubt.

B&W is the only game that won't work on my computer.
Older and newer games alike all work perfectly.

If the problem is something within my WinXP, I wonder what it is.
Any suggestions?


Ciao ciao : )
 
What WindowsXP  updates do you have?

What Service pack?

Mean to ask, yet have to. Is it a verified instalation, that windows.com accepted?



Did you try the special fix for BW also hosted on this site.

Did you try running in compatible mode?


Did you try re-installing compleatly?

If you feel bold, did you try to see if anything is wrong in the registry?



Alot of these questions might help Kays, or anybody else help you better :)
 
Thanks for caring : )
But I've found a "quick-fix" for this strange crash thing.


Here it is:

Enter the Citadel (the Temple) at regular intervals, like every 30 or 45 minutes of play.
Maybe go to the Save Game Room and save while you are at it (not required, though).

Exit the Citadel and play like normal.
Remember to re-enter the Citadel at some point in future.

That's it. End of solution.



Why it works?
(I'll see to avoid unnecessary technical details)

It's about the management of AGP memory from B&W.
Entering the Citadel forces the game to unload all the Textures and 3D models concerning the "outside" Land, and load the interiors of the Citadel instead.
When you exit the Citadel, you force the game to do the opposite.

This operation has the beneficial side-effect of making cleanup of the big part of AGP memory currently in use by B&W.
This cleanup is what postpones the crash and keeps the game going.

If you prefer...
... the same "cleanup" operation (just much better) is triggered if you pause the game and Alt-Tab out to Windows. And then Alt-Tab back in.
In this case the entire AGP memory will be first cleaned, then reloaded "on demand" (so to speak).
And you'll witness the game rebuilding all the Land textures when you Alt-Tab in.


No need to say that my last game session lasted over 6h and ~15m, without a crash.
I just quit because I have matters to attend to.


Ciao ciao : )
 
Cool, thanks for posting that. :)

BW1 crashing is a common problem for some. Maybe this will help someone else.
 
Well, yay for you!

I just re-installed bw1, because I used the de-patcher.. it failes on vista..

And.. now.. it is even reluctant to start.. O_o;; Ofcourse.. I didn't install any patch yet, so that might be the problem.

As I never tried without patches on vista ^^
 
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