Can't Get NWN to Load -- any Suggestions?

I decided after a long hiatus to install NWN and both expansions on my new PC so that I could enjoy some of the newer community mods. The following are my system specs:

XP w/SP2
Athlon 64 3200+ cpu
2 gigs of DDR 3200 RAM
M-Audio Revolution 5.1 sound card
X800 GTO 256 meg video card
View Sonic LCD screen

* Both sound and video card have the latest drivers. I've defragged, scanned for viruses and spyware. When I played this on my old PIII system with a 1.2 Ghz cpu, 512 megs of PC 133 RAM and an ATI 9200 video card it ran fine (though I would experience severe FPS slow down from time to time).

I can run Dungeon Siege II, C&C Generals and even Divine Divinity patched with no issues at all. But when I go to load NWN at the Menu screen (not the very first screen that pops up but the one where you have the options of "new," "load," etc.) I keep getting the infamous error report and Windows must shut it down.

By the way, when I stalled this game - twice - I shut down my firewall, spy sweeper, and anti-virus programs before installing.

1. I've tried it in game version 1.59 (the one it shipped as) and the latest 1.67. Same thing.

2. Both installs were clean and all indication was that all files took and it still will not play.

3. I shut down my firewall after installing, but that didn't help.

Anyone have any clues? Advice? I came across another person on a different forum who is running into the same thing. He could play it on his old system but on his new one will not load the game either. Atari's tech help is no help at all. Thanks.

The time I had trouble running it was my sound drivers. But if you've updated them, I'm at a loss.

If it's been awhile since it's been used the CD's could be damaged.

This might be counterintuitive, but have you tried installing older video drivers over the new ones? Only do this if you've got an easy way to get the new video drivers back.

Do you get any error message, or just a general shutdown?

Do you have any saved games to load? Does it crash if you click "new"? I'm wondering if it's possible that something in an old savegame from the old machine is causing the trouble -- though I've transferred savegame files from one machine to another without trouble.

Really, I'm stabbing in the dark, here. But, you know, I work here, so I feel obliged to try.

I'll ask around and see if it's a known issue, ideally with a known solution.

My bet is sound as well - or something odd with your DVD drive.

I don't think it's video. Not on that level of shut down.

You don't have Daemon or some other CD / DVD emulator running do you?

Steel_Wind said:

My bet is sound as well - or something odd with your DVD drive.

I don't think it's video. Not on that level of shut down.

You don't have Daemon or some other CD / DVD emulator running do you?

Click to expand...

First of all I want to thank every one who has responded. Believe it or not I have received better advice from this forum than a great many forums on so called Computer Tech specialists.

I do not have a Daemon or some other CD/DVD emulator.

Anyway, my sound card is a very good one but M-Audio isn't making any more drivers for it because they have gotten out of the soundcard business (wish I knew this when I bought it). The last one was 1 to 2 (?) years ago. But if that is the case then why didn't my ATI 9200 without the latest driver not give me an issue on my old PIII? Can someone explain it to me?

Dunno the why of it, but NWN does seem to need new sound drivers. I ran into that same problem last year when I bought NWN Platinum.

This is not good news for me because I have an M-Audio Revolution 5.1 soundcard which is a great card with quality but since they are not in the soundcard business anymore they haven't released a new driver since 2 years ago and they won't be doing it in the future.

The confusing thing is my old P3 system's card is several years older - a Creative X-Gamer that was installed along with my then Diamond Viper TNT 32 meg video card which shows you how long ago it was - and I hadn't ever updated the audio driver in all these years and yet I was able to play the game including both expansion packs. Go figure...

If you want to be sure it's the soudcard drivers, uninstall them. What does the error report say?

Rl'Halsinor said:

that was installed along with my then Diamond Viper TNT 32 meg video card which shows you how long ago it was -

Click to expand...

I had that card too! Great little card... I gave it away, but it came with my first comp, PIII 450, so...1998?

I find that I have much more problems with 'good' hardware than I do with standard issue or old stuff.