Troubleshooting Known Issues for Shadows of Amn and Throne of Bhaal

[Solaufein]

This information is copied from the old defunct Baldur's Gate 2 Shadows of Amn Bioware site.

Don't forget to read the game's Readme.txt, which has important information not listed on this page. There could be a solution in the Readme that will solve your problem.

Shadows of Amn

*     BG2 Shadows of Amn Patch is available
*    Assertion errors
*    The BG2 Installer fails to start
*    Installer stuck at 95% and asking for CD1
*    General CD Install Troubleshooting
*    CRC errors while installing
*    How to "fake" a larger install from a Minimum install
*    How to determine if the Bonus CD(s) are installed
*    Random crashes with a VIA chipset motherboard
*    How to uninstall BG2
*    BG2 suddenly not knowing it is installed
*    Crashing in item inspection with ATI cards
*    Problems with Crystal Sound Codec
*    Line-of-sight bug
*    3D in BG2 series games explained

Throne of Bhaal

*    BG2: Throne of Bhaal Patch is available
*    Installer bug deleting a folder in the Start Menu
*    LaserLock and the "CD-Protection-Error. Insert Original Game-CD" error
*    After you try to open the 3rd seal in Watcher’s Keep, the final battle never starts.
*    The game stutters or pauses for short intervals while playing.
*    How To Manually Uninstall BG2: Throne of Bhaal
*    NPCs respond with "X appears busy"
*    Assertion errors
*    General CD Install Troubleshooting
*    CRC errors while installing
*    Random crashes with a VIA chipset motherboard
*    Problems with Crystal Sound Codec
*    3D in BG2 series games explained
*    Dramatic Increase in Loading and Saving Times

Other Issues:

*   CMI8738/C3DX PCI Audio Device and WinXP
*   Nvidia Graphics Cards
*   Windows XP
*   Loud Squeal In Dungeon Areas
*   "Install" Replaces "Play" Option
*   Configuring Firewalls and Routers
*   Sound Blaster Sound Cards
*   Antivirus and Crash Guard Software
*   Mouse/keyboard problems

[Solaufein]

Baldur's Gate II Assertion Errors

Please see our complete list of Baldur's Gate II support resources for additional Baldur's Gate II help.

ChDimm.cpp at line number 508

    Memory allocation error. This could be running out of RAM or swap space. Check your swap file size and make sure you don't have any extraneous programs running.

ChDimm.cpp at line number 599

    Could not open/find a specific file either on the CD or hard drive. You should reinsall.

ChDimm.cpp at line number 805 or 834

    BG2 failed to start up. Try to reinstall. Make sure that the baldur.ini file is NOT flagged read only and make sure that the [Alias] section is pointing to the correct directories of your install.

    Here is a sample of what the [Alias] section should look like for a full install:

    [Alias]
    HD0:=D:\Games\Black Isle\BGII - SoA\
    CD1:=D:\Games\Black Isle\BGII - SoA\CD1\
    CD2:=D:\Games\Black Isle\BGII - SoA\CD2\
    CD3:=D:\Games\Black Isle\BGII - SoA\CD3\
    CD4:=D:\Games\Black Isle\BGII - SoA\CD4\

    This should let you start the game.

ChDataTypes.cpp at line 250

    General decompression error on BAM and MOS files. This is the most common error that will occur when the game is accessing bad data on your hard drive. This can occur from a faulty install of BG2 or can occur due to some oddities with your hardware. There are no easy solutions to this issue as they are hardware specific. Try clearing out your "cache", "temp", and "tempsave" directories. Failing that, try reinstalling.

chitin.cpp at line 1621

    Problem with "chitin.key" file. First try re-patching the game. Failing that, try reinstalling.

chsound.cpp at line 3303

    Possibly running out of disk space while playing sounds. Check to make sure you have enough free space on your C: drive and where BG2 is installed.

chvideo.cpp at line 9302

    Failed to draw mouse cursor. This is most likely bad data in RAM, so restart the computer and try again.

ChVidmod3d.cpp at line 889

    Error retrieving frame information from a BAM in 3D mode. This is most likely bad data. Try clearing out your "cache", "temp", and "tempsave" directories. Failing that, try reinstalling.

CtiledObject.cpp at line 244

    Could not find a specific tileset. This is most likely bad data. Try clearing out your "cache", "temp", and "tempsave" directories. Failing that, try reinstalling.

InfGame.cpp at line number 2689

    Couldn't delete temp files. Exit the game and try clearing out your "cache", "temp", and "tempsave" directories.

InfScreenInventory.cpp at line 9826

    Failed to draw an item on the history page. This is most likely bad data. Try clearing out your "cache", "temp", and "tempsave" directories. Failing that, try reinstalling.

InfScreenLoad.cpp at line 1492

    Corrupt portrait bitmap. Go into the directory of the save game that is giving this error and delete all the .bmp files. Load the game and then re-save.

InfScreenMap.cpp at line 2676

    BG2 failed to draw the map mosaic. This is most likely bad data. Try clearing out your "cache", "temp", and "tempsave" directories. Failing that, try reinstalling.

Failed in ChVidImage3d.cpp at line number 1957

From the Bioware forums:
Question:

Quote
When I try to load a game, when I move the cursor up, the game crashes with an error message:

An Assertion failed in ChVidImage3d.cpp at line number 1957

Answer:

Quote
Ok, I found the solution, please add this to a list of fixes or ways to fix it:
when I went through my 'save game' files to load my game, it kept giving me the above error and kicking me out to windows....so, i slowly moved the up , and the last Save Game I could see was *eight* before it crashed so i opened my Save games folder, and deleted the *seven* folder, and it now works fine. corrupted save game?

All other line numbers
The majority of all other Assertion errors seem to be caused when the game is unable to locate a file that is needed or the file is corrupted. To correct this you will want to try the following:

Clean your cdrom drive with a lens cleaner and be sure that all dust, dirt, or glue has been cleaned from the cd's surface.
Be sure to delete the games cache (delete all files within {games folder}\CACHE\DATA\). When you restart, the program will recreate the cache and should repair the missing file. (If you have done a custom install you will want to find out the area # that is causing the trouble by checking the map. Once you have narrowed down the trouble area, delete that file from your DATA folder and attempt to recopy it from the cd back to the same DATA folder.)
If the previous two steps do not work you will want to try to use an earlier save game as well. There have been a few reports of a corrupted save game causing this type of error.

[Solaufein]

The BG2 Installer fails to start

    If you try to install BG2 and you get an error saying something like "interface not supported" or "failed to load type/library" you are most likely missing some critical Windows files called DCOM. You can download DCOM from Microsoft.

    Windows 95

    Windows 98

    Please note that this solution is only for instances where the installer will not start. This will not address any other installer issues.

[Solaufein]

Installer stuck at 95% and asking for CD1

    If you are installing BG2 and the installer gets stuck when it reaches 95% complete and begins to ask for CD1, but never recognizes it, we have a possible solution for you. Please note: It is normal for the installer to ask for CD1 at 95%; the problem is when the installer doesn't recognize CD1 in the drive. The problem seems to be occurring because of an arbitrary assignment of the phrase "CD1" to the CD ROM drive, conflicting with a file name that is on CD1 called CD1.ifo. This problem only affects a small number of people who happen to have a device name for their CDROM's called CD1.

    1) Open your config.sys file (usually found on C:\) in notepad and look for a line that looks similar to, but not necessarily exactly like, "devicehigh=C:\cdrom\taisatap.sys /d:cd1". The key portion of the command to look for are the "devicehigh" and the "cd1". This is a command that will load a CDROM driver called CD1 into high memory. This may be present if you play DOS games that require CDs or have upgraded from DOS to Win95 to Win98. If you do have such a line, change the "CD1" portion of the line to "CDROM01" (note this device label is arbitrary - it's what your CDROM drive name was initially installed as. CD1.ifo is a file on the BG2 CD#1 and the overlap of the names appears to cause problems reading the CD1.ifo file). If you have any other lines similar that load drivers for a second CD (i.e. CD2) you will need to change them as well.

    2) Open your autoexec.bat file (usually found on C:\) in notepad and look for a line that looks similar to but not necessarily exactly like "c:\windows\command\mscdex.exe /d:cd1". Modify the "cd1" portion of this line to "CDROM01". It's important that the exact same name change is made in both config.sys and autoexec.bat (to "CDROM01") for this to work. (note your CDROM will work exactly as before after making these 2 changes but the device name will now be changed to CDROM01 in memory - this won't affect anything that you should be able to detect).

    3) Reboot your machine after making both changes above. Then try the install again and see if that fixes the problem.

[Solaufein]

General CD Install Troubleshooting

    If you are having problems getting the game to install or the game is asking for a CD5, you may want to try some of the following suggestions.

1  When changing CDs during the installation, let the drive spin-up and then stop. Then click OK and see if the installer recognizes the disc change. Do this for all the CDs that are requested.

2  Try checking for a firmware/BIOS update for your CD or DVD drive. We have had several reports of sucessfull installs of the game once a firmware update was applied. You will have to check with your CD/DVD drive manufacturer for this kind of update.

3  If for whatever reason you are unable to do a Recommended or Full install, but you can do a Minimum install, please read How to "fake" a larger install from a Minimum.

4  If you have multiple CD/DVD drives, only install from one and do not try to use all of your drives. For some reason, this is confusing InstallShield.

5  If you cannot do any install without getting some sort of error or crash and you have about 5 Gig of free hard drive space, you can try to copy all 4 CDs to your hard drive, then run the install from there. Please note, you must copy all 4 CDs to the same directory for the install to run. If you get prompted for the next CD, then you have not copied the files over properly, or you have missed some.

6  Try turning off DMA for your CD/DVD drive. For some people, this has allowed them to install. You can find this checkbox by going to your Control Panel, then to System, then to the Device Manager tab. Find your CD/DVD drive and bring up its Properties, then go to the Settings tab.

7  Try turning off your CD/DVD read-ahead. For some people, this has allowed them to install. You can find this slider by going to your Control Panel, then to System, then to the Performance tab. Down in the Advanced Settings frame, press the File System... button and move the slider all the way to the left. You may need to restart for this setting to take effect.

[Solaufein]

CRC errors while installing

    CRC error occur when the installer compares the file it just copied to your hard drive to the source on the CD and finds that they are different. There are two possible causes:

     1  Bad CDs. Take your copy of the game and try installing it on another computer. If you get CRC errors then you need to get your CDs exchanged for new ones.
     2  Hardware issue. If you are able to install the game on another computer, you most likely have a hardware issue with your system. Refer to the General CD Install Troubleshooting above for other possible solutions.

The "Insert Disc 5" problem occurs when the installer has had trouble reading one of the files on a previous CD, and so assumes there must be another disk with the relevant file on it. There are a number of steps you can take which may fix this problem and allow you to install properly, as outlined in the quote below.

These steps also apply to other installation errors such as the "Cyclic Redundancy Check" (CRC) error.

Quote
1. When changing CDs during the installation, let the drive spin-up and then stop. Then click OK and see if the installer recognizes the disc change. Do this for all the CDs that are requested.

2.Try checking for a firmware/BIOS update for your CD or DVD drive. We have had several reports of successful installs of the game once a firmware update was applied. You will have to check with your CD/DVD drive manufacturer for this kind of update.

3. If for whatever reason you are unable to do a Recommended or Full install, but you can do a Minimum install, please read How to "fake" a larger install from a Minimum.

4. If you have multiple CD/DVD drives, only install from one and do not try to use all of your drives. For some reason, this is confusing InstallShield.

5. If you cannot do any install without getting some sort of error or crash and you have about 5 Gig of free hard drive space, you can try to copy all 4 CDs to your hard drive, then run the install from there. Please note, you must copy all 4 CDs to the same directory for the install to run. If you get prompted for the next CD, then you have not copied the files over properly, or you have missed some.

6. Try turning off DMA for your CD/DVD drive. For some people, this has allowed them to install. You can find this checkbox by going to your Control Panel, then to System, then to the Device Manager tab. Find your CD/DVD drive and bring up its Properties, then go to the Settings tab.

7. Try turning off your CD/DVD read-ahead. For some people, this has allowed them to install. You can find this slider by going to your Control Panel, then to System, then to the Performance tab. Down in the Advanced Settings frame, press the File System... button and move the slider all the way to the left. You may need to restart for this setting to take effect.
If you don't know how to disable DMA and read-ahead optimization on your CD Drive, here are the steps:

Windows 98/Me

1. Open the Control Panel
2. Open "System"
3. Choose the "Device Manager" tab
4. Click the "+" next to "CD-ROM"
5. Select your drive, right-click it and select "Properties"
6. Choose the "Settings" tab
7. Uncheck the "DMA" checkbox.
8. Click "OK" to close the Properties window
9. Choose the "Performance" tab (in the "System" control panel window, which should still be open)
10. Click the "File System" button
11. Select the "CDROM" tab
12. Select "No read-ahead" from the "Optimize access pattern for:" drop-down box

Windows 2000/XP

1. Open the Control Panel
2. Open "System"
3. Choose the "Hardware" tab
4. Click the "Device Manager" button
5. Click the "+" next to "IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers"
6. Select "Secondary IDE Channel", right click it and select "Properties"
7. Choose "PIO Only" from the drop-down box labelled "Transfer Mode"

Note: In most cases your CD-ROM or DVD Drive will be Device 0 on the Secondary IDE Channel. If you have both a DVD drive and a CD Drive, one of them may be Device 1 on the Primary IDE Channel. If you have more than one Hard Disk Drive, your CD drive could be Device 1 on the Secondary IDE Channel.

In general, you can tell a CD-ROM or DVD drive because the DMA will show up as "Ultra DMA Mode 2" or "Multi-Word DMA Mode 2" or something like that in the "Current Transfer Mode" description field.

I recommend against changing the DMA mode of Device 0 on the Primary IDE Channel. Unless your computer was built by someone who doesn't know what they're doing, this will be always be your main Hard Disk Drive.

There is no read-ahead optimization option in Windows 2000/XP.

[Solaufein]

How to "fake" a larger install from a Minimum install

    Minimum to Recommended Install

    1. Do a Minimum install.

    2. Edit your "baldur.ini" file. Change the line "Install Type=1" to "Install Type=2"

    3. Copy the following files from CD2 to your BG2 directory, where [cddrive] is the letter of your CD-ROM drive and [BG2] is the location of your BG2 install

    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\CREAnim.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CREAnim.bif
    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\CREAnim1.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CREAnim1.bif
    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\GUIMosc.bif ===> [BG2]\data\GUIMosc.bif
    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\MovHD0.bif ===> [BG2]\data\MovHD0.bif
    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\NPCSoCD3.bif ===> [BG2]\data\NPCSoCD3.bif
    [cddrive]\CD2\Data\NPCSound.bif ===> [BG2]\data\NPCSound.bif

    4. Copy the following files from CD3 to your BG2 directory

    [cddrive]\CD3\Data\CD3CreA2.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CD3CreA2.bif
    [cddrive]\CD3\Data\CD3CreAn.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CD3CreAn.bif
    [cddrive]\CD3\Data\CDCreAni.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CDCreAni.bif

    5. Copy the following files from CD4 to your BG2 directory

    [cddrive]\CD4\Data\CD4CreA2.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CD4CreA2.bif
    [cddrive]\CD4\Data\CD4CreA3.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CD4CreA3.bif
    [cddrive]\CD4\Data\CD4CreAn.bif ===> [BG2]\data\CD4CreAn.bif

    You now have a Recommended install.

    Minimum to Full Install

    1. Do a Minimum install.

    2. Edit your "baldur.ini" file. Change the line "Install Type=1" to "Install Type=3". Also, you will need to edit the [Alias] section. Make the following changes where [BG2] is the location of your BG2 install

    [Alias]
    HD0=[BG2]
    CD1=[BG2]\CD1
    CD2=[BG2]\CD2
    CD3=[BG2]\CD3
    CD4=[BG2]\CD4

    3. Copy the following directories (and all their contents) from the BG2 CDs to your BG2 install folder, where [cddrive] is the letter of your CD-ROM drive and [BG2] is the location of your BG2 install

    CD2
    [cddrive]\CD2 ===> [BG2]\CD2

    CD3
    [cddrive]\CD3 ===> [BG2]\CD3

    CD4
    [cddrive]\CD4 ===> [BG2]\CD4

    You now have a Full install.

[Solaufein]

How to determine if the Bonus CD(s) are installed

    To determine if the either of the bonus CDs have been correctly installed go to the directory where you installed BG2. Go into the "override" directory and look for 2 files:

    Bonus CD with the Collector's Edition - AR0702.bcs

    Bonus CD for pre-ordering through InterPlay or EBWorld - AR0406.bcs

    If you find these files in your override directory then you have had a successful install of your respective CD.

[Solaufein]

Random crashes with a VIA chipset motherboard

    There have been many reports of random crashing or crashing with the movies with owners of Intel VIA chipset motherboards. Please note: This issue does not apply to AMD systems. For most users, there is a BIOS update available from your motherboard manufacturer that will solve this problem. If you have the latest BIOS for your motherboard, you have to make an adjustment in your BIOS settings. Go to the setting for "CPU IOQ" and make sure the value is set to 1 and not higher. Another solution for some, has been to adjust the AGP mutiplier setting so that the card cannot use faster than 1X speeds. For BIOS updates, you should check with your motherboard manufacturer first before going directly to VIA.

    Another solution has been to reinstall the VIA 4-in-1 drivers in "standard" mode as opposed to "turbo" mode.

    Here is the VIA driver page:
    www.viaarena.com

    There have been reports of the latest BIOS from Tyan removes the "CPU IOQ" setting and therefore eliminates your ability to change the setting.

    If you have a Micron computer, BIOS updates are available here:
    support.micronpc.com

    If you have an Asus P3V4X motherboard (or have more interest in the IOQ setting), there is some information at:
    www.netspace.net.au

    If you are unable to resolve the issue of crashing during the movies, you will have do disable movies in the game by editing your baldur.ini file. Go the the section labled "Program Options" and add a line saying "Disable Movies=1" anywhere in that section. All plot advancement is done through in-game cutscenes so you will not miss any plot points by disabling the movies.

[Solaufein]

How to uninstall BG2

    Here is the procedure to uninstall BG2:

1  Uninstall using the shortcut in the BG2 Start menu or the Add/Remove Programs utility in the Control Panel. The game files should be removed from the user's hard drive and the shortcuts removed from the Start menu.

2  If step 1 failed, run "baldur.exe" from the CD. It should notify the user that the previous installation attempt failed and that they should try reinstalling the game using the program's Install button.

3  If step 2 failed, edit the "baldur.ini" file in the directory where the game was installed. Look for the "Installing" key under the "Program Options" section, set it to 1 ("Installing=1"), save the file and repeat step 2.

4  If step 3 failed, edit the system registry using the regedit / regedit32 utility. Remove the following keys:
    - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ App Paths \ BG2Main.exe
    - HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Uninstall \ {8DAE4336-2B71-11D4-9A6C-006067325E47}
5  Go to your Program Files directory and find the hidden directory "InstallShield Installation Information" and delete the directory labeled "{8DAE4336-2B71-11D4-9A6C-006067325E47}"

6  Manually delete all the files and directories created by the previous installation attempts (this should return the system to its state before the original installation attempt) and try again to install from the CD.

[Solaufein]

BG2 suddenly not knowing it is installed

    If you have Norton WinDoctor or any other type of registry checking/cleaning utility it will delete the registry entries for BG2. While these entries are not wrong per se, they will be deleted by these kinds of utilities. Check to see if your system utility has an Undo feature.

    You can either not run these utilities while BG2 is installed or you should run them in a manual mode that allows to you confirm actions like this.

    If you are comfortable messing with your registry, you can manually re-enter the setting. Find the key:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SOFTWARE \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ App Paths \ BG2Main.exe

    and edit the (Default) entry and make it point to the BGMain.exe file including the full path. Also, create two new String values called "Install" and "Path" and enter the full path to your BG2 directory.

    This is fixed in the BG2 Patch

[Solaufein]

Crashing in item inspection with ATI cards

    There is a bug in the ATI OpenGL driver that will cause BG2 to crash with a Blue Screen of Death while trying to inspect/identify various items such as maces and other magical items. ATI has fixed the problem at their end and we have fixed our code with a workaround.

    This is fixed in the BG2 Patch

[Solaufein]

Problems with Crystal Sound Codec

    If you are having various crashes with the game in the form of error messages or the dreaded Blue Screen of Death and you have the Crystal Audio Codec installed as a sound card on your computer, you may have to turn off all sounds in the game.

    If you own an HP 6600, 6700 or 8700 series home computer, please see the following page for a new audio driver to fix this crash.
    www.hp.com

    The current Crystal Audio Codec drivers are incompatible with the game. This is a driver issue that Cirrus Logic (the makers of the Codec) need to fix. This issue is fixed for owners of certain HP home computers.

    You can turn off all sounds in game by editing the baldur.ini file by going into the [Program Options] section and editing the following line:

    Disable Sound=1

    This option was added in the BG2 Patch

[Solaufein]

Line-of-sight bug

    There is a bug where the main character suddenly cannot see any further than about 2 ft. in front of him/her. We have figured out a temporary solution to this bug, until a patch is released. Simply cast one of the following spells on your afflicted character and your line of sight will be returned to normal:

        Heal (6th level cleric and druid spell, also available at a temple)
        Neutralize poison (4th level cleric and druid spell, also available at a temple)
        Cure disease (3rd level cleric and druid spell, also available at a temple)

    This is fixed in the BG2 Patch

[Solaufein]

3D in BG2 series games explained

    By turning on 3D mode in the game you essentially turn on 3 effects. All water is then rendered with a blending rather than a dithering effect, as is the fog of war. All effects in the game that can be brightened or blended will render faster. Fading from one color to another will happen faster. There are no other changes to the way the rendering system works.

    The differential in speed that you may notice is dependent on the video card you use and what features it supports. Not all 3D accelerators will notice an improvement and there are some video cards that will even render it slower or not at all. Unlike games that have massive amounts of polygons and require 3D accelerators to draw them really quickly, this is a sprite based game. All graphics are drawn out on to flat surfaces, not in a 3 dimensional environment, so the acceleration noticed by other games may not be noticed in the game.