Major glitch.

[FireStorm123]

Hi, I am having some trouble playing kotor TSL, i recently got a new pc that should play the game perfectly(7600GT card). However, for some reason i get a strange bug that prevents me from playing the game what-so-ever. First of all, when i started the menu is very jumpy. The buttons flash and the guy whos standing has the same effect, (jumping animations and stuff). Thats not too bad to be honest, but when i get into the game it loads up and the cutscenes go SUPER fast and you cant read anything, after the cutscenes finished I go to move foward then my character goes all black and i cant move and when i do move it goes SUPER fast again and i end up in a corner and cant move. I have a few screenies, if anyone could help me it would be greatly appreicated.

 

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/nat...ebfc779a51d.png

 

http://screenshot.xfire.com/screenshot/nat...9cac8f8ecb2.png

 

Thanks in advanced.

[Darth Mortis]

In order to take a guess as to what is going wrong-and things you could try to get the game to work-it would help if we had more information about your computer. Still, I'll give a few thoughts.

 

Operating system-if the computer is new I'm guessing that it's running windows Vista, which seems to dislike doing anything complex, such as working. There are tips as to how to get K2 working with Vista in the FAQ thread, which is right at the top of this part of the board. One thing I would note is that new computers don't always have Windows (Or most of the other programs) installed correctly-don't forget that noone really has the time to install everything on a PC after its built. The very first thing I do with a brand new computer is check that I have full copies of all the programs, then I reinstall them all. You can install (or re-install) windows directly over the top of itself without losing any of the other programs that are on the HD, since windows always checks the HD for installed programs. Even Versions of Windows that are intended to be used on a totally clean computer will do this, what you will lose are windows settings. (re)Installing windows in cases like this can make a huge difference to the efficency of a computer, and of course how well games run. Do, however, back up any information you don't want to loose just in case and make sure you have URL's and passwords ect written down before you try this, and of course you'll need to have the install disks.

 

Graphics card/driver-If sounds as if there is a problem with the graphics card to be honest. Don't be fooled by KOTOR's setup program telling you that the card will run the game. In my experience the setup and configeration program can be fooled by graphics cards, and while the chip in the card might be able to run the game in theory in practice different cards can use the same chip but not be able to run the same games. For graphics problems I would advise trying;

 

Turning all the graphics options down to the minimum. The configeration program can (and in my case has) set the graphics options too high for a card to really handle. Start by setting the screen resolution to minimum, details to the lowest setting and turning all the added extras off and seeing if that helps. If the game runs smoothly at the lowest settings you can raise them one by one until you find out what your card can really handle.

 

Update drivers-If this is a new PC don't be fooled into thinking that your drivers are upto date. The drivers that came with the PC, both on disk and pre-installed, will be out of date. Update. Another problem that can occur with drivers in new PC's is that they don't, in fact, use the real drivers but ones that are pre-loaded into windows. If you have the disk with the graphics drivers on it try running that disk in the computer to install them (while time consuming this should have no effect on your PC) which will over write the current drivers. If you don't have the driver disk for your card try looking on the net for the correct drivers for your card, downloading them and installing them (ie-its an update of the drivers). Like reinstalling windows in a new PC this can solve some problems with incorrect instalation leading to computer slowdown. People often assume that a new computer will have everything installed correctly, and that they will have no problems. This is wrong, since the programs on new computers are almost never installed correctly they can run less efficently than they can or should.

 

Turn off back ground programs-although KOTOR only needs to access the internet in order to update, programs such as firewalls, anti-virus and anti-spyware can take up memory and slow a computer down. Almost all the programs you have running in the background of your PC (ie-in the taskbar window) can be turned off to free memory as long as you're not intending to go on the net, and of course as long as you remember to turn them back on before connecting to the net. Depending on the programs you have running in the background this can make a huge difference, since some programs can conflict with games even if they don't take up that much memory.

 

Check the HD-Two things to do are to run a scan disk to check that there are no broken links/files on the computer (Takes around 20 mins upwards for a detailed scan, but this varies depending on the size of the hard drive). The second is to run disk defragmenter (which will most likely take an hour upwards). Its easy to assume that a new computer isn't going to have any problems with its HD, but its best to be sure. Defraging the drive is something you should do anyway once a month as it will improve performance somewhat. In either case all you'll spend is time, unfortunatly this is time when you're not really going to be able to do anything else.

 

I hope something here helps, good luck.

Edited August 31, 2007 by Darth Mortis

[Deadly_Nightshade]

Are you using any mods? As it almost looks like a texture issue...

[FireStorm123]

Thanks for replying, I'm running windows XP and about the drivers i have the latest for my card (6.14). I'm pretty sure all the windows programs are installed and updated because me and my dad built the pc. The thing i dont get most is that my old pc ran it perfectly fine and it had a 4 geforce card. Anyway thanks for all the tips i'm gonna try them and i'll post up my specs

 

EDIT:

Manufacturer: MSI

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+, MMX, 3DNow (2 CPUs), ~2.2GHz

Memory: 2048MB RAM

Hard Drive: 82 GB

Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT

Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor

Sound Card: Realtek HD Audio output

Keyboard: USB Root Hub

Mouse: USB Root Hub

Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.070227

Edited August 31, 2007 by FireStorm123

[Lord Phoenix]

I think it's the 7600GT tbh,i had simular issues...but got my game to run better by turning a lot of the graphics options down. I think it's just that the card's too new

[FireStorm123]

i tried turning mine down, runs a little smoother but i still get the cutscene error and the extremly fast movement.

[Darth Mortis]

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't K2 react badly to duel core processers? I seem to recall someone having that problem before, but for the life of me I can't remember what the problem was or what the solution was.

 

It might be a good idea to go and check the lucasarts websites, there is a whole section of their chatboards dedicated to the KOTOR games and at least part of that board is purely for technical problems with the games on PC. If part of the problem is down to the duel core there should be something on there.

 

Out of interest have you tried uninstalling then reinstalling K2? I remember having a problem with K2 when it locked up totally at the first film-even though I'd had no problems with the game before. I uninstalled the game, checked that the disks were clean (I even cleaned them again) then reinstalled and this seemed to solve the problem. Remember that you will not lose saved games on KOTOR when you uninstall unless to tell the PC to delete them.

 

Taking a look at the game disks and making sure they are clean is worth the effort too, sometimes games can run fine with disks that look like someone has attacked them with a wire brush and at other times they will lock up or refuse to work because of a thumb print you can barely see with a micro-scope.

 

Do you have the latest version of Direct X? I don't mean the one that came with the game but the lastest?

Edited September 1, 2007 by Darth Mortis

[FireStorm123]

Yea i have the auto updater thing for directx and yea i've tried reinstalling and i've tried the game on another pc in the house and it worked fine. Maybe kotor just dont like my pc :<