computer n00b needs help...

[duckattack]

OK, I just got Neverwinter Nights, installed and updated, and all that... But as soon as I actually start the game, it crashes, "Neverwinter Nights has encountered a problem and blablabla...". Their forum is useless, there's a long thread about this problem consisting of about a half dozen people who have the same thing happening, and no posts about what causes it. My video driver is up to date, not sure about my soundcard driver, though. And my device manager says I don't have any hardware conflicts. The only other game I've ever installed on this computer (which I've only had for 2 months) was Sim City 3000, and it did pretty much the same thing, got started then shut down the program. Any suggestions?

and here's what I have:

amd athlon 2.4
512meg RAM
GeForce 4 MX 440
and this is where the n00bishness comes in - I'm not sure what my sound card is. It lists "c-media AC97 audio device", but isn't that just the chip? I think it's Legacy, but I'm not sure.

argh.

 

[Thanatos]

*points and laughs*

 

[Focus]

I think it's your sound card driver. I have no problems running it. What OS are you using anyway?

 

[Hewy80]

Try disabling your sound card drivers in control panel then run the game and see if it loads. If it does it is obviously your sound card/driver that has issues

 

[Cyanide]

nah soundcards don't give you 'fatal errors' messages when you play games,
if there is a problem with your soundcard you simply get no sound

i used to gave this problem (those errors) when i was playing almost
any game, turns out 1 of my RAM-modules was corrupted

i don't gave Neverwinter Nights, but if it is based on the q3-engine you
might try installing opengl (www.opengl.com)

 

[Voice of God]

i don't gave Neverwinter Nights, but if it is based on the q3-engine)

NWN has it's own engine.

Are you sure you don't have a soundcard and an integrated soundchip (on the motherboard)? Reading from the NWN forums it seems that the game has an issue with integrated sound interfering with the card. In this case you have to disable the integrated sound from BIOS (being noob, you might want to get someone help with that).

Anyway, if it's not that, if the pre-game menu (which opens up in a window on your desktop) works fine, try lowering your graphic and audio settings to minimum, it might help something. And of course update the game. Knowing the whole error message and the exact point where the game crashes (introvideo, main menu, character generation, the actual game...) might help finding the problem...

 

[nataservant]

I have that game, it runs perfect all through the first level (training and running through the castle) but when I get out of the castle the loading screen before hand loads half way and then I get "'Neverwinter Nights has encountered a problem and blablabla...'" I have reloaded the game and restarted the computer, the disk is fine but it always fucks up, it is annoying as fuck

 

[Cyanide]

Hmm, aren't their any NWN patches available that may take care of this problem?

 

[Lhorian]

AC97 is, as far as I know an onboard sound card so the needed drivers should be on thesame disc as the rest of the motherboard drivers.

As for running the game, as Cyanide said it could be a memory-failure.
Try running it in the lowers settings.
As for the rest, like Voice of God said, give some more information on when the error occurs, that could be helpfull.

 

[duckattack]

At first it was crashing as soon as the game actually started - I'd point the cursor at the first guy you talk to and then boom, fatal error. I went into the control panel and told it not to use the AC97, and then it worked fine, until I tried to save my game. At that point I said fuck it and went to bed. I'm running XP, btw.

 

[MRBEAST]

At first it was crashing as soon as the game actually started - I'd point the cursor at the first guy you talk to and then boom, fatal error. I went into the control panel and told it not to use the AC97, and then it worked fine, until I tried to save my game. At that point I said fuck it and went to bed. I'm running XP, btw.

nothing about it in the games read me file?

 

[Cyanide]

maybe this link will help you out...