KotORII Problems

[Mauril Everleaf]

I just bought Knights of the Old Republic II for my PC and I can't play it. My PC is fairly new (just got it at Christmas) and is not high end, but isn't a piece of fetid carp either. I ran the diagnostic that accompanies the game to test all of my equipment. All of the relevant parts passed inspection. I also downloaded the necessary updates for KotORII through the Update function provided with the game. I can watch the opening movie, and all the movies that come without having beaten any levels. I can run through character creation with no problems or glitches. I click play, watch the opening movie with the word crawl. The loading screen does it's thing, and then......black. All I get is a black screen. I get the audio just fine, but no visual. After about 2 minutes of black, an error message pops up and tells me that there was an error in the program and that it needs to shut down.

Anyone have any ideas why this is happening, or better yet, how I can fix it?

[melchizedek]

I would recommend downloading the most recent drivers for your graphics card. If you don't know what graphics card you have, you can check using the Direct X Diagnostic tool. You can access this from the run menu by typing in dxdiag and hitting enter.

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Comrade Gorby: Video games go in Gaming (Other), so off you go!

[Mauril Everleaf]

I'll try that too. BTW, awesome name! Melchizek is one of my fave "bit" chars from the OT.

[melchizedek]

Thanks. I thought it was a cool name because I live in Salem, OR. (He was known as the king of Salem)

[Jibar]

If you're running into problems now Mauril, I'll warn ya:
Leave Dantooine till last.
There's something wrong with both KoToR 1 and 2 concerning Dantooine.
It all gets horribly laggy, and will crash frequently.
Your best hope is to turn everything graphics-wise as low as you can.

[The Evil Thing]

Surely if it's crash-prone, it's best to do it first?

BTW, I never experienced any problems with Dantooine. I did get occasional artefacting in Nar Shadaa, though.

[Om]

Damn. I think I had this problem when I first played the game but its been so long that I can't remember how to fix it. Downloading the latest drivers is always good advice and I'm sure that troubleshooting guides are available via Google.

@Jibar: The problems in Dantooine in KotOR were the result of waving grass playing havok with graphics cards. It could be easily fixed by turning off this option in the graphics menu. I had no such problems in KotOR II.

[Jibar]

I turned off grass. Never fixed it.
On KoToR II the exact same thing happens. And I have literally turned off all the graphic options that would damage.
Now, admittedly, the game was pre-owned, but that can't be the reason a whole planet won't work. The disk isn't that scratched.

[ray53208]

kotor 2 was extremely buggy, parts were left incomplete... i was really let down. i mean there were some really neat innovations in game play and combat, but the first kotor is still the benchmark i rate other pc rpgs by and kotor 2 falls short.

[Arang]

KotoR 2 had about a third of average game production time. You can't really expect it to be complete, but the parts of the game that were complete were mostly excellent. I think it's a better game than most give it credit for, and it beats the original for me.

I played through it 4 times, and I only had the problem with Dantooine lagging on the third playthrough.

If downloading new drivers doesn't help, try uninstalling and reinstalling the game.

[Om]

I have no idea that that issue could be Jibar. While I usually made a save when first arriving on a planet, in case the game got bugged, at no point in KotOR did I have the issue of the game simply die on me on Dantooine. In KotOR the problem was graphical related and easily fixed by fiddling with those options (I had the same problem in that Undercity place on Taris)

The only real advice I could give, and this applies to the OP as well, would be to search on either the official forums or Google for people who have had the same problem.

kotor 2 was extremely buggy, parts were left incomplete... i was really let down. i mean there were some really neat innovations in game play and combat, but the first kotor is still the benchmark i rate other pc rpgs by and kotor 2 falls short.

I actually enjoyed KotOR II more than the original. I suppose the writing was just better. Of course that doesn't excuse the fact that huge chunks of the game were missing... which is why I'm keeping an eye on the progress of Team Gizka

[Mauril Everleaf]

Thanks for the advice. I got it working now, and am on Telos (I hope that's right). I installed all new drivers for everything and updated the game too (took for wombatting ever on this stupid dial-up). So far it seems pretty much awesome. I was up until 4:30 last night playing it, and then played another couple of hours this evening. I need to go read a book or something, to counter balance my lack of productivity...

[TheOOB]

Statement: Books are an unnecesary and arcaic means of human communication and should be avoided when possible.

Observation: Your percieved lack of productivity is simply a result of a insufficiant amount of lightsaber based violence.

Suggestion: I humbly implore you to engauge in more acts of wanton destruction.

[Midnight Son]

Or just get an old Xbox and play it the way it was meant to be played. I played both games extensively and never saw a single bug in KOTOR. The only bug in KOTOR II was if I was taking advantage of a dark side level up cheat. The system would crash every 4th or 5th time I cheated.

I know, I know. That doesn't help in the least with the problem as stated, but I felt the need to share.

[Mauril Everleaf]

Statement: Books are an unnecesary and arcaic means of human communication and should be avoided when possible.

Observation: Your percieved lack of productivity is simply a result of a insufficiant amount of lightsaber based violence.

Suggestion: I humbly implore you to engauge in more acts of wanton destruction.

Too bad I don't have a lightsaber yet. I'm stuck dualling vibros. I've limited myself to just an hour a day, now, so it may take some time to beat this game.

[Jibar]

Oh don't taunt him OOB, it's gonna be a while until he gets HK.
So annoyed with HK actually. My first character is Light Side Mastery, thus: HK hates my guts.

[Mauril Everleaf]

No, you run into an HK unit in the first level that you get to play your character (and not the T3 droid). I caught on. I also know that there is one in the cargo area of the Ebon Hawk, and since I repaired part of it, I assumed that eventually I would repair all of it, and it would join me. Also going Light Side, so I may not want to let it in.

[Vespe Ratavo]

No, you run into an HK unit in the first level that you get to play your character (and not the T3 droid). I caught on. I also know that there is one in the cargo area of the Ebon Hawk, and since I repaired part of it, I assumed that eventually I would repair all of it, and it would join me. Also going Light Side, so I may not want to let it in.

Even if you are going light side, HK is (at the least) very funny and a good source of comic relief (if a bit macabre) and (at most) a good rifle/pistol person. Too bad he can't become a Sith....you're off the hook this time, meatbags.

[TheOOB]

Heck, in KotoR I HK was in my party even though I was light side, he's such an awesome character.

[caolle]

gots a link round here somewhere of somw muuuuch better people than youll find at Obsidian or lucas arts for this game

[caolle]

http://team-gizka.org/wip.html

yeah kop that that and youll soon ahve an actual finished game
soz if this has already been posted i didnt rad it :)