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What to do if you've got a CTD


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#1 berelinde

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Posted 05 December 2007 - 10:11 AM

We've all had them. Sometimes, the computer locks up first, sometimes, an area is loading, and then boom, crash to desktop.

As a player, there are a few things you can do to troubleshoot this on your own before posting here or elsewhere.

What was the party doing?
First of all, what was the party doing before it happened? If everybody was just walking along, minding their own business, chances are good that it could be a hardware issue, possibly overheating.

What else was running?
Another thing to consider is what you were doing, as a player, when it happened. Overcommitment of CPU capacity is another culprit. If you've got your antivirus running while you're playing, and carrying on a few IM conversations, and shopping for holiday gifts, and writing your thesis, balancing your checkbook, and modifying a portrait, you might want to think about closing a couple applications before restarting the game from your last save.

How big is your installation?
Size matters. If your override folder is enormous, like >1GB, that can contribute to overall lag, where the clock is making jerky movements, everybody is moving across the screen by jumps, if they move at all, and commands are not always acknowledged. It can also contribute to random CTDs. There, it's a judgment call. Do you really need all those NPC mods *right now?* Uninstalling those you don't plan to play immediately will help a great deal, since the WAV files add the most bulk.

Do you come here often?
Was this a one-time CTD, or is this something that happens every time, at the same place? If it's a one-time thing, or seems to be random when and where it happens, check one of the first few things.

Sometimes, it isn't you.
If an area is loading when it happens, though, there is something else to note. How far along did the "progress bar" get before the game crashed? Seanas wrote this a while ago, and I saved it. I'm posting it here in hopes that it will help someone else.

as to which file is the cause, yuo can tell by how far thru the loading process you get. if immediate black screen of death: corrupted creature listed in the .are file; if it makes it approx 1/3 thru loading screen: corrupted .are file; if almost the whole way: something corrupted aded via the .bcs file; if the whole way, area brielfy shows then CTD: animation conflict.


That's when your weidu.log will help.

Happy gaming!
Here's hoping that this will make it easier for folks to more accurately report their gameplay problems, and easier for modders to help them solve them.

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#2 GeN1e

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Posted 01 February 2009 - 06:11 PM

as to which file is the cause, yuo can tell by how far thru the loading process you get. if immediate black screen of death: corrupted creature listed in the .are file; if it makes it approx 1/3 thru loading screen: corrupted .are file; if almost the whole way: something corrupted aded via the .bcs file; if the whole way, area brielfy shows then CTD: animation conflict.

I'm not sure about the bold part. Mine keeps crashing instantly even after I wiped out all of actors and containers (read - items) from the save. DLTCEP refuses to load it either, so I'm inclined to assume that the .are goes first, and only then actors. Well, logic tells that too.

Retired from modding.


#3 Hoppy

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Posted 01 February 2009 - 08:49 PM

Areas can also be corrupted in the WED and TIS files as well. If DLTCEP cannot open the area than the WED file may be to blame.

Also faulty ambient sounds will lead to crashes however those get messed up but it happened to me and restructuring those ambients in the .ARE saved my day.
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#4 Cal Jones

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Posted 02 February 2009 - 03:09 PM

Lately I've been getting stop errors (ye olde blue screen of death) during BGII. I've had a 07F and a 08E error this evening. It's sporadic, but it tends to happen when loading a new area. It's a bit tiresome.
I did add some new memory a few months ago but it took first time and I didn't get any problems until now (I bought the correct memory for the motherboard and removed the existing memory first - it was an upgrade from 500MB to 2Gb). It's an old PC - 4 years or so, though much of it has been replaced over time. The only original parts are the processor (motherboard and even processor fan have been changed) and hard drive.
I don't get the stop errors during normal activity (ie surfing the web, checking email or anything like that). Is it likely BG2 is to blame? (It didn't used to do this though I had my share of mod related CTDs).

#5 Yovaneth

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Posted 03 February 2009 - 03:10 AM

Lately I've been getting stop errors (ye olde blue screen of death) during BGII.

It's not likely to be specifically BG2's fault - a BSOD usually points to a corrupted dll call of some description and BG2 doesn't have any. It does rely on MSCRT (Microsoft common runtime) files.

However - and you are going to hate me for saying this - 07F errors are indicative of a RAM problem. Try lifting, cleaning the contacts with a rubber (no sniggering over there in the US) and reseating the RAM sticks. If your 2Gb upgrade consisted of two sticks, try running with one and then the other to see if makes any difference.

08E errors are indicative (gosh - aren't I weasely-worded today! - comes of working in a support environment) of a video driver problem. If you're not uptodate, try upgrading. If you are uptodate and your motherboard has onboard graphics, reset to those, take out the videocard, remove the videocard drivers (add/remove hardware/software) and start again.

Otherwise, I'm fresh out of ideas. Except to say that if the errors don't stop, I'd have a stern word with the motherboard.

-Y- (otherwise known as the Geek by his wife).

Edited by Yovaneth, 04 February 2009 - 04:43 AM.


#6 Cal Jones

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Posted 15 February 2009 - 02:06 PM

Well I've had one or two problems since. One I had a completely different error that corrupted a save (or at least the party/area image files) resulting in an assertion error. Fixed and sorted.
Then nothing for over a week. New game, new mods. All fine until today and I got two BSODs - both 0 errors (IRQL less or not equal, or somesuch). Second one happened going into a building in the Bridge District. When I reloaded, all interiors were black. People were there, exits were highlightable, but no backgrounds (even from an earlier save). I went back out, deleted the cache and fixed the problem, but I'm now wondering if perhaps the hard drive (or at least, the part BG2 is installed on) is flakey.

It's all moot as a new PC is on the way, but I was half considering keeping this one around in case I have probs running IE games on the new one.

#7 Miloch

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Posted 30 November 2009 - 01:21 PM

I thought someone would've mentioned this here, but I'll post to an older topic because I've had to repeat this several times today alone.

If you're getting any crashes or freezes, the second thing you want to do (after clearing out your cache, temp and tempsave folders) is make sure Logging On=1 is set under [Program Options] in your baldur.ini file (as described here) then reproduce the crash and look at or post the contents of the resulting baldur.err file.

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#8 tatterdemalion

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Posted 03 October 2012 - 01:03 PM

Hmm... I posted to the Aurora forum last night but I'm not sure whether it's that mod now or something else.

I'm getting a CTD every time I try to load a save in the general Underdark area, or exit into that area from somewhere else. I played through the Underdark before with a different party on this same install without any problems.

The crash is happening about 1/3 of the way through the area load, but NearInfinity can't find any corrupted .are files (or .cre or .wed files for that matter.)

I've tried renaming the .are and .bcs files in the override folder and then deleting temp (to get the game to load them from the originals) and no dice (so I named them back to what they were, figuring I didn't want to risk messing something up.) Where do I go from here?


D'oh, it turns out I misplaced my stores.bif while copying the install. PEBKAC error... *facepalm* All better now.

Edited by tatterdemalion, 03 October 2012 - 02:16 PM.