GAAAAAAAH! (KOTOR 2 Vista problems)

[Itisnotlogical]

They're making me homicidal. Whenever I try to play Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2 on my Vista computer, I run into an error message. It's not especially helpful; it's a catch all "x program has encountered an error and needs to shut down" message. It opens the launcher, and allows me to get as far as actually starting the game (after the pre-rendered opening scene) before crashing. Sometimes it goes for a second or two, but it always crashes. Here's a list of various specs about my computer:

Windows Vista Home Premium
Intel Pentium Dual-Core PC @ 1.86 GHz
2GB RAM
Mobil Intel 965 Express chipset family

And here's the various fixes I've already tried, most of which were recommended on the official LucasArts forum:

Downloading a new Mss32.dll file

Manually setting Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1 in the setup.ini file*

Manually setting Fullscreen=1 in the setup.ini file

Getting the SECURom updated version of the swkotor2.exe

Removing the Read-Only property from the SWKotOR2 folder in C:\Program Files\Lucas Arts*

Setting the launcher and executable to run in compatibility mode for Windows XP SP 2

Tried various combinations of video settings

Set the core affinity so that only one core was processing the game via the Task Manager*

Installing the latest version of DirectX

Where * indicates that I had no idea how this was supposed to help.

As you can probably tell, I've been having a miserable time of it all. Has anybody ever, EVER figured out a way to get this damned game to run on Vista that I haven't tried yet? My copy of the game is an original copy, not the Best of PC version.

 

[Vance]

I wish I could be more specific for this, but I remember KOTOR, KOTOR2, and NWN having issues with dual core machines due to their rendering engines. There's an INI fix for this, but I can't remember it to save my life. Poke around Bioware's forums and you'll be able to dig it up, though.

 

[Sparky]

Have you tried checking the "disable desktop composition" checkbox in the compatIbility settings? This will disable the Aero window transparencies. I have had to do that with a few older games to get them to work properly.

 

[CorporalClegg]

Also, try to run the install under Administrator. Sometimes just running the executable isn't enough.