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Sacred 2 and modern machines & OS


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Sorry but the repair console did not achieve anything, except to recover a non-existent Windows 8.1 !!

I have lots of games installed. Why should this be the only one which has produced this ridiculous error message, especially when it was running quite happily day before yesterday:)

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I upgraded from W7x64 to W10x64 - Sacred 2 (non-steam) now starts, but after a minute idling at the main menu with the waterfall (or if I am quick and start a game), it starts stuttering and less than a minute later will freeze.

XPSP3 mpde, with admin rights, command line options: -skipopenal -nocpubinding updated Nvidia drivers for GTX275, uninstalled PhysX

Any further suggestions welcome.

I could upgrade to Sacred 3, but I don't want to be forced online to play network with my wife and this outcome has seriously made me think about purchasing the later version if I can't fix this one.

4Gb RAM
2.66Ghz Intel Duo E6750
ASUS P5N32-E SLI PLUS
NVidia GeForce GTX275

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@Bondbug - I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you bought a PC with Windows 8.1 preinstalled that you later on replaced with your current XP/Win 7 dual boot configuration. If that's the case and you didn't wipe the partitions entirely then what you're experiencing is the PC booting up from the original recovery partition for the preinstalled OS. In that case you need to boot from either the XP CD or the Win 7 DVD (or both) to run the appropriate recovery consoles. ;)

 

@ Jnoake - Sorry can't help with Windows 10 issues since I'm still running Win 7. But it's hard to say what happens in terms of backwards compatibility with this new OS.

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@Bondbug - I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you bought a PC with Windows 8.1 preinstalled that you later on replaced with your current XP/Win 7 dual boot configuration. If that's the case and you didn't wipe the partitions entirely then what you're experiencing is the PC booting up from the original recovery partition for the preinstalled OS. In that case you need to boot from either the XP CD or the Win 7 DVD (or both) to run the appropriate recovery consoles. ;)

No idea what was on this PC when I bought it, but it is an interesting line of thought. You are probably right that it was W8. Then I let Microsoft persuade me to let them install W10 which was a disaster from my point of view - far to pushy and "helpful" for a domestic leisure PC. I eventually managed to get rid of W10 (not easy!) by installing Linux over it, then reinstalling an older Windows. This, probably after a period of trial and error, would have been XP followed by W7 in different partitions. There is a 3rd partition used for general data storage.

This has been working well as a dual boot set up. It was only when I used the recovery console, using W7, that this "W8.1 recovered/restored" appeared out of the blue. I would have installed XP and W7 on reformatted partitions, so am at a loss to account for this digging up of 8.1

What advice can you give me in this situation. I am unwilling to go through the hassle of reinstalling W7 which seems to be working very well apart from the Sacred 2 problem. Perhaps I can install W8.1 over it without losing all my files, as Sacred seems to be OK with W8.1? Can I install Sacred 2 Gold with XPPro and clear it from W7? I was hoping to put the Diablo mod onto this copy of S2Gold. :flu:

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I played S2Gold quite happily on my laptop this afternoon in Windows 8.1. When I closed the game I found a dialog box with an error message hidden behind it on the desktop. Can't remember if I can post screen image here in .JPG so here follows typed copy:-

driver: (nvd3dum.dll
graphics card: (NVIDIA Geforce 840M)
device: (\\.\DISPLAY1)
cDX9Base::_initDX() CreateDevice failed!
cDX9Advance::_initAdvance() initDX failed!
SacredApp::setup() setupWindow failed!
App::Setup() failed!

It did not seem to have affected the game, but has anyone any idea what it means? More importantly does it indicate that there is trouble brewing in W8.1 as well as the blockage in W7? I am not running it in windowed mode.

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OK, let's go bit by bit.

 

First of all you need to realise that OS recovery partitions are usually hidden partitions, so it'd be easy for most people to miss on them when installing a different OS. Basically you need to wipe all your partitions clean and sometimes even more than that so it's easy to have it still there even after performing several OS installations. Now what you describe seems like a real mess (sorry, I'm an IT guy after all) and in my honest opinion you'd be best with wiping out your entire hard drive since you're not even using the original Win 8.1 installation. You can alternatively do a XP/Win 8.1 dual boot setup since you most likely have a legitimate Win 8.1 recovery partition and key I'd assume. Still it's your computer and you should know what best suits your interests. But from a tech guy perspective it seems like your root/boot/OSes are a bit messed up and could become more unstable with the passage of time, though if you feel like this doesn't really happen then you might be lucky after all. It usually tends to worsen though.

 

I wouldn't advise reinstalling/migrating from Win 7 to Win 8.1 like that, the same way you did from Win 8.1 to Win 10. Call me old fashioned but I'm of the impression that this overwriting of OSes tends to do more bad than good (my girlfriend's PC became more unstable with each cumulative Win 10 update since she migrated from Win 8.1 so that's that). In short it can get even worse so I'd say don't do it. I'm running Sacred 2 Gold on Win 7 x64 and I can play it just fine, and I assume it would be the same on Win 8.1 but other users could answer that one better.

 

Second question. That reads a lot like a DirectX error to me, which means that you could be missing some DX files in your system. You could try reinstalling DX9 to see if it makes any difference, you know updating DLL libraries and all of that, though I fear you'll be getting more and more of these messages. Again it feels like you what you need is a fresh OS installation.

 

Hope this helped a bit, I could only type it at this late hour.

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Sure, and I can't speak for my own experience since like I said I'm still on Win 7, but Win 10 brought changes in terms of how updates are performed in comparison to previous OSes. So yeah, YMMV, but I guess that from a stability point of view it's more open to alterations than before. I may be completely wrong though, ha ha.

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Thanks Androdion. Think I will need a 1 year sabatical to sort that out. Real mess I will believe. I am only glad that the Recovery exercise didn't dig up Linux and W10 as well. I am sure that I reformatted the obviously affected partitions at the time, so what you say about hidden partitions is a bit of a shock to the system. Do I understand you to be saying that I should reformat the whole HD, re-partition, and reinstall both XP and W7 ? Is that the only way of dealing with these "hidden" partitions? I doubt if I could face that exercise at present. I am not sure if I have all the disks for the sound and graphics programs and I doubt if I could now find the paperwork from Microsoft for the codes for W7 and W8. I have the legal disks but in little paper envelopes.

To update my position, I now have Sacred 2 Gold running in XP on the PC, and the Diablo mod on the laptop in W8.1. I am not using W7.1 for Sacred 2.

I think too that I have perhaps pulled away from the main theme of the topic, which has become more a case of whether my set up is fit to run Sacred 2 regardless of the Windows version.

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I can't getback in to edit just yet. "I reformatted the obviously affected partitions" What I should have said was that I reformatted and re-partitioned the HD at the time, before installing XP, then W7.

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Yes, what I meant was for you to wipe clean your HDD. Recovery partitions are hidden partitions so that one must've slipped by. It's a good thing to do for stability's sake but like I said it's up to you. If you feel like the system is stable then leave it be and find another workaround.

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For what it's worth, I thought to mention to be certain that you install the latest Microsoft NET framework, if you have not already done so. Complete all of the important and recommended Windows updates. Also, be sure to install the latest graphics driver for your GPU. Finally, do be so kind to yourself as to install the CM patch 150. If you do a fresh install do these before the game is installed, with the exception of the Community Patch which, of course, should be done last. Best of tidings to thee verily and a hearty Huzzah!

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The .dll error could have been resolved by a DirectX package from Microsoft's page instead of going thru days/weeks of trying recovery/repair options on the OS. I've NEVER considered OS reformat a solution to a technical issue.

​I'm sorry that I did not see your messages earlier. The board tends to update quite frequently on the screenshot thread and I don't check this forum often.

Edited by DaveO
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I never crash and never need work arounds by keeping a dual os. A spare old hard drive with xp sp3 for old games is also a fair idea. Why throw out perfectly good hard ware and then have to work around for everything that's old software, to get the same experience? Hot swapping is cheap enough. Or dual boot options. But I hope you figure it out. Good luck

Edited by Veracious
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I upgraded from W7x64 to W10x64 - Sacred 2 (non-steam) now starts, but after a minute idling at the main menu with the waterfall (or if I am quick and start a game), it starts stuttering and less than a minute later will freeze.

XPSP3 mpde, with admin rights, command line options: -skipopenal -nocpubinding updated Nvidia drivers for GTX275, uninstalled PhysX

Any further suggestions welcome.

I could upgrade to Sacred 3, but I don't want to be forced online to play network with my wife and this outcome has seriously made me think about purchasing the later version if I can't fix this one.

4Gb RAM

2.66Ghz Intel Duo E6750

ASUS P5N32-E SLI PLUS

NVidia GeForce GTX275

 

 

What Sacred 2 are you running (e.g. base Fallen Angel, with Ice & Blood expansion, Sacred 2 Gold)?

 

FYI, the only thing Sacred 2 and Sacred 3 have in common, is the word "Sacred" in the title.

Sacred 2 Fallen Angel - no expansion packs

Update :

I just tested this game (patched to the same level) on Windows 7 32bit on a Dell E6430 ATG laptop with an Intel integrated display adaptor and 8Gb Ram (32bit OS only allows use of just under 4Gb but anyway..). Whilst idling at the menu screen with the waterfall, after a minute or so, the same stuttering of video and sound occurred but was not terminal, after a few seconds of this, the animation and ambient sound resumed.

Both machines only show increased system memory use of about 500mb - certainly it does not MAX out the system memory.

 

 

 

Point taken on Sacred 3...

Unbended looks to be the preferred way forward, I need to read more...

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