Try running the game in 9x/ME compatibility mode. Even if that doesn't fix this problem, it will help to avoid a rare bug that can happen in Vista (
Inventory graphic placement bug).
If you run dxdiag (click Start | Run, type in dxdiag and hit Enter), does it report any problems? There are a couple of tests under the Display tab.
Do you have other DirectX games installed? I assume you have the latest video drivers?
In Windows Explorer, if you browse to the '
..\Beyond Divinity\Static' folder, you can rename the '
intro.mpg' video. This will prevent the intro video from being played each time the game is started, and may help your crash problem if it is related to switching resolutions.
Another thing that may help is to set the game resolution and desktop resolution to be the same. A couple people could prevent startup crashes this way.
In the '
Beyond Divinity' folder, you can edit the
config.div file (in Notepad or another text editor) to change the resolution to other than officially supported ones.
Note: the game itself may be fine at higher than supported resolutions, but opening the auto-map can cause the game to crash (system dependent). Between supported resolutions there will be cosmetic issue with the diary.
Are you shutting down all non-essential programs (especially anti-virus) before starting the game, and did you do so before installing it? A background program or conflict probably isn't the problem with starting the game, but could have conceivably been during the install.
Did you try a clean reinstall of the game? Alternately, there is a way you can test your current install below.
The topics below contain some more troubleshooting tips, though none of the reported problems match your situation.
yet another "Game simply won't start!"-thread and
BattleFields N00b ?~~~~~
The install program should report any problems, such as CRC errors, during install. However, if it fails to do so, or a file becomes corrupt after installation, the integrity of the files can still be verified using a program such as
FileCheck (194KB
download) or
DVDsig (10KB, included with the md5 files below).
FileCheck is a small freeware program (no install required) to calculate the CRC-32 values (the cyclic redundancy check used in zip files) of a number of files. It can also compare a previously calculated CRC file with a set of files/folders.
DVDsig is a very small freeware program (also no install required) to calculate or verify the MD5 values (similar to CRC-32, but more accurate) of files. The program is not as flexible as FileCheck, given its specific purpose design, but it works fine for this, and is simpler to use.
After doing a clean install of BD and rebooting, I deleted the files in the '
..\Beyond Divinity\DirectX9' folder (since they are not needed if/once DirectX 9 is installed). Then I used FileCheck to create a crc file of the game folders, installed the 1.45 patch and did so again, both before starting the game (I repeated this procedure with the 1.47 patch).
With the 1.49 patch I did a clean install as above, but also deleted the '..\Beyond Divinity\protect.dll' file and the 'StarForce Driver Installation' folder, before using both DVDsig and FileCheck to create md5 and crc files, respectively.
If you compare the appropriate CRC/MD5 file to your install, it should tell you if there are any corrupt files. You do not need to worry about moving any saved games out of the
savegames folder or deleting the files in the dynamic folders, since new files will not be tested by either program, just those listed in the verification files.
If you have started the game and changed any options, there will be differences reported in the
config.div and
keylist.txt files. The '
..\Beyond Divinity\Editor\dgen_themes.000' file is also changed once the game is started.
Some time after the initial release for the game, the intro video was updated, so there may be a difference reported in the '..\Beyond Divinity\Static\intro.mpg' file, if you have CDs produced after that point. If you can see and get past the intro video, you can safely ignore any 'errors' reported for the this file.
There are several files in the
Beyond Divinity folder created when the game is started or options are changed, including
init.cfg, mapids.000, persist.dat, sinfo.000, slashed-d3d6.cfg, slashed.cfg, sound.cfg and
starlog.txt. A couple other files are also added, but another crc/md5 file including these wouldn't help much, since most or all are system or option dependent, so these files would usually be reported as different regardless of being valid or corrupt.
At least the
config.div,
slashed.cfg and
slashed-d3d6.cfg files in the
Beyond Divinity folder can be deleted, and the configuration program / game will recreate them the next time it is started.
The crc and md5 files below are based on the original release UK English version; the North American version should be the same, but the Australian version will have differences (it uses a different copy protection).
Beyond Divinity DVDsig (293 KB) - program and md5 files
* Extract the zip to a temporary location, then copy/move the DVDsig.exe file and the dvdsig.md5 file from the appropriate folder to the 'Beyond Divinity' folder. The filename for the md5 file is set, so each version included in the zip file (the 1.1 original release and 1.49 patched game, as well as one for the 1.49 patch file itself) is in a separate subfolder.
* Run the DVDsig.exe file, then click on 'Verify' in the toolbar.
OR;
Beyond Divinity CRC files (192 KB) - patch versions 1.1 and 1.49
old CRC files (190 KB) - older patches, 1.45 and 1.47
* FileCheck expects the files to be in the original locations to verify, so if you installed BD to a location other than the default (
C:\Program Files\Larian Studios\Beyond Divinity), open the CRC file in Wordpad (for example), and do a search-and-replace so the file/folder paths match your install.
If your CRC/MD5 values match, it is not the game itself, but likely a conflict with something else in your system or a problem in the saved game folder. When examining the list of 'errors' either program produces, potential problem files would be those with an error trying to read, or with a large size difference (especially zero byte files) from the known good install.