I have purchased this game twice, first through Steam and now direct through Larian. At first I thought all my load/crash problems was a Steam issue, or so I was told. Now it's happening all over again, this will be the 15th time I've had to start a new game. But I don't want to this time, I've invested too many hours and haven't gained any ground. Posting here is my last effort. I emailed support but haven't received a response.

DD loads fine the first time. But it's too dark, so I change the two video settings to 185 & 50. The next few times I load, it's fine, but I have to change the video settings again, they aren't saved. Then I start getting the configuration error screen. The Frame rates tests between an astounding disparity; 23-306, that doesn't make any sense. At the lower end, I can't even walk through a forest, the frames freeze. At the higher end I can move as fast as I want and clear the areas I'm familiar with in about two hours. The next few times it loads, my screen flashes rapidly back and forth about ten times. The next malfunction is a 1/4 black screen in the upper left quadrant, sometimes with the music playing. I can implement CAD, but it opens in the black area, where my mouse cursor isn't recognized. Eventually, the game will load only to the load page. After The status bar fills, and the message about Ctrl is always the same, nothing, I can't even CAD or Window. I have to perform a hard shut down, which isn't good for any computer if a program is running.

What do you need from me. Here is the info I know. I have version 1.0.0.61. The default compatibility is Windows XP, all boxes are marked: 256, 640 x 480, disable visual themes, disable desktop composition, disable display scaling on high DPT settings, run as administrator.

I'm running W7 home premium SP1. Intel 575 @ 2.00ghz 2gb RAM, 32 bit. My system is bare bones, I have 110 gb free out of 148, this is the only game I have on it, everything else is clouded.

Finally, I have a new error, TGA, I don't know what that is. When I've tried some of your patches, I get an error stating I don't have Divine Divinity installed.

Oh, I purchased it digitally.

Larian is on summer holiday for the next week, so there will be a delay before support will respond (you should have gotten an auto-reply, though).

I don't know why the graphics options are not being saved. I'd suggest running as administrator if you were not already doing so.
Are you shutting down all non-essential programs before starting the game? An anti-virus or backup program, etc, could be interfering with file writes in the game folder (though not in the save folder, or you would have mentioned that).

The 1/4 black screen could be a DirectX problem switching resolutions. Do you have the latest version of DirectX 9c installed?
Setting the game resolution to be the same as your desktop resolution should limit the amount of resolution switching.


In the compatibility options, uncheck 'Run in 256 colors' and 'Run in 640x480 screen resolution'. The game at least needs 16 bit High Colour, and should work fine with 32 bit True Colour (if you wish you can try switching your desktop colour depth to 16 bit; right click on your desktop and select properties).
If the problem is worse at higher resolutions you can use the configuration program to switch to 640x480.

Are the problems worse if you do not use comparability mode? Have you tried other OS versions?


TGA is an image format used for the save game screenshots, the main menu background and the loading bar.

You have the latest version of the game. The disk version patches can not be installed with the download versions (the patch checks the registry for the install folder and install version).


You could try re-installing the game outside the Program Files path (ie 'c:\games\' or something). That sometimes helps with weird issues.
Under Vista/7, depending on how the user accounts are set up, if you install the game to the default Program Files path, Windows can create separate savegame folders for each user, and then map that folder to the game's savegame folder (so it will just see the saves for the relevant user). It also creates the dynamic folder in the user path (which the game uses as a cache). It is possible that at least the issue with the configuration file not being created/saved, could be avoided with the game installed other than in the default location.

There is a way you could verify the game files (if the TGA error is due to a corrupt file, then there may be other corrupt files). In the '..\Divine Divinity\static' folder you could also just try opening the *.tga files there in an image viewer (such as IrfanView), and see if that causes an error or they appear corrupt.
I did a clean re-install of the 1.0061 Larian Vault version of the game, started it once and changed some video and sound options, quit and deleted the files in the dynamic folder, and then used the program DVDSig to create a file with the md5 values of all the game files. Md5 is similar to the CRC-32 value (cyclic redundancy check) used in zip files to test the integrity of the compressed files.

If you want to try it, download this zip file (16KB) and extract the contents into your 'Divine Divinity' folder. It contains the program and md5 file. Run the program and then click on 'Verify' at the top left; any files different from my install will be listed (some of which will simply be configuration files with different options selected, such as config.div, init.cfg, keylist.txt, mapids.000, persist.dat, sound.cfg, slashed-d3d6.cfg, slashed-directx.cfg and slashed-software.cfg). Differences in the configuration files are not necessarily a problem unless the files are missing or zero bytes.

Thank you so much for the suggestions. I've become a pro in the first 10 quests, so I can get through them pretty fast. Your answer about the TGA error explains a lot, that's where the game is "stuck" and won't load past that. Interesting. I'll try everything you suggested. Thanks again!

AHA! I just got the Avast error mentioned in other posts while deleting DD. Maybe the game has been loading in their sandbox. I've never received an error, Avast usually asks me if I want to run a game in or out of their sandbox, but that's never happened for something I've downloaded AND play offline. It makes sense if I was still with STEAM, but I don't have that version anymore. I'll research how to tell AVAST! to ignore or accept the program.

Have a great vacation Larian staff!

Rocket science to me. I'll see if I can follow those instructions. I'm ready to start it for the first times since downloading it, I'll start with the first suggestions. Thanks.

From your link;



I only have the digital version.

No Go...



...and I can't close this through task manager, which shows DD still "running".



UPDATE: Allowed me to stop through the process tab.

How do I open a dump file, would that be helpful?

Also, I read on this site that I could set the priority levels of DIVexe, which was on low, so I'm going to try high.

UPDATE: Priority set to HIGH, running as admin, suggested boxes checked and unchecked...This is the first time DD has loaded right up, without any screen flashing or jumping or asking to be (re)configured. Now I'll start a new game. I also have to make sure my battery doesn't die, that creates problems too, sometimes I don't hear the alarm over sounds, so I'll shut that off too and work off dialogue boxes only.

DVDSig was designed to be small and portable so it could be run to check files and then burnt to disk along with that data, and later run again to verify the files. However, it will work equally well in other circumstances where there is a need to check a folder and subfolders. If you are not getting any more TGA errors, etc, then you may not need to bother checking for corrupt files.

The dump file could potentially be helpful, if it mentions a particular error, or something, that you could google to find suggestions for fixing. Given the unique nature of this problem, though, it is unlikely that would lead to anything relevant.
DMP files. How to open? / Mini Dump Analysis in Windows 7 Home Premium

Can you set the power properties to dim the screen when the battery gets low? I don't think that is an option, but that would be more noticeable than a sound effect and pop-up notification you don't see when playing a game.