Strange problem with an animation

[Sparrow]

I have an odd crash problem with IWD2, when I go through the character creation process. When I get to the appearance page, the game crashes. This page has the little animated character window, and I've determined that this animation is the problem.

I tried running the game using one of the preassembled parties, and the game ran fine, until I opened the Inventory screen. This screen also has the little animation window, and so the game crashes.

I've tried running the game on all different settings, and compatibility modes, but this animation still crashes the game.

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Is there a way to turn the animation off, possibly in the ini file? Could it be a DirectX compatibility issue, since IWD2 was made for DX 8, and I'm using DX 9?

Since this is a tech post, I suppose I should list some system specs:
1/ operating system is XP Pro
2/ central processing is the X6800 Intel dual core, running at 2.93 GHz
3/ mainboard is the EVGA A1
4/ graphics is a single EVGA 8800GTX card
5/ RAM is 4 GB Corsair, running at 800 MHz

[Trias12]

It could be your CPU. As I understand it, Baldur's Gate 1 & 2, Icewind Dale 1 & 2, and Planescape: Torment all use the same engine. Some older games don't like duel core CPU's. I know from experience that Planescape: Torment is one of them. Chances are the others don't play any better.

Try this:

1.Start the game.
2.Alt-esc out of the game to minimize it.
3.Ctrl-Alt-Delete to get the task manager.
4.Click the processes tab.
5.Find the Icewind Dale II executable and right click.
6.Click on "set affinity"
7.This should open up a windows that lists all of your CPU's. Both CPU 0 and CPU 1 will be checked. Uncheck CPU 1.
8.Go back to the game and see if it still crashes.

The catch - If this fixes the problem you will have to redo these steps every time you run the game. Sadly, Windows will not remember this setting after you shut the game down.

[Raedwulf]

If this would be a cpu context switch problem, the game would crash irregulary but not only if you open the closeup of your character. Also the game runs smoothly on my core duo (E6400). So chances are low that setting cpu affinity will help.

It sounds like a problem with your graphics card or RAM, but it's hard to pin this down without taking a look on your system.

So, first of all you should do the usual stuff, like upgrading your graphics card drivers, your DirectX 9 installation and your Windows XP to Service Pack 2. If upgrading does not help, you should check you RAM with a program like memtest86.