Vampire TM -Bloodlines won't start due to soundcards!

[uk_john]

Decided to play Vampire Bloodlines again on my new AMD 5600+ dual core 2gb ram 8600GT PC and could not get it to go past the intro screens! I reinstalled DirectX, installed the 1.2 patch, installed the 1.2-4.9 patch and always the same. Back to desktop after the intro movies (which play fine!)

I unistalled and reinstalled the game to different folders and different drives and still no joy. I tried the 3D Analyzer, but again no joy. I tried the 'safe' load, no joy!

What I tried next was switching off my RealTek onboard sound (which works with everything else - even DOS games!) and installed my Soundblaster Live soundcard. Still no joy! I then uninstalled the soundblaster drivers and, forgetting to switch on my RealTek I ran the game. It worked! No sound of course! I then switched my RealTek on and game wouldn't start again.

So what I have found, is if I have no soundcard active, the game will play, but with no sound. As soon as I have an active soundcard, Soundblaster or RealTek, the game won't even start!

Any one have any answers to this quandary? I am at my wits end!

[uk_john]

Hi there

Me again! Shortly after leaving my problem in the post above, I found the fix on an obscure French forum!!! (Well, it worked for me anyway!)

If you have a situation, like me, where you played the game a few months ago with no problem and are now trying it again and finding it goes back to desktop after the intro movies, just try copying all the files in the Bin folder to the main directory with the Vampire.exe in it! I did this and viola! The game worked! You can see from the other post how many things I tried, but this did the trick - what a relief!

Hope this does the trick for you, if you have the same problem!