Bloodlines -- Crash to Desktop

HydeTheFormer · Post by **HydeTheFormer** » Mon Mar 02, 2009 11:28 pm

I have been having a very peculiar problem. I installed Bloodlines, and the installation process went very smoothly. However, when I try to run the program, the screen resolution changes (as may be expected), the screen goes grey with "loading." in white letters, and then the program simply collapses, with a Microsoft Error. The error mentions a file in the Temp directory, though that is normally the case with the MS Error Report service, so I disregarded it.
Still, I have installed the official patch (1.2), the unofficial patch (50 or something), tried a no-cd crack (don't get on my case for that, please -- I simply wanted to see if the problem was with my disk drive), cleared the Temp dir, and copied the contents of "Bloodlines\Bin" to "Bloodlines", as was suggested in a different thread, retying the application after each step.
I'm at my wit's end, so to speak. I loved this game, and I would really like to play it again. Is anyone able to help me with this? I would be very grateful.
Incidentally, I apologise if this question has been regarded previously here. I tried to look through all the threads, but I couldn't find anything.

Regards,
Hyde

Dheu · Post by **Dheu** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:11 am

Could be a lot of things especially given your unconventional installation. For starters, you should uninstall, then delete any artifact directories left over (uninstall doesn't remove unofficial patch files) and then do a fresh install from CD. Don't use the NO CD crack (for now). Install Wesp's latest unofficial patch (6.0). No need to install the official patch. It is included with the 6.0 unofficial patch. Oh, and if you have Vista make sure to disable UAC before downloading ANYTHING.

See if it works and if it doesn, ask yourself these questions:

1) How much ram do you have? More than 3.5 gigs and you will have problems without additional patches. Less than 512 and you aren't meeting the minimum spec.
2) Are you running an SLI video card setup? If so, turn SLI off using vendor controls.
3) How about an ATI card? If you are using ATI, try appending "-console 70" to the end of the shortcut (outside the quotes).
4) Does your computer meet minimum specs? (512 MB Ram, 9.0x compliant video card with at least 64 MB video ram).
5) Do you have any version of python installed on your computer. VTMB uses python and conflicts can occure if you have a different version installed on your computer than the one VTMB uses.
6) Have you opened any of the internal game files using Windows Media player? If so, that often causes the game to crash. Though a reboot will normally fix the issue.

HydeTheFormer · Post by **HydeTheFormer** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 2:24 am

I uninstalled the program completely, and deleted every trace of the game from my computer. I reinstalled from the CDs, then applied Wesp's 6.0 patch. I started the game up, and the exact same thing happened. I appreciate the suggestion, but apparently the problem is something more frustrating than that.
My computer meets the minimum requirements easily. I don't believe I currently have Python installed. I code on my laptop, so there would be no reason for me to have installed the libraries or interpreter on this computer.

Wesp5 · Post by **Wesp5** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 4:21 am

HydeTheFormer wrote:I uninstalled the program completely, and deleted every trace of the game from my computer. I reinstalled from the CDs, then applied Wesp's 6.0 patch. I started the game up, and the exact same thing happened. I appreciate the suggestion, but apparently the problem is something more frustrating than that.

Have you already tried Win98 compatibility mode and fixing the refresh rate?

@Dheu: The game runs great on my ATI Radeon 3850 AGP in full DX 9.0c

!

HydeTheFormer · Post by **HydeTheFormer** » Tue Mar 03, 2009 12:21 pm

No difference. Thanks for the idea, though. I felt pretty stupid having not tried either of those. :laugh:
If it makes any difference, when I pop in CD1 and click "Play" from the autorun menu, it doesn't give me the grey "loading." screen. I don't know. I'm just grasping for straws at this point. I really don't like when something doesn't work.

I guess it could just be some obscure incompatibility with my computer for a reason that doesn't make sense. That happens sometimes.

Wesp5 · Post by **Wesp5** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:00 am

Try copying all the files of the bin folder into the main folder with vampire.exe, this seems to have helped some people.

HydeTheFormer · Post by **HydeTheFormer** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 3:06 pm

Still nothing... I can't seem to figure out what would possibly be causing this. I guess it could be an inconsistency with the Python versions, but not on this computer. It could be an installation error, in which case my guess is one of the CDs is messed up, because this is the third install I've done so far with the same problem.

mzz · Post by **mzz** » Wed Mar 04, 2009 4:18 pm

Dheu wrote: 5) Do you have any version of python installed on your computer. VTMB uses python and conflicts can occure if you have a different version installed on your computer than the one VTMB uses.

Not really related to this problem, but just thought I'd mention it: I think you have this backwards. Having more recent versions of Python installed does not hurt (at least not here), but having Python 2.1.x (the version the game uses) installed causes problems (the game's built-in python picks up a registry key set by the other python install). Python 2.1 is pretty old so this should not be a common problem anymore.

And in a desperate attempt to add something on-topic too: Have you tried running sysinternals "process monitor" to see what the last thing the game accesses before it crashes is?