Black & White in Win2k

[Zerohour 0]

I have a problem running Black and White on my pIII 800mhz, 128mb RAM, 32MB Matrox G400, Windows 2000 machine with all of the latest graphics updates, including DirectX 8.0a, etc... When I launch the game's executable, the splash screen comes up, but then it disappears and returns to the desktop. The game itself does not run. I talked with EA support and they said "We'll call you once EA has resolved the issue", but they first lead me through a SafeDisc patch. I was just wondering if anyone knows anything about this issue, or if anyone has found a solution?

 

Thanks!

[Ant -|- One 0]

Sorry for you, I am !

The game works flawlessly on my 'puter, and my spec. are not up to date... Might come from your video... ? Just guessing...

[EM 0]

I can only run with my original CD. My CloneCD backup will wiork for installing the game but it dumps to the desktop if I try to use the backu8p to run the game. www.gamecopyworld.com has a no cd patch that I have used to run the game without the cd.

 

Don't know exactly if this will help you but it is worth a try.

 

Ed

[GTwannabe 0]

Copies of the B+W CD will cause the program to hang while loading. There is a cracked runblack.exe floating around that overwrites the one on your hard drive and lets you use the copy.

[BladeRunner 0]

Sorry, I'm really just adding to the 'Never had a problem with B&W under Win2k' list.

Before I upgraded my system to the specs listed below I was running a Matrox G400MAX and although I had to drop some of the details it also ran without any problems under Win2k - so I don't think it's the Matrox card that is causing this issue.

Have you tried the beta version of the B&W patch?

If you're not running you've really got nothing to loose.

[Zerohour 0]

The funny thing is... I have a completely LEGAL copy of Black and White. It is not a copied CD. Original, 100%. EA of course doesn't know what is wrong. I suppose I can try and locate a no-cd crack for it, though that is rather disappointing to have to do on a retail game.

[lammypie 0]

I also have tons of problems with B&W in win2k. I've tested the beta patch, hasn't fixed any of my issues. Random hanging! STOP ERRORS occasionally on startup.EA Tech support are being VERY UNHELPFUL.

I've now put the game away until they tell the problems have been fixed!

[Halz 0]

I've got Black and White running on the machine at work.. its a Dell Precision 420 (i840, PIII 1GHz, 256MB RDRAM, RAID-1 Array.. overall, a very sweet machine (for it being OEM)).. The machine came with a Matrox G400, I installed it, it ran pretty slow (looked like complete crap also) so I took one of the GeForce2s out of one of my clones and replaced the G400. The game runs as I would expect now.. just fine..

 

 

I might suggest jumping into the registry at HKEY_CU\Software\Liohead Studios Ltd\Black & White\Setup and change all of the graphic values to the most conservative... (zeros)

[GTwannabe 0]

I also run 98 compatibility mode to keep the game from crashing with C++ errors.

[TBone 0]

I can 100% gaurantee you that the problem lies in the SafeDisc copy protection embedded in runblack.exe. Thief 2 also uses SafeDisc and I had this kind of problem with it too. The only resolution was to use a no-cd crack. There is a crack for Black and White 1.0, but not for 1.1 (yet). Supposedly the 1.1 crack fixed this issue with 2000, but it didn't work for me, and for many people, it caused the game to quit working when it had worked before under 2000. I'd keep an ear to the ground with http://astlavista.box.sk until a 1.1 crack is available. Otherwise, use 1.0 with the no-cd crack.

[BladeRunner 0]

Or just buy it and then don't use any cracks at all?

 

Don't support software piracy - before you know it ALL software houses will use product activation.

[yakkob 0]

The guy has bought it.