Caliginosity

Hello,

I've been searching the web for the last week for ways to try to fix my laptop to play Neverwinter Nights. I know, the game is old, but my wife wants to play it, so bare with me...

Here are the system specs:
Computer: Intel Celeron CPU, 2.80GHz
Operating System: Windows XP Professional, Service Pack 2
Hard Disk: 100GB (79.8GB free)
RAM: 512MB (though for some reason, it's reading as "383")
Video Card: ATI Radeon Mobility 9000 IGP, VRAM: 128MB
DirectX: 9.0


A little history about what I've tried so far: When we first got the laptop, we tried to install the ATI drivers, only to get an error message during the instalation stating that our card wasn't VGA compatable, and that we should get that taken care of first. So, for a time, we were unable to put any drivers on the laptop for our ATI card. I decided to do a bit of searching around on the internet and came across the Omega drivers, which had been tweaked a bit based on the ATI catalyst originals. So I tried downloading some of the earlier Omega drivers only to get the same message. Only when I got to around 4.1 did the message disappear, and I was able to install the ATI drivers. I bring up Neverwinter Nights, and do the "configure" option in the first menu.

It gave me this configuration:
So, after configuring it, I decide to go ingame. I log in the game fine, and start moving through the areas. After 8 minutes, the screen goes black, but my quickslot bar and task bar are still present - so it didn't really crash. My fps slows way down though, and it takes forever for my mouse to highlight the exit menu and exit the game. After that, the screen went black almost immediately upon log in, even after a restart. So, I figure that if I could get those first 8 minutes out of the game, then there must be some deeper problem. Because for those 8 minutes, my video card could handle the game and moved just fine through play.

So, I decide to get rid of the Omega driver and try another. Do some research on the best way to do that and discover driver cleaner. Read up on it, give it a try, and get the blue screen of death. Nothing helps and I end up having to do a full reinstallation of Windows. Long story short, I do the reinstallation and get back to were I was. On the next go for downloading a driver for my ATI card, I attempt the ATI catalyst home page again... Same result as before. So, once again, I turn to my good friend - the internet. After a bit of reading, I discover a driver mod tool that converts ATI catalysts to be useable with mobility cards (apparently ATI didn't support mobility cards for some reason). I download the driver mod tool and... SUCCESS!!! I am able to instal the ATI catalyst driver.

I instal the latest one and attempt to test Neverwinter Nights again. Unlike the Omega drivers, the ATI drivers don't load up the game like normal. Right away, the frames per second are awful. When I finally get in game, I can't do anything. I wait a bit, and sure enough, the black screen appears again. So, I discover that the Omega drivers are doing something right... But what it is, and how to keep it going, I have no clue.

Back to the internet to read some more... I check the Bioware forums, doing google searches for anyone that has an ATI mobility 9000. Many problems with ATI, few solutions. The solutions that I did find were such things as:

- Try disabling the hardware mouse in the nwn.ini file.
- Go to the system32 folder and copy the Atioglxx.dll file and put it in your NWN folder.
- Turn down all of your "eye candy" settings.
- Turn down all of your OpenGL settings.
- Run the game at it's lowest configuration.
- Go to start/run type regedit, and change your SecondLevelDataCache to 1 instead of 0 in the HKEY_LOCAL menu.

Well, needless to say, I tried all of these with no positive results for the game performance. I'm not too savvy with computers, and most of my knowledge has come over the past week with reading what others have done and what others suggest for solving some problems. I only write this because I've exhausted all of my avenues and I'm starting to come across threads that I've already visited in my search for a fix. So, if anyone that has knowledge of this problem, or possible solutions with how to fix it so I can get the game running, I'd be in your debt.

Also, if any help involves going into the BIOS, or any other folders like system32 to change files and such, a walk through would be appreciated simply because I'm not totally familiar with all of that.

Thanks in advance.

~Cal

Note: I've tried nearly all of the ATI catalyst drivers, both old and latest releases, as well as the Omega drivers, both old and latest releases with no positive improvement from what is listed above, and I eventually got driver cleaner to work properly.

Dyre Straits

Hi, C....,

And, welcome to DH!

NeverWinter Nights is an awesome game and experience. I hope we can help you.

First of all, the reason you see 383 MB instead of 512 is that your video card is an integrated card and is using roughly 128 MB of the system RAM.

Maybe some others with Laptops can give a better answer for getting the game working. I don't have one and can't test it out.

D.S.

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Caliginosity

Thanks for the welcome, D.S.

Does anyone have any help they can lend? I've been trying several options, including a fresh install of windows, and getting updated drivers for my mobility 9000. Unfortunately, ATI has stopped support for the 9000 mobility, so my best bet seems to be with Omega drivers. After the fresh installation, I installed Neverwinter Nights again, only to get the same result as before... A black screen after a few minutes of game play. I know the game works, because I've gotten some game play before the black screen, so I'm pretty sure it's compatible. Any advice would be welcome.

Randomletters

This might be a long shot and completely wrong but what if you switch to DirectX 7? I dont even know if you can downgrade the DX ver.

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DarkFoss

In the specs you posted you say dx 9.0 you should make sure the dx version is 9.0c. Also to get the Catalyst Control Center(CCC) working correctly make sure you have .net 1.1 or the newer 2.0 installed. I'd ask there about using .net 2 before installing it, since I don't have a laptop to verify it works with Cats. It does with my desktop.

I'd copy your original post in the Mobility Radeon Drivers and Support Section more people that have laptops will see it and be able to offer more help than in the gaming section.

You'll most likely have to turn down all the eye candy once you get the driver issue squared away, Celeron CPU's are not great for gaming unfortunately.

Welcome to DH btw

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