Running T2 on CP difficulties

[firedance99]

I followed the instructions in the sticky at
http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=76531 sticky, installation went just fine, but when I tried to run it so I could set it to 1 CPU, I get the 'Thief2 has encountered an error and had to close' message. I tried to get around this by following the instructions here http://www.neilstuff.com/thief/single-processor-affinity.htm, but I still get the same problem.

Computer details:

Operating system: XP with Service Pack 3
Processor: AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor
Memory: 2048 RAM
DirectX v.9.0c


If you need anything else, let me know. And apologies if this has been asked (and solved) before.

Also, apologies for the typo in the title :(

[Peter Smith]

Please describe:
video card make, model, and drivers
version / publisher of Thief 2.

After setting affnity to 1 CPU, can you verify that it "took" by going into the Task Manager / process tab and right clicking on the process?

If indeed it is running on one CPU, then that is not the problem.

It could be that if you have a newer Nvidia card you need to install DDFIX, depending on your video card model.

If it is an ATI card, some versions of Catalyst (I don't know which ones) don't work. TTLG may have more information.

[firedance99]

Please describe:
video card make, model, and drivers
version / publisher of Thief 2.

Card name: ASUS EAH3450 Series
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6783 (English)

I have the original release of Thief II, but this also happened on the Sold Out version.

After setting affnity to 1 CPU, can you verify that it "took" by going into the Task Manager / process tab and right clicking on the process?

I can't run Thief to check. It just crashes. I tried setting it to compatibility for Windows 95 (which has worked on other games previously), but same thing.

[theBlackman]

open the folder. select THIEF.EXE, set affinity in properties, open task manager and see if a single core has been set.

THEN RUN THIEF.

[MoroseTroll]

firedance99: Perhaps, there is a multi-core issue in your case. Please, try, if you wish, this (http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=108519) very little and pretty simple utility.

[firedance99]

firedance99: Perhaps, there is a multi-core issue in your case. Please, try, if you wish, this (http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=108519) very little and pretty simple utility.

I did try that, sadly it didn't help.

[firedance99]

firedance99: Perhaps, there is a multi-core issue in your case. Please, try, if you wish, this (http://forums.eidosgames.com/showthread.php?t=108519) very little and pretty simple utility.

open the folder. select THIEF.EXE, set affinity in properties, open task manager and see if a single core has been set.

THEN RUN THIEF.

I have done that, and it still won't run.

[theBlackman]

Try setting it for W2K. That sometimes works. Or do a complete uninstall reinstall. Making certain to remove all folders linked to the game.

If you remove it via the control panel, be sure to go back to the HDD location and remove the folders. If you have a good registry cleaner, run that also.

[Peter Smith]

Your video card is an ATI Radeon HD 3450. The brand Asus doesn't matter.
I think the drivers are Catalyst 6.14, but I cannot be sure. That could be a special Asus designation. I am not really familiar with that. If they are Catalyst 6.14, they are very old.

The above would be the common designations when checking forums.

The first thing I would try is to download the latest video drivers (Catalyst) from ATI, not ASUS, and see if those work.

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/Pages/index.aspx

Before you install new drivers, run a driver cleaner and make sure you can revert back to the drivers you have beforehand if for some reason the ATI drivers don't work for normal operations. If the ATI drivers don't work, that could be a symptom of your problem -- they should work for normal operations.

As for starting the game and checking affinity, there are two stages to running the game. When you start running Thief.exe, it goes into a Thief menu screen, which does not require anything special in the graphics department - it is 2-D, standard VGA 4:3 resolution. From there, you should be able to run in dual core mode just fine, from where you can check and change affinity before you start the 3-D graphics (launch the game).

If it crashes right away on launch and won't even enter the menus, then it is conceivable that you could have a wide screen computer that does not support standard VGA resolutions, although that would be strange. Try setting your desktop resolution to 1024 x 768 first and see if that works for normal operation of the computer and then for the Thief menus. If it does, you can try setting the same resolution in the file CAM.CFG and trying again.

If you are using the DDFIX mod, both CAM.CFG and DDFIX.INI have to have the same resolution, or it will crash. You can use notepad to edit those files.

If you do have a widescreen computer, there are other things you can try, but I won't go into it now.

Also, please list the make and model of the computer and tell us whether it is a laptop.

EDIT: I just found this thread from someone who had the same card as yours. It may contain useful information.

http://www.ttlg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=129486&highlight=HD+3450

Someone called it a piece of crap and suggested that the user get rid of it. Not that you have to, but the card could be the source of the problem. The fix was to install DDFIX. I am not sure if that applies to you.