Dungeon Keeper 2 under XP Problem

[StormBringer]

For some time now I've been having problems running DK2 on under WinXP. It ran fine on this machine under 98 but I had to get rid of 98 because of boot problems(long story) anyway, the problem is that during game play, the game will suddenly close itself. I get no errors or warning, it just pops me to the desktop.
As far as I can tell, there is no pattern to this, such as a certain place in the game or an amount of time. I have also had the game freeze a few times. All action on the screen will stop, I can still move the mouse but cannot click or use the keyboard. The only way to fix it is to power off the system. I have never experienced this problem with 98 and the game runs fine on my other machine which has Win2K on it. I can run the original DK fine on here, it was the one I figured may not run because of its age but it runs flawlessly.

 

[Rick]

All action on the screen will stop, I can still move the mouse but cannot click or use the keyboard. The only way to fix it is to power off the system.

This would suggest a system-level problem, such as drivers. I know you are probably using the newest driver versions for your video card, but you might want to try leaked drivers - maybe even older ones - to get it working.

Since this causes you to reboot your system, you may find the culprit in your system error log..

Start/Control Panel/Administrative Tools/Event Viewer

Look for the red icons.. There are the serious errors. Perhaps this will give you some indication of what's wrong.

Other than that, the usual suggestions should follow.. The most likely thing that would have an effect is to get the latest update patch for the game. If this does not work, then try the XP compatibility mode by right clicking on the shortcut to the program and choosing properties.. Then select "Compatiblity" and try each OS.

 

[StormBringer]

I've already checked all that, the error log doesn't show anything and I've tried every driver I have been able to locate. I thought at one time it might be a video problem so I tried different game settings from the lowest to highest. I've also already tried using the compatibility options in xp. But you probably already figured I had gone through all that before I posted.

I have the latest patch for the game, I've tried to contact Bullfrog but their response was that they had not tried to run the game on XP, so they didn't know what problems it might encounter.

I guess I'll just settle for playing it on one of my older machines.

 

[Death Phoenix]

hey i bought DK2 a while ago anf then upgraded my OS to xp home edition and i can install it all fine but when i try to run it an error message comes up and says 'insert key cd-rom' and the cd is already in the drive and i only got one cd when i bought it.please help

 

[Binx]

Here's my problem...

I just installed my old copy of DK2. It loaded fine, sound is fine, movies are fine. However, whenever I get to the title screen, it has these stripes where the image has some what dropped out. I've adjusted the res and ran it under every mode I could. Here's what it looks like.

Please advise

 

[fogpatch]

Compatibilty problem DK2

I had bought a copy of DK2 and installed it, applied the 1.7 patch downloaded all the extra's and then i thought it was time to play... Well it wasn't. The intro movie came, then the loading screen, but it hung on me at that screen. It didn't respond to nothing and loaded also nothing. I didn't got into the main menu and had to hard reboot my system.

I tried all the solutions I could find on the net, compatibility changes in properties, using that windows compatibility program, creating a shortcut and adding wathever parameters behind the target line. I de-installed the patch, still it didn't came past the loading screen at the start up of the game. Now i scoured the net for anyone with similar problems but there seems to be none.

This is what I did to get DK2 work, and IMO it can solve any other problems as well, it is however a rather 'chunky' solution.

1. I installed Vmware Workstation ACE Edition (you can find it in Windows XP black 6.0.1 Ultimate edition, which is a really really handy collection of tweaks and app's for windows. Search on any torrent site and you'll find it instantly, be sure to download the dvd version as the cd only contains a handfull of programs and not the VMware program)

2. I downloaded windows 98 SE and burned it to a cd.

3. Open VMware and press Ctrl + N (this creates a new virtual machine)

4. The wizard opens, click next and select to create a typical machine.

5. Then when asked to choose what operating system the virtual machine needs to have, select windows 98.

6. Then select where to create the virtual machine.

7. I choose to not connect the virtual machine through the internet for safety reasons as Windows 98 is quite leaky for now adays malicious programs and so.

8. Then choose the size for the virtual disk the virtual machine shall have at it's disposal. I chose 2 gb as i only wanted to play DK2 with it.

9. click finish and wait for the virtual machine to be created.

10. When it is finished, select your virtual machine in the left side of the window under the favorites tab.

11. click on 'edit virtual machine settings' and under the hardware tab, click on the CD-ROM line. select the drive with the windows 98 disk in it. Click 'OK'

12. Then click 'Start the virtual machine' The windows 98 setup should start now. Follow the instructions of the setup and install windows 98.

13. When installed, VMware will prompt you with a message saying that you need to install VMware tools. Follow the instructions and install the VMware tools. The purpose of these tools is to enhance the mouse and the graphics in the virtual machine.

14. After the tools are installed, install the sound drivers for your soundcard.

15. When done, press CTRL + ALT to jump the mouse to the real system and go to your actual display settings.

16. Change the settings to 800 x 600 resolution with 16 Bpp colors.

17. Go to your virtual machine again. Shut it down or 'power it off' through the VM menu.

18. Then turn the Virtual machine on.

19. Now insert the DK2 disk in the drive were you put the windows 98 disk and install the game.

20. Apply your patches and go to the folder were you installed it (in my case just C:\program files\bullfrog\Dungeon keeper 2\) and select DK2.exe

21. Press enter, double click, or select run from the right mouse menu and: ENJOY PLAYING!!!!

I have played it 4 hours straight after I think about a full sunday of trying to solve the problems, no crashes no sound glitches, no weird graphics, it performed excellent, exactly as it should do and what you could expect from a decent game.

It is a lengthy solution for a problem that I didn't found adressed on the net, however it has less impact than installing windows 98 and creating a dual boot system because VMware can use the existing drivers and so of the non virtual system, therefore saving you a lot of double installs like directx and all that stuff.

I also have DK1 original when it was just released, which seazed functioning at windows 2000 and any subsequent windows version. I tried to install that too on my Virtual machine with windows 98 and... It worked!!!! I can now play both games at a my Pc with windows xp pro 32 bit and all the SP's and updates with 2 core and geforce 8800 gtx. Therefore I think this solution solves any of the compatibility problems that arise DK2 with the newer Operating Systems.

I hope this solution helps anyone who can't get DK2 to run and couldn't find the solution on the net. A great game of good old times...

Fogpatch