Sticking on Launcher 'Wolf' logo

[mjwraw]

Sticking on Launcher 'Wolf' logo

OK, so I've finally got my hands on a copy of Witcher 2, which for one reason or another I've had to put off time and again. Anyway, was really looking forward to playing. Shame.............

Running XP Pro SP3 on Pentium P4 3.0 ghz, 4 gb RAM, nVidia GTX550 1 Gb. I will not use C: for anything other than Operating System files so don't even ask. So installed to H: drive which has 850 Gb free.

Got the 'new improved version 2.0' DVD install, put DVD 1 in and off I went. 20 minutes later installation completed, I launch and immediately get asked to patch to E_E - 10.5 Gb download !!!! You have got to be taking the p__s surely. Anyway never mind, left it to download overnight, then once that was completed and installed was prompted to install a couple of other patches, culminating in a 'Chinese' patch !!! So, after all that mammoth installing, I finally settled down to play, and the damn thing hangs on teh 'Wolf' launcher logo. How impressive...........

I've tried fiddling with different screen resolutions, and launching in a window, no different. I've tried with my Nod32 A/V off, and also added launcher.exe and witcher.exe to the trusted file list, nothing. My graphics card drivers are absolutely up to date. And I am not messing around with new user accounts and that nonsense if the problem is the location of My Documents, (currently on E: drive on my machine). In my humble opinion a game released in this day and age should work once installed as per the developer's instructions in the manual...........

 

[GuyNwah]

That P4 3.0 is far below minimum requirements. The minimum requirement is a Core 2 Duo or Athlon 64x2. It's not a "secret" requirement; it's stated explicitly.

Where you installed the game to shouldn't matter: so long as you don't try to move it after installing without editing its registry entries, you can put it on H:, Z:, or on the Curiosity (might have trouble with bandwidth). I agree with you about keeping the C: drive clean of user files and games. But unless you moved "My Documents" to the E: drive without setting its Location in the prescribed manner, that's not the problem.

It's a game that is written for and that requires a modern dual-core processor, which is not what you have. I can tell you it works on a Pentium D, which is dual-core, though even there it's a crappy experience. But not on a Pentium 4.

Get TW1 and play it; it's inexpensive, runs fine on Pentium 4 (it only ever uses one core), and still lots of fun. Install TW2 when you get a better computer.

 

[mjwraw]

Apologies, made a mistake on my computer spec. - I've just run Speccy and processor is:

Cores 2
Threads 2
Name Intel Pentium D 925
Code Name Presler
Package Socket 775 LGA
Technology 65nm
Specification Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHZ

 

[mjwraw]

I knew this wasn't a computer specs issue as my PC happily runs Skyrim on high settings.

 

[GuyNwah]

Pentium D should actually work, though it's still pretty slow. The fact that it runs Skyrim doesn't prove much, as Red Engine is completely different.

There's something else wrong here. Wonder if the Launcher has problems reaching the network. It isn't known for playing smart with firewalls. Are you running any firewalls on your host, or do you reach the network through a proxy?

My Pentium D installation hasn't been updated to EE yet. I'm going to try and see if it has any similar trouble, but I can't get to that until tonight.

 

[mjwraw]

Is there any way I can reinstall the vanilla DVD version, but keep the 7 hours of downloaded E_E content to repatch later if I want ? I never actually tried the vanilla install before adding the E_E update.

 

[GuyNwah]

Is there any way I can reinstall the vanilla DVD version, but keep the 7 hours of downloaded E_E content to repatch later if I want ? I never actually tried the vanilla install before adding the E_E update.

You should have 36 or more very large files from the EE download (with suitable names and .bin suffixes): the EE download itself is 36 of these files, and each language pack is another 4 or 5 files.

Archive these files, then when you mean to reinstall the EE, put them back in the same directory.

It's worth a try, because one of the things that can go wrong is that the intro video, which is new with the EE, may fail to load or start.

I've found that the game is not stable on XP when you boot with the /3GB switch. It tends to black-screen for me. It works for others. YMMV.

 

[slicedice8]

One of the Witcher 2 files must've been quarantinned by your antivirus software. Restore the files and turn of your antivirus while launching the game. That is exactly what happened with me and that is exactly how I solved it.

Good Luck

 

[GuyNwah]

I tried a fresh install and upgrade to EE on my Pentium D host, and it definitely didn't freeze up. Fresh copy of NOD32 didn't find any suspect files, either. But YaSoora still had a good suggestion. Check your quarantined files for anything that could be a piece of the game.

Another possibility, and a very real one considering the long downloads in the EE upgrade, is that you got a busted download. This tends to result in install errors that, if you click through them, gives you a busted installed game that may hang, black-screen, crash to desktop, or misbehave in any number of ways.

Did you click through any errors during the install?

 

[mjwraw]

OK, so I moved the E_E download files then did a full uninstall and reinstall, and it works straight off in full screen mode. So, next question, bearing in mind this is the 'New improved version 2.0' retail boxed version, what patches do I need to apply, (I'm guessing only 3.1 and 3.2 ?). I'm going to do each one in order then try the game after each one - if all required patches work OK I'll then try the E_E patch again and see what happens.

 

[tommy5761]

Not quite right . The EE has to be installed first before applying the 3.1 and 3.2 patches .
What i would recommend is verifying your patch files using the numbers found in this thread .
http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/29690-tw2ee-patch-md5-checksums/

 

[mjwraw]

So just to confirm, no patches between retail version 2.0 and E_E ? And no way to install the post E_E patches without installing E_E itself ?

 

[GuyNwah]

So just to confirm, no patches between retail version 2.0 and E_E ? And no way to install the post E_E patches without installing E_E itself ?

The EE patch will update any pre-EE version to EE. But you must have the EE patch installed before any post-EE patch will install. If you have 2.0 installed, then you apply, in order:

EE

3.1

3.2

3.2 Chinese if you don't want to be nagged about it.

 

[mjwraw]

Thanks for your swift and excellent help on this, much appreciated. Cheers !

 

[ReighnDae]

My game runs fine until I patch it to v3.2. After that when I click on "Launch Game" it brings up the "Wolf's Head" and then returns to the launcher. Anyone got any suggestions?

 

[tommy5761]

My game runs fine until I patch it to v3.2. After that when I click on "Launch Game" it brings up the "Wolf's Head" and then returns to the launcher. Anyone got any suggestions?

Have you tried the hotfix 3.2 found at the link Read thoroughly the first post .

http://en.thewitcher.com/forum/index.php?/topic/30215-hotfix-for-net-4-related-errors-0xc0000005-0xc0000142-etc/

 

[ReighnDae]

Thank you. I did, however, find the link for the .NET Hotfix on another post and my game works fine now.