Tue Mar 25, 2003 9:20 am
WOOT! Fixed my crashes! Please read! 
OK, here goes folks!
**Please try at your own risk**
I was fortunate to be one of the few people that didn't have one single issue with Freelancer. How soon I felt the frustration when I was playing the single player campaign and the bug bit me hard. Right when I got close to the end (or I think so as the story is hitting it's climax), I would be hit with constant CTDs, merchant screen crashing, jump hole crashing and screen garbles followed by a screeching sound then my PC hard freezing. I tried both DX8.1 and 9.0a, various different video drivers, sound drivers, different VIA 4-in-1's, you name it. I was at my wit's end.
So I decided to dissect the problem step-by-step so I could enjoy the game again (driven mad because of how close I am to the end), and thought I'd register just to share this miraculous find! Read on...
Through process and elimination (very sadistic I know), I decided to explore the CD and actual directory where the game is installed. I went though every single file in the CAB1 and CAB2 directory. This is where the problem lied (for me at least), when I got to this directory: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\UNIVERSE\SYSTEMS. I could not delete it. Then an alert told me that the 'Directory is Corrupted and to check Scandisk'. Hmm. Well to make a long story short, this is what I did.
1.) Right-click your Freelancer CD Drive, and drag your CAB1 file to your desktop.
2.) Extract CAB1 using WinRar to your desktop (for now).
3.) From the extracted CAB1 folder, make your way to: CAB1\Cab1\data\Universe\.
4.) Since I could not delete the old 'Systems' folder in the game directory (couldn't even turn off 'Read only' to delete it), I just right-clicked it and renamed it to 'SYSTEMSOLD'.
5.) Right-click the 'SYSTEMSOLD' folder and select Properties. Under 'Attributes' (at the bottom), select Hidden and click OK. Then select 'Apply changes this folder, subfolder and files, click 'OK' and wait.
6.) Then copy the new 'Systems' folder from the extracted file and rename it 'SYSTEMS' and placed it in the game directory. (Where the old renamed and hidden one is).
7.) Close all windows, and PLAY!
I assume this would work if say, you are experiencing problems with merchant crashing or even other events. If you are crashing when you talk to a merchant, then it would probably be: CAB2\data\Interface\Baseside - or whatever. Just do the above but with the appropriate folders, etc.
I hope this can shed some light for some of those who have tried everything under the sun and have yet to find a solution. Again, please don't come blaming me if your system becomes unusable or something. The description is pretty simple.
Here's the system I'm running Freelancer on just in case.
- WINXP PRO SP1 (all updates)
- SB Live! Value
- GeForce 4 Ti4200 (running 43.03 drivers for now but will change again now that I got my game running
)
- 40 GB Maxtor HD ATA133
- 1 GB Kingston pc133 RAM
- MSI KT7 Turbo 2 Motherboard
- AMD Athlon XP 2200
Pretty puny system and running Freelancer and the server off of it. Framerate is great, and NO skips or lag in menus, etc.
Enjoy!
- FreelancerNCU, signing off.
**Please try at your own risk**
I was fortunate to be one of the few people that didn't have one single issue with Freelancer. How soon I felt the frustration when I was playing the single player campaign and the bug bit me hard. Right when I got close to the end (or I think so as the story is hitting it's climax), I would be hit with constant CTDs, merchant screen crashing, jump hole crashing and screen garbles followed by a screeching sound then my PC hard freezing. I tried both DX8.1 and 9.0a, various different video drivers, sound drivers, different VIA 4-in-1's, you name it. I was at my wit's end.
So I decided to dissect the problem step-by-step so I could enjoy the game again (driven mad because of how close I am to the end), and thought I'd register just to share this miraculous find! Read on...
Through process and elimination (very sadistic I know), I decided to explore the CD and actual directory where the game is installed. I went though every single file in the CAB1 and CAB2 directory. This is where the problem lied (for me at least), when I got to this directory: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Freelancer\DATA\UNIVERSE\SYSTEMS. I could not delete it. Then an alert told me that the 'Directory is Corrupted and to check Scandisk'. Hmm. Well to make a long story short, this is what I did.
1.) Right-click your Freelancer CD Drive, and drag your CAB1 file to your desktop.
2.) Extract CAB1 using WinRar to your desktop (for now).
3.) From the extracted CAB1 folder, make your way to: CAB1\Cab1\data\Universe\.
4.) Since I could not delete the old 'Systems' folder in the game directory (couldn't even turn off 'Read only' to delete it), I just right-clicked it and renamed it to 'SYSTEMSOLD'.
5.) Right-click the 'SYSTEMSOLD' folder and select Properties. Under 'Attributes' (at the bottom), select Hidden and click OK. Then select 'Apply changes this folder, subfolder and files, click 'OK' and wait.
6.) Then copy the new 'Systems' folder from the extracted file and rename it 'SYSTEMS' and placed it in the game directory. (Where the old renamed and hidden one is).
7.) Close all windows, and PLAY!
I assume this would work if say, you are experiencing problems with merchant crashing or even other events. If you are crashing when you talk to a merchant, then it would probably be: CAB2\data\Interface\Baseside - or whatever. Just do the above but with the appropriate folders, etc.
I hope this can shed some light for some of those who have tried everything under the sun and have yet to find a solution. Again, please don't come blaming me if your system becomes unusable or something. The description is pretty simple.
Here's the system I'm running Freelancer on just in case.
- WINXP PRO SP1 (all updates)
- SB Live! Value
- GeForce 4 Ti4200 (running 43.03 drivers for now but will change again now that I got my game running
)
- 40 GB Maxtor HD ATA133
- 1 GB Kingston pc133 RAM
- MSI KT7 Turbo 2 Motherboard
- AMD Athlon XP 2200
Pretty puny system and running Freelancer and the server off of it. Framerate is great, and NO skips or lag in menus, etc.
Enjoy!
- FreelancerNCU, signing off.