Mass Effect

[tanker27]

OK so I never finished the game and I wanted to reload and play it last night. Well long story short I remember how much of a PITA it was to get it running originally, so I grabbed all the patches and preceded to install.

Well I thought for sure they worked out the kinks and it would run like a champ on my i7 setup with with my geforce 275 on Vista....WRONG!

Same crap as before it hangs upon launch and I am struggling to find out why. UAC, Firewall, run as, xp mode, etc, etc, etc. I tried it all last night Nothing.

I really wanted to finish this game. So does anyone have any "magic bullet" advice as to how I can get this game running?

[pennywise]

You could buy a copy of it for the Xbox 360.

[FubbHead]

What Windows? XP/Vista? 32bit/64bit?

Oh, and what sound card?

[tanker27]

Vista 64
Asus p6t
i7 920
asus Sonar DX
Nvidia geforce gtx 275 oc

[tanker27]

You could buy a copy of it for the Xbox 360.

Why?? I already own the damn thing....besides I dont play my Xbox

[Neutronbeam]

I'm in the same situation -- installed it, downloaded all the patches and installed them, downloaded the Bring Down the Sky add-on -- and I can't even get the game to start -- one screen opens up and then nada. So I gave up. Supposedly BioWare is working on a super patch to fix all the broken @#^*^* with the game, so I'm just using the DVD as a coaster until then and playing Fallout 3.

System specs are below. If anyone has advice for the OP I'm interested in it too.

[Jigar]

OK so I never finished the game and I wanted to reload and play it last night. Well long story short I remember how much of a PITA it was to get it running originally, so I grabbed all the patches and preceded to install.

Well I thought for sure they worked out the kinks and it would run like a champ on my i7 setup with with my geforce 275 on Vista....WRONG!

Same crap as before it hangs upon launch and I am struggling to find out why. UAC, Firewall, run as, xp mode, etc, etc, etc. I tried it all last night Nothing.

I really wanted to finish this game. So does anyone have any "magic bullet" advice as to how I can get this game running?

Are you talking about patch that once run, weights 1.6GB in size ?

[tanker27]

Super patch??? When is that suppose to be out?

[tanker27]

Are you talking about patch that once run, weights 1.6GB in size ?

the two patches I have applied was 101 and 101a. I did not install the bring down the sky add on. Is there another patch that I need to be looking for?

[Jigar]

Are you talking about patch that once run, weights 1.6GB in size ?

the two patches I have applied was 101 and 101a. I did not install the bring down the sky add on. Is there another patch that I need to be looking for?

Ok, i think i got it all wrong, i usually crack the games after buying. So the crack patch that opens the galaxy map weights 1.6GB once run, but it works wonders for me.

[BKA]

The sounds weird but it looks like you're not alone. I have it installed on my system below and it runs. Maybe its the sound card that conflicts with the game. I use onboard sound.

[FubbHead]

Ah. I remember a friend had problems with Far Cry 2 and the Sonar card. There was some option in its control panel he could disable to make it work again.

[tanker27]

New sound card drivers installed.....still nothing.

[FubbHead]

Some option called GX or somesuch I belive.

[tanker27]

Some option called GX or somesuch I belive.

Found the option turned it off.....still nothing.

[FubbHead]

Some places suggest running the game as Admin at least once, so it can create some registry keys it needs, or something. But I guess you're already tried that long ago.

[tanker27]

yup >.<

[JustAnEngineer]

The first (and possibly second) time that you run the game, you need to right-click run-as Administrator. For subsequent runs, you shouldn't have any problems.

[Gerbil Jedidiah]

This is disheartening to read. I just upgraded to an i7 920 and was planning on installing Mass Effect over the weekend. I was never able to get it to run on my P45 chipset mobo, but it ran great on my 780i chipset mobo. Now that I'm running X58 perhaps the issues will begin again... and I have a xonar DX to boot...

[tanker27]

The first (and possibly second) time that you run the game, you need to right-click run-as Administrator. For subsequent runs, you shouldn't have any problems.

Done that too....No worky

[dearharlequin]

I had problems with ME and a xonar sound card. Try visiting here http://www.tweakguides.com/ME_1.html and try some of the suggestions it has for sound card problems. There are some start up files that may be giving false info after you tried changing settings from hardware sound to onboard, etc. To be honest, I tried a million things and don't remember what solution I stumbled upon. Best of luck and keep trying, tremendous game.

[tanker27]

Dammit Dammit Dammit.....So close yet so far away.........

So when I got to Documents/BioWare/Mass Effect/Config and edit the file BIOEngine.ini at the line bUseSound=True and set it to False the game runs like a champ EXCEPT for no sound.

So I am close. Apparently this is happening on a lot of systems with different sound cards, Realtek, Creative, Xonar, Yuentech (sp?)

So I have the Asus Xonar DX and running the latest drivers. At least I know where to look sort of....But now I am at a standstill as I dont know what to do.

Oh there was one thread that mentioned OpenAL, that because of Vista's Change in the Sound API that you can uninstall it and it would run but that did nothing for me.

[Zoomastigophora]

Try using onboard sound?

[Gerbil Jedidiah]

Try using onboard sound?

Yes, seriously

[JustAnEngineer]

This terrific game is just $10 at GoGamer this weekend.

[FubbHead]

There aren't some Hardware 3D option or similar to disable?

[tanker27]

On Board sound = Same thing............This has to be an issue with Directx or the Vista Sound API.......

[JustAnEngineer]

Mass Effect has played fine for me under 64-bit Vista on four different systems:
1) Athlon64 X2 4600+, ATI RS482, Radeon HD3870X2, Realtek audio
2) Opteron 175, NForce4 Ultra, Radeon HD3870X2, Audigy2 ZS
3) C2Q Q9300, Intel X48, Radeon HD4870 1GiB, X-Fi Xtreme Gamer
4) C2D P8700, Intel PM45, GeForce 9800M GS, integrated audio

[tanker27]

Not to be rude that just doesnt help me at all. There are a ton of people with the very same issue and the fact that BioWare has ignored it for well over a year sucks. But what do they care, they already have my money.

[tanker27]

SUCCESSS!!!!!!!!!!

Time hack: 1403

So after searching the UT3 forums for like issues (ME and UT3 use the same engine) I stumbled across a post that stated the following:

1) in /program files/Mass Effect/Binaries locate the OpenAL32.dll and wrap_oal.dll files

2) Rename OpenAL32.dll to OpenAL32.bak

3) Rename wrap_oal.dll to OpenAL32.dll

4) Launch as Admin by using the MassEffect.exe

5) Enjoy

WOOT it works! Hawt Damn!

Again so my setup is:

i7 920
Asus P6t
Asus Xonar Dx
GeForce GTX 275 OC
Vista 64 SP1

Total time spent to get this game running.............~12 hours