CD Problems - solutions

Kenwood TrueX 42X CD-ROM Problems

Go to kenwoods site and download the firmware upgrade to 5.0. I have done this and Diablo installs and plays OK now. 

General CD Fixes

I think it may help some people with CD problem or people who want play with the backup CD. Here is how I play with my backup CD:

1. Put Diablo 2 "play CD" on the CD-ROM. 2. Double click on "My computer". 3. Run Diablo 2. 4. Before it said "Put your play CD on CD-ROM",right click on your CD-ROM icon on "My computer" at once. 5. Choose "Eject" when the CD is loading. 6. It will then bring up a blue screen, press "Enter" to continue. 7. Put your CD back to CD-ROM and close it. 8. That all.

 

Anyone who had the problem I had where I installed the patch and then couldn't run the game Try to install the latest version of the operating system. I had Windows 98 installed and had that problem. I just updated to Windows 98 SE and it solved it. just thought I would drop a line to all those who are having the same problem.

 

A CD-ROM related problem that I had was this: Please insert the Diablo II Play CD.
If everything on Blizzard's page does not help, try removing ASPI drivers (WnASPI32.dll in Windows\system or Windows\System32 directory). This helped me. I have Windows 2000 Professional.

After selecting full install, it run a bit, asked to create a desktop icon (I said yes) and after a few minutes, it wanted the Play Disk to be inserted. It started loading the first file *.mpq when it stopped with the following error: "Data File Error". Even when following the directions, it appears that the "Play Disk" has a data error because it continues to cycle between the Install DIsk and Play Disk until it fails completely.

SOLUTION:

I'm running a SONY VAIO PC-R539DS Digital Studio PC and it uses the PIONEER DVD-ROM DVD-114R DVD/CDROM drive.

It turned out that SONY has a driver specifically for this model R539-DS desktop PC to upgrade the Windows 98 driver for the Pioneer drive.

The upgraded version is V1.29 and anyone using the Pioneer DVD-ROM drive model mentioned above should look into the updated driver from their PC manufacturer.

 

Also see the Battle.Net support comments on CD related issues, these may help you out.

Sound Blaster Live Problem

Sound Loop Problems

If you have upgraded your drivers, and have installed Liveware3.0, and your game freezes with the 3 sec sound loop, this is what you need to do.

Go to your add/remove programs and select SoundBlaster Live. Then click remove, a second window will pop up asking which components to remove. Click to remove everything but the MIXER and Audio HQ, (remove the Creative Launcher, the Drivers, and the Diagnostic). You will now need to restart your computer. When the computer boots up it will say found new hardware and installing software/drivers for it. Every time it finds something and goes to install the driver or software click cancel so nothing is installed. Also after you have click cancel to everything a window might pop up saying can't find a certain file. Just click ok or cancel when the window pops up. Then run the file that you should have downloaded from Creative called SBLW9xup(these are the latest drivers for the SBLIVE card. Reboot your system and use the mixer (which is found in the Creative program folder to adjust your sound levels and fade for your soundcard). This will definitely stop the SBLIVE crashes. 

Maybe at some point Blizzard or Creative will be able to figure out what is going on with liveware 3.0 and Diablo2, but until then you can at least play the game without crashing out every 10-45 mins. P.S. as of this writing, I have only had the sound effects for Diablo2 on, you should be able to have both going, but if it does cause a problem then turn the music off or follow one of the example listed here earlier on this board about transferring the music file to your hard drive. Again I don't think this will be a problem.

 

Enabling EAX Support

The first thing you should do is make sure you have the latest drivers for the Sound Blaster Live! Sound Card From www.creative.com. Before you update your sound drivers, you need to:

Uninstall your SBLive! drivers with the Add/Remove programs in control panel. Install Live!ware 3.0 again using the latest updated drivers. IMPORTANT: Also install the special driver update also on that page, near the top, dated 000505 with the filename sblw9xup.exe. Make sure to only install this AFTER you have installed Live!ware 3.0. Run the latest DirectX installation program off of the Windows Update site to make sure DirectX was installed properly and recognized the new sound card drivers. Uninstall and Reinstall the Diablo II test from Add/Remove Programs in Control Panel. (Blizzard Support)

Note: We tried this method and it caused all sorts of havoc on the systems here. That's not saying it won't work for you but we recommend just applying the sblw9xup.exe on top of the drivers you already have installed. For some reason when we deleted LiveWare and installed the new version from the site, the machine would hang as it redetected the hardware after reboot.

Performance tips

I was playing around trying to get that lag that hits you when entering new areas and what not to stop and this seemed to help me a bit changed typical role of my computer from network server to desktop computer (not sure of the impact there though) checked DMA on my CD-Rom drive to give it better performance moved the d2char.mpq and d2music.mpq files from the play disk to my d2 dir (think that helped a lot) increased the amount of virtual memory that windows uses to twice the size of my ram (vm=256min 300max).

These changes seemed to help the lag when loading levels and entering new areas and such, I still got it in some areas but not as bad as it was before. I have yet to try a tcp/ip or Battle.Net game yet to see if there is any performance improvement there. hope this helps some people.

 

The best improvement for ppl with less than 256 ram, (I've got 128 and it helped a lot) is to change the swap file size.

1.Hold alt and double click on my computer (on the desktop)
2. Select 'performance' tab
3. under 'advanced settings', click on the ' virtual memory button'.
4. choose ' let me speci.....' and set both minimum and max values to 2.5 times your ram ( I had it on 2 * before and there is quite an improvement) i.e. 320 for 128RAM.
5. Defragment your hard drive *IMPORTANT*

 

RAM is the key, and free RAM is what we are talking about. I have 128MB and got much loading lag. Then I checked how much free RAM I had and couldn't get more than 70MB free. After some tuning with memory optimization tools I now get 90MB free and D2 is running nearly smooth. So if you can, get more RAM, if you can't optimize what you got. 

 

I have a 400 MHz P II with a 32 MB riva tnt card, 128 Mb ram, and SBLive, and I was quite upset with the infrequent "lag" caused by the game messing with swapfiles and often freezing for a bit as you enter new areas. I tried just about everything to fix this problem. I messed with Bios, Virtual Memory, DirectX, Memory management, gameport, sound card, 3d card, DMA, even reinstalled win98, none of which offered any improvement for D2. 

I was ready to give up and buy another 128 RAM. Then I installed a little utility called CacheBooster. From the preset i chose Games. A reboot later, I was playing D2, and noticed a *dramatic* improvement. I still get a slight jerk from loading, but it is much smaller, and interferes little with gameplay. I'm now able to switch between scenes much faster, without worry of lag killing me, and effects that used to cause lots of slowdown like the tristram portal or Andariel's death now run smoothly. Also it seems to help if you have your virtual memory set at a fixed 1024 megs, even though d2 never uses that much, it seems to help for some reason.

Turning DMA on and reinstalling win98 may have helped but I cant say for certain. CacheBooster did make the big difference though.

You can get the freeware CacheBooster from http://www.AnalogX.com

 

If you are like me, you have a fast cdrom and those 2, 6, 15 hour games of Diablo 2 can really heat up the old computer and cd drive spinning all of the time. Also, if you have a slower cdrom drive, it will stop and have to spin up again every once and a while to change music or load more up (which can sometime lead to Diablo II freezing or giving a music error. Anyway there is a way around thing that will require the cd to only be in the drive on start up. (I am talking about the multiplayer install here I haven't tested any other). Anyway all you have to do is copy over the music file from the play disk, it is called d2music.mpq or something. Copy it into your diablo2 directory and it will automatically find it and use it rather then off of your cd drive. Now my cd spins down, the computer is cooler and the cdlag is gone.

 

If you have an ABIT motherboard with the Highpoint Technologies ata66 controller, then follow the steps to fix it. Be aware, this might slow down you computer a bit in general (not much though) but it will make DII run like a champ (all the hard drive paging will be gone.) The reason it slows it down is because it puts the hardrive into "Dos compatability paging mode (no clue what it means but I do know it slows it down.) I got this from
another post from a guy that did it on 5 machines, worked on all, and I did it on mine and it worked fine. The other guy has e-mailed Highpoint about this and we are awaiting and hoping for a possible other fix from them but this will work till then.

"Haveing hard drive thrashing problems with any abit MB's? it is your htp366 ata66 driver. And the most updated one does not correct it. But no worries I have THE FIX FOR THIS. 

1. right click on "my computer"
2. left click "properties"
3. goto device manager
4. click + sign next to scsi controllers
5. remove both htp366 controllers in there
6. DO NOT REBOOT after taking them both out
7. delete any hpt366.mpd on your harddrive using the find files proggy
8. REBOOT
9. when windows pops back up - click cancel everytime it tries to ask you for a device driver.

That's it....I use all abit MB's in my network of 5 computers and they all had the same problem. This fixed THEM ALL....no more hard drive thrashing. "

 

If you want to know how well the game is performing in-game bring up a chat box in a game and type in FPS, this will give you all the relevant info you need to know.

D3D Vs Glide

We have tested Diablo II on 2 video cards on 2 machines of exact same spec. We had a Pentium 3 650 with a Vooodoo2 and 128 Meg Ram and a another machine of same spec with a Maxi Xentor 32 (TNT2). We are definitely getting a much better framerate using Glide on the Voodoo2 compared to D3D on the Maxi Xentor. The framerate difference is around 15/20 Frames per second. So as you can see, at the moment the Glide support is well out performing the D3D. Hopefully in a later patch the D3D FPS will be improved.

3D Card Issues 

Annihilator 2 card tweaking

I have an Elsa Gladiac, which is the same card.  I had major problems and had to play in DirectDraw mode until I reformatted and installed a clean load. This probably could have been avoided if I had just installed the 4-in-1 drivers for my VIA chipset on the motherboard. So, if you have an Athlon system with a VIA chipset, make sure you get the latest 4-in-1 drivers. Other than that, I'm running the 5.22 Detonator drivers, which seem to be more stable than the 5.30 drivers. I'm getting great performance with this setup.

 

Nvidia Cards

I have been using a TNT2 M64 32MB with detonator 5.22 latest Detonator drivers and have had random "frozen screen" hangs, sometimes with the sound looping for a couple of seconds. The hangs were occurring very often, every 1/2 to 2 hours of D2 gameplay. I recently updated to the 5.32 beta Detonator drivers (posted on www.3dchipset.com) and the hangs virtually disappeared (only one hang now in about 14 hours of gameplay)! It was "miraculous" how much more rewarding gameplay became. I thought the problems might be due to the CD, Soundcard, etc... but it appears to have been the video drivers all along!! I suggest updating to the 5.32 Beta drivers if you are having these kinds of hangs., 

 

I use a nVidia Riva TNT2 M64 32mb, and when I first installed the game it would not run past the first cutscene - the screen simply went black and it couldn't change itnto 800x600 resolution. I had followed the advice on the little pink slip that came inside the box and updated to the latest drivers, but they did not help.

So I reinstalled the factory driver (which had not worked for the Stress Test; I had needed to upgrade for that) and hilariously it all worked fine.

 

Voodoo2 Problems

I had a problem with differently colored pixels flashing all over my screen when playing in 3dfx glide mode with my voodoo 2 card so what I did was trying to download all the newest drivers, didn't help though then I just tried some different options (left click desktop - properties - voodoo2 - advanced options.)

turned on the following options: limit texture memory to 2mbytes for glide apps
force triple colored buffering for glide apps and it works!

 

Most of the problems experienced with 3D cards are down to the drivers needing updated. The best thing to do is to keep a close eye out for new video drivers, they are released quite frequently

Windows 2000/NT

I had to perform the following modifications to the system to make Diablo II work under a normal user account:

1. From the administrator account, move the start menu and desktop icons to the All Users profile under "C:\Documents and Settings"
2. Make sure the user has full read/write access to the program folder.
3. Open up registry editor from the administrator account, save the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Blizzard Entertainment" to a file.

Login as the user desiring to play the game, and import the registry settings.

 

Decompressing Sprite Error Solution

You don't seem to have the "sprite decompressing error" freeze fix up here

Maybe I'm being dumb and its somewhere else.

Anyway on this error - My solution was to do a re-intsall (use "uninstall diablo II" icon in D2 group and it won't delete charcters) - haven't had a problem since.

However, the "official" Blizzard fix was:

Error: "Error Decompressing Sprite"
Users who experience a crash error resulting in the message "Error Decompressing Sprite" must manually copy the file D2Char.MPQ off the Diablo II "Play Disk" into the Diablo II folder on their hard drive.

 

 

Problems connecting to Battle.net

If you are having problems connecting to Battle.net:

1. If you cannot get to web pages, the problem is more than just Battle.net and is often caused by your ISP in such cases.

2. Wait 5 minutes and try again. A large number of issues are temporary connection problems somewhere on the Internet.

3. The problem may be the result of maintenance. Check the Battle.net Status Forum.

If you determine that you cant connect to a specific Realm, connectivity may be the cause.

The Internet is made up of hundreds of separate Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and their networks. Battle.net service is provided by a handful of these ISPs; Blizzard Entertainment has no control over other networks. Your connectivity to Battle.net may involve a number of different ISPs. This situation is also complicated by the many ISP networks that span continents and the world. A problem may occur in a small portion of a network that causes your Battle.net connectivity to fail. In this case, it is difficult for anyone outside the affected network to identify the source of the problem 
without detailed information.

If you suspect a connectivity problem, you should use Trace Route. This utility determines where a problem starts in a network. Routes are the paths used between different systems (routers) and networks of the Internet. Trace Route checks each hop (router) along the route from your computer to the target (useast.battle.net, asia.battle.net, etc.). This information shows where the router check failed by listing asterisks (the * symbol) instead of a number for a specific hop. If you have a large number of failures, you may have a connectivity problem.

Resolving a suspected connectivity issue means submitting your Trace Route (instructions are provided below). This information should be provided to Blizzards Technical Support and to your ISP along with your computers IP address. Once the information is submitted, it may take up to several days for the problem to be identified and resolved. Remember that Blizzard can only ask your ISP to fix an issue; the best results come when you contact your ISP directly.

Gathering a Trace Route:

1. Open Start > Run.

2. Type "COMMAND" (without quotes) and press ENTER.

3. In the COMMAND window, type "TRACERT realm.BATTLE.NET > C:\TRACERT.TXT" (without quotes) and press ENTER.Note that realm should be replaced by the site you a having problems reaching (ASIA, USWEST, USEAST, EUROPE).

4. Note your IP address. This can be found using WINIPCFG in Windows 95, 98 and ME. For Windows XP and Windows 2000, type IPCONFIG in the COMMAND window.

5. Email the C:\TRACERT.TXT file to support@blizzard.com with an explanation of the problem. Be sure to include your IP address

With AoL

To connect to Battle.net via AOL, make sure you are running the latest version of the AOL software.
To check the version you are using:

Run AOL
Click on Help from the menu
Select "About America Online"

For information on downloading and installing the latest version of AOL:

Connect to AOL
Click on the Keyword button
Type "UPGRADE" then click GOSelect the latest AOL version available.
Follow the Online Instructions

Make sure you are connecting to AOL with parental controls turned off.
If you have continuing problems try logging onto AOL using the Main Account.
You can also try connecting to AOL using a different local access number.

Macintosh users

In addition to the above...

Make sure the "quit other applications" option is unchecked in the startup option menu.
To view the startup options hold down the option key while you double click on the games application icon from your hard drive. Then make sure the "quit other applications" option is unchecked and click continue. 

If you continue to have problems connecting, quit the game and delete the games preferences file.

Proxy Support

Diablo II is pretty proxy friendly. We have tried loads of different pieces of proxy software to get a LAN connected through one net connection to reach Battle.Net. Although Diablo II is supported by most proxy software the easiest way to get connected is to have Windows 98 Second Edition installed on your PCs.

Because Diablo II supports NAT (Network Address Translation), Windows Second Edition works great with its Internet Sharing feature and is an absolute breeze to set up. If you don't have Windows SE then you can find details on how to set Diablo II up for other proxies at the Proxy support page on Battle.net. Here they give details on how to set up Wingate, MSProxy, Winproxy and IP Masquerade to handle Diablo II. If you have Windows SE we would highly recommend using the ICS first before trying anything else it's the easiest to set up and could save you a lot of time and trouble.

LAN Crashes/Freezing

We have never had this problem here when tested on LAN even though we have not assigned IP's 2 each PC. We have everything set up through DHCP. If you are experiencing problems try this suggestion

A lot of people have reported this bug. Turn off automap on the hosting computer and it will go away (quick fix). What actually fixed the problem for me was setting a fixed IP address on all of the computers:

Go to control panel
double click on network
Select the TCP/IP -> network card
Click on properties
Specify IP addresses for all of the computers:

192.168.1.1
192.168.1.2
 etc...

Now specify the same subnet mask for all of the computers:

255.255.255.0

After I did this, I have not had the problem recur even with automap on. 

 

Get Those Drivers

Here is a list of sites that you should check frequently for updated drivers.

Nvidia
Guillemot
3dfx
Creative Labs
SBLive
ATI
Aureal