Troubleshooting

This article does not contain advice on how to adjust the camera, please see its own page to do so. While this page may help you solve your problem, it would be best if you also sent a bug report to Obsidian, so that the underlying problem may be addressed. Their e-mail is nwn2bugs@obsidian.net. Please see the latest patch notes here, which may explain changes between versions better.

For issues specifically related to playing on a persistent world please see Persistent World Player Troubleshooting or seek help on the forums for the persistent world in question.

For more advice see the troubleshooting thread on the official forum.

General advice

Many peoples problems can be traced back to the following problems, and therefore it is a good idea to go through the following list before trying more specific advice:

• Outdated drivers: Please try to update your drivers, this goes especially for video game drivers. If you are using a Nvidia card, their driver page can be found here, while ATI owners will have to go here.

• Problematic files in the override folder: Despite its great convenience and ease of use, the override folder in My documents\Neverwinter Nights 2 folder (or just Documents for Microsoft Vista users) was never meant to be used for modifications and module file to such a extent as it is today. Instead it was meant to be used for builders to test their creations. As a rule it is therefore a good idea to remove all files from the override folder and then try to see if the problem persists (and then incrementally add the files back, testing for the problem, until the file causing it is found).

• Vista user: Please make sure that you have logged in as Administrator, instead of user with admin privileges.

• Old Neverwinter Nights 2 folder: Following patch 1.010, Obsidian made changes to the engine which has necessitated the need to rename the Neverwinter Nights 2 folder in "My documents" in order to take advantage of these changes (including better frame-rate).

1. Go to "My documents"
2. Find the folder named "Neverwinter Nights 2"
3. Rename the folder to anything you like (anything, as long as it is not "Neverwinter Nights 2" - say "Neverwinter Nights 2 - BACKUP"
4. Now start NWN2.
5. NWN2 will create a new folder called "Neverwinter Nights 2"
6. Exit NWN2
7. Move save games, custom ui, overrides, modules, campaigns etc. etc.... from "Neverwinter Nights 2 - BACKUP" (or whatever you called it) to the new "Neverwinter Nights 2" folder.

The game runs slowly

One of the main resource hogs in NWN2 tends to be the shadow options, so turning the shadow detail down will most likely help. If this is not enough, there is an extensive tweak guide here, which gives a lot of options on how to tweak the game to run more smoothly.

Also there has been reports of a bug introduced with 1.11 that causes the FPS to drop by half when a summoned creature/familiar/animal-companion is added to the party. Furthermore this also causes a 50% frame rate drop when the character sheet is opened. It can be partly remedied by opening the spell book, and then closing it. Once both character sheet and spell book have been opened, frame rate stays normal (until the next area change.)

Some people have experienced the same speedup, by right clicking on the ground (bringing up the player menu).

The game takes forever to patch

Note that manual updating the game is not recommended/supported by Obsidian, and might make it harder to diagnose bugs - and could in worst case even introducing new ones.

If the autoupdater downloads the patches very slowly, then you can alternatively downloading the manual patches found here. If you want to use the built in patcher you will then need to follow the instructions found here (post 12). Otherwise you can find a community made patcher here.

The Intro movie does not play

Obsidian decided that people installing MoTB should not see the intro. If you wish to reenable it, you can download a program that will do so here.

Silver Shard Quest does not update

After having gotten the Silver Shard in ACT 1, the journal is supposed to update. However, MotB owners who started a new game after having installed MotB, have reported that this does not always happen, even if they were fully updated before they installed. The solution to this seems to be installing the MotB specific updates, either through the autopatcher, or the manual patches.

Game crashes/hangs after finishing Jerro Haven

After finishing the Jerro haven you are supposed to be send back to Crossroad Keep, however, in some cases the game starts loading the module and then either hangs forever or crashes.

There has been some indication that somewhere in the haven the Crossroad keep becomes corrupted. A solution seems to be replace the corrupted Crossroad keep files in the savegame/game with a older, and uncorrupted version (though it is greatly advised to make a backup of the savegame being modified).

renatofrasson gave the following fix in this thread:

Here are the steps that I took: went to my documents\neverwintenights2\saves and opened the folder with my current save game and another with a previous saved game. I substituted the file 2100_Crossroad_Keep_A2.sav and 2100_Crossroad_Keep_A2.Z with the files from the previously saved game and it worked.

It is suggested that the Crossroad file will be the most recent (so as little progress is lost – and that as few, if any, discrepancies develop), so ideally it should be taken outside the Haven (if that is not also corrupted).

This might also work with other transitions that either hangs or crashes, though there are as of yet no examples of this.

Some people have reported that while the above fix did not work for them, tips taken from this thread did:

From forum member 1Oldtimer:

I also found this old note: As some others I have been stuck at the end of Ammon Jerro's Haven. I finally found a solution to the "After-Ammon Jerro's Haven -Teleportation -Cutscene -Loading -Crash" problem. I have been trying and searching for several hours. There's a thread with the same prob where I've got the solution from here.

What I've done (same as in the other post): - Saved my game in a new slot just before initiating dialogue with Ammon Jerro. - Rested, unsummoned all pets. - Open ConsoleSet the DebugMode to 1 - type the following: - rs gb_setassociatelistenpatterns - cutscene 0 - cutscene_override 0

or

From forum member marcbrookes:

ok i solved it, I looked in the saved file directory ../Documents/Neverwinter Nights 2/Saves/000*.* etc and backed up the files. Next I deleted all the ROS*.* files and the ROSTER.rst file. Then I reloaded the game and tried the saved game and it didnt crash. I quickly saved that game, went to the backup and copied all the ROS*.* files and the ROSTER.rst files from the old backup saved game location into the new saved game directory. Upon loading the game with the new saved game, I'm in the Inn with all my party member back.

Some people reported that following the advice made Ammon Jerro was missing from the inn, but StormRaging seems to have come up with a solution:

I got this method to work and still had Ammon Jerro at the inn with me. What I did was remove all of the Ros files except the Ammon_Jerro.ROS that was in there and I also left the Roster.rst file in the saves folder. Loaded the game, was transported to the inn and Jerro was there. I then put all my ros files back in and when I went to do that it said there was already a Shandra Jerro file. I DID NOT Override that one because I think that is how the game puts her items in Jerro's inventory. But so far, this looks like it has worked as Ammon is at the inn with me

Corrupted Module

For advice on how to avoid this, go here, for advice on how to debug your corrupted module, try this page.

No text in MotB

See this thread.

Too much light

With the new Darkvision released in 1.11, some people have reported that there is too much light, some times even blindingly so, as several NPC's/PC's darkvision (or equivalent) overlap (or just ruins some dramatic atmosphere in the cutscenes). Installing MotB has been proven to remove this problem, but for those people without MotB Countless found the following solution in this thread:

go to your My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\Override folder. Right-click on some empty space in the folder and select "New\Text Document". Name the file fx_dark_vision.sef, clicking Yes when it asks you about changing the extension. Now make another one called fx_low_light_vision.sef, and you're done.

Missing feats

A file (most likely called feats.2da) in the override folder may be "shadowing" the built-in feats (after patch 1.10 and Mask of the Betrayer the range for official feats was expanded). The solution on this problem is to either change the range of the feats in the feat.2da file in the override (not recommended) or remove the file altogether and inform the creator of the feat override.

If there is no feats.2da in your override, it could be caused by either another override or a ui override. If there is no custom files in either the override directory or the ui directory, it is advised to rename the "My documents" NWN2 folder (as described above) and incremently copying the files over, starting with the save games, to find out what, if anything is causing the problem.

Crash on transition

The following have proven to help people who have experienced crashes on transition.

1. Select only your main character (don't select the other party members)
2. Turn off the AI
3. Rename your "My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2 folder and launch the game, which will create a new Neverwinter Nights 2 folder free of any content to see if your transitions work afterwards as, sometimes, the cause may be a corrupted file or custom content overrides causing the problem.
4. In some cases, not having enough free disk space may be the issue. Some transitions require opening a new of different module, in which case, plenty of free disk space is needed. My personal recommendation, is to have at least 15 GB of free disk space available.
5. Defragment your hard disk - fragmentation may cause crashes
6. Unsummon all familiars before transition.
7. Disable EAX.
8. Disable shadows
9. Running the game on 1 core (if you have a multi core processor)
10. Run the game in windowed mode
11. For Mask of the Betrayer, try reducing draw distance in the graphics settings.
12. Clear your tempoary file folder, both for NWN2 and Windows
13. Bring down the console (see here - though users non English keyboards might have to use right ALT (ALT GR) + "`") and type the following

DebugMode 1 rs ka_worldmap_open("Highcliff","")

This will open the worldmap, where you should be able to transition to the destination of your choice. Remember to type

DebugMode 0

in the console to hide the triggers after you have transitioned. Thanks goes to Samy Merchi from the NWN2 boards for finding that one.

Disappearing companions

Go to the eighth post of this thread.

If you need a replacement Khelgar.ros file - you can download one here

And for completeness: Grobnar .ros file Neeshka .ros files Sand .ros file Quara .ros file Elaness .ros file Casavir .ros file Bishop .ros file Shandra .ros file

Script fails to execute (Conversation with Bishop)

During the "Chasing Shandra" quest, after the battle in the Flagon Inn, you are given the choice to travel to Luskan (Ember), or to wait. If you choose to wait, it is possible for a script to fail to execute, and you will be unable to continue with the story.

In the Toolset Launcher that comes with the game, we have the option to view every script the game executes.

• (Skip this step if desired) Open up the module that we're currently using (in this instance it would be 1600_Githyanki_Caves). we are able to see conditions that must be met for an action (script) to execute.

• (Skip this step if desired) Under the Campaign Conversations tab, we will find gl_bishop. Near the top we see the conversation that contains the actions that we need, and also the conditions that must be met.
• First we need to remove Bishop from our party. Enter this in DebugMode: rs ga_roster_selectable("Bishop",1). Then remove Bishop from your party by exiting the Inn and re-entering.
• Save, then Exit NWN2. (Make sure you save your game while inside the Flagon Inn.)
• Find your Saved Files folder (Typically in ...\My Documents\Neverwinter Nights 2\Saves)
• Confirm that your current module is 1600_Githyanki_Caves in the file currentmodule.txt
• Open globals.xml with a simple text editor (Notepad)
• Ctrl + F to find 00_nAct. Make sure the value is set to 1.
• Ctrl + F to find bShandraKidnapped. Make sure the value is set to 1.
• Ctrl + F to find 00_bBishopJoined. Make sure the value is set to 0
• Save and restart NWN2 into the Saved Game file.
• Bishop should be back in his corner, make sure to accept his offer this time!

128 mb video card error

When you try to boot the game a message box informs you that you need a video card with at least 128 mb - which you do.

There are several ways that have proved successful:

Go to Star > Run > dxdiag. Once there click on the display tab and look for Approx. Total Memory. If the value is n/a, then one of the two following solutions should remove the problem:

1) Go to Run in the windows start menu and type conf. Go through the wizard. Next go to tools, go through the wizard, and uncheck the remote PC box. Now go back to dxdiag and see if the memory of your card is now shown.

2) If the former did not work, right click on "My computer", select Manage and go to Device Manager. Now click Display Adapters and uninstall everything except for the graphics card you are using.

Reboot your system and check dxdiag again. Your memory should now show up.

Another way is to increase the "Video RAM" in the registry to 128 MB:

Click Start->Run,Type regedit to enter the registry editor. Then find HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ SYSTEM \ CurrentControlSet \ Control \ Video

In this class, you can find some subclasses such as {C84A0178 - 28C2- 4D98-ACC1 -486446A5E108}.

In these subclasses, find all binary values named "HardwareInformation.MemorySize", double click them and change the value to 00 00 00 08 (which stands for 128MB video RAM).

Then check dxdiag again. The displayed video RAM should have changed to 128MB.

The game should now run.

Game keeps resetting the resolution refresh rate

This affect people with CRT or LCD monitors that can run at more than 60Hz. (like 85 or 120Hz monitors)

There is no setting for selecting the refresh rate in the option's menu.

To change the refresh rate, manually modify the "RefreshRate" parameter in "nwn2.ini". (for example RefreshRate=120)

The game will stubbornly reset the value to 60 every time something is changed in the options.

The make the setting stick change the file attribute of "nwn2.ini" to read only. Remember to remove it every time you want to change any options using the menu (you will also have to modify "RefreshRate" again).

Black screen after task switching (alb-tab)

This can happen when playing on Windows 8. To fix the alt-tab functionality run the game using Windows 7 compatibility settings. (if your resolution and refresh rate match you will be able to instantly task switch)

Blank Journal

Some times the Journal of one of the characters in your party is wiped. This happens when you switch characters while the journal is open (it is really overwritten by the other party member's, but since most companion's journal is empty, this essentially means a wipe in most instances).

Since a character shares journal entries across savegames, it is unfortunately impossible to recover it without a backup.

"A required security module can not be activated. This program can not be executed."

This message is caused by SecuROM, a copy protection software product to deter software piracy, which Atari chose to include with Neverwinter Nights 2 (which also has the side effect that there is no legitimate way to avoid having the Neverwinter Nights 2 disc physically in the drive while playing). Some bugs in 1.06 caused this to become a problem for legitimate users. The following solutions have been shown to help people:

• As a general rule it is a good idea to use a registry cleaner to make sure that no old registry causes the problems. Such a free utility can be found here, though many others out there.
• Disable, and in worst case, remove, tools which simulate CD/DVD with an image (such as DeamonTools), as SecuROM consider these to be a threat, even if no CD/DVD is mounted. In worst case a few leftover registry values from the Image Mounter software may cause the error - see above bullet.
• Official response that has shown to help some people:

Please open the registry editor (Start->Run->regedit) and move to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM \MountedDevices\ area (by clicking on this folder, you will see all the entries on the right side).

Look at the entries with an alpha designation (ie: \\\\DosDevices\\\\Letter_Here). You should see one of entries with letters with duplicate entries.

If you delete the duplicate entry (right mouse click and choose 'Delete' from the choices), you should be able to exit RegEdit and launch your program.

If the problem persists, please delete all REG_BINARY entries in this folder (only blue ones on the right side). Reboot your computer immediately, the entries will be re-established, and the game should start.

• Another official response from SecuROM:

If you have an (older version of) Sysinternals ProcesExplorer running it can cause this message to appear. It is not sufficient to close it down as the drivers stay in memory, so you have to either reboot after you have closed it or you can upgrade to this version: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896653.aspx

Also consider consulting the Securom Technical FAQ