Neverwinter Nights Windows 10 Crash

I've had Neverwinter Nights 2 pretty much since it was released, but I never bought the expansion packs. I installed it on my new machine, and it's worked perfectly. Then I saw that the expansion packs were 50% off right now, so I went and grabbed them, digital download.

There is a known issue right now when the game is crashing when the language is not set into English. We're already working on a hotfix. For now, please try running the game in English. Neverwinter Nights does not run well on modern hardware and systems, and you may experience crashes or stuttering without properly preparing your game. Here are a list of fixes you may want to try. These were all tested on Windows 7 64-bit but may work for other systems. Errors or crashes when starting game. Link.

I installed the first expansion first, Mask of the Betrayer. I launched NWN2. It crashed before it ever started. I tried to update, in case there were updates specific to MotB, but it said I had to launch the game before I could update; but launching the game hangs instantly.

So I uninstalled, thinking the issue was that NWN2 was fully updated before I installed MotB, which is built against v1.10. I reinstalled NWN2, didn't update it, just launched it, closed it, and installed MotB. And it crashed as soon as it opened.

Neverwinter Nights Windows 10 Crash Black Screen

So I installed Storm of Zehir. And it installed successfully. And NWN2 launched without crashing. SoZ is built against v1.20, so it was a short trip to the current latest v1.23, which also launches without crashing. All is well now.

Just thought I'd post this for anyone having Neverwinter Nights 2 crash on Windows 7 after installing Mask of the Betrayer. Try installing Storm of Zehir (if you've got it) and see if that helps. I don't know if you have to install against a base (non-updated) copy of NWN2, as I haven't tried it with updating NWN2 fully then installing the expansions. However, given that there are no catch-up patches and you have to install all the intermediate patches to get the boxed v1.00 up to the current v1.23, installing MotB and SoZ may be the fastest way to get a fresh install fully-updated anyway.

Hope that helps somebody out there!

I got off to a pretty good start with Neverwinter Nights over the last few days. I got it working reasonably well under Windows 10 on my ThinkPad, played through the tutorial, and got started on the first “chapter.”

I had a little trouble with the ThinkPad last night though, so I decided to do some troubleshooting. Which was probably a bad idea, since it led me down a rat-hole that I’m only just now (mostly) dug out of. I won’t get into too much detail, but I discovered that I hadn’t successfully installed any Windows Updates since April. I eventually figured out that this tip from SuperUser fixed things and allowed me to get back on the update bandwagon again. But then there was so much stuff to update, I had to just leave the laptop running all day. (Which is fine, since I was going to GS Comic Fest anyway.) So, after that was all done, I appear to have an up-to-date Windows 10 install, ready (I hope) for the coming Anniversary Update.

But then I found that Neverwinter Nights didn’t work anymore. So, after a bunch of flailing around with settings on that, I finally gave up and uninstalled it, then reinstalled it. Then, tweaked a bunch of parameters. And now I think I have that working again.

Neverwinter Nights Windows 10 Patch

Neverwinter nights 2 crashing windows 10

Neverwinter Nights Windows 10 Crash Dump Location

At some point in this process, I also uninstalled Norton Anti-Virus. I don’t think Norton was the cause of any of my problems, but it seemed like a possible culprit, so I removed it. Now, I’m not sure if I want to add it back or not. I only have about a month to go on my current subscription. Recent news indicates that maybe Norton isn’t such a good choice right now, having “multiple critical vulnerabilities” according to a researcher at Google.

My desktop PC is running McAfee, which came pre-installed, and I haven’t (yet) decided to remove it. I can also get a free version of McAfee from my internet provider, so I maybe I should put that on the ThinkPad. But I’ve never been a big fan of McAfee, so I’m not sure about that. Maybe I’ll just stick with Windows Defender for now.

So after all that, I’m ready to jump back into Neverwinter Nights. But, heck, it’s just about dinner time now, and I’m tired of messing around on this laptop. So I guess I’ll shut it all down and grab a bite to eat.