TW2 stopped crashing for me when I apply this advice:
Crash to desktop during the game
[i]We advise you to lower the graphic settings in game's Launcher, especially Texture Memory Size. Sometimes, autodetection enables higher display options which can cause frequent crashes.
If problem still exists please follow instructions below:
1) Proceed to start -> run and type: cmd
2) In opened window type command: bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072
3) Restart PC
4) Turn off all unnecessary software running in Windows background, including 3D graphics software and overclocking utilities
5) In some cases turning off antivirus software helps.
[/i]

More info about IncreaseUserVa.

I have Win7 Ultimate 32-bit on E8400 (3.0 GHz) and GF560Ti. In NOD32 Antivirus I made some exception for "Launcher.exe" and "witcher2.exe".

If you have WinXP then try 3GB Switch.

And remember rule no 1: It's not about your computer! The game have problems. It should be better codded...

Thanks for the help. I'd already investigated this path, the 3GB switch doesn't help unfortunately. It seems the texture size and 3GB options were a fix for random crashes.

This one is 100% reliable under the circumstances mentioned. The Ubersampling enabled option fixes the original problem of CTD after dice play and nekker quest but the Claws of madness one is currently unsolvable. It does it every single time regardless.

What's driving me nuts is that my computer is stable, I've been playing all sorts of games without issues but what I can't figure is how others (Aurdrey / Dnnn and I guess most of you) are not seeing these problems. There's some incompatibility somewhere (and I do think it's an incompatibility not a driver or hardware fault), that's causing this to happen.

So far CDPR have said "they've passed it to their programmers and will let me know as soon as they hear anything", which to me means days, months or never frankly. I'm pretty gutted particularly as this was a game I'd itched to play ever since Witcher 1 which I never had any problems with other than a couple of random crashes now and then.

Oh well, I guess I'm just going to have to crack on trying to find a solution. Thinking of dropping back to 1.1 patch to see if this is a 1.2 problem.

It most probably is some sort of incompatibility since your savegame worked on other people's computers. There was someone here a week or so ago, whose save file was bugged and it was bugged on everyone's systems (a few of us tried it out). I hope you get a response from CDPR soon.

I encountered "crash to desktop problem" while i fistfight the Roche's men in Act II *at night*. When i rested to the morning and try when sun is up rather than night sky, it worked. Graphical issue i guess. Your problem looks more alike mine.

@dnna: Yes I hope so too. At the momenent they are suggesting I can leave that quest but frankly this has the hallmark of more of the same so it will be pointless if I have to leave every quest due to those problems. Not a good solution but for now if I play I have to do that and see if it continues.

@Glosoli: not sure I think the problem you had was the more random CTD that people have reported from the beginning. I seem to have very few of those. I've not really found anyone that can pin down a 100$ dead cert on a particular quest condition like this.

I've tried quite a few more things including the 3GB fix, and meditating for a period. No luck so far. I really wish I could disable autosaves, this is clearly when it crashes and doesn't in manual. There is something that happens at the point of the autosave and the ending of a quest dialogue that doesn't agree with the system.

I do find it odd though that this game for whatever reason does have a CTD problem which to me is odd, unlike most problems which generate an exception. What / why or how does a program simply unload as a process suddenly?

Just a thought - as this crash is different to the above - maybe this save is corrupted in some way. If someone cares to confirm this for sure I'd be grateful:

http://filesmelt.com/dl/crash_after_talking_to_specter.zip

You just need to go down the hall and to the left to start the dialogue.

Didn't crash for me.
This is after the dialog with the specter: http://filesmelt.com/dl/nocrash.zip


By the way: there's a breakable wall you've missed, there are some nice goodies to be had. ;)

Autosaving was one of the main problems of TW1, too. I got rid of all problems about TW1 by disabling it. Looks like we need that option with TW2 too. It seems TW2 has the same problem.

Thanks Audrey, it was worth a try I guess.

Yes I saw the room I missed but as I couldn't get out of this place I didn't bother saving again.

It looks like I'd have to restore back to a point before going in if I want to skip the quest for now.

Why can't you get out of the place? Does it still crash after the talk with the specter? Because you need to talk to him once again?

Have you played the quest before and know how you want to end it? Then I can finish it quickly.

I hate the autosaves. First, this is not a console (kidding, I know pc games had them forever), second, I am busy deleting autosaves all the time. One save after every quest state? Please!
Please make an autosave before a boss or point of no return, but not every three minutes!

I was going to go ouit of the dungeon and come back later but in fact you can't back out of this place. Once in you have to complete it to get out.

Ah no I didn't know that perhaps for the sake of tracking this down and maybe proving it's a problem with all dialogues if you just break down that wall collect the stuff and talk to the specter.

I'd like to see what then occurs. If the second one fails then I think it's pointless to keep asking people to get me past, this is just going to go on for the whole game so I need to find out.

Yeah and I'm with you on autosaves. One should have an option to kill them anyway.

This is so frustrating!! I just can't believe I'm the only one experiencing this and I just can't figure out what the problem is. ... especially since all other aspects of the game are totally stable. I've had 2 or 3 random ctds and those were quite a long time ago at the beginning

Now I'm not completely clear... the last save I sent back, was after the chat with the specter, but before the wall. You'd have to go back, pass the wall, meet the guy you talked to earlier and this triggers that you go out with him. There you'll talk with both the guys and go back in one last time, then you get out on your own.

Where do you crash again? Or did you try the savegame at all?

You're welcome.
Wait... confused again... you don't get out yourself alone the first time, but you do the second, because you can use the ladder and find your way trom there - but that's after the second time in there, right?
I got turned around in there a lot too, but there definitely is a way out.

I'm not contributing much to this thread except to say, "option to disable autosaves, plz!"
Especially annoying on insane 'cos they don't even help.