I have a problem. The game freezes every 5 minutes or so (the picture just stops moving, I can't do anything, the music doesn't loop, but continues normally, sometimes I can Alt-Tab/CtrlAltDel my way out, sometimes I have to reboot).

I had the problem in the prologue as well, but then I reinstalled the game and it worked well for the next hour or so. Until I reached Flotsam. I left the game and entered again without the CD (I put it back into the box, I have retail, I know this isn't meant for non-GoG games, but I couldn't find a Witcher 2 forum like this anywhere else and I'm desperate). Anyway, the game warned me that I don't have a disk in the drive (don't know why, I have patch 1.1 which is supposed to kill the DRM), and when I reached the town it froze again. Now I could play for a minute or so (I had 270.xxx whql drivers at the time). When I installed the 275.xx beta drivers, I had 20 seconds before it started crashing, when I reverted to 258.96 whql and did the 3GB switch, it got back to 5 minutes.

Does anybody know how to fix this. It's gamebreaking, and I'm thorughly disappointed as The Witcher 2 was my most anticipated game of the year.

I have a dual-core 2,66GHz processor, 4 GB ram, and a 9500 GT nvidia GPU.

I know it's a very shitty PC, and many of you are going to believe the freezes are a result of this, but they're not. My sister has the exact same computer, with the exact same drivers I have, yet the game works perfectly on her PC and didn't crash once. She just beat it today and I barely arrived in Flotsam and saved Dandelion :(

EDIT: I reinstalled 6 times already, and it didn't help after the prologue, so it's pretty much off the list of possible solutions.

When the game crashes can you open "device manager" and shut it down? or does your pc crash as well?

I can't really Ctrl-Alt-Delete, I used the wrong expression, sorry.

When I'm lucky, I can do Alt-tab, then the taskbar shows up and I right-click -> close the thing and say end now when it asks.

When I'm unlucky (most of the time), I have to reboot because I can't do even that (the taskbar doesn't show up.

Ok, Your sister has the same exact machine as you and she has played through it flawlessly, but yet you are having problems. I think you have pretty much ruled out game issues. First, I would run a utility such as www.CCleaner.com and clean any and all junk files that may have accumulated over time. Second, I would remove the cover and blow out any dust that may have accumulated, particularly between the fins on the heat sinks over the CPU and GPU ( it could be a heat issue ). The computer isn't that bad. My other Desktop has a Dual Core running at 3.4 Ghz and only 2 Gb of system ram with a 9800GT card in there. Do both computers have the same Power Supply ( I am assuming they do, but thought I'd ask ) ? How much video ram does the Video cards have in both machines? It could also be an issue of a failing card, but I am not ready to go there just yet.

In your game options try setting up "Texture memory size" to low. the secound problem could be with your game files (maybe they are currupted) - just copy your sister's game files to your pc after reinstalling it and cleaning registry errors (with cccleaner - like mantioned above me).

I'll try cleaning it up a bit and blowing out the dust and reactivating a fan, I had to turn it off a while ago because it sounded like a chainsaw.

Yeah, we have the same power supply too. And if it's a failing card, I won't be too sad, at least I'll buy myself a new one without feeling like a fool for spending money on something I already have. Both PCs have 512 MB GPU ram. All the settings are already at their lowest, I'll try CCleaner as you both reccomended it :)

Actually, I think your problem is with that fan and in fact a cooling issue. Just get a new fan as it is cheaper and should help if not solve your problem. You should n't have cut it off. byt then again it was probably ineffective anyway. You didn't say which fan it was, Case, CPU, or GPU. If the fan is on the Video Card, then just get a new card, although you can change the fan on those things. If is the one Over the CPU, then you don't want to run the PC with that thing shut off, in fact, if the CPU over heats it will usually shut it self down. If it is the case fan, just get a new one.

Thank you, good sir. I tried the CCleaner and it cleaned some 12 GB of junk, I cleaned up the inside of the computer, and I'll be getting a new case fan (that's the one I turned off) and GPU as soon as I can.

For now, I'll just turn on the old fan and withstand the torment of chainsaw sounds. Probably won't hear them when I put my headphones on anyway.

In fact, when I had trouble similar to this with my old PC years back, I always fixed it by getting a new GPU or fixing the cooling. Ah, nVidia 7600, how I miss thee...

Turned on the chainsaw and the problem persists.

But now I'm convinced it's overheating too, the GPU was smoking hot when I touched it after it had happened. I'm gonna turn off the computer for a while and then try again because this time it's likely that it is still warm from the last time the game died on me.

OK. I am assuming it is the fan on the Video Card ( GPU ), so I guess it would be time to just get another card.