Hello!

I recently decided to try the Baldur's Gate series again. I had a working version already installed that I hadn't played in a while, but it was heavily modded and I wanted to start clean, so I reinstalled from my old CDs first, but when I tried to play, a strange thing began happening. At apparently random intervals, with or without any activity from me and before (and after) any mods were installed, the cursor would start bouncing between wherever it was and the left hand quick button at the bottom of the screen, essentially causing massive lag and forcing characters into an attack mode. At first I assumed this was just a bad install since the CDs were old and getting a little ragged, so I tried again. No improvement. I decided to go ahead and get the GoG version. It still had the same problem. However, if I click outside the game and then back in the game, it clears it up briefly. It also goes away if I click any button in the game that switches screens (ie inventory, character sheets, maps, etc). and then switch back....at least until it randomly starts up again in about 15-20 seconds.

I have not had any problems with any other games, nor did I have problems with the old install of the Baldur's Gate games about 2 weeks ago when I last played the old install. The only thing I know that has changed is the video card, so it is the logical first place to look for a culprit. I now have a GTS450 from nVidia. It has the most current driver, and I have already tried just about every possible combination of configuration settings for video that the game allows, and none of them fix it. I have also read some other threads on video card issues, including some specific to nvidia, but none I have found describe anything like my problem, nor have any of the suggest fixes for any of those issues worked, from changing the game config to changing the card config.

I am at a complete loss at this point. The only other thing I've seen recently that might be related is that sometimes when I type in a search window in a browser or click Windows Explorer, the cursor will flip back and forth from where it is to the FIND box in almost the exact same rapid flickering and lag-inducing manner as I'm seeing in BG.

Any ideas on what might be going on?

It sounds like hardware... have you got a wireless mouse/ keyboard?

Yes, I do. I did check to make sure my drivers were up to date on them, and they are. That seemed like a likely suspect to me too, but these problems are recent, and began a month or so after getting the mouse/keyboard that I am using now.

Seeing something similar happens in Win too definitely sounds like hardware and/or drivers. Just because drivers are up-to-date and new does not mean they work with (good) OLD games; more often they break compatibility. And hardware can have intermittent faults, like my brand new Razor keyboard that gets stuck keys on occasion.

Win7 has an option in mouse properties to "Snap-To" buttons on dialog boxes. It could be something there.

Otherwise you need to try a process of elimination. Remove one piece of hardware AND drivers at a time until the problem goes away, then at least you'll know what is causing it. Hopefully you have a replacement (wired) mouse/keyboard to try? (I doubt the video card would effect the mouse pointer, but you never know)

There are several ways a wireless setup could be causing a bottleneck... Batteries; any faulty electric appliance can cause radio interference & certain software (like Nortans) is notorious for interfering with driver resources.

I’m with Anamorphic, spend $20 for a USB mouse/ keyboard setup and see if that fixes the issue... at worse you will eliminate your mouse/ keyboard as contenders and have a backup for the inevitable dead batteries emergences that pop up.

I removed the wireless devices and drivers, and tried ye olde wired keyboard and mouse. No change whatsoever -- the game begins spamming the offhand button on all player-controlled characters after a brief interval, preventing controlled characters from doing anything but not affecting any other part of the game. I'm at a complete loss at this point. The frustrating part is that I'm sure its something stupidly simple and obvious. It always is!

Thanks for the suggestions, though!

Update: I just noticed something interesting. A fresh install of BG1 works fine, no problems. A fresh BGII does have the issue, however, as does any of the mods that update BG1 to the BG2 engine, so whatever is doing this is only doing it to the BG2 engine.

The bottom line is that this is not a game issue because if I'm reading you right then it sometimes happens out side the game.

The new GTS450 video card could be at fault in which case I would expect it to happen more after an hour of use i.e. when it starts getting hot (likely happens sometimes but not at others) or the software is missing something (happens every time at the same spot).

Can you take a screenshot so we can see the issue?

Well that is interesting. Now I'm thinking it might just be a bad install. Did you try turning off your anit-virus during the re-install? Scan the hard drive for errors first?

(You know, I've actually noticed a lot of people on here having these strange issues that get solved by re-installs. I know the new GOG Downloader is highly suspect about corrupt files; I'm beginning to wonder if their Installers are any better. Although in this case you said it happened from your CDs as well, so not relevant)

Further to what ussnorway said re: video card, the first thing I would try is rolling back the nVidia drivers to an older version. (I'm using 280.26 with no issues)

try renaming bgmain.exe to something else like bgmain_x.exe
this will throw off tMicrosoft's Compatibility Layer ....