Hello,

I got this game as a gift and after finishing the (excellent) first part of the series, I finally got my time managed again to play this one. Unfortunately, it crashes a few seconds after the opening dialogue with a blue screen.

I've applied the latest patch of course.
My Windows partition has WinXP-32bit and i'm using an Nvidia Geforce 750 with current drivers.
The system crash occurs in fullscreen and windowed mode. Setting down the shadow quality or other graphics options didn't change anything either. The game runs well for the few seconds that it does before crashing my system.

Finally I've gotten my system set up with a graphic card and stable enough drivers to even play Gothic 3 without crashes but now this. :(

Help!

What other settings are you using? In particular, are you trying to run it under DirectX 11? If so, change to DX9 and see if that makes a difference.

DirectX 11 doesn't even exist for WinXP,
DirectX 9 was the last available version.

Blah. I managed to overlook that part - DX11 mode is known for this sort of thing and it has become a default question when people are experiencing crashes like this. :P

Unfortunately, in the case of XP, it's possible that there's a compatibility issue due to the OS being out of support. It may be worth trying an older set of video drivers to see if that makes a difference.

How much memory is on the system? The game lists its minimum requirement as 4 GB, which a 32-bit system may not have.

WinXP is officially supported for Shadows, so it has to run:
http://www.gog.com/game/shadows_heretic_kingdoms

I've got 4gb RAM which is the maximum WinXP can handle.

Shadows supports XP, but Microsoft hasn't done so for some time now, and there are various compatibility issues creeping in as a result, including driver-related ones; a blue screen rather than a crash-to-desktop suggests a hardware/driver/OS issue. While it's awkward, doing a clean uninstall of the current video driver and trying one from around the time that Shadows was released may be worth a try.

You've got enough memory though, so that's not the cause.

I know of one other common crash trigger: do you have a gamepad/controller/joystick plugged in (whether or not you're using it), or for that matter, any other input devices beyond a mouse and keyboard? If so, unplug them and if possible disable any special drivers associated with input (including gaming mouse drivers). Despite partial controller support in the latest version, anything beyond a basic mouse + keyboard being plugged in has been known to cause stability problems and occasional gameplay issues as well.


A blue screen obviously precludes looking at the crash reporter info, which makes it more challenging to diagnose. If possible, check the Windows event log around the time of the crash, both under Application and System, and see if it's reporting any errors or warnings.

Greetings there Klumpen0815 and Garran! Apologies in advance for getting into your discussion however I would really like to know as to how were you able to manage running Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms on Windows XP-32 despite being a modern game?!

It does show in the game page of Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms Works on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10. But could you tell me the specs of your PC if you don't mind please? I'm running the game in Windows 10-64bit. My PC has a 4GB RAM just like Klumpen0815 mentioned and my video card is a 2GB AMD Radeon HD 5450 but still the performance of the game is very poor and slow even in the lowest settings. I tried switching from DirectX 9 to 11 but the results are still the same? The game runs very slow and sluggish which is quite a turn off when playing the game, though it seems stable enough and I didn't encountered any errors on my Windows 10-64 bit PC

Umm... It could be because of my old processor which is a AMD Athlon II X2, but It runs decently alright with my Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age II games but not for this game!?

Please help!? Any advice and assistance will be much appreciated! Ah what should I do? Ah should I upgrade my old AMD processor into a new one like the FX series? Really wish to play this game in a much more comfortable setting and in decent performance!

OpulentAmbrosia, your system is probably too old/low-spec to comfortably handle recent games on Windows 10. (Dragon Age I and II are quite a bit older.) While you could upgrade it, you'd be better off getting a new system at this point.

You might be able to optimize Win10 somewhat in the meantime if you hunt around for some guides to doing so. It's unlikely to make a big difference but in your case even a small difference will help.

DirectX 9 is preferable for Shadows. DX11 was only enabled to allow for some dual-GPU setups that won't work under 9, but it isn't a good choice otherwise since the game doesn't use its features and may actually lose performance under it.

I've reinstalled the latest DX9, installed the latest driver for my grapics card, turned off any effects forced by the driver (antialiasing, anisotropic filtering, etc...) and tried to run the game on lowest settings: Still the same result with or without gamepad plugged in. :( I've got an Athlon II with 3x 2,9Ghz and a Geforce GTX 750 which is very power efficient.
It runs pretty well on highest settings when it comes to performance but just crashes after a few seconds.

It would probably be running worse under Win10 with my system, since WinXP has a smaller overhead and uses less RAM and performance just for the OS afaik.

Ouch... That's kind of blunt but I certainty agree with that. My system is obviously old and low spec to handle most recent games like Shadows under Windows 10 among other things. Although my motherboard is somewhat newer. I could also just upgrade my old processor into a most recent ones like the FX series. Well I think its better for me to actually get a newer system with high specs enough to manage running Shadows comfortably at high settings. I may have to wait for quite a while to get it done though until the prices of the AMD FX processors to drop down since its a bit expensive and having insufficient funds... :(

Anyways thank you so much for the vital details provided! Very much appreciated!

Hmm... One question... What do you mean by dual-GPU? Are you saying that Shadows: Heretic Kingdoms is capable of supporting multiple monitor display? Whoa! A triple core Athlon II and a great Video Card! I really envy you in enabling to run the game in highest settings although I'm sorry to hear that you keep on getting to experience some crashes while playing it. Have you tried running it as a administrator if possible? And also try using Galaxy and use the repair function then see if it helps? I tried using the repair function with some my other games and it fixed my problem regarding about crushing.

Also if you don't mind, could you tell which kind of motherboard are you using? Like the brand such as Biostar or MSI?
Just asking :)

I was referring to SLI/Crossfire. Those along with some notebook GPUs were causing trouble with the Ogre engine under DX9, so DX11 was added as a compatibility mode for them.