GameBanshee Forums

I am 55 days into BG2 played on & off over the last 7 months. I have just tried to play tonight and instead of the normal 'play' 'load game' appear I have got the original install etc screen!!
When I try click install nothing happens!!
What the hells going on, I have'nt deleted anything from my PC.
If I have lost 7 months worth of adventuring I will be the most p***d off person on this planet....someone please tell me I have'nt!!

Anyone help?

To Jimbo2000

That same screen came up for me with the install command coming up where the start section is suppose to be. I was able to determine the cause, it was due to a "registry fix" by my Norton Antivirus program. I did not know how to fix that the easy way, but neither did I have any save games at that point. I had to reinstall everything and currently I do not use the one button check-up and fix on my Norton antivirus program or it will change the registy again to install where start is suppose to be.
As to your game, you should be able to go into your computer files, and find your saved game in the BG2 folder. Then copy that saved game onto a 3.5 disk. Next unistall BG2 and then reinstall it and insert your saved game back in the "save game" folder. There may be an easier way to undo the fix of the change in registry, but you should still be able to salvage your game if there is not.

Should you be forced to re-install, make sure you backup your Save folder. If you do that, nothing is permanently lost as far as I know.

Perhaps some other folders hold game info that should be backed up as well, such as the Data or Cache folders... Dunno for sure, but they don't hold anything really vital, I believe. Just the fog of war.

Lors...your a star!!

I have recently intalled an old version of Norton Utilities on my PC and had Win Doctor fix registry problems it found. I have just gone back into this and there is an undo repair history feature, I have undone all fixes and hey presto - 'Play' has returned.

Norton CD into bin - stage left....

Thanks again.

Excellent!
You are right Jimbo2000, it was Norton utilities that was used not Norton antivirus. Now if only there is a way to modify this program so that when it runs the one program check-up it won't detect that as an error in the registry...

Kinda makes you wonder what else has been messed up by WinDoctor...

From a process of elimination the registry issue was the only thing that cause the problem if one utilize the "fix it" after useing the "scan it" function. Nothing else was messed up with the Norton utilities one button check up. Anyway I keep the utilities around to keep the system free from viruses, but do not use the fix-it button for registry changes.

Just for info I found this...

"BG2 suddenly not knowing it is installed

If you have Norton WinDoctor or any other type of registry checking/cleaning utility it will delete the registry entries for BG2. While these entries are not wrong per se, they will be deleted by these kinds of utilities. Check to see if your system utility has an Undo feature.

You can either not run these utilities while BG2 is installed or you should run them in a manual mode that allows to you confirm actions like this.

If you are comfortable messing with your registry, you can manually re-enter the setting. Find the key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\App Paths\BG2Main.exe

and edit the (Default) entry and make it point to the BGMain.exe file including the full path. Also, create two new String values called "Install" and "Path" and enter the full path to your BG2 directory.

This is fixed in the BG2 Patch "

To Yshania:

Which Baldur's gate 2 patch? Is it the one on this site?

@Lorsadan

I am not sure! Probably. I did not know there was more than one latest official patch and short of comparing the two lots of fixes...

The info I posted was from the Bioware site so I would suggest downloading the BG2 patch from there ... just in case.
[url="http://www.bioware.com"]www.bioware.com[/url]

go into their downloads section and the patch jumps out like a sore thumb it lists the fixes - the install one being one of them.

If you have not manually deleted any files from your system your save game will be ready and waiting!

Thanks Yshania for providing the site. I checked it out and they say the download that would fix the registry problem is in the Tob patch (Beta Patch Version 26464) on the bioware site.
This is great! Now I'll download that patch since I have Tob installed already, and that patch is for people who have Tob. Still waiting for Kevin's updated Tob patch that would fix the minor gameplay bugs though.
Hey Jimbo2000, you don't need to get rid of Norton utilities if this patch works, and I'll be able to do the one button check up again.

Nice to see my post has proved useful! I will also download this patch but I think this version of Norton Utlities (V3.0) will stay in the bin as my PC is now freezing on boot up too. It have uninstalled the program.

Thanks again Lorsaden...

@Lorsadan

I am glad I could help

But if I were honest - I had a similar problem some time ago and was directed to this site by leeho730 - so our thanks to him/her!

To Yshania

I'm Glad you could help too.

I downloaded the BetaPatch version 26464 from the bioware site into the BG2 override folder (last night) and then went into that folder to activate it. Unfortuntely my norton utilities still detected a registy error after the download. I hit the fix button on Norton utilities (because I thought it was fix with the download) and to keep it brief the install button came up where the start button is suppose to be in TOB. No big deal for me because I could undo the problem too, but I posted this info for everyone to be careful! Basicly that patch did not fix the registry detection problem for me.

Lorsdan writes:
That same screen came up for me with the install command coming up where the start section is suppose to be. I was able to determine the cause, it was due to a "registry fix" by my Norton Antivirus program.

Also, beware of going with the Norton WinDoctor "repair all" option. Read 'em first. I've noticed that NWD sometimes shows the BG2 executable as pointing to a non-existent directory, which NWD offers to fix--in the registry. You. Do. Not. Want. This.

McAfees Uninstaller also does this - you have to set it to require confirmation of each file deletion/fix, or set the uninstaller/disk clean manually to not delete that particular file.