CTD before and after 1.2

[General Tso]

This is strange - I can't get BF2 to run at all, before or after the patch. I downloaded the patch from two different sites, don't use a CD-crack, and have never had any crashing problems before.

To begin:

I downloaded the incremental patch and installed it to a previously working install of BF2. I got a "Can't find Install folder" error so the patch would not install at all. I have it installed on my F: drive, btw.

I go for the complete uninstall -- registry cleaned and so on. I am on my 2nd install, and I can't even get BF2 1.0 to load out of the splash screen at the beginning. Straight crash to desktop.

I have: AMD 64 3200+, Gigabyte 6800GT, 1.5 MB RAM, WinXP SP 2 (with the latest security updates from yesterday), and the Creative X-Fi Xtreme sound card (also onboard sound enabled for TeamSpeak).

The only thing I haven't tried yet is to use the default install location on the C drive. I don't know why this would be a problem, because I've used either my E or F drive without any issues since June.

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

[General Tso]

Re: CTD before and after 1.2

OK, update: I reinstalled to the C drive and it still crashes. Updated both sound and video drivers to no avail. I've installed it from both of my DVD drives, no errors during install.

EA tech support lists CD-rom problems, DirectX corruption or old/bad hardware drivers.

I'm thinking that it might be a DirectX corruption. Anyone have any idea how to cleanly uninstall DirectX?

[Somerville]

Re: CTD before and after 1.2

Sorry dude, no idea. I'm in the same situation - can't get it to work at all. EA tech support ain't much use neither. Maybe it is DirectX? Or perhaps it's EA. I haven't touched the .exe at all. I'm wondering if I should give up and go back to Novalogic. Boycot all EA products. After all, it was only the birth of this miracle 1.2 patch that completely ****ing destroyed my game. People say "Shouldn't have renamed it" etc. I did a clean install of Windows, installed BF2, went for the 1.2 full patch, and I always get patching failed. On the rare occasions it succeeds, I can't connect to any servers.

[General Tso]

Re: CTD before and after 1.2

Well, I fixed the problem...It was my custom refresh rate. I have my monitor's refresh rate maxxed out at 85Hz. BF2 prefers the default (and eye burning) 60 Hz on the first startup of the game.

Once I restored the default refresh rates (I use NVrefreshtool to force the higher refresh rates), BF2 loaded like a champ. This is a common error, especially way back in June/July when the game first came out. I always have had the higher refresh rates (and high screen resolution) and never had a problem before...so it was the last thing I checked.

I have to give Tweakguides.com's BF2 page props for this fix.

And EA's tech support people aren't that bad -- fast response time. But they didn't solve the problem.