Dragon Age 2 crash on startup

Recently re-downloaded DA2 after uninstalling it a while back. DL went fine, everything looked good. Tried to start it up, got to the launcher, clicked play, and got the error message: Dragon Age II hast stopped working. I tried reinstalling with both steam and origin. Both had the same problem. Error details below. Any help would be appreciated.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: DragonAge2.exe
Application Version: 1.4.8524.0
Application Timestamp: 4f1e9fb5
Fault Module Name: nvwgf2um.dll
Fault Module Version: 9.18.13.3182
Fault Module Timestamp: 5280d757
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 004821d8
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.48
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789

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lonori
12 years ago
Searched around a bit and found out some other possible solutions that you might try (see this thread on social Bioware for the whole discussion):
Do these changes in your graphical settings:
--In game video options:
DX 11 with 'high' graphics detail and the high resolution texture pack. Very high graphics makes the shadows and lighting look horrible and it freezes . AA and aniso @ 4x. I didn't checkmark any of the 3 boxes below aniso, just the high res textures.
--Launcher config video options:
Play in full screen; vertical sync, disable multiple render targets and disable aspect-ratio correction check marked.
The game looks much better then settling with DX9 and has not froze once for about 12 hours of staggered playing accross 3 days, once for a 5 hour stretch.
Running the game in full screen and DX9 mode.
If you have a sound card: Update its driver or use the inbuilt sound on the motherboard (this seams unlikely that it will help according to me but it has for at least one).
Disable all over clocking of your graphic card.
Under clock you graphic card (see the thread for more info)
I haven't had the need to try either of these for myself but I hope that one of them can help you. Good luck.

19 Replies

lonori
12 years ago
Hi,
From what I've managed to find this seams to be due to some faulty drivers of nvidia. See this thread from the steam forum, it gives you an step by step guide on how to test your drivers.
Good luck and please tell us if it's working or not so that other can bennefit from it or we might help you find another solution.
Anonymous
12 years ago
Thanks for the help. Unfortunately the program linked in that thread failed to find any faulty drivers. I have also since tried doing a clean install through the nvidia installer to no avail. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
lonori
12 years ago
Searched around a bit and found out some other possible solutions that you might try (see this thread on social Bioware for the whole discussion):
Do these changes in your graphical settings:
--In game video options:
DX 11 with 'high' graphics detail and the high resolution texture pack. Very high graphics makes the shadows and lighting look horrible and it freezes . AA and aniso @ 4x. I didn't checkmark any of the 3 boxes below aniso, just the high res textures.
--Launcher config video options:
Play in full screen; vertical sync, disable multiple render targets and disable aspect-ratio correction check marked.
The game looks much better then settling with DX9 and has not froze once for about 12 hours of staggered playing accross 3 days, once for a 5 hour stretch.
Running the game in full screen and DX9 mode.
If you have a sound card: Update its driver or use the inbuilt sound on the motherboard (this seams unlikely that it will help according to me but it has for at least one).
Disable all over clocking of your graphic card.
Under clock you graphic card (see the thread for more info)
I haven't had the need to try either of these for myself but I hope that one of them can help you. Good luck.
Anonymous
12 years ago
Running in dx9 mode seems to be working. Thanks a bunch.
Anonymous
11 years ago
I have the same problem exept my problem was: I was playing on DX11 but I couldn't use fullscreen so I tried DX9. Now it crashes whenever I open the game. It shows the Dragon fly around the EA Symbol then stops. I can't get to the options to change them. Any Ideas? And if possible any ideas on Fixing the Fullscreen problem?
lonori
11 years ago
I've a solution to changing the settings for DX11 back that's fairly easy. However, it's been quite a while since I sat down and read up on the current problems so I'll be more hard pressed to find out how to help you with the fullscreen problem. Anyhow, on to the fix with enabling DX11. Simply doing the following step should fix it:
Located the file DragonAge.ini which should be stored in "Documents and settings/Bioware/Dragon Age 2/Settings" (presumingly that they use the same file structure on MacOS as on Windows, my PC has crashed so I can't check it for you).
Make a backup of the file and store it where you easily remember where it's.
Open the file in any texteditor (notepad, notepad++, emacs or whatever).
Find the line "UseDirectX11Renderer=0" under Vide🤭ptions and change it to "UseDirectX11Renderer=1".
Save the file.
Start the game.
If the game doesn't start up at all or if something behaves weirdly restore the ini file by using the backup and post a reply so I can figure something else out.
Now to your fullscreen problem. As I said before I'm not read up on the current problems and fixes but I can't come up with anything without a b it more information regarding the problem so if you could answer the following questions it might help. Furthermore, if I can't find a solution you might want to start a new thread regarding the fullscreen problem (when you have gotten DX11 working again) since it's quite far away from the topic of this thread. Therefore, you might get help from someone who knows the problem since before.
How does it appear?
Is the option in the settings greyed out or can you change it?
Does it cause a crash or is it just that it doesn't have an effect?
What is your system specification?
Do you have a crash report?
Anonymous
11 years ago
Basically, for the fullscreen problem when I open the game it says "An Application is preventing this game in fullscreen, please close it and start atain"
I have no applications open exept for DA2 and It's really bothering me. The game plays but will be windowed. People have told me to change to DX9 but you know how that turned out. That's all I really know about it.
lonori
11 years ago
Okay, I might have found a solution to your problem. According to this thread on Bioware forum Windows Aero uses DX which can cause it to clash with the game. Hence, disabling the Aero when you play might help. Give it a try and see if it works.
Anonymous
11 years ago
This solution worked for me. Switching back to DX 9 did the trick.
Anonymous
11 years ago
How do I run this game in DirectX 9?