4 years ago

ME2: Using the Power Wheel too much causes game to crash to desktop

I am having a problem where if I use the power wheel too often or for too long, the game freezes and then crashes to desktop, completely closing the game and losing my progress since the last save. (It happens while I am on the power wheel screen, NOT after releasing the button.) This makes it very difficult to use my squadmates' powers because there is not enough room to bind them all to hot keys. It does not crash every time I use the power wheel, but it happens frequently enough to make the game fairly frustrating to play, and impossible to play on higher difficulties.

I have ALWAYS had this problem in Mass Effect 2, even before the Legendary Edition came out, but I was hoping it would be fixed for Legendary Edition. It has not been fixed. It has been about 6 years (and five ME2 playthroughs) since I first encountered this problem and I have not found any fixes for it. I have played ME2 on multiple computers and this problem has occurred on all of them. I have attempted to fix it myself but nothing has helped. Updating my graphics card drivers has never helped. Getting a dedicated graphics card did not help. Sticky keys is NOT on. Rebinding the power wheel to a different key has not helped.

Both my original ME2 and Legendary Edition were obtained through Steam. I play on PC with a keyboard and mouse. (I am almost willing to attempt playing with a PS4 controller to see if that fixes the problem, but I would really like to avoid that if possible.) I'm pretty sure it cannot be a problem with just my current graphics card or CPU, since this has happened on at least 3 different computers.

Any ideas for a fix? Or maybe BioWare will see this and fix it themselves?

me legendary edition

11 Replies

AlistairAB
4 years ago
@lovexsqualor It was fixed in ME3, it is also the bug I'm most mad about not being fixed in ME2. The quickbar messes up if you use ammo powers or tech armor, and you use your mouse to click on the abilities. If you do it a lot, suddenly you get a hard crash to desktop. Happened to me 3 times in the last few hours. Very disappointing. This is my MOST WANTED BUG FIX for ME2.
lovexsqualor
4 years ago
@AlistairAB I don't think I've ever used tech armor (I typically play biotic classes), but I use ammo powers a lot, especially because ME2 drastically reduced the number of powers available for each class/character. When the game last crashed, I was indeed using ammo powers on Shepard and Jacob. I really like the ammo powers though so I don't want to have to stop using them!
Also, there is the possibility that mine crashes even when I'm not using ammo powers, but I'm not sure because I haven't paid much attention to the exact conditions triggering it over the years. But still, even if it's just ammo powers or tech armor that cause the problems, the bug still needs to be fixed because that would make ammo powers and tech armor basically unusable.
felker_s
4 years ago
@AlistairAB Geez, don't tell me this still exists in MELE! Holy crap am I glad that I refunded the PC preorder and switched to Xbox...
AlistairAB
4 years ago
@felker_s yeah unbelievably they didn't fix it, it happens when you use your mouse to activate your abilities, so this might be different from the OP, but basically ammo powers or tech armor etc. cause it

the good thing is you can use the number row or an xbox controller on PC and avoid it, but still 🙂
AlistairAB
4 years ago
@felker_s so i swear it happens to the sentinel class the most, I'm going to try and remove "tech armor" from the quick bar and see if it crashes less (I've had basically 5 hard crashes to desktop in the last 6 hours, not the best way to enjoy the game)
christian_39
Seasoned Adventurer
4 years ago
Seems to be a similar issue to what I've just reported:

https://answers.ea.com/t5/Mass-Effect-Legendary-Edition/Game-crashes-when-selecting-teammate-powers/m-p/10359509#M4633

I've included videos there, Can you check if it is the same issue?

Playing on insanity is super hard with this bug because you have to replay the same battle several times not only because you die but because the game crashes way too often and forces you to re-do all the stuff again and again.

Never had this issue with the original ME2 so I assume it is a bug on this edition.
lovexsqualor
4 years ago
@christian_39I'm not sure if we have the exact same issue. However, after hearing what @AlistairAB said about ammo powers, I stopped using ammo powers. I also now try to avoid clicking the top quickbar to select my own powers (I only use the number keys), and I have avoided binding further squad powers to the quickbar. I click to select my squadmates' powers from the bottom bar. After doing those things, I have now gone several hours without a crash, but that could just be a coincidence. (I'm not sure which thing fixed it since I tried multiple fixes at once.)
At one point yesterday, I did accidentally click one of my quickbar powers at the top, and it removed it from the quickbar even though I didn't want it to get removed. I tried to drag it back up to the bar but it ended up dragging one of my squadmate's powers up there instead. This sounds similar to "Option 3" on your thread. However, the game did not end up crashing after that. (It could have eventually led to a crash later, but I saved and quit the game a few minutes after that happened.)
AlistairAB
4 years ago
@lovexsqualor yes, you are describing the quick bar bug (it doesn't immediately crash when it breaks sometime, but if you continued it would have)

so how do we get Bioware to fix the worst PC bug in ME2, 10 years waiting already...
AlistairAB
4 years ago
@christian_39 yes this is the same issue, the worst bug from ME2, already 10 years now... it was in the demo, was in the final game, and it was an issue in the original ME2, it just depended on the ammo or tech power you were using, and whether or not you were using the mouse or the number keys

very frustrating... and it has nothing to do with the saren boss bug in ME1 (that one is if you use a biotic power, happens on console also, not in general a mouse interface crash)
lovexsqualor
4 years ago
Update: Just had another crash to desktop despite not clicking the top quickbar or using ammo powers. It crashed when I attempted to click one of Grunt's powers on the bottom. So it seems that the problem may be *improved* by avoiding ammo powers or clicking the top quickbar, but those do not *completely solve* the issue.