The Great FF7 FAQ (now outdated)

[S_BryaN_M]

I need help i have a nvidia geforce 6800 graphics card, whenever i play the game with the high res patch installed it will crash right after the battleswirl will someone help me plz, all help will be greatly appreciated.

[wornout]

1. make sure the game is running in either win98 or win95 compatibility mode.
2. Don't alt+tab to the desktop after you've started the game. That reduces the priority of the application and windows sometimes swaps parts of the application into memory addresses above 16bit (xp is either 32 or 64bit, depending on your version) when you go back into the game. FF7 is 16bit & it can't reference the any part of the application that resides in memory >16bit. That's when you get those 'unhandled exception' errors.

It took me a few days to figure out that that's what was causing it because the crash wasn't immediate after alt tabbing back into the game. I finished the game just then (using the high res patch on a gf6800 too) and the only times i got that crash was if i'd alt tabbed out. Other probs i had included black screen @ the train station at the start (the intro played fine tho), the sprites having no textures & everything looking black, and the sprites not being moved correctly when the background was a movie (ie reactor explosion, cloud just kinda floats over the fire). All that was caused by codec incompatibility. I had to uninstall a bunch of codec packs to get it to run properly.

hope that helps

[dziugo]

Alt-Tabbing sure crashes the FF7 in the end, but your explanation why it does that... Wow

[ehal256]

I've been having problems getting the FMV's to display in-game.  (I currently have the game set up to load them off my HDD, although the same result occurs from the CD's as well)  I can play them outside of the game, but in FF7 itself, there's no audio or video during FMV's, other than that the game runs fine.  :/  I've installed the True Motion codec, several times , and nothings worked.   I also uninstalled ffdshow (which supports TrueMotion) because it might conflict with the codec used by the game, still, it doesn't work.  I've also tried dziugo's checksum app on my movies and it says they're fine.  Any solutions?

EDIT:  ..........   Well, I thought of an idea, and it worked.  The Ultima Edition of the game is ripped (I own the real version ;p), so I assumed it would have a workaround (or the right codec ), so I downloaded it (no viruses, whew) and guess what, it had a setup file for the TM2.0 codec.  So I installed it, lo and behold, all of a sudden, like a dream, the videos just worked.  Thank you pirates!

[CreeK]

Ok Guys, I guess I have something new for you. First of all:

Windows XP
Pentium Duo Core 3.20 Ghz
Nvidia GeForce 6200 256 Mb
DirectX 9.c
Forceware 169.21

I installed:
1.02 patch,
The Saint´s High Res Patch,
Dziugos Minigame´s.

What Happens is this: I open the program, everything goes fine, load or play new game, Cinematics are OK, Graphics, sound, evrything. BUT, i only get to play 10-20 minutes the game goes slow like its lagging and then screen freezes! I can still hear the sound of music even the sound of what im doing but the screen just freezes, and it happens anywhere: The menu, the worldmap, Battles...

I´ve tried to change compatibility mode, Anisotropic Filtering, Anti Aliasing, reinstalled it and tried patch by patch. It goes on the same problem.

The weird thing is that it used to work just fine months ago and when i get back to play again this freezes happens, so i tried to analyze what I have changed in my computer since the last time and the olnly thing I did was my Forceware, thats my clue for what may have been causing this freezes but im not sure. Any help would be apreciated.

Oh, and thx you all for the wonderful work. It´s sad to see a big company like Eidos leave the consumers to fix incompatibility with the evolution of the tecnology in such a wonderful game, but its joyful to see minds interested for it. =P

[rockhoward]

Hello, as you can see I'm new at the forum, but I was reading it for months. First of all i must say that i couldn't find the solution reading posts to my problem.

Well i want to run my FF7 in my PC, with winXP and a ATI Radeon 9200. That's the problem, y followed all the steps and the game crush at the beginning, i can only see the black screen and then it goes back to windows. I tried the win xP patch, the 1.02 in spanish (i've got the spanish version but i don't really know if it's relevant), i changed the FF/config to NVIDIA TNT, then as you said automaticly to Hardware 3D Accelerator. 8 - bit textures is in "---" besides of the fail.

Then i tried to use the rivatunner to correct that but in the main window at drivers settings i can't select a thing only appears "catalyst detected and bellow a list of .dll s. That's my problem. Please anyone would help me with this? I've started the game with a lot of patch in a PC with win ME and Nvidia card with everything allright.

P.D. Sorry for the inglish i'm form spain and it's a little hard descrive a technical problem ^^
P.D.2. In a older PC my FFVII worked great, so it isn't a problem of the game.

[nexuseragon]

I'm having a quite unusual problem. Usually, the game crashes within the first battle when you jump of the train. BUT! For me, it crashes just after the Fat guy from AVALANCHE jumps of the train! What the heck? How can that be solved, pls?

[miracle.flame]

Maybe you've tried to install NPC RP and did not have regional settings at English? That's my experience.

[nexuseragon]

Hell. I did. I'll try it with english regional settings now xD Thanks a lot

[Salk]

I just thought to report my experience: frustrated by the pixelated look of the 2D backgrounds I thought to start a game playing on Window mode.

Of course this meant unfortunately no Saint's Hi Res Patch (that work only on full screen).

Balancing the aestethical pro and cons, I came to the conclusion that it was worth it IF antialiasing would work in some way.

Unfortunately it was not possible. The only modes that don't give artifacts are 1x2, 2x1 and 2x2. But they corrupt, like all the other mods, the ingame fonts.

So I guess that the minor bad is to switch back to the Hi Res patch and bear the ugly pixelation of the 2D screens (  )... It's really a shame: this is - for me - the only and last barrier for playing the ultimate Final Fantasy VII experience.

Guess I can think I am lucky for getting so close to it anyway... 

[Kindo]

Problem: My movies play upside-down, or my movies don't play at all.

Solution: Download and install the upside-down movie patch here.  If you have ffdshow installed (it comes with some popular codec packs, including the K-Lite codec pack and the CCCP), you must disable ffdshow's "True Motion" support through the ffdshow Video Decoder Configuration.

(Side note: Some experimenting on using ffdshow to improve FF7 movie quality.)

--------

Problem: When I run FF7, it just hangs at a black screen.

Solution: A movie is supposed to be playing, see question above.

I assume my problem relates to these two sections of the FAQ: when I start the game, all I get is a black screen, and I must alt+F4 to exit the program. I tried installing the above patch, and I tried disabling 'True Motion' (and other settings) according to the instructions given. Still no dice. The weird thing is that it worked a moment ago - for the first time - so I exited in order to apply patches and tweaks (I was running on a clean installation, with 1.02 patch, for trouble-shooting,) but the game stopped working when I tried to start it up again right away! I had done nothing at all in between the time I exited, and the time I re-started the program. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, the problem was back. I am positively confused here and thankful for any advice.

Sincerely,

Kindo


WinXP
Nvidia GeForce 8800 GT

[miracle.flame]

You sure you can alt+f4 out of the black screen?
Kindo, try hitting enter on numpad several times when on the black screen. If it sends you to main menu that means you have wrong path to movies in registry.

[Kindo]

You sure you can alt+f4 out of the black screen?
Kindo, try hitting enter on numpad several times when on the black screen. If it sends you to main menu that means you have wrong path to movies in registry.

I have actually reached a different stage of solving my game problems now. I've installed it on my Vista partition, and movies and in-game both run perfect (even with enhancing patches and the like.) I had a problem with crashing upon entering battle, but it was quickly resolved by replacing battle.lgp with the default one on the install disc (high res cloud patch might have been the culprit there.) Now I have another problem instead:

When I installed the drivers for my sound card, I can no longer manipulate the music (midi) volume in-game. I need to mute that since I'm using the FF7music patch to play better-quality music (straight from the OST.) Is ther any way to turn the midi music off outside the game, in some kind of configuration file, or possibly even have the OS itself mute all midi music? I'm new to Vista, and I can't find any midi volume in the control panel or anywhere else.

Man, I've been sitting for days trying to get my FF7 to run properly. It really feels like I'm close. So very, very close...

EDIT: Ah, there was a thread about it here: http://forums.qhimm.com/index.php?topic=7384.0

Problem solved! I can finally, FINALLY play the game! <3

[geraldhans]

I Got problem during Cloud Flash back with Sephiroth, when Tifa,Cloud and Sepiorth are taking picture together, then after the screen fade
The game crash

Can anyone help me?. Thx

[lambie]

I installed the game, used the patches (1.02, Chocobo Racing, Upside-down movies, and High-Resolution). At the beginning, where the train just stopped and the guards were attacked, that scene is all black, and then the word bubble "blah blah follow me" shows up, and I hit the menu key and back, everything is back. So I keep on moving forward, when the group is about to enter the reactor building, Cloud turned small and stayed at a corner while the movie plays. I played through the whole stage, and when Cloud was leaving the reactor, some dude fell, and Cloud went to give a hand, then they both freeze at the corner of my screen as the movie plays without sound... I tried to find the problems within the forum, but I just can't find the answer.

My computer is running Vista Home Premium with EVGA E-Gefore 7600 GT.

Help please, thank you.

[lookatevan]

Ok Guys, I guess I have something new for you. First of all:

Windows XP
Pentium Duo Core 3.20 Ghz
Nvidia GeForce 6200 256 Mb
DirectX 9.c
Forceware 169.21

I installed:
1.02 patch,
The Saint´s High Res Patch,
Dziugos Minigame´s.

What Happens is this: I open the program, everything goes fine, load or play new game, Cinematics are OK, Graphics, sound, evrything. BUT, i only get to play 10-20 minutes the game goes slow like its lagging and then screen freezes! I can still hear the sound of music even the sound of what im doing but the screen just freezes, and it happens anywhere: The menu, the worldmap, Battles...

I´ve tried to change compatibility mode, Anisotropic Filtering, Anti Aliasing, reinstalled it and tried patch by patch. It goes on the same problem.

The weird thing is that it used to work just fine months ago and when i get back to play again this freezes happens, so i tried to analyze what I have changed in my computer since the last time and the olnly thing I did was my Forceware, thats my clue for what may have been causing this freezes but im not sure. Any help would be apreciated.

Oh, and thx you all for the wonderful work. It´s sad to see a big company like Eidos leave the consumers to fix incompatibility with the evolution of the tecnology in such a wonderful game, but its joyful to see minds interested for it. =P

Hey CreeK, I was having the same exact problem. I found another post on here (for a completely separate issue) that suggested downgrading my forceware:

From Corpse:
"you could try downgrading the drivers I'm using forceware 77.77, this solved my problems. I can aslo use 8-bit textures and AA. Also so far no  problems in new games."

I downgraded the drivers and I'm no longer seeing that problem. Here's the link: http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_77.77.html

Hope it works!

-Evan

[chunlam]

I cant get past the stupid scene with the meotore in the lab in cosmo canyon!!

can anyone help? please.. getting sick of it...

thank you..

[*:.Griever.:*]

One of Dziugos releases has an option to skip certain bits that are giiving people troubles, alas I can't rememeber the name of it....

If you do a search for all Dziugos releases though, you should be able to find it.

[Some Guy]

Hello.  I am new to this forum, and would like to ask for some help regarding FF7.  I apologise if this post ends up long, but I guess it's better to have extra data than miss out something important.
I recently decided that I really wanted to play through FF7 again, having finished it back in 2000 or so.  However, given that I now have only a laptop running Vista, I obviously had trouble getting it to run.  Luckily I came across links to this site, plus a full set of patches at http://fem1.uniag.sk/Miroslav.Jezik/ff7ncopam.html.

After installing the Truemotion codec (and setting up the movies on my hard drive using regedit), I installed the Keypad patch, the 1.02 official patch and the Multipatch (minigames, etc).  The eidos opening movie wouldn't play, but I could skip to the new/continue menu by pressing enter.  Staring a new game, I got a blank screen.  No sound, no video.  Skipped using Gyptinstant, I heard the sounds of Cloud and co jumping from the train, despite the screen being blank (apart from Barret saying something, in a standard dialogue box).  I pushed the up key until a fight began, simply to see what would happen.  The fight began as normal (I could even see now), though the enemies appeared with no legs.  The game then crashed, after one attacked.
Second attempt, same darkness, managed to win fight, game crashed during victory animation.
Tried upside-down FMV patch, did nothing (did not fix opening videos).  Crashed at start of first fight, after enemies half-appeared again.
Uninstalled FF7 and patches.  Tried again in recommended order (I skipped out the FMV patch first time around).  Game will not load (screen flashes black, as if loading, but then returns me to desktop).

OS: Vista Home Premium (tried compatability modes 95, 98/ME (both worked, up to a point) and running without compatability modes on (won't load))
Display adapter: ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600
Processors: 2 x AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology TL-56
DirectX 10, DirectShow is installed.

Patches installed:  TrueMotion codec, Upside-down FMV cutscenes patch, Laptop Keypad patch, ff7 v1.02 official patch, The SaiNt's High Res FF7PC Patch v1.00  (with integrated Jedwin's chocobo patch)  by SaiNt, YAMP - Yet Another Multi-Patcher (all but LuckyTifa and No Dialog Boxes).

FF7 Configuration: tried Direct3D Hardware Acceleration with both RIVA and TNT modes.  Tried Software Rendering by itself.  All give same results, now.  First try at installing, all got to same point before crashing (crashes before end of first battle, only Barret's opening dialogue box visible outside of battle, etc.)


I think that's all.  If I missed out anything, please tell me.  Any help would be appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

[auxili160]

There are a TON of threads that talk about the problem you're having.

[obesebear]

I hate to be a dick since you've clearly stated your problem, but if you search for something like "vista crash" you'll find a few threads with the exact same problem.

I don't remember the thread name or the solutions, but if you spend 10 minutes searching you will find your answer.

[Some Guy]

I actually ended up checking those threads, and couldn't find anything that fixed my particular problem.  Still, I've made a note of those solutions in case I need them, and I'll just try a full reinstall.  So, fair enough.
Edit: Got all the essential patches working.  None of the graphical ones, but at least I can play the game now.

[freakstyle]

my final fantasy 7 stuck during movie play at the top mountain of great glacier

please anyone help me......

[*:.Griever.:*]

Gypt

[Venom25000]

Hey, so I have the same old story as everyone else. I'm running Win XP, Intel DC processor, and an 8800 video card.
I've followed the OP guide and downloaded only the necessary patches (1.02, upside down video, riva tuner) and I still get the black screen/freeze.
I uninstalled K-lite codecs and replaced it with Ace because I heard it doesn't have the True Motion problem.
The only way I can get this game to work is to put it on quarter screen, and software render. The thing is with that though the cut-scenes are the top quarter, and my cursor is stuck as if I was holding it down. This makes it unable to play because I can't do anything in combat or walk properly.
I'm about to end all hope of playing this game ever again on PC since I've tried almost every available guide out there, any help is appreciated.