FF7 Lifestream Video Crash

[olzee]

Hello,
I am currently running FF7 (with 1.02 patch applied) on WinXP.  I've been able to apply a tweak to get past the Cosmo crash but now am stuck at the part where Cloud and Tifa fall into the lifestream in Mideel.  It hangs when it tries to load the second move (starry night at the well - I believe it is zmind02.avi) - this happens when running off of the CD and from the hard drive.

I've noticed that the crash occurs anytime the program tries to run 2 movies in one sitting.

Does anyone happen to have a solution for this?

Thanks!

Edit:
In case the only way to get past this is to provide the save file, please find it at www.craigmcgee.com/save00.ff7

[EmperorSteele]

Sounds like a video memory problem or something.  What're your system specs?

Also, can you play the movies fine in Winamp and/or WMP?

[olzee]

WinXP SP2
Celeron 2.4GHz
384 MB RAM

The movies play fine in the game and on media player, etc.  I believe this to be the same problem as the Cosmo Canyon crash or at the Junon elevator. eg. there are 4 movies that play during the Cosmo Canyon scene but (on XP at least) the game always crashes when the 2nd one tries to start.

Since there is no save point in between the fight with Weapon and the rest of the scene in Cloud's mind, it has become very frustrating since there is no way I can get through it without the game shutting off.

If someone could play through the Weapon fight and the scenes in Cloud' mind for me up to the first point you can save, I'd really appreciate it! Save file is in the first post.

[EmperorSteele]

what about your video card?  Do you have updated drivers for it?

[olzee]

Running off of an onboard Intel Extreme graphics chip (latest drivers), no other video cards being used.

The videos play fine - no lag or distortion.  

Also did a reinstall.

I tried things like increasing the paging file size, as well as turning off hardware acceleration and the other solutions suggested.  I also tried switching the vids with blank avis or avis of different sizes - same problem, the first plays but the second causes a crash.

Any other ideas?

[EmperorSteele]

onboard.

Intel.

There's your problem right there!

Jk.

Well, you sound like you're having generic video issues.  And getting you past this part wont solve your problems, because theres lots of times when more than one movie playes between save points.  So i'm more inclined to solve the problem as oppsoed to play through for you, otherwise you'll need people to play through half the game for you, and you'll miss out on half the fun.  (well, okay, you're through most of the game, anyway...)

Try turning off everything else besides explorer, and do a thorough antivirus/spyware sweep.  Your ssytem could just be low on resources.

And reintall the game, but WITHOUT any patches.  See if that works.  I heard you recomend the enimevamp patch to someone else in another thread.  that patch is shit, and is probably causing the crash.

Question: if the game crashes after 2 fmvs, how do you even play?  One movie is loaded on startup (eidos.avi), and so it should crash on whatever fmv plays next.

[olzee]

I was half-expecting some knock at the generic video but it does a pretty good job for what i didn't pay for.

Question: if the game crashes after 2 fmvs, how do you even play? One movie is loaded on startup (eidos.avi), and so it should crash on whatever fmv plays next.

That's another thing that confuses me... it's only some videos that do it  For example, at the gold saucer I can go back and forth between there and N.Corel as many times as I like... i'm sure there are a number of other examples too.

But i've had it crash in similar ways other times as well... ie. cosmo canyon or junon elevator (as I've previously said), on the train tracks to the Corel reactor (when the track falls out beneath you and you fall to get treasure - if I fell twice without saving in between i'd lose it all)....

The reinstall left me in the same position. Maybe I'll see if i can try it on a friend's system or something. I shouldn't be procrastinating with these games anyway.  It just seems really weird.

[Chesso]

It's not your onboard video i just pulled out my nVidia Riva TNT2 and used my onboard which is the same as yours and it works fine.

My brother for some reason has some issues with movies but only certain ones i applied that True Motion update and this fixed it (he didnt have true motion installed in the first place though).

Or even if you re-encoded the movies in another format and had that codec installed could also work. The movies do work re-encoded but i can't say for sure it would help with your problem.

[ruby54501]

I don't have anything running but explorer and I haven't had any crashes since I but the movies on hard drive! My computer crashes to desktop saying ff7 has created and user.exe problem! something to do with memory! I have the new upgrade ! I am a beginer and I love the game and like playing now that I am older too! What bothers me is finding some one with computer knowledge about FF7 problems than helping us that don't! and just want to play the game! My resouces or memory when playing that long and no save just want to know how to correct it!  Its only after Cloud kills Sephiroth and starts to change scenes that it crashes!

[Threesixty]

I don't know what's causing your crash... But I can tell you your not missing anything that you can't do manually.

Just doubleclick the 3 end movies.... That's what the game is going to do. If one of those 3 end movies causes mediaplayer to crash...then you'll know the problem.

[ruby54501]

No matter what id do after Cloud remembers killing Sephrioth the pc game crashes to desk top USER.EXE error I had this problem before but once I down loaded the movies to hd I played the game fine the only other crash was at Cosmo Canyon but that was all til this point!