Final Fantasy 7 crashes

[legion]

Hi,

I am encountering a problem when trying to run Final Fantasy 7 in Windows 2000.

The specs of my PC are as follows:

17" Benq (Dell) Flat Screen Monitor
AMD XP 2.2 Gig Athlon
Gigabyte GA7VA motherboard
1.5 Gigabyte PC3200 memory
2.4x DVD +R/RW DVD Rom
48x Cd-r Writer
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Creative Platinum Audigy 2 External Sound Card
Creative 5.1 Digital Surround Sound Speakers
512k Broadband Internet Connection
Genius Keyboard and Mouse

all runnning perfectly under Windows 2000 Server.

I am using my Xbox Control Pad raher than the keyboard for my games now but have had no problems using it.  

The problem that i am experiencing is that because ff7 does not detect the ATI Radeon 9800 Pro graphics card i am forced to run the game in Software Rendering mode.

At the begining of the first fight sequence against the two guards or when i try and access the menu screen, the game crashes and quits on me back to the desktop.

I have  installed all the software required for the game (the yamaha synthesiser software, video viewer and direct X9 for windows 2000) and the windows XP patch just to make sure everything checks out but i am still having the same problems.

Can anyone please help me solve this issue.

Thanks,

Legion.

[Synergy Blades]

Have you read through the entirety of this thread: http://forums.qhimm.com/viewtopic.php?t=1662 ?

If so, and it still won't work, give this a try: http://www.joikkeli.org/janne/ff7.html

[Aaron]

I have installed all the software required for the game (the yamaha synthesiser software, video viewer and direct X9 for windows 2000) and the windows XP patch just to make sure everything checks out but i am still having the same problems.

Just a note... you shoudln't install the Yamaha synthesizer that comes on the FF7 install CD in Windows 2000/XP, cause it doesn't work.

[Rubicant]

Sounds to me more like a compatability issue more than anything. Once you've added all the patches on, there is nothing else to do but make sure windows works with the program, not the vice-versa former. Are you familiar with the application compatabilty program that comes with win2k? Man, I forget the name, but it comes with the win2k disc. It has the same function as the winxp compatability mode options, but it's a little different. You have to start up the program, set the paramaters, then run the program you want to get to work. I absolutely cannot remember the name...man...my memory must be going bad. But it is somewhere on the win2k disc.

I'm hoping that'll solve it for you.

[edit]

Okay, the name of the program is APCOMPAT.EXE. It can be found in the "support" folder in your win2k cd. I'll place a copy of it on my website if you are unable to locate yours. But as it seems you've gotten the "sucker" to work, you probably won't need it.

[edit2]

It does absolutely nothing for ff7 in win2k. [sarcasm]I'm a complete idiot. I should be skinned alive and bathed in lemon juice!!![/sarcasm]

[legion]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for all your help, sigh....  i cant help but feel that this is what happens when you spend thousands doing up your pc and then upgrading all the software i mean whats the f***ing point?

The problems are still occuring despite all you have done and my attempts to remedy the situation, god i miss win98 but half of my hardware isnt compatible with it.

I'll try a bit more to get things straight but if it fails i guess i'll have to get another sound card put in my pc and dual boot with windows 98 and 2k, it just seems like one hell of a mess around just to get one game working.

thanks,

Legion.

[legion]

hi,

One question that i forgot to ask is:  Is it essential to have service pack 2 installed?  Cos i have service pack 4 installed (cos of the blaster virus that went round earlier this year).

thanks,

Legion.

[legion]

Hi,

Hahahahaha....  I got the sucker working again perfectly, graphics are just as good as if they were hardware rendered.

thanks again for all the help.

Legion.

[Sephiroth2000]

Aaron's not gonna like the three-in-a-row post leigon...
Anyway you shouldn't download the XP patch, it's a ripoff as has been stated 10,000,000+ times before  

[Lieron]

how come only ffVii gets the problems (yeah prolly cuz its OLD)

but it jsut kidna seems strange you know?

[Cool Newbie]

ok, i had the same problem on final fantasy 7 on windows 2000, on the first battle as soon as the first attack takes place regardless of who does it the game crashes and goes back to windows. also notice if you get a save game and try run it to skip first battle, every time you change rooms it should crash.

you probably have the same problem, heres the solution:

1. Make sure u have at least Service Pack 3 for Windows 2000

2. Download and install the Windows Application Combatibility Toolkit 2.6
get it from http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?displaylang=en&FamilyID=09DAC794-B803-4B92-83C9-6A9E8B801434

3. Run the Compatibility Administration Tool from the toolkit.
Click the 'Fix' button. In the dialog that appears, enter the name of the program (FF7), vendor (SquareSoft), browse to ff7.exe and then click 'Next'.
Select 'None' for Operating System modes and click 'Next'.
Under Fixes, check the boxes: EmulateWriteFile, Shrinker, VirtualRegistry and then click 'Next'.

4. Click 'Select all' then 'Finish'.

5. Click 'Run' and see if it works.

it should run fine know, once you get it to run add it to the database so you won't have to run the tool every time, and enjoy    

do let us know if it works!

[Threesixty]

...he already did.