Crash to Desktop before even starting

[DarthMarasmus]

I've been playing FF7 for the last 2 weeks.  Tonight, when I tried to start the game, the screen goes black to change resolutions and immediately goes back to desktop.  My current setup is a Pentium Celeron 3GHz processor with 1 GB RAM, GeForce 5500 256 MB GPU, and (freshly installed) Soundblaster Audigy 24-bit sound card w/ Windows XP Home SP2.  I think maybe that the Soundblaster drivers could be the problem, but damned if I know how to fix it.

[Aaron]

This sounds a lot like what happens if you try to start the game in hardware rendering and the mode is not supported.  If you switch over to software rendering in FF7Config, is anything different?

[DarthMarasmus]

Well, I found the problem as soon as I opened the Configurator:  I forgot to set it to render through the sound card instead of through the old on-board card that I disabled.  As soon as I did that, it worked fine.  Thanks!