Mass Effect 2 (ME2) PC Crash, Crashes, Freeze, Freezes, Errors, Long Loading Times, Black Screen, Mouse Speed, Can’t Install, Force AA, Fix and Fixes
Written by badguy001
Bioware has once again proven that they can make RPGs like no other game developer can with their second entry to the Mass Effect series, Mass Effect 2. But just like many other video games out in the market, Mass Effect 2 is no stranger to crashes, freezes, errors, and glitches. So if you’re stuck on the desktop because of a gamebreaking crash, then check out the fix guide below and you might find the solution you need.
IMPORTANT:
- Update your nVidia and ATI video / Graphics cards to their latest drivers.
- If you have encountered problems or solutions not listed in this guide, feel free to post it in the comment section below. No registration required
- Be sure that your PC meets these system requirements:
PC MINIMUM System Requirements
- OS = Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
- Processor = 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU
- Memory = 1 GB RAM for Windows XP / 2 GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7
- Hard Drive = 15 GB
- DVD ROM = 1x Speed
- Sound Card = DirectX 9.0c compatible
- Direct X = DirectX 9.0c August 2008 (included)
- Input = Keyboard / Mouse
- Video Card = 256 MB (with Pixel Shader 3.0 support). Supported Chipsets: NVIDIA GeForce 6800 or greater; ATI Radeon X1600 Pro or greater. Please note that NVIDIA GeForce 7300, 8100, 8200, 8300, 8400, and 9300; ATI Radeon HD3200, and HD4350 are below minimum system requirements. Updates to your video and sound card drivers may be required. Intel and S3 video cards are not officially supported in Mass Effect 2.
PC RECOMMENDED System Requirements
- Windows XP SP3 / Windows Vista SP1 / Windows 7
- 2.6+ GHz Cure 2 Duo Intel or equivalent AMD CPU
- 2 GB RAM
- ATI Radeon HD 2900 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT, or better recommended
- 100% DirectX compatible sound card and drivers
- DirectX August 2008
Problem #1: Mass Effect 2 (ME2) PC encounters problems while loading / won’t load / Crashes, freezes while loading
Possible Solution #1: (By SonyXP from the Steam forums)
One solution was to install the latest NVidia Physx Drivers by hand, allthough Steam usually prepares it’s digital content to work out of the box (by installing all (by any game )needed frameworks on first startup).
I can only throw a guess in this case, but it might be same issue and also relys on the Physx engine respectively those drivers.
Maybe this helps (which I hope).
Regards,
SonyXP
P.S. Updating all system related drivers would have been my general advice. But you have done that already, accordingly You might try to fiddle around with UAC (User Account Control). One never knows.
Possible Solution #2: (By fatray from the Steam forums)
Right click on game, properties, local files, verify integrity of game files. Then Defrag them. After that you should launch the game using the Launcher first so you can set all your settings the best way. Make sure your signed into EA and Biowear. Registering the game. Iwas having your same problem. I did those steps. One of them (or all) fixed the problem.
Possible Solution #3: (By Reavers from the Steam forums)
Try going to SteamApps/common/mass effect 2/Binaries and click on MassEffect2Config.exe. Setup up your video to match with your setup.
Fixed my crash problem.
Problem #2: How to force AA in Mass Effect 2 (ME2) PC?
Possible Solution #1: (By Sweetz from the Steam forums)
Getting AA with the Steam version is possible with an nVidia card. ATI users can blame ATI for continually refusuing to expose AA compatibility settings to the end user. Getting it to work for nVidia does require a wee bit more work than normal though.
First a couple of info points:
• As of the 196.21 drivers, nVidia has the wrong executable name for Mass Effect 2 setup for the profile. This is why making changes to the Mass Effect 2 profile does nothing.
• Mass Effect 2, like all UE3 based games, requires an AA compatibility mode, this is why AA won’t work just by setting up your own profile.
To fix:
1) Find your nvApps.xml file. In Vista and Win7 this will be found under C:\ProgramData\NVIDIA. ProgramData is a hidden folder by default, so you will need to manually type it into a file explorer window to get to it. In XP it’s under C:\Windows\System32.
2) Right click on the file and open with Notepad.
3) Do a find for “Mass Effect II” (sans quotes).
4) Change this line:
<APPLICATION Label=”biogame.exe”/>
To:
<APPLICATION Label=”masseffect2.exe”/>
5) Paste this line into Mass Effect II’s section:
<PROPERTY Label=”aa_feature_bits” Value=”0×080100C5″ Default=”0×080100C5″ Itemtype=”predefined”/>
6) Save and set AA normally via the nVidia Control Panel.
7) Enjoy.
NOTE: This method requires 191+ drivers. Only with the 191 and later drviers did nVidia start going off the nVapps.xml file only for profile info. Earlier version drivers use settings in the registry for profile info, which is much more complex to modigy.
ALSO NOTE: Like all UE3 games, AA is partial coverage only. Only some edges will be AA’ed. Typically edges viewed against harsh lighting or some surfaces with special effects applied with not have AA applied.
Possible Solution #2: (By WalterBennet from the Steam forums)
I got anti aliasing to work by using nHancer, creating a custom profile for masseffect2.exe, then going to the compatibility tab and setting “Anti-Aliasing Compatibility” to “00000045: AA & HDR” from the drop-down box.
Problem is, it lowers the framerate in game to somewhere around 15-20 fps for me, which is a massive hit. The game runs smooth as butter otherwise. So I think I’ll just play through it with jaggies.
Problem #3: Can’t customize the mouse speed properly when playing Mass Effect 2 (ME2) PC
Possible Solution #1: (By Crest)
Set the camera sens to low and it helps. Or simply set your mouse DPI to like 100-200 temporarily.
Problem #4: Mass Effect 2 (ME2) PC encounters long loading times / takes too long to load an area
Possible Solution #1: (By dr. reanimator from the Steam forums)
Switching the CPU affinity from 2 cores to 1 then back to 2, every time you run the game will fix the load times from a couple of minutes to under 20 secs.
Possible Solution #2:
Download the MassAffinity file.
“Just place the app on your desktop (or somewhere else convenient), run it, select your ME2 directory, and hit “Run game”. After that, every time you double-click the MassAffinity app, it’ll automatically start ME2 and fix the issue.”
“If you ever need to change the directory, you can run the app with the “/config” switch, or run the “SetupMassAffinity.cmd” file that comes with the program.”
Problem #5: Mass Effect 2 (ME2) PC crashes / freezes / encounters error at launch
Possible Solution #1: (By jito463 from the Steam forums)
Try deleting the local shader cache files. It’s supposed to fix texture issues, but it’s a simple place to start (and can’t hurt to try).
Steam\SteamApps\common\mass effect\Binaries\MassEffectConfig.exe
Go down to ‘Repair’ and click ‘Delete Local Shader Cache Files’.
Barring that, you can always delete the game and redownload from scratch. You won’t lost your save games, as they’re stored in your user profile in Windows.
Possible Solution #2: (By Teh Rover from the Steam forums)
Another user helped me out when I had the same problem. If you are on Windows 7 or VISTA, go to CONTROL PANEL, USER ACCOUNTS, and disable User Account Control.
That should solve your problem. Enjoy Mass Effect!
Problem #5: Mass Effect 2 (ME2) PC goes to a black screen while playing
Possible Solution: —
Problem #6: How to improve Mass Effect 2 ( ME2 ) PC loading time?
Possible Solution #1: (By Lavans from the Steam forums)
As odd as this may sound, the “loading” screen is just a prerendered .bik movie in your BioGame>Movies folder. Because of this, the game only loads when the .bik movie is finished playing, not when the game is actually loaded.
To fix this, simply go to your MassEffect2>BioGame>Movies folder, rename “load_f01″ to “load_f01-bak”, then copy “load_f99″ and rename “load_f99 - Copy” to “load_f01″. This should reduce your load time to about 3 seconds. Don’t worry about the game loading improperly, because it won’t thanks to BioWare making use of Unreal Engine 3’s streaming feature ( loading the levels on the fly ).
Compiled replacement load screens for all existing ones. Please remember to back up your original load_fxx files if there is a need to restore them.
Download - http://www.megaupload.com/?d=VA4J8P30
Download Mirror - http://a.imagehost.org/download/0636/Movies
Problem #7: Mass Effect 1 ( ME1 ) won’t launch / encounter problem when launching Mass Effect 1
Solution:
WINDOWS VISTA OR WINDOWS 7 USERS: Launching “Mass Effect” from Steam requires the setting “Run as Administrator”. If the User Account Control feature of Windows Vista is enabled, launching “Mass Effect” from Steam will result in failure. For users with User Account Control enabled, launch Steam using the “Run as Administrator” option or launch from the windows shortcut.
Problem #8: Mass Effect 2 PC encounters stuttering and lock-ups while loading or starting the game
Solution #1: (By Avarix Greenleaf from the Bioware forums)
Just to be up front, this is a work around to get the game working. This removes all movies being played while playing Mass Effect 2. You will not be able to complete the last mission and you will have trouble reaching the citadel. You will loose all cinematics and load screen movies resulting in the loss of plot elements using this fix.
Retail Box (Non download versions of the game)
Find MassEffect2.exe in the Binaries folder in the Mass effect 2 folder. Create a shortcut of MassEffect2.exe
Right Click on it, select properties and add “nomoviestartup” at the end of the target line. It should look like the below picture. The only thing you need to do is add “nomoviestartup” at the end of whatever is in the target line.
Steam Users
Right click on Mass Effect 2 in the games list.
Select properties.
Click “Set Launch Options”
Type in “-nomoviestartup” (or copy paste without the parentheses)
Click ok and close properties box.
Remember, you will loose all cinematics and load screen movies resulting in the loss of plot elements using this fix.
Problem #9: Can’t finish / beat the last mission of Mass Effect 2 PC / Mass Effect 2 stutters or locks up during last mission
Possible Solution #1: (By Raizaiel from the Bioware forums)
Ok heres how to get the last mission started using the workaround. This is going to sound ridiculous but I got it working, theres going to be massive stuttering but you can get past the “attack(spoiler)”
I’d recommend having a save game ready to go at the galaxy map
Step 1: Backup all your green loading movies
Step 2: Replace all your loading movies with the originals
Step 3: Start the game with movies enabled DON”T PRESS ANY KEY
Step 4: Watch the optional intro movie by waiting a minute at “press any key screen”
Step 5: Press any key when it returns to the intro screen, there should be stutter, don’t worry this will get you past the loading screen when you load your save game
Step 6: Resume your save and stutter through the mission, it should end without stutter (IE: in breifing room)
Step 7: Save after mission
Step 8: Go set back up your workaround.
Step 9: Resume your save after the misson! Enjoy
Ridiculous, I know, if you knew which loading screens you needed you could fix it but that is for someone else to figure out. Don’t skip steps or you will freeze. Good luck!
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If you still can’t find the fix you need then check out Gamingnewslink’s fix guide. It’s also the best source for anything StarCraft.
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January 27th, 2010 at 8:16 pm
I’m trying to install ME2 on a Vista system. When it gets to the end of CD 1, and asks me to insert CD 2, the installer doesn’t recognize the disk in the drive. Windows sees the disk in there, I can look at the files and everything, but the ME2 installer gets stuck in a “retry” loop. Anybody have a solution to this?
January 28th, 2010 at 9:59 pm
I’ve got the exact same problem and I’m tearing my hair out about it. Any solutions anyone?
January 29th, 2010 at 3:27 am
Ive purchased ME 2 through Steam and have tried installing it multiple times. It installed directx i believe fine then it says installing- windows installer. Itll take about a half hour and then say “The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. This can occur if the Windows Installer is not correctly installed. Contact your support personnel for assistance.”
Now i dont know if thats a problem with the game or something is wrong with windows. Also when i use Ctrl Alt Dlt cause it’ll freeze during that process too the screen will go black and after 30 seconds or so a box will pop up that says “Logon process has failed to create the security options dialog” “Failure- Security Options”
Just wondering if this has happened to anybody else or if somethings wrong with windows, any advice
January 29th, 2010 at 9:08 am
Exactly the same problem as Pudentame and Ben. I’ve bought the collectors edition and can install disc 1, but the installer won’t recognize disk 2. Tried to install on Vista 32Bit System.. please post any known issues and workarounds.
January 29th, 2010 at 10:46 am
Hi guys, try this fix out. I can’t guarantee it will solve your disc 2 installation problem though.
“simply copy all the files from the two discs to your harddrive under a folder named mass effect 2. then while disc one is in the drive click setup that is on your harddrive, not the one thats on the disc…that ones the reason we got stuck to begin with.” All credits goes to Madmanmike.
January 29th, 2010 at 5:26 pm
Se me cuelga a mi tambien cuando termina la escena q te reviven se pone la pantalla negra y se va al escritorio de windows-
me sobra PC y tengo windows seven.
no puedo solucionarlo encima cada vez q quiero probarlo es un garron tener q esperar q pasen esos 10 minutos de pelicula me arto…
el mass efect 1 estaba lleno de bugs tambien
January 30th, 2010 at 12:10 am
I have finished Mass Effect first level ( Prologue ) and when the game was loading to enter the second level, it crashed ! Any solution how to fix it , guys ?
January 30th, 2010 at 3:08 pm
Regarding solution #1 to problem #5
My cfg utility doesn’t have a repair option. Nowhere. Is there a way to delete the local shader cache manually?
Thanks
January 31st, 2010 at 1:52 am
“I hit PLAY and nothing happens.” *Windows XP*
FIX:
1. Install Directx 10 for Windows XP
here: http://www.techmixer.com/download-directx-10-for-windows-xp/
2. Run Windows Automatic Updates manually and make sure you have WIndows .NET 3.5 Framework.
I’m pretty sure just Directx10 fixed it but I did both of the above and clicking “Play” worked when I had Disc1 inserted in my drive.
January 31st, 2010 at 6:52 pm
Reinstall loop sounds vaguely famlar to needing to reinstall the windows redistributable files. Try reinstalling those files from the MS website then try again.
February 1st, 2010 at 12:08 pm
I was suffering from the error “Mass effect 2 has stopped working” on Vista on startup. I tried various suggestions but nothing worked. Eventually managed to fix it, can’t guarantee it will work for everyone but might help some of you.
For me, I think the problem was related to having 2 DVD drives and some kind of DVD copy protection system that the game ships with, can’t be sure but just my suspicion due to the fact that no other discs give me errors with my drives.
Firstly, I was getting an error on disc swapping during install if the 2 discs were in separate drives (”Please insert disc 2″). Ignored this at first but after installing and trying to run, an error came up saying please insert the disc. Swapped the disc into the other drive which seemed to bypass this before just crashing on a black screen.
Uninstalled, then re-installed and only used my primary DVD drive to install both discs from (rather than having 1 disc in each drive, probably didn’t make a difference but tried it nonetheless). Tried to run - “Please insert the disc” (It’s already in there you B*ST*RD!!!), downloaded a nocd crack and game works fine.
I won’t post any links to possible illegal files and wouldn’t normally suggest it but it bloody annoys me that a brand new game won’t read properly because of lazy/incompetent publishing, probably due to some system there to stop pirating, the irony being it’s the pirates who have allowed my £35 product to work.
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:23 am
after installing i keep getting the ‘the application has failed to start correctly (0xc000007b)’ crash message. i’m running it on win7 64bit, meet the requirements and have the latest drivers. help?
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:50 pm
When i finished a section of the game, i tried to go into the normandys crew quarters , the game just crashes to the desktop with a error report. Any idea whats happening?? Other than that its loadin up fine
February 2nd, 2010 at 6:51 pm
When i finished a section of the game, i tried to go into the normandys crew quarters , the game just crashes to the desktop with a error report. Any idea whats happening?? Other than the game runs fine
February 2nd, 2010 at 9:48 pm
Couldnt get pass the first loading screen after selecting male or female I did the whole -novidestartup and the game works perfect runs smooth well tried just removing the loading screens but that didnt work still froze w/e the first video is whats killing my game XP retail copy
February 2nd, 2010 at 10:23 pm
When i start the game just after clicking the male story line it goes to loading video then freezes and i have to force close but I found the using the -nostartup movie trick allows me to play the game normally so I got an idea I went to my call of duty modern warfare 2 directory and went into my binaries on my mass effect to removed the binkw32.dll and substituted the CODMW2 binkw32.dll which is version 1.8.23.0 a significantly older version IT WORKED the game in the normal areas like main menu and in game cut scenes ran like crap thou but it got over the hurdle and allowed the game to fully load like it should normally I am to find a Version that is stable now or a much much older version to substitute with might try the .dll from mass effect 1
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:21 am
I had the same problem as Puddentame and Ben with the second disk not detecting during the install. I got it to work though. I copied all the files from both discs into seperate folders on the harddrive. Then I created the folder within my Program Files directory (Mass Effect 2) All the .rar files from both discs were then extracted into that directory. It should sort it’s own folders when extracting so don’t panic. Run the launcher then close it quickly. Note sure why or if it makes a difference but I was following someone else’s steps to try and get this to work. As long as the launcher comes up you’re all good. Not sure where this next file goes but there should be a “Mass Effect 2_code.exe” file somewhere in there. I think it was the Data directory. Run that file and input your code. After it closes rerun the launcher and you should be good to go.
Happy shooting peeps
February 4th, 2010 at 12:29 pm
hey what is the minimum configuration
February 4th, 2010 at 12:58 pm
installed the resident evil 5 game and can browse through menu but it crashes after 5 minutes into the game play.System configuration is AMD DUAL CORE 5200+ NVDIA 8600 GE FORCE FX 512MB AND 2GB RAM.
please help badguy001 sorry to update in wrong forum as unable to update it in resident evil 5 pc forum
February 4th, 2010 at 1:21 pm
im using windows 7 32-bit on a intel Quad core 2.66 processor with 4gb ram and 9500 geforce graphic card….
but ever time after the prologue sequenve the game crashes at the loading screen (with the heartbeat nd all showing on the left nd the skull on the right). searched everywhere,
tried 2 skip the movie by adding -playnomovies something in the shortcut target bar. at this point i see shepard standing staring into space for a few seconds nd the system crashes in the same fashion.
February 5th, 2010 at 4:52 am
Same problem as Daytona. After recruting Samara, the game crashes with an error report whenever i try to get into the crew quarters. Other than that, the game runs fine: I can still play other missions and fly to different places, but I can’t speak to anyone in the crew quarters. I’m using Windows 7, and my pc has the required power (just!). Any solutions would be greatly appreciated.
February 7th, 2010 at 11:40 am
whenever it says “press f to exit area” even when i press f nothing happens…..and im in an area where i cant go through any doors to get back to the normandy
February 9th, 2010 at 8:19 am
im using vista32, system requirements ok, still when i click on “install game” i get the message “critical files are missing, make sure youre running the appropriate installer” (or something like that). So i launch the setup manually from the folder and it starts to install, then i insert dvd2 and after a while it stops and says “istallation failed, critical files are missing”
… Does anyone have any idea for solution? Thank you in advance!
February 9th, 2010 at 8:29 am
im using vista32, system requirements ok, but still when i click on “install game” i get the message ” critical files are missing, make sure youre running the appropriate installer”. So i launched the setup manually from folder and it starts to install, then i insert dvd2 and after a while it stops and says “installation failed, critical files are missing”… all i can do after is to click end. Does anyone have any idea for solution? Thank you in advance!!
February 11th, 2010 at 11:50 am
im on vista and i think its either my computer or keyboard because i cant pick up the pistol in the lab i change the button to pick it up nothing any ideas?
February 18th, 2010 at 7:57 pm
2.8 intel core 2 duo, 4 gb ram, nvidea 9600 GT. Everything seems to be running fine except every once in a while, out of nowhere, the screen will go black and the sound will loop continuously and I have no option but to force shut down the computer, even ctrl alt del doesn’t work.
WTF?
February 21st, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Thanks dude , that worked
February 23rd, 2010 at 11:16 pm
Here is a fix for anyone encountering this error: “mass effect 2 has stopped working” or facing menu glitch getting mixed up.
Download code:
http://rapidshare.com/files/355004798/BIOG_UIWorld.rar
Download and extract this file to \Mass Effect 2\BioGame\CookedPC\
Working 100%.
February 27th, 2010 at 3:42 am
first mass effect 2 doesnt even use dx10 and dx10 for xp just tricks the game into thinking you have dx10 it doesnt give you any benefits performance wise….look it up… u want dx10? buy vista
ian: you can press the ESC key to pause the game and press it again to return you will see the highlighted door/target for a split second be quick and you can hit to to open the door most likely from the Comm room before you end up meeting with the illusive man in the same room right after you finish a mission.
have any vista users installed the directx that came with the ME2 disc?
February 28th, 2010 at 10:07 am
Is there no way to play this games with NVIDIA GeForce 8400 GS ???
I have all of the requirements except the video card.
When I try to start the game it keeps crashing back to the desktop.