The unpatched 1.0 version (Spanish) hangs for me.

The official 1.2 + WinXP patch works flawlessly for me using Windows98 compatibility mode.

Did you make a FULL INSTALLATION?

That I did, that I did.

Pity that the setup program is loading so slowly (though I know why THAT happens, it's unrelated to this issue), the more I think of it the more I'm conviced it's those two checkboxes. Did you have those two checked before running setup? Also, just in case, what configurations did you set on that "configurations" thingy, could you tell?

I don't know what you mean. Setup presented me with my ATi Radeon (D3D). I just changed the resolution to the maximum allowable (800x600)

Ok. I guess different machines get different possibilities, which makes sense... oh, I forgot to mention I have a Geforce FX5200. Just for completeness' sake.

As for the two checkboxes, I mean the last checkboxes in the "Compatibility" tab of the setup.exe program. Though I suppose asking that isn't very helpful, since I'm about to try that out myself...

Uh, Sorry. NO, I just ticked Windows 98 compatibility mode. Everything else was unticked (Running with a display of 640x480, disable themes and such).

Do you have the latest drivers for your videocard?

I think latest ones are 78.01

I've never had any problems with Soul Reaver but my last 2 cards have been an ATI 9700 and an ATI X800. I think I have a 5200 around here so I'll see if I can dig out Soul Reaver and give it a try.

It would be funny if it only worked on ATI cards since ATI used to have a rep with not working with older games. Heck, for quite awhile now almost all of their driver releases have to do with fixing games. Quite a turnaround.

Hmm, I didn't bother to check that... apparently it's 7.1.8.9. I'll try updating them.

Out of curiosity, how can that be the problem (assuming it is) if the thing worked before, with an older version? Does it make some sort of sense that I'm missing?

...come to think of it, I do believe I updated the thing in-between installations of Soul Reaver...

Sometimes, newer drivers tend to perform worse. That's why it's a good thing to try out several different releases.

Haven't tried the full ver of Soul Reaver yet but I did just try the demo.

Had to apply 95 compatibility mode to the executable. Used defaults for all configurations in Soul Reaver (640X480).

Video Card: Geforce FX 5200
Drivers: 43.45 Dets (Latest stable dets on this POS comp).

Game worked fine. I'm not about to try the latest dets for ya since they'll crash this computer hard if I do. So your on your own there.....but since the 43.45 dets work here then they should work for you on your 5200 too. Then you'll just have to slowly go through later detonators to find out which ones work. When you do you should email Nvidia.....dunno if you'll get anything out of 'em tho.

Thank you for your help, but I'm not too sure about demos... I managed to run the demo of QfG5 easily, for instance, but running the whole game is a nightmare, I haven't been able to do it yet. So I'm not sure how much of a help that is... anyway, I'm the layman of all laymen - what's a "detonator"?

EDIT - Allright, I got the new version of the driver and it still doesn't work. So unfortunately the problem must lie elsewhere...

EDIT 2 - Wrong assumption, nevermind the assumption, maybe that IS the problem. But I really don't feel comfortable about putting older drivers, or "dets" as the case may be...

I'll try out the full ver when I can. Just tried the demo because usually the fixes are the same for the full versions.

Detonators are what Nvidia used to refer to their Drivers before they came up with 'ForceWare".

You can download the 43.45 dets at Guru3D.

Ok, I'm staring at the detonater. It's sitting in my hard drive. How safe is this thing? I mean, can I be sure that installing it won't screw some things up?

Well, installing an older driver has the same safety concerns as installing a newer driver....when it comes to computers you can never be sure about anything....except that eventually it will screw up. 😉

Heh. Pragmatist view. I like it.

Can I just install this one? Or should I uninstall the previous one? How DO I uninstall the previous one? Won't it have negative effects, uninstalling the graphic card driver? And last but not least, where can I find these things out so's I don't have to take up your time on these surely-obvious-questions-that-however-still-elude-counfound-and-frighten-me?

Use add & remove programs prior to installing a different driver. Just to be on the safe side.

Ok, sorry for being so reluctant about this, but I found a way to feel safe. If I make a "System Restore Point" prior to the whole uninstall/install-older thing and it backfires on me, can I reboot and "go back" to that "System Restore Point" and find that all's well once again?

EDIT - Hmmm... I'm sure this is unrelated, but in the "Add/Remove programs" thingy I have two entries for Legacy of Kain - one being "Legacy Of Kain", the other being "Legacy Of Kain - Soul Reaver". I'd assumed the first was for BLood Omen... BUT they both have the same icon, the same size and the same "Last accessed date". What's more, I HAVE uninstalled Blood Omen. And when I try to uninstall "Legacy of Kain", I get: "This will uninstall Legacy of Kain. Do you wish to proceed?", and after THAT, "PROBLEM: Legacy of Kain data has been altered. Uninstallation may not be complete. You may need to manually remove the remaining parts of Kain." Which makes sense, since I had already removed the game...

I'm sure this is unrelated, but I thought I might as well mention.

Oh, I found a "Portuguese" version of the patch. Since I AM Portuguese, I tried it, but still no go. I'll see if I can sort this Blood Omen/Soul Reaver mess, see if it's related. If not, I'll just wait for you to tell me whether I can safely rely on System Restore if it backfires.

Wouldn't it be fun to find out after all this trouble that the problem was not in the graphic card drivers? (no it wouldn't!)

I think you could use a good registry cleanup.

Ok, I cleaned it up. Didn't help, though. But by reinstalling and re-uninstalling I managed to make the Legacy of Kain entry at least look different from the Soul Reaver entry.

So, how much did you say I could rely on System Restore Points again?

EDIT - I did it. I replaced the drivers with the older ones... and it works!

Truth be told, maybe it's because this time I uninstalled the previous driver BEFORE installing the one I wanted to install (the older, in this case), which I hadn't done before - maybe installing on top of previous installations, as I had been doing, was the problem all along...

...but I don't care. It's running. 😁 Thank you so much for your help, time and patience - it's great to know there's a place I can rely on when I have this sort of trouble.

Anyway, glad to hear you had it sorted out.