Cant run the Witcher

I downloaded the Witcher from steam and i cannot run it i get an error message "Warning! Minimum system requirements not met!". The game does not even give the game a chance to switch to the NVIDIA graphic card. Is there anyway to just run the system on high end mode all the time? I really have not benafited from optimus ever since i purchesed this computer do they have plans to disable it?

 

Must be an optimus issue, I can start the game just fine on my R1. There's a more pressing problem in the form of a compatibility issue which guarantees a freeze every 10-50 mins, it's quite a debilitating problem which (I think) affects all M11x users.

 

I am interested in that since I was thinking about getting this game. How is this freezing problem? If you decrease specifications, can you get rid of this problem?

 

I've tried all sorts of settings with different drivers and along with the other users on this board we cannot get this game running stable. Some users report that once the game freezes the only cure is a power down.. I at least was able to Ctrl-Alt-Del my way back into Windows. The problem isn't just isolated to the M11x, others have made posts on the Witcher community forums with identical issues. Quite a shame really as The Witcher is one of the best fantasy titles I've had the privilege of playing (on my desktop) since Baldurs Gate 2.

 

Long shot, but have you tried it without oc the cpu?

 

The Witcher Enhanced version runs great on my R1 with no freeze issues. I installed it off of the dvd, then applied the crack from megagames so I can play it without having my external DVD player hooked up.

 

You use an iso copy of the dvd and a software to mount it as it was a dvd driver, right?

 

No, my CPU has been OC'd since day 1.

@Ravenlocke

Interesting as other users have complained of freezing issues in the EE as well as the original. I've personally only tried the original DVD versions 1-3 but I do own the EE on Steam, I'll definitely consider installing it to see if there's any improvement.

 

No, I did a full install of the game with my external dvd drive, then downloaded and installed the crack which allows the game to play without having the dvd hooked up. I know this is a grey area, but its how I run all of my disk based titles without the wasted space of making an iso of the game disk.

Absolutely no freezing issues for me, but I did have to turn down quite a few of the video options to get the game to run smoothly. It is a fantastic game!

 

Pretty good game. Never was able to get the Steam EE version to run on my R2. It would run great until it would lock up after about 20 minutes. I couldn't kill the witcher.exe process once it had. I spent an inordinate amount of time going through all of the supposed fixes posted on their forums and trying every permutation of game settings. Ended up playing it through on my desktop. Most people here report it doesn't work on the M11x.

 

Yeah, I remember running the game on a mixture of mostly medium and several high settings. Downloading the Withcer Enhanced Edition on steam right now.. at 14GB it'll take around 5-6hrs before i get to test it out.

Bah, identical problems to before.. constant crashing rendering the game unplayable.

 

I have just now installed The Witcher EE patched to 1.5. I had the same problem. That issue was solved if I added the witcher.exe in the Program files[x86]/The Witcher/System/ directory to the s.c. white list.

Check the sticky on that subject.

Can't say anything about stability as when writnig this I have only played 10 minutes.

 

I actually crashed on the 'Gates to Vizima' loading screen.. this is a common problem - The game actually seems quite stable after a reload, won't know for sure as I'll be too time constrained over the next few days to find out.

 

I had to do what was in this forum to bypass the minimum spec error - New FAQ updated 2 May 2008 (still under heavy construction)
Just make sure to not copy/paste " –dontForceMinReqs" on the witcher shortcut, you have to type it.
Not running great though, need to play with the settings. Good luck guys.

 

When it would run for me it ran great. The problem is that anywhere from 5 minutes to 45 it would lock up and I could not kill the witcher.exe process by any means. Not any flavor of task manager, not from an elevated command line, nothing, no how, no way. I scoured the internets and implemented each and every reported fix for crashes for Vista/7, performance tweak, workaround, settings hack, etc. A critical miss at every roll of the die.

Played beautifully on my desktop though. Great game on the whole if you could get past some of the weak dialogue. Looking forward to the sequel.

 

Well, as I have The Witcher running perfectly on my machine, I guess I'll drop some tips.

1. The error you're getting about the minimum reqs not meant means you either haven't manually switched to the discrete GPU or whitelisted the appropriate exe.

2. Patch 1.5 removes ALL DRM from the game.

3. When you do get this game running, you may have to lower some of the textures but I can play it at native res on medium with AA/AF disabled.

I hope that helped.

 

Boy, shows how opinions can vary on games. I thought Witcher was a very boring game with no humor and dialog that was lacking in interest. I guess it's because I compare it to Dragon Age (VERY well written dialog) and Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (fantastic music and dialog that has you laughing and chuckling because of its wit).
I played Witcher through to the bitter end, but can't say I enjoyed it. YMMV

 

Any R2 users found any solutions to the constant freezing issue? I'm getting the same problem as Slickie, i.e. the game runs great on nearly full settings for anything between 30 seconds and 30 mins before it just totally freezes up. I then cannot kill the witcher.exe process by any means. I have to power down the M11x by holding the power button till the machine powers off.

Any help with this would be great... I love the game.. just can't progress much. Also, it seems to be in the swamps mostly for the freezing issue. It did freeze a couple of times in the Outskirts of Vizima, but the swamps... OMG.. Sometimes I load up the game from my latest save (in the swamps). It loads up and Geralt is standing there.. only need to move the mouse and WHAM!... Frozen solid.

P.S. I've tried evey fix I can find on the net... Nothing seems to help much at all.

 

What drivers are you running? I've been able to play through for multiple hours at a time on 260.99 with a mix of medium and high settings.

 

If this is Witcher 2 Assassin's Kings? I am very interested in this game. I could not find any reviews nor gameplays for that matter in final release stages of the game. If you can pull off running this game with the nVIDIA GPU can you please make of video of the gameplay results as well as your benchmarks?

As for getting the game to run with the nVIDIA GPU, first if you are using the newest 266.58 drivers that could be the problem as I've had issues with "resources" not met in a number of games such as GTA IV. You could try to revert the driver or try this approach...

Go to your steam directory and try to find the 'SteamApps/common' folder. There should be a witcher folder. Open it and right click the '.exe' and Run with nVIDIA GPU. That should force it to run. (P.s. make sure you have that feature enabled in the nVIDIA control panel)

Good luck.

 

I'm using the drivers that came pre-installed from DELL (257.30).

Where should I download the 260.99 drivers from?

Cheers fore the reply by the way.

EDIT: Got the 260.99 drivers installed (clean install) but no difference. Loaded up my swamp save and got about 15 seconds before it froze again. Strange thing is, I can play for hours running about all over Vizima and it's fine. It's just when I'm in the swamp that it freezes...

I'm lost

 

any r1 users played the game using the latest official dell drivers? really considering to purchase this from gog.com for $4.99 although hesitant because of the freezing issue.

 

Guess I should have read this forum before I dropped $20 on the steam Witcher EE. I have the same problem...10-30 minutes of play and the whole computer locks up and has to be shut down. I sent an email to steam detailing the problem last week and they haven't responded. Anyone having this problem with the DVD version? Sure wish I could return this game and get my $20 back....

 

make sure your gpu is not overclocked. Got bsod and stutter when my gpu is overclocked. That's on a m11x r2

 

I'm not getting bsod....just screen freeze and the computer is completely locked. I do hear the sound stuttering. I don't believe I'm overclocking the gpu...also not overclocking the processor. The game runs beautifully until it craps out and freezes. I too am running an r2 with an i7 and 4gb of ram.

 

Guys - I can confirm the issue is related to the GPU -

The only way I have ever solved this on all games (including the Witcher) is to _underclock_ the "Shader Clock". In my circumstance I have it clocked down to 1020 permanently via EVGA's Precision utility.

Yep, you won't like it but underclocking has prevented any re-occurrence where games crash, process refuses to die and only way to recover is via hard reset.

Good luck! Cheers, Paul.

 

Thanks Paul...worked like a charm

 

dunno what it is but my r1 runs it at abou 25-30 fps with a combo of mid and high settings. something wierd tho, the area to the left of the touchpad heats up more than when i play anyother game, like to the point i can barely touch it

 

Hey has anyone run the Enhanced Edition on a R3? The game is acting reallllllly weeeeird.

Its like its missing animations. When I mouse click on a enemy, once in awhile I see an animation of a swoop. But most times I just see the damage or parry above the enemies heads. Is it supposed to work this way? (Hope not or that is like 80's style gaming hokey). The game also locks for a second or so once an enemy is killed. If it locks up longer than that, it crashes. The GPU gets up to 60F.

I turned down the settings but it didn't seem to help. The game is whitelisted and I even attempted Gamebooster 3 with no difference.