crashing issues

[gavemyheart3162]

I've never felt like buying an expansion pack was such a waste. I was so excited about African Adventures when I saw it in the store that I picked it up right away. But I've had it since night before last, and I can't play it for more than five minutes before it randomly crashes. I haven't even made it through the meerkat zoo scenario yet. It's crashed about 6 times in the total of maybe 20 minutes I've played.

I meet the minimum system requirements. I updated all my graphics and sound drivers. I went to the main site and downloaded the patch. I went to the main site and checked tech support, which said I should do a clean reboot. I did that. Went to play, within five minutes, it crashed again. I really don't want to uninstall, because we recently moved, so that would mean searching through tons of boxes to find ZT2 and ZT2: ES.

Any ideas?

[Nique]

I'm certainly not the most 'techie' here and I'm sure other will have lots of advice - but two things you might try:
uninstall and reinstall or check your video settings (if I have mine on high with a large zoo it will start crashing on me)

Good luck!

[penguinman]

One idea is if you have user created downloads, maybe one of them worked with ES but now crashes the game in AA. It's possible, but unlikely... Good luck!

[gavemyheart3162]

*Sigh* No user downloads. I'm going to check my video settings later, but it's looking like I'll soon be going through ever box in my house, lol. I think I'm going to have to uninstall and reinstall.

Any other ideas? I really don't want to have to uninstall! And if I do, is there any way to back up my saved game files? I've won every scenario in ZT2 and ES, and I don't want to have to do it all over again.

[Atigger6866115]

It shouldn't delete all of your files I have unisnstalled zt2 many times and it never deleted all of my saved stuff.

[Littlemog]

If you're on XP your saved files and settings should be:

C:\Documents and Settings\(**Your log in name**)\Application Data\Microsoft Games\Zoo Tycoon 2\(**Your ZT2 profile name**)

You may have to enable hidden folders to get there. Your photos and saved games will be in seperate folders within that directory, the config files should be right in front of you as an xml document. Just copy/paste them somewhere else, then put them back in the folder when you reinstall if the originals have been deleted.

[gavemyheart3162]

Thanks! So...what are the chances that it could be a problem with my saved files that's causing my crashing? I mean, I'd rather start all over again than continue having these issues... So I'm thinking about just completely wiping it out and starting over, in hopes that'll solve it.

[RedNotDead]

it could be your saved gme - i used to have that problem but only on the really large zoos that had lots of animlas in it so had to stop using large maps but as you are doing the scenerios that wouldnt be a problem maybe try running in freeform for a while and see what happens?

[gavemyheart3162]

Thanks Red!

I uninstalled completely, saved game files and all, and reinstalled. Now I have a new problem. I have a flashing and disappearing cursor. It's driving me nuts to the point that I haven't played long enough to even find out whether it's still crashing.

Does this symptom give anyone any new ideas?

*Scratch that - I just played for about 30 seconds. It's still crashing. I'm at my wit's end. I'm just going to have to uninstall and reinstall without African Adventures. :-( *

*Shoot. Now it's crashing with just ZT2 and ES. I got the cursor problem fixed, but it's still crashing. I give up. Help.*

[tazlover]

You can contact Microsoft for help - ZT2 is still under warrenty so the help is free.  Here is their website - Choose a version, you will need the Prod Id Number (PID) - easiest to find in ZT2 or ES - insert the game cd and it is on the first game screen.

I have used the phone support with not too long a wait > about 10 min.  The tech even called back about 20 minutes later to make sure the game was working again.