Mass Effect 1 menu crash!

Hello,

I'm experiencing an extremely frustrating problem with Mass Effect 1 (which I really want to play). I've got a very new Asus notebook (purchased 2 weeks ago), and I should be able to play the game with no problems. As the hard copy of Mass Effect 1 has (strangely) been apparently discontinued, I bought it through Direct2Drive and installed it today. It works fine until I get to the start screen where it says 'press any key to continue'. I press a key, and then it crashes to the desktop. I searched online, and it seems many people have had this problem, but I haven't seen anyone offering any solutions that have worked. I've tried switching to different compatability modes, running as admin... the works. Any suggestions? Would a reinstall make a difference? Or have I just blown $20?

My specs:

Asus N61JQ
i7 processor
4 GB RAM
Radeon 5750 1 GB
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit

Thanks a lot!

 

I had this same exact issue when I downloaded the game on my Windows 7 laptop. I fixed the issue by downloading the newest Mass Effect patch, and it worked after that. Also if I remember correctly, there is another way to open the game up in its folders that will bypass this crashing menu.

 

Hmm, thanks for the suggestion, but I have what I believe is the latest patch (1.02), and it's still consistently crashing. Any other ideas? Can you remember what exact file you opened the game with that prevented the crashing?

 

I may have misunderstood your question. It seems like you are crashing on the second menu after you hit play game from the first menu. The shortcut only skips that first menu, which will not help you from what I am understanding now. My problem was infinite crashing on the first menu and not the second.

The only problem I could see causing a crash on that second menu would be issues with your graphics drivers (make sure you have the latest ones).

Also what exactly happens when you crash? Does it give you a not-responding type issue, a black screen of death, or it just crashes instantly?

 

Hmm, I'm pretty sure you understood me the first time. I can't access any menu when I load the game. Once I get past the Bioware and other company logo screens, it goes to the planet view, where it then says something like 'press any key to continue'. I press a key, and then it closes to my desktop, where a window pops up saying something like 'Mass Effect had to be closed suddenly; searching for a cause' (which it does not find). So... is this what happened to you? How, again, did you manage to find a way around it? Thanks for the help!

Also, my graphics drivers should be up to date, since my laptop is brand new...

 

Brand new laptops does not mean anything about up-to-date drivers. Many laptops have been in stock for months, and have drivers that could be easily 6 months old or more. If you are not sure your drivers are up-to-date, post which ones you have and I can tell you.

Also if you want to bypass the first menu, open up binaries in the Mass Effect folder and use the file the just says MassEffect. It should be 26k Kb large.

 

Look in your event viewer and tell us what the exact error codes are.

 

OK, so I tried the bypass with the 26k kb exe, but it still only gets me as far as the 'press any key' screen, thereafter crashing to desktop. I'm not sure if any of this is applicable, but here is my Event Viewer info:

Fault offset: 0x3df3a99b
Faulting process id: 0x15ec
Faulting application start time: 0x01cb6833dac66927
Faulting application path: D:\Games\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: 428c9bc0-d427-11df-9b8c-20cf302c4407

Maybe I should just try reinstalling and hope for the best...

Thanks!

 

Did it list an "Event ID"?

 

Also you never told me if your drivers were indeed up-to-date.

 

Event ID is 1000, for what it's worth, and my drivers are up to date.

 

Looks like just an application hang. Have you tried terminating every process besides what you absolutely need, suspending any antivirus/antimalware/firewall programs, running it as an administrator, and any compatibility settings?

 

try "run as administrator" and XP Compatibility. I played ME a couple of weeks ago on Win7 64-bit and I run into a similar problem.

 

All right guys, I don't know if it's because I reinstalled it, or because of something I did afterwards, but it seems to work now! Fingers crossed...

Thanks so much for all your help!