I bought the dvd version of the game from a local store, installed it...updated it and managed to play it for 1 evening. When i tried to load it up the following evening it wouldn't load. It initiates then goes to a black screen for about 2 seconds then appears to minimize then disappears. I tried a re-insall and it worked again for 1 evening, same crash happened following evening. I unistalled again and have now tried installing through steam only and exactly the same thing happens. PC specs are... Core2duo 6420, Asus P5N32-E PLUS SLi, GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2, BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 320MB. I'm running Windows XP 32bit and have the Forceware 158.22, which I believe are the latest.

Please help, I love what I have played so far in this game. I think I'm on Chapter 5...not sure though.

Thanks in anticipation.

Go to nvidia and download OFFICIAL forceware drivers for Windows XP not for VISTA!!!!!. After that, if that doesn't solve the problem, go to the technical forum and search there

I have the latest OFFICIAL drivers for XP. Forcware 158.22.

Couldn't find anything in the technical forum, but will look again.

Anyone else have any ideas?

The tech forum is here: Dark Messiah Might and Magic Tech Help.

Forceware 158.22 drivers are for VISTA not for XP mate... or at least afaik the lastest drivers for XP are 94.24!!

he has a geforce 8 series, their driver version number is different to the 1-7 series

Cheers guys, yes I have an 8800 gts... I have the latest XP drivers accord to Nvidia's official driver download site.

I have now solved the problem though. After exhausting all other options I decided to tinker with the registry settings. With much trial and error I found the problem to be the Anti-aliasing settings. I had them set at x4 but for some reason if leave them at x2 the game works fine.
So if anyone else has this problem try changing the following... go to 'run' tyoe 'regedit' and navigate to the following directory..
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Valve\Source\mm\Settings
the file you want to change is 'mat_antialias' change it to '2'
Well that's all i did and it worked for me. Obviously had to change it registry cuz i couldn't boot the bleedin thing.

Let me know if this helps anyone else...I'd be interested to know.

Cheers again, and good luck to anyone else who has this problem, there's a great game in there.

Sorry mate... didnt know about the Geforce 8 series drivers... great to know you solved the problem

Posted Thu July 19 2007 14:28 Hide Post
i keep crashing to desktop was told update driver to lates and grates still crashed call ubisoft checked every nok and crany on my computer still no help finaly after alot of reinstalls i found out it was the driver. have an 8800gts640 evga put in driver for cd 97.5 played game for a month some where along the line i updated to 158.0 game starded to crash got in to trying to fix it forgot about old diver by then.found old driver disk put it in and worked fine.hope this mite help some body nitemare over

Alright, This officaly confirms it, the new 8800 Nvidia graphics cards cannot run 4x antialising on Dark Messiah.

My card is a 8800, and i have the EXACT problem, the weird thing is i too suspected it to be my antialising setting, i tried lowering it in my nividia control panel but that did not seem to have any effect.

I just want to say that i do not really know how you may have found the register but it helps SO MUCH.

This IS the solution to the games loading problem, if you have a 8800 series nividia graphics card.

thanks again for fixing it, you won't belive how many people have literly wasted days trying to fix this.

hey no probs

glad i've managed to help a fellow gamer. many times i've been helped myself so it's good to have been able to give some back.

looks like this is a full on 8800 problem. anyone else get this problem let me know.