Master List of BO2 Fixes

[Satoru]

Since there are so many issues with BO2 but the symptoms are all the same. There are many fixes available but are scattered across multiple places. I'm hoping to compile all known fixes so people aren't digging around blindly.

Note I will rarely discuss specific issues because most issues are black screen/bsod/slow/etc but may be resolved via different methods.

READ THESE FIRST.

Windows 8.1 Mouse Stuttering or Freezing

This only applies to Windows 8.1 users with mouse problems

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2908279

XP IS NOT SUPPORTED

Upgrade to Vista/Win7/Win8. XP will NEVER be supported so don't ask.

AMD FX users must update their BIOS settings

This is a known issue with Steam and AMD FX processors. Updating your BIOS is potentially dangerous. If you're not comfortable with doing so, you can google "CEG Orochi". Note there is NO SUPPORT for using CEG Orochi. It's a 'hack' not a fix. But if your motherboard doesn't have a BIOS update, or you don't want to do the BIOS update because you're not tech savvy, it's an option. Just realize that you're not actually 'fixing' anything.

Nvidia users MUST install the 314.22 drivers

If you have

• Random crashes
  
• Black spots
  
• Crashing after the helicopter in the campaign
  
• Sinking horses in the campaign.

The 314.22 drivers fix most of these issues. ensure you're running this particular driver version

Nvidia laptop users should lock the Nvidia GPU via the Nvidia Control Panel

Select "NVIDIA Control Panel"
Click "Manage 3D Settings"
Under "Global Settings", set your preferred graphics processor to "High-performance NVIDIA processor"

AMD users should install the latest Catalyst 13.1 which is the latest official release

Intel HD3000/4000 cards are NOT supported

As stated in the minimum system specifications. Any issues you have with these video cards are probably never going to be fixed. Try updating the Intel video drivers. But realize that if you have any issues like long load times and crashes, you're more or less on your own if updated drivers from Intel don't fix it.

Run Steam as an Administrator, then re-verify all 3 games (Zombies/MP/SP)

Running Steam as an Administrator and reverifying the game cache are good basic troubleshoting for steam games. You should try this if you're having issues.

Ensure you're running the latest Service Pack for Vista/WIn7 and fully patched

This is especially important for Vista users. As a common directx dll error is due to Vista SP2 and a specific KB patch not being installed

Laptop users should disable Intel SpeedStep from their BIOS

----------------------

Theoretically resolved issues via recent patches from Treyarch/AMD/Nvidia

* Secondary sound cards and USB headsets will cause the game to crash. Disable these. (this has been fixed in a recent BO2 patch)

* AMD Phenom X6 core users should disable their cores down to 4 or 2 cores. (this has been fixed in a recent patch)

* GTX5xx users MUST install 310.90 which address 'crashing after the helicopter gets shot down' 'sinking horses' and other gameplay issues

-----------------------

The above should fix a good portion of people. So go back and look over each one and make sure you do whatever it says as it is applicable to you. Ignore people who say 'oh that didn't work'. It may not worked for them, but it might for you.

DO NOT PROCEED UNLESS YOU HAVE DONE ALL OF THE ABOVE

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Ok now we're into more esoteric issues

Persistant Rank[0] error

Update your INTEL video drivers.

Connectivity Issues/Cannot Connect To Multiplayer

Please start with rebooting your router and enabling uPnP on it as well

Port forwarding on your router is also helpful

Change your Connection Method. In playlist menu, press "S" preference for connecting method. Then choose "ANY" or try other options to see if that helps

Thanks to SKDoc for this one
http://steamcommunity.com/app/202990/discussions/0/846944689765253158/

Campaign Crashes (as of 12/30/2012)

Some have noted that there is some issue with the leaderboard which is causing a crash between missions. Put Steam in Offline Mode then play if you have this particular problem.

Other have noted that putting your friends list down to below 60 or 50 fixes some crashes

Steam Dependency Error

Fixed by installing all 3 components MP/SP/Zombies, then reverifying the game cache

HELP! I changed my video settings now the game won't start!!!

Go to C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Black Ops II\players there you will find the files

hardware.chp
hardware_mp.chp
hardware_zm.chp

These are the video settings for SP/MP/Zombies respectively. Delete the file for whichever mode you screwed up and restart the game. It will use the defaults and you can then make the appropriate changes again.

Cannot select a specific resolution

NVIDIA users - Launch the game and in the options select "Fullscreen Windowed Mode", quit then play again and all your resolutions will be available

AMD users - Go to your Catalyst Control Center -> My Digital Flat Panels -> Properties (Digital Flat-Panel) and activate "Enable GPU scaling".

Long load times

Asssuming you've done everything in part 1 (as the Nvidia 310.70 beta driver generally fix long load times especially on laptops) You can try this

1. Open control panel and follow this path (Control Panel\System and Security\System)
2. On the left side, you should see "Device Manager", click that and another window should appear.
3. Look for "Disk Drives" and select your drive (I've only one, I'm not sure about two or more)
4. Double click that drive (almost there!)
5. Under the "Policies" tab, there should be a ticked box saying "Enable write caching on the device"
6. Untick that box.

http://community.activision.com/message/413572515

Long load times for AMD users it apparently a known issue and will be addressed in a future patch (probably from AMD)

https://twitter.com/pcdev_assist/status/276485511672115200

DirectX errors

This one is a bit tricky as I've not seen many reliable fixes for this. But one is

Press WindowsKey+P before launching which locks the monitor to the primary.

Multi-monitor users should try disabling one monitor as a test

Sound issues

Note that BO2 allows users to select which sound card the audio comes out from manually, rather than using the Windows Default. This can throw people off because it may select the wrong 'default' sound card. Ensure you look in your sound settings and see if the right sound device is selected. NOte you cannot change the sound while you're in a MP game, but you can in the main menu before you join a MP game.

Could not load default asset ‘fonts/720/consolefont’

A) You bought a Polish/Russian version from a shady cd-key shop
This is not 'broken' as far as Activision is concerned. The Polish/Russian version of BO2 only comes with Polish/Russian and this is a local distributor 'choice'. Next time buy from an authorized reseller instead of trying to save a few bucks.

B) The language used for MP/SP/ZM must all be the SAME. If you set MP to English but SP to Spanish the game will give you that error. Ensure all games are using the same language settings.

I'll add other fixes as I remember them

I'll add more as I remember some of the other fixes

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This sucks nothing is working

Let's assume none of the above works. Before you yell "HELP" or your 10 page dissertation on how much you hate Call of Duty do the following

1) Post in as much detail as possible your actual problem. "DOES NOT WORK" is not a description of a problem. Imagine someone needs to replicate your problem just by reading your post. Any information is useful. Crash error messages, event viewer messages, specific glitches in game. This information is absolutely critical in correlating information. Do not skimp on this.

2) Post your system specifications:
OS Type:
Video Card:
CPU:

A lot of the above solutions were found by the community themselves by correlating similar hardware issues together (Phenom X6 and GTX5xx issues specifically) so I don't want to hear nonsense like "It's not my system specs".

Hopefully this helps some people.

[Satoru]

Reserved in case I hit some kind of posting limit in the OP

[Baibz]

Well my computer keeps restarting or sometimes blue screen, as soon as I run BO2 . Then when my computer loads a window pops out saying "Windows has recovered from an unexpected shutdown. A problem caused Windows to stop working correctly.Windows will notify you if a solution is available". That's all..
Specifications : OS Type: Windows 7 64 bit
Video Card: AMD Radeon HD 6850
CPU: AMD FX-4100

[Satoru]

Read the post. AMD FX processor issues are like the SECOND ITEM ON THE LIST

[Alucarde]

I have had long loading times since I downloaded the game. I tried the the thing under the Policies tab for the HDD. No matter what Game Mode, I get about 7 minutes of loading. After it does load, the game runs smooth as silk, no lag or anything.

OS Type: Windows 7 Ultimate on MacBook Pro BootCamp
GPU: HD Intel 4000
CPU: Intel Core i7-3520M @ 2.90 GHz

[Satoru]

IntelHD4000......... ugh.. .I guess you can try updating those drivers but that's not really a 'supported' card so YMMV

[Alucarde]

Originally posted by Satoru:

IntelHD4000......... ugh.. .I guess you can try updating those drivers but that's not really a 'supported' card so YMMV

Why would my Graphics Card drivers make the loading times be that high? What's wrong with the HD Intel 4000?

[Alucarde]

Ran the Automatic Identifier on Intel's website. Upgrading from Version 8.15.10.2761 to 15.28.8.64.2875 (9.17.10.2875). I will post the results of updating the drivers.

[Satoru]

It's an Intel HD card that's whats wrong. The HD4000s are 'better' than the previous stuff but that's not saying a heck of a lot. And I realy don't think it's a 'supported' platform for BO2.

[Alucarde]

After the update, load times have decreased by over half.

[RustyTeaSpoon]

I tried everything you listed here that applied to me, finally made it to the main menu and thought that maybe I had got it working and then BAM, game crashed yet again. I'm on my last nerve here. When I go out to eat I don't order my meal and then allow the chefs a month or two to tweak and improve it. If it's not fit to be served, don't f*cking serve it, plain and simple. All I can do now is wait for a patch. Not acceptable. Game will be returned tomorrow.

[Sandman332/Docholiday332]

I'm having a problem and it has not been fixed by trying the things above. I laucnh the game and get to the main menu but there is no text/no words. I'm basically walking into the game blind.
PC Specs:
Windows 7 (64 bit)
GTX 560 (non ti)
8gb ram
1 tb hard drive

[SnakeEyes]

* Nvidia users MUST install the beta 310.54 drivers which fixes a good 90% of problems (crashes, slow load times, etc)

i have a GTX 670 and with the 310.54 drivers would get constant crashes (driver failed, BCCode 116, ect). i went back to the 310.33 drivers and haven't had a crash since. game runs flawlessly with all settings maxed, 4xTAA @ 2560x1440.

just posting in case other Nvidia folks are getting driver crashes. i haven't tried the latest 310.61 beta so not sure if it works or not.

[Emperador Panzón]

I fixed all crashes installing nvidia driver 306.97, run flawlessly, max graphics but 4 msaa. I have a gtx 560.

[Fork]

mines still not working did EVERYTHING on this list i have a amd graphix card

[windows sem sdk]

trying to run the game on intel hd 3000 like i did on others CoDs (xD). The game always crashes, even after doing all applicable fixes for my case listed above. But recently, after many tries the game is running longer and sometimes its freezes and recover from a possible crash. i've already played first mission one time only and finished it with some slowdowns, but it crashed in the next loading screen. I've also play zombies mode one time on solo after many tries and i was happy cause the game runned smonthly but with some black texture problems, nothing too bad. when i died it crashed in the next loadind screen... im more relaxed cause i saw that all these problems are compability problems that can be solved with some patch and by the little i could taste of the game i got to know that its well executed. Just hope that a patch comes out soon.