Newer versions of Nvidia video card drivers will crash Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. Since this is a great game that my grandson and I both replay now and then, it had to be fixed. After much searching, I found a fix that seems to have made the game stable. It takes a little ini file editing, but it is pretty easy.
First, look in the game directory for a file named SWKOTOR that is labeled as a configuration setting file. Open the file (it opens as a txt notebook file) and add this line into the [Graphic Options] section: Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1.
Save the file and launch the game as usual. It should play without the constant crashes now, if a conflict with the newer Nvidia drivers was the root cause.
I found the fix here: http://www.lucasforums.com/showthread.php?t=195844
It appears it also works with the game’s sequel. It is also listed in various places as a way to fix a couple of other problems in the game.
I would like to see this added into a patch for the game, as this is a game that is still selling well on places like Steam. My view is that so long as a game is being offered for retail sale, then the games studio should be updating it as needed. This is an easy fix, but it takes a while to find it and some minor skill at ini file editing to do it. The game has an update feature, so it would be easy for Lucasarts to do a tiny patch and let the update feature grab it.
Tags: Knights of the Old Republic, KOTOR, Lucasarts, Nvidia, Star Wars
Jamesacooley's Blog 
February 26, 2010 at 11:56 pm |
Omg man thx alot for this post have been searching like crazy when i wanted to play this game again 🙂
February 27, 2010 at 8:51 am |
Glad it may have helped.
April 6, 2010 at 7:25 pm |
Thank you very much for this information. Now I can play this brilliant Game again. THX! 😛
April 7, 2010 at 3:10 am |
It is a game I played through probably a dozen times. Try it as a rogue on hard difficulty on “Iron Man Mode”, which is not reloading if you die. It can be done if you play carefully. Just don’t take on Sand People until you have Force Wave.
May 28, 2010 at 7:10 pm |
OMG! Thank you very much now i must repair it!
June 30, 2010 at 8:43 pm |
Omg !!! Thank you !!!
July 19, 2010 at 12:35 pm |
thanks men. works perfectly. ^^
September 1, 2010 at 12:30 pm |
Thank you so much for this, I’ve never played the game through and now finally have the chance to 🙂
September 12, 2010 at 2:39 pm |
Hey James,
when i try to save the changed ini file, it won’t let me save,
and a message pops up that says “access is denied”. I am the administrator and still it won’t let me save. How can I save the file?/??
September 12, 2010 at 5:07 pm |
I did a little quick searching and found some links that might help. If you Google “KOTOR INI acces denied” you might find more. Here are some I found:
http://swforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=720733&forum=80
http://forums.filefront.com/sw-kotor-problems-errors-help/371626-cannot-enable-cheats-says-swkotor-file-read-only.html
http://www.gamebanshee.com/forums/star-wars-kotor-ii-61/help-with-kotor-2-console-96954-p3.html
NOTE: I haven’t tried them myself, as I didn’t need to do so. I do note that this particular problem seems to be one that people have posted fixes on that show up in Google searches. Hope that helps.
September 22, 2010 at 8:23 pm |
Thank you so much for this good sir.
December 29, 2010 at 5:33 pm |
For those who have an Nvidia Graphics card, just install an older version of the forceware (i use the 93.71) It just stops crashing everytime =)
January 16, 2011 at 2:50 pm |
Just today I “fixed” the game by writing the “Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1” to the “[Game Options]” section instead of “[Graphic Options]” sections. Took entire afternoon of trying everything else, until I spot the error.
April 9, 2011 at 11:13 am |
works like a charm :*
June 3, 2011 at 4:58 am |
This did stop the crashing but now there are many glitches. For example when I pause while running I teleport outside the map or just far away. And thing sometimes turn black. Is this supposed to happen? If there is a better way to fix this please tell me. 😦
June 3, 2011 at 7:17 am |
I confess that I don’t know the answer. This fixed the problems for our family. You can always undo it.
June 16, 2011 at 7:36 pm |
It worked perfectly! Thank you very much! I was really tired of the game crashing every 2 minutes or so…
July 19, 2011 at 8:57 pm |
when I do this the game runs slow really slow
July 19, 2011 at 10:32 pm |
All I can offer is that it has worked for me and other users ever since I first posted it. I would simply undo it then.
August 24, 2011 at 8:44 pm |
My only problems seems to be I get a “Access is Denied” when I try to save it. Then I realized that wether I do “save” or “save as” it always does a “save as”. How did you get around that part?
August 24, 2011 at 9:04 pm |
Ok fixed it. Opened the file in Notepad with “Open as administrator”.
August 24, 2011 at 9:30 pm |
Awsome as soon as I was able to save it it worked. Thanks a bunch buddy. 😀
September 17, 2011 at 4:29 am |
This very line was added in a patch of the game a while ago. I installed it, got a crack because the original exe was toast, and I booted the game up only to find the same problem
I hadn’t even gotten to character creation. The very first loading screen my computer encounters and it freezes up at %25 and kicks me out of the game. It is getting rather annoying as it happened on my first machine, which was a Vista, and now my second, which is a 7 laptop.
September 22, 2011 at 5:31 pm |
Yes! Thank you so much. My game was crashing every five minutes for the longest time. Now it’s running like a dream. You’re the best man! Now I can ease up on that F4 quicksave key a bit lol.
September 23, 2011 at 5:35 am |
It works, thanks a lot, grettings from Venezuela!
God bless you ^^
October 25, 2011 at 10:14 pm |
Tried copying “Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1” into Graphic and Game Options (separate times), and I’m still getting stuck on the loading screen. I make it past the character creation, but cannot get into the game. 😦 woe is me!
October 25, 2011 at 11:02 pm |
Sorry it didn’t fix your specific issue. Have you hit the various forums on the game? That is where I originally got lucky with my own issue.
December 29, 2011 at 12:00 am |
For people getting the “access denied” error try copying the file to you desktop, then editing it. You then just have to copy/past it back into the KOTOR folder. Hope this works. BUMP! lol
Resources: That’s what I did.
June 27, 2012 at 4:14 am |
Is NVidia Geforce 7600 to old or is it new?
June 27, 2012 at 5:06 pm |
This worked very well, thx! Now I can finally play kotor again!
July 12, 2012 at 1:58 pm |
I cant follow the link my pc cant find the site wath is the fix?
July 12, 2012 at 6:01 pm |
The old link may have failed, but the instructions for the fix itself are in my blog post:
“First, look in the game directory for a file named SWKOTOR that is labeled as a configuration setting file. Open the file (it opens as a txt notebook file) and add this line into the [Graphic Options] section: Disable Vertex Buffer Objects=1.
Save the file and launch the game as usual. It should play without the constant crashes now, if a conflict with the newer Nvidia drivers was the root cause.”
July 28, 2012 at 8:46 am |
great it works thank you
July 29, 2012 at 7:05 am |
Glad it worked for you.
July 28, 2012 at 8:17 pm |
thanx man this is the only fix i could find that actually worked. it really easy to do as well. im just playing this game for the first time all the way through and ive got pretty far and it started crashing every time i killed a tarentatek.
July 29, 2012 at 7:05 am |
Glad it worked for you, too!
August 11, 2012 at 1:47 am |
its now added to the steam version it seems. when i tried to change, the line was already there. however, its not working for me because of the integrated intel card (nvidia optimus).
October 2, 2012 at 5:12 pm |
THANKS!
February 25, 2013 at 11:11 pm |
Thanks for the tips everyone. I’ve tried these suggestions plus updating all the drivers etc. The game works perfectly with full graphic details and all the extras except when I get to Onderon. Then it just crashes to the main screen (Load Save new game etc.) but I can’t even interact with it. So I tried lowering the graphics details to the bare minimum and disable all the stuff like anti-aliasing and buffering etc. and still crashing at the same place. I’ve got the Nvidia Gforce GTX-460 gigabyte card. Any help is appreciated. Thanks
February 26, 2013 at 1:47 am |
I don’t have specific advice, but note several things to try with a Google search on Onderon Crash Nvdia and Kotor:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Onderon+crash+nvidia+kotor&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
April 27, 2013 at 9:45 pm |
Bro i have a big problem i tried to fix with some cracks and ur idea and still crash…
When i start the game enters and after 5 sec in main menu crashes any ideea how to fix please help
April 28, 2013 at 12:36 am |
All I suggest offhand is trying the support forums at Bioware for the game.
http://social.bioware.com/forum/1/category/184/index
June 1, 2013 at 8:39 pm |
Oh wow…This worked like a charm. Thanks so much!
June 23, 2013 at 3:45 am |
I bought this game off of Steam and the thing that I need to type in is already there. What do I do?
June 23, 2013 at 6:47 pm |
In that case, all I can advise is to check the other forums and posts on KOTOR crashes. This fixed a specific one for me with an older version of the game and the drivers used at that time. Good luck!
July 19, 2013 at 6:53 pm |
In all honesty, I think it would be an amazing idea for BioWare to release an updated version that is compatible with newer operating systems like Windows 7 and 8, maybe introduce a few extra side quests and call it a collector’s edition. I would be down for not having to jump through hoops to play this amazing game!
April 2, 2015 at 7:59 pm |
The fix made it so that my game stopped crashing every 5 minute on Tatooine. Thanks a bunch!
October 31, 2015 at 11:56 am |
Thank you so much. This was the only way I could play on Tatooine.
August 12, 2016 at 1:56 am |
Was hoping this would work for me. When I opened the config file, I found the line was already added. Was this fixed with a patch or something? (playing on Steam) Guess it’s back to the drawing board. Would really really like to be able to finish this game.
I know this post is older but any ideas would be appreciated. Crashing after turret gun mini-game, leaving Taris (AFTER beating it finally. I have terrible reflexes!) , during the next cut scene the game just shuts down. No chance to save. Have to repeat the cut-scene from Daviks all the way to game crash. 😦
August 12, 2016 at 2:47 am |
I would see if anything knew is available for fixes. That was something I found four years ago.
April 22, 2017 at 6:19 am |
So, found my old KOTOR disks during a cleanup and installed it to play again and I’ve had nothing but crashes which was becoming very frustrating…. but this change fixed the constant crashes for me after trying just about everything from all the other forums. Amusingly, 7 years after you first posted this it is still saving people from grief. Thanks!