Unplayable issue regarding DOSBox - "Illegal to write?"

[Yal ●]

Hello, sorry for the recent topic spam, but I have an issue with the DOSBox version of Daggerfall that is preventing me of progressing the main quest entirely.

It seems that when I am given a reward (both have been enchanted items) from main questgivers, and then close out of the inventory screen, my game completely freezes. I have tried loads of tweaking, google searching, trying things out but nothing seems to work.

When the freeze happens, and I TAB out to view the DOSBox, I get errors: Illegal to write (insert string of numbers and letters here). It appears over and over, with a different string of numbers and letters.

If anybody knows about this issue PLEASE let me know, and it will be greatly appreciated
Sad that I can't really play Daggerfall right now

EDIT: Specifically, I was on the Sentinel's Prince's first quest, and the King of Worms quest simutaneously. If that has anything to do with it. I have a feeling it has to do with them giving me enchanted items as rewards. Even if I don't take the reward the game freezes. Or that for some reason this is a general bug with the DOSBox Version of Daggerfall.

Once again thanks so much

[Yal ●]

Horrible illegal double post for desperate help

Here's an image to give you my problem I have no idea to fix. This shows in the DosBox, while the freeze is happening. I heard as well that it might have something to do with sound:


I will post as soon as I have fixed it, but I'm pretty stumped and unable to play much right now.

Any ideas?

[MARS ●]

try starting a new character and see if the bug is character specific or if your whole game is broken. If it is character specific, I'm sorry but you will have to restart. If not, I would say, back up your savegames reinstall and see if it works. If that doesn't work, uninstall and download this instead.

[beespookie ●]

I know this is an older topic, but recently there has been talk on the wikipage about a possible bug with the "unofficial" fixes included in the DaggerfallSetup by Ancestral Ghost. It seems that when not using the fixes the game runs fine, and I know for a fact the DOS32A fix works fine as well.

[Hadakajime ●]

Where abouts did you see the discussion about a possible bug? A link or search terms would be helpful.

I did a quick search on google, had a look at the downloads page and the wiwiland forum, but it didn't seem like there was any concerned discussion about a possible bug.. The only thing I have seen mentioned is that you may experience a black screen when skipping the intro movie (I get this). Or some compatibility problems with certain mods and DaggerXL

[beespookie ●]

http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Daggerfall_talk:Files <--- Scroll to the bottom. Sorry for not linking before.

Yeah, I actually experienced two bugs, one with concerning DagSkills causing a crash at the spellmaker (which makes little sense in my mind) and the issue the OP describes above, but only it happens randomly with different quests. Looking at the file it seems to be an update because it's dated June 2012, maybe this version came with a fix that had a major quest bug?

[Hadakajime ●]

Just saw an updated note:

Hi, I find what was wrong with DagSkill and I fixed it. You can download new version of DaggerfallSetup. The quest bug is still unfixed.--Ancestral Ghost 18:41, 27 June 2012 (UTC)

[kheldorfrombatmud ●]

I too experienced this issue with my game freezing upon attempting to exit several fighter guild quest reward screens before and after the first main quest letter, various secondary quest reward screens from royalty members of all 3 castles, and upon waking up when resting and gaining abilities. I then decided to stick to the main quest when my game began freezing while travelling; switching to reckless travel circumvented this in most cases, but eventually stopped working. thus I decided the game was unplayable but am way too much of a gamer junkie to give up, which brought me to this post.

The first time I gave up on a dungeon crawl I decided I'd cheat, and attempted to change the Z file cheatmode to 1. I got an error saying I didn't have permission to do so. copy paste to desktop, original file--->recycle bin. copied file allows me to change it--->back to daggerfall folder. When I saw this forum it struck me that perhaps user account control could be the issue, so I turned it off. I also changed permissions for users (me) on the entire bethesda folder. Since then I reinstalled without the additional quest packs, thus failing to test whether my changes had any effects. I'm not willing to risk freezing again.

**UPDATE** The game works perfectly without the added quests, without the user account control, and with permissions changed on the bethesda folder. Thus the game is playable, but I still dont know what caused the freezing. I'll not test other people's add-ons nor do I feel they should be included in the daggefall download without a VERY CLEAR warning that one or all of them make the game unplayable.

The only other info I can offer is that though quest rewards froze my game from the start, it only became unplayable after I did the wayrest prince's quest

[Tru3insanity ●]

just posted in another thread about this. but the quest bug only occurs when playing this on a Windows 7 computer, I was using the same file, daggerfall setup, on my old xp computer and never once ran into this issue. Running the game in compatibility mode for Windows XP service pack 3 seems to fix the issue. Not absolutely sure on that, but i havent run into it again since trying that

[Yal ●]

Sweet! Thanks for the replies guys. It's been 2 years but still unfixed, and unable to play Daggerfall sadly.

The first time I gave up on a dungeon crawl I decided I'd cheat, and attempted to change the Z file cheatmode to 1. I got an error saying I didn't have permission to do so. copy paste to desktop, original file--->recycle bin. copied file allows me to change it--->back to daggerfall folder. When I saw this forum it struck me that perhaps user account control could be the issue, so I turned it off. I also changed permissions for users (me) on the entire bethesda folder. Since then I reinstalled without the additional quest packs, thus failing to test whether my changes had any effects. I'm not willing to risk freezing again.

**UPDATE** The game works perfectly without the added quests, without the user account control, and with permissions changed on the bethesda folder. Thus the game is playable, but I still dont know what caused the freezing. I'll not test other people's add-ons nor do I feel they should be included in the daggefall download without a VERY CLEAR warning that one or all of them make the game unplayable.

The only other info I can offer is that though quest rewards froze my game from the start, it only became unplayable after I did the wayrest prince's quest

This response gave me a shining light. I tested all these to make sure your tests were not in vain.
Tried full controls on Beth folder = no
Cheatmode change = nope
User account control = really not sure what you meant by this but tried clicking every button on Beth folder controls
ReInstalled w/ almost every single different option = Still no.

Though, I have not tried a clean save. I feel maybe any of these may work if I do.

Here are some more things I have gathered lately w/ the issue:
--Different messages on the DOSBox prompt when the issue is going on, like; "Unable to Write _____", or "Error 112"
--Getting a new system did NOT help (upgraded computer recently)
--I am able to play the game by clicking on the DosBox shortcut. Instant Start. w/o having to mount hard drive or type commands every time (maybe this has something to do w/ it?)

Hope this helps anybody else trying to solve this wretched issue.
And if you find solutions, for the love of god please tell the internet.

[ginnungagap ●]

Hello,

Yes, this bug is old but still unfixed. But this bug is sadly very hard to fix.

We created a topic for trying to fix it on Wiwiland/DaggerfallSetup forum (Sorry, it's not possible to add a link here, search on google... ).
Any help, clue, ... is welcome.

I have question for people who get the crash : What was the ingame date of the crash ?