Apparently hardware mode makes the game depend entirely on your installed sound card, which may or may not be good. Or, I have no clue what I'm talking about, and the chickens I've been sacrificing to the elder gods on your behalf got through.

Ehh, go play your game for a bit. If it's still working in an hour, we can talk rewards xD

Oh yes, apparently installing that is a bad idea.

It does work now :o

No crashes, no stutter no nothing :D

Pick your poison, Hamster! :)

Download and install the latest patch as well, just to be safe - if you haven't done it already.

I'm delighted for you! I do hope you enjoy it - I haven't played the first one, but I'm thoroughly enjoying the second for my PS3 right now.

And honestly, mate, I'm just happy to help. I've got dozens of games and thousands of hours in my backlog already!

I've got a work mate that has a similar system, similar issues. I'll point him to this thread.

Thanks for the tips, Runehamster.

I haven't bought or played this game yet and was thinking to get it eventually, someday, when my backlog shrinks down a little... but this sort of situation seriously turns me off. I don't have the patience or knowhow to tweak my games too much.

Update Windows, install any updates that you haven't installed yet.

Update your GPU drivers... just in case, perform a clean update (don't run unofficial tools, instead use nVidia's installer to do this).

If you have it on Origin, make sure to tell Origin to install it outside system-wide folders. For example, install the game in C:\Games or a similar place. There is no need to run the game with admin rights if you install it outside system-wide folders.

After installation, try starting the game, and post back here.

EDIT: Ah, you already sorted out the problem. :)

You're quite welcome!

I have 2 computers (3 actually, but 2 I installed ME recently). On one of them, the newer one, I don't have any problems. On the other I get stuttering. Not as bad as you report, but annoying enough.
The one with the problems:
Athlon 64 X2 4200+
2 Gb DDR2
Nvidia GeForce 9800GT

The one without problems:
Intel i5 2500k
4 Gb DDR3
AMD Radeon 6850

Disabling some options like V-Sync did make it slightly better. The weird thing is, when I looked for solutions, there were quite a few recommendations to downgrade the video drivers. You normally are asked to make sure you have the latest drivers... I didn't try that cause like I said, the stuttering wasn't that bad that I'd risk messing other games, and the drivers that people recommended were something like version 169 or older I think. I don't remember exactly the version but they were older than my video card model...

The thing is, something like that might work. For one thing I don't remember having any problems way back when I first played ME. And on my new computer I have an ATI card, while people who complained about stuttering and recommended downgrading all had Nvidia, just like my second computer. If it's as bad as you say, I'd try a downgrade. Or use an ATI card, even older, if it would be an option.