I had no issues with the game until the Catacomb level (level 3). Towards the end of the level when you fight the monster by the lava pit, the game suddenly crashed.

I booted up the game and it worked fine until I tried to load a save. Now every time I try to load a save, the game crashes. I have no idea why and no idea what to do.

Any help or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Go to your save game folder and remove all but the autosaves (Checkpoints and level beginnings). Easiest solution is to backup the save from the beginning, delete the rest and replay the level, but I think the checkpoints should work too.

Your problem is corrupt save game, not sure if it's a quick save or manual, but that's preventing you from playing the game.

I'm having the same problem. The game has become a crashfest. I cannot load but a single saved game, and when I complete the level the game crashes, so I can't play any further. Going into my save game folder is not helpful because there's only one file in there, a temp.000 file. Yes, I'm showing hidden files. Anyone got better options besides A) uninstall/reinstall and start over or B) get shot of it and ask for a refund?

Each save game should have it's own folder, with names going 000, 001, 002 etc. Then there's the temp.000 file you mentioned

Sounds like your game has a problem writing saves, as it tries to autosave as you complete a level. You could try to download uploaded saves and see it those work, but I don't think that would fix anything.

Looks like you are using Vista or Win7 as you have installed into Program Files (x86). Beware that this is a protected folder on these operating systems so some older games are unable to create saves within this folder (UAC and DEP acting to prevent alteration of the contents of protected folders after the software has been installed).

Because of the above you might find that your saves are being put into your User folder somewhere. Try looking in the below locations:

C:\Users\<UserName>\Documents\
C:\Users\<UserName>\Documents\My Games\
C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Roaming\

I always try to avoid this issue by installing into C:\Games\ though some newer games have it built into their code to use the User folder anyway.

Oh, as an additional note, you won't get your money back from GOG. Go read the terms and conditions that you agreed to in order to create an account with GOG. They provide the game DRM free, so even if they remove it from your account you may still have a copy on your hard drive, or in fact many copies, and so you cannot prove that you have removed all copies of it. Also, the save game issue is a known issue with the game, something that GOG cannot fix as it isn't due to compatibility and they don't have the source code to the games they sell, plus they are a distributor not a games developer.

Thanks for the help, but I've already uninstalled the game. I'm kind of pissed. If this is a known issue like you say, then how can they continue to sell a game that they know will stop working? I thought the point of this site was to make old games work on newer systems. Seems to me they've failed. I guess I'll be speaking with my wallet about ordering anything further. Back to Ebay and dusting off my older PCs!

The corrupted savegame thing isn't GOG-only, it exists in all versions of Painkiller. So it's not really GOG's fault. Second, if you install a game into the Program Files folder on Vista or Win 7, 90% of the time it will put the savegames for it into the AppData folder (see korell's post). This is normal for those operating systems, as that folder is protected even if you have UAC turned off. It's possible to bypass the AppData stuff, but it's generally not worth the effort when you can install someplace else (like C:\Painkiller) and have no problems.

Generally, the savegame corruption is due to an autosave, and deleting all the autosaves can fix it. However, occasionally it's due to a quicksave, so you may have to delete all your quicksaves instead. To be safe you should move the saves to another folder first before deleting them. You should also periodically make manual saves.

Even if you have uninstalled the game, the saves are still probably in your Users or AppData folder somewhere.

As for GOG making games work on newer systems, they have done in this case. Their installer gets the game installed on Vista and Win7 and working in the same way as it did when it was first released. GOG can't fix problems that existed with the game due to the code of the original game, all they can do is make them install and load up on modern systems. For issues with the games themselves it is highly recommended to read through some of the posts in the relevant forums first.

Ah, I see. Thank you both for the help. Maybe I'll give the game a try again in the future, when my general grumpiness at the situation wears off. Can't stay mad forever, right?

Save file corrupt and crashing at Catacomb level has been reported widely since the retail version was released 7 years ago. It's not GOG exclusive problem. I had encounter this before.

I'm very certain that your save game located at:
C:\Users\*user name*\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\GOG.com\Painkiller Black\SaveGames
If you install the game at Program Files. Make sure you have "show hidden files and folder" enabled to access AppData folder.

BUMP

My game saves my autosaves and quicksaves where it's supposed to. In the same place it's installed which is in the default GOG folder in my Program Files (x86) folder. No problems at all from it. I already beat the game and I'm using Win7 64bit. Is anybody still having this problem?

I'm having the same load/ save checkpoint crash issue after having changed my video card. I played through the vanilla game on my Nvidia card with no hiccups and maybe one or two crashes (i had a lot of saves and the game never crashed while saving or loading). I started progressing through BooH, and everything was fine up to that point. However, after I popped in and installed my Ati card, the game became unstable and I stated having the same problem mentioned in this topic.

I tried deleting all the saves but the game will still crash on autoload and sometimes on autosave.