So I have been playing BG 1 (original not EE) lately and after an hour of gaming all of a sudden the game crashes with the sign saying, "Tales of the Sword Coast.exe has stopped working"

I have been aware of Crashes in this game before mostly it happens when I alt tab (though not always)

I like to ask is there anyway to prevent crashes or at the very least make it less crash prone?

Be it unnofficial patches or tinkering with the files?

I run BG1 from the BG2 engine using EasyTutu and play it for hours on end. Haven't experienced any crashes yet.

Isn't that the mod that essential merge both BG 1 and 2 plus their respective expansions into one game?

Makes me wonder why Blizz fans has not done the same with a Diablo 1 remake using D2 as a backdrop. Just mod the Paladin, Amazon, and Sorcerous into their respective Roles as Warrior, Rogue, and Sorceror and we there you go.

No, that is BGT.
EasyTutu is BG1 with the BG2 engine & only covers the BG1 game.

Baldur's Gate 1 is an old game that does not like you to use ALT+TAB. Don't do it. To get to Windows, use ALT+ENTER to go into Windowed mode, do what you want and then select the window and press ALT+ENTER again to go back to full screen.

But there has been crashes even while not alt tabbing. I was in the middle of playing the game and all of a sudden. Boom, Crashes.

Yes, but you have been using ALT+TAB. That does odd things to drivers, both Windows and software. Don't do it.

Reboot your computer, start the game, and don't use ALT+TAB (in BG or anything else), then see if the same happens.

I understand but again the last time it crashed I have not alt tabbed the game. I was in the middle of play.

Do you have other software running in the background? Also, do you have any mods installed?

Well Google Chrome with a bunch of tabs are open and Avira is live.But Diablo 1 never crashed when they were on.

Temporarily disable your antivirus and test the game while it's disabled. Security programs are notorious for causing problems, especially in games.

There are a few possibilities:

- Corrupted Temp files (easy fix)
- Corrupted Save Game (possible fix)
- Unstable mod (you're probably done for)

Go into the folder where you installed Baldur's Gate, and then clean out the Temp and Cache folders. (Don't remove the folders themselves; just remove everything in it.) Then try the game again.

If this does not work, try to reload a save game from a point where BG was not (yet) crashing, and play from there. If you still have crashes and have mods installed, one of them might be unstable, or you might have installed in the wrong order. Mods are a tricky business, and can work against each other (even when they are all WEIDU mods.)

I had to abort my last run (EasyTuTu) because I hit an unresolvable crash frenzy after Cloackwood 3. My current game is modded very lightly (replaced GOG's directdraw fix with the newest one, and installed a GUI that supports 800x600), hasn't crashed yet; I did everything that can be done before Cloackwood 1, except Durlag's Tower. I'm crossing my fingers that I can make it through Cloackwood this time, and finally finish Baldur's Gate one more time before I move on to BG2, and then, to other games....

So in short: if cleaning out Temp and Cache, and returning to a known good save game does not resolve this problem, my suggestion would be to restart the game and install as few mods as possible; I'd even recommend to forego EasyTuTu and BGT, and just use the WideScreen Mod and TWMGUI to get 1024x768. EasyTuTu and BGT change gameplay way too much, IMHO, and cause gameplay imbalances.

(To be honest, I do feel a little 'stuck' sometimes, trying to replay BG1 over and over again, for 10 years in a row, with different mods, and then having to abandon the attempt due to instability, never actually getting to BG2 with the characters from BG1 :X)