I still suggest you post your problem in the Witcher forum and open a help ticket with GOG support.
As a last effort, I would go into the game options and lower all the graphic settings to their minimum. If this helps, raise the settings until the problem returns and lower the setting on the option that appears to be causing the problem. If no change is made by doing this then . .
As I said earlier, it sounds like you might have a partial install. If UAC blocks a disk read / write during install or a firewall is blocking game access to files you may get an install that does some crazy things. If it was my install and I had tried every thing ... I would uninstall and install as I suggest below. No guarantee that it will fix the problem but it should give you a full, working install . . . =)
Here are my basic recommendations for installing games on Vista / Win 7
Are your video drivers up to date? Having the latest drivers can make a big difference. If your drivers are old, download and update your video drivers. Try playing the game before making any other changes as updated drivers could fix the problem.
Click here for ATI Click here for Nvidia Click here for Intel I suggest turning UAC off when you install as it can interfere with disk writes leaving you with a partial install. (Turn UAC off on Vista by going to Control Panel, User Accounts, Turn User Account Control on or off. On Win 7 move the slider to “Never Notify". Turn back on after your game install. ) See attached image
Also I recommend (especially on Win 7) installing in a directory outside of Program Files. I create a directory named Games on the C drive. After creating the directory,
right click the setup.exe and click "Run as an administrator" on the resulting dialog. Point the install to the new location. (On the first dialog of the GOG installer, click the Options button on the lower left corner and point the install to the new Games directory.)
After the install you should right click the game shortcut, click Properties on the resulting dialog, click the Compatibility tab and check "Run this program as an administrator". I also suggest check marking “Disable visual themes” and “Disable desktop composition”. I usually leave the compatibility mode unchecked until I play the game. If there are problems I try the newest compatibility mode first working backwards to the oldest until a problem is gone.
Some Anti-virus and firewall programs can interfere with disk writes and may need to be disabled during the install. If you have not had install problems due to these programs in the past I wouldn’t worry about disabling them. If you do disable them don’t forget to enable them after the install. I use Comodo for a firewall. It was throwing up “Allow” dialogs behind the game start page. When I closed the game the dialogs closed as well. Only ALT – TAB’ing out of the game allowed me to see the dialogs. You can check Allow on each one but it was simpler for me to make the [gamename].exe or launcher.exe a trusted program in Comodo (or your firewall).
If you do a reinstall, make sure you backup your saves first and delete any directories left over after the uninstall has completed. Uninstall should be done even if you are installing in a different directory as you want the registry entries to be removed for the first install
before the reinstall.
