Every time I go upstairs to 2nd floor in mansion, game crashes. Can't progress, any advice?

Had tried using shortcut from the executable but that didn't work so I made this thread; went back and tried it again and it worked. Problem solved for now, I guess.

Spoke too soon. Got upstairs and got the key, went down and did the clock but crashing again when I go back upstairs with 2nd key. :(

Sanitarium is, unfortunately, a very buggy game when running on modern OSes, one of the very few oldies on GOG that even GOG's tech guys couldn't actually fix entirely.

It is a great game, one of the best I've ever played, and I don't regret having bought it one bit, but it sure is sad it crashes so much and/or causes so many problems when running on modern machines and operative systems.

You probably already tried this already, but if you're running Windows Vista or 7, make sure the game isn't installed to C:\Program Files, as this might cause problems. If it is, install it somewhere else, like, for instance, C:\Games or something like that. Also make sure to install and run the game as administrator, and try tinkering with compatibility options -- setting the game to Win 98 or 95 seems to lead to some good results, and remember to try messing with other compatibility options as well, disabling background composition and such.

I know this isn't much help, but right now there's no patch or fix, so you'll just have to play the game as is, save *very* often and hope you'll get through any parts in the game that crash constantly. Sorry if I couldn't be of more help...

Well, finally made it through Mansion! Just a matter of constantly reloading saves and trying over and over, sometimes with the GOG shortcut, other times with the .exe shortcut, to change scenes without a crash and making new save when successful.

Yes, was aware of the 'not install in Program Files' from other games but thanks for mentioning it. GOG defaults to installing to C:\GOG Games anyway.