Hey there

So I've downloaded Syberia again, after not having played it for a long time. It seems to download and install fine. But then when I try to play it, it freezes on the menu screen. I can't do anything - I can't move my mouse, or anything. All I can do, is turn my computer off, and turn it back on again.

I also tried it on a friend's machine (who also has Windows 7), but the screen turns black straight away, and freezes. I can't even get to the menu screen here. So all I can do, is turn the computer off, then on again.

I've tried all the compatablilty modes (on both computers), but it doesn't make any difference.

I'm really disappointed. The game worked on Vista with no problems. And GOG's game page says it should work on Windows 7, so I don't understand why it freezes.

Anyone know why this is happening? Or how to fix it?

Thanks.

Before trying anything else, make sure DirectX 9 is installed on your system (Windows 7 only comes with the components of DirectX11 by default):
http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109

And try running the game as Administrator (right-click => Run as..).

DeMignon, thanks for trying to help. I installed DirectX 9 now, but the screen just turns black (like at my friend's house), and freezes. I can't even get to the menu screen now. I can't do anything, except turn the computer off, and back on again.

And I already play as Administrator. As the only one who uses the computer, I play everything as Administrator.

But thanks for trying.

Okay, with DirectX9 installed let's try something else. The game tends to have problems with high desktop resolutions. It runs in 800x600 so try changing your desktop resolution to 800x600 before starting the game and check if it still crashes. If it doesn't, you can try using higher desktop resolutions, up to the point the game crashes again. If it still crashes, try the lower resolutions with / without compatibility mode.

It sill freezes, even at lowest resolution. With and without compatability mode. ) ;

Hmm, strange. Let's run it as conservative as possible:

Install the game somewhere outside of "\Program Files". Re-install it if necessary.

1. Right click on the program's shortcut
2. Click on Properties
3. Click on the Compatibility tab
- Select compatibility mode for Windows XP (Service Pack 3)
- Tick: Disable visual themes
- Tick: Disable desktop composition
- Tick: Disable display scaling on high DPI settings
- Tick: Run this program as an administrator

Check your graphics card control panel and disable all 3D acceleration options or set them so, that the software chooses what to use.

Set your desktop resolution to 800x600.

It didn't work. ) :

I re-installed it to my desktop, and then again to C:\
Each time, the screen goes black and crashes.

But I'm worried about having to forceably reboot my computer each time, rather than using Shutdown.

That's unfortunate.
Go to Syberia's directory (e.g. C:\Syberia) and try starting the game with Game.exe instead of using the link created during installation. Also use the above conservative settings (right-click ..).

Maybe it's connected to the graphics driver. Have you recently updated it? If so you might want to check an older version, if not you can try the newest one.

Nope, still crashes.

Maybe I should just give up on this one.

Nah, let's try something else. As the game runs in 16bit color mode, try to set your desktop to 16bit color. Usually this isn't a problem, but who knows and it's easy to try.

Maybe the game runs in windowed mode.
To activate it do the following:

1. Create a text file in the game's installation folder and name it player.ini
Be careful, that the name is player.ini and not player.ini.txt
2. Open player.ini and enter one line:
800 600 16 0 BaseCMO.cmo
3. Save the file and start the game, it should run in windowed mode.

To switch back to fullscreen change:
800 600 16 0 BaseCMO.cmo to 800 600 16 1 BaseCMO.cmo

Additionally, there's a debug log in the game's folder. It's named debug.log and can be opened with any text editor. The file contains an entry for each time you start Syberia, like this
----- Starting Syberia version 1.0.0.24, Thu Jan 23 22:19:47 2014
...
----- Stopping Syberia version 1.0.0.24, Thu Jan 23 22:20:11 2014

You could post the latest entry (the latest crash), maybe it contains something helpful.

I've got another idea, even if windowed mode works.
You could try to circumvent Direct3D, by using the Wine library. For the game, this library looks exactly like DirectX, but it isn't. Wine realizes graphic handling via OpenGlide.

How-to:
1. Download the latest Windows build of Wine
- http://download.savannah.nongnu.org/releases/wined3d
- scroll down to latest/
- download wined3d.exe
2. Extract the Wine files from wined3d.exe
- Open the file with 7zip
- go to $SYSDIR folder
- extract libwine.dll, wined3d.dll and d3d8.dll
3. Copy all three extracted files to the game's folder (e.g. C:\Syberia)

Now, when you start Syberia it uses the Wine version of Direct3D instead of the original of DirectX 8.
Maybe your problem is solved by using OpenGlide for 3D handling. But the game still uses the original DirectDraw component and it's not possible to substitute it with the Wine version, as it only exists in older Wine builds (1.1.x) and on my machine Syberia didn't run with it.

Well, the game SOMETIMES works in Windowed mode (yay), but then sometimes it still crashes.
The times when it DOES work, the window is too big (tall) for my monitor, so I can't see the bottom of the screen. So when I get a close-up of something, I can't back out. And I can't seem to resize the window.

Here's the last 3 entries from the debug file...

----- Starting Syberia version 1.0.0.24, Fri Jan 24 03:29:21 2014
Current user: Jan
Operation System is: 'Windows NT/2000/XP' version 5.1 build 2600
Using service pack 'Service Pack 3'
The folder 'Syberia Saves' was detected in the current directory. Using it for save game.
Options loaded. Subtitle=1 bpp=16 fsaa=0 detail=1 Volume=10 Music=5
Creating windowed application
CKEngine Started
Parsing DLL path
Creating CKContext.
Selected render driver description is: 'Primary Display Driver (T&L DX7)'
Testing sound hardware...
Creating windowed render context (800x600)
Loading the .Cmo
Playing cinematic 'Intro_microids.syb'
.Cmo loaded
User has task switched: deactivating.
User has task switched: activating.
Playing cinematic 'CI_PreIntro.syb'
SyberiaBootInit: Processor
SyberiaBootInit: Get managers
SyberiaBootInit: Clear attributes
SyberiaBootInit: Preload
SyberiaBootInit: Floor
SyberiaBootInit: Array
SyberiaBootInit: Perso Manager
SyberiaBootInit: Option
The folder 'Syberia Saves' was detected in the current directory. Using it for save game.
SyberiaBootInit: g_SoundManager
SyberiaBootInit: g_InterfaceManager
Font: Successfully loaded font file 'Font_Syberia1'
Font: Successfully loaded font file 'Font_Syberia2'
Font: Successfully loaded font file 'Cel_Chiffre'
SyberiaBootInit: g_InteractManager
SyberiaBootInit: Set stuff
SyberiaBootInit: Done
Warping from -1 to -3...Ok
Start FadeIn 500.000000Video memory check: 2031 MB (needed 13)
Warping from -1 to 10000.Loaded 'ValReceptionInn.cmo', Time: 220...Ok
Starting cinematic playback 'C1_Intro.syb'... Playing cinematic 'C1_Intro.syb'
Received WM_QUIT message. Exiting.
Shutting down CCKApplication.
CCKApplication destroyed.
----- Stopping Syberia version 1.0.0.24, Fri Jan 24 03:30:11 2014

----- Starting Syberia version 1.0.0.24, Fri Jan 24 03:35:02 2014
Current user: Jan
Operation System is: 'Windows NT/2000/XP' version 5.1 build 2600
Using service pack 'Service Pack 3'
The folder 'Syberia Saves' was detected in the current directory. Using it for save game.
Options loaded. Subtitle=1 bpp=16 fsaa=0 detail=1 Volume=10 Music=5
Creating windowed application
CKEngine Started
Parsing DLL path
Creating CKContext.
Selected render driver description is: 'Primary Display Driver (T&L DX7)'
Testing sound hardware...
Creating windowed render context (800x600)
Loading the .Cmo
Playing cinematic 'Intro_microids.syb'
.Cmo loaded
Playing cinematic 'CI_PreIntro.syb'
SyberiaBootInit: Processor
SyberiaBootInit: Get managers
SyberiaBootInit: Clear attributes
SyberiaBootInit: Preload
SyberiaBootInit: Floor
SyberiaBootInit: Array
SyberiaBootInit: Perso Manager
SyberiaBootInit: Option
The folder 'Syberia Saves' was detected in the current directory. Using it for save game.
SyberiaBootInit: g_SoundManager
SyberiaBootInit: g_InterfaceManager
Font: Successfully loaded font file 'Font_Syberia1'
Font: Successfully loaded font file 'Font_Syberia2'
Font: Successfully loaded font file 'Cel_Chiffre'
SyberiaBootInit: g_InteractManager
SyberiaBootInit: Set stuff
SyberiaBootInit: Done
Warping from -1 to -3...Ok
Start FadeIn 500.000000Video memory check: 2031 MB (needed 13)
User has task switched: deactivating.
User has task switched: activating.
Received WM_QUIT message. Exiting.
Shutting down CCKApplication.
-- g_DynamicArray.Clear()
-- g_SceneManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_SoundManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_InterfaceManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_InventoryManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_NotepadManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_CellphoneManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_CellphonePuzzleManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_InGameMenuManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_InteractManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_FloorManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_Kathe.OnCKReset()
-- g_UserInputManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_PersoManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_DialogReactor.CKReset()
-- g_PanManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_MainMenuManager.OnCKReset()
CCKApplication destroyed.
----- Stopping Syberia version 1.0.0.24, Fri Jan 24 03:36:32 2014

----- Starting Syberia version 1.0.0.24, Fri Jan 24 03:41:11 2014
Current user: Jan
Operation System is: 'Windows NT/2000/XP' version 5.1 build 2600
Using service pack 'Service Pack 3'
The folder 'Syberia Saves' was detected in the current directory. Using it for save game.
Options loaded. Subtitle=1 bpp=16 fsaa=0 detail=1 Volume=10 Music=5
Creating windowed application
CKEngine Started
Parsing DLL path
Creating CKContext.
Selected render driver description is: 'Primary Display Driver (T&L DX7)'
Testing sound hardware...
Creating windowed render context (800x600)
Loading the .Cmo
Playing cinematic 'Intro_microids.syb'
.Cmo loaded
Playing cinematic 'CI_PreIntro.syb'
SyberiaBootInit: Processor
SyberiaBootInit: Get managers
SyberiaBootInit: Clear attributes
SyberiaBootInit: Preload
SyberiaBootInit: Floor
SyberiaBootInit: Array
SyberiaBootInit: Perso Manager
SyberiaBootInit: Option
The folder 'Syberia Saves' was detected in the current directory. Using it for save game.
SyberiaBootInit: g_SoundManager
SyberiaBootInit: g_InterfaceManager
Font: Successfully loaded font file 'Font_Syberia1'
Font: Successfully loaded font file 'Font_Syberia2'
Font: Successfully loaded font file 'Cel_Chiffre'
SyberiaBootInit: g_InteractManager
SyberiaBootInit: Set stuff
SyberiaBootInit: Done
Warping from -1 to -3...Ok
Start FadeIn 500.000000Video memory check: 2031 MB (needed 13)
Warping from -1 to 10000.Loaded 'ValReceptionInn.cmo', Time: 810...Ok
Starting cinematic playback 'C1_Intro.syb'... Playing cinematic 'C1_Intro.syb'
Start FadeIn 500.000000done 1
Activation item named 'depliant'
Received WM_QUIT message. Exiting.
Shutting down CCKApplication.
-- g_DynamicArray.Clear()
-- g_SceneManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_SoundManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_InterfaceManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_InventoryManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_NotepadManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_CellphoneManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_CellphonePuzzleManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_InGameMenuManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_InteractManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_FloorManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_Kathe.OnCKReset()
-- g_UserInputManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_PersoManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_DialogReactor.CKReset()
-- g_PanManager.OnCKReset()
-- g_MainMenuManager.OnCKReset()
CCKApplication destroyed.
----- Stopping Syberia version 1.0.0.24, Fri Jan 24 03:44:45 2014

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Sorry, it insists on editing my last post, rather than starting a new post...

I haven't used Wine before, but thanks. It's worth trying. ( :

And the screen just turns black, so I have to force a reboot again.

I think this is a lost cause, but I do appreciate you trying to help. Thanks.

As far as I can see the debug log isn't much of a help here. Another idea is to use a DirectDraw wrapper like this one:
http://bitpatch.com/ddwrapper.html
Download ddwrapper.zip and extract the files to your game's folder. aqrit.cfg is for configuration and can be edited with any text editor. Try the wrapper out-of-the-box and if this doesn't work, edit aqrit.cfg and set
ForceDirectDrawEmulation = 1