There are a few issues that you can encounter while trying to run Homeworld 2 on Windows 7. One of the most common problems seems to be that the game refuses to start or crashes to desktop after startup. This appears to be caused by Windows 7 preventing the Homeworld 2 English no-cd exe from working (Data Execution Prevention). The most reliable fix seems to be the following:
- Install the Homeworld 2 1.1 patch. If this link doesn’t work try one of the alternate links: alternate 1, alternate 2.
- Install the Homeworld 2 1.1 German no-cd exe. Search for and download the 1.1 German no-cd exe (for legal reasons I’m not hosting the exe here). Replace your original exe located at:
Homeworld 2\Bin\Release\Homeworld2.exe
Though it may seem odd, the German no-cd exe works around this issue because it isn’t affected by Data Execution Prevention. It won’t change the in game language to German. - (ATI USERS ONLY) Install the atioglxx.dll fix. As pointed out by Culex in the comments below, a recent driver update for ATI (14.9) is causing the following issue for it’s users:
Homeworld2.exe caused an Access Violation in module atioglxx.dll
To fix this issue download the patched version of atioglxx.dll linked above and drop into the bin\release folder of your Homeworld 2 install. You can also download the atioglxx.dll fix from us here.
Note – according to a numbers of sources on the web no-cd exes are legal provided they are only for personal use. See the Wikipedia No-CD crack page for more details (or do you own research if you are still skeptical). You can read the legal jargon from the U.S. Copyright Office if you’re interested (and if you’re in the USA).
There a few less common issues with running Homeworld 2 that are covered in these posts:
- Homeworld 2 invisible ships – with recent graphics driver updates for certain video cards some users are experiencing an odd issue where ships will be invisible and you may see oddly broken textures. See this post for more info.
- Homeworld 2 camera and movement lag – with certain video cards rotating the camera and zooming into your ships will cause extreme FPS drops. See this post for a workaround.
If you’ve followed the above steps and are still having issues running Homeworld 2 on Windows 7, please post in the comments below. To increase your chances of a solution being found include as much detail as possible (which version of the game you’re running, what operating system you have, what video card you have and steps to reproduce the issue). Screenshots are also very useful!
Hello,
unfortunately i still can´t run this wonderful game.
My System:
Intel Core i3 M350 2.27 GHz
4 GB RAM
ATI Radeon HD5470 1 GB
Windows 7 64-bit
… let me know if you need more information.
The last days i tried and tried, following this and a lot more likewise threads, no success.
I have an original HW2-DVD. After installing (many and many times) i run the ‘on-board’ 1.1 patch just like several english and german patches from the www. then as ever i replaced the original HW2.exe by the fixed one (also in english and german version) but no results.
I also tried to run the game in compatibility-mode (XPSP2 and XPSP3) as well as i launched it as admin…
I’m very sad and don’t have anymore ideas. I also tried to follow guides on youtube and think i did it step by step… :-(
Maybe someone could help me or just develop HW3!?
Thanks a lot,
KarlH1
Hey KarlH1, what kind of errors are you experiencing? Is it crashing on startup? Are you noticing any error messages?
Most commonly the game crashes due to Data Execution Prevention. If using the German No-Cd exe is not working then look up how disable DEP for a specific app in WIndows 7.
Also make sure that you have vsync enabled through your video card’s control centre if you don’t already.
I have tried to disable DEP for HW2, but it tells me that it cannot turn it off for the game exe file. So that’s not working…
Did you try using the German no-cd exe? It seems to get around DEP issues for HW2 if you can’t disable it manually.
Also are you getting any error message when you try to disable DEP? That shouldn’t be related to the game but instead whether or not you have the right permissions? Here’s the Microsoft tutorial for disabling DEP on Windows 7: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/Change-Data-Execution-Prevention-settings?SignedIn=1
When I try to disable it’s DEP for HW2, it brings up a box telling me it cant disable DEP for it. But it’s no longer needed since I just used the german exe crack.
I fixed it and managed to make it run with the German exe fix. Thanks.
Nice, good to hear
Oh great, thanks for sharing your fix…
not even works with me even with DEP disabled and german exe fix
…. :(
1. after patch 1.1
2. german exe fix
3. windows xp sp3 compatibility
4. DEP disabled for homeworld2.exe
5. Disabled visual themes in homeworld2 property dialog
6. change vertical sync to always on in ati graphic property
7. Launched as admin
Still I crash to desktop after a blink of black screen after clicking homeworld2.exe
:(
still the same message :
Homeworld2.exe caused an Access Violation in module atioglxx.dll at 0023:55d26c61.
Error occurred at 10/21/2014 12:00:28.
Homeworld2.exe, run by PC.
Microsoft Windows XP?.
4 processor(s), type 586.
0 MBytes physical memory.
Read from location 00000020 caused an access violation.
MiniDump saved to file ‘C:\Program Files (x86)\Sierra\Homeworld2\Bin\Release\10-21-2014_12_00_28_MiniDump.dmp’ ……..
………………
…………
My graphic card driver is full update to latest update
I guess its directly related to Ati graphic card latest update driver problem..that doesn’t support homeworld2
too bad… :(
The error “Homeworld2.exe caused an Access Violation in module atioglxx.dll” is not unique to you. A few other people have reported it as well. Have you checked out some of these posts:
http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?19773-Homeworld2-exe-caused-an-Access-Violation-in-module-atioglxx-dll
http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=461&threadid=124629
http://complex.mastertopforum.com/printview.php?t=1473&start=0
Some possible ideas:
You might be able to get it to run with your ATI card by tweaking settings like this. If not just search for “Homeworld2.exe caused an Access Violation in module atioglxx.dll” and see what else you can find.
If something here works, or you find a solution please let me know!
Hey, everyone is having issue with ‘atioglxx.dll’ but mine is ‘ig4dev32.dll’
Here,
Homeworld2.exe caused an Access Violation in module ig4dev32.dll at 001b:062dd09f.
Error occurred at 6/30/2022 06:35:18.
Homeworld2.exe, run by XXXXX.
Microsoft Windows XP?.
2 processor(s), type 586.
1024 MBytes physical memory.
Read from location 00000000 caused an access violation.
MiniDump saved to file ‘C:\Program Files\Sierra\Homeworld2\Bin\Release\6-30-2022_06_35_18_MiniDump.dmp’
1. Disable Vsync in ati control centre….done…still same error…and even turn off everything to standard setting…doesn’t change the error message…
2. This does not work with me …. as I crash to desktop just about after clicking homeworld2.exe…so no ingame option modification possible …:(
and yes,, I ‘ve checked that links…
in relicnews …he got error message after installing mod for homeworld2 but the game will run just fine with original homeworld2..
in my case I got the same error with original homeworld2 and cannot run the game at all…. :(…
and after checking some forum it seem that “Homeworld2.exe caused an Access Violation in module atioglxx.dll” message occured with different problem….this really confused me…
some people experienced it after playing for some time in homeworld2
some other people experienced it with higher resolution
and some other people too experienced it after installing the mod for homeworld 2
and in my case i experienced it just about after clicking the homeworld.exe…directly crash to desktop…. :(
and they are all got the same message “Homeworld2.exe caused an Access Violation in module atioglxx.dll”
I’ve done some possible solution from that forums as welll…..but still no result…
and weirdly some other people who got the same exact problem like me resolved the problem with just german fix….this is very frustrating… :(
I thing I am running out of idea right know…..this problem is far to complicated for me right know..
the only possible thing for me right know is to wait Homeworld 2 remastered edition from gearbox software…..:(
it seems that something in atioglxx.dll configuration cannot work well with homeworld2 configuration files…..some configuration may succeed …. but some not…. :(
Well that’s unfortunate! The only thing I can suggest is maybe try to reinstall the German exe in case you somehow got a faulty version. Other than that you might be out of luck :(
I had the same issue with my Radeon 6970 on Windows 7 x64. Had to install an older version of the AMD driver – went back to 13.9, and homeworld 2 is working again! Hope this helps.
Why don’t you partition your harddrive and install Windows XP. You won’t have any issues afterwards unless Windows Xp cannot handle your beef uped video card.
I did that and all my old games work even the old dos games running in compatibility mode. Windows XP can be found on the net you know.
Because that’s out of reach of some people.
If you have the know-how to find XP and install it on a partition/run it in virtual box you likely don’t need these tutorials.
Just had this problem on being forced to upgrade ATI drivers to 14.9 after patches to other software broke compatibility with older drivers. I’m surprised that the atioglxx.dll issue seems to be so well known down through the last several years, but there is no definitive solution centralized anywhere and my Google Fu has failed me. I’m not getting much of a response on the Relic Forums, has anyone here heard of any other solution that works beyond driver reversion?
Also, do current Nvidia cards have any similar problems?
Thanks!
I haven’t run into any additional problem using Nvidia cards.
As for the ATI issue apart from downgrade I don’t know what else to suggest. If you find another solution please let me know!
As pf 14.9 amd drivers this game is broken. Homeworld2.exe caused an Access Violation in module atioglxx.dll at 0023:6836c121.
That’s really a shame. I wonder if the community is capable of putting together a patch
I just found the fix by using an older driver. http://www.megafileupload.com/en/file/550087/Doom3BFGFix-zip.html extract the atioglxx.dll into bin/release and game works. I used the 64-bit one.
Do you know if this will work for all amd drivers? Did you need to patch any other files?
I used it on 1.1, I have 14.9.2 beta installed, by placing this file in the bin/release directory it will override the system installed opengl driver. I ended up using the 32-bit one instead…
Culex’s fix worked for me. My sys is 64 bit, so I just dropped that version of the atioglxx.dll into bin/release and it worked. No driver install reversion, no other files necessary. Thank you so much for finding that, you’re a lifesaver.
Alexgophermix – do you mind if I link this page when I update my Relicnews post to say the issue is solved, or would you prefer that I just copy the solution directly?
I would really appreciate a backlink :)
Done. Thank you all. http://forums.relicnews.com/showthread.php?276523-ATI-driver-14-9-broke-HW2-%28atioglxx-dll-access-violation%29-%28solved-read-in-thread%29
Yup. I just used the 64 one and now HW2 runs smoothly :)
Hello, I am using ati hd5550 on a dual graphics card system.
Culix’s dll fix works for my win7 x64 system too.
I’d been searching long and hard to be able to play HW2 again since the days of XP.
A big Thanks to everyone involved.
Bob.
ps. I never did get that dll error message, only a blue circle on a dark screen for a split second and game not starting, but the fix works none the less.
(and the Homeworld2.exe is placed under DEP).
I have this Atioglxx.dll error and tried all options mentioned- nothing works, nor dep, bo german no cd, no Atioglxx.dll. And this problem has occurred after i moved from 14.2 to 14.12 – everything was running fine before. Now- blac screen and crash to desktop.
Try this method, it works for me on Windows 7 64Bit.
1. Install the game on a folder on your desktop instead of the default path.
2. Install the latest patch (http://www.moddb.com/games/homeworld-2/downloads/homeworld-2-v-11-patch-last-and-only-patch)
Try this method, it works for me on Windows 7 64Bit.
1. Install the game on a folder on your desktop instead of the default path.
2. Install the latest patch (http://www.moddb.com/games/homeworld-2/downloads/homeworld-2-v-11-patch-last-and-only-patch)
Just wanted to say thanks. Followed the instructions at the top and it worked great. Looking forward to getting my copy of the HD remaster.
So I can get the game to install no problem, my issue is that the focus, zoom and rotate camera commands (controlled by the scroll wheel and right mouse click) don’t work. I’m on windows 7.
You, Sir, made your job well. Solved an one year old Ati-hw2-issue for me. thx pepe
Scroll, zoom seemed broken until I restarted the pc, and enabled VSync in-game. That might work for you guys.
It’s really works! i did it! :v thanks!
Cheers lads. I installed the patch 1.1 and then just did the ati fix and I didn’t need to do anything but that.
Thanks for your time and effort. I purchased Homeworld 2 years ago and haven’t played it yet, so this is like a new game for me.
SS.
Thanks…this works on windows 7.
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