Got the game a few days ago, the 4CD version. Installed it on my box without any problems and went at it. Few minutes into the tutorial the whole thing froze. Alt+F4, Alt+Ctrl+Del didnt do anything, NumLock was dead, had to reset. Same thing happened a few more times untill i got fed up and went on google for solution. Things i have done:

Disabled sound (in the options>audio>mixer>disabled)
Lowered all settings (both video and audio)
In the shortcut properties put win98/me compability
Re-installed audio/video drivers (even though i had the latest ones)
ScanDisked the HDD, no errors found
Antivirused with BitDefender
Tried playing with ALL background applications closed

Sad part is not that nothing above helped, but that there is absolutely no way to track down the cause of this, at least from my perspective. When the application locks up or just poofs (boots me to the desktop in random places), there is no crash.log to be found anywhere.
My system:

AMD Athlon XP 2700+ @ 2.2 gHz
512MB ram
128MB nVidia GeForce FX 5200
RealTek AC97 onboard audio
SMC EZ 10/100 PCI netCard
WindowsXP Pro sp2

No "powerup" tweaks have been done to the system.


Any suggestions?

It should be Windows 2000 compability mode. Did you try reinstalling the game? Double check the troublingshooting guide and make sure your graphics card is supported. You said you reinstalled the video drivers, did that include DirectX?

I will try win2k compability mode.
Yes i have uninstalled and reinstalled the game clean into a new directory.
My graphic card is supported (GeForce FX family)
Lastly, directX can not be "reinstalled" to the best of my knowlage, you cant even downgrade it since 8.something.


edit: no go, still closes and boots me to desktop

What I mean by reinstalling DirectX is upgrading to the newest version 9.0c.

You have never fully played a level correct? Try an online game, or if your connection is too slow, try a random map.

How much do you know about computers? Do you know how to disable your sound and network card drivers? If so, try that. Look at the Event Tracker logs, see if anything about Battlefront shows up. Defrag your hard drive. How big is your swap file (page file)? SWBF2 requires it to be at least 500MB. In reality it should be bigger. Make sure it isn't too small. If you don't know how to do that stuff, I can walk you through it.

From SWBF2 Troubleshooting Guide:
"Q: What Should I Do If My Computer Goes to a Black Screen or Locks Up?
A: If you end up at a black screen or the game appears to lock up, please press ALT-F4 before trying anything else. If this fails, press CTRL-ALT-DEL once, click Task Manager, and then choose END TASK on Star Wars Battlefront II. If you do not see a dialog box after pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL, press ENTER twice and this should take you back to the desktop. Then restart your computer and try running the game again. "

I'm not sure what pressing 'Enter' twice is supposed to do but try it.

First and foremost thanks a lot for your help zerted, at least for trying.
Now i do have DirectX 9.0c, and if i try to run the installer it says i already have latest directX. I actually managed to finish a few levels before the game crash, but the time i get to play is random at best.
I know a bit about these metal spawns of hell, and will try disabling the drivers. Event tracker shows 'application hung', but gives no more information.
Swap file 1Gb+, with at least 2/3 free when i start SW:BF2.

In regards to 'what should i do if my computer goes to a black screen or locks up', tried that, once it gets locked its locked - no matter what i press there is no response.

Still no go, keeps botting me to desktop during both single and multiplayer games.

Check to make sure your graphics card isn't overheating. Download a tool to scan your memory chips for errors. Though if your memory had errors, Windows would be crashing randomly too. If you did everything you've said, I can't think of anything else that might be causing the problem. A patch should be released in early January. Hopeful it will fix a lot of problems. If it doesn't help, file a claim with tech support :(