Jacky Bauer's Blog

Receiving an Unhandled Exception Error during game launch or while actually playing can be caused by a few problems. As always, please patch the game first. The patch includes several fixes that may correct this type of error. You can patch the game by connecting to Battle.net for the auto-patch or you can download and run the stand-alone patch from our patch page at http://www.blizzard.com/patches/. After installing the patch, please reboot your computer and test the game again. If the patch does not correct the problem, please follow the steps below.

The first step is to reinstall the game, but before reinstalling, you may want to back up your single-player character files. These files are stored in the Diablo IISave folder on your hard drive. The character files have the same name as the character. Save these files to another directory or to a floppy disk and then restore them once you have reinstalled the game.

Uninstall Diablo II by going to Start, Programs, Diablo II, and choose Uninstall Diablo II. Once the game is uninstalled you can delete the Diablo II folder from your hard drive.

Now, run a thorough scandisk and defrag of your hard drive(s). You will probably find it helpful to disable your screen saver and power management features before you scandisk or defrag. Sometimes Windows will restart the defragmentation and/or scandisk if your screen saver or power management kicks in.

(Windows 98/Me)

- Click on the Start button and go to Run.
- Type in "scandisk" (without quotes) and click the OK button.
- Follow the prompts and select "Thorough" scandisk and let it run.
- This will tell you if there are any problems on the hard disk.

- Click on the Start button and go to Run
- Type in "defrag" (without quotes) and click the OK button.
- Follow the prompts to defrag your hard drive.
- This will make the available space more usable by your programs.

(Windows 2000/XP)

- Open My Computer, and select the local disk you want to check.
- On the File menu, click Properties.
- Click the Tools tab.
- Under Error-checking, click Check Now.
- Under Check disk options, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box and the automatically fix file system errors box.
- Select yes to schedule after restart if a dialog box comes up prompting you to do so.
- Restart your computer

- Open My Computer, and select the local disk you want to check.
- On the File menu, click Properties.
- Click the Tools tab.
- Under Defragmentation, click Defragment now.
- Select volume to Defragment.
- Click Defragment.

Reinstall the multiplayer or full version of Diablo II and then install Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. You will need your original Diablo II play disc for the first part of the installation and the Expansion disc to finish the installation. You will also need to have your original Diablo 2 CD Key for Diablo II and the Lord of Destruction Diablo 2 CD Keys accessible while you install. Windows 2000 users need Administrative rights to run the Diablo II program.