Installation troubleshooting

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Revision as of 19:16, 18 November 2009 by BryanDerksen (Talk | contribs) ("unable to connect to the database": Manual database installation)

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NOTE: It appears that the default installation path used by Steam is longer than 58 characters, which prevents the toolset from installing properly. See Installation with Steam for details and a workaround.

See Installing the toolset for general information and guidance about installing the Dragon Age toolset. If something goes wrong during that process this page may have useful information and advice.

If you experience a crash logs can be found in My Documents\BioWare\Dragon Age\Toolset\logs. The log filenames will include the date on which the log file was created. Sending in a log will help greatly with bug fixing.

General errors

If you get the "Dragon Age: Origins game install not found" error when you run the toolset installer:

  • You must have the game installed before you can install the toolset. Please install the game first.
  • If you have installed the game, but not yet run the configure program, you will get this message: "Please launch the Dragon Age: Origins Configure Utility". This happens automatically the first time you attempt to run the game. After you have successfully configured and launched the game at least once, you should no longer get this error.

If the toolset cannot find DLLs you may need to run the configuration tool after installation to tell the toolset where to find the Dragon Age build. This can happen if you uninstall the toolset and then reinstall it again in a different location.

If you install the toolset in a non-default location, the toolset may not be made aware of where the Resource Builder has been put. This can be easily fixed by changing the "Resource Build Path" variable found in Options->Environment.

On Vista and Windows 7 systems you may get a message reading "Windows has blocked some of the features of this program." It will indicate that the offending program is "Microsoft Register Server", located at C:\windows\system32\regsvr32.exe. The installer makes use of this program to register the game engine's DLL for use by the toolset. You can choose to block or allow this, the installer will work either way. It is somewhat safer to leave it blocked.

MSSQL Express 2005's installer has a limitation that prevents it from installing to a directory path that's longer than 58 characters.[1] If you've installed Dragon Age to a directory with a longer path than this you will need to uninstall Dragon Age: Origins and reinstall it in a directory with a shorter path length. (Games installed via the Steam Engine may have a path longer than 58 characters. The Steam website has instructions for relocating your Steam installation. Alternately, see Installation with Steam for a workaround.)

Installer hangs at the stage of "Execute:regsvr32.exe /s "C:\Dragon Age\tools\Engine.dll"

This error hasn't been fully characterized yet but has been reported by a number of people. Regsvr32.exe is failing for some unknown reason and refusing to terminate. If you encounter this problem on installing, open the task manager and kill regsvr32.exe. The installer should continue on installing after that's done. This could mean that engine.dll won't be registered, however, so you may need to do that manually.

To manually register the dll, go to "run" in your start menu and type in the following command:

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Dragon Age\tools\Engine.dll"

(or substitute the actual path to Engine.dll if it it's different from that). Make sure to run this as an administrator. It should pop up a "success!" message. If it fails, it should hopefully pop up an error message that will tell us how to fix it once and for all. It should be safe to re-try this command over and over, registering the dll more than once is harmless.

NOTE: If you purchased the game through Steam, your Engine.dll will be located in a different folder. Assuming that you installed the toolset in the default folder, the path will be:

C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\dragon age origins\tools

So the command in the Run window will be"

regsvr32 "C:\Program Files\Steam\steamapps\common\dragon age origins\tools\Engine.dll"

"unable to connect to the database"

If you receive the "unable to connect to the database" error message there are a number of possibilities to explain and correct it:

  • Ensure SQL Server (BWDATOOLSET): Open the SQL Server Configuration Manager (by default Start | Microsoft SQL Server 2005 | Configuration Tools | SQL Server Configuration Manager) and in the object tree in the left hand panel click on the SQL Server 2005 Services entry. Ensure entry for SQL Server (BWDATOOLSET) appearing in the right hand panel has a State of Running. If not select it and start it (either using the button on the toolbar or the option in the context menu).
  • Disabling UAC (User Account Control) and reinstalling the toolset will allow the database to install properly.
  • On some systems you may encounter a problem running the toolset if you copy the uninstalled files off of the DVD first before installing them. By default SQLServer doesn't necessarily have permission to read from all of the directories that the user may have put the installation files, so if you install from such a directory it may be unable to import resources into the database. To correct this either change the administrative privileges for the directory you're installing the toolset from or install it directly from DVD.
  • If you already have MSSQLServer Express installed as part of a different program, the toolset may not get the correct configuration to use it. Run the toolset configuration, select "Programmer" as user type, and then click "next" through the configuration wizard until you get to the "Content Database" field. It should read: "Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=bw_da_content_euts;Data Source=MSSQLDEV"
  • On Vista systems the toolset may need administrator privileges to read the database where it's installed but fail to prompt you for them. Try right-clicking the toolset's shortcut and selecting "Run as Administrator" from the dropdown menu.
  • Some users report that the installer fails to create the SQL database (e.g. your Dragon Age\toolssql\data folder is empty). You can enter the following command to try restoring the database manually (Change the paths to bw_dragonage_content.bak and your Dragon Age folder as appropriate): "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\Binn\"sqlcmd -S .\BWDATOOLSET -E -Q "RESTORE DATABASE bw_dragonage_content FROM DISK = 'C:\Program Files\Dragon Age\tools\dbbak\bw_dragonage_content.bak' WITH MOVE 'bw_dragonage_content' TO 'C:\Program Files\Dragon Age\tools\toolssql\Data\bw_dragonage_content.mdf', MOVE 'bw_dragonage_content_Log' TO 'C:\Program Files\Dragon Age\tools\toolssql\Data\bw_dragonage_content.ldf'"

You need to allow Users to Modify the DATA folder, before you can execute this command.

  • Some users have been successful simply installing from a more direct path (ie extract rars to a new folder C:\DAInstall and then run the exe file from that location rather than from a MSFT created My Documents path).
  • Its been observed that for some builds that the Toolset is not looking at the correct registry keys perhaps due to permission restrictions.
    1. First use the ConfigureToolset to set the correct string.
      If you don't use the default settings you can copy the string from from the ConfigureToolset tool otherwise use one of the following command line queries to get the connection string.
      Win32: reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\BioWare\Dragon Age\Toolset\Environment" /v DefaultDatabaseConnection
      Win64: reg query "HKLM\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\BioWare\Dragon Age\Toolset\Environment" /v DefaultDatabaseConnection
    2. Now run the following command line (substituting your connection string for the final value)
      reg add "HKCU\Software\BioWare\Dragon Age\Toolset\Environment" /v DefaultDatabaseConnection /t REG_SZ /d "Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=bw_dragonage_content;Data Source=.\BWDATOOLSET"
Double check your entry, a single incorrect character will cause the same "Unable to Connect" error.


If all else fails, you can try setting up your database separately from the toolset installer. See Manual database installation for the steps needed to install MSSQL Express 2005 and configure it for use with the toolset manually.

Other database issues and solutions

If you have never installed MSSQLServer Express, check for updates available for it through Windows Update after installing the toolset.

If the SQL install fails with a crash it is possible that it is conflicting with MSXML6. If you have MSXML6 installed, uninstall it and try reinstalling the toolset. See Microsoft's support page on this issue.

During the SQL Server Express installation when the installation script attempts to start the database, a message box with the "The SQL Server service failed to start..." error message and options to Retry or Cancel may pop up.

  • Don't hit cancel. Cancel rolls back the installation, preventing the creation of the BWDATOOLSET database. You'll need to reinstall from scratch if this happens.
  • Instead, navigate to C:\Documents and Settings\NetworkService\Application Data\Microsoft\ and right click on the Protect folder and open the Properties window. On the Security tab add NETWORK SERVICE to the list of Groups and User names and grant it Full Permissions.
  • If you don't have a Security tab then close the Properties window and select Tools | Folder Options from Explorer's menu bar. In the Folder Options window click on the View tab, scroll to the last option and uncheck Use simple file sharing (Recommended) option. Now you should be able to do complete the previous step.
  • Finally return to the "The SQL Server service failed to start..." error message and click on the Retry option.

The version of MSSQL Server 2005 included with the toolset may have trouble installing on 64-bit operating systems. This can be indicated by SQL Server Error 70047 in the installer's logs. To resolve this problem, install Microsoft .NET Framework Version 2.0 for 64-bit architectures before installing the toolset.

You may also encounter issues running migration scripts on 64 bit OSes. An alternate migration script can be found here: http://social.bioware.com/project/46/

You may get issues with access permissions. This can be avoided by giving your username admin rights to the database. To do this:

  1. Run "SQL Server Surface Area Configuration" (should be on your start menu under Microsoft SQL Server 2005)
  2. Select the "Add new administrator" option.
  3. Add yourself as administrator.

Windows XP SP 2 and endless reboot cycles after install

The MSSQL Server Express installer bundled with the toolset has a potential issue when installed on Windows XP Service Pack 2 that can cause an endless cycle of reboots. Dragon Age: Origins has Service Pack 3 as part of its minimum installation requirements, so you should try upgrading to Service Pack 3 and reinstall.

If you're stuck in an endless reboot cycle:

  • Press ctrl+alt+del and open the task manager as soon as possible. Failing that, try booting in safe mode by holding down F8 during the boot process.
  • Then go to the start menu and in execute type in "msconfig"
  • In MSConfig go to services and deactivate all the SQL services.
  • Now you can go to control panel...software and uninstall the SQL server from the last piece upward.

Alternately, instead of booting into safe mode after holding down F8 during boot, you can choose the option "Last known good configuration (your most recent settings that worked)". This may restore your system to a functional state and allow SQL Server to function correctly.

Once you've uninstalled SQL Server this should prevent further reboot cycles. You can now install Windows XP Service Pack 3.