Overview
I make this guide to collect all the possible solutions to fix Call of Duty 2 technical problems.
Before start (important)
If you tried to play Single player or Multiplayer and the game seems to iniciate but only appears one black screen or the intro logo, before trying any other solution wait 30 seconds or one minute because in Windows 8.1 (and in some cases in other OS) sometimes it takes time to start the game.
General fixes (this worked in Windows 7, 64 bits)
Go to properties on Call of Duty 2 at the Steam Library (right click on the name of the game):
Verify Integrity of Game Cache and uncheck Steam Overlay.
Go to Steam –> Settings –> In-Game and uncheck Steam Overlay.
Copy the Steam.dll and Steam2.dll files from the Steam folder to the Call of Duty 2 folder.
COPY, not PASS.
Put DirectX 7 in options inside de game.
Do not choose DirectX9 (it has some bugs on some OS, but you can try if it works fine on your computer). Never try DirectxX10 because the game has a lot of problems with it, at least nowadays.
Go to properties (right click) of files COD2MP_s and COD2SP_s at the Call of Duty 2 folder:
Set compatibility with Windows XP SP3 and put both of them running like administrator.
Turn ON at least one microphone device (I put the others off):
Panel control–> Sound –> Recording Devices
I did this, I don’t know if it’s dispensable or not:
Connect another microphone or headphone to the computer on the usb port for microphones.
Usually people have two, one green where you put your headphones and another pink where you put your microphone. (I put another headphones on the pink and it worked… so I think it doesn’t need to be a mic per se). Normally it’s called the frontal pannel connector.
Also I found that some people fixed it by turning OFF all de Recording Devices, but when I did that I ran the game and instantly I had the problem “COD2MP_s stopped working”, so I turned ON only one microphone device on Panel Control–>Sound and everything was ok.
Even in some OS the game will work by turning ON all of them.
Game freezes in Activision “presentation game”.
Download [link] and extract it into the installation folder.
Make a backup copy of your CoD2SP_s.exe since we are going to be altering it.
Open a cmd window and move to the installation folder.
Enter this command: imagecfg -u CoD2SP_s.exe
If it worked you should see a little report saying the affinity has been set to a single processor. The -u switch makes the application only run in uni-processor mode.
NOTE: If multiplayer doesn’t work simply repeat the steps for CoD2MP_s.exe.
Game crashes when changing resolution
Go to Call of Duty 2 folder –> CoD2MP_s.exe and Cod2SP_s.exe –> Right click –> Properties–> Compatibility –> Set run as administrator and put compatibility with Windows XP SP3.
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if that didn’t work, try:
Modify the game’s configuration file manually with a text editor.
If you’re kicked from any server in Multiplayer
Verify that you have the latest version installed of Call of Duty 2 (v1.3) and that the punkbuster is updated. Also:
– Go to properties on Call of Duty 2 at the Steam Library.
Uncheck Steam Overlay.
– Go to Steam –> Settings –> In-Game and uncheck Steam Overlay.
“Failed to find Steam”
If you see that message try this:
Go to Steam folder –> Copy the Steam.dll file and paste it into the Call of Duty 2 folder. COPY.
And don’t DELETE it from the Steam folder.
If that didn’t work try copying also the Steam2.dll file from the Steam folder to the Call of Duty 2 folder.
CoD2MP_s.exe has stopped working. Windows can check online for a solution for the problem.
On Panel Control –> Sound –> Recording Devices
Check “Show disabled devices” and “Show disconnected devices”.
Do you have all the devices in OFF?
Change one of them (the microphone) to ON and the others to OFF.
Also if you have one device called Stereo, enable it.
Another fix is just plugging in your mic or another headphone into the front panel connector.
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If that two things didn’t work, try:
Run as administrator, give explicit permissions in Firewall for CoD2MP.exe, punkbuster ,etc…
Run the game in safe mode.
UAC (User Account Control) –> Set to never notify.
Still crashes in multiplayer (only people who tried all the other solutions in this guide)
If you still have crashes when you’re playing Multiplayer in Call of Duty 2, try this:
Go to Control Panel –> Sound –> Recording Devices –> Deactivated all of them.
If you have Windows Vista and the number 1 didn’t work, try to instead of deactivated all of them, activated all of them.
What DirectX do I choose?
There are some serious problems between the game running in DirectX 10, and even in DirectX 9 (specially if you are using Windows Vista). So I would recommend for people who can’t play in DX10 and DX9:
Start your Call of Duty 2 game
Go to Options
Go to Graphics
Put the game running in Directx 7
This may affect the graphics quality but the game should run well.
MAC. Not enough space on disk.
I found that this problem hasn’t been fixed by Activision.
The only two recommendations are:
Run the game as administrator.
Put Steam and it’s related content on the drive that has more gb on your computer, you wont have to worry about disk space for steam games for quite a while. To do that all you have to do is uninstall Steam and install it again, but this time when it asks if you want a typical install or custom, you choose custom. You will then be given the option of installing to a directory of your choice, and then you should choose the “bigger” drive. This has fixed this problem for some Mac users, even if it sounds ridiculous.
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If at the end nothing of this fixed your game the only two solutions would be search more info in Google (I didn’t find anything that worked) or call to the costumer service from Activision.
NOTE –> If you have differents problems with MAC, search on Youtube.
I have seen some tutorials that solved problems with graphics and stuff like that.
I don’t put any of them here because maybe one won’t work for everybody.
Application error the procedure * could not be located in the DLL DSOUND.dll.
Go to this page –> [link] –> [link]
Download the program with costumization installation to avoid adds.
Follow the instructions in the web to repair dll problems (I think you have 3 guides there)
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This should work also with other DLL problems with the game.
If I change from 32bits o 64bits (or viceversa) the game stops working.
A lot of people play the game with a 32bits PC. When they change to 64bits the game stops working so they think that’s a problem inherent to the game. But that’s not true.
I have played Call of Duty 2 from Steam with 64bits computers (Windows 7 and Windows 10) and the game works perfectly. The solution would be to uninstall the game and install it again. Then you need to follow the General Fixes procedure from this guide.
This problem appears because when you change from 32bits to 64bits (or viceversa) some files change or may be affected in one way or another.
NOTE: If it still doesn’t work for you, instead of reinstalling the game try reinstalling Steam.
Frozen mouse. Can’t navigate around with the mouse and it’s stuck at the top left corner.
This is a difficult problem to solve. The only possible solution that I found is:
Try pressing CTRL+SHIFT+ESC when you’re on the game menu and in the Applications select COD2, right click on it and now click where it says Maximize.
COD2SP.EXE doesn’t work. Small screen resolution and crash.
I found this from the Steam user @Hellzilla posted on 2013, hope it helps:
Try to change resolution in the config.cfg file. Solved my COD 2 startup crashes.
Find the file in your Steam install folder, commonly…
C:Program FilesSteamsteamappscommonCall of Duty 2mainplayersPlayerNameconfig.cfg.
Open config.cfg with Notepad. Find “seta r_mode” and change the value to your resolution.
Example:
I changed seta r_mode “640×480” to seta r_mode “1920×1080”
A lot of stutter during the game.
Just reinstall it. It’s the only solution.
LOD object popping.
i found this solution on the forum here in Steam, it’s from @Ryzen_Mike .
All honors to him, who is the one who found the solution. Here it is:
There are 2 files in the RAR archive:
One replaces the original .exe
The other one is a replacement dll file.
“This is a modified CoD2SP_s.exe (v1.2 latest version) executable for Call of Duty 2 single player where the console is enabled by default, field of view (fov) is changed from the default 80 to 90 and the nocd patch is applied. Also included is a modified gfx_d3d_x86_s.dll where r_lodBias (level of detail) is changed to the max distance which prevents all those annoying visual pop-ups in the distance.”