Playing Sanitarium and all of the sudden it froze, screen went black, hit escape and the hand appeared but background still black. Finally hit ctrl, alt, delete and clicked on task manager then when I clicked on game icon at the bottom I got this message "unable to restore display mode to 640x480x8, [FAC=NULL ERR=16385] The game will be terminated. Why did this happen, anyone know? I was just going into the mansion and had just finished the cave. Oh just noticed in upper left corner "Game is paused" X'd out and got runtime error! Is this my fault or game or computer error?
Sounds a bit like I did something since the game was paused but I did nothing to instigate this.

Don't be discouraged, the game is very buggy and I have similar issues every time I replay it. The best you can do is save often and restart when it crashes.

Oh swell. Wish I had known this, might not have purchased it. As always, thanks InlandAZ.

This is one of those few games where the bugs are worth the aggravation, Terri!

I think I get so easily aggravated because I haven't a clue what I'm doing and don't know if it's me or the game. I got through the Mansion and while in the house I felt very sad.
This is really a strange game!

Check "sntrm.exe" for compatibility modes. It is best to have none set. Exiting Windows Explorer before starting the game helps with the graphics more than any compatibility modes settings. I wrote an installer for the game, but if this was a digital download my installer will not work with it. The installer includes a launcher that I wrote that exits Explorer before starting the game that goes a long way towards addressing a number of problems with the game. It also includes the official patch for the game.

Did you get this game through GOG? I do not have the GOG version, but some include images of the discs that might be possible to get the installer to accept.

Hi. Yes I purchased the game on GOG. I need to remember to save often just in case I have a problem.
Thanks.

Crashes may depend on the order you do things. I don't remember having any crashes with the GOG version under Windows 8, but I had many crashes using the disc version in Windows 98 the first time I played the game. Most of the crashes were in the 2nd chapter ("mother" and the kids) and the circus chapter.

Don't worry about crashes in the game. As Inland says, just save regularly. Crashes are unlikely to mess up your game installation so no need to reinstall.

There was an update for Sanitarium that might correct these problems. Not sure where I found it but you could try
http://www.patches-scrolls.de/
or this site.

There are two patches for the game. Be careful of the "SANUPD" patch, which includes an updated EXE with the GOG version as it might restore the disc check and start asking for the CDs. I believe it is the "SANIPAT1" that addresses the chapter 2 crash.

Thanks GB's. I only had the problem once so far and I'm well passed Chapter 2, so am going to try to finish the game without the patch.