Blue border for selecting/activating doors/objects is non-functional or intermittently flashing

[thothmer]

Windows Vista 64-bit.  Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition, Mass Effect, and Mass Effect 3 all work fine.  But with Mass Effect 2 the blue border on terminals, doors, mini-games... and the text prompt describing the selectable object and the action to be performed that appear at the top middle of the screen are not appearing.  Origin Help advised a uninstall, re-install, and this will now be my fourth time doing this.

For the initial installation and game play, the blue border would not appear at all, and I could only find it when looking up or down and passing camera orientation over the object.  That gave me a flash of the blue border, so I now knew what to look for.  But it's certainly not appearing like it should.  I can have my character stand right in front of the object and still nothing, when there should be a text box showing up when the character is facing the object even from across a room.  I finally discovered I could sometimes select the object if I rapidly pressed the space bar (initially redirected this command to the E key since I'd been playing Mass Effect for so long, but then changed it back to the space bar hoping it would help) while moving from the menu back into game play when the border would flash briefly.  As well, the mouse movements were hypersensitive and the smallest movement would overshoot targets to the point that by the time I could actually get properly aimed, the target had moved directly in front of my character.  I finally contacted Origin Help since I didn't want to do this for the entire game.

After the first re-install, the game seemed to work fine with static blue borders and texts appearing as they normally should, but when I changed graphics settings to window (no border), re-sized the screen, and set all settings to No, the problem was back.

At the next re-install, I did not change any settings.  The blue border flashes intermittently, text/action box doesn't appear as much as the border seems to, but I could be wrong about that as I'm not looking up there as much as I'm trying to catch the border when it appears.  Again, the only sure way of selecting the object is a rapid jabbing of the space bar until they are activated at the same time.  At least I don't have to exit to the menu and re-enter game play to do it now.

Today Origin Help advised that I go to the Mass Effect 2 shortcut on desktop > Properties > Compatibility > check box for Run This Program In Compatibility Mode For: Windows XP (Service Pack 2).  Then launch the game, and the problem is still there.  So Origin Help sent me here.

Kind of confused about that, but here I am. 

If anyone is kind enough to respond, please understand that I'm an expert in other things, but not computers.  I don't speak computer, so it takes me a long time to translate things like HUD into Heads Up Display and so forth.  I've spent hours today trying to understand how to enable ME2 cheat codes/console, as it seems no one bothered to write in tiny, non-computer lingo, regular English words for those of us who aren't computer whisperers.  What I'm saying is if anyone has a suggestion as to what I need to do to fix this problem, or needs more information from me, it would help me a lot if you explained how to do what I need to do clearly and simply, without the normal abbreviations and implied knowledge that most people probably have.  I can search the web to learn things, so I'm not entirely dim, but if you tell me to grab this file or tell you that detail, I'll need to know where to look usually, and I'll need a step by step, hold my hand type of guide.  You'd be surprised what I can misinterpret!

Thanks to anyone who can help.  It would be nice to feel I haven't wasted my time and money on a game I'll never be able to play.  Much Peace.

[Fred_vdp · Accepted solution]

This problem has been linked to framerate. When you have a low number of frames per second, interaction with objects often doesn't work.

Post the following hardware specifications:

Processor

Graphics card

RAM

You can find this info by opening a program called dxdiag in Windows. Press Windows logo + R on the keyboard, type dxdiag in the box and press enter. The basic info is on the first screen, while the graphics card is on the second tab ("display").

You could also just monitor your framerate by running a program called Fraps while playing. If your framerate is ridiculously low, like below 20, then your low framerate is causing the problem and you may need better hardware.

It's also possible that your problem is completely unrelated to what I just described, but since you've already tried everything, I thought I'd just throw this in there.

[Fred_vdp · Accepted solution]

This problem has been linked to framerate. When you have a low number of frames per second, interaction with objects often doesn't work.

Post the following hardware specifications:

Processor

Graphics card

RAM

You can find this info by opening a program called dxdiag in Windows. Press Windows logo + R on the keyboard, type dxdiag in the box and press enter. The basic info is on the first screen, while the graphics card is on the second tab ("display").

You could also just monitor your framerate by running a program called Fraps while playing. If your framerate is ridiculously low, like below 20, then your low framerate is causing the problem and you may need better hardware.

It's also possible that your problem is completely unrelated to what I just described, but since you've already tried everything, I thought I'd just throw this in there.

[thothmer]

Thanks much Fredvdp, for responding, and for taking the time to make it understandable.

I guess I should have just stuck with playing solitaire.  It looks like it's the frame rate, based on what you're saying.  I'm actually embarrassed to even say what mine is if 20 is "ridiculously" low.  Suffice to say it's ridiculously low.

Processor:        Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU  E5200 @ 2.50GHz (@ CPUs), ~2.5GHz

Graphics card:  Intel(R) g45/G43 Express Chipset (not sure if that's enough info on that, but I'm presuming it is.)

RAM:                4060MB RAM

I've actually tried to figure out what to do about a new graphics card, but as you may imagine it's like reading yet another foreign language.  After being overwhelmed and feeling stupid due to extreme ignorance, I usually give up after a couple of hours of trying to figure out what to even consider as a replacement.  And that's not even touching on how I'm going to get a new card installed. 

I was hoping it would be something different considering it did work after the second install until I changed the graphics, which I thought by turning off all the bells and whistles would make it better.  And considering the other three games work, I was thinking there was something with the ME2 game itself, missing files or some such issue.

Thanks for your wisdom and for helping me.  I do appreciate your help very much.  Much Peace to you.

[Fred_vdp]

In this case, I don't think the PC can be sufficiently upgraded to be able to run the game without problems. Both the processor and graphics chipset are below the requirements and I think the motherboard is likely too old to fit in new hardware that is powerful enough.

Taking your first steps into PC customization can be very difficult. If you want to learn more about PC hardware, I can direct you to the following website which lists hardware combinations and assigns a quality to them: http://www.logicalincrements.com/

I think the 'entry' PC on that website should be enough to run the trilogy at reasonable settings. If you ever want a new PC but don't want to build it, check out some custom builds from online retailers. Brand PCs, such as Dell, HP, or Apple especially, are overpriced.

[thothmer]

Thank you Fredvdp, so much.  I really appreciate your input on this.  I guess the bright side is I don't have to worry about getting a new graphics card! 

The site you provided the link for looks really good, easy to understand, and I'll use it as a guide for my future upgrade.  Thanks for sharing it with me.  I do know a person who can put computers together, so maybe I can get some help, and I've got time to start learning about an area that I'm lacking in.  At least I can make an effort to be more knowledgeable about what's being said when you people do your computer speak.

Unless of course you'd like to just give me your computer?  It's time for an upgrade you know!  :oP

Thanks again for your wisdom and for taking the time to help me.  You get brownies!  Much Peace to you.

[dylanHT2]

I did not have these problems in the earlier PC version with Windows 7.  ...  In the ME:LE version (with Widows 10) there were no problems with ME1.  ME2 started out fine but then began to have problems with irregular timing for door bypasses (sometimes short, sometimes extended), then the blue activation square blinking in and out and then disappearing completely, and now the fish dying because ME2 wouldn't let me feed them.  The final straw:  After Jack's rescue, the Illusive Man wants to videoconfer with Shepard but Shepard can't get into the room!

[holger1405]

@dylanHT2 

Did you tried to repair the game?

(Origin > Game Library > right click MELE > Repair)
(Steam > Game Library > right click at MELE > Properties > Local Files > Verify integrity of game files.)

If you have the game on Steam I would still suggest to try the Origin repair additionally.

[dylanHT2]

@holger1405 Thanks for the suggestion. I tried the Origin repair but it didn't fix anything. (I bought MELE through Origin, not Steam.) ... I guess I'll go back to the old Windows 7 version of ME I kept installed on a different computer. Thanks for your help.