Babyz Help & Troubleshooting

On this page you will find potential solutions for the most common issues that may arise in your game.

Note: Before troubleshooting, please make sure that you have installed Petza and/or the most updated Babyz version of Prism's Modded Petza. Most basic issues with modern game compatability are solved by Petza.

ViaVoice Issues

ViaVoice is a very old software, and it is often difficult to get working on modern computers. If you cannot get ViaVoice to work using the original setup file, there are a few possible workarounds:

1. There is a ViaVoice fix by Carolyn included in the Babyz download above, located in the vvccr folder. Double click that folder and try running the setup.exe from there instead. You may need to try installing this setup file multiple times, and be sure to restart your computer afterwards as well.
2. If you cannot get either setup file to launch, there may be a program blocking it from opening. You can try the ViaVoice fix in this thread (from our old proboards forum) to try and close the interfering program.
3. If none of the above solutions will work for you, there is a workaround for getting pageant/posed photos without ViaVoice. The Prism Mirror Lens Petza addon linked in the section above comes with a very convenient feature for getting Babyz to think they hear sound even without ViaVoice installed. With that mod installed, all you have to do is simply press the "Q" key on your keyboard while playing Babyz, and your baby will think they hear a sound from the microphone! You may have to press it multiple times to achieve consistent posing. Unfortunately this fix will not allow you to talk to your babyz or teach them words, but it is a great easy workaround for getting nice photos if you can't use ViaVoice for whatever reason!

Debug Error

The debug error (also known as "unhandled exception") is the most common Babyz error. It is an error that pops up on the screen that says "debug" or "abort" at the bottom. If you get this error, there are a number of ways you can try to fix it, with varying results.

1. The most common cause of this error is from leaving a hexed toy or piece of clothing out on the floor and then removing it from the game. The easiest way to avoid this issue is to make sure you put away all toys and clothes before closing the game each time. To fix this, if you can remember which toy or clothing item you removed, you can add the item back to the game, then open the game and, if it opens without an error, put the item away. Once it is put away, you can remove the item again if you wish.
2. Sometimes the error can be caused by a bugged hexed item. If you know that the issue isn't an item you didn't put away, you can try (after putting everything away) removing all hexed toys and clothing from your game and then see if it runs without the error.
3. If you can still run the game, but it debugs on closing, you may have a baby wearing too many clothing items or an item with too long of a file name. In this case you can also remove all the clothing items from your Clothes folder and then open the game with the same baby.
4. If the debug error happens while hexing, you may have made a hexing mistake. If you are hexing a baby, make sure that all of the textures you are using are numbered correctly and actually exist. For example, if one of your addballs is using texture 26, but you only have 24 textures on the list, that can cause the game to debug and crash.
5. If none of these methods solve the problem, you can try an automatic registry reset. Hold down Ctrl + Shift when opening the game and select "yes" when it asks if you would like to clear or reset the registry.
6. If that doesn't work, you can manually reset your computer's registry. To do this, go to your start menu and type "run" and open the application. In the box that pops up, type "regedit". This will bring up the registry editor, which looks like a big window with file locations at the side. Do a search for "PF Magic", "Ubisoft", "Mindscape", or "Babyz" folders. You can delete any of the Babyz-related folders that you find - but be sure to ONLY delete Babyz-related folders as the registry is not something you want to mess up. This should reset your registry. (Note: You may not have these folders in the registry if you did not install your game via CD.)
7. Another solution is to run your Babyz game in Administrator mode. To do this, right click on your Babyz game file and select "Run as administrator". If the game works after doing that, you can set it to run as administrator all the time by right clicking and selecting properties. The checkbox to always run as administrator should be under the compatibility tab.
8. If none of the above solutions work and your game is still giving a debug error, you can try moving your game directory to a different place. For example, if it is in your program files, try moving it to Documents or your desktop.
9. If you installed your game with the CD, you can uninstall and reinstall your game to try and fix it. Make sure to restart your computer after both uninstalling and reinstalling it.