did you move OUT of the area and then back in?
Did you go far enough? (aka, try to travel by boat to freedom islands then back).
Did you try it WITHOUT the 1.7 patch? with?

I went down to Lower Hadar, patch 1.7.
It would be nice if you tell me exactly what you did to make this awful bug go away?

for me personally?
On GG version. I uninstalled the game, deleted leftover files, reinstalled, and then patched to 1.7 before first run. Then I ran it, loaded the save game, and it just worked, I didn't even have to leave/reenter the zone...

If this solution did not work for you, then email customer support, this is just a self/user help forum. I am sure that if you email them your save game they could fix it. Or advise you.

Your advice is invalid, Upper Hadar is permanently broken.
It's a shame, such a good game and now I have to stop not finishing half of the game.

invalid?
It works for everyone else, if it doesn't work for you then contact tech support. There is no need to be melodramatic.

I already contacted them, they haven't responded and frankly what can they do except issue another official patch...

Obviously reinstallation has nothing to do with it, I reinstalled 3 times, even started a new game, Upper Hadar is always non-responsive.

I have the same problem with Upper Kordar. As soon as I leave the mines (my last save-game), my character has an automatic conversation with the dwarven guard, and then with Lina. However, none of the buildings / characters in upper Kordar are accessible--even though the hand icon becomes animated after I pass the cursor over the buildings / characters. I have reinstalled the game twice, with and without the latest patch. I have also travelled to different areas and then returned. Nothing seems to work.

This bug effectively prevents me from finishing the game-- and so far is the only bug I've encountered. I'm running a very high-end PC with Vista Premium SP1 with all the latest drivers for display, sound, motherboard, bios, etc.

Which version are you playing?

Guys we are trying to solve issue and fix this bug ASAP.

Have the same problem and also the secrom issue with patch 1.7. A great game, but not worth all the $&!+! Cannot get a refund from store because of the open box.