Client Crashes in Everquest

[wlkndead5215]

Greetings Lax,

I have been having alot of client crashes. Most recently since I upgraded my computer. Basically I have an entirely new computer. Best I can tell, I have all the newest drivers for everything. Last night in the course of about 2 hours of play time I had a total of 5 client crashes. The zone I was in was Colbalt Scar, and I was only running 2 instances of Everquest.

I have heard that having a different install of EQ for each instance that you are boxing will help lighten any latency issues. Below you will see the SysInfo.txt posted via cut and paste. Any suggestions you might have would be helpful.

WinEQ 2 System Information
System:
-----------------------------------
Windows Version: Microsoft Windows XP/Service Pack 2/2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.050301-1519
System Physical RAM: 1093/2047MB
Page File: 3104/3940MB
Virtual Memory: 1148/2047MB (Extended: 0MB)
CPU 1: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3200+ @ 2002MHz
CPU Affinity Mask: 1
Video 1: \\.\DISPLAY1/Radeon X1300 Series
Video 2: \\.\DISPLAY2/Radeon X1300 Series Secondary
Video 3: \\.\DISPLAYV1/NetMeeting driver
Video 4: \\.\DISPLAYV2/RDPDD Chained DD
Monitor 1: \\.\DISPLAY1 (0,0,1280,1024) (1280x1024) PRIMARY
Sound: ¨
DirectX: 4.09.00.0904
Internet Explorer: 6.0.2900.2180
WinEQ: 2.13

Loaded Modules:
-----------------------------------
Module 0: C:\Program Files\Games\Everquest Copy2\eqgame.exe
Module 1: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ntdll.dll
Module 2: C:\WINDOWS\system32\kernel32.dll
Module 3: C:\Program Files\Games\Everquest Copy2\mss32.dll
Module 4: C:\WINDOWS\system32\USER32.dll
Module 5: C:\WINDOWS\system32\GDI32.dll
Module 6: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINMM.dll
Module 7: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ADVAPI32.dll
Module 8: C:\WINDOWS\system32\RPCRT4.dll
Module 9: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WSOCK32.dll
Module 10: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WS2_32.dll
Module 11: C:\WINDOWS\system32\msvcrt.dll
Module 12: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WS2HELP.dll
Module 13: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DINPUT8.dll
Module 14: C:\Program Files\Games\Everquest Copy2\DSETUP.dll
Module 15: C:\WINDOWS\system32\VERSION.dll
Module 16: C:\WINDOWS\system32\ole32.dll
Module 17: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WININET.dll
Module 18: C:\WINDOWS\system32\CRYPT32.dll
Module 19: C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSASN1.dll
Module 20: C:\WINDOWS\system32\OLEAUT32.dll
Module 21: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHLWAPI.dll
Module 22: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SHELL32.dll
Module 23: C:\WINDOWS\system32\IMM32.dll
Module 24: C:\WINDOWS\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.Common-Controls_6595b64144ccf1df_6.0.2600.2180_x-ww_a84f1ff9\comctl32.dll
Module 25: C:\WINDOWS\system32\comctl32.dll
Module 26: C:\Program Files\Games\WinEQ2\WinEQ2.dll
Module 27: C:\WINDOWS\system32\PSAPI.DLL
Module 28: C:\WINDOWS\Lavish.dll
Module 29: C:\WINDOWS\system32\iphlpapi.dll
Module 30: C:\WINDOWS\system32\mswsock.dll
Module 31: C:\WINDOWS\system32\hnetcfg.dll
Module 32: C:\WINDOWS\System32\wshtcpip.dll
Module 33: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DNSAPI.dll
Module 34: C:\WINDOWS\System32\winrnr.dll
Module 35: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WLDAP32.dll
Module 36: C:\WINDOWS\system32\rasadhlp.dll
Module 37: C:\Program Files\Games\WinEQ2\WinEQ2-EQ.dll
Module 38: C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSIMG32.dll
Module 39: C:\Program Files\Games\WinEQ2\WinEQ2-D3D9.dll
Module 40: C:\Program Files\Games\WinEQ2\d3dx9_27.dll
Module 41: C:\Program Files\Games\WinEQ2\WinEQ2-D3D8.dll
Module 42: C:\Program Files\Games\WinEQ2\WinEQ2-DI8.dll
Module 43: C:\WINDOWS\system32\uxtheme.dll
Module 44: C:\Program Files\Games\WinEQ2\EQPlayNice.dll
Module 45: C:\WINDOWS\system32\MSCTF.dll
Module 46: C:\WINDOWS\system32\NTMARTA.DLL
Module 47: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SAMLIB.dll
Module 48: C:\Program Files\Games\Everquest Copy2\EQGraphicsDX9.DLL
Module 49: C:\WINDOWS\system32\d3d9.dll
Module 50: C:\WINDOWS\system32\d3d8thk.dll
Module 51: C:\Program Files\Games\Everquest Copy2\dpvs.dll
Module 52: C:\WINDOWS\system32\HID.DLL
Module 53: C:\WINDOWS\system32\SETUPAPI.DLL
Module 54: C:\WINDOWS\system32\WINTRUST.dll
Module 55: C:\WINDOWS\system32\IMAGEHLP.dll
Module 56: C:\WINDOWS\system32\mslbui.dll

Direct3D9:
-----------------------------------
Driver: Radeon X1300 Series /ati2dvag.dll/6/14/10/6587
Adapter Display Mode: 1280x1024 D3DFMT_X8R8G8B8
Game Display Mode: 1280x960 D3DFMT_UNKNOWN (Full Screen)
Current Adapter: 0
Available Texture Memory: 253MB
Direct3D8:
-----------------------------------
Adapter Display Mode: 0x0 D3DFMT_UNKNOWN
Game Display Mode: 0x0 D3DFMT_UNKNOWN
Current Adapter: 0
Available Texture Memory: (not currently available)
DirectInput8:
-----------------------------------

EverQuest:
-----------------------------------
Profile 5: Sandee
EQ Path: C:\Program Files\Games\Everquest Copy2
EQClient.ini: .\eqclient.ini
Patch: OFF Server Type: Normal Locale: us
Video Adapter: Application Controlled
Luclin models: 29 (+145 min RAM)
Texture Quality: INVALID VALUE 3
Calculated minimum RAM: 428MB (BASE+145MB)
Level of Detail: 1
MaxFPS: 100
Additional setting: HardwareTnL=TRUE
Additional setting: VertexShaders=1
Additional setting: 20PixelShaders=1
Additional setting: 1xPixelShaders=0

EQPlayNice:
-----------------------------------
EQ Version: eqgame.exe Apr 17 2006 14:53:02
Foreground
Mode: FPS Limiter
Max FPS: 40
Rendering: 1/1
Background
Mode: CPU Limiter
Max FPS: 30
Rendering: 1/30


Thanks.

[Lax]

I have heard that having a different install of EQ for each instance that you are boxing will help lighten any latency issues.

Totally false, and can only be serving to increase the chance of such crashes.

http://www.lavishsoft.com/wineq2/faq.php#2.1

2.1) Should I use the same folder for each session of my game, or separate folders?
Short answer:
Same folder

Long answer:
It is a common myth that game performance can be increased by using mulitple folders, possibly even on separate hard drives. The thinking goes that using separate copies of the files will allow them to be used independently and hopefully faster than trying to use the same files. However, this is not the case. A relatively simple concept in computer science says that hard drive accesses are slow, and memory accesses are fast -- about 10 milliseconds for hard drive access, and under 100 nanoseconds for memory access (as low as about 5ns depending on if the memory is stored on the CPU or if it is system RAM, etc), a ratio of 10 to 10,000,000. That's a pretty big difference. The point of explaining this is modern computer systems employ several "cache" systems to reduce the amount of file accesses as well as file access times by reusing unchanged data directly from memory, or by predicting the next data to be retrieved (for an easy to understand example, if you read the first half of a file, you can be expected to also read the second half). By using a separate folder, these cache systems cannot recognize that the data being read is actually the same. This means that instead of 10,000,010 nanoseconds for loading time for two sessions, it will probably be 20,000,000 nanoseconds because the entire data must be read twice. In terms of loading time, you have absolutely nothing to lose by using a single folder on a single hard drive, and can reasonably expect it to be faster than using multiple folders, regardless of whether it is on another physical hard drive. Note that it may be possible in some cases to see performance increases by using a separate hard drive, but the hard drives MUST be on a separate IDE channel, or they are competing for the same resources anyway (or use SATA, etc), and it is still unlikely that this will show improvement over a single folder.

Try using 2 instances with 1 folder instead of 2, and see if that helps. Your system looks normal otherwise

[wlkndead5215]

Thanks will give that a shot later today and will let you know!

[Kardath]

Possibly semi-related, possibly not. <shrug>

All I know is, whether 2 boxing or 3 boxing, I am shocked when I don't get at least 1 "eqgame.exe has encountered an error and must close..." when going from char select to server select. Fairly often all instances will crash in this manner on attempt to exit.

Frequently I even get this when zoning or camping from game to char select.

This is new since latest patch... which was supposed to fix this issue??? that I didn't have before. <boggle>

Or perhaps I have my patch messages mixed up? Not sure, but getting kinda sad about this.

Any info you need from me to work on this or am I kinda in the 1 in 1000 group and just gonna have to live with it?

Thanks

[Lax]

I un-patched the patch that was intended to fix that problem. There's another thread on your issue, I'm not quite sure why you posted on this one

Regardless, you wont have to live with it for long, I'm just kind of over-stretched at the moment, and having real life issues.

[Kardath]

I greatly appreciate your response, information, and a hope for the future.

Also, I humbly ask forgiveness for posting in the wrong thread, and for not having found the proper one that already covered this.

Finally, I truly hope that your real life issues and other pressures work out to your ultimate good fortune.

<My kids think I'm wierd, too. I'm used to it.>

[wlkndead5215]

Well I figured out what was causing the crashes: outdated BIOS that was not playing nicely with current drivers. A BIOS flash, and a fresh install of EQ (had a few currpted files) and its running primo!