Request - Tips and Tricks for Troubleshooting Frozen EQ Clients (1 Viewer)

[Sum1]

Hello!

I'm looking for tips/tricks people have done to successfully troubleshoot clients randomly freezing up. I had this issue in the past, and it seems like rolling back to earlier video drivers corrected (or at least reduced the instances) of the problem, but that's no longer working. It seems like every time a patch happens I end up getting major client freezing issues.

Any ideas or suggestions on how to fix it would be helpful. Even better than just blindly trying a bunch of things and hoping one works would be any suggestions on ways to truly identify what might be causing the problem (similar to EQ crash dumps, etc.). I'm not aware of anything similar to that in Windows 10, but thought I'd ask anyway.

For reference, my system is running:
ACPI x64-based PC
Windows 10
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080
Intel i7-6700K CPU @ 4GHz
Intel 100 series/C230 Chipset Family SATA AHCI controller
32 gig of RAM

I also run ISBoxer with MQ2.

 

[Astra]

*sigh*

Brand new download of all the files... loaded up ONE toon using all default options... didn't even move over any .inis.

Woke up to one client frozen.

This is getting ridiculous.

Oh man, did you also try the directX reinstall that I linked? Been running 15 hours+ with no freeze after DX and fresh install

 

[B_I_G__D_A_D_D_Y]

I use the June, 2010 DirectX 9.0c that is available at https://filehippo.com/download_directx/
That installer unzips the files to a directory of your choice and then you have to run the dxsetup from that folder.

Install DX first, then do a complete removal of your nvidia driver using the Apps feature in Windows settings.

Then use the display driver uninstaller from https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/display_driver_uninstaller.html

Then reboot (very important to reboot often thru these procedures!) and try the latest Nvidia driver (I think 399.24 dated 9/10 is latest). Then reboot again and run Settings >> Windows Updates and make sure there are no Windows updates.

I re-read the thread and it really appears that EQ and your video card/driver aren't happy together. One further test would be to swap out the video card and see if the symptoms change.

 

[Sum1]

Oh man, did you also try the directX reinstall that I linked? Been running 15 hours+ with no freeze after DX and fresh install

I have not reinstalled directx. I may try that in conjunction with the above video card stuff before moving onto more invasive troubleshooting techniques.

 

[Sum1]

As an update for what I've been doing (with the help of @Knightly )

Ran memtest to check my memory modules... no issues
Did a scannow to check for corrupt files. I had a bunch of issues, which were only partially fixed.
Did a chkdsk to check the disk for issues. Scanned the C drive and didn't have anything obvious (although I guess windows did make a few corrections). And scanned my D drive (where EQ, MQ2, ISBoxer, and many other files are located). That scan is ongoing, so I'll update when its done.
Ran DISM to correct corrupt windows files

To Do:
Let the chkdsk finish messing with my D:\ drive
Reboot
Uninstall and update my sound card drivers (AUDIODG.exe had errors, according to my event logs)
Reboot

 

[Astra]

So i ran for about 24 hours no reboot, just had them all lock up. *shakes fist*

 

[Sum1]

I just made a ton of changes.... I'm going to reboot again and try to run with my original EQ settings. Wish me luck.

 

[Sum1]

I've now had four clients logged in (admittedly, afk) all night with no crashes and no errors registering in the event viewer (other than the ones that were reported last night when I rebooted). This is better than before. I'm very cautiously optimistic.

One issue I'm seeing is only four clients are sucking up anywhere between 41% to 48% of my CPU and GPU resources. This seems a tad high considering I was loading 12-15 routinely not long ago.

 

[B_I_G__D_A_D_D_Y]

I've now had four clients logged in (admittedly, afk) all night with no crashes and no errors registering in the event viewer (other than the ones that were reported last night when I rebooted). This is better than before. I'm very cautiously optimistic.

One issue I'm seeing is only four clients are sucking up anywhere between 41% to 48% of my CPU and GPU resources. This seems a tad high considering I was loading 12-15 routinely not long ago.

Any update to your trials and tribulations? I'm curious how this is turning out.

 

[Sum1]

Any update to your trials and tribulations? I'm curious how this is turning out.

Thanks for checking in. I had those four clients plus a few others working perfectly for the last couple of days. It was a goddamned miracle.

With that said, I had some client freezes today for the first time in a couple days. I'm looking through the event logs to see what might have been the cause, and it's looking like an issue with some beta feature windows pushed out in September of last year. Knightly pointed out that it is more a symptom than the actual cause, but I'm getting closer (I think).

At the very least the game is playable now. It wasn't even really playable before. More to follow!

 

[B_I_G__D_A_D_D_Y]

Perhaps something to do with the Game Bar in Win10? I know it was causing a lot of lag when it was introduced. This is in Windows 10 Settings, Gaming. I've disabled all Gaming features on my rig.

 

[Sum1]

Perhaps something to do with the Game Bar in Win10? I know it was causing a lot of lag when it was introduced. This is in Windows 10 Settings, Gaming. I've disabled all Gaming features on my rig.

I've already done this, too.

 

[levox]

I've already done this, too.

Wondered if you've fixed this. I've been having the same problem you describe. Just frozen windows that require ending from task manager. I did notice a new driver install for nvidia in Sept. Rolled that back and trying again. Hopefully that is the issue. It used to just be one or two clients every now and then but seems to be progressively worse. This morning it was 10ish clients (out of 18). No macros running, just plain old sitting afk in pok cause I don't like logging that many chars in if I don't have to.

 

[Sum1]

Wondered if you've fixed this. I've been having the same problem you describe. Just frozen windows that require ending from task manager. I did notice a new driver install for nvidia in Sept. Rolled that back and trying again. Hopefully that is the issue. It used to just be one or two clients every now and then but seems to be progressively worse. This morning it was 10ish clients (out of 18). No macros running, just plain old sitting afk in pok cause I don't like logging that many chars in if I don't have to.

I never “fixed” it, per se, but I discovered that if I have earphones plugged into the audio jack on the top of my computer all freezing issues went away. No idea how to fix the underlying problem (i tried to figure out how to update/fix audio drivers, but couldn’t find the right ones). It’s a shoddy workaround, but it’s what I’ve got to deal with.

 

[levox]

Interesting, maybe I'll give that a try if the rolling back of drivers doesn't work for me. My specs are fairly similar to yours. Used to have problems with bluetooth headphones and eq/vent but those resulted in actual crashes, not just freezing of windows. Thanks for the quick reply.

 

[Sum1]

Interesting, maybe I'll give that a try if the rolling back of drivers doesn't work for me. My specs are fairly similar to yours. Used to have problems with bluetooth headphones and eq/vent but those resulted in actual crashes, not just freezing of windows. Thanks for the quick reply.

No worries, dude. I spent A LOT of time updating drivers, rolling back drivers, and everything in between, and nothing truly "fixed" my issue. I think I was just looking at the wrong drivers now, but at this point, I'm going with what I know works because the alternative is worse. I've also been having a client or two insta-crashing without a dump or without a notification lately, but its been so sporadic that I haven't worried much about it.

The biggest discovery for me (thanks to @Knightly ) was Microsoft's Event Viewer. I was able to see all the errors happening on my computer through that, and then systematically try to eliminate all of them. I failed at eliminating all of them, but I got a bunch taken care of.

 

[Dobber123]

Are you using one drive, is your internet connection metered, have you tried turning off smart screen, and open up your folder properties to check that all locations match up. One drive pending sync or whatever can cause folders to not update, so make sure that you at least place your eq and mq2 applications in a folder that is excluded from backup. Now open up advanced power options. Select hard drive click the down arrow till you see never. Now change sleep and hibernate timers to about how long you will be away from com. You can also use device manager To make sure some the computer is not turning off some device. had a lot of problems till i did a lot of work. I downloaded eq setup and Redguides very vanilla to public user folder without running them. Then I turned off firewall and antivirus. Next, i check run this program as an administrator in folder properties, compatibility, change setting for all users, and made sure there was not a block message in the general tab under attributes. When I ran the setups i change the location to C:\Users\Public. Right after they finished I repeated the admin change and checked for block message again, then ran them both. Not sure if I'm imagining this but when your loading your accounts from eq launcher open a new launcher for each and let them expire on there own. You can also bypass the launcher and make a shortcut for each account.

To bypass launcher follow directions in the link.
https://www.redguides.com/community...hme-command-to-bypass-the-soe-launcher.24968/

 

[microscope]

Could it be the game is just not stable? I had lock ups sometimes in EQ too, but I play millions of games on this same PC and never have problems with anything else. Had this PC since about 2008, I played Rift, ESO, gw2, rift, neverwinter, black desert, rift, eso, TSW, and many more. Can play them all day and no crashes.

 

[Akatora]

Could it be the game is just not stable? I had lock ups sometimes in EQ too, but I play millions of games on this same PC and never have problems with anything else. Had this PC since about 2008, I played Rift, ESO, gw2, rift, neverwinter, black desert, rift, eso, TSW, and many more. Can play them all day and no crashes.

I havent been on in a bit but was having an issue where it isnt a lockup, the character itsself would just drop, my client for it was gone there was nothing, just like I alt+f4'd it.. would happen randomly to a different character each time.. I just gave up trying to figure it out.
still happened on a fresh new PC *had just bought a new one* with a fresh install of everything. So unless its something in MQ doing it, im assuming something with windows 10 is causing it, then again im running 24 clients now on 1 pc

 

[eqmule]

If clients just “drop” it’s very likely it’s a bad plugin doing it, unload plugins one by one until it stops then report back here which one it is and I’ll fix it.

 

[Sum1]

If clients just “drop” it’s very likely it’s a bad plugin doing it, unload plugins one by one until it stops then report back here which one it is and I’ll fix it.

Will do. I had characters just dropping yesterday whenever I would /end a macro.

 

[Sifter228]

Disabling you sound drivers has solved all my lockup issues. Not turning sound off. Disabling the MS driver.