Constant Crashes

Post by **Reap** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 2:36 pm

Hey Guys, i need some help,i dunno if you guys have noticed but i go LD alot! i'll go ahead and explain what happens, explain what i've tried to fis it, and give the specs for my computer.

What happenes is i get a client crash message on one toon, it can be when im boxing, not boxing, with or without wineq. i can be running nothing but one eq and still crash and it happens just as frequently. When i client crash its USUALLY when i zone after about my 7-8th zone, but it does happen on occasion mid fighting anywhere anytime(usually after i've been on for awhile and havnt zoned much). when i client crash my whole computer freezes up for anywhere between 2-10 mins, if im boxing it does not kick the second toon, after my computer unfreezes i can go on playing the second toon. it DOES NOT matter which toon i load up first, either the first or second one i load can ld at any time(but its generally whichever zones more. I've been having this problem for well over a year, and generally wouldnt care as im used to it, but on raids the other night i was lagging so bad that in TS, a friend said the mob was dead, but on my screen, the raid was still fighting and i showed the mob at 44%. so i cant have this issue effect my raiding, i can deal with LDs and small lag, but thats it. One thing ive noticed, is that it repatches some of the zones i was in when i reload up eq(this tidbit might help).

Things ive tried:
-Defrag
-Newest drivers, eq recomended drivers,
-ive turned all of EQs settings to max awesomeness, and lowest graphincs, neither help or hinder lag
-uninstalled, reinstall EQ

Computer stats:
-2 GBs of ram
-NVidia Geforce 8500 GT graphics card
im using 60% of my 112 gbs on my hard drive

Please if anyone can help that'd be great, if anyone has any information on this or can recomend anything that'd be great, only thing i cant afford right now is a reformat(dont got the money to buy windows xp again and lost the disk when i recently moved)

Post by **Whipsnade** » Sat Jan 10, 2009 3:48 pm

i had a similar problem and tried many of the same things you did.
my computer would never crash unless i was playing eq. i finally checked my ram and that fixed it.
there's a free download available called prime95 that will check your ram and cpu. google it and install it (it's a small program). then run the torture test. it will run a number of tests and stop if it finds an error.
it will find most errors within a few minutes but you can let it run overnight for a thorough check.
if it finds bad ram then you have to run it with each stick individually to narrow down the bad stick.

Post by **Reap** » Sun Jan 11, 2009 2:10 am

Thanks Whipsnade,
but it wont let me run the prime 95 program, i followed instructions with no luck.

Taunto/Anarane had me switch it to where my comp only uses one processor, and that reduced lag dramatically, but im still Going LD like mad.

Anymore Ideas?

Alsmack · Post by **Alsmack** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 8:35 am

I would take a look at why it has to patch your files every time, for one.

But take a step back. This is basic troubleshooting. Test each component individually, and eliminate each thing one by one as a possible problem. The first few steps are easy. If at any point a test fails, stop and tell us.

Step 1:

Search google for the following: memtest86+

Download it and make a bootable CD of it. They will have an "ISO" download, you can download that then use your favorite CD burning software to burn an "image" to disk. If you don't have a favorite, use imgburn (Freely available, can be found with google as well). Boot from this. Let it run for at least 2 full passes. It will have a pass counter. I suggest doing this overnight (start after raids, if no errors when you wake up, let it keep running while at work, by that point you've tested long enough)

Step 2:

So you know your RAM is good. I would normally say torture test your CPU next with prime95, but you apparently had some issues doing that. Lets look at something different then: why does it keep patching? Could be a software thing, or a bad hard drive. Unfortunately, all the good free tests require linux knowledge to use. I there for recommend SpinRite. It's easy to use, and worth every penny. www.grc.com - you can pay, download it, and have it create a boot diskette or ISO image like the one you used for image. If the price is out of your league, then we can look at other linux issues. I've used SpinRite to test all kinds of drives, works great.

Step 3:

We really need you to torture test your CPU. prime95 is the best way to do it, and I suggest at least a 12 hour run. If it locks up in 12 hours, we have several possible culprits here. It's as easy as installing the program, running it, going to options -> torture test, choose "in-place large FFTs", and hit ok. If all else fails, Orthos is a good alternative. Choose the same option, hit the button. You'll need something like winrar (www.rarlabs.com) to extract the .cab file. You can download it at:

http://sp2004.fre3.com/beta/beta2.htm

---------------

If you're confused post. Testing takes time, but it's the cheap way before you start spending money. If you don't run your own computer shop like me, you can't just swap parts out to find the bad one.

Post by **Whipsnade** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:11 pm

I've heard good things about memtest but when i had my issues with eq crashing i ran memtest all night long and it didn't find any errors with my ram. prime95 found the error within 10 min. i don't know why you're having a problem with it.

Post by **Kyreth** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 3:29 pm

Ok, I'm not that knowledgeable about computers either, but I used to have a crashing problem when I played at my parent's house. In the end it turned out that the router was set up in a way that my computer didn't have a static DNS address, so it was constantly being reset and would kick me offline. During this time, my other online programs like Internet Explorer and AIM would still work. Once I got a static address assigned, it didn't boot me off EQ any more. This probably has nothing to do with your problem, but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case.

Alsmack · Post by **Alsmack** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:12 pm

Kyreth wrote:Ok, I'm not that knowledgeable about computers either, but I used to have a crashing problem when I played at my parent's house. In the end it turned out that the router was set up in a way that my computer didn't have a static DNS address, so it was constantly being reset and would kick me offline. During this time, my other online programs like Internet Explorer and AIM would still work. Once I got a static address assigned, it didn't boot me off EQ any more. This probably has nothing to do with your problem, but I thought I'd throw it out there just in case.

First off, a lot of this doesn't make sense. EQ only uses DNS once (last time I packet logged it, at least) and that's when it first logs in. Once you're connected, it's using the IP it found through DNS.

Second, a router gets DNS addresses two ways - you tell it what to use, or it gets it from the ISP via DHCP.

Did you mean IP address? That would make a lot more sense, and it sounds like a problem with the lease times from your ISP, because even though I don't have a static IP address, I've had the same IP since I moved in to my place. Each time the lease runs out, my cable modem goes "Hi, I need to renew my lease" and away it happens, no interruption whatsoever.

Anyways, memtest is good, but it's not flawless. I've had it miss stuff, I've also had prime95 miss stuff. That's why I usually run 2 or 3 different things. PC-Check first (not free), memtest if I suspect RAM, prime95 if I suspect CPU, then I stress it with something like 3dMark's tools for hours on end, if problem continues I strip down the machine to barebones, and test from there, swapping in parts as need be (or out to other test rigs I have set up).

There's three distinct symptoms that we need to be figuring out from what I can tell (Reapaz, correct me if I'm wrong):

1. Lots of LDs
2. Computer Freezes / Stalls (sometimes comes back? not sure on this)
3. Repatching files every run.

All of these can be software or hardware, so we're trying to rule out the hardware portion first.

Also, Reap, what files are repatched? If it's just map text files, I wouldn't worry about it. If it's anything besides the text files that go with zones, I'd look in to it further.

Post by **Kyreth** » Mon Jan 12, 2009 7:45 pm

Yeah, I meant IP address. Like I said, I am no expert! It had something to do with how my father had adjusted the router settings.