Common Technical Issues and FAQ UPDATED 3/9/2011

[Tiggs]

Edit by Mirthgar: These are the merged "Frequently Asked Questions" and "Common Technical Issues" threads, use those links for quick navigation. (Added "NVIDIA 196.75 Driver Alert!" thread as well.

Are you having some trouble with getting Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach to install properly? We can help! We have listed below the common problems that some of our customers are running into. If these do not assist you with your problem please search our extensive Knowledge Base for further assistance, contact our Live Chat or click on one of the Quick Links below.

Quick Start Guide

1. Installation
2. DDO Free to Play FAQ's
3. Firewall Settings
4. Game Launcher Connection Troubleshooting
5. Minimum System Requirements

Tech Support Assistance – Official Turbine Technical support

1. Dungeons and Dragons Knowledge Base
2. Dungeons and Dragons Technical Assistance Forum

Non-Turbine Websites: Additional sites that could provide you with further assistance.

1. Techimo
2. Support Freaks
3. Tech Guy

Misc

1. Microsoft Crash Reports - Do I need to send these?
2. Satellite Connection Help

Bug Reporting


If you come across a bug, the best thing you can do is use the in-game bug reporting function:

1. Click on the "Help" button. It's the third button from the right and it looks like this: "?"
2. Click on the "Report Bugs" tab.
3. Follow the instructions contained therein.

You can also submit an e-mail out of game to ddobugs@turbine.com

Note that sending a report to ddobugs@turbine.com is not the same as requesting Technical Support. If you need a response to help deal with a problem you are having you should send your issue to Technical Support as well as reporting the bug.

How to get our help on the forums


Considering the volume of posts with little to no information attached, I decided to give you some guidelines for getting help.

1. Search the Knowledge Base. Please. Pretty please. With everything on top.
2. Describe the problem completely and exactly. Include all error messages. Completely.
3. Describe all troubleshooting that you have already done. Including any wacky rituals or smacking the side of your computer.
4. Post a dxdiag of your computer. This can be obtained by clicking Start->Run, then typing 'dxdiag' (without the quotes). You then can save the information to a text file, and then post it to the forums.
5. If you're having a launcher issue, please post your launcher logs. These can be found in C:\Documents and Settings\<yourname>\My Documents\Dungeons and Dragons Online\Launcher. On Vista it will be here: c:\users\name\appdata\local\turbine\Dungeons and Dragons online\launcher. Also kindly enclose the log entry with a pair of code tags (click the "#" sign in the editor or type [code] log here [ /code] with no space before the /). This makes it much easier to read.

I am in a code block! 
 
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetuer adipiscing elit, 
sed diam nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut laoreet dolore magna aliquam erat volutpat. Ut wisi enim ad minim veniam, 
quis nostrud exerci tation ullamcorper suscipit 
lobortis nisl ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis autem vel eum iriure dolor in hendrerit in vulputate velit esse molestie 
consequat, vel illum dolore eu feugiat nulla facilisis at vero eros et accumsan et iusto odio dignissim qui blandit praesent luptatum 
zzril delenit augue duis dolore te feugait nulla facilisi.

As an added note, a little courtesy goes a long way. There are users who we've worked with constantly trying to get to the game, and they've been in good spirits the whole while. These users have been getting the most attention.

[Mirthgar]

-----Common Technical Issues/Questions (Updated 1/19/2010)-----

How do I launch the game on Vista or Windows 7?

1. Link is to the KB article detailing launching DDO on Vista / Windows 7.

System.ArgumentException: The path is not of a legal form.

1. Link is to the KB article detailing how to remedy this error

"The game crashes after I pick a server "dndclient.exe" has stopped responding is the error."

1. Are your video and sound card drivers the newest available?
2. Have you recently made changes to the graphics, sound or other game settings? If so try the "Reset game display settings" opiton on the launcher (First button in the row in the upper-right corner of the launcher > Options > Repair)
3. If the above doesn't work try renaming your "Userpreferences.ini" file (ie. olduserpreferences.ini) which is located in the "Documents" (Vista) "My Documents" (XP) > "Dungeons and Dragons Online" folder.

"DDO doesn't launch all I get is a black screen with the cursor?"

1. Check your firewall and make sure that it's letting "dndclient.exe" access to the internet alot of times this occurs because the firewall is behind the DDO screen asking "Do you want to let this program (dndclient.exe) to connect ot the internet?"
2. If it's not the firewall, then try steps 2 through 4 from the one above for the crashing in dndclient.exe
3. Also do you have a "Saitek" or "Logitech G15" keyboard, a "Wacom" tablet or other USB Devices installed? If so try disconnecting/reconnecting them and updating their drivers as well. (For the Wacom tablets you may need to disconnect them at launch of the game)
4. Does pressing "Alt Enter" to bring the game into windowed mode work?
5. Do you have an SB X-FI sound card? If so try this, check the "Add or Remove Programs" (XP) or "Uninstall a Program" (Vista) list for "Host OpenAL (ADI)" and if it's listed uninstall it. Then open C:\Windows\System32 and look in that folder for "adi_oal.dll" and rename it to "adi_oal.dll.bak" and try relaunching DDO.

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We will be updating this regularly so if you don't see your issue here keep checking and also search the forums and the knowledge base and if you are still unable to remedy the issue contact Technical Support ----

[Mirthgar]

This was originally a sticky post here (DDO "Hangs" at Examine Programs), I've moved it here for clarity of the "Sticky" threads.

If the launcher is hanging on "Update Programs", or "Examine Programs" or stalls at "Opening Main Form" these steps can remedy those issues as well.

-------Original Post Below-------

(Edit: Though the beta is closed I'm leaving this up because this can come up also sometimes if you install Lotro on the same computer on Vista and also there are a few other causes of this as well on Vista/XP also)


Sometimes on Vista after installing Lotro (and in some other instances), the DDO launcher hangs at "Examine Programs." To fix this, please go into the folder you have DDO installed (Typically C:\Program Files\Turbine\Dungeons & Dragons Online – Stormreach) and run this file (if this is happening on XP look for the steps in parenthesis):

“TurbineRegisterGDF.exe”

Right-click and choose “Run as Administrator” to run the file and the DDO Live server client should launch correctly.
(On XP: Double click the TurbineRegisterGDF.exe file)

If it still hangs at examine programs in some rare cases you might need to manually perform the functions of the TurbineregisterGDF.exe program:

1. Click the blue Windows logo button -> All Programs -> Accessories -> Right Click on Command Prompt
(On XP: Click on "Start" > "Run" and type "cmd" without quotes, hit "Enter" and skip to step 3)
2. Select: Run as Administrator
3. Type the following line in the Command Prompt Window:

CD “C:\Program Files\Turbine\Dungeons & Dragons Online – Stormreach”

UPDATE: Or if you reinstalled with the updated DDO:U Mod 9 installations use this:

CD "C:\Program Files\Turbine\DDO Unlimited"

(It will look roughly like this in the Command Prompt window, appearance will vary but the command should look just as detailed)

C:>CD "C:\Program Files\Turbine\Dungeons & Dragons Online - Stormreach"

OR:

C:>CD "C:\Program Files\Turbine\DDO Unlimited"

(If using Windows XP or Vista 64bit use one of these below instead):

CD “C:\Program Files (x86)\Turbine\Dungeons & Dragons Online – Stormreach”

CD "C:\Program Files (x86)\Turbine\DDO Unlimited"

4. Hit enter
5. Type: Regsvr32 PatchWrapper.dll
6. Hit enter (you should get a success message)
7. Type: Regsvr32 PatchWrapperPS.dll
8. Hit enter (you should get a success message)
9. Try launching the game again

[Mirthgar]

This was originally a sticky post here (Connection issues and "NForce" Network cards), I've moved it here for clarity of the "Sticky" threads.


Hi all,

Technical Support has seen a recent increase in the number of players reporting issues with connection to the game in various ways. In alot of these cases it has been tracked down to "Nforce" (NVidia) onboard networking cards. Check your network cards model via "Device Manager" (steps below) to confirm if yours is an "NForce" card:


On Windows XP:

• Click on the Start menu, then right-click on the My Computer icon and choose Properties
• Select the Hardware tab and click the "Device Manager" button
• Click the + next to Networking Adapters

On Windows Vista:

• Click on the blue Windows logo button and right-click the Computer icon and choose Properties
• Click the "Device Manager" option on the left of the screen
• Click the + next to Networking Adapters

If you do have an Nforce networking card and you are having issues connecting we've gotten reports that reinstalling the "chipset" drivers for your motherboard (which should include drivers for the network card) has in alot of cases remedied the connection issues with the game. Our suspicion is that these cards have a hardware level firewall/security setup that is possibly filtering secure encrypted connections (over https) Definitely follow up with your PC or Motherboard manufacturer and with Nvidia.


Thank you for reading and we now return you to your regularly scheduled forums...

EDIT:

I ran this by some of our engineers who are going to take a look into it, one thing they did suggest is that this might be something in the way .Net 1.1 is interacting with these cards. To test this if you track down that you have an Nforce card and you're experiencing connection issues, try reinstalling .Net 1.1 and its service pack per these steps:

On XP: Click "Start" > "Control Panel" > "Add or Remove Programs"
On Vista: Click the round blue "Start" button > "Control Panel" > "Uninstall a Program"

In the list that comes up look for:
"Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1"
"Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1 Hotfix (KB####)"

Uninstall those starting with 1.1 and then the "hotfix" (which will give an error but should take itself out of the list) and then download and reinstall them from these links:

Microsoft .Net Framework 1.1
The 1.1 Service Pack (Hotfix)


Some players have reported success doing the following with Nforce network cards:

1. Download the updated drivers/chipset drivers for the nforce network card or motherboard
2. Run the Nvidia Control Panel (Note this might require you to download and install "Network Access Manager" application from NVidia)
3. Enable "First Packet" under Network Settings, add the "Turbine" folder in C:\Program Files to the "First Packet Folders"

[Mirthgar]

Note: This was part of the NVIDIA 196.75 Driver Alert! sticky, I've merged it into here for clarity of the stickies.

NVIDIA 196.75 Driver Alert!

If you currently use an NVIDIA Video Card, please be aware of the following Alert from NVIDIA.

“We are aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues with the latest 196.75 WHQL drivers on NVIDIA.com. Until we can verify and root cause this issue, we recommend that customers stay with, or return to 196.21 WHQL drivers. Release 196.75 drivers have been temporarily removed from our website.”

"How to determine what version of Nvidia drivers you are running"

Click on the Windows "Start" button and click "Run" or click in "Start Search"
Type "dxdiag" (no quotes) and hit enter
On the "DirectX Diagnostic Tool" window that opens click the "Display" tab

Under there on the right-side look for version. This will give the driver version number, to get the XXX.XX number that Nvidia uses those are the last five numbers in the version number there.

As an example if DirectX lists your version as 6.14.011.9107 then your Nvidia version number is 191.07

[Mirthgar]

ATI DirectX 9 Based cards and Windows 7 Support

http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownloa...3&lang=English

"Note: AMD’s DirectX 9 ATI Radeon graphics accelerators are not officially supported under Windows 7. If the user chooses to, they can install the ATI Catalyst Windows Vista graphics driver under Windows 7. Please be aware that none of the new Windows 7 graphics driver (WDDM 1.1) features are supported (as the Windows Vista level graphics driver is limited to WDDM 1.0 level support). Using the ATI Catalyst Windows Vista driver under Windows 7 is not officially supported by AMD, and as such AMD will not provide any form of customer support for users running in this configuration "

[Mirthgar]

The Underlying Connection Was Closed Unable to Connect to the Remote Server

If you are receiving this error currently one new cause of this issue that has cropped up is a trojan that has been setting Internet Explorer up to use a proxy address of http://127.0.0.1:50370 if you are getting the above error, double-check that you are not using that proxy setting.

Open IE (used by the game launcher for its system-wide connection settings) and click on 'Tools' > 'Internet Options' > Connections (tab) > Lan Settings (button) and disable the "use a proxy server" option and click ok twice.

Immediately after that update and then run a full system scan with your antivirus and antispyware tools just to be sure the infection is not active.

[Mirthgar]

If you are receiving a message about missing the d3dx9_42.dll after updating please see this post regarding this error here (from the parent thread here)