Client drops from "random" gates and dungeons

[GentleSmiles]

After sending enough complaints and reports to the teckies about this issue I'll have to say even playing a VIP account and the priorities "claimed" to be offered I'm sadly disappointed on the responses and "care taking" from those at Turbine.

I know this is a "client side" issue even if Turbine will claim it's not. So Listen, your depraving me of my game time play, your NOT addressing the issue but passing the buck, and your teckies are NOT as smart as you give them credit for if I have to keep either relogging because of client crash or dungeon conflict (code issues).

I don't pay for a game to be more disappointed in poor client performance, constant disconnects, and otherwise loss of sensitive content.

Problem: I log in, load my character, run amok around the Harbor deciding what to do first and then enter the Market gate, all of a SUDDEN *crash*.... doh

How many error reports and tickets do I have to send your teckies ? I think every time it happens from now on I'll not only flood your queue with tickets I'll take the time to so backlog your emails you'll eventually fix the **** problem and give me the service I pay for

[ZeroTakenaka]

After sending enough complaints and reports to the teckies about this issue I'll have to say even playing a VIP account and the priorities "claimed" to be offered I'm sadly disappointed on the responses and "care taking" from those at Turbine.

I know this is a "client side" issue even if Turbine will claim it's not. So Listen, your depraving me of my game time play, your NOT addressing the issue but passing the buck, and your teckies are NOT as smart as you give them credit for if I have to keep either relogging because of client crash or dungeon conflict (code issues).

I don't pay for a game to be more disappointed in poor client performance, constant disconnects, and otherwise loss of sensitive content.

Problem: I log in, load my character, run amok around the Harbor deciding what to do first and then enter the Market gate, all of a SUDDEN *crash*.... doh

How many error reports and tickets do I have to send your teckies ? I think every time it happens from now on I'll not only flood your queue with tickets I'll take the time to so backlog your emails you'll eventually fix the **** problem and give me the service I pay for

Give us the specifications on your computer...

[boomeranky]

Not to break into your rage session, but did you try already to think about that this issue might not be due to the client but due to some broken drivers in your system?

What gfx card are you using, is the driver up to date?

Is your directx installation up to date?

sound drivers, etc?

Is your PSU powerful enough to give juice while harddisk gets a lot access and the gpu is running 3d?

I could go on with this list forever...

I don't have the issues you are writing about and I am playing on quite a few configurations including a linux system.

It is not that I never encounter client crashes, they -can- happen and do happen at times (of course when they happen, they do happen with a perfect timing... like shroud part 4 or any area where you just started to fight a bunch of mobs...) and maintenance times like the current are meant to fix many of those ...

[cupajoe]

Not sure if forumite is a word but, oh well.

I am not sure if your post is just a rant cause you need to vent or if you would like some help from the forums (or both). So if this is just a rant then ignore the rest of my post.

Anyways, I had a similar problem once with a laptop. Turns out is was a failing video card. In my case I would turn on the frame rate indicator (CTRL-F) and watch it steadily decline until my client froze up. I could change the time it took to fail by changing my graphics settings. Basically the more I taxed my video card the quicker it went kaput.

I know that I zeroed in on the one thing I had an issue with and that this is in all likely hood not your issue. But, if you can alter your graphic settings and see an obvious difference in the time to fail then maybe its related to your video card. I know it could still be something else (memory or even more likely a software issue) but hey, its fairly easy to troubleshoot and replace a video card (unless its a laptop).

Hope this helps.

[GentleSmiles]

Dell Inspiron 518 4 gigs ram Dual Core Pentium
GeForce 220 GT 1 gig ram... drivers recently updated August of this year
500 gigs HD (Generic)
USB sound based system (nothing special but works fine)
All drivers are up to date from the BIOS through every piece of hardware installed
Vista based OS - Client for DDO configured properly
DirectX 11 - no known conflicts

As I've said I've gotten "error" reports from Windows for some strange reason... main issue "client has stopped working and needs to close"....

Only happens when I enter gates or certian dungeons "randomly" ... and I'm not the only one with these issues several if not (I'd say quite a few) or more have had these disconnects... is this a Vista based conflict ?

Windows cannot find a solution believe me I have error reporting and solutions running to update and fix issues.

There are NO driver conflicts or out of date drivers on this system

[GentleSmiles]

and thanks CupAJoe that's a help however I run several MMO's as well as fairly large and complex games from BF2 to Eveonline as well as COD4 (quick framerate and response times, which you want with a first person shooter team based) ...

I'll eventually get it fixed if it's a hardware / software issue... and this isn't just a rant, it's a demmit I need to fix this thing !!!!

However with a "client" side crash, I still think it may be Turbines "engine" that's experiencing the conflict and not my machine

I've stress tested the video card and it's working fine

[Tyndaleon]

Both myself and others I know are experiencing the 'client crash when zoning' bug alot here lately and having no issues crashing otherwise. And speaking for myself all drivers are as updated as possible (including always using Driver Sweeper between uninstalling existing drivers & new/updated video drivers being installed). So, I'm not inclined to think this is a 'bad driver' or 'bad hardware' issue based on my own experience, or at least nothing that any one individual could resolve (its possible however that those affected might all be using one brand of cards, Nvidia in my case, which Turbine/Nvidia might need to track down in order to resolve in such a hypothetical scenario).

This is isolated only to zoning between places in the game, affecting multiple players, and its not like crashing happens randomly anywhere regardless of the activity (which in that case would be more likely to be something system-related). It doesn't happen every time when zoning, and seems to happens less in town for me than it does going into wilderness areas & quests, but it happens often enough and isolated to that sole mechanic enough to appear to point more to either the client, or else a situation where it *is* something where everyone affected uses relative modern Nvidia cards and thus there's a bug in the current drivers that Nvidia/Turbine will need to identify/resolve.

[AyumiAmakusa]

Is this related to the 'memory leak' that's been discussed where you will eventually crash if you switch between characters and/or zones too many times?

[GentleSmiles]

I'll look for the list and see if I'm listed as one of those "bad' cards, unfortunately even if this a a system that's only about 1 year old, I'm limited on the cards I can actually put into it ... thank God man made a computer and company that actually sucks or we'd have no hurdles to overcome ... Dell

Maybe I'll just plug in a new card next week but shelling out what I paid for the last card and yes I know about the "hole" in the 1 gig cards...

The only query I have then is, why only this game ?

[donfilibuster]

It'd take some troubleshooting, usually lack of RAM cause crash on loading but you say have enough.
Is the hard disk scanned for errors? The disk swap memory is still used to load areas and can crash if it finds errors.

For a thorough check, can you run ddo in lower graphics? can you run in directx 10 or 9?
On options for advanced graphics, try set the distance to the lowest.
Also the one for the number of players that can be seen at once, can't recall its name atm.

When a client crashes it can be that the system can't load it, but also that something may be corrupted.
Don't be surprised if at some point are asked to reinstall the whole thing, so check your system first just in case.

[boomeranky]

Running on nvidia mostly here, so nvidia is probably not the problem.

Though you say your (gfx) drivers are up to date (and i totally believe you about that), please mind that many notebook manufacturers force the gpu manufacturers to only allow the oem driver on the notebook and not the generic driver and those while you have the most up to date oem driver, you do not have the bugfixes like for example the generic nvidia driver contains... a really bad situation for the user, and there is only the solution to use "hacked" drivers then to really get the most up to date one (My old dell inspiron was such an example... it had two updates, in the range of months after buying, but after that there was none while nvidia supplied nearly monthly updates for the gpu... and the stock nvidia driver was blocked through contract clauses from dell with nvidia - dont know how dell behaves nowadays).

And as a side note, just because windows said that the client crashed, does not mean that the program itself crashed - it could have crashed inside a system call or library call outside of turbines reach (which relates to the driver problem...)

Your problem could also be related to other software running on your system, like antivirus stuff and such which collide with the client code, but in the end those are just wild guesses of mine.

In your system description you left out the power supply - what ratings does yours have and what manufacturer was it? Unstable power supplies give a lot headaches on todays systems.

[GentleSmiles]

sorry upgraded power supply to 750 enough to push not only the ram, hd, and gfx... and this is NOT a laptop but a desktop system

thanks for all the intel and support guys you've been awsome... I'll look into other avenues, hmmm who know's I may just say "trash" the Dell, loot / burn / pillage / plunder and go with a newer system...

[Tyndaleon]

sorry upgraded power supply to 750 enough to push not only the ram, hd, and gfx... and this is NOT a laptop but a desktop system

thanks for all the intel and support guys you've been awsome... I'll look into other avenues, hmmm who know's I may just say "trash" the Dell, loot / burn / pillage / plunder and go with a newer system...

It being a Dell doesn't have anything to do with it. I built my system from the ground up. It happens to many folks, its not just you I assure you (not that that makes you feel any better in regards to the problem but...yeah).

Its an annoyance, but my system is fast enough that I can get back into the game in less than a minute usually, so I just grumble under my breath a bit and move on. Supposedly you can help alleviate the problem by lowering your object draw distance to a lower setting though, so you could try that if its something that bothers you to a more 'unhealthy' degree.

[Furbitor]

...

Problem: I log in, load my character, run amok around the Harbor deciding what to do first and then enter the Market gate, all of a SUDDEN *crash*.... doh

How many error reports and tickets do I have to send your teckies ? I think every time it happens from now on I'll not only flood your queue with tickets I'll take the time to so backlog your emails you'll eventually fix the **** problem and give me the service I pay for

Ok just for your information, trouble tickets will not help ANY tech support issue.. they are here to deal with players IN GAME ONLY, ABOUT GAME ONLY. If you got those issues you need to file a bug report, like stand in front of the harbor gate facing the market.. and describe your problem. Failing that, visit the website and use the email support ticket... its your only hope.

Now a long shot... posting in the forums.
Mebbe you can get lucky

First off. I too had issues crasing client alot.. ALL THE TIME. What I found, was my comp cpu is pegged at 100% all the time in ddo. If you got multi monitors, try having the task manager running and the performance tab open, to see how your comp is acting.

You can imagine, if the cpu is pegged, it cant handle more instructions, until it finishes with the ones it has.. the client is designed to shutdown if it times out.

So reading the memory leaks posts,I checked and I found that running my comp fullscreen pegged the cpu, but windowed mode was like 95-98%, and by clicking the "sync with monitor refresh rate" box force the game to slow down and behave... I noticed my excessive pagefille usage leveled off....

I flip fullscreen back and peg the cpu and watch as my pagefile slowly climbs to oblivion.. flip it back and it returns to steady level.

your comp uses its pagefile when you run out of memory on your sticks.. not usually a big deal but writing to the drive and reading from it is considerably slower. if your comp has filled its pagefile an pegged its cpu... bad things happen like crashing clients.

So my suggestion is this use task manager, become familiar with it and learn what your comp can do.

PS in windowed mode now I get 85% cpu usage (1200x xxx resolution, meduim effects)

fool with it.. whats the worst that can happen?

[GentleSmiles]

lol... I never have a unhealthy degree of "frustration" there are kantra tactics that work wonders

besides I don't knock a Dell, I just can't stand the concept of a funny little box that at times is more effective than me ;(

I think I'll just get a new rig and throw this one in the closet, NOT that I haven't done that before lol

[donfilibuster]

I hate pagefile issues are hard to figure out. Might be the ram stick is really toasted but can't know without taking it to the techs.
Sometimes you have no clue, i have had issues with a dual core where a background program slip by and suddenly the ddoclient only had access to half the available cpu.
On a laptop the loading areas was very slow and alleviated it with an readyboost usb stick (keeps the pagefile on it).

There's also the fact that no matter how high your ram is, the pagefile eventually fills up.
This happens more often when changing toons too many times, and even shutting down takes too long.
The fastest way to close it is to just kill the process, who'd think a crash would be actually useful.
Not to speak about the router and all the phantom hiccups that seemingly window's can't detect.

[fco-karatekid]

Running on nvidia mostly here, so nvidia is probably not the problem.

And as a side note, just because windows said that the client crashed, does not mean that the program itself crashed - it could have crashed inside a system call or library call outside of turbines reach (which relates to the driver problem...)

Maybe tossing in some more information will eventually help pin down what's causing these intermittent crashes on load.
In my case, I am running on Linux. The program doesn't crash when this happens... only the visual rendering. I know, because when it happens to me (bout once per weekday, 2-3 times per weekend day), the screen completely goes away, yet the process stays active (and I can even hear the background noises in the destination I was entering.

Furthermore, when it has crashed entering a dungeon and I've been able to kill the process and re-log quickly enough; I spawned in the dungeon (even though onscreen before the crash i was right outside). So I'm making it inside, THEN puking.

I would assume drivers aren't the issue, since Wine's not using your typical drivers in its setup.

This actually started for me right after Update 8. Prior to that, I hadn'texperienced it at all.

[vVAnjilaVv]

Update your vid card and sound card drivers if you can.

Defrag your system thoroughly.

Cleanup your system thoroughly......including full and deepscan Malware and Virus scans......if you're doing the right scans they will take from 20-120 minutes each.

Pop off the side of your computer and thoroughly air dust it.

Check all of your hardware connections........mainly modem connections.

Just a few things I can think off.

DDO is a resource intensive and very finicky game....if any of these issues are not addressed and are present they will cause you serious gameplay problems.

I know which issue you are having, I have it times myself......however I usually just reload the client and I am fine.......I'd almost bet it has more to do with an internet connection or some kind of system resource spike.....I'm not a computer pro tho. Usually a client relaunch does the trick for me and it hardly ever causes me to lose much in game if anything at all, I have just learned to try and deal with it.......like I say...DDO is just extremely picky...one little thing out of place and it starts working loopy.

If there are not a ton of people on the forums at once discussing why the game is having issues currently you can pretty much be guaranteed it's on your end...not Turbines.