Game stops responding for variable lenght of time

[NCGA_One]

While loading into the game, and also when shifting zones and loading into quests, my DDO will stop responding. I play in a window, and can see the window grey out, and see the text (Not Responding) in the title bar. Is anyone else having this same issue? I have reinstalled the game, uninstalled pando media booster and akami net sessions, and still have this happen. Sometimes the game will not respond for upwards of 5 minutes.

[Relem]

I usually get it every time I earn 100 favor, very annoying. And a little when zoning.

[skaught78]

You must be new. Welcome to DDO. It's the norm here. Players have been complaining about this and similar issues for ages. Turbine refuses to fix it, acknowledge it, or even comment on it.

[sebastianosmith]

Hey NCGA_One,

You may also notice that your hard drive is being heavily accessed which is why everything else has to stop and wait. Try loading the game with Wanesa's DDO-Preloader. It will more than likely fix your problem.

Best of luck!

[Missing_Minds]

Hey NCGA_One,

You may also notice that your hard drive is being heavily accessed which is why everything else has to stop and wait. Try loading the game with Wanesa's DDO-Preloader. It will more than likely fix your problem.

Best of luck!

Those sorts of issues... they make me think of an HD starting to fail vs standard slow loading times honestly.

[sebastianosmith]

Those sorts of issues... they make me think of an HD starting to fail vs standard slow loading times honestly.

There can be a variety of factors causing this and imminent failure is among them. Things more likely include a 5400RPM drive, default OS SATA drivers instead of the optimised OEM version, a heavily fragmented HD, real-time AV memory checking, low memory conditions, etc.

While you and I may be fastidious about keeping our hardware and software a peak performance levels, many, many, many people treat their computers like their cars - Put in gas and drive until something goes wrong. They don't want to be bothered with the details.

[Missing_Minds]

There can be a variety of factors causing this and imminent failure is among them. Things more likely include a 5400RPM drive, default OS SATA drivers instead of the optimised OEM version, a heavily fragmented HD, real-time AV memory checking, low memory conditions, etc.

While you and I may be fastidious about keeping our hardware and software a peak performance levels, many, many, many people treat their computers like their cars - Put in gas and drive until something goes wrong. They don't want to be bothered with the details.

Agreed. So lets address those.

5400 RPM drive. Aka the slow of the slow, also known today as "green" because of their lack of energy useage. Of my own PC, this sucker is the bane of my gaming. Its slow speeds causes lag, slow loading, and is the real bottlneck of my system.

Default OS SATA drivers. Assuming you are not using a USB drive, this can also cause slowness but is the probably the least thought about issue. Me, I only know such exists and I haven't bothered with trying to find something better. Heck I don't know if better even exists for my system. (Granted if I went to a SSD, i'd be looking into drivers)

Fragmented HD: First, don't get this confused with game fragmentation. That one deals with fragmentation internal to the DDO (or other) data files. There is very little we players can do about such. However, if you have never run "defrag" on your hard drive before, I would advise you do so. (if you have an SSD, don't run defrag.)
Also in this region I'd also suggest a program to help clean up junk from your PC. CrapCleaner (CC) is a good program for this. I also use it to help clean up my registry at times.

Real time scanning by AV aka Anti Virus software: Many gammers turn off their AV, however, there should be settings such that you can tell it to not scan certain directories. I'd do this only if you trust Turbine to never have a virus come in through their in game web portals and that you do not use said web portals for external to Turbine sites.

Low memory conditions: This is a more tricky one to answer as there are a few different setups. So before Sebastian dives into this one (yep, going to pass the baton back to him) What type of system do you have? How much Ram? What is your graphics card?

edit: How about actual power issues also. Sebastian, you want that one or do you want me to continue a monologue?

[sebastianosmith]

Low memory conditions: This is a more tricky one to answer as there are a few different setups. So before Sebastian dives into this one (yep, going to pass the baton back to him) What type of system do you have? How much Ram? What is your graphics card?

Low memory - defined as 25% or less of RAM free but that varies given the total usable memory space - will probably cause memory page swapping which essentially trebles the work your HD has to do. That paired with the size and poor access mechanism of the DAT files will lock your computer until it either finishes the load or crashes the machine. The causes of low memory are varied and to diagnose it we'd need to know a great deal more about the hardware and OS conditions.

However,

Given that NCGA_One indirectly asserts the game does eventually become responsive again even after a five minute period, I'm betting it's HD thrash and the pre-loader will alleviate the condition significantly. If that turns out not to be the case, we can explore other options in the fullness of time.

[NCGA_One]

Ok, I am using the preloader, and it helps a little. As to my system, I have a 7200 rpm drive, 6 gig memory, quad core AMD. And DDO is the only thing having issues. I can watch movies off Netflix, or downloads with no issues. Also have 2 gig video, AMD Radeon. Power settings are maxed for performance. And I defrag the hdd every sunday, long as the fragmentation is larger then 1%. Think I answered everyones comments, if not, remind me and I will respond in my next update, and thank you all for trying to help me fix this, takes the fun outta the game when lag and stutter is all you get.

[sebastianosmith]

Ok, I am using the preloader, and it helps a little.

I know you probably haven't clocked the delta, but subjectively what is "a little". Is the difference noticeable during initial load, zone changes, character swaps, etc.?

As to my system, I have a 7200 rpm drive, 6 gig memory, quad core AMD. And DDO is the only thing having issues. I can watch movies off Netflix, or downloads with no issues. Also have 2 gig video, AMD Radeon. Power settings are maxed for performance. And I defrag the hdd every sunday, long as the fragmentation is larger then 1%.

You box is well above the "minimum" requirements for the game; on par or better than mine in most ways. There should be nothing wrong from a hardware standpoint.

One question - What AMD CPU and OS are you using? I ask because there is a slight problem with Bulldozer cores and several CPU intensive games under Win7 and with older Phenom chips combined with this game in particular.

Hopefully, we'll be able to resolve this issue for you. Best of luck!

[Missing_Minds]

Also have 2 gig video, AMD Radeon. Power settings are maxed for performance.

This caught my attention and maybe I'm just reading more into it.

Do you mean your hardware profile settings (windows) or the Radeon drivers? If drivers, I've seen them have issues when you start to putz with timing. I just leave it at default and let the drivers to their thing but I take over fan speed and crank it to keep it cool. Graphic cards are notorious for not having a good cooling control curve.

Does this mean the drivers will cause me lag because they'll attempt to power save before kicking back in gear? Yeap. *grumble* but it also means I don't crash.

[Missing_Minds]

Given that NCGA_One indirectly asserts the game does eventually become responsive again even after a five minute period, I'm betting it's HD thrash and the pre-loader will alleviate the condition significantly. If that turns out not to be the case, we can explore other options in the fullness of time.

The loader is only really useful for the first load after booting up. Same as a slow first load. After that if it still loads slowly, that points to something else.

Emm... If not the HD, what of RAM? Think it would be worth while to do an over night RAM test? Granted I'd expect to see other differences happening if it were fault mobo RAM not just slowness.

[sebastianosmith]

The loader is only really useful for the first load after booting up. Same as a slow first load. After that if it still loads slowly, that points to something else.

If you have enough RAM, 8Gb or more from my experience, client_logic.dat will usually stay in cache throughout the game session and speed up zone transitions and character swaps. Less than 8Gb and Windows begins to free the cache to make room for program data which does negate the effectiveness of the preloader beyond initial loading.

Emm... If not the HD, what of RAM? Think it would be worth while to do an over night RAM test? Granted I'd expect to see other differences happening if it were fault mobo RAM not just slowness.

Unless some other process is having a problem I doubt it's the memory. NCGA_One said Netflix is working well which is using Silverlight, Flash or HTML5 - depending on the browser/host app and what Netflix is pushing at the moment - and all of those would be subject to memory allocation errors. Running a burn test is probably not going to hurt anything unless there's a problem anyway.

A better place to start hunting for alternative causes would be the Windows System Log. If any subsystems are barfing nonfatal errors they'd definitely show up in there.

[Missing_Minds]

If you have enough RAM, 8Gb or more from my experience, client_logic.dat will usually stay in cache throughout the game session and speed up zone transitions and character swaps. Less than 8Gb and Windows begins to free the cache to make room for program data which does negate the effectiveness of the preloader beyond initial loading.

Win 7, 6 gig, and never using the pre loader. I just loaded that dat file into a text editor, scrolled down and then launched ddo. Same speedup, no extra programs, and I only ever had to do it once. Subsequent relaunching of the game was always just as fast.

I'm betting the OP should run a program to double check the health of the hdd along side what you are suggesting about the error logs.

[sebastianosmith]

Win 7, 6 gig, and never using the pre loader. I just loaded that dat file into a text editor, scrolled down and then launched ddo. Same speedup, no extra programs, and I only ever had to do it once. Subsequent relaunching of the game was always just as fast.

Yep. You can copy the dat file from one fixed device to another and get the same benefits too. The preloader is simply a more convenient mechanism for most people.

The extra memory (8+Gb) becomes important when your have a lot of zone changes and character swaps during the game. Each one of those appears to consume an enormous amount of memory (>1Gb in some cases like FR content) while the resources load. It deallocates quite a bit afterwards but can definitely bump the dat file out of cache.