Crashing While Zoning, Stuck Character!

[Sarcazzm]

I'm sick to f*cking death of this. When i zone to broodlands, I crash back to server select screen (no "You have been disconnected" message, just crashes) and after the 1018 has expired when i log back in, i get to the character select screen, and then the same thing happens when i try to log back in on that toon. It happens to both my accounts, no matter what toon i zone.

I have done all the little bullshit steps the worthless support team gave me, including advanced file check, deleting and redownloading *ALL* the broodlands zone files (yes even the mp3 and char models).

my datarate is set to 8.0

i am clueless and last time this happened it was draniks scar when i bought oow, exact same symptoms, which eventually (a month or so after oow was released) started working on its own.

the GM's in the stuckcharacter channel know both my toons names and server by heart, i see them at least a dozen times a night trying to zone.

i have called my isp and asked them to reroute my connection and they claim to have done this and the issue has not changed.

does anyone have ANY ideas? im about to delete my toons and send soe a mailbomb. (not really but i WILL delete and quit if this shit doesnt get fixed)

IM SICK OF PAYING OUT for FRIGGIN CONTENT AND GETTIN JACK SHIT.

/rant off.

[Teeo]

I would ask a close mate you trust and get him to log on to your account from his PC and get your Toon out.

My silly Necro friend managed to zone into Broodlands without the expansion only to crash to his desktop real quick and was then unable to get back in to get him. Hence I got him out from my PC.

There is such a mix up with not having the correct patcher because even with the expansion paid for if you have not got the disks and only a serial key then patcher 1.1.8 does not allow you to download the expansion files (No DoN option in the advanced) so it is a matter of downloading the Universal Patcher 1.0.38.

Suspect none of this will help you that is the nature of EQ lol but it may.

[Sarcazzm]

my patcher has a DoN checkbox and it downloads the files fine. I own the expansion so they can quite frankly kiss my ass and reset me, they owe me content, i shouldnt have to have someone move my char and it pisses me off.

anyhow thanks for the reply, i guess im the only one in the world with this problem now.

[Arny]

Firewall ? I ask because I had a similar problem with characters randomly going LD, especially upon zoning.

The fix (for me) turned out to be resetting the eqgame.exe and everquest.exe as allowed applications in the firewall, sometimes more than once, before it would work properly. I even have to do this with the firewall disabled or I still get ld's.

[Venkmen]

Have you checked all of your drivers and stuff.

Make sure that they are all up to date and what not. I have seen some weird and random problems in my time in EQ that all boiled down to driver or hardware issues.

Just a thought.

[Khemo]

I remember quite a while ago having a similar problem ... my character would walk into a zone and cause my EQ session to immediately crash to server select. Would not allow me to log back on that same character either (but could log on alts at character select).

Was able to get the character out of a problem zone like that by using a second computer with EQ installed. Didn't make sense to me at the time (and still doesn't).

Khemosaabe "Tonto SPAM" Shadowheart (of CT server)
Slayer-of-Bunny-Wabbits
"Ayi, poppy!"

[Sarcazzm]

tried all of this, no luck. my problem is not 1018, it is exactly like Khemo's post, it makes no sense whatsoever

[czai]

I had a problem like this a long, long time ago. What I did was delete and then repatch every single file that was in the expansion I was having problems with, and then it worked. Took a long time though. Good luck :)

[Dima]

I had this exact problem when my drive went defective in beta, I would always go LD while zoning. Does zoning take abnormally long?

[Sarcazzm]

no, other zones load in a flash (15 seconds or less usually) and broodlands does not produce a loading bar or anything it just crashes. i have once againd tried all these suggestions with no luck whatsoever.

keep them coming please guys

[Sarcazzm]

its still not working after re formatting and reinstalling windows etc. even tried a new hard drive but no change. i am convinced that SoE is cutting bandwidth or some shit like this. anyone please have any other suggestions??

[Venkmen]

I have a guildie that is having this problem, but not all of the time. My best guess since you reformatted and reinstalled is that it is some sort of weird conflict with something in your system. Whether it is a pice of hardware, or a program in your system that is being funky with the current version of EQ.

I know that this sucks, but I would not get real bent out of shape until after the next patch. I had an issue about 2 years ago where I could not connect to EQ for almost a month because of something that was done in a patch that did not jive with something in my system. Neither I, any of my friends, or SoE technical support could figure out exactly what it was, but once EQ was patched the next time it worked just fine.

I hate to hear that you are still having problems bud, but keep hope. It might work soon.


On a side note. There could be an issue with your video card. What type of card is it, and how old is it. If your card is starting to go bad, it could be something in the zone that your card is having a hard time rendering. This could cause your system to freak out. Just tossing out any ideas I can think of or have seen in all my years playing games.

[Sarcazzm]

"Neither I, any of my friends, or SoE technical support could figure out exactly what it was, but once EQ was patched the next time it worked just fine."

so they can fix the bug but they have no idea what it is? sorry thats just not consistent. How can they possibly address an issue when they have no idea whats causing it?

No, they know what the hell is wrong and they just do not care. why do you think there's a stuckcharacter room since the release of OoW? people have been having this issue and they can reset characters faster than fixing the problem.

My video card is a geforce4 ti-4200 128mb with 2 (two) cooling fans, runs extremely cool and is in pristine condition.

[Venkmen]

The thing is....when the devs are programing this stuff they can not program in for every variable with every system out there. Every time SoE patches there are bits of the code that are changed that neither you nor I can see. Every time. Stuff like ports that are accessed on the network interface of your card, bits of code to help optimize the memory usuage in your computer, the way that the game interacts with video drivers and newer cards, all sorts of things that are not in the patch message. Any group of things that could effect your particualr system setup in an abnormal way. The devs have no way to test the code that is implmented for every system configuration that EQ players have.

The next patch might change one of these things again to a way that your system has no issues with.

I am just throwing out some situations that I have had experience with man. I know you are not directing any anger my way. I am just trying to help you understand that there are many variables that are somewhat out of control for you and the devs.


As for the video card. If you have a spare laying around you might try switching it in real quick and see if that helps. Alot of computer components can appear to be in great shape, but be on the way out.


I really hope you can get this figured out soon bud.

[Sarcazzm]

thanks for the replies, not trying to flame, just frustrated, but i work for arguably the leading computer hardware/software corp in the states, as a trainer in the tech support div. and i know how this stuff works. "run complete file check, reinstall EQ, blah blah" its just a run-around really, the GM's are completely worthless for any real technical help.

they know less than i do about whats going on, or they'd at least have the decency to come up with new timesinks, because thats all their "technical knowledge" amounts to.

[Venkmen]

Yeah the GMs really don't know alot about the inner workings of the game and the technical aspects of the it. They really are more along the lines of customer support then tech advisors. I will say though that there are some of them that know a few things about the inner workings of the game itself, but they are few and far between.

[Sarcazzm]

Ok, now having this problem when trying to zone to Ssraa or Grimling forest. told ya it wasnt my PC.

I'm a c*nt hair from posting a huge rant/rave on the SoE boards and if i do i'll repost it here.

really getting sick of this shit! anyone else having this problem PLEASE POST.

[Binbar]

Hi Sarcazzm
I had similar problem soon after OoW came out
I could zone into DS but crashed on zoning into
Nobles Causeway all other zones (old expansions) were OK and had to get
a friend to log on and move me out.
The problem disappeared after I upgraded my Video card and reformatted my
hard drive.
so maybe the problem is related to drivers on your card.
Binbar

[Aramelus]

It sounds like a firewall problem to me, really.

I once had this problem exactly as you describe when zoning into Plane of Storms. Every zone runs on a different "port" when you connect to it. The ports each zone runs on change when they restart servers, and so on.

This is why you can be fine, and suddenly start crashing when you zone into x zone, no matter what toon you're on.

For me, the solution was to enable "port triggering" on my Linksys router between ports 1024 - 7000 on both the incoming and trigger ports.

This alleviated the problem.

EDIT:

P.S. if you want to check if your firewall is the problem, just try zoning into the zone with your firewall out of the picture (aka, disconnect it for a few minutes, then connect and log on)

[Sarcazzm]

thanks guys but i have done all of the above. i believe i mentioned earlier but if i didnt, i am a serious tech head, i have built every pc i have ever had, i do my own networking, dont use a "real" firewall or AV either, and havnt needed them. i forced all ports open once to test it during omens launch, and quess what? not jack shit. plug up my friends dell laptop right next to me, same thing. I train people how to troubleshoot pc's for networking issues, its my job to know these things so trust me, i did that first.

No, i am positive in every way that it is not my system or isp. why? i can ping the damn server box that grimling is stored on just fine. how many of yall know how to do that ;)

[Vikken]

Well, I get corrupted textures in OoW if it makes you feel better. Inventory items, spell effects, ground textures, mod skins...all sorts of shit gets fucked up. I figure they'll get around to fixing it when they upgrade to DX 29374622494.1

[Jolisia Canttankamob]

I've come up with only 3 possibilities.

1.) It's a driver problem , are you using the same drivers you did before?

2.) It's a hardware problem , maybe it's not the hard-drive *hint*hint*

3.) It's not EQ it's windows. Try this , reinstall-directx from Microsoft's website directly , go to the Nvidia website and get the latest drivers.
Screw the eq "reccomended" ones. Sometimes they're the same , sometimes not. Corrupted zone files aren't the problem , since you said you even tried a new hard drive. Network connectivity isn't the issue either. Have you done anything new ( ie. Installed new hardware/software )right before or after this issue came up? Perhaps you can isolate the problem from there.

Jolisia Canttankamob ;)