DAOC Crashes/Exits to windows

sneakies

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Nov 27, 2004
Messages
502
Okay, ive read the thread about it quitting to windows, and updated to omega drivers, increased swapfile size, etc, to no aviail.

Heres the problem; when i run 2 instanecs of DAOC (one from I:\ToA and the other from I:\ToA2) one or both the instances will either:

a) crash, and have windows tell me its encountered an error
b) simply close the instance and leave me with one working
c) both crash
d) give me a blue screen with some random message (last one said somethign about an error writing to read only memory)
e) a combination of the above.

So to let you know what im running on here goes:

AMD Athlon XP 2000
896Mb DDr 266 Ram
Soltek SL75-DRV5 Mobo
Brand new 160 gb hdd (as both my 80's died at same time!)
Radeon 9800 Pro

Windows XP SP1 (fresh install, about 5 days old)
Direct x 9.0c
Radeon Omega Drivers
Latest Supported Mobo Drivers

I think thats all the info you'd want, next time it bluescreens, ill note down what it says. It's really annoying though because it didn't do this last patch!

Anyone got any suggestions as to what may be the problem, how to fix it, or what to do? :)
 

Naffets

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Nov 25, 2004
Messages
1,913
You've done the majority of what i'd normally recommend doing. Next step is to run memtest, just google memtest x86 and im sure you will find it. that will check your memory and tell you if its faulty. I know this seems strange because it didn't happen last patch but the same thing happened to me, i had a faulty stick of 512.

Try it and see.
 

sneakies

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Nov 27, 2004
Messages
502
small problem with performing the memory test:

it's a floppy image, and i dont own:

1) a floppy disc
2) a floppy drive

and i cant squirm my way into the iso to extract the executable :)

/edit ack found diff prog, will give it a bash
 

Naffets

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Nov 25, 2004
Messages
1,913
Which did you try? Give link

I'll do a search to find the one i tried while i wait.
 

Naffets

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Nov 25, 2004
Messages
1,913
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/AleGr-MEMTEST-Download-1035.html

Seems like a reasonable one, the one i tried had a windows gui. I left it running for a few hours and it found quite a few errors. I removed one of my 512 dimms and ran again and it was fine.

If you have tried a few different pieces of memtest software then we can rule that out really.

Does it ever happen when you only use one client?

Edit sorry you said it crashes with one or both
 

sneakies

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Nov 27, 2004
Messages
502
i used: http://hcidesign.com/memtest/

let it run to 200% and no errors, will run it again all night tonight.

Thing is, i can play CS Source with no issues (longest ive sat on a server for is around 2hrs though).

In short *grr*
 

Void959

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 19, 2004
Messages
887
Also try Prime95 http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm, run as 'just stress testing' and run tests 2 and 3, for at least 5 hours each, better still, overnight.

896 seems a strange number (512+256+128 i assume), are they all the same speed? Many motherboards don't like running even 2, especially 3 sticks of different speeds. The same could apply with mixing capacities, though its less likely to be the problem, squeezing in as many modules as possible is generally not good practice, you might well be better off with just 512+256 for most purposes.

Also, even if you do get it running, I find that any precaching on, each DAOC instance uses about 450MB, add that to the amount windows uses, and you need almost 1024MB ram. Armour precaching off, and they still use over 256mb each...I think. My point is that, if you do find the RAM to be the cause, and can afford it, you might be better off buying a second 512MB stick, at the same speed as your current one, and ditching the smaller capcity sticks.
 

Naffets

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Nov 25, 2004
Messages
1,913
When it happened to me my system ran everything else, including stress tests, 3dmarks and such seemlesly. But DAoC would ctd, was strange
 

sneakies

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Nov 27, 2004
Messages
502
Your correct in saying that i have 512+256+128, the 512 being new, before hand i was runnign with 256+128+128. As for the precaching, i have precache armour on, and the instances rarely exceed 350mb, averaging 300mb. Not to mention i dont even have to run 2 instances. I can run 1 instance and the game will still just quit to windows.

Also, i have tried running with just 256, or 512, and each time the client just exits to windows. I dont really want to admit to it, but things i can blame are running short. Its not the ram, of this im 99.9% certain. Its possible that the graphics card could be over heating, but im not sure, it does get fairly warm (radeon 9800 pro) but if it were to overheat, id assume it'd do a bit more than jsut quit a client to windows. Fail that, my motherboard could be on its way out.

And tbh, i cant really afford to replace anything, seeing as im now a 'college boy' i dont really have an income. And the last thing i bought when i was working was the new graphics card and 17" tft.

So any suggestions of things to try, im open to. I've got a list as logn as my arm of things ive tried. Am considering throwing an old graphics card in to see if my current one is the cause, but i dont really enjoy rebuilding my pc :)
 

Hawkwind

FH is my second home
Joined
Jul 5, 2004
Messages
7,541
had same problem :(

Had exactly the same problems you are seeing. Posted this stuff a while back:

http://www20.tomshardware.com/motherboard/20040112/index.html

Basically Athlon 64 Mobo's do not work well using standard RAM modules. I had the same problems you are seeing with 2 x 512 Mb of Kingston Value RAM. I even purchased a new Graphics Card as the problems only started after I installed a Radeon 6800 Pro Card. I upgraded to some low latency Geil modules as at the time the matched pairs specifically desgined for gamers were over 250 GBP for 1 Gb. the prices have come down a lot now.

http://computerprices.pricegrabber.co.uk/search_getprod.php/masterid=939430

Good luck.
 

sneakies

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Nov 27, 2004
Messages
502
I dont have an athlon 64 mobo, however i can tell you the game has run fine on 128+128+256 (512) mb of ram, as has my pc for at least 2 years. That includes with playing this game. And having experimented wtih 4 different ram chips, i honestly cant see why i should still be pointing my finger at ram.

Naturally i wanna blame the game, and rightly so cause this has only started happening since the latest patch (so im left here to put 1 and 1 together amd make 11). Prepatch, game had never LD'd on me, and certainly hadn't just quit to windows without so much as an error message.

Either ways, i actually cant play the game with any real intention of trying to level, get scrolls, or RVR till i get this fixed due to the frequency with which it wants to fuck me around.

So to recap you on what ive tried:

Reinstalled Game
Reinstalled Windows XP SP2
Tryed Different RAM Chips
New HDD (didnt do it especially, me old ones died)
Old GFX Card Drivers
New GFX Card Drivers
Old Motherboard Drivers
New Motherboard Drivers
Running Game from a different hdd
Running a program to check whether ram is faulty
Defragged

I think thats it so far...
 

Naffets

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Nov 25, 2004
Messages
1,913
Sorry sneakies my bnc has been ignoring you on irc.

I get home from 7 tomorrow, will be available to help then if you like?

The reason i suggested ram was because i had the same problem on both my pcs, however on my main system it was resolved after a memory reseat and on my 2nd system it was a faulty stick of memory. Anyway see you on irc.
 

Zlugugg Benvis

One of Freddy's beloved
Joined
Jan 12, 2004
Messages
378
Hmm ... as long as I logg off in Aegirhamn it works, might be that I only have the problem when logging off in ToA and Housing ??????? Strange.
 

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