The LinkDead theory

[old.trigali]

All who have played with me on Prydwen since launch know it: I will go LD, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

I have been completely unable (and so has GOA, curiously) to explain why. OK I use a 56k modem but so do plenty of others.

Then i realised that I mostly go Linkdead when I am in a group and a lot of stuff happens on my screen.

My therory is: is it possible that the Linkdead could be caused by a struggling graphics card (TNT2) instead of a modem connection? Or is that a stupid idea ?

I mean ADSL lines are still a bit expensive just to play a couple of hours a night, really.

Any help appreciated.

 

[old.Spiritwolf]

I will go LD, it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when

I have never gone linkdead, ever, and I rarely suffer from any lag... am I the only lucky one?

I have a Blueyonder cable connection and am more than happy with it.

Anyway, maybe if I list my spec (or at least the bits that may affect the game) you can compare and so can others that experience LD's.

Athlon XP1700+
Soltek Motherboard (can't remember model off top of my head)
768MB RAM
GeForce2 GTi 64MB
3COM 3C905B running cable connection by Blueyonder
Windows XP
Desktop and Game resolution set the same

I just have the XP firewall and a Virus scanner running in background.

Hope this may help... but I think I've probably just been lucky

(edit: P.S. all my drivers are the latest)

 

[old.trigali]

I have bought a GeForce 4 MX440 to upgrade from my TNT2

I have the latest drivers (DirectX 8.1 and Detonator 28.32).

TNT2 works fine (I had a v. good play time last night, no LD )

The GeForce 4 get me an LD message. I am thinking that more than LD, it's probably a crash that turns up with a LD message.

To me that confirms the pb lies with the changing of the gfx card.

RightNow is still thinking about it, hopefully they will come up with something.

<U>Question</U>: Has anyone upgraded his/her graphics card after having installed the game and was it successful?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Lam]

I have succesfully upgraded my gfx card from a geforce2 to a geforce 4 and have experienced no problems so far. I did this 1 week ago and haven't had any linkdeads in the month before th change or in the past week so i don't think it's your gfx-card that has something to do with it.

Maybe you can post a list of your computer hardware here. It might be easier to see if something else could be causing it.

 

[old.Spiritwolf]

I have never gone linkdead, ever, and I rarely suffer from any lag... am I the only lucky one?

Hmm, someone must have jinxed me, I started an alt on excaliber and had my very first linkdead and I've been playing for about 2 months!

DOH!!

 

[old.trigali]

OK here comes a (long) extract of the Dxdiag report: if anyone can come up with comments I will be forever grateful !!!

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional (5.0, Build 2195) Service Pack 2
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: American Megatrends Inc.
System Model: VIA694X/686A
BIOS: Version 1.00
Processor: Intel Pentium III, ~800MHz
Memory: 256MB RAM
Page File: 107MB used, 507MB available
Primary File System: FAT32
DirectX Version: DirectX 8.1 (4.08.01.0881)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.01.2600.0881 32bit Unicode

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce4 MX 440
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device ID: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0171&SUBSYS_86111462&REV_A3
Display Memory: 64.0 MB
Current Mode: 1024 x 768 (16 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.13.10.2832 (English)
DDI Version: 8 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 3/9/2002 10:53:00, 3416141 bytes
Driver Signed: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD:
Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
Mini VDD Date: 3/9/2002 10:53:00, 909501 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-4231-11CF-C27C-1BA601C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x0171
SubSys ID: 0x86111462
Revision ID: 0x00A3
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D7 Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D8 Test Result: All tests were successful.
:sleeping: :sleeping: :sleeping:

 

[Alrindel]

Question: Has anyone upgraded his/her graphics card after having installed the game and was it successful?

I started playing the game with a Voodoo 3 and later upgraded to a Geforce 3 Ti200. I had a LOT of problems, but they were all linked to a rather obscure limitation of Windows 98 where it doesn't like having too much memory (768MB system + 128MB AGP graphics card = D00M). Once I got that sorted, DAoC (and all my other games) went back to working perfectly and I was very, VERY happy with the performance boost.

 

[old.trigali]

Long Live GOA Tech Support

Say what you will. They have been flamed, insulted and taken a lot of abuse.

Yes they eventually sorted my problem and they are the only ones who figured it out ! Well done, I will never say anything bad about them again

It was a motherboard driver update issue. I would never have thought of that

Thanks to all who tried to help !

 

[old.Squan]

Your problem might be that you are using Win2k. I know I had a hell of a lot of problems with it and intended to create a Win98 partition to run it from, but me being the moron that I am wasn't paying attention while doing this and formatted the part with all the Win2k info on.

Anyways I think it is Win2k, as I had similar problems (would also lock up almost every hour) which have since gone when using Win98 in all it's crapness.

FYI my system is 1Ghz P3 512Mb RAM and I tried it with a Geforce 3 and Matrox G400 with an ADSL connection.

 

[old.dittytwo]

Originally posted by trigali
I have bought a GeForce 4 MX440 to upgrade from my TNT2
I have the latest drivers (DirectX 8.1 and Detonator 28.32).
TNT2 works fine (I had a v. good play time last night, no LD ) The GeForce 4 get me an LD message. I am thinking that more than LD, it's probably a crash that turns up with a LD message. To me that confirms the pb lies with the changing of the gfx card. RightNow is still thinking about it, hopefully they will come up with something.<U>Question</U>: Has anyone upgraded his/her graphics card after having installed the game and was it successful? Thanks for your help.

How do I had loads of problems when I first had the game I could not even get into the game due to going link dead I have a 56k modem and a geforce 2 (same chip set as a TNT)

The thing that I found out was that I had a "VIA" chipset on my motherboard and as soon as I updated these viola works first time yeah I go LD once in a while this is normally caused by lag or my ISP cutting me off every two hours the barstewards
So I would recommend updating all the drivers that you can possibly get.

 

[Sarnat]

Most likely you have a crappy ISP. Or a crap router/switch/gateway on the route to GOA's servers. As simple as that.

 

[old.seb1024]

The LD issue seems to continue for no good reason, I get it almost anywhere, I have a cable connection with good ping times
a fast enough cpu and plenty of ram and a gforce card

actually its more of a drop to windoze than the LD screen and yes i have disabled the windoze keys