Curse

Zegorzalek · May 26, 2008, 07:53 PM // 19:53

Ok, after looking over NCSofts site and the help lines here... I believe I have a new one...

Problem up front:

I can log in to GW, select my character, and select play... the loading splash screen comes up (Wizards Isle, or Ruins of Surmia for instance) but the load "stalls out" at 100%... as in not frozen... my guildies see me online, I can hear pings from PM's and hear the sounds of town or the GH... but the screen will not refresh past the splash screen. EVENTUALLY I get a 007 error but i think this is incidential to the satellite hookup.

The Background:

I am in the Army, currently in Iraq, playing on a satellite uplink using Bently Walker net. Up until about 3 weeks ago I had NO problems other than obvious lag on this setup.... and I have not changed anything... same server, router, internet package, firewall settings... everything. One day I simply attempted to log in... and on the zone load screen it just stalled out.

I have attempted loading on 3 different nets... same problem. I have checked drivers, firewall, ports... nothing is blocking and no change to previous settings. So thought "maybe the Data file is corrupted" (yes, i have defragged it 1/1). SO at 3-5kps DL speed I reloaded GW and the base game....

Result: as I finished the load after 3 days... I got PAST the splash screen...load into the GH WORKED!!! Delighted, after chatting with guildies for about an hour I logged out... to attempt logging back in later... to meet the SAME Problem I had before... stalling at the splash screen. I tried a different character... loading into a different town... as the zone finished DLing, I popped in again past the load screen ...WOOT.... attempted zoning to GH.... splash screen of death. Attempted reloading previous town.... splash screen of death. I HEAR the sounds, but monitor just shows splash screen.

System:

I am running a Dell 9400 with XP Home, 2 Gigs Ram, ATI Mobiility Radeon X1400.

I play with GW "windowed"

My normal ping here is a playable 1100-1400ms, (though I hold our Alliance's unofficial Title of "Highest Ping Rate" with a documented shot of 786,079ms)

My wife can log into my account at the house NO problem!

Understand GW has been running on this system seamlessly for over a year.

ANY ideas would be appreciated.

zamial · May 26, 2008, 07:57 PM // 19:57

May sound dumb but, clear your cookies,temp files and history. also is this the only thing you are having an issue with? It very well could also be a bloated gw.dat file. that file should be under 4Gb.

off topic: Thank You for your work defending our freedom.

acerbity · May 26, 2008, 08:04 PM // 20:04

Happens to me sometimes, i have to leave the area by xing out for it to work.. very annoying when im doing a dungeon or vanquishing.
the screen suddenly becomes less bright and i can hear sounds/ my cursor even lights up over interactive objects but the client side view freezes. when i end the process and try the load back into the session the same thing that happens to you happens to me.
Hope we can find a solution.

Snograt · May 26, 2008, 09:07 PM // 21:07

Defragging the .dat is all very well if the .dat is sound to begin with. Check that it is around 3.6 - 3.7GB, like zamial said.

Zegorzalek · May 26, 2008, 09:08 PM // 21:08

@ Zamial: welcome re the service... per temp files.. nope, I use crap cleaner and am squeaky clean as that goes. My old main dat file was 3.7GB with all campaigns.

@ Acerbity: never happens "in mission"... I can't ever GET that far... it deals with the load screen, but it seems to effect you AFTER a "lag-out" I just get DC'ed over here with no hope of reconnecting. Its a complete re-login, which WORKED up till about 3 weeks ago.

also Oh, .... forgot this in original post... fixed now... my wife can log in on my account at the house no problem.

Thanks for input, keep em coming... SOMEone has to have experienced this or know the solution!

zamial · May 26, 2008, 09:23 PM // 21:23

Stabbing in the dark at this. But is your IP static? A-net doesn't like you having alot of dif IP addresses. This actually was apart of an update not to long ago.

As for the satalite thing, it could also be that there is a solar flare? Have you tried to disable your antivirus and log in? It sounds almost like a connection issue and less of a hardware/software issue. I am in no way a satalite connection troubleshooter..are you trying to login when there are alot of others using the connection to say My Space/file downloading or other bandwidth hogs? When my GF logged into My Space on our connection it caused me to lag so hard it wasn't even funny.

Zegorzalek · May 27, 2008, 05:04 PM // 17:04

But is your IP static? - Yep.

As for the satalite thing, it could also be that there is a solar flare? - Nope, checked that also with our commo guys.

Have you tried to disable your antivirus and log in? - yep, even did direct on the satellitet with our net guy. Same problem.

...are you trying to login when there are alot of others using the connection to say My Space/file downloading or other bandwidth hogs? - tried at peak and completely off times... in fact our net guy shut down the other net users so I was th ONLY one on... same problem... stalls at load screen...

I am at a complete loss as to what the issue is...

Aratak The Blind · May 28, 2008, 03:02 PM // 15:02

It could be a hard drive failure. When you redownloaded the .dat file it saved it in a undamaged zone but after you played the zone became damage again. Do you hear any weird sound coming from the drive? Did you experience any data lost?

Zegorzalek · May 28, 2008, 06:38 PM // 18:38

@ aratak... nope.. HD checks out.

Aratak The Blind · May 29, 2008, 01:47 PM // 13:47

Do you experience this in any other game? Can you run a memtest86+ or a prime95 just to be sure the rams and cpu are ok. I would also consider erasing the .dat file and -image but since it takes you 3 days maybe wait on that one. It really point out at the hd or a dying graphic card but since it work find after you dl the .dat file and then stop I would blame the drive. Any computer that you could install the game on to rule out the internet link you are using?

Dark Kal · May 29, 2008, 02:09 PM // 14:09

Have you tried accessing GW from a different PC that's connected to the same network (i.e. the satellite uplink)? This happens to me when my internet connection is lost while the loading screen is up.

IrishCB · May 29, 2008, 02:14 PM // 14:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zegorzalek

playing on a satellite uplink using Bently Walker net.

Thats your problem, online games perform Very bad over satellite. You're gunna get xtream Ping due to atmospheric conditions. IE weather, OZone, and even solar flares which you mentioned.

Edit: Check this out: http://blogs.zdnet.com/Ou/images/geosync_2.png

Zegorzalek · May 29, 2008, 06:11 PM // 18:11

@ aratak - think I am the only one on this net that plays, but I DID find another player on another net... he claims to have logged in, but its been several weeks... so I am setting up an appointment with our schedules to see if he can still log in (since I have just been having this problem the last 3-4 weeks)

@ Dark - not really possible... image takes ... lord knows how long over here... took me 3 days at 3-5 kps to get the base client and game... though my wife has ripped a data DVD and is sending it to me from the house... time will tell.

@ IrishCB ... pretty cool diagram... I can say from the "reality" side of things (this being my 2nd long tour over here) that with solar flares and all that jazz, my normal ping is a "playable" 1100-1500ms. I can actually mission and vanguish up to 2500... after that it gets tedious and pulling is scary because you are not always where you actually "think" you are. Trading/chatting can be done comfortably at up to 15000 or more, you just have the lag to deal with. HOWEVER, the ping is not the ONLY problem... currently my login and chara selection screen works just fine... it is only when I attempt to load a zone that it stalls out... and remember... I can HEAR what is going on in the zone/town... the screen just never "pops in" so to speak.

Thanks all, hopefully a solution will surface soon.

Snograt · May 29, 2008, 08:16 PM // 20:16

Try the "Test My Computer" button on the login screen. Might show up a problem or two.

I think it's no different to running the -diag switch, though...

IrishCB · May 30, 2008, 02:50 AM // 02:50

Just did some testing:
Zoned and @ splash I used my second PC to flood my network with packets.
Result: Splash screen stayed up and I heard people in town, music etc...after about 1min it 007. I tested this 3 times, all 3 times same thing happens.
You might have one of your men downloading/uploading large files. This combined with SatCom ping with hurt. Now I don't know if you are using a military based Sat, so im gunna say the max upload is ~512k. You get a couple of units trying to use that link, there will be collisions. If your client can't get that "Hi I am here" packet through, it will hang @ the splash.

or take your laptop and 1 of your frag grenades out into the desert and blow it to smithereens. hehe j/k