Unable to play NW since upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 10

rapticor

I have had a NW install under Windows 7 that was worked fine for years. However after recently upgrading to Windows 7 I am no longer able to play. I can make it through the patcher and to the character select. Once I select Enter World the progress bar at the bottom makes it to about 95% then sits there. If I wait for about 10 minutes it eventually makes it into the game however I am unable to do anything and it looks like it's not sending any information to the server. I see other people but I can't see friends listed (it says I don't have any), invoke, summon a mount, summon stuff from VIP menu, or do anything with the professions. I've let it sit like that overnight and that didn't help at all.

Here are things I've tried:

Rebooted
Ran chkdsk
Updated graphics drivers
Set Neverwinter.exe and GameClient.exe to run as administrator and compatibility mode (Win 7 SP3)
Deleted all files except for Neverwinter.exe and repatched them all.
Uninstalled ARC and did a new install in a new location.
Disabled firewall and virus protection
Start with Safe Mode option in the launcher
Changed graphics option from Auto, to DX11, to DX9
In command window executed ipconfig /release and /renew

This is the only thing that looks like it could be an issue. It's from the debug.log:

[0731/103051:WARNING:dns_config_service_win.cc(520)] Failed to read DnsHosts.
[0731/103103:INFO:CONSOLE(0)] "Select shard: 1," source: http://launcher.playneverwinter.com/static/all/js/api.js(117)

I have another older computer that has Windows 10 on it and it works fine but as it has onboard graphics it's not really playable I mostly installed it on there just to see if it worked. On that one in the debug log it has the same second line as above but no mention of dnshosts,

I think I've tried just about everything other than doing a fresh Windows 10 install which I'd rather not do if possible.

Unknown

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lowjohn

I haven't had any problems at all with Neverwinter and Win10, on two different machines.

The fact that the debug log contains a DNS error and you appear to be getting into the program but it's failing to communicate suggest to me that this might actually be a communication issue.

You said you've already disabled firewall and virus protection - was this Windows Firewall or a different firewall product?
If it was Windows Firewall: Check that your AV hasn't installed a firewall module with the Win10 upgrade. AVG's firewall module, for example, is a tremendous nuisance and if it was installed-but-disabled in Win7 it might have become enabled in Win10, and third-party firewall products often don't "disable" properly.

If it wasn't Windows Firewall: Make sure you turn off Windows Firewall as well and test. Click Start, type "windows firewall", click "Windows Firewall (Control Panel}" (NOT: "Windows Firewall With Advanced Security (Desktop App)"). Click "turn Windows Firewall On Or Off on the left side and choose off.

Also: While the game has started but isn't working properly, can you alt-tab out of it? The "allow this program to communicate through Firewall?" popups occasionally appear BEHIND a fullscreen window, and they might vanish when the program closes.


One additional thing to try: Change DNS servers. Instead of using the DNS your ISP uses, try specifying your DNS servers as 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4. Those are Google Public DNS and may give you different results.

Any of that help? Even to give you a different take on the problem?

lowjohn

While I'm talking about DNS: "failed to read dnshosts" could be an error reading, well, your Hosts file. Open C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc and see if you HAVE a hosts file there, and if you can open it, and if it has anything in it that isn't commented out.

rapticor

Thanks for the tips. I tried the DNS change and that didn't help with my issue. As far as firewall (it was Windows firewall) and antivirus goes I turned off all protection and still no luck. I also have a HOSTS file.

However a friend suggested I try running Neverwinter over VPN and what do you know I was able to get into the game and actually play it. So now to figure out why it doesn't work while not connected to VPN because sometimes VPN is rather laggy so I'd rather play without it. That and some of the IPs I've been assigned by my VPN host seem to be banned on the Cryptic/Neverwinter side.

lowjohn

If it works through a VPN and not otherwise, then I think it's pretty clearly not Windows 10's fault, but rather something going wrong on your ISP's side.

Then again, you said you had another computer (presumably on the same network and same ISP) and *it* had no problem. Which would imply it's definitely *not* your ISP.

If it's not DNS, and it's not ISP, and it's not firewall or AV, just about the only remaining source of "network problem" that's machine-specific would be your NIC. Are you wired or wireless? If wireless, can you try wired? If wired, can you grab your hardware info and see about getting updated drivers for your network card, and reinstalling them?

Honestly, I'm tempted to suggest installing Ethereal on your problem machine and your working machine, running a capture on both machines while Neverwinter is running, and seeing what the differences look like. But now I'm talking about tapping network traffic and looking for weird packet patterns, and that's really going above and beyond what most people really know how to do.

Before I suggest "burn it all and salt the earth" (remove everything, dig registry entries out, hand-delete folders, etc) I've got an idea: Do you have Steam? If so: Install a fresh copy of Neverwinter *through Steam*, instead of through Arc. It'll be a completely clean copy with no shared files, nothing. Try running *that*. If it works through Steam and not through ARC, that tells us it's not your NIC and it's not a "network problem" after all, even though it looks sort of like one.

krailov

The other thing is that Neverwinter is installed (presumably) in the Program Files area - Windows 10 will have changed permissions on that folder - if you right-click on the folder, go to Security, and add "Everyone" to the list, and give full permissions. I would say that Neverwinter cannot read it's OWN hosts file, not the computer's per se. You may also want to do this with the ARC folder as well....
Other thing to try is to tick the box in compatibilty mode (where you ran as Win 7) to run as administrator - that should give the game the permission to access the areas it needs to outside program files.

rapticor

I have resolved my issue.. Just in case anyone else has the same problems. I disabled the network driver that Windows 10 installed during the upgrade and installed the driver from my motherboard vendor even though the latest they had was 3 years old and for Windows 8.1. I now no longer need to connect through VPN and my speed test for upload has gone from 0.27 Mbps to a more acceptable 6 Mbps.

So yeah I would consider that "Windows 10's fault" and nothing to do with my ISP.