Constant bug reports!

Tremblewith - Heavens Tear
Tremblewith - Heavens Tear Posts: 1,558 Arc User
edited July 2012 in Support Desk
So, I've been having constant bug reports. My client will shut down and give me a bug reports page. I'm an old school gamer and over time I've had issues like these all the time. Recently I got my new gaming rig, and found that I'm still experiencing these issues.

My client will crash when I afk idle in west arch for a few minutes, port to specific areas on the map, or just randomly crash out of no where. I know I won't get a response from PWE staff, but maybe some player could assist me. I've experienced these issues on 6 different PCs (4 desktops, 1 laptop, 1 netbook), and each had similar issues.

I've re-installed the game a multitude of times. I've also verified my client after each install. My current client has been verified 4 times - one each day for 4 days. This hasn't fixed the issue. My graphics drivers are completely updated on all my PCs. This issue has happened on PCs with NVIDIA, Intel-onboard, and AMD cards. My BIOS is completely updated, as with all Microsoft patches, my anti-virus, etc. I'm actually an "update" addict, so I assure you everything I have is up to date.

The new gaming rig's specs:
Operating System: MS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit SP1
CPU: Intel Core i7 @ 3.50GHz; Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology
RAM: 8.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 800MHz
Motherboard: ASUSTeK Computer INC. P8Z68-V LX (LGA1155)
Monitor: E246W-1080p (1920x1080@60Hz)
Graphic's card: 2047MB GeForce GTX 560
Hardrive: 977GB Seagate ST1000DM003-9YN162 (SATA)

My Firewall isn't blocking PWI, and I've ran defrag, scandisk, and all anti-virus software. I also have a few friends who keep having this same issue, and have had it since beta just like myself. I'm absolutely convinced it's something wrong with the game itself. It's an old game, and I believe this is some sort of malfunction/bug that has constantly plagued players.

All help appreciated!

Edit: Also wanted to note that I run the client in windowed mode, with all graphics turned up. However, on my old PC I ran with all graphics turned down & fullscreen mode. It still crashed like this. At first it would come up with the big reports page after crashing. Later, it would just crash - not giving any bug report page as a sign of crashing.
Post edited by Tremblewith - Heavens Tear on

Comments

  • SylenThunder - Twilight Temple
    SylenThunder - Twilight Temple Posts: 7,908
    edited May 2012
    You've mentioned just about everything except defragging, and adding the client directory to the exception list for your anti virus software. The second of these is an absolute must.

    If you don't exclude the PWI directory from your antivirus scans, then it will flag code sued in the client that it believes is a macro virus and will "clean" it. This then breaks the code for your game and you have a corrupted client.

    Also note, it takes at least two consecutive verification's to fix the client after resolving the issue with your antivirus. Why it can't correctly check the CRC's on all the files the first time, I'm not sure.

    Edit: Almost forgot, run the client as Administrator. Set the flag for it in the compatibility settings for the file. DO NOT check any other selection. Also, make certain that all of the Nvidia Video settings are set to the defaults, and the selection is set to let the software choose.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Tremblewith - Heavens Tear
    Tremblewith - Heavens Tear Posts: 1,558 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    Thanks! I'll try this stuff out and see what happens. :)
  • trixina
    trixina Posts: 6 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    Im having the same problem, did his advice fix it for you?

    I also reinstalled, verifyed the client 3 times and all my drivers are up to date.

    I also put the client to the exeption list on my antivirus, nothing works; still crashing.

    Gonna try the adminstarator thingy now but I have my doubts bout tht being helpful.
  • Tremblewith - Heavens Tear
    Tremblewith - Heavens Tear Posts: 1,558 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    trixina wrote: »
    Im having the same problem, did his advice fix it for you?

    I also reinstalled, verifyed the client 3 times and all my drivers are up to date.

    I also put the client to the exeption list on my antivirus, nothing works; still crashing.

    Gonna try the adminstarator thingy now but I have my doubts bout tht being helpful.

    After following his advice, nothing has fixed it as of yet. I've now begun the last step, which is to verify the client two more times, in a row. This will surely take 12 or so hours. I'll report back when I've completed this last task. I should also note that after doing the anti-virus exception, checking to run as administrator on the elementclient.exe file, and booting the client back up - still having the same issues.

    I remember having these issues pre-Age of Spirits expansion, back on Windows XP. I've had this or similar issues ever since, so honestly I'm not expecting it to get fixed. My best guess is there is some bug or coding issue in the client itself, which causes this issue with a lot of machines.
  • Vyvyan - Dreamweaver
    Vyvyan - Dreamweaver Posts: 323 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    SylenThunder - Sanctuary wrote: »
    You've mentioned just about everything except defragging, and adding the client directory to the exception list for your anti virus software. The second of these is an absolute must.

    If you don't exclude the PWI directory from your antivirus scans, then it will flag code sued in the client that it believes is a macro virus and will "clean" it. This then breaks the code for your game and you have a corrupted client.

    Also note, it takes at least two consecutive verification's to fix the client after resolving the issue with your antivirus. Why it can't correctly check the CRC's on all the files the first time, I'm not sure.

    Edit: Almost forgot, run the client as Administrator. Set the flag for it in the compatibility settings for the file. DO NOT check any other selection. Also, make certain that all of the Nvidia Video settings are set to the defaults, and the selection is set to let the software choose.

    Generally if that happens PWI will say its a corrupt file when you try to install it. AVG is one of the biggest offenders of this.
  • WarriorAnna - Heavens Tear
    WarriorAnna - Heavens Tear Posts: 7 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    I came here to see if "Unexpected software errors" had been reported a lot since the update Tuesday night. 5 or 6 people in my faction are all getting them, at various times and for various reasons.

    I have a gaming computer, fully updated drivers, have reinstalled, verified, run as administrator, have PWI excluded from AV etc etc. Nothing has worked. My errors/disconnects have always occurred in south arch, even when my ping is great, so not caused by lag that i can tell. I am getting them repeatedly, several times an hour, and this has only happened to me since last Tuesday's update.

    Others have said they get them trading, or misclicking something a couple of times.

    Any other ideas?
  • Tremblewith - Heavens Tear
    Tremblewith - Heavens Tear Posts: 1,558 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    Well, I've gotten the first verify completed so far. I tested the client, and it's still crashing. Almost every 20 minutes, so this issue is far worse than it used to be for me, when I had it on my laptop and played PWI a month or two ago. I booted my laptop up, and tried it on there - only to get a bug report page quickly as well.

    I spoke to my buddy who updated his client recently to the latest patch. He said normally he doesn't get these bug report messages and game crashes very much. It started for him when he updated this week to the latest patch.

    I'm starting to think it was a minor problem previously, but with this new patch it's a larger issue. I read this thread, and can't help but think it might somehow all be connected. I just don't see why it's crashing so much.

    I'll verify the client one more time tomorrow when I get some free time. I'm not expecting any new results, unfortunately. I even attempted to re-install DirectX9.0c, and found that it won't let me - it states that I'm running a better version, and closes the installer. If all else fails, I'll attempt a full re-install of the entire game on my PC and see if that fixes it. I highly doubt it will, to be fair.

    Personally, I'm convinced this is not an issue with me or my PC. It's a client-side issue. Most likely some bug in the code that causes the crashes to happen. I realize this game dates back to 2005. The original code runs the Angelica game engine, and most of it hasn't been modified at all. So, I'm understanding if this problem can't be resolved. It's unfortunate, but I'm understanding. I don't expect a lot from a game that was created 7 years ago and is constantly updated as of present.
  • trixina
    trixina Posts: 6 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    I have reinstalled the englisch and the german game 2 times and I followed all the given hints.

    NOTHING changes.

    Im also mad that noone of the PWE team seems to give a damn about a problem that makes
    playing nearly impossible for such a great amount of the community.
  • Vyvyan - Dreamweaver
    Vyvyan - Dreamweaver Posts: 323 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    It's not that PWI doesn't care, their hands are tied until Dev's in China figure it out. And since it doesn't affect a large population the Dev's aren't motivated to figure it out. Not to mention the original Dev's are long gone and the current one's probably have no clue where to even begin looking.
  • WarriorAnna - Heavens Tear
    WarriorAnna - Heavens Tear Posts: 7 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    I verified for the second time overnight and just relogged into the game a few minutes ago, within 5 minutes I dc'd again, with the "Unexpected software error" stoplight.

    Computer Specs:

    OS: Windows 7 Professional, 64 bit
    CPU: Intel Core i7 930 Quad Core Processor
    RAM: 12GB Triple Channel 1333 MHZ DDR3
    Monitor: Alienware AW2210 OptX Full HD Gaming
    Graphics Card: Dual 1.8 GB GDDR3 NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260
    Hard Drives: 1TB RAID 0 (2X 500 GB SATA-II, 7200 RPM, 16MB Cache HDDs)

    As i stated earlier I have reinstalled, verified twice, run AV, run Malwarebytes, run Tune Up Utilities, defragged, my firewall is not blocking PWI - done everything I can think of.

    I can't really do anything at this point but chat a bit in between DCs. Frustrating.
  • SylenThunder - Twilight Temple
    SylenThunder - Twilight Temple Posts: 7,908
    edited May 2012
    Client crashing and DCs (DisConnects) are two separate things, just FYI...

    I've been experiencing random crashing on a couple of PC's. it's weird though because I have three identical systems and one crashes a lot, but the other two don't. I haven't been able to find a valid reason for the crashes, and I've seen the bug report error more in three days than I have in the past year or two.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • Skilzman - Momaganon
    Skilzman - Momaganon Posts: 3 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    I have the same problem since the latest update.
    It seems i am having it more on crowded places like west arch or in TW.
  • NecroTwist - Sanctuary
    NecroTwist - Sanctuary Posts: 54 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    i personally have been dealing with crashes ALOT since the imperial fury update. previously to that though i noticed a shocking correlation to crashes and the fragmentation of the game files. the sad thing is, i run pwi from an SSD and still end up with 79% fragmentation. another thing ive noted, on my SSD i have pwi and The Witcher 2, after a few weeks of not loading witcher, i find that pwi files are stored in the flash mixed in with the witcher files on the MFT.

    another thing ive noticed, i run dual clients 95% of my gaming time, but only 1 of my two accounts crashes. no matter what order i load the account, that client only crashes. odd

    ONE TIME ONLY i opened my second client while the bug report was open, instant crash on that client as well. but after loading two clients again, i discovered a third element.exe running and refusing to unload or close. i had to load a process terminator that i use for malware to close it down.



    my rig
    CPU: Intel i7 2600k HT Quad core OC'ed @ 4.4Ghz
    Mainboard: ASUS Sabertooth P67
    Ram: 16GB DDR3 Dual channel OC'ed @ 1866Mhz
    GPU: Dual Nvidia GeForce GTX 560Ti 1024MB GDDR5 in sli configuration-Main:EVGA,2nd:PNY
    Disc1: 1TB HDD
    Disc2: 3TB HDD
    Disc3: 32GB SDD
    Monitor: Dual Monitors running at 1920*1080 resolution
    OS: Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    I tried to add a signature here thats not even as big as some. but it kept resizing to make it illegible, so **** it
  • SylenThunder - Twilight Temple
    SylenThunder - Twilight Temple Posts: 7,908
    edited May 2012
    the third elementclient was left over from one of the first ones that crashed. It doesn't always close out the program now. That's been the case since a couple of updates ago.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
  • ChaseyLain - Lost City
    ChaseyLain - Lost City Posts: 135 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    Its called a memory leak. This isnt the first time an update has caused this problem. Check your memory usage it goes up to obscene levels the longer PW is running.
  • Tremblewith - Heavens Tear
    Tremblewith - Heavens Tear Posts: 1,558 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    ChaseyLain - Lost City wrote: »
    Its called a memory leak. This isnt the first time an update has caused this problem. Check your memory usage it goes up to obscene levels the longer PW is running.

    I've noticed this as well. In typical situations, my client will begin to lag real bad (which shouldn't happen on a top notch gaming rig), and then five seconds later it crashes w/ the Bug report issue.

    I recently finished the 2nd verification since I've changed my anti-virus exception list & ticked the "Always run as administrator" check. I'm still experiencing these bug reports as frequently as I was before I spent ~16 hours working on getting it resolved. Thus, my conclusion is that the client itself is to blame.

    Game is broken and should get fixed, but probably won't. That's quite upsetting.
  • NecroTwist - Sanctuary
    NecroTwist - Sanctuary Posts: 54 Arc User
    edited May 2012
    i dont think what i experienced was a memory leak, it was a self termination error. also my clients never go over 1.5gb ram. i usually keep a close eye on ram bc i run two clients, a minecraft server 4GB max allocated and a minecraft client with 4GB max allocated.

    also i hadn't started to get these bug report crashes until this 639 update, nor do they occur on my shop account unless i open the client while the other's crash report is up. i had 5 crashes in two hours of gameplay. i defragged my ssd (yeah i know bad for the ssd) but it helped by about causing 50% less crashing but it was still there.

    1 more thing, since the descent, verifying now takes me three hours. i know i know thats less time than most still, and now can be done while playing ive noticed. but before the descent update, verifying took ~5-10 minutes. you can see coming from that timespan the increase is shocking. i basically have an 8 core cpu, analyzing 6GB of data SHOULD NOT EVER take 3 hours to verify

    hopefully it will be settled in tonights update.



    *PS* I honestly think that they lie to us in EVERY update note, some patch notes (should be a changelog) say they changed 1 text display for 1 item. yet we find bugs. if we all demand proper changelogs we could help dissect what the problems are.****
    I tried to add a signature here thats not even as big as some. but it kept resizing to make it illegible, so **** it
  • Potzi - Lost City
    Potzi - Lost City Posts: 91 Arc User
    edited July 2012
    Last time I played the game... 2 years ago .. this was going on.. and now it's still going on.. pretty baffling lol
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