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SystemSystem Member, NoReporting Posts: 178,019 Arc User
I hate to do this as I usually I can figure these out on my own, but I am now a week into this and just getting frustrated at this point.

A little background. I have been playing this game with no issues snice about 1 month after the release.

I wanted to enjoy the game more as I was having fun but I was on a pentium 4 with a nvidia 9500 GT, it was very very choppy and I had no issues until I got to infected and could not jump to save my life.

So basically I upgraded the computer to the following

Intel Quad Core 8400 2.66
Win 7 64bit
4gig RAM
Originally 9800 GT, now Nvidia GTS 250

At first I had upgraded to a 9800 GT but could not get the game to work on mid to higher graphical settings - Game would load to sector space and crash within 10-30seconds

Returned the 9800 to the store and came back with at GTS 250, was still having same issues.

I have reinstalled the nvidia drivers, I have re-installed the Microsoft Direct X Redist.

Uninstalled the game and then redownloaded via torrent and reinstallled

Now even in safe mode I load up the game, select character, and once it gets into sector space instantly get the following error message

Fatal Error: File read from disk has bad CRC, Verifying Files in launcher may fix this issue.
Techincal Details: ./piggs/bins.hogg:
Bin/Geobin/CI/A/M/M_Head_Asian_01.Mset: File read from disk
has bad CRC. Verifying files in the launcher may fix this issue

I have a decent understanding of what I am doing and have been crusing the forum for the last week getting tidbits of information.

Now other than another card for SLI.. To me this system should be able to handle almost anything that STO can throw at it, If I am in error pleaes let me know and other than another card for SLI. Not sure what I can do at this point. I am a lot higher than the recommended settings so (except for the recent complete unability to load) I dont understand why when the game was loading I was unable to max out the game on my system. I got better graphics then before and had to run at lower settings???

I feel this is graphics based as I was able to play at the recommended setting at a much lower system the first time around, now I can only get the game at the lowest setting (completely unacceptable with me). The reason for pointing at graphics is before the latest complete unability to get into the game, when errors would happen sound audio would be completely unaffected hower both screeens would flicker, or i would get pixelixation on the screen, and would be able to play the game at the lowest graphic setting (big neon light hear).. Why could you play at lower settings but once you increase graphics the game crashes (this is why I point at graphical)

If you have read through my rant thank you for any advice possible.

I have a ticket open on the first issue that I was experiencing but now that I cant get into the game I can't update the ticket. In the website access for tickets you can only edit your existing ticket. I can't get informaiton back to cryptic this way in a reply form.

Do I need another ticket for strickly this new fatal error.

http://pastebin.com/wQ2bJTx1
Post edited by Unknown User on

Comments

  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    While I'm not a tech, I'm also fairly knowledgeable about computers.

    CRC stands for Cyclic Redundancy Check, and indicates a corrupted file. Since you're trying to read the file from your system, it's corrupted on the hard drive. Have you done the force verify option from the launcher? If it's just a corrupted file, that should detect it and download a new copy of just that file for you.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Yep done that.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Yeah the first error you mention is definitely something wrong with the file, why reinstalling didn't fix it I'm not sure, but there's two things you can try:

    - as the poster above mentioned, do a force verify in the launcher (click Options at the top of the launcher)

    If the force verification doesn't turn up anything then try this:

    - go to your star trek online install folder, track down the "bins.hogg" file and move it out of the folder or just delete it. Next time you start the launcher it'll detect the file is missing and redownload it.

    As for the problem of crashing and performance issues, even with the GTS250 you'll not want to run at max settings - you'll be able to turn most things up, but there's a few settings that if maxed out will nuke the framerates on even the fastest cards. The game allows you to do a fair amount of graphics tweaking though, even without serious loss of graphic quality you can get the game running fairly smooth.

    A good measure of performance ingame is by turning on the FPS counter, you can do this by typing /showfps 1 in the chat panel. Red = low fps, yellow = average fps, green = good fps

    Here's a few settings that can really boost performance by turning them down or off, some of which have very little impact on your overal graphics quality:

    - vertical sync - turning this off will boost performance, but if you have generally high fps (50+) it's good to leave it on, it creates a roof for your FPS (60) so your gfx card won't have to work harder than necessary (most monitors can't display >60fps anyway)

    - Anti-Aliasing - don't want this maxed out, recommend setting between 0x and 4x
    - Anisotropic Filtering - no real need to max it out, recommend between 2x and 8x
    - max lights per object - I have this set to 3 instead of 5, you hardly notice the difference
    - show high detail objects - turn this off if you have issues with performance on some planet surfaces (grassy fields for instance can kill FPS)

    - screen-space ambient occlusion
    - cinematic focus (depth of field)

    Turning off the above two settings greatly boosted my performance and they have very little effect on the graphical quality, much less so than turning shadows from high to low, or turning off post processing.

    Under troubleshooting, check that the following is turned om:

    - multi-core rendering - since you previously had a single-core, just make sure this is on


    Now on to the crashes (the graphics-related ones). If you adjust your graphics settings manually instead of using the speed vs. quality slider, and max out almost everything (texture, lighting, shadows, etc) except for the things I mentioned above, does it still crash? And if it doesn't how is the performance, what sort of FPS are you getting?

    Also if it still crashes, try going to Troubleshooting and setting "limit framerate" to 30 fps there.

    Also something to try is to see how hot your graphics card is getting while you're playing. There's some freeware programs that will monitor your graphics card and CPU temperatures, and most of them also include a "chart" functionality which will allow you to record the temperatures over a longer period of time, so that you don't have to alt-tab every few minutes to check the temps (which also a bit inaccurate as it'll reduce load on the gfx card when the game is minimized).

    Also just out of general curiosity did you reinstall windows when you got the new Quad Core processor? Since you came from a pentium 4 I assume you were on XP orso before and must have upgraded, but I have to ask just in case. :)

    PS: sorry for the long post, I honestly don't know how I always end up typing so much. :o
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I just scrolled down through your Dxdiag to look at your harddrives, and I was scratching my head a little since you seem to have only a 60gb internal SSD? If you're running STO and windows 7 on that you might want to clear out some space because with an SSD that small you want to have at least 20% free space, which is less than you currently have.

    It could be the source of some of your problems.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Thanks Amarinth, gonna deleting the hogg now, and then will try to do without the slider. I have used the slider and maybe thats my issue.

    Its a solid state and yes would love to have more space, hoping thats not gonna be an issue.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Okay Hoggs Trick worked for error, thanks a bunch.

    I will fiddle with setings to see what I can do, suprised the slider would cause failures have not really played in the advanced area except to turn off items.

    Again Thank you very much
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Excellent, that's good to hear. :)

    I would still suggest freeing up a few GB on the harddrive as well, so that you have a safe margin of free space for windows to work with - you want about 20% free so 12gb in your case. You could for instance install programs and move data that you don't use a lot on one of the external devices.

    There's a free program called CCleaner, which is really great for removing the odd bits and bobs of useless junk data from your harddrive. I run that about once every few weeks. :)
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Yeah, working on it, but unavoidable at this point.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    OKay I think i might have a culprit. When i touch the box for anistrophic, crash.
    And if I use antialiasing, crash.

    Just for my own knowledge, do you know what these do, or add to the game.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I am wrong.

    Was able to fly around space. Closed game to save settings. And now another CRC error.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Can you recommend a program for the graphics card heat.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    OKay I think i might have a culprit. When i touch the box for anistrophic, crash.
    And if I use antialiasing, crash.

    Just for my own knowledge, do you know what these do, or add to the game.

    Well AF and AA (as they're more commonly known) just polish up the game's textures and models a bit.

    Anisotropic Filtering makes the textures in the distance look more sharp, while Anti-Aliasing reduces the jaggy edges you often see on people and objects in the world. The higher the values of AF and AA the sharper the textures and the smoother the edges.

    I have no clue though why it would crash just for trying to enable those options. Does it crash when you merely move the slider or tick the box, or does it only crash when you press OK or Apply? If it crashes just from ticking a box that would indicate your game client is extremely unstable, which could have all sorts of casues.

    I'm still thinking back to the harddrive though. Try downloading and running a program called CCleaner. You can find it here: http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner
    Depending on how long it's been since you reinstalled windows, it might free up some disk space.

    It would also be a good idea to run a disk defrag and possibly a disk check. If you're getting recurring CRC errors that are just spontaneously popping up, I'd suspect your harddrive is somehow...either struggling or failing.

    You really don't seem to be having much luck. I know how annoying it can be when you upgrade your PC expecting it to work better and it just starts getting worse. :(

    As for the heat monitoring program, I've always used Speedfan, it's a fairly light program and easy to use.
    http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php

    Just install it, then open the main window and click Configure. You'll see a list of temperature sensors there that the program detects in your PC.

    Sometimes it takes a bit of figuring out which is which, but you can usually tell what's what by the chip names in combination with the temperatures. The hottest one is usually the graphics card, you'll see it heating up a lot when you're running games. You should also have 4 sensors with about the same average temps, which will be your CPU cores (these should usually be around 40-45 degrees). The other sensors aren't really that interesting. Any ones that are at 0 degrees or a negative value can just be ignored.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Okay we are better, I just might have to turn off something or turn down something. I am gettting a full screen flicker accross both my screens. Its got nothing that is directly causing it so far that I can determine. Any ideas as to where to look.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Hmm have you put the new graphics card in yourself? You might want to check that it's making proper contact with your motherboard.

    I really don't know what else to suggest besides leaving the side of the case off and making sure your card is not getting too hot. Flickering and other graphical glitches are usually not a good sign.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    SSD:
    Think problem is due to the SSD... For example if you are using OCZ SSD,

    http://www.ocztechnology.com/res_old/images/Configuring-and-Setting-Up-SSDs.pdf

    The idea is due to bad configuration for SSD, due either to chipset drivers or bios setup. This can cause issues with files, some files are more important so eventually your system files will be corrupted, worst case scenario. For now, your STO files.

    So find your motherboard Win7 latest and most stable chipset drivers and configure according to your brand of SSD. Might require you to re-install Win7 for a clean setup.

    Graphic:
    Nvidia card can be configured via its control panel. Three options in Adjust image preview. 1. Let 3D application decide 2. use Advanced 3D settings 3.Set everything to preference.

    Usually I just use 2. and manually configure the settings for STO. You can also try 1.

    Make sure your powersupply is high enough to support your graphic card... around 500 watts or much more if SLI.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Thank you. I think I figured out my issue, last night after playing with this for another 7 or so hours, I had an idea to find a driver that was out when this game came out. 196.21. System had been very stable though now I did have a different hogg error. Not the same CRC error something different.

    FYI.. got another kingston ssd to aleviate space concerns.

    Rogue will looking to the options for more stability, thank you.

    I feel my graphics issue is solved with the driver change I played for almost 2hrs. For the last week could not get over 1-2 minutes.

    New Issue:

    Fatal Error: Error decompressing data. Verifying Files in the launcher may fix this issue.

    Technical Details: ./piggs/texture.hogg:
    Texture_Library/Space/Planets/Planet_Class/Planet_Class_Sol_Earth_M.
    Wtex: Error Decompressing data. Verifying Files in the launcher may fix this issue.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    I've done the hoggs trick, and force verify. Unable to load game at this point period.

    Select charcter and it fails on loading into sector space.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Yep completely stuck at this point.

    I have uninstalled the game and reinstalled. Still cannot get into sector space.

    If support accesses this thread
    Two tickets so far: 827951, 834335
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    And just for a matter of conversation.

    7000 tickets in 5 days. wow!!!!
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Update alt is working. Any ideas???
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited April 2010
    Update.

    I feel that the latest nvidia drivers were causing me my main issues, however I have a recent issue that has completely killed my from the game at this point.

    On my primary player after I down graded the drivers I was able to play for about two hours, I transwarped to Sol and from then on STO crashes when I try to access that character

    I played my alt for about 6hrs and had no issues, I transwarped again and now I am getting the same error.

    So at this point I can create a new player or quit STO, hoping that on Monday a GM can help but I am unable to even request GM help. I cannot solve my issues during Cryptic business hours as thats when I am working.

    So much for having a fun day infront of STO.

    Fatal Error: Error decompressing data. Verifying Files in the launcher may fix this issue.

    Technical Details: ./piggs/texture.hogg:
    Texture_Library/Space/Planets/Planet_Class/Planet_Class_Sol_Earth_M.
    Wtex: Error Decompressing data. Verifying Files in the launcher may fix this issue.

    If support happens to look here, i have given you the latest DxDiag, I have a few tickets on this. Please help.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    1) Try deleting the file and patching again.
    2) Run a disk check. If you have a bad sector, the disk check may be able to catch the problem and mark that sector as unusable so no files get stored in it.

    Dave
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Okay I am all good, sorry for not updating this.

    My resolution to my initial issues had been the graphics card driver from Nvidia. I have been able to run STO with realtivaly no crashes.

    I have had no CRC issues but I have had texture.hogg and texture2.hogg issues. I have made a copy of STO and just simply overwrite the file that is having the issue.

    To me not the best solution but you if you want to play you figure out how to.
  • Archived PostArchived Post Member Posts: 2,264,498 Arc User
    edited May 2010
    Have you checked how the memory is set in your bios? I lowered mine from its 'officially rated' 1600 down to 1066 and my CRC and corruption issues went away completely.
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