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Knowledgeable help urgently needed
xtern1ty
Member Posts: 796 Arc User
Since last year, I have been experiencing STO program errors the likes of which have prevented me from playing my favorite MMO. It feels sometimes that STO has chosen to wage a war against me and I have to fight tooth and nail to keep it from claiming victory.
For many months I have carried an ongoing conversation with Tech support with little concrete result. My issues are:
- Game screen goes black after Cryptic loading screen
- Game screen pixellates heavily after Cryptic loading screen
- Game crashes with DirectX driver error messages after Cryptic loading screen finishes and before Legacy of Romulus logo has a chance to appear.
Before these issues started, I used to play regularly for a long time. Then the program started getting corrupted with all the constant updates during LOR. I have tried every which way I know of to resolve these issues, which have prevented me from playing STO for over half a year now. I have even wiped my hard drive clean and reprogrammed from scratch. I have reinstalled Arc and STO and the game still crashes. I just want my favorite MMO back and I need knowledgeable help. If there is anyone who knows ways to resolve these issues, please let me know. I would appreciate any hints or tips, orthodox or not. Someone please help me get STO up and running once again.
For many months I have carried an ongoing conversation with Tech support with little concrete result. My issues are:
- Game screen goes black after Cryptic loading screen
- Game screen pixellates heavily after Cryptic loading screen
- Game crashes with DirectX driver error messages after Cryptic loading screen finishes and before Legacy of Romulus logo has a chance to appear.
Before these issues started, I used to play regularly for a long time. Then the program started getting corrupted with all the constant updates during LOR. I have tried every which way I know of to resolve these issues, which have prevented me from playing STO for over half a year now. I have even wiped my hard drive clean and reprogrammed from scratch. I have reinstalled Arc and STO and the game still crashes. I just want my favorite MMO back and I need knowledgeable help. If there is anyone who knows ways to resolve these issues, please let me know. I would appreciate any hints or tips, orthodox or not. Someone please help me get STO up and running once again.
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If you're using Arc try removing that. If you're using Steam don't start the game via steam. And mci overlay and other programs can greatly affect your performance and or kill the game. Oddly enough audio drivers can handicap you as well and crash the game. There are so many possibilities. There was an issue with a microsoft update that hurt a lot of games to include this game. It mainly affected loading screens and or video in game. This coincidentally happened in mid march when LoR came out and was blamed on STO when it was in fact microsoft. This may be your issue and the first thing i would check. I uninstalled this update but i don't recall which update it was. Google it as it affected lots and lots of games.
Some games require updated direct x drivers. If memory serves there is 1 file in particular that's needed. Some games provide this and check for it when the game launches. I don't believe sto does this. But i may be wrong. Did you change the profile for sto under your display settings? Try using default or ensure you're using the sto profile. Make sure AA is disabled as the game uses MSAA. What's the temp of your GPU? Is it running a bit to hot and have you air blowed the heatsink etc within the last 4 months?
Just a few of many things to try to fix your issue.
I have Windows 7, NVIDIA GEForce, more than plenty of memory and DirectX 11.
Main things that are different now:
- Running STO is a case of heavy pixellation within game screen and border flickering which affects anything on-screen outside of the window (I run STO in windowed mode).
- Sometimes by toggling the STO video setting option Monitor Vertical Sync, I have gotten the game to clear enough for getting in game, but it's a rare occasion and does not resolve flicker outside of game screen while game is running.
- The option for toggling Half Resolution in options is not working, whereas I was able to turn it off back then. Now, the option is active, but it won't tick the checkbox marked off.
- Finding a way to clear the pixellation of STO may be the key to making it playable. The solution rests with STO because it only happens when running STO and no other MMO I run does this, not even the heavier resource hog Age of Conan.
If you have one, put in a different graphics card. They do occasionally go bad, and if you actually have done all the basic stuff.... this could be a hardware failure. I am not advising you to run out to buy a new card, just if you have access to a second one. A computer repair shop can do this as well, most have a card they can pop in.
Hardware aside:
STO update could be the cause, or it could be coincidence. If sto is the cause, that would clear up with the following steps:
0 clean the system (remove all nonsense start up junk, services, etc)
1 remove STO
2 re-install graphics card driver
3 re-install directx (remove first? I forget you may want to read steps online, its not done often)
4 test with several other games
5 re-install STO
6 test with other games
7 test with sto.
Now you are armed with info --- at step 7, one of several possible outcomes exist... other games work, sto does not. Everything works. Nothing works. Everything worked at 4 but not at 7. Etc. Depending on what works and what does not, and when it worked, solutions will vary.
Finer specs:
750GB HDD nonpartitioned
8GB RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 6150SE integrated RAMDAC with 250MB dedicated video memory
AMD AthlonII X2 250u Dual core processor
The entire computer was cleaned and thoroughly dusted upon reformat and before reinstallation and all hardware systems are functional. All fans are operational and there is no overheating.
^^^ That is not a gaming card. It does not explain your problems, but the card is probably heavily taxed.
Its possible an update to the game moved beyond what the card can handle --- I do not know.
I don't know what you mean by 'gaming card', I haven't installed any hardware that didn't already come with the new PC and STO was working just fine.
The lowest card I've personally played STO on is a GT 8500, which was horrifically laggy and slow, but issue free otherwise.
STO is not waging a war against you, that is a very low end and very old card. 9 or 10 years most likely. I don't know what you expect, have a realistic assessment of the situation. Your posts are rather long and miss the point a bit.
I highly doubt there's anything you can do to resolve this issue. A lot of integrated graphics solutions had or have this issue with games.
I'd recommend finding something from Nvida's 4xx GT/GTX or 5xx GT/GTX series, though they have bad (relative) performance (at the lower ends) compared to today's high end cards, it'd work.
*edited for additional content
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I'm running at 1366x768 32Bit TrueColor resolution on an Acer HD monitor with with 60Hz Screen refresh rate, which is auto set and unchangeable.
As stated in my third post, the option for half resolution is currently toggled ON in STO, and though I try, it won't tick to off, even though the option is not greyed out. And when STO used to function properly, I had the Half Resolution OFF option ticked, a fact I can prove because I got the screenshots of every Options setting screen from back then. Why it won't toggle to off now, I have no idea.
No one is interrogating you about if or if not you had half-res on in the past. the command "/renderscale 1" and "/renderscale 0.5" should help you on that regard, with the former being "full normal res" and the latter being "half" of what your res is.
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I ran STO with no problems on the same setup that is now until the update that started the issues and still sometimes clear the pixellation on rare occasions by toggling Monitor Vertical Sync, so it cannot be that my hardware is not functioning right when all troubleshooters say there are no problems with it. And backing that evidence is the fact the issues I experience with STO only occur with STO and with no other MMO I run, not Conan Unchained, not Rune Scape, not DC Universe. Something in STO must be causing a compatability confrontation or some setting is not tweaked right to make it work.
Find the way to remove pixellation and we find the key to return STO to functionality.
Now that is what I call very useful info.
Yes it may have worked fine in the past but odds are it couldn't cope for long and thus you are now seeing the result of that.
Solution: Buy a new mid to high end graphics card. You can easily test this by borrowing a card from someone and testing to see if that resolves the issue.
If the above is not possible you can try to run the game on low res, make sure it's got DirectX 9 selected and not DirectX11 and maybe even clean out dust in your computer with an air compressor or industrial blower. Opening the side panel and aiming a fan at your box might also help.
In the end though, the best solution is to get a new graphics card.
Troubleshooters are generally hopeless things. Vsync is to minimize screen tearing, not 'pixellation', you sohuld leave it off. A screenshot would probably be much more useful anyway.
That's only two games, and not especially intensive ones. Tried Neverwinter? Same game engine as STO.
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Also, have you tried running in fullscreen? I have read somewhere, someone had issues running in windowed mode.
Have you tried fast launch when first opening up the launcher, under options in top right of launcher?
One last thing to try, is try changing all your nvidia control panel settings to performance, rather than quality. It's a long shot, but maybe worth a try. Cause if it works, you can then maybe bring one setting at a time back up to quality and try to figure out which setting is causing the problems.
We all know STO is full of problems. But they like releasing new content, rather than fixing a great game. Problem with that tho, is the longer they leave it, the more content they bring out, the more problems that will arise, the longer it will take to fix, and quite possibly, no one will be able to play because the bugs will over run the game.
I doubt its your gpu as you can play other games as you stated, and you can obviously get to desktop ok.
On my new pc i just built, a week after i got it all up an going, i boot it up oneday, when the screen went black. i formatted the hdd and started again. Ran fine up until i installed the gpu drivers. That told me its either faulty driver or faulty card. So, i took one card out and tried the first one, same thing, screen goes black. Swapped the cards, ran fine. A brand new faulty GTX 760 was my culprit.
But, as i was saying as i doubt its your card, because you can play other games and get to desktop no problems.
Me, i couldnt even get to desktop lol.
Anyway, hope this sheds some light for you
I hope one of the above methods work for you. If i find anything else out, i will post. But thats all i can think of at this stage.
Some good tips there that can't hurt if I try, which I intend to as soon the servers are up again.
You are wrong on so many levels. it's that old low end graphics card. Issues in game are not ones that are technical to having the game run. Not the same at all. ARC is also just uses STO's normal launcher, so it's unlikely it's that. STO recently doesn't like moving the Windowed Fullscreen or Windowed mode window of STO around, so perhaps try Fullscreen but if you leave it alone, it's not crash at all, and this is only occasional
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laheugan,
can you pm me or make me a list of commands like that which make up the Gameprefs file and what they refer to, or tell me where I can find such a list if there is one already. It would help alot being able to identify what does what and tweak settings without having to get in game if needed or if game isn't functioning right.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mVGItiD4Lc
ok mr know it all :P
Firstly, i am right to some extent, because, A, i am having issues with Arc over running my pc's to the extent i have to format my hdd. On 2 pc's at that!. So, you are wrong about Arc. One is a new pc with a new install of everything with a new SSD. Guess what? Arc has stopped me from opening programs without admin rights, it wont let me delete screenshots from STO's folder without admin rights, even worse, it won't let me edit screenshots AT ALL. Now tell me it isn't Arc thats messing both my computers up! I NEVER had issues with my computers before i installed Arc! Arc, is FAR from perfect lol
Secondly, as i stated, if you read my message properly instead of skimming it, you would see that i said, " I have read somewhere that someone had issues running in windowed mode " Where am i wrong in saying that when its been other people having that issue and not me or you?
So, how am i wrong in suggesting to try in full screen mode? It either works or doesnt work. No harm in trying.
Lastly, so what if its a low end graphics card. My laptop has intergrated graphics and can run STO, so dont give me that low end garbage.... correction, i suppose there is a limit you can go. Whatever that is, is anyones guess.
You sir, are wrong......on sooooo many levels LOL
Next time, read posts before shooting your mouth off at someone.
Go look at one of my threads if you want more info on Arc. Like how Cryptic launcher crashes at cryptic screen if i do not load up with arc first. But loads fine with arc. Now tell me THAT it isnt Arc....
I can see why so many are disgruntled with arc.
http://www.avg.com/ww-en/faq.num-2521
Yes i do have admin rights(I trippled check that to be sure, but im the only user on them). I know, confusing. And frustrating...putting it politely here lol
But, when i go to open some programs, its telling me i dont have admin rights. So, i have to close it, and reopen it using " open as admin" or "run as admin" Then it opens or runs.
But the other issues, where im getting "Access is denied", that flat out should not be happening. That comes up when im trying to change the name of a screenshot, or edit the picture to put into another picture. Never had these issues until Arc was installed........my mistake and wont happen again
This has only just started happening since i installed arc. Programs were fine before installing it.
What makes it even more frustrating, is i now have to format my SSD and my HDD, (SSD in new pc, HDD in second pc), yet again. Before i got my SSD, i was having issues with a failing HDD, it had bad sectors in it, making me having to format every time it wrote on bad sectors because windows wouldnt start again unless i formatted it. But, i had to put up with it until i could afford a new drive. Also had to turn off the error checking feature,(cant think of what the proper name is). Anyway, i formatted that drive about a dozen times within a few months. Then it died, so i tried another drive i had that used to be in my ps3, it worked for a day before it died too lol. Which is why i got a SSD. Just got sick of those hdd failing on me all the time.
I dont know what is with Arc, but it has messed my pc's up.
STO doesnt run for me without Arc now, on my main pc.
The second pc. i uninstalled Arc, reinstalled STO off my dvd retail version, works fine now. But, im still havng issues on that pc with programs etc.
Its messed up 2 computers both with identical problems. But my laptop is fine. Because i didnt install Arc on it.
Its a shame because i kinda liked Arc, but these issues are just not worth the headaches
Yeah, i have the dvd version, thankfully
But, silly me wanted to check arc out. Even after all the complaints ive seen about it lol.
I'll be doing a format on both pc's, and installing STO using my dvd version.
1) Admin rights; you are allowed to install applications and run them as admins (when necessary)
2) Run as admin; up to XP, the main user was able to edit/delete/etc. any files they wanted. Which means *if* the user got a virus, the virus was able to delete/edit/etc. any files it wanted to edit. As of Win7 (or higher) the application would run as user (only authorised to alter, add or delete files in the running directory (the STO dir)).
^^ This is the same reason why you are unable to change STO's screenshots; your photo editor program's "running directory" (where the program resides in) is different from STO's directory.
If you really want to play STO without ARC, please go and search google for a full STO install (I believe it's around 300mb). As soon as you've installed it, it'll patch itself until it's up to date.