Gunpowder_Cub

Here is a general update of this problem, which is still ongoing. Bearing in mind that I can't telephone support during the day, the prolonged email exchange with support is demoralizing. The first tech asked me to download and run Game Advisor, which I did, and use the link provided to report the results, which I could not do as my password would not work on the support site. I replied to that email instead, and a second tech suggested I head to ATI to download a new driver. Now... I'm on a laptop. Downloading drivers directly, as far as I know, is still not recommended. The last time I needed to update my driver, I had a message upon login for months... then finally went to Gateway, was told Gateway did not offer an updated driver but that I should not go to ATI since ATI doesn't tweak em for laptops, and ended up following a link on support FAQs to get an Omega Driver. I was also told to be prepared to turn off the nonessential running background programs (done!) and be prepared that I may have to download the full game again.

So I questioned this driver advice, and rather than respond to my question, I was told to run a Hijack This report.

This may in fact, help, but it would have been reassuring to be told one way or another that it is now acceptable to download a new driver directly or that maybe I should consider going back to Omega to check for an updated driver.

My game time card continues to run out.

So here's my driver-related question. What do the rest of you think about downloading a driver directly for a laptop? Still not a good idea in general? Or is that now old advice?

Well, not reading computerese, the only thing I was able to understand was that it was a bad idea to compress the hard drive. Actually, I'm not sure it was done. But whatever I did seemed to help the speed on everything else. Thanks for the response.

Styph, thanks for the suggestions. I had not changed anything about my anti=virus and spyware before or right after the crash and endless cycling started. I'm not a tech guy at all, but this is a new problem after years of the same settings on the anti-s. So I don't think it's that. My hard drive is less than 50% full right now. After the problems had continued for three days, I did decide to compress the harddrive, though. Tech support had me do a test. I suppose at least a reason, if not an answer, may arrive tomorrow.

Support has acknowledged my email (i don't think they work weekends) and I suppose I may hear more on Monday. Thanks to both of you for trying.

I have copied the .exe file to the desktop. I'm not sure how to "point" it to anything, though, Zombie_Man. Running it as it from the desktop last night it still kept cycling. How does one "point" it?

It's 2 hours later. After the updater ran the checksum and verified files, it started checksumming again. Any other ideas?

Zloth, I'll give it a shot. I've seen the checksum file. (One of the things I tried was copying the CoH Updater to my desktop and trying to start it that way rather than using the NCSoft icon.) I'll be back and will let you know what happens. Thanks. And oh, i am on a falling-apart PC.

I hate that my first post is about a tech issue. After a crash in an AM mish earlier this week, I ran the updater the following day to get back to my nightly COX addiction, and it just cycles from Verifying All Files to Applying over and over. I read of similar problems last night and could not find those posts (and any potential solutions that may have been suggested) tonight.
Just two things to add: first, I see folks who know what they are doing using "shorthand" that I don't understand, and second, I can barely navigate on this computer, so please if you do have suggestions, go slow so I have a chance to understand. (Wrote support tonight as well.) Remember when you could reach them by phone on a Saturday? Thanks in advance.