Krucifear

I like the way my programmer husband puts it.

"The client is calling for something that Nvidia is not doing a check for.""It's on both sides."

That's a pretty simple way to put it. We had a similar problem with ATI, Apple and Lightwave's Modeler a few years back and finally everyone caught up with each other and it was sorted. It went on for months with everyone denying responsibility... lol, but the logs, at least, showed it.

We can run around in circles doing tests and changing drivers but nothing's gonna fix this except game and driver programmers being in sync.

--

Update:

Conclusion based on so much testing is it's a driver/openGL issue. We've tried multiple driver configurations each with differing results.

We've researched online and found other people having the same issues with different games, not just CoH.

We've ran every hardware test and passed.

Whatever changed at i20, something is not completely copacetic with available drivers. Hopefully Intel, Nvidia, Dell and CoH will get everything in sync at some point like it was before i20.

Current drivers are working ok. Hangs in CoH usually recover and crashes only happen usually after about 4 hours, so it is playable on my favourite gaming machine.

Well, it's looking like a video card problem in my case. The Cuda - GPU settings in the Nvidia control panel when disabled make it so the game can recover when it stalls a bit, whereas when enabled, get a good hard crash. Nvidia drivers released on the 18th at least make it so we can get some info now. The ram is fine. Memory test attests to that. Going to test a bit more.. and take it from there.

Update: well.. forget that.. worked for awhile.. but turned out to be shortlived like all the other tests.. gonna play on the intel mac tower, windows side for awhile.. just a good gald darned thing we have so many computers! :P

Update: been playing today for 2 hours so far on Alienware without crashing. Hubby ran burn tests and everything checks out. Computer, video card, ram all passed. Only thing different today is reinstallation of drivers with Nvidia ones being installed after Intel ones, otherwise Intel ones overwrite the Nvidia sound ones. Note: game has hung 3 x so far but recovered without crashing.. Fingers crossed.

Update: managed 4 hours, 6 hangs and recovers, before two hard crashes and switching back to intel mac/windows side.. not a bad day. Guess waiting for next driver update as hardware is good. Or may switch to Linux.

I have no other software related problems.

Maya works fine.

Lightwave works fine.

Game engines for game development work fine.

Dragon Age and Mass Effect work fine.

Gigs of video recording works fine.

In other words, very ram/cpu intensive programs run like silk on my computer.

All except CoH since i20.

And hmm... oh ya! hundreds of other people are experiencing CoH crashing too!

That tells me it's a specific piece of software issue. (CoH i20)

...

No crash boxes.. just game freeze. Little blue circle of neverendingness, Alt F4 is the only way out.

The smart thing.. though painful, given the seriousness of the issue, would be to roll back to i19 and release in smaller increments, slowly building back up to i20. Proper more painstaking testing, taking into account the multitude of data reported by the players.

Yes, same drivers.

---System information gathered by CoH Helper version 0.2.0.2---

DxDiag gathered at April 20, 2011 15:48 (-07:00)
Operating System: Windows 7 Professional 32-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_rtm.101119-1850)
System Manufacturer: Alienware
System Model: M11x R2
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Central Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU U 640 @ 1.20GHz (4 CPUs), ~1.2GHz
Memory: 8192MB
.Net Memory Report: 1249MB out of 1973MB available
Page File: 1951MB (1996MB currently in use)
C Drive: (SAMSUNG SSD PM810 2.5" 256GB ATA Device) 83931MB out of 99997MB (83%) free
D Drive: (SAMSUNG SSD PM810 2.5" 256GB ATA Device) 77991MB out of 129157MB (60%) free
Windows directory location: C:\Windows
DirectX: DirectX 11
DirectX Diag version: 6.01.7601.17514 (32-bit version)

Display Notes: No problems found.
Sound Notes: No problems found.
Input Notes: No problems found.

Monitor:
Monitor's Max Resolution: (blank)
Video Device Name: Intel(R) HD Graphics
Manufacturer / Chip: /
Video Memory:
Driver Version:
Driver Date: 1/1/0001 12:00:00 AM
Driver Language:

Sound Device Description: Speakers (High Definition Audio Device)
Driver File: HdAudio.sys
Driver Version: 6.01.7601.17514
Driver Date: 11/20/2010 2:29:03 PM


WMI Information
Motherboard Manufacturer: Alienware
Motherboard Model: (empty)
Motherboard Product: M11x R2
Motherboard Version: A03
BIOS Manufacturer: Alienware
BIOS Name: Default System BIOS
BIOS Version: ALWARE - 1
BIOS Release: 20100809000000.000000+000


Registry Information for Current User
Resolution: 1366x768
3D Resolution: 1366x768 (Not using renderscale)
Full Screen: Yes
Maximized: No
Screen Position: 0, 0
Refresh Rate: 0Hz
Vertical Sync Enabled: Yes


Physics Quality: Medium
Maximum Particles: 50000
Max Particle Fill? 10.000
Physics Card Enabled: No


Anti-aliasing: Off
Anisotropic Filtering: 4x
Texture LOD Bias: Smooth
Water Effects: Medium quality
Bloom: 1.000 (turned on)
Depth of Field Enabled: Yes
Desaturation Effects (Sepia) Enabled: Yes
Shader Detail: Medium?


World Texture Level: Very High
Character Texture Level: High
World Detail Level (Vis_Scale): 1.000
Entity Detail Level: 1.000
Shadows Enabled: No
Shadow Mode: Stencil shadows
Shadow Map Shader: Unknown (0)
Environmental Reflections: Disabled
Advanced Occlusion Settings: No
Ambient Occlusion: Off
Occlusion Strength: Off
Blur: Bilateral
Ambient Resolution: Performance


Gamma Correction: 1.000
Geometry Buffers (VBOs) Enabled: Yes
Suppression of FX When Camera Close Enabled: No
Close Suppression Range: 3.000
Show Advertisements: Yes

Audio Mode: Performance
3D Audio: No
FX Sound Volume: 1.000
Music Sound Volume: 0.600

Show Advanced Graphics Options: No
Overall Graphics Quality: 0.500
Reverse Mouse Buttons: No
Save Login Username: Yes
Transfer Rate: Unknown bytes/second
Current Game Version: 2010.201104142136.1
Installation Directory: C:\games\City of Heroes

Mod files in the Data directory
No modifications found

Yep, we've done that and it was shortlived. Still crashed. Fast. 32 bit was no more crash free than 64. Let us know if the solution lasts..

Update: Installed PhysX SDK, Visual Studio 2010 and XNA. Was able to play for an hour and 10 minutes before crashing. After shutting down and restarting could play only a few minutes before crashing again. Seems once you crash, it happens faster. Time to move back the intel machine until this is solved, if I wanna get some uninterrupted play time in.

Update!
We may have found the solution!

Installing dev tools seems to have fixed the crashing problem. Now this could mean that some dll or something in the client is linked to something in dev tools .. that's up to CoH devs to determine..

We installed Visual Studio 2008 professional with Service Pack 1 and all it's updates, and Direct X SDK, June or July, (has Open GL Drivers in it)..

No more crashing! Bottom line.. he had all these tools on his machine.. didn't crash.. I didn't have them and did. Now I do and am not...

Please pass this on to devs.. it could help narrow down the problem.

Cheers.



*Update.. did finally crash on my machine but it was well over two hours instead of the usual few minutes.. But a random crash without exiting and re-entering after a TF is common anyways..

*Update (morning test) - upped the resolution from 1366x768 to 1680x1050 and crashed within 3 minutes. Makes me wonder if it is an accumulated memory problem combined with graphic/drivers/issue..

*Update: -reduced rez back to 1366x768, played for a half hour, left it running, went out, came back 2 hours later to find CoH nicely logged out without crashing. Re-entered the game and crashed after playing about 8 minutes.

The next step is to update the dev tools and test again.

Update:

We (hubby and I have identical alienware laptops as described above. He might crash rarely, I crash consistently and repeatedly. We are both power users. We even went as far as to completely restore my machine. Clean Windows, no other software, just CoH. Still crashed.

He made a 32 bit partition and installed CoH on there. It still crashed. Right away.

The only remaining difference between our systems now are that he has multiple developer tools installed on his machine. We're going to put them on mine and see if it helps. Will keep you posted.

We've been trying multiple computer configurations. (Hubby and I are independent game devs) And the common denominator for consistent crashes since i20 is Windows 64 bit.

We've played on Intel Macs, both on the windows and mac sides (not 64 bit windows). No crashing.

What we're about to try is creating a Windows 32 bit partition on our Alienwares. Will keep you posted.

I even crashed in Safe Mode. And in windowed mode. And after doing a RegCure.

Windows 7 Home Premium

SYSTEM:
Alienware M11XR2
Intel Core i7 CPU U640 @120GHz 1.20GHz
8 GB Ram
64 Bit OS

Funny thing.. I can still play on my old Macbook Pro without crashing at all. I used to be able to play on my Alienware before i20 without problems.

Ok, well here's some possibly relevant news..

My crashing was on my Alienware Windows 7 machine.

I booted up my old Macbook Pro and ran the Cov client on the Mac side. Did not use the NCSoft Launcher. Ran the game for a couple of hours, did a long mission, went afk a few times and no crashy crashy. (just the typical little chunk from time to time that you get in Cov on a Mac.)

It's happening to me too.. since the update only. Not just for trials.. anywhere and everywhere. I've turned down settings, scanned, defragged, shut down, rebooted, everything. My machine is a brand new alienware, solid state drive, 8 gigs of ram running windows 7.

Getting pretty discouraged. Been playing CoX since the beginning..

Please advise how I can get my SG invited to a coalition.

Thanks!

* Supergroup Name: Abyssus Subterra Jurgium

* Website (if any):

* Leader or Recruiting Officers: Krucifear, Teela, Tangly, Tealla

* Preferred Method of contact: (ingame email - send to @Krucifear or @Teella)

* Guild Description: This is a relaxed SG inherited from an absentee creator. It is now run by original CoH vets who play approx 52 hrs per week, a variety of toons. We're serious altoholics. The only rule we have is that you play in SG mode. No need to even use SG colours. The base is very cozy and has 9 very convenient teleporters. It's not so big you get lost and not so full your comp has a hard time rendering. If you play enough that you'd like promotion, simply send ingame email and we'll arrange to be online at the same time and get you promoted.