Mandu

I'm using the latest Firefox and I'm not seeing anything like that.

First a question. Does the game play ok before the freeze? You say the first few times opening windows it's fine but does that just mean it doesn't freeze or that the game actually runs fairly well before then?

Honestly it sounds like a memory leak though I've never yet seen one that was triggered by opening windows. You could try running the task manager and keeping track of the games memory usage. Also every time you zone or every couple of times you open a window, type /unloadgfx

Let us know if that makes any difference.

Disable shadows and see what that does for you. Yes the world will look funky but it will possibly help clear up what is wrong.

Run these two programs CoHHelper and Hijackthis and post the results here. The first one will pull the relevant information from your dxdiag so we don't have to sift through it and it will also show your in game settings. The second one will show us what programs are currently running on your system so we can see if there is any virus problem or background programs that are known to conflict with CoH.

Won't be at lowest settings but will still be at low settings. You will be doing the equivalent of playing on a nintendo 64 while the people who saved up their money are playing on a PS3. Sure it's still a great game, sure you will still have fun but if that system is in the price range you are looking at then you will never be playing the game with high graphic settings.

My suggestion would be to do like Memphis Bill said and give us your budget. There are people on here who are experts at tracking down the very best system available for any budget.

Not as good as avatar but still awesome.

Ok, have you got any reskinning programs? The usual culprit is stardock windowblinds but if you are using something else to customize the look of your interface it could be that. If so then tell it not to re-skin cityofheroes.exe or cohupdater.exe.

Do you have a graphics tablet installed? Some graphics tablet software has been known to cause the stuck at loading problem. Usually the software has to be uninstalled completely to get CoH to work. Probably something to do with registry changes.

Since you are using windows 7 browse to your city of heroes subfolder. Right click on cityofheroes.exe then select properties. Under the compatability tab check both Disable Visual Themes and Disable Desktop Composition. Then do the same for cohupdater.exe

If this doesn't work then again select the compatability tab for both programs and check the box that says Run This Program In Compatability Mode For windows xp service pack 3.

We'll figure this out yet. The game should work for you since I'm running basically the same setup only with a faster processor and the game is fine for me.

From what I have read they actually do intend to have Dredd keep the helmet on the entire movie.

/em sigh

Definitely jealous although the tables are turned when I go to PAX in Seattle. Anybody got a spare ghoul code? I will gladly trade you for a spare whatever comes up next time at PAX, if I get a spare one that is.

That's a difficult answer, at least for me since I've never actually used stardock windowblinds.

Two possible ways I can think of. First go to your city of heroes folder and right click on either cityofheroes.exe or cohupdater.exe Then look at the options and see if there is a check box or some such for skinning them. If there isn't then click on properties and see if there is anything under one of those tabs.

Second possible way. Windowblinds should be listed somewhere in your program files. If not then it can be found here C:\Program Files (x86)\Stardock\MyColors\VistaSrv.exe on your system. Run it and see if you can find out how to disable it for certain programs or shut it down entirely.

That's my best guess, sorry I can't be more specific. Hopefully somebody with previous windowblinds experience will show up.

If you really want to try and make the game playable (sort of) on that system then there are two things you can try.

First, free up space on your C: drive. Get rid of any programs you don't use any more. Move your itunes directory and any video or picture files to a different drive. Just do all you can to free up space. Defragging doesn't do a lot of good when you have so little space left, and when playing the game you are going to be using that pagefile a lot.

Second. Before loading the game kill off every single program that isn't absolutely necessary for keeping the computer running. That includes itunes and even your anti virus and spyware protection. As long as you are only connecting to the game and absolutely nothing else while you are playing then your firewall should be plenty of protection. You need to free up as much of that RAM as possible. When the system crashes during a loading bar it's almost always memory related. And that's why you need to free up RAM and also free up disk space so that your page file can operate more quickly.

Is there a reason you haven't upgraded your system before now though? I know computer hardware isn't cheap but that's why God invented Ramen and basic cable. Lord knows I've had to go that route more than a few times when upgrading my own computer. Right now even if we can get your setup working it's kind of like getting a bluray player to work on a black and white television. It might work but 90% of the content is missing.

Though I'll admit I would probably figure out a way to play the game on a netbook if I had to just to chat in the various channels.

So do we get +10% inf when out of SG mode?

As Honbrid said, if you backed out to the starting screen and clicked exit then the game should have started normally. If you closed the program in any other way including just powering down the computer then it will be considered an abnormal termination and the game will try to repair all files.

It shouldn't actually take 4 hours though. That's just a rough estimate based on how long it is taking the game to double check the first files.

Probably a blown capacitor in the monitor. If you are electrically inclined it's easy enough to find and replace. If you aren't or don't know somebody who is then don't bother. Paying a "professional" to fix it would be too pricey.

Hmmmmmm... Ok, so not intel. And I'm not seeing anything bad in your hijackthis although I don't know what effect Portrait Displays might have on it so you might try disabling that.

It's possible Call Me Awesome might have made the right call from the start. Two steps to this. Try verifying files when you first start the game. If that doesn't do the trick then go into your game directory and delete coh.checksum then run the game.

Well you have basically given zero information about your system but I'll take a shot at it anyway and give you the most likely cause.

You don't have a real video card. Instead you have an integrated chipset. That integrated chipset is intel. Intel's drivers are basically broken when it comes to OpenGL which is what CoH uses. They used to work ok because the game code itself was a mess as well. But in order to tremendously upgrade the video quality possibilities of the game the video code had to be mostly rewritten. Now the game code works as intended but the broken intel drivers no longer interact well.

The only real solution is to get an actual video card. If you happen to be playing on a laptop then there is no solution.

If you do have an actual video card then use these two programs

CoHHelper and Hijackthis

And post the results here.

You know, when you invited me over to get a good look at "the twins" I thought...

If I am a winner, I permit NC Interactive, Inc. and NCsoft Europe Limited to use my name, likeness, photograph, hometown, and any comments that I may make about myself or this contest that I provide for advertising and promotional activities. I also certify that I am at least 13 years of age and am eligible to participate in this contest.

After doing the Aura Mission on my electric blaster I couldn't get This out of my head for two days. Stupid Rikti.

Maybe it's your playing style because you are just too used to red side. When I start off a scrapper I immediately up my difficulty because I know that I will be able to blast through large mobs without having to worry about endurance. Admittedly I haven't tried an electric scrapper because the power set just doesn't appeal to me but I don't have a problem with any of the others I've tried.

Brutes on the other hand I have much more trouble keeping alive so I have to play more cautiously.

Your mistake was in buying the in game item pack. If you instead bought the full Mac version of the game then you would have gotten all the same items plus a month of play. It costs $20 instead of $10 but for that extra $10 you get a month of play as opposed to the $15 normal cost of a month of play. Or you could look at it instead as paying paying for a month of play and getting the item pack for $5. And yes, the full mac version could be applied to your existing account.

At any rate, that is where the "free month" mentioned is coming from.

Possibly somebody hacked the account. However there is also something else to consider. Is there any chance at all that you told your bank that the NCsoft charge to your account was invalid? People have done this in the past. They look at a recurring charge on their account and don't recognize it. They call the bank tell them that it's an invalid charge.

If you do that then from that point on that credit card and all accounts tied to it will be permanently blocked. It doesn't matter if you call and explain to NCsoft that it was all a mistake. That card and account are permabanned.

But either way there is an easy fix for getting a new account and subscription. Go to your bank and tell them you want a second debit card for that account. Every bank I've ever had an account with has happily given me a second card. I do this because I keep one card with me for purchases while I'm out and about and I keep the second card in my computer desk so it's always available for online purchases.

I've got this problem but it has only cropped up since I installed Windows 7. First, it's just the image that freezes. I can use movement keys and hear the character moving around and use number keys to activate power. And when I alt tab to the game window a second time it's fine.

So that's what I do automatically now without even thinking about it. When I alt tab back to coh I skip it the first time through the cycle. Takes less than half a second so I don't even think of it as a problem.