Soulwind

Obviously, back-up any important to you files/data asap, just in case it is the hard drive that's about to fail.

Of course, you should be keeping regular backups anyway, but most folks don't.

However, don't freak out and just run out and buy a new hard drive unless you're just looking for an excuse to upgrade

Try and determine where the clicking is coming from first. Although it could be a failing hard drive, it could easily be a failing fan as well.

1) Try and determine where the sound is coming from exactly. From around the hard drive area, or localized to a particular fan, or the power supply, etc

2) If it's a fan, make sure that there's no dust bunnies or grime that's gunking up the fan and preventing it from spinning freely. If there is clean it up and see if the clicking continues.

3) If it's a fan and it's being caused by the fan bearing wearing out, you'll have to replace it. Fans are pretty cheap (even the best of the best 120mm fans only runs about $15 and good fans can be had for under $7)

4) If it's the power supply, take a look at the power supply fan and see #2/#3 above. Replacing a power supply fan is a bit more involved work-wise but no more expensive than any other fan replacement.

5) If it is the hard drive, then you'll have to bite the bullet and buy a new one. It's pretty much impossible for an end-user to fix a failing hard drive and the cost to have a professional shop do it is probably going to run you more than a new hard drive would.

Also, isn't the Complete Edition going to come with the free month of sub time that the pre-purchase didn't have?

Since you've gone this long and we're so close, I'd probably just wait it out. But I did go the pre-purchase route so I don't really have a dog in this fight.

If you have Stamina, one end reducer (at SO levels) will suffice for all but the longest travel zones. Two and you can basically go anywhere without running out of end.

Personally, once I hit 32 (since I don't slot IO's below level 35), I use a Jaunt Range/End and a Blessing of the Zephyr Travel/End at level 35. This gives 382 ft jumps at 8.9 end per jump.

That's always been enough for me to get anywhere with no worries.

You can often find older versions (which don't matter, they all unlock the whole game) in the "bargain bins" of some retailers, which is a good buy if you can find one as they are usually priced at less than the $15.00 monthly subscription fee and come with a free month....

If you can find one of the older copies for less than or equal to the $15.00, then pick it up as it becomes a zero-sum effect.

If not though, I'd wait the couple of weeks we have left until the retail release of Going Rogue and pick up the Complete Edition retail box when it releases. You'll be wanting to get GR eventually anyway.

"We are not currently accepting charges for your game account from the credit card number you entered. Please contact support@ncsoft.com if you feel that this is in error."

That is the error line you get if a card has been flagged as stolen/fraudulent and has been blocked by NCSoft.

Why you've been blocked is something that only customer service can say (not sure if they will or not, as the only blocked out card I had was actually stolen and I initiated the block after fraudulent charges started showing up on my card).

I think, unfortunately, that once it's blocked; it's basically blocked forever.

I'd get ahold of CS (calling them is probably better than a game of e-mail tag for something like this) and confirm things, then I'd go have your bank issue you a new card number.

You'll probably get better/more specific help for this over in the Technical Issues forum. Those guys over there are really knowledgable about issues like this.

However, a couple of things to check:

1) Make sure all your drivers (video, sound, etc) are up to date. Old drivers are probably the most common cause of lockup and crash issues around.

2) Force a "verify all files" validation by marking the checkbox on the updater screen when the game starts.

3) If you are running Vista or Win 7, make sure that both the updater and the actual CityofHeroes.exe applications are marked for "run as administrator". (Don't just do it from the CoH shortcut - that only gets the updater, actually go into windows explorer and right-click->properties on the actual executable files and change the settings there).

4) If you are running Vista (I think) or Win 7, also mark the "disable desktop composition" option on the two executables. This forces it to temporarily turn off the Aero Themes stuff that can sometimes cause display issues while the game is running.

The tier 2 insps start dropping pretty commonly in the middle to upper levels, so it's pretty easy to stock up on them just by playing.

Especially if you're playing a character that can get away with not using them constantly, just keep several open spaces and make regular trips back to your base to put them into storage (and you can combine them to get exactly the ones you want). I keep our base storage pretty much fully stocked with tier 2's just by playing my scrappers/tanks with a few open slots.

[You can also do Kora Fruit missions in the Shadow Shard if you are on hero side to very quickly refill your storage bins]

Tier 3's are a bit harder as they basically only drop from Bosses and above. So the only real option is to fight lots and lots of Bosses+ (at least as far as I've found).

We keep one storage bin for Tier 3's, but for the most part, the SG just relies on Tier 2's for everyday play and only pull out the Tier 3's on special occassions.

Well, I'm still seeing tons of "I'm done with Blizzard, I won't be buying Starcraft 2 or Diablo 3 from them" out there....

Most of it is probably just nerdrage blowing smoke (unfortunately) though.

Personally, my opinions on moving forward are:

It's going to be purely dependent on:

1) How bad/restrictive/invasive is the DRM
2) How tightly tied into BattleNet it is
3) How much gameplay I lose by NOT using BattleNet (because I WON'T)

The "I can't afford the subscription fee" argument never holds water.

You can afford the $40 to $75+ monthly fee for internet access in the first place, but can't squeeze another $15 out? Heck, drop your plan to a lower tier or just skip lunch one day a week and that's more than $15...

Anyway, back to topic:

On the customizable mastermind pets front, yep you're not alone there.
Customizable MM Pets is probably one of the top requested changes for MM's.

So far, it hasn't happened, and doesn't seem to be happening any time soon.
There are both technical and (apparently) business reasons why they haven't done it.

Maybe someday it'll happen, but until then . . .

So, I figured I'd ask our extra impressive guru's here in the hopes that I'm just being dense.

I have recently added a second monitor onto my system, (It's an old 14" lcd one), and I'm using it as a place to display my various system tools (temp monitoring, load monitoring, etc) while my main display is occupied with full-screen stuff.

The only options I can find for the desktop display are to either "extend" the desktop or to "duplicate" the desktop on the 2nd monitor.

Trouble is, when I'm playing anything that uses full screen, but doesn't use my full resolution level (ie drops back to 1024x768 . . . mostly a couple of older games that need DosBox to run), it also changes the resolution on the 2nd monitor and pushes everything on that desktop area off to the side.

Does anyone know of a way to completely seperate the displays, so that they work independently of each other?

I'm running an SLI setup with 2 GTX 480's and Win 7-64 bit by the way.

Thanks

Or simply not do online business with a company that deliberately sets you up for identity theft.

Also, go to the install folder and find the CoHHelper.exe and the CityofHeroes.exe (the launcher/updater and the actual main executable...I might not have the file names 100% correct there, I'm going from memory at the moment)

Then go to the properties of each executable and mark them both to "Run as Administrator" and "Disable Windows Composition"

The "Disable Windows Composition" turns off the Aero Themes stuff while the app is running. It might not help in your situation, but it solved a couple of display problems I was having under Win 7-64 bit.

You also may want to go into your Device Manager (doing it at the BIOS level is better, if you know how, and if your particular BIOS supports turning it off there) and disable the RealTek on-board sound, since you are running a seperate Sound Blaster card.

I'm not certain what the use for it would be though.

Even after GR, broadcast won't cross from Paragon City to Rogue Isles to Praetoria, and you couldn't team or anything even if it did.

So anyone who can actually hear you knows what "game side" you're on, and your surroundings should definately let you know yourself.

And for the co-op zones, it doesn't matter; especially once side switching goes into effect.

$Name, $AT, even $Origin I can understand, but what would you use $Side for?


Edited: Removed the global channel comment. I was mistaken.

Yeah, I noticed he went over to the support forum after I had replied.

It's a strange issue though.

Skipping the updater is moderately OK as a temporary work-around but isn't actually solving anything.

I'm hoping we'll be able to figure out the common denominator of the issue eventually.

It's not just Win 7. I'm running Win 7 (64 bit) on two seperate machines, with both regular installs (installed via AE edition disc) and test server installs (directory copies) and neither machine has had any issues like this.

I'm wondering if it might not be some issue with using a Non-Administrator user account. I have seen an occasional issue where Win 7 suddenly denies my Non-Admin account write access to some directory -- but then lets me in on the next access attempt...

So what was the resolution?

Just a mis-reading between actual downloading and the "apply" of the patch?

One thing we do here is when somebody has a problem and it gets resolved, we like
to know what the resolution was. That way we can easily reference it if somebody
else comes in with the same problem.

1) Make sure all your power cables are seated securely to both the mb and the video card

2) Make sure your RAM is seated securely

3) Make sure the video card is seated securely

(especially the VGA - often the long connection point sits down into the socket but the smaller connection point isn't pressed all the way in)

4) Make sure that the backside of the motherboard isn't making contact with your mb tray and is only touching the standoffs

(this can happen pretty easily with some support backplates and backplate screws if they aren't screwed in all the way flush)

It really does sound like a bad connection, or a short somewhere.

Are all of your fans spinning - especially the CPU heatsink fan?

Have you overclocked anything? If so, go back into bios and reset to default settings.

Claws, just to jump in....

All of the ATI issues with CoX have been fixed as of issue 17.

ATI cards (especially the 5870) run just fine now.

On the other hand, Je Saist is a rabid NVidia hater, so take that as you will.

I am personally running both cards in my various machines. I've got an HD 5870 in one and it runs great. I've got a new GTX 480 in the other and it runs great too.

Admittedly, the 480's are not priced at the best price to performance point. The 5870's are cheaper and at stock levels perform equally (sometimes slightly better, sometimes slightly worse, depending on the benchmark).

But, at least as of the most recent driver releases, the 480 really powers up, quite a bit past the 5870, once you overclock it (assuming your cooling solution and power supply can handle the load). [at least from my own testing].

So, frankly, when asked about which card to get, these days I respond with . . . whatever floats your boat and is in stock.