Texas Justice
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Posts
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Your video card drivers are over 2 years old.
I'd recommend updating them from the ATI site.
Be sure to uninstall the old drivers first, reboot to safe mode and run Driver Sweeper to remove the files that are always left behind, then run reboot back into normal mode and install the new drivers.
The drivers really do need to be updated.
That being said, from the Patch Notes that were released with the patch on August 24.
Quote:If you are still getting white walls after updating your video drivers please file a /bug report so that they know it is still occurring.
Graphics
- Fixed a bug that made some of the walls in Praetorian Tech maps white and textureless.
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Quote:Look a bit closer. He or she is running AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5. That is not the AVG Anti-Virus package. I initially saw the 7.5 and was going to recommend updating it to the current 9.0 build then realized it was the Anti-Spyware package instead.Originally Posted by all_hell
It appears that you have components of NortonAV and AVG on your machine.
Having more than one anti-virus program running at once can sometimes create weird behavior
The AVG Anti-Spyware 7.5 program is a bit outdated and I believe it has been rolled into the current version of AVG Anti-Virus. -
The patcher is the file you use to launch the game. Follow these steps exactly.
1. Double-click the shortcut that you use to launch CoH but DO NOT click Next. If a prompt from Windows 7 or Windows Vista asks for permission to run the program,give it permission.
2. Click the button that says Verify All Files above the Next button.
3. Sit back and relax while it verifies the files or go do something else for a bit, the computer will take of things as needed.
4. Once it finishes, click Next then proceed as usual. -
Quote:What? You've reduced it to just the facts and thrown away all the pretties in your decision making process.Originally Posted by Father Xmas
LED fan, glow in the dark cables, glossy paint job, transparent or with a window isn't even a criteria.
I do the same thing.
Considering the questions the OP is asking, I wouldn't recommend OC'ing at all. And by that basis, how easy the parts are to OC doesn't go into my decision making process. At all. Much like the LED Fans, glow in the dark cables, etc. that you mentioned in relation to the power supply.Quote:The P55-GD85 adds an internal reset button while both have an internal power and MSI's One Touch OC set of buttons. The P55-GD85 also has a reset CMOS button on the rear connectors. These are niceties for OCers.
Probably other "premium" tweaks for hardcore OCers on the P55-GD85.
Now, if it was someone that wasn't needing to ask those questions and was asking my recommendation between part A and part B and I knew that they had the basics of OC'ing down and how to recover from a OC failure, sure, then I'd look at the OC capablilites and factor that into my recommendation.
As for the OP, I wouldn't feel comfortable suggesting he/she get something due to how easy it is to OC or reset from a bad OC, or even to OC in general.
Just my .02 inf. -
Okay, as to being the same hardware as you had under Windows XP. True. However, Windows 7 uses a totally different driver structure and much of the "under the hood" stuff is different. Think about it like this. You have a Dodge Ram truck with a Hemi engine that runs fine. You decide to change the engine out to a Cummings Diesel and things don't work quite the same. That's because Diesel engines run differently than gasoline engines and require different supporting structures. You get the picture I think.
As for the problems, there are 3 things I'm looking at as possibly causing the problems but want to take them one at a time to see which one it really is. Disabling all of them would likely resolve it, but we wouldn't know which is the true culprit.
I was tempted to just list the first item and have you test it but figured that would be useless if I get tied up with work like I have been lately. So I'll list them in order. Please, only disable one and test it for 24 hours. If it resolves it let us know, if it doesn't let us know and disable the next one and test it the same way.
I know that's a tedious way of doing things but it's the only way to really tell which is causing the problem or if it's a combination of programs causing the problem.
1. Disable the nVidia Stereoscopic 3D Driver Service if you don't use it or set it to Manual if you want it to activate for the few programs that will use it. There are reports on several sites that it is causing memory leaks by leaving open file handles. An alternative if you don't use/need the 3D options would be to uninstall it from the Control Panel's Programs and Features window. To my way of thinking, this is the most likely culprit.
2. Turn off Steam. Yeah, I know, if you turn it off you don't get the benefits of having it installed to see what your buddies are doing. However, there have been reports of Steam causing problems in the past and turning it off resolving the problems so I'm adding it as the second most likely candidate.
3. Configure Microsoft Security Essentials so that your CoH installation folder is in the exclusion list. I've seen reports of Knockback causing problems until MSE was configured this way so I added it as a possiblity.
Actually, there is one other item that makes me scratch my head and that is "Why is Dragon Age : Origins adding an updater to your services apparently set to run Automatically instead of launching only when you launch the game?" This seems like a waste of system resources to me, sloppy coding, and when it runs it's little update checks there is no way of telling if that could be interfering with the network traffic that CoH needs. -
I'd recommend filing a /bug report in game about this with ALL of the information including the solution you found.
I'd also suggest PM'ing Arbiter Kim, Arbiter Oates and Arbiter Curry about this with what you found to be the solution. They may not have been able to recreate it or find the link between the Dim Chat Windows settings and the Opacity changes. This would likely give them a good repeatable process so that they can find a solution.
Kudos for your troubleshooting on this. -
First, post a log from running CoH Helper as it will give necessary information about your system and the CoH installation and settings.
Then, post a log from running HijackThis. This will show what else is going on on your computer while you are playing CoH that may be interfering with the game. -
Something in the back of my head keeps nagging me about the nVidia Network Access Manager and the game but I can't recall what it is.
Seems like it was causing crashing problems for people and uninstalling it resolved their issues.
Of course, not being able to recall exactly what it was means that I could be mis-remembering. -
Quote:If CoH Helper is crashing, especially multiple times, it indicates a deeper system problem. A HiJackThis log would be a nice start to see if anyone can spot anything out of the ordinary that might be causing your issues.Originally Posted by Dogface
I came to this forum and, like a good little boy, I tried to use "City of Heroes Helper". It failed to do anything except crash, multiple times. Here's the dump on that:
Quote:Okay, so toss City of Heroes Helper into the trash can. I also had the GameAdvisor utility that tech support sent me to, which I ran. That one worked, and I sent the output to tech support, but it didn't seem to matter, since none of their advice was based on it, I told them manually that I had ZoneAlarm. Here is that output:
So, now, here I am. What can I do? Don't bother complaining about my graphics or sound card, I know they're ancient. I can't even get to that point right now, with a 40-50+++++ hour "fixing files" time. Yes, I did already just let it run for as long as it claimed it would run. Some time during the night, it just crashed without even a message.
I uninstalled two different ways and reinstalled from fresh downloads.
No luck.
Now what?
Your video card likely doesn't have any effect on the download troubles you are having, but I WILL get back to the video card later, not to complain about it but to give you some basic information. I suspect it is a configuration problem with ZoneAlarm but since CoH Helper crashes indicate other system problems I'll hold off until you can get us a HiJackThis log. Maybe something will jump out at someone that they recognize as signs of Malware or a virus that could be causing this.
I just want you to be aware that your video card WILL be a problem in getting the game to run and there are no newer drivers that will fix that.
Now, if it were me and I were troubleshooting my own PC, the first thing I would do is to uninstall ZoneAlarm completely, reboot, and try the download again. I think I might even try wiping out the contents of the installation directory where it's putting the game and having it do a full download. That would eliminate once and for all if it is something in the configuration of ZoneAlarm that is causing the download issues. If it solves the problem, then I'd look at reinstalling ZA and figuring out what all needs to be configured and how and if it doesn't solve the problem then you have eliminated one program as being the problem and can let those helping you know that the problem persists even after uninstalling ZA and rebooting. But that's just me being all logical and stuff. YMMV
Now, I said I'd get back to the video card and I keep my word, so here it is.
I'm not going to complain about your video card or sound card. I will note that your video card drivers are almost 4 years old but they are the newest drivers avaialble. nVidia has dropped support for cards this old and isn't producing drivers for them anymore. Back in March we got Issue 17 which was a MAJOR graphical update to the game. The intent of the developers was that the graphics update not have any affect on systems with older graphics cards but they weren't able to do that completely. Mostly because they had to fix several things that were intentionally broken in the rendering engines so that they would run on hardware with improperly written drivers.
Their intent was to not raise the minimum specifications for the game, and they technically didn't. Technically being the key word. The websites and boxes still say an nVidia MX 2 card is the minimum, but that's pure hogwash in my estimation. I've tried running it on a system that by far exceeds the Recommended settings with an MX440 card (oldest card I could find at our Tech Department offices) and the game won't run for me. At all. This is a clean install of Windows, only motherboard and hardware drivers loaded, Windows updates run and the game installed. No other software.
Part of the reason for this is that the newest graphics drivers for the MX400 series card is from November of 2006. And those drivers aren't going to cut it for running the game in a post-I17 world. Note, I'm not complaining about your card, just giving simple facts. It's possible that you might be able to use the nVidia Mobility Modder tool on the newest official drivers and get them to install, but I didn't test it back in February and March while I was testing Issue 17 during Beta. I had enough other items to test that I didn't have time for everything. You might be able to find a driver on the Omega Drivers site that will work with your card, but most likely it will be one in the Archive section and it would be a trial and error situation to see if one would work or not. To me, it's not worth the headaches.
Something I rarely recommend on the forums is a hardware upgrade, especially on such an old system, but in this case I'll make an exception. There are some AGP graphics cards available that will get you well past what you currently have, but I wouldn't worry about it until you get the other problems resolved. After all, why upgrade the graphics card if you can't install and update the game? One such card is this Sapphire Radeon 3450 on Newegg at just under $50 before shipping and handling. The 3450 is not going to let you run all the Ultra Mode settings cranked to max, but you'll get a better visual experience than any of the other sub-$50 AGP offerings there, and better than a few of the ones that cost more. -
You need to get the ATI Legacy 9.11 drivers. There are reports that the Legacy 10.2 have issues with CoH so use the 9.11 drivers I linked above.
You'll still need to crank the graphics pretty low.
The only other thing I can really see that hasn't been mentioned is that you only have 1 Gb of RAM. The maximum your system can handle is 2 Gb so you may want to max it out to give it the best opportunity to handle the game and other programs.
EDIT: The other alternative for your graphics drivers would be to download the most current ATI drivers and download the ATI Mobility Modder Tool and follow the instructions step by step on the Mobility Modder site for how to modify the drivers. The Mobility Modder Tool will only work on certain chipsets so make sure yours is on the list before trying it. The X600 you have is on the list. -
No, you aren't looking in the wrong place. Normally, there is nothing in that location. Just as there is normally nothing in the locations for the various map pack files, etc.
It's just that if you put a file of the proper size and type in that location it will override the default built-in graphic that the game is trying to use.
Hope that clears it up for you. -
Quote:It shouldn't mess with those at all, but it's always better to have a backup in case something odd happens.Originally Posted by Sin_Stalker
If I do that, is there a possibility of my screen shots, costume files and demo stuff being deleted?
I'll copy what I have to my external hd just incase but it would be good to know before hand. Sucks. I was all ready to log on yesterday and work on my comic(www.jkcomics.com)... but natta.
><
Oh, and just so that it's known that it wasn't only on the Beta Boards, this was also mentioned in Skippy Sidekick's Announcement post about the Loyalty Program Beta invites on July 21. It's in the Announcements section that is visible to everyone and even showed up in the Dev Digest, which is why I saw it.
I still think it was sloppy work leaving the Live Uninstaller in the Beta folder and not recoding it to only work on the new file structure and registry structure.Quote:Originally Posted by Skippy Sidekick
In preparation for the Going Rogue Loyalty Closed Beta starting tomorrow, Thursday, July 22nd, 2010, the game client will be made available for pre-download in order to alleviate the expected load on our patching servers.
The North American Beta client is available here.
And the European Beta client is available here.
Please bear in mind that this is only a pre-download for all of you who have taken part in the Loyalty Program that ran between August 15th and November 15th, 2009.
Access to the Closed Beta servers will be effective from Thursday, July 22nd, 2010 on. Participants will be receiving a Beta invitation and their access to the Closed Beta forums will be enabled on the same day.
We know you've been eagerly waiting for this particular phase of the Closed Beta to start and thank you for your patience with this.
Known Issues:
DO NOT RUN the uninstall.exe from inside the Beta client folder. Using this uninstaller will delete the CoH Live registry information from your City of Heroes folder, and would require you to reinstall the Live client.
Note: This is an issue with the Beta client that is not directly related to the installer downloads above.
The first attempt to grab the installer may result in a 5-10 second download of an empty .zip file. If this occurs, just try again and you should start the full download.
The CohBeta folder will install by default to Program Files\NCsoft\CohBeta this is different from the usual default of Program Files\CohBeta.
As evidenced by Sin's post, not everyone saw the message and it's caused problems. I'm sure Sin isn't the only one that's had the problem either. Some may have just gotten disgusted and decided not to post and possibly not to play. -
Quote:Not only does it make a dandy generator, but it's possible to dry out the lubrication on the fan bearings and damage the bearings as well. It's also possible to get the fans out of balance so badly that it won't spin properly.Originally Posted by Call Me Awesome
Make SURE you hold the fans still while you blow them out... spinning fans while cleaning is a bad thing. They make a dandy generator and can feed back electricity into the computer.
I've replaced more fans in the past few years due to some of the people I work with refusing to follow directions and letting the fans spin while blowing out dust. It doesn't help at all that we aren't using canned air for this but rather an actual air compressor (lowered the output pressure of course) with a nozzle that directs the air rather precisely. They refuse to see the correlation between the fans we have to replace only being in the computers that they didn't keep the fans from spinning while blowing out the dust. -
Most likely you have an onboard Intel video solution.
The other likely scenarios are that your video card drivers are out of date.
Post a CoH Helper log and we can see your system specs and the game settings. Be sure to right-click the CoH Helper after you download it and select Run as Administrator. -
For some reason it's not picking up the manufacturer and model of your monitor or it's Maximum Resolution.
My first guess would be that you are running it a resolution the monitor doesn't support or a refresh rate that the monitor doesn't support.
Start the Updater and click Next. Before clicking I Agree, put a checkmark in the Safe Mode box. This will load the game with lowered graphics settings (and ugly as well). You can adjust the settings one at a time, Apply the changes, restart the client if that's what it wants, and keep repeating this until you find which setting is causing the problem.
As an alternative, you could load TweakCoH and adjust the settings before you start the game, but remember that TweakCoH was written long before Ultra Mode was thought of and doesn't have the settings for it. So far, no new versions have been written. I think the author of the program has moved into other directions with his programming but might be willing to give someone the source code to update it if they ask nicely and give credit for the original work. -
So as not to flood with info? You've given basically no information for us to work with. Both CoH Helper and HiJackThis give us important information on your system.
That is why the stickied post about how to ask for help here gives step by step instructions on how to run them and post the results. Apparently you knew they were going to be requested so why not just post them to begin with?
Hyperstrike didn't go to all that trouble with the screenshots just for giggles.
Post them. -
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I don't remember my bug reports ever showing up in the list on the support site.
But yeah, it does seem that it was around the time of that extended maintenance they did that everything seemed to stop working right.
Forums constantly logging me out, no emails for /bug reports, character copy tool took an extended vacation, etc.
EDIT: Sent a few PM's, got a response that they've been forwarded to the appropriate parties. -
I never had troubles with CoH when running Vista. Then again, I don't install my games into the default directories either.
But with no real information to go on I guess I'm done here. -
They actually don't appear to be renaming WindowBlinds on this Alienware.
In the All Programs menu there should be either a StarDock folder or a WindowBlinds entry. If it's the StarDock folder then opening it should give a listing for WindowBlinds. Open the program and look for settings for an exclusion list or an ignored programs list or similar. Set it to ignore City of Heroes and all should be well.
Since I don't have the program, I don't know all of the entries or steps involved. If you need more detailed help you'll need to call Alienware Tech support. I've been told they can walk you through this in less than 15 minutes. -
You have to have the Remember Account Name checked in order for it to keep your character order saved.
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Post a HiJackThis log. I can't keep up with the names all these OEM's give to the program.
Or you could call Alienware support and tell them you need help setting the skinning program to ignore your City of Heroes game and they can talk you through it. -
Turn off the skinning program or set it to ignore CoH. It's a variant of the StarDock WindowBlinds and that will cause your problems.
If it continues after making the changes above, please post a CoH Helper log (be sure to right-click it and Run as Administrator) and a HiJackThis log. -
Quote:Video card is above the minimum, but I'd suspect it is a large part of the problem. Low memory doesn't help, out of date drivers may also be a problem, incorrect settings for the game could be contributing, other programs on the computer could interfere ... the list is rather long.Originally Posted by DaemonHeld
I could be mistaken.. but I think it might have something to do with your video card.. I think you may need a better one for the game. System Requirements:
Hope that helps...
Peace
It's difficult to troubleshoot with so little information provided. To help people help you, please post a CoH Helper log and a HiJackThis log. -
Please post the HiJackThis log and a new CoH Helper log directly into a forum post.
The link you provided strips out the formatting and makes it very difficult to read.
If needed, make two posts, one for CoH Helper and one for HiJackThis.