Players experiencing crashing issues with the City of Heroes client

I can play indefinitely with all ultra mode sliders set to off. I can play for multiple hours (sometimes more, sometimes much less depending on activity on screen) if I leave shadows off and turn everything else all the way up (except AO, I don't like it). If I turn on shadows higher than lowest, I crash roughly every ten minutes.

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:\Documents and Settings\Admin>nslookup cohlive.patcher.ncsoft.com
Server: host-209-55-24-10.ibbsonline.com
Address: 209.55.24.10

Non-authoritative answer:
Name: a1755.g.akamai.net
Addresses: 206.169.246.171, 206.169.246.138
Aliases: cohlive.patcher.ncsoft.com, cohlive.patcher.gtm.ncsoft.com
cohlive.patcher.ncsoft.com.edgesuite.net


C:\Documents and Settings\Admin>

I took the advice of some of the posts above. I tried playing with Shadows turned off. No luck. Also attempted to play with Ultra mode turned off. No good there either.

I had created a new character, and was attempting to play him through the new story arcs in Atlas Park (as opposed to just running him up to L15 doing the Sewer Trial). However, with all of the extra zoning needed for that approach, combined with the need to train (zoning, and clicking on a trainer are a couple of the other things that seems to push it over the line between functional, and crashing), I was crashing roughly every few minutes.

I gotta say, that in all the time I have been playing (since a week after go-live), this is the worst my game play experience has ever been. I am not sure if we are approaching some kind of solution for this issue, but with the intended revamp of more zones as they did to Atlas, this problem will become more prevalent for all of us who currently suffer with it. I have to admit, that I have played less of late, because of it. I am not leaving, but I do find myself not playing as much as I ordinarily would.

Just sayin'.

*looks at previous posters name*

*ponders*

*looks at previous posters name*

*ponders*

Playing no problem in i21 until I updated my Radeon drivers today. Now crash about every 3 - 15 minutes. Have most current Catalyst drivers, 11.8. Had been playing with 10.xx drivers that were at least 6 months out of date. Possibly a compatability problem with i21 and the most current drivers?

I have doubts because I did see some recent NVIDIA users as well.

Thanks Tex!

Rolled the driver back and works like a charm again.

i crash usually when zoning, but sometime the games freezes randomly


the game stop responding , i can usually play for 30 min until it freeze is frustrating as hell

W7 64
Radeon hd 5850
4GB ram
11.8 drivers


gonna try 11.4 drivers

I would like to throw my hat into this ring and an angry hat it is too.

I recently returned and subbed for VIP, I had 0 issues earlier this year when playing for about 4 months before the start of the summer, anyway:

Once almost every 30 mins or an hour the game will freeze totally I have to task manager close it. Also I have been experiencing hard PC crashes.

I have tried rolling back drivers
Disabling shadows etc
I even reinstalled the game.
Other fiddle fixes like running launchers as admin etc.

Gfx card HD6950 Op Win 7 64 bit.

I dont have issues with other games just city of heroes.

I am tired of the crashing.
I crash all the time for the same reasons as listed above.

COH not responding. Freeze. Task Manager shut it down. Try logging back in, sometimes 2 or three tries as it COH not responding freezes on the log in screen.

Then there is the lovely crash out of trials crash and the crash while you sound loop crash (this crash has been present since issue 4)

Never do they respond with any fix to these crashes and now they have stacked and stacked and stacked up til they have reached critical mass.

You should have at least a CLUE that something is wrong when the name of your product is laughingly called "City of Bugs" by players or "Crashes of Heroic Proportions"

Fix them already!

I've been crashing on a regular basis too. I made a thread here, with not much luck so far. I also sent in a ticket, but no response; which is extremely frustrating. I feel like I have been duped out of $15 at this point. I downgraded my drivers, I lowered the graphics quality of the game despite being able to run it at higher quality with no problems in the frame rate (just constant crashes)... nothing is fixing the issue. I just came back from being AFK for 45 minutes or so, where the game was alt-tabbed out of for that time period, and my whole computer was locked up. This is ridiculous.

************************************************** ***************
IF YOU HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING ELSE TRY THIS EASY AND NON INTRUSIVE METHOD
************************************************** ***************

Possible Fix:

I have not had a crash for a small while I dont know if its any good for everyone.

Go to
Menu > Options > "General Tab" > Scroll to "Prompts" at the bottom of this window select "Hide Paragon Rewards button [Enabled] > Hide Paragon Market button [Enabled] > Apply Now

This needs more testing but it seems my hunch was right, Im also running full ultra with shadows and 11.8 drivers. To think I blamed Marty!

If this worked for you please send xObsidianx on exalted a cookie!

Addition:
Yes Nerfherder its me!
+Paragon Studios I am looking for work but I cannot promise I won't fast wheel myself round the office in a chair pretending Im Positron!

Addition2:
Its lessened my crashing but I still crash.

Perhaps my problem is that I have kept up on drivers, making sure that everything is up to date. Perhaps, in this case, the older ones would work better. Only problem there would be older drivers are harder to find than new ones, and even if you can, downgrading is more difficult that upgrading.

I just want to be able to play relatively free of crashes again. I can even forgive a crash here an there. Just not every few minutes.

I had a thought last night, after my previous post. There was a time, in the Windows 98/early Windows XP era, when the video card makers would recommend that you completely uninstall drivers, and do a fresh install every time you upgrade. They also recommended this whenever you would run into any problems that possibly involved drivers.

So, I have attempted that very procedure in my Windows 7 environment. Not only did I uninstall, when I reinstalled, I chose the "Driver only" option, and there was a check box for "Fresh Install", which I clicked.

So, now I am running with the latest drivers, but they are as "fresh" as they can be. I will report back on in-game behavior as soon as possible.

Several ATI users have upgraded to the new 11.9 version of the drivers that were just released and are not experiencing the issues we've been seeing since the 11.5 drivers came out.

GUYS!! For all you ATI and AMD Users.

Newest updated Version of 11.9 fixed my crashing (not the 11.10)

Go and get it!!

I never crashed before the freedom update. I now mouselook anywhere and I often crash instantly. I can sometimes stay afloat by looking at the ground somewhat zoomed-in. It's not zone dependent as I've crashed in char creation screens and different chars.

some Dxdiag info
*******************************************

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 9/30/2011, 18:25:21
Machine name: DUKE
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.101209-1647)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: Blitz Extreme
BIOS: BIOS Date: 10/31/07 16:53:28 Ver: 08.00.12
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6700 @ 2.66GHz (4 CPUs)
Memory: 2816MB RAM
Page File: 508MB used, 4193MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
DirectX Files Tab: No problems found.
Display Tab 1: No problems found. DirectDraw test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 7 test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 8 test results: All tests were successful. Direct3D 9 test results: All tests were successful.
Sound Tab 1: The file ctaud2k.sys is not digitally signed, which means that it has not been tested by Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL). You may be able to get a WHQL logo'd driver from the hardware manufacturer.
Music Tab: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.
Network Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (n/a)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (n/a)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 295
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 295
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_05EB&SUBSYS_070510DE&REV_A1
Display Memory: 896.0 MB
Current Mode: 1360 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0012.8026 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 8/3/2011 04:49:00, 4210816 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
VDD: n/a
Mini VDD: nv4_mini.sys
Mini VDD Date: 8/3/2011 04:49:00, 12542592 bytes
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-46AB-11CF-346C-092700C2CB35}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x05EB
SubSys ID: 0x070510DE
Revision ID: 0x00A1
Revision ID: 0x00A1
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_C ModeMPEG2_D
Deinterlace Caps: {6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YUY2,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(UYVY,YUY2) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(YV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
{6CB69578-7617-4637-91E5-1C02DB810285}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_PixelAdaptive
{335AA36E-7884-43A4-9C91-7F87FAF3E37E}: Format(In/Out)=(NV12,0x3231564e) Frames(Prev/Fwd/Back)=(0,0,0) Caps=VideoProcess_YUV2RGB VideoProcess_StretchX VideoProcess_StretchY DeinterlaceTech_BOBVerticalStretch
Registry: OK
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
DDraw Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D7 Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D8 Test Result: All tests were successful.
D3D9 Test Result: All tests were successful.

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: SB X-Fi Audio [EC00]
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0005&SUBSYS_002F1102&REV_00
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.1375 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: No
Date and Size: 5/5/2010 21:24:24, 526296 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Creative
HW Accel Level: Full
Cap Flags: 0xF5F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 1, 192000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 128, 128
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 128, 128
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: Yes
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: Yes, Yes
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No
Registry: OK
Sound Test Result: Not run

My experiments resulted in no change. Stripping the drivers, and totally reloading the game did nothing. I attempted to play in First Ward last night (the first REAL test, since it was one of the new zones), and I crashed often. So much so, that I finally just stopped playing.

The errors were mainly the "application is no longer responding", with one "Game has run out of memory". I really need to figure this out.

Any more ideas out there?

Trying new ati drivers 11.9 now.