Game is running at 400% speed, unresponsive to mouse, crashes upon charcter select

[Maha]

So I've recently gotten the cravings for shards again, and installed my anniversary edition onto my computer again. The game has ran fluidly every time I've installed it onto my older computers. Well, now this particular build seems to run this game well. TOO WELL. The game's particles go insane once you get to the character select screen and it runs at about 400% the speed it normally should, which gives the illusion of the characters spazzing out as if they had drank about twelve red bulls and snorted a line of pure 100% Colombian sugar. My mouse is unresponsive in this screen, and I can only use my keyboard to interact with anything. At this point, I can press enter twice to ATTEMPT to enter the world, only to be booted back to the server select screen.

I assume it's my computer running the game well above spec, and Eqplaynice doesn't seem to help much. I'm going to assume it's something minor I've gotten to do, but I would like some assistance if possible, because I would love to play this game again.

 

[Pecannius]

I vaguely remember this happening at some point and I believe Bind affinity to a specific processor on the patcher fixes this.

 

[Maha]

I vaguely remember this happening at some point and I believe Bind affinity to a specific processor on the patcher fixes this.

Bound Processors 1, 2, 3, and 4. Issue was not fixed. Linking computer specs for reference. Perhaps there is some type of conflict with hardware that I'm unaware of.

 

[Daffie]

I'm pretty sure this is an FPS thing. Try eq play nice and throttle your FPS to double digits.

 

[Haenir]

Kind of tangential, but I had a similar problem with my Linux system. It ended up being a direct x issue (I was using libraries from directx 10) which went away when I ensured the right direct x libraries were being used (d3dx9). So check whether you have directx 9? Apparently they stopped including legacy code with directx 10+.

 

[Maha]

I'm pretty sure this is an FPS thing. Try eq play nice and throttle your FPS to double digits.

It doesn't give me the option to. All I get when I left click it is bubkis, and right clicking offers a list of EQ1 legacy sites.

Kind of tangential, but I had a similar problem with my Linux system. It ended up being a direct x issue (I was using libraries from directx 10) which went away when I ensured the right direct x libraries were being used (d3dx9). So check whether you have directx 9? Apparently they stopped including legacy code with directx 10+.

I do have 9.0c installed. Or at least I should. Every time I attempted to install it, it insists it's there along or at least something more modern is.

How would I ensure the correct libraries are being used?

Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate this.

 

[Haenir]

I do have 9.0c installed. Or at least I should. Every time I attempted to install it, it insists it's there along or at least something more modern is.

What does your registry say your directx version is? --- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectX

How would I ensure the correct libraries are being used?

Basically you just need to have the libraries in the right directory. I'd try using the windows installer for directx 9c which should theoretically (re)install those libraries where they belong, even if it tells you that you already have directx 10 or 11 (which included some of those libraries, but not all). I keep the neccesary library (d3dx9_30.dll) in my EQ Client folder since when I change computers I just copy the whole directory.

Honestly though, it's more likely to be an overclocking issue. Have you tried underclocking your CPU using something like AMD Overdrive?

Bound Processors 1, 2, 3, and 4.

Did you try binding to one processor (instead of 4 out of 6!)?

 

[Maha]

What does your registry say your directx version is? --- HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\DirectX



Basically you just need to have the libraries in the right directory. I'd try using the windows installer for directx 9c which should theoretically (re)install those libraries where they belong, even if it tells you that you already have directx 10 or 11 (which included some of those libraries, but not all). I keep the neccesary library (d3dx9_30.dll) in my EQ Client folder since when I change computers I just copy the whole directory.

Honestly though, it's more likely to be an overclocking issue. Have you tried underclocking your CPU using something like AMD Overdrive?


Did you try binding to one processor (instead of 4 out of 6!)?

Reg edit didn't help much. That dll IS on the computer though, so I will place that in the EQ file location when it finishes reinstalling.

My computer IS overclocked at the moment, though not by much. I'm using a 6300, and It's moved up for 3.5 volts to 4.2, and a rather low amount of cycles up. I think it's at 113% power.

Yeah, It's currently bound to the first processor.

Of course, I am reinstalling the game. I got in contact with twist who recommended to do so, just to be safe.

Edit: Reinstalling has done nothing.
Edit dos:

There's all the DXDIAG info you might have wanted. 9,0X is insisting it doesn't need to be installed, and doesn't seem to be helping.

You know, here's a dumb idea. I'm gonna restart the computer.

Edit, triple: And now eqgame.exe has mysteriously disappeared. If this keeps up, I'm going to just give up. This will be the THIRD time I've had to reinstalled the freaking game.

E to the D to the I frickin T: So resinstalling a THIRD time didn't work, Copying EQGAME.exe didn't work, Reinstalling DX didn't work, DELETING 11, keeping ONLY 9.0C didn't work, I'm running out of ideas. Also, ran back to base hz. Any more and the processor most likely won't function. Not working.

 

[Haenir]

Couple other troubleshoots:

Graphics card settings

In the AMD driver settings there is a tab called "Performance >> Graphics OverDrive". Ensure that this is DISABLED. also check AMD OverDrive under the same 'Performance' tab. Set AMD OverDrive to Disabled. I would also check MSI Afterburner for any settings that may effect the GPU clock speeds.
​

CPU (basically try to get it down to 4.2GHz)

Set BCLK to 200 MHz
Set CPU Clock Ratio to 21.0
Disable Perf Boost
Disable Cool & Quiet​

Edit your eqclient.ini file and add (not sure this works in SoD's client):

CPUAffinity0=1​

 

[Maha]

Couple other troubleshoots:

Graphics card settings

In the AMD driver settings there is a tab called "Performance >> Graphics OverDrive". Ensure that this is DISABLED. also check AMD OverDrive under the same 'Performance' tab. Set AMD OverDrive to Disabled. I would also check MSI Afterburner for any settings that may effect the GPU clock speeds.
​

CPU (basically try to get it down to 4.2GHz)

Set BCLK to 200 MHz
Set CPU Clock Ratio to 21.0
Disable Perf Boost
Disable Cool & Quiet​

Edit your eqclient.ini file and add (not sure this works in SoD's client):

CPUAffinity0=1​

Going back into my BOIS settings and resetting my processors memory options back to basic COMPLETELY solved it.
Perf Boost and Cool & Quiet wasn't doing it, and my clock was 200, and ratio was 21, before that 21.5. It was at 4.3, then 4.2, and now 3.5. However, my CPU Voltage was about 1.315 instead of the 1.15 or so it typically aims for. I'm not entirely sure why that caused a huge issue with EQW, but it did.
This is totally speculation and most likely completely wrong, but I guess the program reads your basic computers information, or at least it's baseline, and sets it's parameters for that baseline. With that in mind, if you overclock, the program must run at the speed of the overclock rather than the baseline it decided it should run it.

That also solved a minor boot problem I was having when the computer was trying to boot from a nonexistent hard drive for no reason. I would like to extend my personal thanks to you for both reasons, but mainly for the boot issue. It was very, VERY annoying to turn on the computer, have it power up, and then go blank for 3 seconds then reboot as normal.

If there is a method of deleting threads or locking them, you may go ahead and do so.

 

[Taryth]

Good troubleshooting. You gotta love these new stupid BIOS/EFI options.