Screen freezes, mouse and music continue functioning, have to restart

[Euin]

<p>This bug is driving me insane.  I've been playing EQ2 for about two weeks now and I've had to hardware reboot my computer at least once every play session.  Man, I absolutely love this game and I hope I'm here for the long-haul, but these crashes are making things pretty darn miserable.  Here's the nitty-gritty:</p><ul><li>Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2</li><li>Pentium 3.20Ghz Dualcore</li><li>NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB</li><li>3GB OCZ RAM</li><li>SB Audigy 4 Audio</li></ul><p>Note: My computer does not crash with any other applications or games.  So far, just EverQuest II.</p><p>I will be in the middle of playing (shopping, running, casting spells, taking damage, etc./anything), when suddenly the screen will freeze up.  I can move my mouse and the music will continue looping, but all keys stop working, nothing is "clickable", and the screen remains frozen as if it was a permenant screen shot.  I've tried letting my computer sit like this for over 10 minutes to see if it would recover on its own (it won't).  I am forced to reboot my machine using the hardware reset switch.</p><p>I've tried everything I can think of.  Killing absolutely every extra process before launching the game, updating Windows, updating my drivers, reinstalling EQ II, testing my RAM, testing my video card, checking for new motherboard firmware... everything.  I am forced to believe that it must be the game client as nothing else on my computer has this problem.  Adobe Creative Suite 3, a half-dozen other current games, Windows in general, etc. nothing else crashes.</p><p>Please help.  This is seriously killing the good times.</p>

[Tebos]

<cite>Euin wrote:</cite><blockquote><p>This bug is driving me insane.  I've been playing EQ2 for about two weeks now and I've had to hardware reboot my computer at least once every play session.  Man, I absolutely love this game and I hope I'm here for the long-haul, but these crashes are making things pretty darn miserable.  Here's the nitty-gritty:</p><ul><li>Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP2</li><li>Pentium 3.20Ghz Dualcore</li><li>NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB</li><li>3GB OCZ RAM</li><li>SB Audigy 4 Audio</li></ul><p>Note: My computer does not crash with any other applications or games.  So far, just EverQuest II.</p><p>I will be in the middle of playing (shopping, running, casting spells, taking damage, etc./anything), when suddenly the screen will freeze up.  I can move my mouse and the music will continue looping, but all keys stop working, nothing is "clickable", and the screen remains frozen as if it was a permenant screen shot.  I've tried letting my computer sit like this for over 10 minutes to see if it would recover on its own (it won't).  I am forced to reboot my machine using the hardware reset switch.</p><p>I've tried everything I can think of.  Killing absolutely every extra process before launching the game, updating Windows, updating my drivers, reinstalling EQ II, testing my RAM, testing my video card, checking for new motherboard firmware... everything.  I am forced to believe that it must be the game client as nothing else on my computer has this problem.  Adobe Creative Suite 3, a half-dozen other current games, Windows in general, etc. nothing else crashes.</p><p>Please help.  This is seriously killing the good times.</p></blockquote><p>Welcome to one of the more "taxing" applications on the market. The game is stable and you should not be experiencing these type of issue's. Just out of curiousity, what is the make/model of the power supply? </p>

[Euin]

PSU is an Antec 500 Neo HE

[Tebos]

<cite>Euin wrote:</cite><blockquote>PSU is an Antec 500 Neo HE</blockquote><p>That was an excellent power supply but a little dated these days. How many hard drives and cd/dvd dives do you have in that system? Does your video card require two dedicated molex power connector's or just one? Are you splitting the power connector(s) going to the video card with another power consuming device? If so, then don't!!</p><p>Current video cards require "unfettered" power connections.</p>

[Euin]

<p>Thanks for the tip.  To be sure, I opened my case and looked around to ensure all power to critical components was direct line back to the PSU.  Confirmed!  The videocard is on its own rail.</p><p>I definitely appreciate the help.  Any other suggestions?  I've got to get this fixed.</p>

[Brook]

Had the same thing happen before and traced it down to a bad stick of ram. Try removing one at a time...if the bad stick is in it will happen much sooner. It slows the game down some, but if it fixes the problem its worth a try.Took me awhile to find it.

[Cheydak]

In the past, I experienced similar issues with two different systems. The thing that worked for me was changing my EAX settings in sound options to Dolby.  There seems to be something about Sound Blaster cards, drivers & EAX that don't play well together, at least in my case.   There is a stickied thread up top pertaining to this that you may find useful.  Not saying this is the cause of your issues but you have a similar set up to mine and the music looping and freezing was exactly the sort of thing that happened before I tried this workaround.

[Euin]

<cite>Brook wrote:</cite><blockquote>Had the same thing happen before and traced it down to a bad stick of ram. Try removing one at a time...if the bad stick is in it will happen much sooner. It slows the game down some, but if it fixes the problem its worth a try.Took me awhile to find it.</blockquote><p>Thanks to everyone that assisted!  Turns out, I had a tempermental stick of RAM.  Not a "bad" module, per say, as it passed all memtest checks, but less-than-100%-compatible with my motherboard.  I pressed the motherboard manufacturer as to why the problem would only appear with EverQuest II and not any other of my much more heavily used applications/games and their response was, "Big game, lots of code, lots of potential conflicts."</p><p>In any event, after replacing my RAM with a couple of fresh sticks that passed QA with my motherboard vendor, everything seems to be working as it should.  I appreciate the help!</p>