Weird Problem (also Vista64/8800GTSG92)

[MR33]

I too have problems with Everquest 2 / Vista 64 / 8800 GTS 512 (G92).Didn't know where to post, since it doesn't fit exactly to any of the other problems.First i had the problem with Everquest 2 suggesting to upgrade to SP1 cause of the memory management problem, which promptly caused a crash in Kelethin, that has not ever happened again, since i installed the Hotfix (KB940105), no SP1 though.Small problems are the launcher downloading itself every time again, and lp_plugin closing down every time, but that doesn't seem to have negative effects otherwise.Performance and stability are just fine in my case, can play 1920*1200 with High or Very High even and it is worlds better than my old pc.The main problem is some invisible entities or "Can't see target"-messages i get.Am not playing this game for very long so the character i am having problems with is lvl 23.I played quite a lot the last two days, and the problems only occured so far in Antonica zone, in and around the Archer's Wood.Just tried logging in on my old pc at the same spot and everything is normal, that is with a P4 Northwood 2,8 / 7600 GT / XP SP2.On my new pc, though in that area, at the npc's south of Archer's Wood, the tent disappears depending on mouse look position.Various npc's in the zone, give "Cannot see target", when my Ranged Attack Icon indicates them in range and they are just in front of me, same for gathering from nodes.And especially the npc's and also chests that they drop just become invisible and are not selectable to loot at all.Also the Points of Interests on the Map, that you open with "M", are not in their proper spots anymore, and have changed their position like three times by now.Apart from that i did not find any problems so far, anyways i began to think my graphics card could be defective, even though all other games i tried showed zero problems.I am playing Company of Heroes, Sins of a Solar Empire, Titan Quest & World of Warcraft and did not see any graphical problem in those.There is also no difference if i directly log in there, with the gpu at ~45 degree celsius (sensed by gpu-z) or if i am already longer in.Highest i have seen the gpu so far is 58 degree celsius.Would just like to find out if my graphics card is broken, but defective memory or overheating problems certainly look different (have seen those).Don't know how that is on such newer cards with the unified shaders clocked differently etc pp. Maybe something is broken anyways.Also tried setting the memory manually to what is exactly advised for my sticks in geilusa forum, but didn't make a difference and also did not have any problems in other programs with the autodetected settings.And apart from that the pc is well assembled and set up and performance is great and nothing is overclocked etc.Maybe someone with similar card/os would be so nice to look around in that "problem" area ?The problem setup is:Vista Home Premium 64 Bit with all automatic updates done plus KB940105 manually addedCore 2 Duo E84002*2 GB DDR-2 800 CL4 GEIL MemoryASUS 8800 GTS-512 (with standard NVidia 169.25 driver)

[OldShinzui]

<p>Hello there! This is Guide Shinzui!</p><p>I have seen this issue before, I have not had the oportunity to solve this myself, yet. But I am sure I can assist you. A small note, there is an active thread reguarding this Graphics Card <a href="http://forums.station.sony.com/eq2/posts/list.m?topic_id=411077" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">here</a>.</p><p>First of all, I would like to suggest you make sure the Patcher, when run, is right clicked and "Run As Administrator". Please make sure you use the standard LaunchPad, that comes with the game, rather than the Station Launcher (Beta). When you get to the update screen after logging in to the LaunchPad, click "Prefrences" then "Full File Scan". If you have any problems with your installation this should solve them.</p><p>Default UI. One issue that a lot of players have is caused by Custom UI's that are buggy. Try reverting back down to the barebone UI. You can adjust the settings by going to your EverQuest II Directory, usually C:Program FilesSonyEverQuest II and opening the EQ2.ini file. You will want to change the 'cl_ui_skinname' to Default, which will read 'cl_ui_skinname Default'. This should be on it's own line.</p><p>64bit Operating Systems and Dual Core CPU's. It's apparent there maybe a problem like this caused by either or both the 64bit OS or the Dual Core CPU. I am going to look into this for you, but may I suggest you do the same before making any questionable adjustments.</p><p>nVidia Drivers. Ok well.. this is what I've assumed is the issue. People have had issues with the 8800's with all Operating Systems when playing EverQuest II. The drivers would be the likely cause of that issue. If you are not experianced with Driver installations and changes, please do not attempt this without proper guidance from a qualified person assisting you. If you are using the drivers that came with your Graphics Card, you may wish to update them at <a rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nvidia.com/" target="_blank">http://www.nvidia.com/</a>. However, if you're using the latest drivers, the issue maybe caused by the latest drivers.</p><p>Hope something here helps!</p>

[MR33]

Thanks for trying to help.Anyways is all on default ui, and the patcher problem only leads to the patcher looking like default with "Register Expansion"-Button instead of the Rise of Kunark patcher-look like on my xp pc and the lp_plugin-stop only to my characters not having links in the launcher etc, apart from that the installation is fully checked and updates and login work fine, so that does not concern me much.Drivers is the latest official from nvidia too, and the game runs really good, the only other graphical issued is that shadows have disappeared two times by now, but i read here that this seems to be a more "common" problem.Meanwhile i do not think anymore that the card is faulty, but it seems to be a Vista/Antonica problem.In the forum of a german EQ2 Community (eq2.molgam.net) i found a thread, where four different people all had similar issues with places in Antonica, and one mentioned even the npc with the horse & tent, where i have problems too. Common seems to be Vista, since they had mostly new notebooks coming with Vista. Graphics card mentioned in that forum where mobile 8600 and mobile ATI.Probably just going to avoid that area, and praying that i will not run into more such places...Was just worried with the hardware in the new pc and after that Antonica stuff beginning to look on every suspicious polygon in games <img src="/eq2/images/smilies/8a80c6485cd926be453217d59a84a888.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" width="15" height="15" />

[OldShinzui]

<p>Reguarding the patcher:</p><p>The fact that the LaunchPad changed when you ran as an Administrator shows it's not been updating correctly. I believe it'd be a good idea to run the Patcher as an Administrator. You can configure the settings so it always asks you to confirm (Right Click Shortcut, Properties, Advanced on the Shortcut tab, and the Privilage level down the bottom on Compatability).</p><p>As far as the refrence to Vista. I am running it at present, while I have no issues to date with it. I am running it however on an Older card, so there maybe some relation there. I'd say it's more likely due to being 64bit Vista rather than 32bit. Although, I'm also running a 3.8 Hyper Threading Pentium 4.. so I'm not running a Dual Core system either.</p>

[MR33]

Well will try that changes to the patcher since...i saw the other thread with ground rendering problems and there a complete redownload of the pak solved the issue for some.So i let a program calculate the md5 of all 1052 pak files i had on the new pc after a "Full File Scan"of Everquest 2, then i went to the old pc and did the same.But on the old pc 123 pak files had a different md5 anyways. Then i went to copy the 123 different files to the new pc and now the Antonica problems are gone.It is not that the launcher changed appearance when running as an admin. It is my old pc that has a shiny "Rise of Kunark"-launchpad with working weblinks and all and from my understanding the difference is that on my Vista 64 the lp_plugin keeps shutting down and so i am not able to "Register Expansion" on the default launchpad and it keeps downloading itself and eq2module.dll every time on vista even when i set it to run as administrator.Guess i will have to see that the patcher works properly, since by default the "Full File Scan" does not seem to work properly.Whether the file scan works as administrator or not, i did not try yet since i resolved the problem with the file copy between the two pc's.But the launchpad still stayed in its default form as administrator and lp_plugin doesn't work too as administrator.

[OldShinzui]

Very odd. Does the Station Launcher Beta work better for you then? And you say your issue is solved?

[MR33]

From what i read the Station Launcher Beta is for US Servers only.Didn't try that, since i play on EU English Server.The problem was definitely solved, by putting the paks from the XP-PC.Quested in the same area and everything was fine.

[MR33]

Hi, just a small update, you were right with the patcher, i just didn't understand properly.I only set the link of eq2 in the game explorer to "run as administrator".Since i also navigated to the launchpad.exe and set that to "run as administrator" too, all problems are gone now.Launchpad was finally able to update itself properly and full file scan & patcher work and the error from lp_plugin disappeared too.Also running on SP1 now and is perhaps even a bit better the performance.