Only 1 character keeps crashing (neriak/DLW)

[Travleer33]

<p>I have 2 characters on AB. a 60 Mystic and a new SK. The SK is currently trying to quest in Darklight Wood but keeps crashing.</p><p>The crashes are random and occur anywhere from the login screen to about an hour in the game. I don't remember ever crashing in neriak even though I did all the quests there. In fact only started crashing constantly in the Darklight woods level 12 questing area. the starting section was also stable</p><p>My mystic doesnt crash at all. did raids on him before and after the SK started crashing.</p><p>Troubleshooting I have deleted character files from the main folder for the SK. along with a eq.ini and everquest2.exe and cache folder. I turned off UAC.</p><p>I initialy did all kinds of computer troubleshooting before I realized this ONLY HAPPENS ON MY NEW CHARACTER.</p><p>not going to do a DXDIAG dump or anything. but here's the specs</p><p>q9550</p><p>ASUS p5q pro</p><p>nvidia 285</p><p>vista 64</p><p>4GB mem</p><p>latest WHQL drivers.</p><p>Thanks</p>

[Travleer33]

<p>As an update this is in Darklight wood only.</p><p>I have done the following so far:</p><p>Run driver sweeper and installed recomended drivers 190.38, turned off voice, deleted DLW files including sound and run a full file check of game, and I updated my BIOS.</p><p>THis still only happens with this character in DLW. my only other character the Mystic has been in DLW before but never spent time in there. the Mystic never crashes even after playing for several hours</p><p>THe crash is a BSOD with complete lockup and an looping sound stutter accompanies it.</p><p>Would realy like to fix this because I enjoy playing the SK and am enjoying the DLW zone.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>I realize you have already tried deleting some of the common files but here is the full list.  You might want to make sure you got them all:</p><p>cache foldereq2_recent.inieq2_default.iniEverQuest2.exee q2.iniAs well as the character specific files, these will appear as such:Servername_CharacterName_EQ2_uisettings.iniSt ationname_characters.ini</p><p>A blue screen usually indicates a deeper problem, though.  Do you have the message it displays when the blue screen comes up?  That will help us identify the root cause.</p>

[Travleer33]

<p>Thank you for the reply.</p><p>Yes I did delete all of those files listed.</p><p>The reason I am sure its not a "deeper" or hardware problem, is that I am completely stable  on now 2 other characters as well as all my other games and apps.  I started another character I got to level 17 playing straight through with no crash. and many more hours all over the game world with my main character. Yet, predictably the SK in DLW crashes constantly. Usualy within 30 mins of play time.</p><p>Additinal step I tried since last post is default UI.</p><p>I think I may try sucking up a few more cerashes to finish DLW and leave it for good. maybe then this char won't have any more problems. What I was hoping for is that some others may have had somethign similar and solved it.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>Travleer33 wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>Thank you for the reply.</p><p>Yes I did delete all of those files listed.</p><p>The reason I am sure its not a "deeper" or hardware problem, is that I am completely stable  on now 2 other characters as well as all my other games and apps.  I started another character I got to level 17 playing straight through with no crash. and many more hours all over the game world with my main character. Yet, predictably the SK in DLW crashes constantly. Usualy within 30 mins of play time.</p><p>Additinal step I tried since last post is default UI.</p><p>I think I may try sucking up a few more cerashes to finish DLW and leave it for good. maybe then this char won't have any more problems. What I was hoping for is that some others may have had somethign similar and solved it.</p></blockquote><p>Have you tried playing with lowered settings?  Set the graphics options to the absolute minimum and try to go through your normal activities in Neriak.  I know it's not as fun playing like that, but I'm wondering if it will eliminate or at least help with the problem.</p>

[Travleer33]

<p>Tried lowest settings and it crashed in less than 2 minutes.</p><p>2 things left.</p><p>1.I did load default UI (had profit). Im pretty sure eq2 maps is removed (not showing a map). I wan't to delete them entirely as well as all the files listed again.</p><p>2. going to take my level 60 char (that doesn't crash) and see if I can make him crash in DLW. confirming whether the crash is zone specific or character specific.</p><p>If these don't work I don't have any more ideas on my end.</p>

[stupenduss]

<p>If I might add a couple things here, I think I have had the same problem, it wasn't so much that, but after an update in January, I started having issues such as this; I tried to roll back a new driver after I upgraded the driver, did all the things that were recommended by SOE, you name it. In about a month or so after an update I did, the problems stopped, and everything worked properly. I don't remember when the last major update came about, maybe a month ago or so? Well, it started again. DX verify errors in Neriak, and all of a sudden in GFay too. I did all the things recommended again. But get this, it ONLY happens in GFay and Neriak. No other zone is affected what-so-ever. I've tried other characters in the same two zones, and they also crash with the error. So it's not what I thought. A few days ago, now it will freeze in those zones. Remember, no other zone is affected. And along with characters and zones, everything works fine in all the other zones I can go to. It's just in these two zones, to repeat. Neriak, and GFay. This is really weird. But anywho. If it's not the game, which I think it is, The only thing left is to re-install the PC, and if that doesn't work, then I'd say it's the game. The only option left of course, would be the fix I've used before and that is to upgrade the video card. That's always done it the last two times something like this has happened. I have an EVGA 7950 GT OC. The last was an EVGA 7300. Before that was when the game came out and it was a 5700. They all work, but over the years, the changes in EQ2, seem to make them not work after awhile. I've rebuilt the PC once in all this time. All new hardware. But it seems to come down to the video card for this game for me. So, to continue playing, it seems I have to buy a newer video card every couple years, which I must say, is silly. Anyway. for me, It comes down to stay out of those two zones, and at some point when I have free time, re-install the PC. Then as a last resort, get a new card. *sigh*</p>

[Travleer33]

<p>for me its only Darklight wood. although I havent spent any time in Gfay in a long time. Neriak is actualy fine.</p><p>my card is a brand new 285 so I dont think there is much room to upgrade.</p><p>just deleted all traces of profit and eq2 maps so here goes my final attemp to fix it.</p>

[Travleer33]

<p>Well either there is some obscure software bug with Darklight woods files, or I have some obscure hardware problem that only manifests in darklight wooods.</p><p>I will probably try to move that character out of there (and hope I dont crash in the process) and hope some future update fixes it. It's the best newbie zone in the game IMO.</p><p>sum up what I did to trouble shoot</p><ol><li>deleted all UI addons</li><li>ran driver sweeper in safe mode and installed recomended driver</li><li>deleted recomended files</li><li>lowered graphics settings to minimum</li><li>disabled voice chat</li><li>ran full file scan</li></ol><p>All crashes were hard lockups requiring a hard shutdown (power button). Therefore, there were no error logs. all crashes were a blue screen with a stuttering sound loop.</p>