2 problems, please help

[fawdown]

<p>These two could be related.</p><p>Problem 1:</p><p>when I zone into an area, most of the time the NPC's and even creatures cannot be seen right away.  Sometimes I have to wait up to 60 seconds for them to appear and ussually at least 15 seconds.  For instance:  If I zone into QH and run straight to the broker, I have to stand there for 20 seconds to a minute before I can see him.  As far as I know I have opened up all router ports for the game. </p><p>Problem 2:  I fall through the world a lot.  When I am walking around, often the landscape does not draw consistently.   Some things are there, some not.  Sometimes I need to wait over a minute after using a flying mount in order to move again, otherwise I'll take a dive through the world.</p><p>Any suggestions?</p>

[fawdown]

<p>It's odd no one has had this problem before.  I have had it years in the past too, but it seemed to stop.  This time it has been going on for over a month. </p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>fawdown wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>It's odd no one has had this problem before.  I have had it years in the past too, but it seemed to stop.  This time it has been going on for over a month. </p></blockquote><p>I used to get this same error with my old P4 computer.  I beleive in my case it was caused by the custom memory timings I was using for my RAM.</p><p>Are you overclocking your system in any way?</p>

[fawdown]

<p>Not that I know of.  But how would I check?  I tried defragging.  I have all ports for game set on router.</p><p>It's kind of frustrating, because I can't group or raid like this because it's not fair for people to have to wait for my stuff to load all the time.</p>

[Trellium]

<p>Could you give us some info on your system? Some of the MsInfo and DxDiag summaries would help. And, if you ever have the connection info window up in game (think it is F11 to activate?) that might let us see if there are internet problems.</p><p>Seems to me this could be ram related. Maybe bad ram itself, maybe not enough available (what else do you have loaded?). The game may be doing a massive amount of data swapping and never catches up to itself, or possibly the internet connection is too slow (maybe issues with the line). If that data is trickling in, I could see it showing up slowly. But, it still sounds more like an issue with your hardware.</p><p>I would also try turning off any antivirus you have, just while you play the game to see if it is interfering. If you set them wrong, they might be repeatedly scanning the log files which can be large. It sucks up a lot of CPU time, and possibly memory.</p>

[fawdown]

<p>I was examining my computer and found out that virual memory was turned off for the entire system.  I enabled it and also turned off anti virus.</p><p>The problem with NPCs seems to have gone away.  It has also made the problem with the world drawing a little better.  Where it use to take about 60 seconds to draw a complex scene, like Dreg's, it's more like 20 seconds now.  It also doesn't happen every time.  The problem isn't solved, but it's better.</p><p>I don't really know how to log computer info.</p><p>I am running win 7 with 2 gb RAM.  There isn't much running in the background.  It was a fresh install recently.</p>

[Trellium]

<p><cite>fawdown wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I am running win 7 with 2 gb RAM.  There isn't much running in the background.  It was a fresh install recently.</p></blockquote><p>Glad you found some of the things slowing you down.</p><p>Most likely, the Windows 7 and 2GB RAM are also a problem. For me the game runs between 1.2 and 1.5GB, and Windows itself takes a little under 1GB on my system. So you might be using virtual memory which can slow down the game becasue it writes to disk more often.</p>

[fawdown]

<p>The problems are still there, but not as bad as it was.  Using virtual memory may have helped, but I'm unsure.  Overall there seems to be 2 problems. </p><p>My Windows 7 seems to run at about 650-700mb.  This is less than XP.  The whole system runs smoother on it, all except EQ2.  I have to do some more digging because I don't know how to report system info. </p>

[fawdown]

<p>Just as an update:</p><p>Tech support people should read this.  However, they probably should have known already.</p><p>I fixed the problem by turning on DMA for my hard drives.  For some reason when I installed win 7, it disabled this.  There is still a slight lag when using flying travel, and a few seconds seeing npcs, but the problem is greatly improved.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p><cite>fawdown wrote:</cite></p><blockquote><p>I fixed the problem by turning on DMA for my hard drives.  For some reason when I installed win 7, it disabled this.  There is still a slight lag when using flying travel, and a few seconds seeing npcs, but the problem is greatly improved.</p></blockquote><p>Thank you for coming back to post that information.  I was not aware that Win 7 was doing that and it should be helpful when troubleshooting other players.  Let us know if you need any help in the future.</p>

[fawdown]

<p>Actually the problem has come back slightly.  It is nowhere near as bad as before, but still sometimes a 10 second graphics drawing lag (I can see through the world), and about the same for npcs.  Turning on DMA has fixed overall stability though.</p><p>But any other advice would be great.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>You may want to disable any unnecessary background applications to free up system memory.  To disable background programs:1. Select the START button.2. Select RUN, then type in "msconfig" (for Vista, type msconfig in the search bar at the bottom of the Start Menu)3. Press OK4. Select the STARTUP tab.5. In the list, uncheck all boxes EXCEPT for SCANREGISTRY and SYSTEM TRAY. If you use Windows XP, please note that SCANREGISTRY and SYSTEM TRAY will not be listed - just uncheck the entire list.6. Hit apply and then OK. Restart the computer and try the game again.If you are still experiencing the same issue, please reply back.</p>

[fawdown]

<p>That's actually the first thing I tried.  It's a fresh win 7 install so there wasn't much running.  I uncheck acrobat reader, and MS messenger. </p><p>I have tried setting everything down to minimum under graphics options.  It doesn't look so good, and does not fix the problem.  BTW, currently I am getting about 10-12 fps.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>What driver version are you using for your graphics card currently?  I would advise updating to the most recent version if you haven't already.</p><p>Also, if you're using a router, try bypassing it so that you're plugged directly into the modem.</p><p>Finally, try defragmenting the hard drive containing the game.</p><p>Let us know if any of those have an effect on the issue.</p>

[fawdown]

<p>Thank you for those suggestions.  I will try to defrag the HD later today.  The vid driver is the only one available and it is for Vista.  As for the router, it is not possible.  It is one of those combo router/modem things.  I don't think it is possible to separate the two.</p><p>Because this didn't happen until a few months ago, I am wondering if there is something that I configured wrong.  But there is very little installed on this computer to mess things up.  As far as I can see, the system has not changed.</p><p>I am hoping it is not a warning that there will be a hardware failure.</p>

[fawdown]

<p>It didn't need a defrag.  It was set to auto by win 7.  So I am at a loss as to what to do next.  The problem seems to be intermittent.  Sometimes it's fine, other times it takes 5 seconds to see people, other times 20 seconds.  Sometimes I end up getting hammered on because I don't see a crowd of agros I accidently run through.</p>

[TSR-DanielH]

<p>Greetings,</p><p>I've seen an increase in the amount of people reporting this recently through e-mail as well as over the forums.  So far I have not found a common thread between them, though the steps I have posted earlier have lessened the problem for some.  I used to experience a similar problem with my old Pentium4, but it cleared up after a reformat.  Sadly, I'm not sure what more to suggest at this point.  If you haven't already, please submit a /bug report so that it can be tested.</p>