Random Client Crashes

[Dellanx]

Been getting Client Crashes and/or Lag lately. Running 6-box team with Is-Boxer and MQ2. This has been happening allot in the Xmas Raid T8 event. Also when I fight mobs, if I am summoned or the mob uses some special ability like Enrage/Rage funny stuff happens like client crashes. Has anyone else seen this and are there any fixes?

[Stickybuds]

what type of client crash?

is it a hard crash where the program closes and you get the send bug report window?
is it a lock up where the client freezes?
is it a desync where people keep moving but you cant cast/attack/speak/etc

If it is desync be sure to adjust your graphics down and turn off as many fiilters as you can.

[Dellanx]

It a hard crash where the program closes and I get the send bug report window. One for MQ2 and one for ISBOXER. I may have found a solution.

[825th_tomcat]

is it a desync where people keep moving but you cant cast/attack/speak/etc

If it is desync be sure to adjust your graphics down and turn off as many fiilters as you can.

Been looking for information regarding a problem similar to this and I think this might well be it.

What causes the desync? You say to turn the graphics down and turn filters off so I'm assuming it's some sort of performance issue regarding the use of MQ? (I've noticed that it sets background FPS to 1 if you're not on that window)

I'm running a P170EM laptop with an i7-3630QM, 7970M, 8GB RAM and 256gb SSD so I'm not really happy with the idea that I'm suffering from performance issues when I only have circa 8 EQ instances loaded maximum and indeed suffer the same issue with 2 or 3 loaded.

Any more info on this issue would be greatly appreciated as it's really becoming a pain when you lose 2-3 chars because they can't click anything or respond to MQ commands.

Note: I have also started suffering from a disconnect issue where for instance, last night, 6 out of my 8 accounts seemed to lose internet connection and the countdown began from 100% connection (latency bar) all the way down to 0% then they of course disconnected and the other 2 accounts weren't effected. During the countdown I ran a quick ping and checked the router status which returned no issues whatsoever which really confused me.
I just wondered if anyone else has suffered this using MQ2 perhaps and it is having something to do with it.

[Stickybuds]

doesn't really have anything to do with MQ that i know of, you can have this problem if you box and sometimes even if you don't. Usually occurs when you have a lot of combat spam going on, so that's what you want to filter out.

Alt + O then go to the filters tab, turn off as much as you can stand. The only thing i have turned on unless im testing is melee crits and spell crits. Sometimes i turn that off too. The ones at the very top are normal chat filters and you can leave those on.

Then go back to your Display tab, see the particles box? This is for spell effects, either just turn these all to off for no spell effects or change the clip to near, density to low, and change the Opacity to something below 50% so you can still see the mob through all the spell effects.

Regards,
Sticky

[825th_tomcat]

Just literally logged my sham box on and went to invite him and the same thing has happened again. He had nothing going on in any boxes apart from the usual log in text and 2 message in /ooc.

[Stickybuds]

Did you make the adjustments yet? I used to have this problem ALL them time. I never have it now.

Also when you experience a de-sync, you rarely go LD. you can still move but you cannot interact with object, cast spells, etc. You may even still see the mobs HP going down, but it will hang at 0% when it dies and never die on the clients that have desynced.

If you're lagging out, latency going from 100 down to 0% then a DC, that could be something else. Although I still highly recommend doing the changes to filters and graphic settings.

[825th_tomcat]

Will make the changes now - Do you reckon it would be a good idea to make a slave EQ folder for all bots and then master for the main window? So slave EQ has all the changes you suggest plus some from the performance optimization thread?

[Noren]

Just literally logged my sham box on and went to invite him and the same thing has happened again. He had nothing going on in any boxes apart from the usual log in text and 2 message in /ooc.

This is the most concerning aspect, since I've never crashed or disconnected outside of a zone crash or combat scenario, personally.

I can only recommend you start up your client with the *least* complexity first. Basic client, no 3rd party programs, and all combat chat filters set to OFF. This will limit the type of traffic going on between your client and the server down to the bare essentials.

Once you confirm that there are no crashes in that scenario, you may then add another layer of complexity until you reach the one that crashes you. I recommend that the first time you load up MQ2, unload all of your plugins. Then add them in one by one. It's a tedious process, but narrowing the perpetrator down is the only surefire way I know of to isolate the problem.

As for the plugins... 99% of 3rd party program crashes have, in my experience, been related to plugins swapping items around in your inventory. A plugin such as MQ2cast uses MQ2exchange to swap a 'must equip' item onto your character and then swap it back out after it's done casting. I've found that if a cast command is poorly timed with MQ2cast or spell_routines it will result in an attempt to swap an item WHILE you're casting. That's pretty much always been an instant client crash for me.

Server disconnects and de-syncs have always been related to the combat log. I'm willing to bet you're in the United States like me. Being half the world away from the server, I have to use in-game filters to limit the number of packets going back-and-forth from client to server. With enough people and enough battle spam, the packets can't (for me) seem to route fast enough to keep my client up-to-date with the fight as the server sees it and I'm disconnected.

That being said, I've reiterated a few things that Sticky said, and I think he's spot on for pretty much everything. The only part I disagree with is the graphics settings. Your frames per second should have zero bearing on your connection with the server. In fact, the worse your FPS, I'd argue you're staying even more in sync with the server since you can't do much of anything quickly!

Ultimately, I think you're disconnecting in combat due to your combat spam and out-of-combat due to MQ2exchange. Hope this long-winded response helps.

[825th_tomcat]

Cheers for that massive reply Noren, appreciate it.

I've changed the filters and graphics down anyway on a slave EQ folder with Master staying the same and I managed to 7 box all of last night without any issues so fingers crossed it has sorted the issue...
With a bit of luck, I won't NEED to resort to the basic fault finding 101 that you suggested.

Again, thanks for the replies guys!!