Thu Mar 06, 2003 6:58 pm
System crashes in Multiplayer
I have a problem. I installed Freelancer (retail) last night, after removing both the demo and the Marketing Beta. The game installed fine, no problems. I have never had a problem playing either the demo or the marketing beta. But last night on 4 separate occasions, I experienced lockups while playing on multiplayer.
As far as I can recall, the lockups only occurred while I was in space. One happened when I tried to open the chat window during a trade lane. I am not sure as to the circumstances regarding the other 3 lockups, except that I am certain they took place in space as well.
ALT-TAB doesn't work. The mouse cursor doesn't move. Caps-Lock and Num-Lock still work. The music continues playing. If I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to open Task Manager, the music loops in 2-3 second intervals, and Task Manager never opens up. After I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, Caps-Lock and Num-Lock stop working.
I am forced to hit Reset to reboot my computer. When I reenter the game, I am in the same spot (approximately) as I was when the system crashed. (This was a problem at one point because I reentered the server and was surrounded by 8 hostile Rogue ships.) This implies (to me) that the server is trying to autosave my character, and for some reason locking up my system in the process.
I am running a P4 1.8GHz with 512MB DDR, Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, Windows XP Professional w/SP1, DirectX 9, and all the latest drivers installed for everything. I was experiencing problems with the text slowdown inherent in the current version of the 9700 drivers, so video acceleration is down one notch, as is sound. My internet connection is a Motorola RoadRunner cable modem, going through a LinkSys router.
I am convinced that the problem is multiplayer only, because after 40 minutes of playing with 4 crashes, I went to the single-player game and played for about 2 hours with no problems.
Any suggestions?
Oh, and before anyone can suggest otherwise, I am running fully licensed and legal copies of both Freelancer and Windows XP. I am also not cheating, hacking, or otherwise trying to manipulate game variables.
As far as I can recall, the lockups only occurred while I was in space. One happened when I tried to open the chat window during a trade lane. I am not sure as to the circumstances regarding the other 3 lockups, except that I am certain they took place in space as well.
ALT-TAB doesn't work. The mouse cursor doesn't move. Caps-Lock and Num-Lock still work. The music continues playing. If I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL to open Task Manager, the music loops in 2-3 second intervals, and Task Manager never opens up. After I hit CTRL-ALT-DEL, Caps-Lock and Num-Lock stop working.
I am forced to hit Reset to reboot my computer. When I reenter the game, I am in the same spot (approximately) as I was when the system crashed. (This was a problem at one point because I reentered the server and was surrounded by 8 hostile Rogue ships.) This implies (to me) that the server is trying to autosave my character, and for some reason locking up my system in the process.
I am running a P4 1.8GHz with 512MB DDR, Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum, ATI Radeon 9700 Pro, Windows XP Professional w/SP1, DirectX 9, and all the latest drivers installed for everything. I was experiencing problems with the text slowdown inherent in the current version of the 9700 drivers, so video acceleration is down one notch, as is sound. My internet connection is a Motorola RoadRunner cable modem, going through a LinkSys router.
I am convinced that the problem is multiplayer only, because after 40 minutes of playing with 4 crashes, I went to the single-player game and played for about 2 hours with no problems.
Any suggestions?
Oh, and before anyone can suggest otherwise, I am running fully licensed and legal copies of both Freelancer and Windows XP. I am also not cheating, hacking, or otherwise trying to manipulate game variables.
