Topic: Need help/advice with client problems

Apologies if this is the wrong forum for this, but there's no tech forum to post to.

Hardware is at least at recommended level, running windows xp 64 bit, Avast virus, spybot.

Had trouble with DLing the client all along - DL would hang up at 38.1 mb. Couldn't post to forum because I didn't yet have an avatar. Emailed support but never got a reply. Eventually tried DLing in safe mode and managed to DL and install client.

On starting the game, it would tend to hang up on "connecting to dataserver..." and require windows task manager to end unresponsive program. But, if repeated often enough would eventully find a connection and game would run in stable fashion thereafter.  After failures to connect, would sometimes also give me "Perpettum crash recovery" pop-up report box, which also always hung up (wouldn't submit or cancel - buttons were dead, crash reports were generated in the perpetuum folder, though).

Was out of town since the 12th (before the patch).  Tried to start game tis morning and it connected right away and tried to DL patch.  Patch DL hung up at ~4 mb and I eventually had to quit unresponsive client with task manager.  When I tried to start client again, I got the crash report pop up, which seemed to actually work now (OK and cancel buttons actually work now), but as soon as it submitted the report (or cancelled) it disappeared and the client never started up. Attempted to start client numerous times always with same result. The report is generated and submitted, but the client never starts up.  Tried a system restore to before the first failed attempt to patch but still just get the pop-up.  Tried starting the game in safe mode, but it's looking for directx and tells me to start game in safe mode (perpetuum.exe - safe) which doesn't seem to exist on the computer (run command can't find it, or perpetuum.exe for that matter).

Any suggestions for what I can try short of uninstalling the whole game and DLing client all over again in safe mode for a clean install (would hate to have to do that every time there's a patch).

Thanks in advance for any help people can give me to get the client running (and the patch DLing smoothly).

2 (edited by Alexander 2011-01-17 16:31:47)

Re: Need help/advice with client problems

XP x64 is not a support operating system but there should be a way to get the client to work.
The client becoming non-responsive is a little worrying as it's essentially hanging before even connecting to the server. If you're running in full screen mode I'd advise against it but it seems a little system specific to choose between what's best. Some get best performance in windowed mode and other in full screen. If the client won't close without Task Manager that's a bigger issue.

Might I ask where you are in the world? The patching and downloading will be a pain due to packet loss. It seems that no matter what they do, if they have tried anything, if you lose 1 packet during the patch it hangs and never really catches up again but resuming the download should fix this.

If it's giving you a DirectX error I'd suggest downloading and installing DirectX in case there is an error there. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d … 6652cd92a3)

If the client is crashing before it even loads it may be worth reinstalling it. Perhaps a rare corruption in the GBF file or perhaps even the EXE.

If your system specs are more than capable of running the game and you have no issues running other DirectX games and reinstalling doesn't work then I am a little at a loss. The crash reports being made, what size are they? It would be a good idea to zip them (Should massively reduce their size) and email them to support.

The Game

Re: Need help/advice with client problems

Alexander wrote:

XP x64 is not a support operating system but there should be a way to get the client to work.
The client becoming non-responsive is a little worrying as it's essentially hanging before even connecting to the server. If you're running in full screen mode I'd advise against it but it seems a little system specific to choose between what's best. Some get best performance in windowed mode and other in full screen. If the client won't close without Task Manager that's a bigger issue.

Might I ask where you are in the world? The patching and downloading will be a pain due to packet loss. It seems that no matter what they do, if they have tried anything, if you lose 1 packet during the patch it hangs and never really catches up again but resuming the download should fix this.

If it's giving you a DirectX error I'd suggest downloading and installing DirectX in case there is an error there. (http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/d … 6652cd92a3)

If the client is crashing before it even loads it may be worth reinstalling it. Perhaps a rare corruption in the GBF file or perhaps even the EXE.

If your system specs are more than capable of running the game and you have no issues running other DirectX games and reinstalling doesn't work then I am a little at a loss. The crash reports being made, what size are they? It would be a good idea to zip them (Should massively reduce their size) and email them to support.

Thanks for taking the time to try and help.  Let me clarify a few points.

I'm running in windows mode and in the US (east coast).

The directx error only happens when I tried to patch the game in safe mode (probably because neither directX nor my nvidia vard are loading in safe mode) after the initial attempt to patch that hung up at ~4mb and the failure of the client to resume patching when started again.  So, I'm not concerning about the direct x error since I can't resume the patch anyway. The safe mode DL was my workaround for the hang-ups in DLing the entire client in the beginning and I was hoping to repeat that success when the patch hung up at ~4mb.  But, since it won't resume patching, that is irrelevent.

Once I was able to DL the client (about 2 weeks ago) the game ran smoothly once it was able to connect to the data server.  The problem was that it would usually take between 2 and 10 tries to actually connect.  Letting it try to connect for more than 30 seconds was a waste of time (if it didn't make the connection fairly quickly, it never would) and I would have to use task manager to end it so I could try again.  But, if it gave me a crash report pop up it just froze up.  That was the situation until the 12th.

Now, the client is not loading at all. Since the failed attempt to patch this morning, I get the crash report pop-up when I start the game (either from shortcut or folder), which actually submits a report and then closes, but the client never starts after the report is submitted.

Re: Need help/advice with client problems

if you shut down the client while its patching, or if its crashing during that, you can delete the GBF file... or overwrite it with a clean copy of it -> its corrupted beyond recovery.

for those who got two copy of the clients installed (for multiboxing) its just a little annoyance, but for those with just one - sorry...

*Disclaimer: This post can contain strong sarcasm or cynical remarks. keep that in mind!
Whining - It's amazing how fast your trivial concerns will disappear

Re: Need help/advice with client problems

Just a quick question are you running it on wireless, one of my pcs won't run it on wireless and hangs similarly but fine with a hardwire

Re: Need help/advice with client problems

Thanks everyone for the advice.  I Just uninstalled and reinstalled a fresh DL.  Everything works fine again.  I also think I discovered the source of at least some of my problems along the way.  The Avast anti-virus.

There are several spots in the client DL (e.g., definitely @ 38.11 mb and I assume @ ~4mb on the patch) where the DL slows down to a snail's pace.  Not sure why there would be such bottlenecks in the DL's, but they're there.  If the Avast is on, then the DL will hang up at those spots.  If I disable the Avast (as when I used safe mode to DL the client originally, and disabled the Avast this time), then the DL's work (but, slowly) through those bottlenecks.  Disabling the anti-virus also seems to stop my "connecting to database..." failures when trying to launch the client in order to play the game.

So, for anyone encountering similar problems, temporarily disable your anti-virus long to connmect or DL the cient or patch.

7 (edited by Shmoob 2011-01-19 00:32:01)

Re: Need help/advice with client problems

I haven't had any problems with avast, ever. I was running xp64 until 2 months ago, as well. I finally switched to windows 7 as I felt confident with it. Don't know if you have a problem just because of the combination with xp64 or not, but I doubt it. Would be the first case I ever heard avast interfere with a game or really anything that wasn't malicious.

It was probably directx needed to be updated and just a bad connection with packet loss or something. Internet routes change over time, so one day you can have crap connection, next you are just fine.

If you really do have a problem caused by avast you would be better to give it an exception rather than turn it off completely. Hard to do when downloading, but I mean if you have a problem while playing the game, I wouldn't disable avast completely, just give perpetuum and exception to be skipped.