Help! Sundren becoming unplayable

[Dave Fritz]

I'm hoping someone can help me out here. Sundren is becoming unplayable for me. Here's what has been happening: I've noticed in January that I have been experiencing quite a few server timeouts and sometimes crashing back to the desktop. Today, this has happened on almost every area transition that I've done and the transitions take up to almost two minutes real-time if they are actually successful. In approximately 45 minutes of "playing", I've had 4 server timeouts and two crashes to desktop.

It may be that my machine is just too old and slow now. I'm hoping that someone can suggest something to do to improve the situation, but at the moment, Sundren is unplayable for me. Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

[Darkened Skies]

Hmm, odd that this has just started happening. Have you run a full system virus scan?

[grant]

When I first started playing I crashed every 5th transition(on average), and even more frequently if there were a bunch of people on the server. I just got used to it, since I could play the official modules with no problems. Anyway, I solved the problem when Windows bit the dust and I needed to reinstall everything. A defrag might work or a complete wipe/reinstall of the Sundren folder or even all of NWN2. Since Valve put NWN2 on sale there have been a lot more people on the server and I have noticed my transition times... where slow in the past, are even slower now.

[Dave Fritz]

Hmm, odd that this has just started happening. Have you run a full system virus scan?

It has been slowly building and then took a big jump today. I actually had a good session of about 3 hours yesterday. I do run an automatic virus update and scan every night

[Dave Fritz]

(snip) A defrag might work or a complete wipe/reinstall of the Sundren folder or even all of NWN2. (snip)

A wipe/reinstall of Sundren seemed to help some. Thanks! Transitions are still very slow, but no timeouts or crashes on a short (10 or so transition) test. I'll try a defrag just before bedtime tonight.

I'm hesitant to try, for obvious reasons, but might disabling my real-time virus scanning impact things?

[MelancholyWinds]

It may or may not. Crashes can result from a myriad of issues. The only way to figure out the cause is through trial and error.

Try running with the realtime scanning off, if you wish to risk it.

Try lowering some graphics settings.

Defrag,

Change one at a time. See if there's any change.

I will say this,

When I had a virus, it pretty much beat, and abused my ability to play neverwinter online. And not all virus scanners catch every virus. I'd suggest using more than one trusted and well rated antivirus program. There's some very good free one's out there, just try to avoid anything vaguely shady as some of those "official" looking free antivirus programs are in fact virus's in disguise. (I had a virus once that posed as such back when I didn't know about viruses beyond "lol trojan")

Also, if this is recent, a very simple solution could be to do a system restore to a previous date when nwn operated relatively smoothly.

But... I'd probably avoid that. As it could you know, change other settings which may or may not be for the best or worst.

[MelancholyWinds]

Also, I am by no means an expert in any way shape or form. I just know a teensy amount when it comes to frustrating things like "Why won't nwn run " Since I've had similar problems which caused me to storm :Google like a raging methhead looking for a cheap meth recipe.

[RolandVII]

system specs please

to find them if in xp start run in 7 and vista the bar in the start menu is your run

type in dxdiag

copy paste every bit of text there

also if there is a RUN 64 BIT click that and tell me that was availble

also what anti virus do you use?

[Sypthe]

Some good programs:
- Avira antivirus (free)
- Lavasoft Ad-Aware (free)
- Spybot Search and Destroy (free)
- Malwarebytes (Free)

Run these regularly, but ensure not to run all 'Active Scanners' while using your computer regularly. It's unnecessary, and will only serve to slow things down.

Furthermore, if you're on XP, you might want to seriously consider backing up every bit of your data, formatting the drive, and reinstalling Windows. With XP, that's just necessary every few years.

Oh, and get rid of anything by Symantec or affiliated with Norton. Their programs are just utter and complete tripe.

[ManUtd4Ever]

I too have noticed my system has begun lagging more. I am running an AMD Phenom X4 9550 Quad-Core processor, 6GB RAM, and a NVIDIA GeForce 9100 graphics card. What I have had to do is turn off all the advanced graphic features and run everything on the lowest graphic settings possible. I know my graphics card is seriously under powered and that is more than likely the causation... but it didn't seem to cause me as many problems before.

[Urithrand]

I'd suggest using more than one trusted and well rated antivirus program.

Please don't do this. Using multiple internet security programs will make things worse. They can see each other as a threat and cause all sorts of program conflicts.

I've been slowing down a lot on area transitions recently too, but I wouldn't say they're painfully slow, just a bit slower than normal. It really depends on how your system specs hold up to the game requirements. Would upgrading your processor be an option? I did this (I now run on a Core 2 Quad Q9800 and the game runs beautifully)

I'm running a GeForce 8800GT which is a pretty dated card now but it's smooth as a bugbear's nutsack on max graphics settings. It's also worth checking how the power configuration is set up inside your base unit. Does the graphics card run from its own dedicated rail of the power supply? This one kept me guessing for a while before I managed to sort it out.

[Dave Fritz]

Thanks to everyone who responded. To sum up, the reinstall of Sundren seemed to eliminate the regular crashing and a defrag sped the transitions up a bit. They're still slow, though.

But it's nice to know that I'm not the only one bothered by slow transitions, lag, etc.

Thanks again.

[Saulus]

Use the client extension by skywing on the vault, some of the DMs use it but it also works playerside.

We use skywing's serverside plugin which modifies how the server sends network packets to clients... it improves a lot of things. But the client end is still bugged of course and suffers from the same problems. When you use the client extension on top of that, it essentially 'fixes' both ends and improves A LOT.

It also fixes the random autodownloader crash which I hate.

[Dave Fritz]

Use the client extension by skywing on the vault, some of the DMs use it but it also works playerside.
(snip)

Thanks for the hint. I downloaded it and had a quick look, but I'm going to have to read the instructions a lot more closely to get a handle on installing and using it.