19 réponses à ce sujet

[Silverrock]

So, the problem: I can log in for about ten to thirty seconds, then my
screen goes black. The music plays for a few more seconds then
freezes/stutters. The only thing I can then do is restart the whole
thing. (Alt+Tab and Alt+Ctrl+Del doesn't work, neither the keyboard nor
the mouse responds in any way)



I normally play on the PW Arelith, but this is not just an Arelith problem, but it is a NWN problem as it happens on the OC and SP modules.



Conversely, it ONLY happens with NWN. For instance, I'm fine playing
Morrowind which seems to me a much more graphics/processor intensive
game than NWN.



Things I've tried: Messing with screen resolution, running in windowed
mode and out of it, setting graphics to the lowest setting possible,
renaming the temp files, turning off the computer until everything is as
cool as can be, updating drivers, prayer, swearing, grinding teeth and
increasing blood pressure. Oh, and more swearing.



Things I'm considering: Ritual animal sacrifice, punching the walls, crying in the fetal position.

System (old)

Windows XP (Service Pack 3)
AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual Core Processor  3800+  2.00 GHz, 2.00 GB of RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS (updated to 301.42WHQL)

I am also a computer idiot, so please, use small words...

[Gorath Alpha]

Your request seems relatively complete.  I suppose you followed Selene's guide here: 

http://social.biowar...7/index/3303069

I don't recall she asked for power supply specifications.  I think you need to replace the one you have now. 

Read off what it says on the side of the unit, and tell us what that says and how old it is.  Even high quality PSU's deteriorate at roughly 10% of capacity a year. 

[Silverrock]

Thank you for the fast reply. So... I didn't read Selene's guide as I thought it was only for Windows 7 users and I'm still in the stone age of XP. After reading through it...

GENERAL TROUBLESHOOTING ADVICE FROM THE COMMUNITY
All users: All issues.
Get the latest drivers for both video AND sound. Don't miss this out, it's vital.
All users: stuttering/low FPS
1. turn off Shiny water in the video options setting
Vista users: For any performance issue/crashing
1. Find nwnplayer.ini in your main install folder (which should be c:/neverwinter nights/nwn ) and open it with notepad.
2. Find the line "Client CPU Affinity=0" in the "[Game Options]" section.
3. Change the "0" to "1"
4. If that doesn't work, experiment with different values in the same line. I have seen lots of different numbers given as advice and one of our vista computers needed it set to -2, but BW reccommends 1.
nVidea users: Stuttering/low FPS
1. Go to nVidea control panel and turn off (or experiment if it is already off) Threaded Optimization.

So, Shiny water is off, changed the affinity and the NVIDIA Thread Optimization... I'll see if it helps.

As for power supply, I assume you mean the large, grey box where the power cord plugs in. Along the side are a variety of numbers in a graph form with AC Input and DC Input. The AC has a long string of numbers, the other is divided into 20 sections that I can post but it may become confusing.

As to the age of it, it's about 2 years old.

[Silverrock]

And no go for the changes made. Logged in, lasted about three minutes and blackout.

[HipMaestro]

Any security or virus scan software running in the background?

Have you tried reverting to SP2?

[Silverrock]

No Security or Virus other than MS Security Essentials, not sure how to revert to SP2 (as I mentioned I'm pretty dumb when it comes to the magic box I type on). Any step by step instructions as to how to do so?

[Baaleos]

Just a thought but try this.

1. Right Click on nwmain.exe in your nwn directory.
2. Set the Compatibility Settings to Something lower than what you are currently on.
3. Enable it to run as administrator (unsure if this setting is in the same window as Compatibility settings - im on Windows 7)
4. Check your windows event viewer for the specific cause of the error.
Control Panel -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer -> Windows Logs -> Application Logs
Look for the red error that occurs around the time of the crash.
5. As far as the PSU goes (Power Supply) - you are looking for the wattage eg - 550 w, or 650, 750 w etc) - But I dont think this will be the source of your problem, as nwn is not graphically intensive, and your graphics card is not one of those that would require a big chunk of power.
6. Also consider using imagecfg.exe to manually force your nwmain.exe to use a single core. Sometimes nwmain.exe has a habit of ignoring the affinity setting in the ini file.
Instructions are located here : http://www.robpol86....ex.php/ImageCFG ( I used this on my nwserver.exe and it works great )
7. Just for a laugh - go into nVidia Control panel, and reset your 3d options back to defaults, and then change Power Setting (in the 3D Settings) to be 'Prefer Maximum Performance' , and the setting above it to be 'Single Display Performance Mode'.
You may need a restart after the 3d Settings are modified - give that a go, and report back with the requested info - eg, Event Log message for the crash, as well as the PSU wattage.

The error your symptoms remind me most of - is the OpenGL - lost connection to the Display error.
It generally results in a graphical glitch, and then a few seconds later, or x amount of seconds later, it crashes, with a popup advising you that the display driver has crashed because of OpenGL.
Im on Windows 7 - so my system is able to recover after this, you however, are on Windows XP, and I dont think you have the TDR system in Windows XP - Which means, when this occurs for you, you crash and burn.

In fact, I remember hearing on the web, that when the Open GL error occurs, and you have TDR disabled, it causes your computer to crash horribly - just like what your describing -
The good news is, that you can reduce the frequency of this occuring by doing what I suggested- Set the Power Options for 3d - to Prefer Maximum Performance.

When the setting is in Adaptive, the 3d card will try to operate at the lowest possible setting, but it often drops below the minimum that nwn requires, which causes the opengl driver to lose connection to nVidia. Its like a car stalling.
If you can force it to operate at a higher power setting, it stops it from fluctuating.

Note - I am on a nVidia GeForce GTX 580 3GB Graphics Card - and I still get this from time to time.
But while I had the adaptive setting on, I was literally getting it every 5 minutes, making nwn unplayable.
(Seems to be a new occurance, since the 300 series drivers came out.)

[Baaleos]

More information on TDR - Alot of people are complaining about TDR Crashes in nVIDIA Driver 300x series.

TDR Is a type of Timeout Delay Recovery system, in Vista and Windows 7.
It is designed to allow your system to survive, when the graphic driver takes too long to render a frame.
eg - The graphical computations to render a 3d shape are too complex, that they take over 2 seconds.
In this case, you could manually up the timeout delay, to perhaps 5 seconds.
Means you would stutter like hell, but your system wouldnt kill the 3d application, or crash - unless it breeched the delay limit.

Your OS doesnt have TDR, which leads me to believe that the 3d rendering issue is occuring for you, and you have no TDR to protect you, which causes your whole system to die.
http://forums.nvidia...c=223716&st=300

[Silverrock]

So, first of all, thank you soooo much.  Now, on to reports and bear with me as I muddle through...

1-3)  Compatibility mode gives me the options of Win 95, Win 98/Win ME, Win NT 4.0 (Service Pack 5) and Windows 2000.  There is no option to run as administrator, just 'Current user' (with a checked box saying:  "Protect my computer and data from unauthorized program activity.")  or 'The following user' (which then asks for a user name and password, I assume since I've never set up anything else, my user is also the administrator, if not should I type in administrator?)

4)  As near as I can tell, here are the two reports with the red circle/white X symbol in the event viewer:  

'Fault bucket -1292885823.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft....ink/events.asp.'

'Hanging application firefox.exe, version 13.0.0.4535, hang module hungapp, version 0.0.0.0, hang address 0x00000000.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft....ink/events.asp.'

I'll try to play again and see if it shows a more recent one and post it after this (which may take a while as I'll need to reboot the whole #$%@  computer again).

5)  The largest number on the power supply says 535W.

6)  I'll try tomorrow as I'm pressed for time today.

7)  Problems.  My control panel in NVIDIA has a tree on the left, and in 3D settings has two branches:  Adjust image settings with preview and Manage 3D settings.  The first has the NVIDIA symbol and 3 chioces:  Let the 3D application decide, Use the advanced 3D image settings, Use my preference emphasizing (with a slider between Perfomance on the left and Quality on the right, currently set on Quality.)

Under Manage 3D settings, there are two tabs, Global settings and Program settings.  I can't find either 'Prefer Maximum Performance' , or 'Single Display Performance Mode' in either Global or Program (where I'm looking at NWN and not any of the other programs on my computer).

It has also been recommended that I uninstall/reinstall the whole damn thing which I'm loathe to do as it would mean DLing a bunch of SP modules I still like playing now and then.  After reading the link to NVIDIA, is it possible to do another update downloading an older driver like the recommend:

[-Your PC is experiencing browser related TDRs when display driver 280.19 or later driver is installed
-Verify your issue goes away if you roll back to NVIDIA display driver 275.50]

or could that just mess my system up more?

*sighs*  Anyone have an old laptop for sale cheap?  I may need to scrap my entire system and start saving for a new one.

Modifié par Silverrock, 11 juin 2012 - 09:41 .

[Silverrock]

So, in the Event Viewer, nothing is showing up under applications.  However, I looked in some of the other branches and under System was this:

Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the NVSvc service.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft....ink/events.asp.

(These are under the description of the Event, the line tiself doesn't seem to have much information.)

Modifié par Silverrock, 11 juin 2012 - 09:41 .

[HipMaestro]

Did you try changing the compatibility the way Baaleos suggested?

Give this a shot...

CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up Win task manager.  Note CPU usage.  Under Processes tab...End Process for every process that is NOT listed as SYSTEM or Administrator.  Retry NWN.  Any difference in usage or game performance?  If not, End Process for every process that is NOT listed as SYSTEM.  Retry NWN.  Any difference in usage or game performance?

That one diagnostic that cited Firefox seems suspect to me.  Why would a browser be trying to run when you try to play the game?  Odd.

[Baaleos]

Timeout (30000 milliseconds) waiting for a transaction response from the NVSvc service.

This looks like it is the TDR as I suspected. or rather, the lack of TDR, that causes your whole machine to crash.

Your system was spending 30 seconds, trying to render a 3d object in nwn, and after 30 seconds, it gave up.
Because windows xp doesnt have a Timeout Delay Recovery system, it causes the system to die, essentially, it had no recovery system by which to gracefully exit the 3d display conundrum.

As far as the nVidia power management mode goes.
I googled, and found a nifty screenshot showing where it is.
http://members.iinet...nvcpl_p_m_m.gif

This is the setting to try and change -
Adaptive = Bad
Prefer Maximum Performance = Good.
(Note - I actually got the nVidia OpenGL crash about 20 minutes ago in Toolset - it can happen randomly since the latest nVidia Drivers went out - But setting these settings does minimize the occurance of them)

[Empyre65]

Maybe a clean boot will help. Find and run msconfig, putting a shortcut on your desktop to make it easier next time. Choose Selective Startup and uncheck everythnig except Services. Go to the Services tab, click Hide all Microsoft Services, and then Disable All. Click OK and let it reboot.
Note: I have Win XP, so it might work slightly differently in other versions of Windows.

Modifié par Empyre65, 12 juin 2012 - 07:48 .

[Silverrock]

I'm now trying to uninstall and re-install an older driver (275.33) for the 7600 Gs. This was suggested on another forum...

@ HipMaestro and Baeleos: Compatibility mode... I'm not sure which one would run NWN. As you can see from above I have these options...

1-3) Compatibility mode gives me the options of Win 95, Win 98/Win ME, Win NT 4.0 (Service Pack 5) and Windows 2000. There is no option to run as administrator, just 'Current user' (with a checked box saying: "Protect my computer and data from unauthorized program activity.") or 'The following user' (which then asks for a user name and password, I assume since I've never set up anything else, my user is also the administrator, if not should I type in administrator?)

Once the update is done, I'll see if that helps. I'm terrified of doing anything as I do not wish to blow up my computer (as much as it's frustrating me) since I have Computer Moron as a PrC...

@Empyre65: I'm on Windows XP as well, so if this doesn't work, I'll be going on to your suggestion next.

[Silverrock]

Baaleos wrote...


As far as the nVidia power management mode goes.
I googled, and found a nifty screenshot showing where it is.
http://members.iinet...nvcpl_p_m_m.gif

This is the setting to try and change -
Adaptive = Bad
Prefer Maximum Performance = Good.
(Note - I actually got the nVidia OpenGL crash about 20 minutes ago in Toolset - it can happen randomly since the latest nVidia Drivers went out - But setting these settings does minimize the occurance of them)

Update:  There is no Power Management option for NWN.  I've found it on other programs like Adobe or Explorer, but it just isn't showing up in the Nvidia 3D settings.  Not sure what that means except I can't change that part of it.

[HipMaestro]

Silverrock wrote...
@ HipMaestro and Baeleos: Compatibility mode... I'm not sure which one would run NWN. As you can see from above I have these options...

Try each one.  But IMO, from the further detailing of your problem, it does not appear to be a problem with compatibility.  But you can easy try each of them and then just return to non-specified if they don't help..

1-3) There is no option to run as administrator, just 'Current user' (with a checked box saying: "Protect my computer and data from unauthorized program activity.") or 'The following user' (which then asks for a user name and password, I assume since I've never set up anything else, my user is also the administrator, if not should I type in administrator?)

Do you log into the machine as administrator?  You probably should have set it up to run that way right from the start, if not.  You need to control the security environment, when you do, however.  It opens the system up to trojans while browsing without security software protection.

Under WinXP help is this tidbit:
To start a program as an administrator

• In Windows Explorer, click the program executable file that you want to open.
• Press SHIFT and hold, right-click the program icon, and then click Run as.
• To log on using an Administrator account, click The following user.
• In User name and Password, type the Administrator account name and password that you want to use.

Modifié par HipMaestro, 15 juin 2012 - 04:17 .

[Baaleos]

Update:@
http://members.iinet...nvcpl_p_m_m.gif

There is power options.
You need to look in nVidia Control panel, under 3d options, and global options,
Look at the URL above for direction.
If your using latest nVidia drivers, you should have this section.

[Silverrock]

Hm... First, let me say thank you for all your help... all of you. I'm hesitant to try some of your suggestions as I fear wrecking my computer (no matter how much I'm jonesing for NWN).

Baaleos, I'm using version 275.33, but even when I used the latest version I looked for Power Management Mode on both Global and Program settings for NWN. Under Global:
Anisotropic filtering
Antialiasing - Gamma correction
Antialiasing - Setting
Antialiasing - Transparency
Extension limit
Maximum pre-rendered frames
Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration
Texture filtering - Anisotropic filter optimiz...
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias
Texture filtering - Quality
Threaded optimization
Triple buffering
Vertical sync

(cont.)

[Silverrock]

Program Settings Neverwinter Nights
1. Select a program to customize:

Neverwinter Nights (nwn.exe)

2. Specify the settings for this program:

Anisotropic filtering
Antialiasing - Gamma correction
Antialiasing - Setting
Antialiasing - Transparency
Extension limit
Maximum pre-rendered frames
Multi-display/mixed-GPU acceleration
Texture filtering - Anisotropic filter optimiz...
Texture filtering - Negative LOD bias
Texture filtering - Quality
Threaded optimization
Triple buffering
Vertical sync

And that's it. Under other programs (if I change them in 1. to, say, Adobe or Explorer) I can see Power management settings, but otherwise they just ain't there, dammit.

Modifié par Silverrock, 16 juin 2012 - 04:41 .

[Bluebomber4evr]

Baalos, Power Management is only available on Series 9 or higher nVidia cards, and only when the OS is Vista or higher.