Problem - window locking when boxing (1 Viewer)

[growingforvets]

I keep getting random windows in my box crew 6+ that random lock.

When I say lock I mean, I am not zoning. I am exping, and the window is unclickable and can't be tabbed to. I have to task manager end task, it says the window "not responding"

I end the task, open it again and a different window does the same thing. Sometimes I have chrome open, sometimes nothing is open.

I am losing my mind trying to figure out what is going on, please help.

~Growing

 

[Gman]

The last time I had this happen it was my antivirus software. I had put in exceptions for eq/mq on my old computer but when I switched to my new one I forgot to do that and it was causing the random freezing/lockups. As soon as I added the exceptions it went away.

-G

 

[growingforvets]

@Gman How do I do that, anyway you could walk me through it?

~Growing

 

[Gman]

@Gman How do I do that, anyway you could walk me through it?

~Growing

It will depend on what you are using. Check out documentation or support forums for your brand of antivirus. You could even google it. "<antivirus name here> how do I create an exception." Also if you share here what you are using and someone here has it/knows it they may be able to help you.

-G

 

[growingforvets]

ohhhhhhhh @Gman I actually don't have anything but the windows defender so I wonder if it is something else causing it.

 

[Gman]

ohhhhhhhh @Gman I actually don't have anything but the windows defender so I wonder if it is something else causing it.

How to add an exclusion to windows defender

-G

 

[growingforvets]

Nice ty so much, crossing my fingers on this

That didn't fix it =( I really wish I could figure this out

 

[Gman]

That didn't fix it =( I really wish I could figure this out

Make sure that you create exclusions for your eq folder + eqgame.exe + your mq folder. To find out where the two folders are you can right click on your regduides launcher and select "open file location" and it will display the location in the address bard of explorer. You can do the same for your everquest launcher to get the eq folder.. eqgame.exe will be located in the eq folder.

-G

 

[surfdog21]

Check your disc space. If its near full that will happen. I had a pc that was doing the sMe thing a few years back.

 

[growingforvets]

I have plenty of disc space. I added the EQ and MQ2 folders and each individual executable, including EQBC to the exceptions and I am still getting locking windows.

I am going to reinstall windows and see if this fixes it.

 

[surfdog21]

Really stupid q but is your directx 9 right?

 

[growingforvets]

It was yes. I reinstalled windows and I am reinstalling everything fresh. Ill see if this fixes everything.

Thank you for the suggestion @surfdog21

Where is a safe place to download direct x 9 just in case that is the issue. Ill redownload it now.

 

[Sic]

Where is a safe place to download direct x 9 just in case that is the issue. Ill redownload it now.

DX9.0c
Directx 9.0c June 2010 Redist
(Windows 10 comes with a stripped-down version)

Download DirectX End-User Runtimes (June 2010) from Official Microsoft Download Center

www.microsoft.com

 

[growingforvets]

So I downloaded Dx9. Updated all the drivers via device manager, added ALL the files and folders for EQ and MQ2 to the exception list. Still get locked up windows randomly.

I have zero clue that is going on. I do not have a virus protection program interfering, I am at a loss yall.

I also reformatted windows, and didn't do the windows update to see if that fixed it, nada.

between this and the suspension wave. I am debating quiting. Please let me know if you have any ideas.

 

[Yannafuntime]

Ok, let's try some easy stuff first.

Go into EQ under settings/display and set LOD Bias to Low on all your toons. (We won't have to keep it there but for now, let's make sure EQ isn't just being crappy 22-year-old software)

While you are there, hit the advance tab and make sure Foreground and Background FPS is set to Unlimited and Drop Memory mode to at least Balanced or better yet Low.

Now, run around a bit and see if you still get a crash. Speaking from personal experience I get these crash's like this from time to time with or without MQ2 so I really want to say this is an EQ/Window/Graphics card thing.

Another common problem is CPU affinity. I don't know the Root cause as I've heard everything from the "Fake" cores getting jammed up to. Ghost's in the machine... But make sure you have this in your eqclient.ini

CPUAffinity0=-1
CPUAffinity1=-1
CPUAffinity2=-1
CPUAffinity3=-1
CPUAffinity4=-1
CPUAffinity5=-1
CPUAffinity6=-1
CPUAffinity7=-1
CPUAffinity8=-1
CPUAffinity9=-1
CPUAffinity10=-1
CPUAffinity11=-1
CPUAffinity12=-1

etc for however many cores you have.

The last gasp: Got this from a post by Knightly...

https://www.reddit.com/r/MSI_Gaming/comments/l45fnj

No idea if you even have an MSI computer but on the off chance you do I know nahimic has given me fits in the past.

That's all the stuff off the top of my head. If none of that works just let us know and I go FULL T1 Tech Support on ya.

 

[growingforvets]

@Yannafuntime I changed all those settings, I am going to give it a go now. Thank you for taking the time to help me, I really appreciate it everyone!

Crossing my fingers.

 

[growingforvets]

Nope, that didn't fix it. When I was running only one window it was fine, when slowly started adding box alts into the mix the third one I added is when it started to have windows perm lock

 

[Gman]

Have you tried running multiple EQ sessions without having mq loaded? When you try that does it lock up hard or work just fine?

-G

 

[growingforvets]

I have tried running without MQ2 and I haven't had a lock up. I am adding every single file used from the MQ2 folder to the windows defender exceptions and seeing if that works.

Haven't had any lockups on my main yet.

I am about to try with more windows.

So far so good, I am thinking a combination of adding all of the folders and files from the MQ2 folder to the windows defender and the video settings that @Yannafuntime suggested is what did it.

I will keep you all updated! Thank you all so much for your help!

 

[Yannafuntime]

Glad to hear!

 

[growingforvets]

Ugh, still having windows freeze and completely lock.

I really have zero friggin' idea what is causing this. It started after the new windows update.

 

[Kelset]

Ugh, still having windows freeze and completely lock.

I really have zero friggin' idea what is causing this. It started after the new windows update.

You know I recently started having random issues with my client freezing, I can alt tab between them and randomly one will just lock up, the little preview window when I click it shows the image of EQ but I can't ever bring it to the foreground. This happened within the last week or two.

I also noticed that sometimes my computer really starts chugging when running, been at this for a few months now and this is new behavior, system should be more than able it is an i9 with 32gb ram and a gtx1070 on a ssd

I wonder if it is an windows update that caused it

 

[naamloseeen]

Interestingly, this started happing to me over the last week or so too. It's highly sporadic.

It happened today on my Bard when he did something he shouldn't have done and killed himself and my Beastlord. The cleric pulled the corpses and rezzed the Beastlord, but the Bard was not able to be rezzed. EQ gave a message like "Ability failed. Timer reset" when I tried to rez him. I alt-tabbed over the bard and found the process hung. Task Manager reported it as "not responding". I killed the process and rested and all was well.

It feels like an EQ problem to me, but maybe it's something in the Windows update. I guess I'll pay more attention to it if it keeps happening.

 

[growingforvets]

Yeah same here @naamloseeen,

I am starting to think the windows update fucked something up, or something needs to be updated.

 

[growingforvets]

I am really at a loss and not sure what to do to fix this.

 

[growingforvets]

Yup, now I am locking up even if it is just one window!

I am at a loss and completely lost.

I am honestly just going to quit. If I can't even use MQ2 or play wtf is the point?

 

[Knightly]

There were a lot of bad windows updates on January, you can Google it but MS had to put out something like 4 hot fixes for different issues. Not saying that’s the issue here, but if you were having problems at any point in January I would definitely recommend checking for updates right now.

For a freezing crash, the best way to troubleshoot is to find out what it’s doing. (Is it actually frozen? Is some script or plugin you’re running stuck in an infinite loop and thus it makes the operating system THINK the app is frozen?).

So a few questions:
1.) You mentioned MQ2 a few times. Are you actually running MQ2 or are you running MQ?
2.). What plugins/macros/lua are you running when this happens?
3.) Does it happen with nothing running except core MQ?

From there we can probably make some guesses. Regardless, since freezing doesn’t create a crash dump, if you can’t attach a debugger then the next best thing is to force a dump which you can do in Task Manager for the hung process. That will tell us what is going on at that point.

Of course, that’s assuming the problem still exists since this was posted before the last patch.

 

[ShOeCrEw]

Was there ever a fix for this?

 

[Saffron]

I used to think mine were locking but the solution was patience. After a minute or two of slow zoning they would zone and all would be fine.

 

[Nunyo]

I keep having this same issue. Did anyone figure it out?

This is too frustrating, EQ only locks up when using MQ. I checked both had Windows and drivers updated, exceptions through the firewall, disk space, cpu usage, FPS settings, re-installed EQ and VV. I didn't used to have this issue months ago, when I was playing but just started back up again.

 

[dobby22]

I am having this EXACT issue also with my 6 box crew. Sometimes just one will lock up, sometimes 2 or 3. I don't get a crash message. The frozen instance(s) read as not responding in task manager. Have to manually close them and then re-open. It started out doing it once every few days now it is doing it at least a couple up to a few times a day. Pretty aggravating to say the least.

 

[dobby22]

I keep having this same issue. Did anyone figure it out?

This is too frustrating, EQ only locks up when using MQ. I checked both had Windows and drivers updated, exceptions through the firewall, disk space, cpu usage, FPS settings, re-installed EQ and VV. I didn't used to have this issue months ago, when I was playing but just started back up again.

Did you ever figure this out @Nunyo or still having trouble?

 

[Cannonballdex]

I am having this EXACT issue also with my 6 box crew. Sometimes just one will lock up, sometimes 2 or 3. I don't get a crash message. The frozen instance(s) read as not responding in task manager. Have to manually close them and then re-open. It started out doing it once every few days now it is doing it at least a couple up to a few times a day. Pretty aggravating to say the least.

I have had this issue for the past few weeks or so. Always seems to be after monitor awakes from sleep. Have to alt+tab+delete and find the toon with 0 hard drive usage and end task.

 

[nuggy]

I keep getting random windows in my box crew 6+ that random lock.

When I say lock I mean, I am not zoning. I am exping, and the window is unclickable and can't be tabbed to. I have to task manager end task, it says the window "not responding"

I end the task, open it again and a different window does the same thing. Sometimes I have chrome open, sometimes nothing is open.

I am losing my mind trying to figure out what is going on, please help.

~Growing

ive had this happen too . ive found if ya are on the frozen screen you can /q and relog without having to use the task manager.

 

[durango773]

I have had this issue for the past few weeks or so. Always seems to be after monitor awakes from sleep. Have to alt+tab+delete and find the toon with 0 hard drive usage and end task.

EQ has historically not liked changes in video or audio status. This involves monitor sleep, resolution changes, and changing speakers/headsets.

That being said, since I started using Win11, it does all the above stuff without even blinking.. so might have been a windows and EQ disagreement that is now fixed on windows.

 

[Doc James]

I had a similar experience a few times about a week ago on only 1 of my PC's. Randomly, I could not click on the instances. It's like the mouse just couldn't click on them. So, only way was to end the task and restart the instances to get them working again. Suddenly, though, the problem has been gone. I did remember forcing an update in windows right before the problem disappeared. Only did it maybe 3 or 4 times total to me before I forced that update. Running Win 11 here latest version and patch.

 

[Cannonballdex]

I had a similar experience a few times about a week ago on only 1 of my PC's. Randomly, I could not click on the instances. It's like the mouse just couldn't click on them. So, only way was to end the task and restart the instances to get them working again. Suddenly, though, the problem has been gone. I did remember forcing an update in windows right before the problem disappeared. Only did it maybe 3 or 4 times total to me before I forced that update. Running Win 11 here latest version and patch.

Cumulative Updates screw me every time.

 

[Saffron]

Windows update sucks ogre balls. I have a PC at work hooked up to two monitors that displays info for workers 24/7 that just got "updated" and decided to turn back on the stupid power saving crap and I had to drive out and turn it back off because they wouldn't stay on for more than 10 minutes. Anyone remember Win 11 changing privacy settings to allow Micrisoft everything after updating?

 

[dobby22]

I have had this issue for the past few weeks or so. Always seems to be after monitor awakes from sleep. Have to alt+tab+delete and find the toon with 0 hard drive usage and end task.

I think you could be on to something here. Going to try and disable all power saving features except screensaver and see what happens.

 

[Nunyo]

Did you ever figure this out @Nunyo or still having trouble?

I never figured it out. I just stopped playing.