Putting an end to crashes.

[Shirokami]

So, we're all trying to find out what leads GG to crash the game and windows, but we never seem to find the exact reason of why.
Instead, why don't we focus on killing Gameguard? Does anyone have any idea of how to prevent it from injecting itself on every process and crashing everything?

[youcantcatchtheblue]

What kind of error are you getting? I often get a "Memory cannot be referenced" error that closes the game, but I'm not sure if it's Gameguard's fault or the actual game itself.... seems more likely to be the game itself tho... it's really annoying and I wish I knew how to fix it.

[Shirokami]

What kind of error are you getting? I often get a "Memory cannot be referenced" error that closes the game, but I'm not sure if it's Gameguard's fault or the actual game itself.... seems more likely to be the game itself tho... it's really annoying and I wish I knew how to fix it.

The error is simple. Gameguard causes my whole system to freeze, no error message, only way to unfreeze it is rebooting at that will end up killing my computer.
It's not the game, this happens to anyone "Randomnly" in many other games too, check google.

[Ana-Chan]

GG is known to have problems with quite a few things. Freezing is possible if the driver that it loads does something stupid.

The thing you should do is to send an email to Sega explaining what your issue is and send the .erl files along with it. The email must be in Japanese and you can find the address that you must send it to in http://pso2.jp/players/news/?id=321&page=2.

There are very few work arounds right now. The usual suspect is your AV, but any driver support application may be the problem. But these are not really a good idea to close down. So the only work around with a high success rate right now is to just use a 32 bit version of Windows.

[Shirokami]

GG is known to have problems with quite a few things. Freezing is possible if the driver that it loads does something stupid.

The thing you should do is to send an email to Sega explaining what your issue is and send the .erl files along with it. The email must be in Japanese and you can find the address that you must send it to in http://pso2.jp/players/news/?id=321&page=2.

There are very few work arounds right now. The usual suspect is your AV, but any driver support application may be the problem. But these are not really a good idea to close down. So the only work around with a high success rate right now is to just use a 32 bit version of Windows.

How am I supposed to write in japanese? Google translator is useless...

[Ana-Chan]

Simple, ask if there is anyone willing and able here to translate it to Japanese. But this is the only real way to get a permanent fix.

[Shirokami]

Simple, ask if there is anyone willing and able here to translate it to Japanese. But this is the only real way to get a permanent fix.

What do you mean permanent fix? Will they fix my GG?

[Ana-Chan]

They are in contact with Inca, the people who write GG. So yes, they will at the source level. Ie, they will contact the software writers telling them what the problem is, and the software writers will change the software so it will not crash your system.

[Shirokami]

They are in contact with Inca, the people who write GG. So yes, they will at the source level. Ie, they will contact the software writers telling them what the problem is, and the software writers will change the software so it will not crash your system.

I'm sure many did that already o.o

[Ana-Chan]

Yes, but not enough. Otherwise the issues that you are facing would have been fixed.

[Shirokami]

Yes, but not enough. Otherwise the issues that you are facing would have been fixed.

Are you facing these as well or have you ever had these issues?

[Ana-Chan]

A fair few of the Windows x64 users have faced these issues. The first and second time they tried this update, it was bad enough that SEGA had to get it reverted. Even now, there are people who are still having some issues.

This was the whole reason why SEGA set up that email address, so that people with problems that could be associated with GG could contact them to report it. And yes, for quite a while I had similar problems, but the last update fixed things enough so that I just have a little bit of slowdown. This happened by reporting these issues to SEGA.

[Chik'Tikka]

yeah, the 1st time GameMon.des or whatever rolled out it messed with my system (no crashes, but massive lag, Adobe flash was canned, and Firefox kept freezing solid) but whatever they did between the 1st time the patch rolled and the second time, it stopped messing with my system except for Flash and uploading pics online, as of right now, i have no issues whatsoever with flash or GG other then the occasional Firefox hiccup+^_^+ GG is still running and doing it's thing, and i don't know for sure if the things i did fixed things or not (i did do a lot of uninstalling and stuff and things seemed to settle down when i installed M$ Visual C++ runtime 2010 among several other things needing doing that i should of done in April)+^_^+ either way, from everything I've been reading, everyone has different hardware, and different background processes, but I'm hearing of people with clean installs of Win7 x64 are having issues so I'm wondering if it may be a hardware thing of some sort that allows some people with aged OSes with god-knows-what running in the background to play normally and others can't get past starting screen with clean OS installs+^_^+ could be something as stupid as the mobo chipset versions+^_^+

[IzzyData]

Still waiting for the day I can open media player classic and pso2 at the same time. Game guard doesn't appear to be going away so I'd like to find some solution. Opening pso2 in sandboxie worked great for awhile until they updated gameguard to cause that to fail.

[Lostbob117]

Still waiting for the day I can open media player classic and pso2 at the same time. Game guard doesn't appear to be going away so I'd like to find some solution. Opening pso2 in sandboxie worked great for awhile until they updated gameguard to cause that to fail.

You could just use a different music player.

[IzzyData]

I have tried some other ones, but it seems like anything that supports a codec for mkv crashes anyway. I can play different file types such as mp4 in windows media player, but all of my anime is in mkv because of the subtitles.

Something seems to be conflicting with video drivers somewhere. If anyone knows of a video player that can play mkv and run while pso2 is open then please let me know.

[Chik'Tikka]

I have tried some other ones, but it seems like anything that supports a codec for mkv crashes anyway. I can play different file types such as mp4 in windows media player, but all of my anime is in mkv because of the subtitles.

Something seems to be conflicting with video drivers somewhere. If anyone knows of a video player that can play mkv and run while pso2 is open then please let me know.

my built in WMP and Media center work with PSO2 running, i've never tried VLC media player outdide of the campus network, but it works very well+^_^+ now anyway, here's an ok guide i found for .mkv+^_^+ also, if you ever decide to turn .mkv into .mp4 and such (for playback on Xbox 360 media center or other media center extensions. or to get past GG), use AVIdemux, this app will simply swap the container and you need transcode only the audio (since mp4 can't do surround sound), GotSent (and most others I've tried) trans-codes everything and takes ages with quality loss when you don't need to+^_^+ anyway, here's a guide on VLC and .mkv, i found it to be very useful when i 1st encountered .mkv+^_^+

[SPOILER-BOX]An MKV file is a Matroska file. Matroska is an open source container format. It is an alternative to the popular AVI and MP4 formats and it also surpasses them in many areas. This article exists to help you understand what an MKV file is and how you can play it back perfectly on your PC.



Containers, Codecs and Players

Many people who download a file with the extension MKV will often try to play it back with video player software they have installed on their systems. Most of the time this doesn't work (hence, the reason you are here). While a great selection of players support the playback of Matroska files, often the proper decoders for the streams contained in the files are missing. It is important to understand exactly what Matroska files are.

MKV files contain video and audio streams (may also contain subtitles). The streams are likely compressed and have been produced with an encoder. In order to play these streams a codec is required. Codec, as a word is an abbreviation of Coder / Decoder. The video stream located in the MKV file has been "coded" by the source and now it must be "decoded" by the end user who wishes to play it.

So to summarize, Matroska is a container format file that stores multiple streams (video, audio and subtitles). These streams may require you to install decoding software and filters to playback depending on what player you use. For most MKV files you find, there is a player not based on DirectShow (so you probably won't have to install any extra decoding software or filters) that has support for Matroska files, VideoLan Client (VLC).


The Easiest Method (VLC)
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_players/vlc.cfm
With the VLC player you are actually getting two things; a fine player with support for Matroska, and support for most video and audio streams you will find in an MKV file. This means that you most likely will not have to install any extra codecs or filters, depending on what your streams are.

You can get VLC for Windows from this URL. (http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_players/vlc.cfm)
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_players/vlc.cfm
Click File and click the Open File option.

Now, click the Browse button next to the first white line at the top of the window with title "Open.." and navigate through your harddrive for the video you wish to watch and select it. After you have selected the video, click OK and VLC will start playing the video you chose.

For other Operating Systems...

Mac: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/alternative_platforms/mac_software/vlc_for_mac.cfm

Linux: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_players/vlc_linux.cfm

Important Note: While VLC will work for most MKV files you will find, the package does not include any proprietary codecs. RealVideo and ON2 VP6 are examples of codecs not packed with VLC for this reason. Therefore with VLC, if you get a Matroska file that contains RealVideo, you are pretty much in the dark and will have to look for another playback option.


MKV on DirectShow based players

Several media players based on DirectShow like Windows Media Player will play back MKV files perfectly if you have the proper codecs and filters installed. A great help here is the Matroska Pack (http://packs.matroska.org/). This pack is an ideal solution for new users as it installs pretty much all you will need to play MKV files.


What to do when you encounter RealVideo

If you installed a Matroska pack but you have found an MKV file that contains RealVideo then it won't playback on DirectShow based players unless you install the official RealPlayer software. Alternatively, if you don't like the RealPlayer software, you can download and install Real Alternative and it will also do the trick.

Get Real Alternative from: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_players/real_alternative.cfm


What about codec packs?

Now, there's one common method that specially people new to digital video tend to use. It can be compared to killing a fly with a sledgehammer or something similar. Its called "codec packs". Basically a codec pack is a collection of the most common decoding drivers (==codecs) in the world and the installation file of a codec pack installs all of these codecs to the user's operating system.

Sure, the way has its benefits -- it is highly likely that virtually all of the downloaded videos will play after installation of such pack. But, there are several downsides to this approach. First one is simply the fact that every Windows user knows -- more software you install to your computer, more unstable and "wobbly" it becomes. Secondly, it is really waste of resources to install codecs that are in reality never needed. Third, it is highly unlikely that all the components packed within such pack are the latest and best versions -- downloading and installing each codec individually would be a better approach if user wants to get all the latest codecs in the world installed to his/her computer. Additionally, as nowadays several codecs actually decode several video formats, when a video is played, it is often impossible for a Joe Average to tell which piece of software does the decoding of the video, making it virtually impossible to find the cause of a problem if a problem appears.

Anyway, as stated, codec packs are a popular option to sort out the codec mess and installing such pack would also allow using your favorite video player software instead of all-in-one solution like VLC.

If you wish to try out a codec pack, here are several popular ones:

K-Lite Codec Pack [full] (http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/k-lite_codec_pack_full.cfm)
XP Codec Pack (http://www.filepedia.com/video_software/codecs_and_filters/xp_codec_pack.cfm)
Cole2k Media Codec Pack Advanced (http://www.filepedia.com/video_software/codecs_and_filters/cole2k_media_codec_pack_advanced.cfm)
X Codec Pack (http://www.filepedia.com/video_software/codecs_and_filters/x_codec_pack.cfm)

The use of a codec pack is similar to the use of FFDSHOW mentioned above -- download the codec pack, install it and use your favorite video player software to open the .MKV file and it should play.


Using Media Player Classic

Media Player Classic (MPC) is a must have player if you download a lot of video. Conveniently, MPC also includes support for Matroska with its own DirectShow parser filter. Using MPC, you can use several other features of Matroska, like switching between multiple audio streams easily. However, there is a problem (isn't there always?), the parser is out-dated in the latest version of MPC. For this reason, you are better off disabling the internal matroska parser in Media Player Classic and relying on up to date external software (install Matroska Pack).



Open Media Player Classic and click View --> Options. Select Internal Filters on the left as shown above and disable Matroska under source filters. Install the Matroska Pack now.


Troubleshooting

So you have an MKV file and you just can't get it to play whatever you do? A good start is to use software to determine what Video and Audio codecs are required to play the MKV file. An example of such software is Video Inspector.

Download Video Inspector from: http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_tools/videoinspector.cfm

If that still doesn't work there is a very useful tool offered by the Matroska team called MatroskaDiag.

You can get it from: http://www.matroska.org/%7Etoff/MatroskaDiag.exe

That tool will check if you have what you require installed and if you don't, it provides you with links that will help. If you have tried everything and nothing at all will work, you are most likely facing a DirectShow problem. In this case, I would recommend you try VideoLan Client. Installing too many filters can lead to terrible playback issues. [/SPOILER-BOX]

[IzzyData]

Guess I'll try out some of the codec packs to see if it works with windows media player. I'm not holding my breath though.

Edit: This one worked. Guess I am going to switch from my beloved MPC to lame windows media player.

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/general/download_splash.cfm/cole2k_media_codec_pack_advanced

[Chik'Tikka]

Guess I'll try out some of the codec packs to see if it works with windows media player. I'm not holding my breath though.

Edit: This one worked. Guess I am going to switch from my beloved MPC to lame windows media player.

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/general/download_splash.cfm/cole2k_media_codec_pack_advanced

that's a lot of codecs+^_^+ i just put Haali Media Splitter and ffdshow in and my .mkv worked fine since+^_^+

[IzzyData]

Not like I am running out of space on my 3 1tb hdd's. If the sizes are small enough I'll download way more than I need just on the off chance I'll need it in the future.

[Chik'Tikka]

Not like I am running out of space on my 3 1tb hdd's. If the sizes are small enough I'll download way more than I need just on the off chance I'll need it in the future.

+^_^+ just keep in mind that while packs are handy, it's like deer hunting with an M60, also, because they are collections, not all the codecs could be up to date, but if it works, obviously it doesn't need to be+^_^+

[Shirokami]

So... any advance in how not to crash? xD

[sugarFO]

My game keeps freezing and crashing but it doesn't shut the game down. It just freezes and I have to turn off my computer and turn it back on. There's no error number or anything. It's ridiculous, ever since this update!!!! GRRRRR

[MochiNeko]

My game freezes too. I reinstalled everything but still happens.
What AGP does the people with this problem have? what antivirus? etc etc. we need to find the source of the problem and why some people dont freeze like us
I have a RADEON
Running windows 76 x64
i use avast antivirus
Some of the programs always opened on my computer (system tray) Are:
LOL Recorder
TuneUpUtilities
USB Disk Security
Internet downloader manager
The others are the normal driver related icons.

Maybe there are problems between GG and some other software.

P.D.: Sorry for my english :(!

[Gama]

My game keeps freezing and crashing but it doesn't shut the game down. It just freezes and I have to turn off my computer and turn it back on. There's no error number or anything. It's ridiculous, ever since this update!!!! GRRRRR

my game froze twice for me.

Lags till it stops even sound , i wait for a bit, game recovers from it.

used avast as an antivirus.

changed to Microsoft Security Essentials

didnt have any freezing yet.

try it if you like.

also

MochiNeko

tuneup isn't that great, it ended up hogging my system, i use cc cleaner and defragler with better results.

cheers.

[MochiNeko]

my game froze twice for me.

Lags till it stops even sound , i wait for a bit, game recovers from it.

used avast as an antivirus.

changed to Microsoft Security Essentials

didnt have any freezing yet.

try it if you like.

also

MochiNeko

tuneup isn't that great, it ended up hogging my system, i use cc cleaner and defragler with better results.

cheers.

Hey, thanks for the tip on TuneUp, I will uninstall right away, as i was just testing it on my PC and didnt do anything better (or worse, luckily) ill try microsoft security essentials too and let you know how it went.

Wish me luck! And again, thanks n.n

[Shirokami]

I could play all day long! All I had to do was uninstalling Avast and done, no more freezes, funny huh?

[Xaeris]

It seems kind of ass backwards that we need to disable/uninstall Avast, an excellent anti virus program, to accommodate a crappy game security program that doesn't even provide that much security, honestly.

[Gama]

Don't run Your PC without an antivirus.

try Microsoft Security Essentials

i'm quite happy with it.

[SPOILER-BOX]no M$ isn't paying me.[/SPOILER-BOX]8-)

[Shirokami]

It seems kind of ass backwards that we need to disable/uninstall Avast, an excellent anti virus program, to accommodate a crappy game security program that doesn't even provide that much security, honestly.

You have to UNINSTALL, otherwise you crash anyways.

[darkfalz16]

i have yet to have my entire pc freeze just pso2 and i have to force quit it to fix windows 7 64 bit eset nod32

[Gama]

Yeah GG just knows avast is there and holds its breath till you uninstall it. crashing your entire system with it.


had to disable all my asus addons "you know the ones i need to so the mute buttons and stuff work" because gg would go nuts over them and shut them down by force. = crash.



maybe im bad at english but i didnt understand much of what you just said falz

[blace]

Not just you, Gama. Although we live in the same state, I can barely understand what was typed.

[Gama]

yeah, is his pc freezing on the game or is he awaiting it to freeze? so confusing >.<

[Darki]

And... Considering that is only the x64 version of the program what fucks the thing up, isn't there a way to force it into the x32 version so it works better? I mean, it wouldn't be to disable GG or anything, but you know, I don't like having to uninstall an AV I've been using for years because of this shit.

[Chik'Tikka]

i have yet to have my entire pc freeze just pso2 and i have to force quit it to fix windows 7 64 bit eset nod32

Google translates version; "I need to kill it in order to fix the 64-bit ESET NOD32 of Windows7 and have yet to have a freeze of my entire PC, just PSO2"
+^_^+ i have no idea if that's right though+^_^+


And... Considering that is only the x64 version of the program what fucks the thing up, isn't there a way to force it into the x32 version so it works better? I mean, it wouldn't be to disable GG or anything, but you know, I don't like having to uninstall an AV I've been using for years because of this shit.

PSO2 is only 32 bit (btw 32 bit machines are called x86, while 64 bit machines are x64+^_^+ 32 bit programs can run on 64 bit computers, but 64 bit programs cannot run on 32 computers) while it would be great to force the affecting program into 32 bit, the program conflicting with GG just happens to be Windows itself, and various x64 run-times therein+^_^+ so only an install of 32 bit (x86) windows would solve the issue that way as x64 programs can't run on a x86 computer (so GG sees no danger)+^_^+ but the game should be able to run on an 64 bit Windows machine and should be able to run alongside 64 bit programs+^_^+ but GG no longer likes that, since the hex editor the children were using to "mess" with PSO2 only works on a 64 bit machine, GG is being paranoid and killing other 64 bit programs and run-times "in case" they happen to be Cheat Engine, and some of those 64 bit programs need to run in order for Windows to be stable+^_^+ what GG's creators are doing is killing a fly with a sledgehammer, more delicate and less invasive coding would probably be able to fix the GG issue entirely+^_^+

[Darki]

So, I'm not talking about forcing the game into x86, just to prevent Gameguard to run from GameMon64.des which is the conflicting file. I'd still be running the program itseld, is not like I'd be disabling it or anything.

I guess this shouldn't be talked here as it would help any asshole willing to use Cheat Engine to bypass it, but anyway, is not like GG is doing much about that.

[Chik'Tikka]

So, I'm not talking about forcing the game into x86, just to prevent Gameguard to run from GameMon64.des which is the conflicting file. I'd still be running the program itseld, is not like I'd be disabling it or anything.

I guess this shouldn't be talked here as it would help any asshole willing to use Cheat Engine to bypass it, but anyway, is not like GG is doing much about that.

no, PSO2 is already a 32 bit program and can't even use more then 2 GB of RAM without help from another 3rd party program, what GG is trying to do is prevent certain 64 bit programs from running while PSO2 is running and it just goes a little overboard+^_^+ (also, what we're talking about wouldn't help people bypass GG at all, GG can't run on 32 bit windows and mess with PSO2, just not possible+^_^+)

[Darki]

Well, at the end we decided just to push the fuck-all-button and uninstall Avast and see how it goes. In case of my girlfriend it seems the game doesn't crash (we just tried for some minutes so we're still a bit wary of it, but at least it didn't crash on startup), so let's hope it stays like this.

In my case the program wasn't crashing my game too often and it wasn't too consistent, so I'm not sure of what to expect. I've also installed AVG, and see if it responds in a different way to Gameguard.

[Shirokami]

It's not really a big issue to uninstall the AV~
Uninstall it when you're going to play, install it when you close the game and start browsing~

[Darki]

It's not really a big issue to uninstall the AV~
Uninstall it when you're going to play, install it when you close the game and start browsing~

That's a major pain in the ass, excuse me. <_<

Also, there's people (like me) who likes to browse and do other stuff while the game is running. I'd rather put one that doesn't fuck with Gameguard.

[Shirokami]

That's a major pain in the ass, excuse me. <_<

Also, there's people (like me) who likes to browse and do other stuff while the game is running. I'd rather put one that doesn't fuck with Gameguard.

Do that :P

[eharima]

periodical. every 3- 7 hours i get this error. my meseta is on GG but, prove me wrong.

http://i.imgur.com/Pb9Vj.jpg

想定外のエラーが発生しました。
an unexpected error has occurred.

[njdss4]

I just had my whole computer crash while playing PSO2. Black screen, weird buzzing noise, then automatic restart. I've run scans and checks and can't find anything wrong, so I'm guessing I just experienced this GameGuard issue.

I am NOT going to risk frying my computer over this game. Torchlight 2 comes out on Thursday, I can play other games until then. PSO2 gets put aside until I see this problem is fixed.

[MochiNeko]

Ok, sorry to be late guys, but i uninstalled TuneUp and Avast (and installed Microsoft security essentials) and everything is going pretty good, i was able to play yesterday for about 3 hours without crashes or freezes. I think GG hates some AV.

Try microsoft security essentials, its free (unless u have a pirated copy of windows lol) and it works pretty well too.

Thanks a lot to Gama for the tips and everything!! i owe u one!

[Stormwalker]

For anyone out there who is looking for an antivirus that doesn't cause problems with Gameguard and doesn't want to rely on Microsoft's free solution, I'm using ESET NOD32 version 5 on both of my PC's (both Win7 64) with no problems.

Well, I do disconnect several times a day (error 630)< but I think that has more to do with connection issues. PSO2 never crashes or freezes up and it performs very well overall.

So there's another option. (and to repeat someone else's disclaimer, no, I don't work for ESET :p )

[blace]

I can vouch for ESET as well as I use the same thing, but it can be a bit buggy, as it has on a few occasions kept PSO2 from running, due to it needing permissions around the firewall.

[DS23]

We'll have an end to crashes once there's a public release of how to load the game without GG. Of course we'll also have a ton of hax going on but it's not like that isn't happening already.

[sabitsuki]

periodical. every 3- 7 hours i get this error. my meseta is on GG but, prove me wrong.

http://i.imgur.com/Pb9Vj.jpg

想定外のエラーが発生しました。
an unexpected error has occurred.
can you give me your spec and your ISP? A lot of chinese players are having this problem.....

[Miraclearrow]

Uninstall Avast!

[Gama]

i like avast, but with a antivirus By microsoft, since it probbly has some kind of windows id. gameguard wont touch it.

didnt have anymore crashes since "i had them like once a couple of days.