random graphic glitches and game crashes

[Darki]

Hey there! I decided to make this post after a very frustrating experience with the game yesterday trying to clear the free Desert mission, and let's hope I can sort this out once and for all.

I play the game on max settings, because the game *seemed* to go with it. The specs of my computer are:

S.O.: Windows 7 Ultimate
CPU: Intel Core Quad Q6660 @2.40GHz
RAM: 6143 MB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT


When I first tried to run the game, in both my computer and my girlfriend's laptop, I put them at level 5 graphics to go lowering them in case the game went bad. To my surprise, while the laptop went horribly lagged and slow, my computer ran it really smooth, so I kept the settings at 5 and went on. I was a bit surprised mostly because I've been playing lately a couple games that to my eyes don't seem to be as good in the graphics department as PSO2, namely, The Sims 3 and Prototype, and they get lagged sometimes, but well, as it worked, I left it as it was.

My first surprise came when playing at full screen (both "real" and "fake" fullscreens). After a while playing, that can be from minutes to hours, the game randomly freezes and the computer gets completely unresponsive. It can freeze in two ways: either the screen just freezes and that's all, or it comes with a very nasty sound from the speakers that seem to be the game sounds very slowed down.

Then I decided to go with window mode, and it worked in a way: when it freezes, the first case only freezes the game and I can just ctrl+alt+del it away, but in some cases, the second case happens and I still need to restart the computer. On top of that, the game shows some visual glitches every now an then, like textures that get "spiked" out or out of place.

I assume this is a graphics issue, but what bugs me the most is that when my gilfriend's computer gets nasty in the graphics department, it starts slowing down like crazy and *then* freezes when it goes very bad. In my computer it just goes to hell without any warning. And it never shows any sign of graphics overload: it can go smooth in a double code duel with two dragons in the middle of Caves with a shitton of monsters and 12 people spamming techs, but freeze in the Desert in a place with no enemies or items. I decided to lower the game graphics to 3 (I seriously can't play at 1, it looks worse than PSU, damnit), but I didn't notice much improvement.

I've also been lurking some related posts and I've seen that many people run on the same settings with even lower spec hardware, which makes me wonder if it's not that my computer hasn't enough juice to run the game, but that there's something broken in the computer.

Any ideas?

[Aeris]

Usually i get the "not responding" issue if i be in lobby too long when i go to campship, seems like the game has a time with single and dual core cpus lately since i am on a dual core and both at constant 100% usage for some reason.

[SolRiver]

If you can play it normally with a bunch of things going on even just once, it is probably not hardware problem (unless something got fried in the process).

This is likely a software issue.

As for the random glitches and things spike out: It sound like there was some overheating or overclock problem on your graphic card. Basically there were some inaccuracy during the operation which make the software go nuts. (or some memory issue)

[Sodamaker]

I've just copy/pasted this from another site, I've been working on the same issue for a while now:

You're not the only one friend. I've recently developed a crashing issue on my computer, and I'm not sure it's the computer at all. I've got dual 5830's in crossfire, 2.8 6 core processor, and 16gb of ddr3 1600 ram. True the cards are getting hot, but this game is the only one with the issue at the moment. My ati drivers are fully updated, and the game has only today developed this problem. I'm going to start troubleshooting this, running a memory test tonight, reinstalling ati drivers, then the pso2 client. I will try to keep you updated, and I'm searching for anyone with similar problems.

Update: I've gone through several steps to try and narrow the problem, with no success. So far, a list of things I've tried.
-Newest ATI video drivers
-Fresh installation of PSO2 on a different drive
-Graphics settings turned to 1, shaders off, windowed/full screen/virtual full screen modes
-Solo play only, group play has been a factor for others
-Reported problem with google chrome running simultaniously, ran with IE instead
All of these factors have made no difference on my machine. My only options remaining may be try a different zone, since I've only been playing caves, which could be a factor, but I've crashed on the main ship and city missions as well. I also forgot to run memtest86+, as it takes several hours to run.

[SolRiver]

I've just copy/pasted this from another site, I've been working on the same issue for a while now:

You're not the only one friend. I've recently developed a crashing issue on my computer, and I'm not sure it's the computer at all. I've got dual 5830's in crossfire, 2.8 6 core processor, and 16gb of ddr3 1600 ram. True the cards are getting hot, but this game is the only one with the issue at the moment. My ati drivers are fully updated, and the game has only today developed this problem. I'm going to start troubleshooting this, running a memory test tonight, reinstalling ati drivers, then the pso2 client. I will try to keep you updated, and I'm searching for anyone with similar problems.

Update: I've gone through several steps to try and narrow the problem, with no success. So far, a list of things I've tried.
-Newest ATI video drivers
-Fresh installation of PSO2 on a different drive
-Graphics settings turned to 1, shaders off, windowed/full screen/virtual full screen modes
-Solo play only, group play has been a factor for others
-Reported problem with google chrome running simultaniously, ran with IE instead
All of these factors have made no difference on my machine. My only options remaining may be try a different zone, since I've only been playing caves, which could be a factor, but I've crashed on the main ship and city missions as well. I also forgot to run memtest86+, as it takes several hours to run.

Maybe try an older ATI display driver? A lot of people seem to have some issue with the newer driver.

[Sodamaker]

I rolled my ati driver back to 12.3, 12.4, and up to 12.6, and 12.7a, none of these seemed to work.

I have a question for anyone experiencing this problem, as it's just happened to me. Load up the game, play for 5 or so minutes before your crash, then turn the game off. My computer still ended up crashing ~10 minutes later after I'd closed the program. This is VERY strange, as it runs fine during TV shows etc for extended periods, I've done this today, but after running PSO2, it eventually crashes, regardless of if the program is on.

I'm begining to wonder if it's the program after all... since this seems computer related now. But I'm still searching for a solution. And I'll also try to recrash using PSO2 as the reason.