crash to desktop issue - possible pb/etpro conflict

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Sat Jul 16, 2005 10:03 am

I'm suffering from a problem where ET will crash direct to desktop without any error warnings when it reaches the "awaiting gamestate" message. After much testing and hair pulling, I have narrowed this down to only happening on servers with ETPro and PB enabled. This just happens to be my favourite kind of server

Is there any way to enable logging for ETPro? I've checked the PB and ET logs and there are no error messages, buit I can't seem to find anything for logging ETPro.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:46 am

I'm now convinced this is an entirely ETPro related issue. I've manged to play on PB servers with regular ET, but anything ETPro related (with or without PB) exhibits the exact same problem - direct to desktop crash when in the awaiting gamestate section.

I've played on ETPro before, but I took a break from ET and now ever since reinstalling a few weeks ago the problem has persisted.

Since then I've upgraded my graphics card form an NVidia GF4400 to an ATI X800 Pro. Other than that it's the same system. I'm running the latest drivers for everything and have tried disbaling every non-essential process before running.

Something has obviously changed between the older versions of ETPro and 3.2 that is causing the crash. ET has no other problems, so I can only assume that there is either some setting or some kind of verification that is failing.

This problem is really p***sing me off now - the people I like to play against play on an ETPro server - and regardless I like a lot of the chnages ETPro makes.

If it helps, my specs are:
Abit mobo NForce 2
ATI X800 Pro
AMD 3200 Barton
1024MB DDR400 kingston ram
Creative Audigy Player

Yeltzyn · Post by **Yeltzyn** » Mon Jul 18, 2005 11:55 pm

If u r using Getright, uninstal it. It's causing all the troubles with et (generaly)

ReyalP · Post by **ReyalP** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 12:43 am

If you recently switched video cards, you might need to make sure you have truely cleaned out every trace of the previous drivers.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 2:16 am

Nah, I made sure I killed the lot - followed a huge guide about it, used all the cleaner tools, in the right order, etc. Then ran the trace finders and they all said the system was clean.

And I fail to see how video drivers would cause ETPro to fail and not all other forms of ET. Surely ETPro is using the same video system as ET?

And I don't use download managers and I've tried killing all non-essential processes before running ET.

ReyalP · Post by **ReyalP** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 1:04 pm

Damocles wrote: And I fail to see how video drivers would cause ETPro to fail and not all other forms of ET. Surely ETPro is using the same video system as ET?

The second statement doesn't imply anything about the first.

Given that other people with similar systems are not experiencing the same crash, one would assume it is something to do with your system/settings.

Have you tried cleaning out your etpro (making sure you only have 1 etpro.pk3 and only the .dll files that go with that version) Also try getting rid of extra .pk3 files (skin packs, voice packs, campaigns etc), which are often downloaded to the etpro directory ?

Are you using fs_homepath ?

Have you double checked for malware ? ETpro anticheat often 'detects' malware by crashing. I know of several people who had a very similar problem, who swore up and down that their system was clean, but later found something like this.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 2:55 pm

I have tried cleaning out the etpro folder, and I've run the latest version of adaware - it did find some minor offenders, but deleting them hasn't fixed the problem

I've tried with and without fs_basepath, and I've tried using all seeing eye which should handle that side of things itself.

You've written fs_homepath there - is that a different command? I seem to recall it being fs_basepath. Although I tried fs_homepath just to be sure and still failure

I've tried running with full admin priveledges and in compatability mode. I've tried reinstalling et and running just ET, the 2.6 patch and ETPro 3.2 - no other paks at all - apart form the campaign one that got downloaded from the server. Still dies at the exact same point.

I'm fast running out of ideas here

ReyalP · Post by **ReyalP** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 4:57 pm

Damocles wrote: You've written fs_homepath there - is that a different command? I seem to recall it being fs_basepath. Although I tried fs_homepath just to be sure and still failure

No, fs_homepath is a different command, which seems to be borked for windows clients. You'd have to deliberately set it, so that isn't the problem.

Spoofeh · Post by **Spoofeh** » Tue Jul 19, 2005 11:23 pm

Can you run a dedicated server with etpro, or does that crash as well?
If it doesn't crash, make sure b_anticheat is off (0), then start a client and connect to the local server.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 12:30 am

Things have taken a turn for the bizarre now. Apparently the tinker pixies have done something to my computer overnight, for something has changed between now and last night. (and before you mention it, yes I did restart the pooter between changes)

For some reason, now ETPro fails once, then stays resident in memory. If I then try and run ET again, it will load the console, then when the screen is supposed to go grey, it just sits there. Now, if I kill the old ET process, ET loads up and the weird thing is, I can play on ETPro servers.

Bizarrely, if I try and kill the process before starting the second one - ETPro crashes, but if I let it try and load two instances of ET, then kill the first instance, it works.

It's not exactly an ideal solution, but right now I'm just glad to be able to play on ETpro servers. Although - was ETPro always this laggy? Or is the perceived lag increase maybe related to the fact that ET tries to load twice?

Spoofeh · Post by **Spoofeh** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 3:25 am

Do you mean network or FPS lag? ETPro isn't laggy, though I think FPS is a few % lower than in etmain for some people.

I'd recommend running Memtest86+ to rule out bad RAM btw.

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 4:37 am

I assume it's network lag - it's not much, just the occasional stuttering. Ny ping remains good, but now and then I seem to suffer form bouts of stuttering. It's not a serious issue, it's just a little off-putting. I'm more concerned about why ETPro will only work when I kill a second defunct ET process at the right time...

Locked_On · Post by **Locked_On** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 6:50 am

Can't say as though I have ever had that problem. Are you sure you aren't loading the game twice? I know that can cause lag.

Grim|EFG · Post by **Grim|EFG** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 8:10 am

Damocles wrote:I assume it's network lag - it's not much, just the occasional stuttering.

What do the fps meter (cg_drawfps 1 - or is it showfps, can't remember

) and lagometer (cg_lagometer 1) show during this stuttering?

Damocles · Post by **Damocles** » Wed Jul 20, 2005 8:28 am

Now this is just really weird. The lagometer is almost perfectly flat at all times and the fps never leaves 90, yet there is the occasional bit of stuttering. It's not a lot or even very severe stuttering - just enough to be noticed. I'm not bothered by that - I just want to be able to start ETPro without having to have a defunct ET process in memory first. Not to mention being able to close ET and having the process terminated automatically. Most perculair...