Multiplayer freezes

[Artak 0]

Hey all,

There's a lot of topics named like this, but I didn't find an answer from them.

I recently updated my computer with a new mobo, cpu and gfx card. Yesterday I was playing OFP MP with my mates as usual and we played for maybe a couple of hours. Everything was fine and ofp ran smoothly. I was hosting then.

Today one of my mates set up the same mission with same addons. I connected late and got into the waiting lobby where I chatted away for about 10 minutes before a restart. When the restart was about to happen my computer froze so bad that even the keyboard jammed and I had to pust the large red reset button on the side of my chassis.

So, I tried it again. And again. And again, and everytime I tried OFP would froze when I selected multiplayer from the main menu.

Then I waited for about 30 minutes and tried it again. Now I could connect to the multiplayer game for so long that I managed to tell my mates I was having problems and then ofp froze again, this time however it crashed to desktop after a while of waiting.

I have opened all the needed ports from my firewall, but still tried disabling it entirely - it didn't help. I haven't changed anything from yesterday when ofp was working fine. What's wrong?

My system:

OS: Win2k prof. with SP4

Firewall: Norton IS2004

Switch/Router: Telewell TW-716E

CPU: AMD Athlon 64bit 3000+

MOBO: Asus AV-8 Deluxe

GFX: NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT 128Mb

OFP: 1.96 with DXDLL, NamPack 2, CoC UA.

[killswitch 19]

Do you have a "hosts.txt" with your favourite OFP servers listed? If so, are any of them in the form of DNS names, not IP numbers?

If so the freezes you're seeing could be OFP trying to resolve those names and while waiting for that to be done, OFP essentially freezes.

Solution: either remove the hosts.txt or make sure it only contains lines of the form "IP:port" and not "cool.ofpserver.com".

[Artak 0]

Good thinking, but I don't have such file. Also, I'm always connecting through the 'remote' connection, never to dedicated servers.

Today everything was fine again with nothing changed from yesterday. I have no idea and you probably think I'm stupid or something.

[Artak 0]

Scrap the title. It's not MP that's causing the freeze - the freeze just happened to occur when in or starting MP.

Now OFP freezes occasionally at any point, in about 0 to 2 minutes after startup. I'm now convinced that it's my new gfx card causing the problem (PNY's NVIDIA GeForce 6600GT 128Mb). A friend of mine with the same card from a different manufacturer has the same problems with the same symptoms as I do.

I have no idea how to configure the gfx card so that OFP will run reliably again. The whole idea for a hardware upgrade was to get OFP running better and faster, because I don't play any other games.

Maybe some of you have experienced the same? I'll do anything. Please help.

[killswitch 19]

I suppose it's time for the usual list of things to check. Let's do it again:

<ul>[*] Have you installed the latest chipset drivers (VIA Hyperion 4-in-1 4.55vp1, http://www.viaarena.com/ )

[*] Try disabling AGP Fast Writes (BIOS)

[*] Try different settings for the AGP Aperture value (32/64/128) (BIOS)

[*] Relax the RAM timings (BIOS)

[*] Is it heat? Check the airflow. Try running the machine with the hood off.

[*] Do you have a flaky and/or insufficient PSU?

[*] Once there was a AGP fix for W2k and older AMD processors. This might have been resolved with SP4 and/or the A64 platform (1)

[*] Feel daring? Try the latest BIOS (beta 1010.003 when I write this, it seems)

[*] Trawl other hardware/game forums looking for similar issues. Perhaps someone somewhere has stumbled upon something interesting. (eg nForcersHQ.com forum)

(1) AMD site - Utilities, Drivers & Updates See "Microsoft® Windows® 2000 Patch for AGP Applications"

[Artak 0]

Hey mate,

Great checklist! I'll quote you here and work gradually through it, updating this post at the same time.

<ul>[*] Have you installed the latest chipset drivers (VIA Hyperion 4-in-1 4.55vp1, http://www.viaarena.com/ )

Had a quite new version, but updated to the very latest. No effect. OFP ran the menu screen with desert island animation on background good for 15 minutes, but alt+tabbing out and in crashed to desktop.

[*] Try disabling AGP Fast Writes (BIOS)

Done. No effect.

[*] Try different settings for the AGP Aperture value (32/64/128) (BIOS)

Changed from 128 to 64. Alt+tabbing out is a bit faster now. After 1 hour of testing with ofp idle in menu and desert island animation on background, and with a dozen alt+tab out/in's, ofp hasn't crashed once.

Crashed again today, but seems to hold up longer than with 128. I'm now trying 32.

[*] Relax the RAM timings (BIOS)

Haven't touched this yet

[*] Is it heat? Check the airflow. Try running the machine with the hood off.

Overheating is not an option. All together I have nine fans in there.

[*] Do you have a flaky and/or insufficient PSU?

Powersupply is an old trustworthy 350W ATX unit. I would assume it's working ok and is sufficient.

[*] Once there was a AGP fix for W2k and older AMD processors. This might have been resolved with SP4 and/or the A64 platform (1)

It wasn't mentioned that A64 is affected by this bug, but I installed the patch anyway.

[*] Feel daring? Try the latest BIOS (beta 1010.003 when I write this, it seems)

Not quite that desperate yet

[*] Trawl other hardware/game forums looking for similar issues. Perhaps someone somewhere has stumbled upon something interesting. (eg nForcersHQ.com forum)

Will do

[killswitch 19]

[*] Do you have a flaky and/or insufficient PSU?

I don't understand

What rating ("wattage") is the computer's power supply unit? Brand and model might be important here, because these days PSU:s seem to be more about useless coloured LED fans and other trinkets than, well, quality.

It might be that it's not up to the task of powering the new computer parts. Sagging voltages are really bad for stability...

[korax 4]

Did you remember to plug the Geforce 6600 GT directly into the power supply using the 4-pin connector?

(Great card BTW, I have the same but by XFX, and ofp runs great with full AA+AF)

[Artak 0]

Funny you should mention it Korax. Speaking of experience?

Actually when I was putting this upgrade together I did overlook the 6600 GT's own independent power input. Saw it and just went "hmm.. look at that. That's funny". Then a bit later I got a big red alert box in windows that said "Your gfx card blah blah isn't getting enough power and settings have been dropped to minimal performance blah blah".

So yes, I do have the 4-pin power input connected to the gfx card.

I've also done the stuff I've written in the above checklist and updated to the very latest drivers from NVIDIA. It seems that OFP is now more stable, but still not quite there yet.

It also seems that the crash might be remotely related to alt+tabbing in/out of OFP. With my old rig alt+tabbing could be done in a flash with no delay. Now it takes about 10 seconds before I'm back on desktop and I have a butt feeling that out of all the crashes/freezes most have happened a bit after I've alt+tabbed back in.

[AustralianSpecialForces 0]

I know how to fix the MP Problem...

How To:

Go To The OFP Directory.(Codemasters/OperationFlashpoint/<HERE>

Go To USERS (Codemasters/OperationFlashpoint/USERS/<HERE>

Click on your USER Profile .(Codemasters/OperationFlashpoint/USERS/Artak/<HERE>

Then delete userinfo.cfg, I am pretty sure thats its name. Delete that and then restart OFP, re-do your voice & face in profile. Then start MP. It should work now

I have had this problem, and most of my ASF freinds cause we all do Direct Play, the problem is that it has closed the game in Direct Play. This can cause Freezing as soon as you open Multiplayer. If you turn it off Direct Play back to Sockets after every remote connection, you shouldnt come across this problem, if you do.. Just follow the steps above.

[benu 1]

Then why not just open that file with a text editor and put this into it:

useSockets=1;

[AustralianSpecialForces 0]

Quote[/b] ]

Then why not open that file with a text editor...

. . . . . . . .

[Artak 0]

Riiight.. Anyway, Thanks for all your help guys. I can especially appreciate the checklist you wrote down Killswitch.

I have now succesfully played and edited flashpoint on several occasions and it seems to be workin ok. Apparently decreasing the AGP adapture size to 32 did the trick. (I remember having it on 128mb on my old computer).

Thanks again!