MultiPlayer Problems

[Osis]

Hola,

I'm having a couple of issues with the Multiplayer portion of the game, hopefully, someone has already had and fixed these issues. Base game runs fine.

I'm not using GameSpy Arcade, just created an account (GameSpy ID) and joining within the M:TW game Multiplayer screen to the server. Login is fine and I can see and join games aswell, chat works fine for about five minutes, then I get a rash of HD activity and I lockup solid. Also I have numbers behind my login of 7Cub7Osis, I have no idea where these numbers come from and they also change to random combinations (I do see a few others online with the same issue).

I can login and change my GameSpy account information just fine.

I've tested with DMZ Host open on my local machine, this Login fails with GameSpy. I also block WAN reqests with my Router. I can play S:TW and WE:TW fine in Multiplayer as well as many other games, GPL, il-2, Mech 4, etc.

Of course all these other game support Direct IP connections.

Any help would be appreciated, thank you in advance.

My Specs:

PIII- 1Ghz Intel Coppermine Processor
Asus CUSL2-C Motherboard (BIOS 1009)
512 Megs of RAM
Radeon 64 DDR ViVo (Latest Catalyst Drivers)
RadeonTweaker with my own Total War Profile (for ME:TW aswell)
SBLive Sound Card (Latest Drivers)
Logitech Mouse using msmouse.drv
Two 30 Gig Drives with M:TW install in Spec location
Latest M:TW patch v1.1
LinkSys Cable Router BEFSR41 (Lastest Firmware Build)
Home Cable connection
Windows ME OS

[Osis]

Hola,

One other note, the Lobby for M:TW is adding an _ infront of my handle and another behind, before the added numbers.

Like so _7Cub7Osis_24523562.

My Clanmates do not have the numbers after their names, but do have the _ infront. According to GameSpy's website, this is an illegal character, go figure.

[Gregoshi]

7Cub7Osis, I don't have an answer to your problem. Have you searched the Apothecary forum? There have been a number of MP issues with GameSpy reported there. Unfortunately I don't have the time to track it down myself.

As for the numbers, I've seen others with them too. I seem to recall it is a nusiance only, but don't quote me on that.

[Alrowan]

well i was playing online tonight, and guess who came on... GilJaysmith

he was out bugcatching.. anyway, what was going on was he was running the debugger while playing online, and fixing all the bugs he could for the vikings expansion. While i was on, he managed to claim to have fixed the crash to desktop/menue bug that happens sometimes after a battle...

horay for gil

[Osis]

Hola,

I've removed the Router and connected directly to the internet, as I suspected, it made no difference.

Still have the underscore before my handle, the one after and all the numbers. Also, I did lockup after about five minutes again. Only in chat, not attempting to play the game.

What if any Temp files should be open while in the Lobby?

Alrowan, my Lobby crash problem is before joining or hosting a game. They really should do the bug catching before I fork over my hard earned cash for the game, otherwise it's Beta code...

[Osis]

Hola,

I should add that the single player game works fine so far, my only issue is Multiplayer.

Spent most of the night lastnight troubleshooting, my temper is thin.

Will do a full reinstallation next.

[Osis]

Game reinstalled, old version completely removed, new install and patched. Same problems. Installed GameSpy Arcade and connected, name displays correctly and no lockups.

Went back to the M:TW interface, numbers are back and lockup is back.

[Osis]

Ok,

Thanks to 7Bear7Polar for pointing out that any nickname on GameSpy starting with a number will create the after nickname numbers.

So I went to GameSpyid and changed it from 7Cub7Osis to _7Cub7Osis and the numbers went away.

Now I just have to fix the lockups, I get a thrashing Hard Drive just before the lockup, the CTD.

Not sure why my Hard Drive would be so busy in a Chatroom? Any help would be appreciated.

[Gregoshi]

It is funny that it is always after 5 minutes. It sounds like some program is on a schedule and kicking off activity that is causing the problem. Do you have any other programs running while you are playing? If you have a firewall, is it turned on? Do you scan your system for spyware?

[Osis]

Hola,

I use Ad-Aware on a regular basis, everything is closed before I start a game.

I'll capture what is running next time I start to lockup.

LinkSys router keep's me hidden.

[Osis]

It's fixed http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/joker.gif

Not for the faint of heart mind you.....

It's not the Game, or GameSpy. Video driver related (I take back all the negative comments in the wrong directions).

Very detailed removal of all related Video drivers and files as per instructions at Rage3d.com (Foolproof ATI Driver/MMC/Whatever Install).

Downloaded the last four full driver set packages from ATI's website. Created directories for the Catalyst v02.3, v02.4, v02.5 and v03.0 driver set's.

Put each version of Radeon, WDM and Control Panel in the proper spot and extracted, but did not install (you can cancel before it starts install and after files are decompressed).

Uninstalled in Control Panel, Add/Remove Programs anything ATI related.

Manually deleted, C:\ATI and C:\Program Files\ATI Technology (you may have more depending what you installed and what version of ATI graphic card.

Cleaned out C:\Windows\Temp then C:\Windows\System\ati*.* and atri*.* (make sure you check the properties of the files to make darn sure they are from ATI Technologies) then clean out C:\Windows\System32\Drivers and last C:\Windows\inf (again if your not sure it should be removed click on the file, right click and select Properties, then the Version Tab, make sure it's from ATI Technologies).

Run RegCleaner and remove any Registry Entries for ATI Technologies.

Empty Recycle Bin, Reboot and don't let your machine update from the web (unplug if you have to).

Install WDM Drivers (Don't Reboot), Install Display Drivers (Don't Reboot), Install Control Panel and Reboot.

Installed Catalyst v02.5 drivers, reinstalled DX8.1 these are not the latest driver set. I did try the Catalyst v0.30 drivers with DX9, however I had a problem with the Cursor in the game (flickering).

It seem's some games like specific drivers, I can now do this whole process very quick. Every game except M:TW worked well with the Catalyst v0.30 drivers and DX9.

I'm also using Radeon Tweaker with a custom profile that turns VSYNC and AA to off.

Game runs great now http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/smokin.gif

[Osis]

Quote[/b] (Gregoshi @ Jan. 03 2003,19:40)]It is funny that it is always after 5 minutes. It sounds like some program is on a schedule and kicking off activity that is causing the problem. Do you have any other programs running while you are playing? If you have a firewall, is it turned on? Do you scan your system for spyware?
This is the error message from crash.txt.

MEDIEVAL_TW.EXE caused an EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION in module MEDIEVAL_TW.EXE at 0197:00704F5B
EAX=00007AA8 EBX=0000040E ECX=0000070A EDX=00000509 ESI=031BED51
EDI=00000128 EBP=00000008 ESP=010CC46C EIP=00704F5B FLG=00210217
CS=0197 DS=019F SS=019F ES=019F FS=164F GS=0000
0197:00704F5B (0x0070042B 0xF000FF54 0xF0008008 0xF000EF6F) MEDIEVAL_TW.EXE
0197:0070042B (0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x00000000) MEDIEVAL_TW.EXE

This pointed me to a driver issue, either sound, video or operating system.

[Gregoshi]

I admire your persistence Salute http://www.totalwar.org/forum/non-cgi/emoticons/pat.gif