freezing when playing 4 toons in lotro

[ecgric]

Asus P6X58D Premium X58 Chipset
12 GB OCZ DDR3 1600
OCZ Agility 2 120GB SSD
MSI GTX 480
SilverStone 1000W PSU
Intel Core I7 930

Those are my system specs. As far as the things You mentioned, I watch my temps in game and my GPU never gets above 59C and my cpu temps never get above 50C on any core. I have used intel burn test on maximum settings. It tests 10.5 GB of my ram in the test leaving just a few hundred megs free and I have no stability issues even running it all night. According ro resource monitor with all 6 clients up I am only using 8.5 to 9 GB of total memory including what windows is using. I don't think overheating is a concern. My case has plenty of fans, has great air flow and I clean it once a month. I do agree about Lotro being a memory hog and I do use Ocz's SSD driver. Out of all that you suggested the only thing I haven't done is update the boards bios, mainly because all I see in the bios revisions are updates to accomodate new cpu's.I am using MSI's utility and I have it set to raise fan speed to 90% once my GPU hits 55C. The thing I am wondering though is my memory is spec'd to run at 1600mhz but at 2.1 volts. right now its running at 1333mhz 8-8-8-24 timings but at 1.7 volts. I am kinda of scared to run it at rated voltage due to what I have read about I7's not liking memory to run above 1.65. Also if I remember correctly QPI voltage has to be within .5v of Dram voltage so if I ran at 2.1. Point is I am wondering if my ram isn't getting its needed voltage but I don't want to fry my CPU. Any thoughts ?

[ecgric]

Well scratch what I said about the bios updates it seems they have come out with a new one since I last looked and they say its for system and memory so I will flash and post results. Also I had said b4 that it was only happening in large congregations of ppl but yesterday I was out in the shire in the fields and it was happening with just my toons so it seems the crowds aren't the only factor. I still can't get my head around how it doesn't happen at all in any instances. GS,O/E,skirms,SG, it doesn't matter it does not lock up very strange.

[ecgric]

Well I updated the bios. I even went to the OCZ memory forums, found my MB and my memory and set the bios to the memory settings they recommend and within 5 minutes of loading I locked up. Even better I only had 5 toons on !!! So now not even 5 are stable and I've been boxing 5 toons no hiccups since september and now all the sudden no dice .... just tried 4 toons. Locks up with 4. Something is wrong maybe my graphics card ? I have lastest drivers installed and I don't see any artifacts. I have another machine with 2 cards in it. Should I swap and see if it changes ?

[monkeysuncle2007]

hmmmm it sounds like its more random then anything..... see if it does it with just two or three clients open, try to narrow it down to the problem being 4 or more clients being open. The only differences being.... A: More RAM in use..... B: More Video Card RAM in use..... Now you tested your system RAM to death, I'm thinking it might be your GPU, I'd try swapping cards and see what happens. About your voltage, you have an MSI board and although I7's like .5v between your QPI and your DRAM I don't think its necessary, mine is at 1.65 for DRAM timings 8 8 8 24, with a timing of 2t and a tcpr of 74, system runs stable at 2:12 or 1600mhz. Shouldn't be any problems upping the Volts for your RAM, you can research more at overclock.net, great bunch of guys and gals over there.

A system lock up can also be from PSU problems, but you do have a 1000w PSU and its only doing it when you have more then 3 clients open.... I'd have to research more and ponder this one.

[ecgric]

Remember though it doesn't lock up at all in instances just out in middle earth.maybe file corruption ? Another thing I just want to be clear on. My system has no problems any other times it only locks when boxing lotro. No BSOD's, restarts or anything else and this just started when I first tried to 6 box 2 weeks ago. Up till then I had no issues.The thing is if its hardware related it should do it in instanes as well, thats why I am leaning toward possible file corruption. You think a reformat may be in order ? I also have a secondary hard drive thats not a SSD. I am thinking of installing a new lotro folder in there and trying that to see if that makes a difference. Any thoughts ?

[ecgric]

A litttle update...Last night I ran Furmark all night on "Stress Test mode" . It ran without fail and got up( my GPU that is) to 81C until the test ended. Now like I said my temps never get above 60C while playing. Also I deleted the game and reinstalled on my secondary HD, so I got a completely new file and a new location to go with it along with taking the SSD out of the equation for that part of it. Game still locked up within 10 minutes of playing 5 toons. I am really at a loss for what I can do here and am extremely disappointed. I have been playing Lotro since it came out and playing just 1 toon now really has little appeal to me anymore so if I can't figure this out I will probably quit playing it. Lax do you think IS has anything to do with this ? Should I try reinstalling it as well ? Even though I hate the thought of redoing all the ISboxer stuff.

[lax]

Honestly I have no idea. LOTRO is a pretty popular game to be multiboxing with ISBoxer and I haven't really heard of similar issues.

This is a full system freeze? or just the game windows? If it's just game windows then redoing your ISBoxer config could potentially help (keep a backup of your current config). If it's the full system I wouldn't expect it to change any, you're talking strictly about kernel-level code at that point (Windows itself, drivers, etc), which ISBoxer and Inner Space have absolutely none of. Or hardware.

A litttle update...Last night I ran Furmark all night on "Stress Test mode" . It ran without fail and got up( my GPU that is) to 81C until the test ended. Now like I said my temps never get above 60C while playing. Also I deleted the game and reinstalled on my secondary HD, so I got a completely new file and a new location to go with it along with taking the SSD out of the equation for that part of it. Game still locked up within 10 minutes of playing 5 toons. I am really at a loss for what I can do here and am extremely disappointed. I have been playing Lotro since it came out and playing just 1 toon now really has little appeal to me anymore so if I can't figure this out I will probably quit playing it. Lax do you think IS has anything to do with this ? Should I try reinstalling it as well ? Even though I hate the thought of redoing all the ISboxer stuff.

I have had issues with LoTRO locking up, but it is always the video. The network lights keep on blinking showing the system isn't locked up. I really wish MS would add a graphics reset like Linux has (Ctrl-Alt-BkSp)

My suggestions (yes, I know these are going to be unpopular):

Set the graphics/advanced graphics to the absolute minimum settings.

Try different graphics driver revisions. The latest isn't always the best tested. I ran a really old driver in WoW for a long time because it was the only one that didn't consistently lock up a single window.

Replace the graphics card with a different brand. I am having OK luck with ATI Radeon 4870x2 with driver 8.753-100706m-102495C-ATi (10.7 catalyst version) I have a new card on the bench waiting for a chance at the big leagues. Next time I tear down the computer it'll go in.

Replace the memory with a different brand and/or higher speed grade. You may have a weak memory bit that only gets stressed by Lotro.

Lower your CPU clock frequency and/or divider. Unless you are right on the edge of working, a 10% drop in CPU horsepower isn't going to impact your gameplay.

Brand new gaming system. WOOHOO NEW TOY!!!

[ecgric]

yes its a full system freeze but what has me puzzled is why it doesn't do it in instances. It would make more sense if whenever I was in Lotro it did it. Also I made 6 lotro folders and assigned each toon a folder rathe then just using 1 copy the way I had been. It still locked up but it took alot longer. like I ran around the world for almost 2 hours. Until I did that the only way I was able to play that long was to stay in a instance. Don't know if it means anything or not. But if you're saying kernel lvl stuff then maybe I would benefit from a reformat.

[lax]

You may benefit from a reformat, yes.

It could also be hard drive related, so if you haven't done a disk check lately now might be a good time to do that. The related drivers have been known to cause problems like this, so if you haven't checked for new motherboard (or laptop) drivers that could help too. From what you've been saying it may not be the video card at all. Check for sound drivers, too.