Graphics issue with Windows 7?

I'm having an odd graphics problem with Everquest and IsBoxer/innerspace. My game configuration is 3 sessions with the resolution for the main window at 1280x960, and EQ in windowed mode in the game for all sessions. All characters have the same settings in their eqclient.ini file and I'm running Windows 7 64 bit.

When I start the game there's no problem, and all works fine including my repeater region. after a random amount of time (seems to be shorter the more I switch to the slave regions) the 2nd and 3rd sessions will freeze graphically. They still receive repeater mouseclicks and any keystrokes and I can "swap" to them and execute commands (with Aero switched on I get a smeared graphics screen, without it there's nothing).

I have to quit out of the two misbehaving sessions and reload them via innerspace and they then work for a while; if I don't kill them they stay broken. The first session never has an issue and will work through numerous quit/reload cycles. When I do quit them they give an innerspace crash message saying they couldn't reference EQgraphicsDX9.dll.

I've tried the innerspace developer patches, running old models on lower detail, and no change to the behaviour or time it takes (anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes). I'm running an i7 with 8Gb RAM and 2x 5770 ATI in crossfire mode (I tried turning crossfire off but no difference). I can do the copy/post of system and isboxer setup if necessary.

Hope someone has seen and solved this already, and if so thanks in advance for your help!

[lax]

The IS dev build is currently the same as the live build, 5243, so that wont change much at the moment. (usually a good idea to try, of course) Is this something that started recently?

One thing to try with EQ1 is to turn off some of the advanced graphics options, like dynamic lighting, shaders, etc.

Hi Lax, and thanks for the fast reply . The machine is fairly new, and I only installed EQ last week on it; previous to that I've been playing EQ2 with ISBoxer with no issues. I'll try turning the advanced graphics off and see what happens. It may just be EQ and Win7 of course.

Well, switched all the graphics options off from the EQ startup screen and set the ingame option to lowest memory use but no change. Then copied two new EQ folders and ran each session from its own folder (same low settings) and that seemed to last a lot longer (even with me doing some session swapping as well to stress it - almost a complete no-go previously), but in the end they crashed too. I just don't get why the first session has no problem

An update and a solution!

It turned out that it was the repeater area functionality causing the crashes - I switched it off, and no more problems. I made some clickbars to use instead of the repeater area, and can play now with no problems and with constant swapping between characters.

To replicate the repeater functionality I just made the clickbars transparent and overlaid them on the EQ hotbars so I could see and recognize the named buttons and icons already in EQ. Seemed faster to respond and more robust too, without the occasional loss of clicks I'd had with repeater. Also I don't have to position the hotbars exactly in each screen, and I can be selective in what each button sends and to whom.

As an extra bit of automation, I also made a 4-button bar for each character with all the character names on them (bar in the same location in each screen, currently selected character button a different color) to allow me to swap focus between slots by clicking on the buttons instead of the slot itself.

Worked like a dream and solved the issue I had with figuring out which position character 1 had ended up after multiple swaps (mid-fight...where's char 1 he's dying! No no that one, wait now he moved again...oh @#$! he died) .

I can see now that the clickbars are the way to go...

Im having the exact same problem .....is this the only solution or is there a way to "truelly" fix this? i have tons to do on what im trying to do and it would just be easier for me to use the repeater........pls help with a solution plssss

[lax]

Have you tried updating graphics drivers?

yes sir i have . this was part of my troubleshooting process yesterday and this morning.....everything is fine and then about 10 15 minutes or 3 to 4 mobs in even it freezes and becomes non functional .

I can still pull mobs to camp and stuff and the repeater is still working as far as casting spells but if i wanted to load a port or something on my other toon i wouldnt be able to ......

I just dont understand why its only the secondary freezing /steam lol ...

Im hoping to get this running because when its working its like the best 15 minutes of my life ..but then it freezes =p


Is there anyway to reload that screen or anything like that ?

[lax]

You can reload any individual window by closing it and then do another launch of your Character Set and it fills the missing one(s) in.

I thought I recommended the OP try this before but it's possible that the issue is being caused by the fake cursor in the other window (considering this is only an issue when mouse repeat is enabled). Try turning that off and see if that helps -- in the top pane in ISBoxer, select your Repeater Profile (under Repeater Profiles, of course) and then it's the very top option in the bottom right pane. After unchecking this, it might be a good idea to re-launch your team.

yea im not surewhats going on now , even after i disable the cursor and export e ct the mouse cursor is still there ARGH!...still crashing ect about 15 minutes in ..im also running windows 7 ect