PC locks up after less than a minute in-game

[Xashren]

Title says it all, really: after roughly a minute in-game my screen freezes, the mouse locks up, the audio stutters then dies. The task manager can't be opened, leaving no alternative but to reboot the machine.

I'm on an Intel quad-core machine running Vista 64, which apparently causes all sorts of issues I've spent the last few hours correcting one by one. To preempt the "read the stickies" posts, I've applied every solution in the Dual / Quad Core CPU Fixes OP, plus setting up RunFirst and ensuring that CPU Affinity is set to 0. I'm running a legitimate copy of the Titanium client as per instructions for the server I'm connecting to, and the drivers for my video card (an Nvidia GTX 295) are up to date as of May 6th.

All I can think of is that there may be some conflict with the video card or my display settings. I've set the client to run in Windowed mode at 800x600, which has allowed me to at least get in-game, but the lock-ups continue.

Any thoughts?

[trevius]

Does this only happen in EQ? Have you tried any other 3D games?

[Xashren]

Only in EverQuest: Fallout 3, Neverwinter Nights 2, and Mount & Blade all work fine. Opening the out-of-game settings configuration utility also seems to cause the lock-up.

As a followup, I've also set compatibility modes (both XP and 98 ) and tried changing the desktop resolution to match those of the Windowed Mode settings I set in eqclient.ini. No dice. The lock always occurs in less than a minute, every time.

[Xashren]

An interesting new wrinkle has appeared. I tried running the normal shortcut to eqgame.exe using Run As Administrator and setting the affinity manually. The computer locked up even earlier: I didn't even get to type in my password before it froze.

Are there any log files I should be searching that might contain a clue as to what's going on?

[Xashren]

Update: I may have partially fixed this issue.

I reproduced the crash and searched through dbg.txt for information, and came up with something interesting. The relevant excerpt is highlighted below.
================================================== =======
2009-05-26 09:36:18 Creating window.
2009-05-26 09:36:18 Checking display driver version.
2009-05-26 09:36:19 Activating window.
2009-05-26 09:36:19 Picking a default resolution, desktop is 1920 x 1200, 32 bits
2009-05-26 09:36:19 Ratio is 1.60
2009-05-26 09:36:19 Resolution was capped at 1280 x 720
2009-05-26 09:36:19 Resolution verified 1280 x 720, 32 bits ... diff was 1000 from 0 modes
2009-05-26 09:36:19 Resolution selected 1280 x 720, 32 bits
2009-05-26 09:36:19 CRender::InitDevice: Using 32bit mode.
2009-05-26 09:36:20 CRender::InitDevice: Using vsync 0.
2009-05-26 09:36:20 CRender::InitDevice: Using 24bit depth buffer with 8 bit stencil.
2009-05-26 09:36:20 CRender::InitDevice: HardwareTnL Enabled.
2009-05-26 09:36:20 Using hardware vertex shaders.
2009-05-26 09:36:20 Initializing render system.
2009-05-26 09:36:20 Trilinear Mipmapping available.
2009-05-26 09:36:20 Vertex Shader Version: 3.0
2009-05-26 09:36:20 Pixel Shader Version: 3.0
2009-05-26 09:36:20 Initializing engine internals.
2009-05-26 09:36:20 CRender::InitDevice completed successfully.
2009-05-26 09:36:20 Parsing INI file ./eqlsUIConfig.ini
2009-05-26 09:36:20 INI file ./eqlsUIConfig.ini loaded.
================================================== =======

The default resolution is off. My eqclient.ini settings are for 800x600 in both fullscreen and windowed, yet it is selecting 1280x720 and looking for a default resolution based on my desktop. I set my desktop resolution to 1280x720 and loaded the game. Once in-game I let it idle for five minutes - no lockup. I opened the in-game options menu, set it to fullscreen and changed the resolution to 1920x1200 and let it idle for another five minutes - still no lockup.

It seems to be completely stable now, but damned if that isn't an annoying procedure to have to go through every time I want to play EverQuest. Any thoughts?

[provocating]

Yeah these seem hard to fix but I have gotten to be a pro at running EQ at high resolution. I only get a lockup when switching between full screen and windowed mode, and that is only 25 percent of the time. If I do not switch to windowed mode and just stay full screen I can run 1920x1200 for days and no lockups. The problem I think is that eq has tried to evolve from good old 640x480 vga mode to what we use today, I am sure some of that code is still around.

Give us some more information though.

Are you running Nvidia or ATI ?

Can you post your eqclient.ini for me ?

Are you trying to run full screen or windowed ?

What is your desktop resolution that you want to stick with ?

[Aarak]

Hahah and your still helping Thx dude

[Davek_EMarr]

Yup, just helped this old timer too.

Got me past my eqgame.exe event id 1000

Thanks!