Unable to Connect to Servers - Freezes & Drops to Login

[Apotheos]

Originally Posted by Fifflefluff

Am I to assume, then, that everyone else is able to connect to servers and zone without any problems at all, consistently? Knowing that there are people out there for whom the system functions normally would also be valuable knowledge; then I would know that it's probably something on my end that's causing the problem. Anybody?

The system is functioning completely ABnormally for me. I think my problem is similar to yours, though a bit more severe. I get to the server select screen with no slip-ups, but as soon as I click PLAY NOW -- seemingly regardless of server -- the EQ window goes permanently black (i.e., freezes), and I eventually have to cntrl+alt+delete it away. Absolutely no idea why this is happening, and would appreciate immensely any suggestions.

[Fifflefluff]

Another interesting anomaly that I've noticed while experiencing this problem:

I run EQ in windowed mode. When I hit "PLAY EVERQUEST" and it freezes, I've noticed that my laptop's monitor gets a little bit lighter than normal, just as if its gamma value had been changed. When the game drops me back to the login screen, or once it starts loading normally, this abnormal lightness goes away, and the screen goes back to normal. Is this a symptom of any known bug?

[Fifflefluff]

Followup: I've discovered that I can connect to the Mithaniel Marr server without any problems. The success rate for logging in and entering the game world is astonishingly high -- the only disconnects I've gotten were strange ones that seemed symptomatic of a different problem, wherein I would get slammed with "YOU HAVE BEEN DISCONNECTED" right after clicking on "Enter World" in the character selection screen, but those were the exception, not the norm. Also, I never crash while zoning on that server.

This suggests that my problem is server-specific, but it doesn't help me much in terms of figuring out how to make it possible for me to play on other servers.