DDO debugging issues (as crowdsourced by many players advice)

[rabidfox]

For anyone who's noticed drops in frame rates recently (may be the result of Windows updates or could be DDO itself). Here's a couple things that may or may not help with that from what myself and others have noticed:

Consider turning off MPO. https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-amd-nvidia-are-all-sleeping-on-windows-11-mpo-display-issues/ There's a bunch of youtube and reddit posts about this and various games/performance stuff out there for those interested in more details about it.

If running windows 11, try turning off these 2 settings.

Be sure to reboot the computer after these changes and see if your game runs better. If they don't help, you can just revert the settings back.

 

[rabidfox]

If the client is crashing and reinstalling the latest VC runtimes didn't help, here's something that may help:

A friend had this same issue and after a little playing around we found that their issue was the version of msvcp140.dll the client was picking up. Version 14.36.32532.0 causes the client to crash - you can see this in the Application log.

https://imgur.com/a/Ljj9XjY

Updating the VC runtimes via this https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170 didn't resolve the issue (specifically, it didn't update the file in c:\windows\system32) so we got a more recent copy of the file and copied it into C:\Program Files (x86)\StandingStoneGames\Dungeons & Dragons Online\x64 which fixed the issue. I would suggest that people with this issue do try the update via the link above though.

I've tested a several versions of this file (ranging from 14.24 to 14.42) and 14.36 is the only one that's caused me crashes thus far. You can get the version of the file by right clicking it and going to the Details tab.

https://imgur.com/952vPc7

 

[ilya187]

I have a weird issue -- at least weird enough that I had seen no mention of anyone ever having same thing. For years I've been used to the following quirk:

Every time DDO made an update, upon opening the application I would receive the Windows note: "Do you want to allow this app from unknown publisher to make changes to your device? To continue enter admin username and password." I would enter my admin password, DDO would update, and then all my character mapping would be missing. And all I had to do to restore them, was close DDO and restart it.

As I said, this happened for years, and I just accepted it as a fact of life. Receive an update, open DDO without character mapping, close it, open again. Done. But starting August 25, I've been getting "Do you want to allow this app from unknown publisher to make changes to your device?" EVERY time I open DDO. And even though there is no actual update, my character mapping is not there. Which makes the game effectively unplayable.

Someone suggested that my account might not have the rights to update the .ini save file, and I should try to run DDO as administrator. I tried, and the only difference is that it does not ask for admin username and password; it still asks "Do you want to allow this app from unknown publisher to make changes to your device?" If I click NO, program just exits. If I click YES, character mapping is missing again.

I submitted a ticket, but got nothing but automated response. I suspect the issue is with the operating system (Windows 10 Pro), but everything relevant I can find online has to do with browsers, not with standalone programs.

Any suggestions?

 

[rabidfox]

I have a weird issue -- at least weird enough that I had seen no mention of anyone ever having same thing. For years I've been used to the following quirk:

Every time DDO made an update, upon opening the application I would receive the Windows note: "Do you want to allow this app from unknown publisher to make changes to your device? To continue enter admin username and password." I would enter my admin password, DDO would update, and then all my character mapping would be missing. And all I had to do to restore them, was close DDO and restart it.

As I said, this happened for years, and I just accepted it as a fact of life. Receive an update, open DDO without character mapping, close it, open again. Done. But starting August 25, I've been getting "Do you want to allow this app from unknown publisher to make changes to your device?" EVERY time I open DDO. And even though there is no actual update, my character mapping is not there. Which makes the game effectively unplayable.

Someone suggested that my account might not have the rights to update the .ini save file, and I should try to run DDO as administrator. I tried, and the only difference is that it does not ask for admin username and password; it still asks "Do you want to allow this app from unknown publisher to make changes to your device?" If I click NO, program just exits. If I click YES, character mapping is missing again.

I submitted a ticket, but got nothing but automated response. I suspect the issue is with the operating system (Windows 10 Pro), but everything relevant I can find online has to do with browsers, not with standalone programs.

Any suggestions?

This sounds like UAC issue that started popping for some folks lately. It's likely tied to this windows update https://learn.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/release-health/status-windows-11-24H2#3652msgdesc (unless someone is seeing this without this update in which case the cause could be revised).

One option mentioned is to change UAC permissions for DDO:

I re-installed Win 11 some month ago, and noticed that UAC got upset with DDO for the first time after the update last week. I added an exception for it, and haven't noticed any issue since then.

Another option is moving the folder DDO is installed in to another location that Windows is more relaxed about permission-wise:

I used to have that issue and here's how I got around it. By default DDO gets installed in "C:\Program files(x86)\..." so I created a "C:\games" folder and moved DDO files to inside there. Since it's no longer in the "Program files(86)" folder, it doesn't require me to elevate to admin for DDO nor discord to get things to run; push to talk just works for me without that since doing that.

I don't have a "best" answer beyond those so far. See if one of those things helps you and report back; the more feedback from folks with the isuse and what does/doesn't work for them (along with other things that they might find that works), the better.

 

[rabidfox]

If you get the graphics glitch bug in No Refunds, turning off stencil shadows should (hopefully) fix it for you (you can turn it back on after the quest).

https://imgur.com/a/6ZP4rnt

 

[axemania]

Having an odd freezing issue. At random points (usually when i'm in the middle of a raid or quest, of course), my game will freeze with standing effects like monsters and capes waving a bit (but me and everything otherwise frozen), then give me the yellow poor-connection icon, then the red, then after a while it will crash. HOWEVER I can still use chat all through this.

(I have also experienced momentary disconnects with my crappy Comcast internet, but that disconnects me from chat too and then unfreezes when I reconnect)

Not sure what this is but it's VERY frustrating, it's hitting me multiple times a day.

Often when I have this issue (last night I spent almost two hours trying repeatedly to log back into the game), my relog attempt will see me frozen at the "welcome to Eberron" screen with no progress on the blue progress bar, followed by a crash ~3-5 minutes later.

Have tried switching clients and making sure it's using my NVIDIA graphics card. Updated all drivers. Still happening.

 

[Titus Ovid]

Having an odd freezing issue. At random points (usually when i'm in the middle of a raid or quest, of course), my game will freeze with standing effects like monsters and capes waving a bit (but me and everything otherwise frozen), then give me the yellow poor-connection icon, then the red, then after a while it will crash. HOWEVER I can still use chat all through this.

(I have also experienced momentary disconnects with my crappy Comcast internet, but that disconnects me from chat too and then unfreezes when I reconnect)

Not sure what this is but it's VERY frustrating, it's hitting me multiple times a day.

Often when I have this issue (last night I spent almost two hours trying repeatedly to log back into the game), my relog attempt will see me frozen at the "welcome to Eberron" screen with no progress on the blue progress bar, followed by a crash ~3-5 minutes later.

Have tried switching clients and making sure it's using my NVIDIA graphics card. Updated all drivers. Still happening.

What about your temp of your GPU and/or CPU?
Did you test your RAM? Maybe some sectors are broken.
Did you test any other tips in this thread? Like unplugging all USB devices?

Cheers,
Titus

 

[axemania]

What about your temp of your GPU and/or CPU?
Did you test your RAM? Maybe some sectors are broken.
Did you test any other tips in this thread? Like unplugging all USB devices?

Cheers,
Titus

Not sure about GPU/CPU. I use a plugin keyboard and wireless mouse because my computer is hard to control without them. Have not tested my RAM.

Computer doesn't seem to be laboring too much though when it happens.

 

[axemania]

Other pertinent information:

last night (3/9 circa 11:45 PM PT) I re-entered the game after ~90 minutes of attempts. I could only send and receive tells, and otherwise could not use chat functions. Game was stable and a guildie I DMed told me that someone else had had the same problem as I've been having.

This morning, started a IOD saga run, crashed near the end of crab (did ship-->crab-->king), got back in, was running to king and crashed again, could not reenter despite ~30 minutes of attempts.

Cormyr server. Have not had this problem until a couple weeks ago at which point it has become incessant and infuriating.

 

[axemania]

Update: Played last night (3/10) and this evening (3/11), zero issues, finished IoD and ran into the mists + the run to the tavern through barovia with a guildie, zero issues.

 

[axemania]

And now it's back. Ran around gianthold killing everything earlier, zero issues, tried running around barovia just now (6:45 pacific, 3/12), was OK at first then crashed in a vineyard.

 

[rabidfox]

And now it's back. Ran around gianthold killing everything earlier, zero issues, tried running around barovia just now (6:45 pacific, 3/12), was OK at first then crashed in a vineyard.

You might want to check Windows Event Viewer and other methods for seeing why you're getting crashes.

One person recently had issues related to a network print job that was queued up but the printer wasn't printing it, so every few minutes, the driver would try to resend the print data and it would cause DDO to bug out.

 

[axemania]

You might want to check Windows Event Viewer and other methods for seeing why you're getting crashes.

One person recently had issues related to a network print job that was queued up but the printer wasn't printing it, so every few minutes, the driver would try to resend the print data and it would cause DDO to bug out.

Thanks, I'll give it a look. Sorry I'm so confused about this lol, I am not a computer expert.

 

[axemania]

It's back--happened this morning and right now like 2 minutes after starting a shadow crypt run.

What am I supposed to do with Windows Event Viewer?

 

[Monicle le Blair]

I would like to add to #10
Selecting the graphic card on the launcher never worked for me.
Forcing it to launch with the correct device, selecting it from the NVIDIA panel is the only way it worked for me.

 

[rabidfox]

It's back--happened this morning and right now like 2 minutes after starting a shadow crypt run.

What am I supposed to do with Windows Event Viewer?

You can look at the logs for applications/windows to see if you see anything specific crashing at the same time you had issues in game. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/inside/event-viewer

 

[rabidfox]

I would like to add to #10
Selecting the graphic card on the launcher never worked for me.
Forcing it to launch with the correct device, selecting it from the NVIDIA panel is the only way it worked for me.

If you can grab a screenshot of how that looks in your NVIDIA panel, that'd be great. Then can add that in to the suggested things for folks to check.

 

[axemania]

You can look at the logs for applications/windows to see if you see anything specific crashing at the same time you had issues in game. https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/shows/inside/event-viewer

I'm seeing nothing at that time, and now it's not letting me log in again. I can get to character select, but when I select a character and hit Enter I get stuck on a loading screen with zero progress.

It's been like this for about 15 minutes now, in the middle of a quest too.

 

[Titus Ovid]

If a programm crashes there is something in the event viewer but it can be hard to find. Do you get any kind of error messages at all in your event viewer? Let's say when you start up your PC and don't do anything else than starting DDO. I would turn off any other programm that's starts automatically with your OS like Spotify or Discord or the like.

You can open your Taskmanger, too and monitor your resources while you play.

Do you have the possibility to copy your game files and play the game on an USB stick Do you know how to do that? That way you could try it on a different computer and you might be able to isolate hardware and software problems. If your files run fine on a different machine it is most likely your hardware.

You did make sure all your drivers are up to date?
Your antivirus is not screwing this up?

Cheers,
Titus

 

[axemania]

If a programm crashes there is something in the event viewer but it can be hard to find. Do you get any kind of error messages at all in your event viewer? Let's say when you start up your PC and don't do anything else than starting DDO. I would turn off any other programm that's starts automatically with your OS like Spotify or Discord or the like.

You can open your Taskmanger, too and monitor your resources while you play.

Do you have the possibility to copy your game files and play the game on an USB stick Do you know how to do that? That way you could try it on a different computer and you might be able to isolate hardware and software problems. If your files run fine on a different machine it is most likely your hardware.

You did make sure all your drivers are up to date?
Your antivirus is not screwing this up?

Cheers,
Titus

Drivers are up to date, antivirus isn't throwing up any false positives on ddo files.

It's compounded by my connection issues (XFinity lol), but seems oddly distinct. I will have a few hours with no issue, then, like I had about an hour ago, it will just hit me. I checked the event viewer and can't find anything at that time.

Taskmanager is not showing excessive resource usage.