Game crashes after logging in since 59.4

[Athassyn]

Hello,

I’d like to ask for help, because I can’t start the game since update 59.4 has come out.

The game crashes right after I log in. There’s a black screen for a few moments (until the default mousepointer turns into the game’s pointer), then I’m back at the desktop, without any error messages. The most I could get out of it was the first frame and sound of the intro video (after a complete reinstall of the game). I googled up various suggestions (see below), but none of them helped.

I had the same problem when I started to play DDO a few weeks ago, tried the solutions below, but none worked* back then, either.
* Except for one: using the 32 bit client instead of the 64 bit version solved the problem and I was able to play almost** seamlessly.
( ** - I still had a blank black UI for the ingame DDO shop.)

But now, after the update, not even the 32 bit method works. I have the game on two different computers, one is Win10, the other is Win11. It worked on both before, but now both produce the same crash.

I’d be grateful for any constructive suggestion, because I’ve exhausted the options I could think of (or found) and getting a bit desperate.

(An afterthought: can this somehow happen because of my physical location? I’m playing from Hungary.)

What I have tried so far:

- running as administrator
- running in every possible compatibility mode
- rebooting the computer
- "repair game data" and "reset display setting" options in the launcher
- specifically selecting the graphic card in the launcher
- completly reinstalling the game
- changing client to 32 bit and back to 64 bit, then to 32 bit again
- installing and reinstalling the complete DirectX End-user runtimes 2010 and the Visual C++ vcredist_x86.exe
- running the game with and without the high resolution package
- running the game with DirectX 9 and 11
- adding the game directories (both the install and the one in Documents) to my virus protection’s exceptions, as well as the .exe files of the launcher and the client
- turning off virus protection completly
- renaming the userpreferences.ini file and the Documents\DDO directory so the game would be forced to recreate them
- trying ScreenMode=FullScreenWindowed in the .ini file
- combinations of the above and other stuff at https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?th...-as-crowdsourced-by-many-players-advice.1666/ and https://forums.ddo.com/index.php?threads/problems-launching-the-game-try-this.1225/#post-11024

I read that Win10&11 updates can mess things up, but there were no updates prior to 59.4.

 

[Spook]

Couple of things to try
Try playing without sound to see if its the OpenAL or sound drivers
Force the game to use a specific display adapter in the launcher options
If using steam client - switch to the one on the official site
force dndbrowserhelper to run as admin

 

[rabidfox]

There's been a few people with this kind of issue. Hopefully someone figures out a fix that actually works and can share it.

 

[vryxnr]

I've been having troubles just logging in to the game. The launcher has gotten hung up on several spots, from freezing at retrieving files to not being able to find the host servers. So far though once I got in I'm good. *knocks on wood*

 

[Frogger1234]

I haven't been able to use the 64-bit client for about 2 years because of frequent game crashes. None of the many "try this" fixes worked. I gave up and moved to the 32-bit client. The 32-bit client usually works fine.
Every few updates, the 32-bit client also gets broken. For me, at least, I'm able to play for a while before the game dies with no error message. Though the game crashes 100% of the time when I try go below on the guild ship and when I try to switch characters. Inventory management is a real pain when the game crashes every single time you want to look at a different toon.

 

[Athassyn]

Couple of things to try
Try playing without sound to see if its the OpenAL or sound drivers
Force the game to use a specific display adapter in the launcher options
If using steam client - switch to the one on the official site
force dndbrowserhelper to run as admin

I tried the muting the and specific display earlier, but to no avail. But I didn't think of "manipulating" the browserhelper file before. Thanks for the tip, I'll try that.


And thanks for the other answers, too, at least I can prepare for some possible problems in the future.

 

[Dalvias Stonecrusher]

Since the last update on Wednesday I’ve been having a lot of in game crashes zoning into areas and taking ddoors. Never was a problem before, so something must have gotten messed up with the update.

 

[Dapoli]

I have experienced the same thing since the last update. Now I cannot take dd, move to a certain deck of my guild ship, go to the crafting hall in House K or even switch toon without game crashes. The game is now unplayable to me. I have submitted a ticket and the Customer Support team said it had sent the case to the Quality Assurance team for review. Guess I have to take a break from the game until the bug is fixed. :(

 

[Frogger1234]

I have experienced the same thing since the last update. Now I cannot take dd, move to a certain deck of my guild ship, go to the crafting hall in House K or even switch toon without game crashes. The game is now unplayable to me. I have submitted a ticket and the Customer Support team said it had sent the case to the Quality Assurance team for review. Guess I have to take a break from the game until the bug is fixed. :(

I contacted Customer Support also. I even sent them an update with my experiences over the weekend (summarized below). They told me this morning the problem is that my computer doesn't meet the minimum system requirements for LOTRO.

I was able to play through all the quests in Epic Gianthold (didn't do the raid). The only game crashes were in Return to Tor, where the game crashed every time going through the hidden passages, and trying to go through the portal to first dragon optional. Relogging put me outside Tor, since the quest was technically completed.

Running the Zawabi's Revenge raid, the game crashed when going through the first portal, but not the second one.

In an 11-person raid group Saturday night, a total of 3 or 4 people (including me) experienced game crashes at the same places. As in every portal. We were using Discord voice, so crashes were easy to keep track of. We crashed in:
- Mark of Death dimension doors
- Skeletons in the Closet - every portal
- Hunt or be Hunted - if they had to go through the lock-out doors for the optionals
- Old Baba's Hut - every time we entered or exited the hut

I wonder if behind the scenes there are two kinds of portals.

 

[gravisrs]

What really changed recently in DDO client was that sound dll. I'd follow this rabbit hole. Muting sound won't prevent from loading audio drivers FYI so it might be still the case.

1. Try to change sound drivers in your PC, usually it's better to avoid motherboard producer drivers and use chipset producer drivers or even native windows update drivers. Also try different versions for each of those (beta, non-beta, initial release). Just make sure (with each installation) that your system is not silently using your old drivers anyway.
2. Try different sound hardware, there are cheap USB sound cards (those designed to work with android/iphone also will work) in your nearest computer market.

If there is stack-trace somewhere in errorlogs see what dll caused the problem, could be that new ingame browser updated. In this case try the following trick: uninstall chrome browser from your PC (cuz ddo ingame browser uses chromium and this may share some incompatible dll's), install DDO, if it works - then install chrome.

 

[Dapoli]

I contacted Customer Support also. I even sent them an update with my experiences over the weekend (summarized below). They told me this morning the problem is that my computer doesn't meet the minimum system requirements for LOTRO.

How come suddenly your computer doesn't meet the minimum system requirements after the update? I suppose your computer ran the game perfectly well before the update., right? FYI, my computer ran the game perfectly well before the update.

 

[Dapoli]

What really changed recently in DDO client was that sound dll. I'd follow this rabbit hole. Muting sound won't prevent from loading audio drivers FYI so it might be still the case.

Isn't the latest game update about the browser window? Here is what it says in the release notes :

• The in-game browser window has been updated to a newer version.

 

[Frogger1234]

DDO and LOTRO have different minimum system requirements.

 

[Dalvias Stonecrusher]

Found this post (#14) on the old forums. Going to investigate the OpenAL32.dll file as suggested in the post.

https://forums-old.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/532573-CRASHING-to-desktop-all-the-time!-Anyone-else-having-the-same-issue?highlight=Game+crashes+when+zoning

 

[Frogger1234]

Thanks for finding that old post.
I just crashed swapping characters and going below on the guild ship and got the same error in the Event Viewer.
Faulting module name: ucrtbase.dll, version: 10.0.19041.789, time stamp: 0x82dc99a2
Hopefully someone knows how to fix it.

 

[rabidfox]

Faulting module name: ucrtbase.dll

That's for Visual C++. Maybe reinstalling the libraries (the same way reinstalling directX 9 helps some people) would fix it. The question becomes which version of C++ libraries would be the ones to install.
2015? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=52685
Some other version? https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/windows/latest-supported-vc-redist?view=msvc-170

 

[Dalvias Stonecrusher]

Thanks for finding that old post.
I just crashed swapping characters and going below on the guild ship and got the same error in the Event Viewer.
Faulting module name: ucrtbase.dll, version: 10.0.19041.789, time stamp: 0x82dc99a2
Hopefully someone knows how to fix it.

I have the exact same error. Running a repair Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package. I’ll post an update when it’s done.

Update: first attempt at repair did not work. Tested by recalling from the same quest where I was crashing pre-repair attempt. Got same crash and same error in event viewer. Going to research some more before I do a Windows 10 reinstall and/or reinstall the game. Patience running thin.

 

[Dapoli]

Thanks for finding the old post. The error log in the Event Viewer says:
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.22621.1928, time stamp: 0x7dd9e350

I'd greatly appreciate it if anyone knows how to fix it.

 

[Athassyn]

Found this post (#14) on the old forums. Going to investigate the OpenAL32.dll file as suggested in the post.

https://forums-old.ddo.com/forums/showthread.php/532573-CRASHING-to-desktop-all-the-time!-Anyone-else-having-the-same-issue?highlight=Game+crashes+when+zoning

I follwed this lead, too, and found that it's the libcef.dll in the DDO directory is responsible. From what I've learned from some googling, it has something to do with browsers (so I guess my crashes do result from 59.4 with its browser upgrade) . I don't what to do with this info, but it might help others fix their game.

 

[Dapoli]

So far Quality Assurance team has not contacted me for the problem I am facing. Does it want to solve it with the introduction of Update 60 in one go? :(