Recently purchased a new-to-me dell desktop pc. Came with a fresh install of windows 7 pro. With all the updates already complete. Downloaded EQ, launchpad seems to do fine, I get to server select and hit play, it goes to the loading screen and sometimes it’s a black screen, sometimes it shows the display art screen but never shows the progress bar at the bottom. At this point, the computer basically locks up, never makes it to character select. Can’t use ctrl-alt-delete, alt+f4 is useless. Literally only thing I can do is hold power button for the 5 second shut off to restart. So far, I’ve tried changing the resolution, I’ve taken it out of full screen and put it into windowed mode. I’ve changed the Everquest icon to different comparability, from win xp all the way to win 7 to no avail. The only thing I haven’t been able to try is changing the directx, I believe it’s currently using 10 and after much research I’ve had 0 luck finding a viable means of changing it back to 9.0c, I had originally hoped the comparability to win xp hoping that setting would take 9.0c’s place with no luck there either. I also did a validity check on Everquest’s files, for some reason it goes about half way (around 6,300 files) and it locks up that way as well having never completed the validity check. I am very open to ideas, I’m honestly ready to execute this thing. Pc’s specs will follow. Dell Optiplex3130 Windows 7 professional 32bit - service pack 1 Intel core i3-3220cpu 3.3ghz 2gig ram Nvidia GeForce 8400 - 512 memory Again, if anyone has an idea what the hell to try next, I am all ears. Thanks for reading, any help will be greatly appreciated. Take care! Perc
dx10 comes by default, you can have both installed, dx 9 should install with everquest. if it didnt install with everquest you can search microsofts site for the proper dx versions. everything looks good on the pc, but the ram, that is an extremely low amount of ram, i would suggest updating ram to at least 4 gigs, 8 if u can afford it. the 512 ram on the video card is extremely low as well although that shouldnt matter. to put it into simpler terms, windows is using at least 1.5 of them 2gigs. that leaves 512 megs or less for everquest and other applications. thats simply not enough ram.
Link to direct x 9c and some other ideas http://www.paullynch.org/tnzfaq/?page_id=362 There is a specific file in 9c that EQ needs that is not included in the direct 10. Many poster disagree with this because it never happened to them. 9c is a separate download - it is not in the other direct file. You may want to check on an external SSD drive to incorporate more space
Installing the MS Direct X 9c re-Dist is a good idea as it will not hurt/damage anything. Elevating EQ to be run as Administrator is important as well. Also, I you certain about the model number? i could not find an Optiplex 31xx's series (HP 31xx series, yes) i did see OptiPlex 3030 all in one. a please verify the model or link to Dell's support. if you have a Small Form Factor (SFF) PC Heat can be an issue as well as Drivers for the Video card. I would download some thermal monitoring software (ie HWmonitor or some dell folks like Speecy), so you can see if components are overheating. Grab microsofts June 2010 Direct X 9c redist file (ur have win 7 so u can use the Web installer or the download the full file approx 95mb) Also elevate the Launcher, and eqgame.exe to "Run as Administrator". finally, if your gonna stick with this PC and EQ, an Investment in 4-8gb of RAM (i recommend 8gb abd ubstall x64 version of Windows, your CPU is EMT64) for your PC, and being optimistic - tuning the graphics to match your Video cards abilities/architecture once you're in game. Unfortunately if you go 64 bit, it will require a clean install of your OS, your Windows Key should work just fine (the sticker on your Dell has the key) and Cats suggestion of adding a SSD is a good idea, many SSD come with software to clone your drive free. if you use as an external... no need to clone, just get used to another drive letter.
The problem with that is, he has a 32 bit Windows, which will not support anything over approximately 3 Gigs of RAM. You have to go to a 64 bit OS to go any higher.
4GB of RAM, and thats not a problem for single-boxing EQ. The specs he has are fine, he is likely missing the DirectX 9.0c runtime as stated above. Its also not TOTALLY a limit, as you can use PAE to access memory above 4GB on a 32bit OS. (Here is how to enable it on win7_x86) One note is that even if the system can access more RAM, your still limited to 2GB (maybe 4GB) per process on a 32-bit OS. Also, turn off compatibility mode for XP, EQClient runs just fine on Win7 and you shouldn't even need to elevate it to administrator (I don't even need to do that on Win10Pro).
Windows 10 uses powershell. Win 7 does not. I have also found just installing eq to c:\eq instead of the convoluted progamdata\games etc... Zana is correct no need for compatibility mode under 7, and there are methods to get x86 windows to recognize and use more than 3gb of RAM. However the OP has not discerned if it is a hardware or software issue. Dx9c we all agree should be reinstated just to be sure it's there and not corrupted. And the heat issue is still unclear, not to mention the exact model/make of the PC in question.
Finally! A solution was discovered. After a lot of torment and 3 ignored emails to daybreak, turns out I had multiple bad sectors in the hard drive. Did a chkdsk after having it recommended and discovered the drive was starting a cascading failure. So copied eq onto external, purchased new drive, installed and ran perfect. Can’t thank the eq community enough for all the help and recommendations. Thanks everyone -perc
Thanks for letting us know what the problem was to help us trouble shoot in the future - see ya in game!
