Extreme Lag / Unable to Load

Discussion in 'Player Support' started by LordDragon, Apr 11, 2019.

  1. LordDragon New Member

    I bought a new very high end computer for the 20th anniversary server launch (so I can stream while playing).

    I have been experiencing intermittent extreme lag that makes the game unplayable. When the lag hits, it only hits my new desktop, it has not yet ever effected my mid range, few year old laptop. I play both systems at the same time, it only affects the desktop. When the lag hits, it affects everything on the computer, Discord will lag out and disconnect, speedtest.net will simply show an error so that I cannot start the test, or sometimes it will run the test and get less than 1 mbps down and up. I can run a speedtest.net test simultaneously on the laptop and I get roughly 70mbps download and 9mbps upload. However, after many attempts I have been unable to replicate the problem when EverQuest is not running. I can run all manner of other software or games and experience no lag.

    Occasionally (once a week or so) the game will completely freeze up while I am playing. When this happens I am unable to even use control alt del, the computer is frozen. I have to hold down the power button to restart. The computer has never frozen when EverQuest is not in use.

    Occasionally (and also every time after having to do the hard restart) when I log into the game, I can get all the way to my character loading into the game. Once the time hits where my character should otherwise be fully loaded into the game, my computer instead drops to my desktop. EQ is no longer visible on my task bar. Alt Tab does not bring me back to EverQuest. At this point I can use control alt del and manually close EQ with the task manager. If I attempt to log into EverQuest again, then once I select my server it tells me there is already a character loaded into the world, would I like to remove that character from the world? If I select yes, then the same issue occurs again and again. I found that the only solution to this is to delete my character specific ini files. Then I can reload with no issue, but my ui is set back to default, which is super annoying. This also doesn't solve the random intermittent lag issue.

    Odd things will fix the issue for a day or so. Based on suggestions from friends and guildmates I tried the following things: I updated my video drivers. Problem solved. Two days later back to the same old issues. I did all the Windows updates. Problem solved. Next day, back to the same old issues. I contacted the computer builder and they emailed me the drivers for my network card. I installed those. That did not fix the issue. I have uninstalled and reinstalled EverQuest twice now. That made no noticeable change either time.

    I do not currently have an extra ethernet cable. The dozen I have are all in storage back in the states. I'm currently staying in England for the next 4 months. My neighbor is checking for an extra ethernet cable for me, which I'm waiting on them before I order one. However, I will say that the whole time the issue is happening, my wifi icon on the task bar shows full signal strength and connection.

    Can anyone offer some kind of solution or test I can try to figure out the problem? Thanks!