I just had exactly the same issue with the same message and restarting pc worked. No idea what caused it.
OK This is totally screwed. I have a ticket in, but they got to it kinda late of Friday. No issue there- I'm not going to ask anyone to stay past their shift for this. BUT...I just RESET MY PC and I still cannot get into the patcher!
Yet another howler: I've had a brand-new router sitting in the box for about 3 years. On the chance it was some bizarre router issue that couldn't be fixed with a reset and a firmware upgrade, I broke it open and installed it. Brand new router, different brand from the old one. Hey, EQ2 is downloading! Sort of. It took over a dozen retries to download all the files. I kept getting that same Socket Error (10060). So all the files are finally there, I hit play, and I get "Launch Pad is unable to connect." I let it sit for a while, and I get a broken login screen- no graphics. Can't progress to the character select screen, and it crashes if I choose a character from the login screen. New update: Game teases me- it seems to load. I get the epilepsy warning, and the game load screen, then- poof. It just disappears. No error message at all.
Socket Error 10060 is usually a problem with the proxy settings on your box. There are lots of articles on debugging it, such as this one.
Yup. Did those at least twice over the last few days, thanks. Really freaking weird. I've seen posts claiming this to be a DirectX issue. Half the people say you need DX9 to run EQ2, and the other half say later builds are back-compatible. I've never had a problem running the game on higher versions, but I tries sticking DX9 in there anyway, to no avail.
Windows users are strongly recommended to have an original dvd-disk or usb-flash disk with their operating system (this there is always on microsoft website, you only need license, key). In this case, you can solve any problem and not waste time and nerves in trying to figure out what broke. When problem can be solved by an understanding person located directly in front of the screen of problem computer, but this is not you. In addition, you need to understand that some people may not have this problem. Because Windows is different for everyone, even if it's same assembly. So, often best solution is low-level formatting of disk on which OS is installed. Installing OS from scratch, and immediately creating complete archive of OS, with its entry on media, for example on dvd discs with which you can then restore the OS. Do you're have it? Recovery options that Microsoft offers are often useless. They have hefty archive for recovery, hidden and reserved on your drive - but this is just bunch of garbage occupying space of your drive. Because it's an incremental archive. All errors are safely entryed in it, which, when restoring system, will fall into place and the user will cry again.. Well then put it all over again and enjoy game. Simple disk formatting doesn't solve problem (because entryes containing errors are copied to new installation from hidden but not erased archive of previous installation). Only low-level formatting helps for sure. I never had problem with this game but I always played through Wine (from Linux). And I didn't need to do any manipulations with dx. And in general, nothing had to be done - I just played all time. Because Wine doesn't pile up bunch of all this incomprehensible code that stuffed your computers like feather pillows and because of errors in it, cause problems with this game. So I confirm that DBG is doing its work properly. And all problems with launching game were always on side of user, in any case, while I was playing this game. If they accepted that this or that error was on their side, it was only because so for that customers wishes are satisfied. This business is built so that companies agree that they are to blame. Windows is problem. Because it's different for each of its users. Everyone has different registry. He is at all different sizes and with different entryes. People don't want Linux while it's simpler, more stable and safer to use. After some simple training to be able to use it of course. On other hand, this forum offers many practical solutions to solve problems, including launching game. Particularly relevant is cleaning all sorts of caches there, including new loading of thrown out potentially bad parts of game client. I just can’t calmly read all this as people are tormented by something that doesn't exist..
You absolutely MUST have DirectX 9.0c, specifically. Even if you have newer versions of DirectX. You can drop it in the EQ2 install folder if you want, and it will coexist peacefully with other DX versions. The direct Microsoft download page for DX9.0c is at https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/confirmation.aspx?id=34429 If you have Win10,you will probably need to use http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=8109 instead.
Well, there seems to be progress of a sort! With DX9 copied into the EQ2 directory, I can now choose a character from the login screen. It went through the epilepsy warning and progressed to "Creating zone" with the little trotting raptor in the bottom right. Then I get: EverQuest II has detected an unrecoverable fatal error and must shutdown. <verify> G:\live\eq2\game\Client|srs\GameScene.cpp (5619): Failed to create zone. Suggestion: Please do a full scan from the patcher. 00e4c572 00f184c5 Will now do a Validate and see what happens. Thanks again for all your help.
Hokay, you are in streaming mode if the dancing dinosaur is present. From Launchpad, click the advanced Tools button (crossed hammer and wrench icon). That's where you find the option to validate files. I also recommend that you switch to direct download, because if you don't have a huge T1 coming in, constantly streaming is s-l-o-o-o-w.
Ha, I will get a T1 after I win Powerball. But where do I switch to direct download? Do you mean full download? Thanks
Yes, the full download. That puts the resources local and reduced loading times. I also am waiting for that Powerball win!
Sheesh. I am back to not downloading anything and getting the socket error. About ready to give up- might need to wait for Pantheon
