Wednesday, December 7, 2011

The perils of patching

I'm not sure (and too lazy to go look) if I have ever posted about the numerous patching problems I have with Eve on a consistant basis, and I know that looking at the tech issues forum that I am not nearly the only person, I just seem to be the only one with problems with nearly every patch.

Patching, meant to be done with Lego's right?

First I have to say, thank CCP for the repair tool, I used to have to download the full installer after nearly every patch to get back online. It's not like I am using an unusual computer setup either, Intel processor, Windows Vista ultimate x64 (yes yes I know I know, I haven't had the money to buy windows 7 ultimate though), 8gb Ram (recent addition, up from 4), GTX 460 video card. So not exactly "exotic."

In any case I have seen all kinds of errors. I always get the "corrupted install, patch failed" message with almost every patch, leading me to come up with a huge list of things to try to get Eve to work again. Sometimes it's pretty simple, just let the repair tool run and it will fix everything (given the time it takes to do so, roughly 10-20 minutes each time, or clearing the cache if you can get back into the game but are still having other issues, but almost every time the repair tools detect missing bits in my files.

So with all this in mind I get home from work yesterday, looking for a little quality Eve-time. With the server having already crashed after the morning patch, I was expecting the worst. I had already had good luck with the Crucible patch as it only required the repair tool to run before it worked, so I knew the odds were stacked against me.

Well those are the odds I suppose, the patch failed and I had to run through the repair tool, but once that was complete I was "ready." Only not really, I opened eve and the login screen had no cool Crucible splash, just a black background with the usual login prompt. I prayed it was a small bug and logged in anyway. Only to find my hangar blacked out as well, and on top of that in space I could see all the brackets, but no nice new nebulae, nor any other damn thing, just all blackness. (Did CCP forget to turn on the lights?)

Enter the usual-post patching troubleshooting.

1. Save out my overview settings, fits, and cache files. (after you export them from eve they are located in documents\eve\)
From  Anxiir - "exported overview and exported fittings yes. actual overview and cache/settings, no.

It is located in appdata/ccp/-location of eve install-

you can get there easily by typing %appdata% in the start menu search box and pressing enter - then go up a level."

or just %appdata%\ccp\

so %appdata%\ccp\eve\ holds all the actual program files.

2. switch between the "two" cards listed in the graphics menu, I usally operate on #2 (though I only have one card I think it detects the dual core GPU as two cards.) This didn't fix anything other than moved my window 2" to the right. Changed that back, resized the window, docked and undocked again. No change.

3. Close and restart Eve, Login screen was still black, logged in anyways, and no dice.

4. rebooted my computer \o/    .... .... ..... No change

5. Updated my graphics driver, I was one whole rev behind, maybe that'd fix it, or at least get me ready to play BF3 (as advertised). No change.

5.a. Swear at my computer (DIRTY WHORE!)

b. Pet my dogs when they come to figure out why I am so angry.
Why you make me get out of bed for this?
6. Sigh deeply and investigate the forums for people with similar issues, using the search function to see if there is a thread on this with (hopefully) a fix. There wasn't, though there were people with a whole host of other problems and a GM suggesting that people re-install directX from a folder in the eve game directory, so I gave that a shot (nada).

7. Finally drop a petition to see how fast I can get attention. Attach screenshots of black screens to prove I actually have a problem.
Word.
8. Wait for a response.... for 15 minutes. Run out of patience....

9. Uninstall Eve! (DAMN GAME, DIDN'T WANT YOU ANYWAYS!)

10. Re-install Eve. (I <3 You, don't leave me!)

11. Wait 1+ hour for it to download and finish installing.
12. Log in to find it's working! Look at the clock and realize... I don't have time to play!

13. Copy over all my settings, verify it is still working, reset my overview, windows, chat channels... log off.

Now had #12 not fixed it, I would have waited for a response from CCP, who usually ask for the following (so attach them right off the bat through the web petition interface and not the Eve In-game petition interface) Run dxdiag.exe and save then upload the results. As well as run eve with the Log server enabled to do this (the log server part)


Using the logserver
(to minimize problems with this, its recommended that you either restart your computer or check Task managers process list for unresponsive instances of Eve.exe)

1. Find your Eve folder in Windows Explorer
2. When you have the Eve folder open, find "logserver.exe" and launch it (Do NOT have EVE running)
3. Select "File" -> "New Workspace"
4. Start Eve like you would normally do
5. When you have reproduced the bug, Eve crashes or when you kill the process if it hangs, select "File" -> "Save workspace as..." and save the workspace in a place you'll find it again.

Then upload the resulting file to your petition. From there you just have to let CCP take over. Fortunately I usually only get to re-install to fix things! Thanks to CCP Xamother for the quick response, (responded inside of 45 minutes from my last update, a good turnaround) but by then I had already logged off and went to bed.
Work you sonofabitch!

7 comments:

  1. thats weird you would have issues. generally its a problem with antivirus.

    I use Vista x64 and never had any issues with patches.

    BTW this statement: "1. Save out my overview settings, fits, and cache files. (after you export them from eve they are located in documents\eve\)" is partially incorrect. exported overview and exported fittings yes. actual overview and cache/settings, no.

    It is located in appdata/ccp/-location of eve install-

    you can get there easily buy typing %appdata% in the start menu search box and pressing enter - then go up a level.

    the dropdown menu to select your card is for what monitor you want to display the client on. Such as sometimes i need both up at the same time, i put my alt's on card 2, and it displays on the second monitor.

    A trick I found is to simply go into the appdata folder and delete all the settings and cache before a major patch. And disable the anitvirus. or is it possible you are using an account without admin privileges?

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  2. About your correction you are right, but I did say "After exporting them" the are usually located where you mentioned but I didn't want to copy out those settings because there was a chance settings stored there that can't be exported were causing the issue. So I did the export what I could and import them later method, more of a pain in the ass but also gives you a better chance to fix the problem if you must resort to re-install. There is a cache folder in there as well, but mostly caches gamelogs/chatlogs that kind of stuff that not everyone saves.

    I'm going to amend the post with the location of the files pre-export, so thanks for the path to them!

    I too disable my anti-virus when installing programs, though by now I have it configured to the point where it would not bother me about updating eve, it's an old habit from working in IT for years.

    From my IT comment you can probably gather that I am a admin on my computer, but even with pre-delete I have had problems with the patch. Seems like it doesn't affect EVERYONE but it certainly tags me all the time hahaha

    You are incorrect about the "dropdown selects what monitor you wish to display the client on." Both "1" and "2" can display on the same monitor, the two settings save window location independently and are not restricted (on my computer) to a single monitor each.

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  3. Thats unfortunate that you have issues with it though. I'm pretty sure im the only one in the world that doesn't have any major issues with Vista.

    EFT however is busted for me. the new version just doesn't work. keep getting an error when trying to import my toons. Pyfa is a horrible little program. Its just so slow =/, but it does work lol.

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  4. I will never understand why people pay for an operating system that doesn't even work properly and on top has a lot of security issues.
    Using Linux I could not be happier. No problems with Eve or anything else at all.
    And it is free...

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  5. GL with your games Norbert... oh wait...

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  6. Thank you. No luck needed, that's my point.
    My wife has the same rig, but with Win7. Same game, same internet line:
    1/4 of the network latency and 20% more FPS on the Linux machine...

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  7. Okay let's finish up with the my linux is > your windows type arguments here. Or the opposite. Thanks.

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