Freeze on exit

[swirly]

Lately (since the patch I think) I've been running into the problem that my computer freezes completely when I try to exit WoW. It does this about half of the time and then has to be power cycled. I've tried just leaving it, hoping that it is just going slow, but I've walked away for hours and came back to find it still locked up. So does anyone have any idea what could be causing WoW to lock the computer up on exit?

While playing the game itself, everything is fine. I've tried logging out first and then exiting from the login screen, but it froze when I did that as well. I'm currently debating if I should alt-tab out and force the program to close instead of exitting cause at least then I won't have to do a hard power cycle. Its really bad for the comp either way though so I'm hoping somebody has a clue how to fix it. I've also tried deleting the WTF and WDB folders with no real luck.

[vor_lord]

Lately (since the patch I think) I've been running into the problem that my computer freezes completely when I try to exit WoW.  It does this about half of the time and then has to be power cycled.  I've tried just leaving it, hoping that it is just going slow, but I've walked away for hours and came back to find it still locked up.  So does anyone have any idea what could be causing WoW to lock the computer up on exit?

While playing the game itself, everything is fine.  I've tried logging out first and then exiting from the login screen, but it froze when I did that as well.  I'm currently debating if I should alt-tab out and force the program to close instead of exitting cause at least then I won't have to do a hard power cycle.  Its really bad for the comp either way though so I'm hoping somebody has a clue how to fix it.  I've also tried deleting the WTF and WDB folders with no real luck.
[right][snapback]72275[/snapback][/right]

The only "freeze on exit" problems I have ever heard of have been due to mods. In particular, Cosmos has exhibited this problem on and off (one of many reasons why I no longer use it).

I would suggest moving your Interface directory aside in addition to WTF and WDB and see if the problem continues to occur.

That is, of course, if you use any mods at all.

edit: Treesh below indicates that she has seen the problem and is mod-free. So nix this idea.

[Treesh]

Lately (since the patch I think) I've been running into the problem that my computer freezes completely when I try to exit WoW.  It does this about half of the time and then has to be power cycled.  I've tried just leaving it, hoping that it is just going slow, but I've walked away for hours and came back to find it still locked up.  So does anyone have any idea what could be causing WoW to lock the computer up on exit?

While playing the game itself, everything is fine.  I've tried logging out first and then exiting from the login screen, but it froze when I did that as well.  I'm currently debating if I should alt-tab out and force the program to close instead of exitting cause at least then I won't have to do a hard power cycle.  Its really bad for the comp either way though so I'm hoping somebody has a clue how to fix it.  I've also tried deleting the WTF and WDB folders with no real luck.
[right][snapback]72275[/snapback][/right]

I frequently have this issue as well, but it doesn't actually lock up the entire machine. It only refuses to release control of the main monitor so it seems like it's locked up, but it's not. Doing some neat little tricks, I can bring up the task manager on the second monitor and just force the game to give it up that way or if worse comes to worse, restart the machine. Another trick we've done in the past (when GG wasn't running a second monitor) was if GG's machine pulled that trick, I'd remote desktop in under his username and that'd fix it too. And yes, it really blows for those people who don't have these other options. My sympathies Swirly.

This latest patch has made it act like this more often than not although, I don't remember if it behaved well after I installed the latest nVidia drivers for my card. I only installed them last night or the night before (yes, they were put out on the 11th. I was a little behind.) and since there is maintenance this morning, I haven't been able to get a good sample size to tell if it really has improved or if I've just been lucky a couple more times. If you have an nVidia video card, you may want to install the new drivers and see if it helps.

Edit: Oh, and reading vor lord's post up there, I don't run any UI mods and it still did it to me frequently after the patch.

[mjdoom]

I have had the game completely lock up on me twice in the last few days when I have exited from the menu. Last night I logged out of my character and then exited the game that way and it didn't lock up. Both times it locked up I just did a Ctrl-Alt-Del and killed the process and that worked out, but it's still odd. I had never seen this prior to the patch.

As a note, I do not have Cosmos installed. Mods that I have include Gypsy, Flexbar, MiniGroup, Lootlink, CTRaidAssist (this is fairly new to me, maybe something there?), Quest History, Monkey Quest, Enchantrix, Auctioneer, and Gatherer. I think that's it :)

- mjdoom

[Alram]

I have had the same problem. Also I have discovered that if I use alt-tab, I cannot get back into the game; I get a black screen and finally have to ctrl-alt-delete. If I do not then reboot my computer, performance in WoW is choppy when I reopen it.
None of this occurred prior to the patch.

[swirly]

I frequently have this issue as well, but it doesn't actually lock up the entire machine.  It only refuses to release control of the main monitor so it seems like it's locked up, but it's not.  Doing some neat little tricks, I can bring up the task manager on the second monitor and just force the game to give it up that way or if worse comes to worse, restart the machine.  Another trick we've done in the past (when GG wasn't running a second monitor) was if GG's machine pulled that trick, I'd remote desktop in under his username and that'd fix it too.    And yes, it really blows for those people who don't have these other options.  My sympathies Swirly.
[right][snapback]72277[/snapback][/right]

This is actually really helpful. My video card is setup to send a clone of my computer to my tv as well so I can play movies and such from my computer to various tv's in the house. So next time it locks up I can try turning on my tv and see if the desktop shows there. If this works I should at least be able to restart or do something that is nicer than hitting the power. : )

[Kevin]

This is actually really helpful.  My video card is setup to send a clone of my computer to my tv as well so I can play movies and such from my computer to various tv's in the house.  So next time it locks up I can try turning on my tv and see if the desktop shows there.  If this works I should at least be able to restart or do something that is nicer than hitting the power. : )
[right][snapback]72288[/snapback][/right]

I'll let you know now that alt-space followed by the m key is your friend. alt-space is the default combo to bring up the window position menu, if you him m for move you can then use the arrow keys to slide windows around. This is what Treesh uses a lot. Since the Task Manage defaults to the primay display, which is locked with the last WoW image she needs to be able to move the task manager to the other monitor. That is where alt-space, m, arrow keys come in handy.

I've had to use it a lot when dealing with laptops and dual monitor set-up snafu's at work. :)


Oddly enough I didn't get my first lock-up of this nature until I removed Cosmos. :) I also have less problem with it than Treesh (despite very similar hardware) and I run quite a few interface mods and she has none. It did get significantly worse after the patch.

[Treesh]

I'll let you know now that alt-space followed by the m key is your friend.  alt-space is the default combo to bring up the window position menu, if you him m for move you can then use the arrow keys to slide windows around. 
[right][snapback]72295[/snapback][/right]

But if he's just cloning the image to the TV instead of using dualview, it won't work the same. The TV will probably just show the WoW screens instead of the desktop since it's cloned so trying to move things to the second "monitor" won't actually work.

[Kevin]

But if he's just cloning the image to the TV instead of using dualview, it won't work the same.  The TV will probably just show the WoW screens instead of the desktop since it's cloned so trying to move things to the second "monitor" won't actually work.
[right][snapback]72304[/snapback][/right]

Yes I know but I'm just giving him a heads up and explaining your cryptic "little tricks". :) I'd hate for him to have a partial desktop and then not be able to figure out how to get task manager visible if the situation permits. :)

A control-esc sequence (or windows key if you still have that enabled) can sometimes help to, it will sometimes paint the taskbar then and you can use that to kill WoW with right click and close or potentially right click and taskmanager and it will paint it but not always. Alt-F4 was of no help to me when I had the issue a few times and was trying things before doing a remote desktop connection from another box on the LAN.

[swirly]

But if he's just cloning the image to the TV instead of using dualview, it won't work the same.  The TV will probably just show the WoW screens instead of the desktop since it's cloned so trying to move things to the second "monitor" won't actually work.
[right][snapback]72304[/snapback][/right]

Cloning is weird sometimes in that there are some things it doesn't register. I do think that it will probably be as you say though and just have the same problem on the TV. Still, I can always change it to dual view and switch to clone on the occasions when I need it. At least then it will give me more options.

Slight side question, I wonder how much overhead having the card set for clone is when playing WoW. My whole sysem (including card) is sub-par. It barely meets the min specs for the game. So I wonder sometimes if turning off cloning would help the card out some while running the game. Don't know enough about vid cards to know how much extra work cloning is though.

edit: Slight side quest? Possibly too much WoW play here. Should be question. : )

[Treesh]

Slight side question, I wonder how much overhead having the card set for clone is when playing WoW.  My whole sysem (including card) is sub-par.  It barely meets the min specs for the game.  So I wonder sometimes if turning off cloning would help the card out some while running the game.  Don't know enough about vid cards to know how much extra work cloning is though.[right][snapback]72319[/snapback][/right]

I do actually notice a difference between performance if I disable the second monitor before playing. Or at least I did before I got the extra memory to bring me up to a gig. :) But I wasn't just cloning; I was dualviewing so there could be a difference between what I saw and what you might see performance-wise.

edit: Slight side quest?  Possibly too much WoW play here.  Should be question. : )
[right][snapback]72319[/snapback][/right]

Heh. That's ok Swirly. I had a dream the night before last where an old boss of mine (who I hated) kept sending me on quests to a field in front of the store. I was quite annoyed when I woke up. ;)

[Treesh]

Yes I know but I'm just giving him a heads up and explaining your cryptic "little tricks".  :)  I'd hate for him to have a partial desktop and then not be able to figure out how to get task manager visible if the situation permits.  :) 

[right][snapback]72309[/snapback][/right]

But, but, now I don't seem so mysterious and all-knowing!!!!! ;) :lol:

[swirly]

It only refuses to release control of the main monitor so it seems like it's locked up, but it's not.
[right][snapback]72277[/snapback][/right]

This brings up another thought as well. I could make a point of switching to windowed mode before exiting. That should force it to release control and then the exit should go without a problem. Thats the idea at least.

[LochnarITB]

Yes I know but I'm just giving him a heads up and explaining your cryptic "little tricks".  :)  I'd hate for him to have a partial desktop and then not be able to figure out how to get task manager visible if the situation permits.  :)
[right][snapback]72309[/snapback][/right]

This has nothing to do with the subject but I wanted to say it anyway. Reading this, and knowing what I think I know of your situation, I got a real giggle from it. I pictured the two of you sitting at machines in the same room typing away to reply across the internet rather than talking to each other. :lol: I envy the two of you sharing this interest. For so many people, the gaming interest is one sided and can really be a problem.

[mjdoom]

This has nothing to do with the subject but I wanted to say it anyway.  Reading this, and knowing what I think I know of your situation, I got a real giggle from it.  I pictured the two of you sitting at machines in the same room typing away to reply across the internet rather than talking to each other.  :lol: I envy the two of you sharing this interest.  For so many people, the gaming interest is one sided and can really be a problem.
[right][snapback]72334[/snapback][/right]

The evolution of this thread has also been an amusement to me. It's almost like we're hearing an open discussion between GG and Treesh as facilitated by the fact that GG is at work (I'm guessing) :)

- mjdoom

[Treesh]

This has nothing to do with the subject but I wanted to say it anyway.  Reading this, and knowing what I think I know of your situation, I got a real giggle from it.  I pictured the two of you sitting at machines in the same room typing away to reply across the internet rather than talking to each other.  :lol: I envy the two of you sharing this interest.  For so many people, the gaming interest is one sided and can really be a problem.
[right][snapback]72334[/snapback][/right]

*pssst* What you picture is true.

To an extent. ;) If there are other people involved in the conversation, we do tend to type most of what we say so we don't exclude other people from the conversation. Usually because we're just being silly and the more people laughing, the better. ;)

Of course, in this specific instance, he was at work and I was at home so we weren't actually in the same room this time. :D Now, while we're playing WoW, there's usually more being said than typed, especially When Things Go Wrong. Much easier to communicate when a big heal is coming his way or a heal is coming my way or there's a critter loose amongst the squishies or any of those other fun things. :)

And yes, we do realize just how lucky we are to have a gamer spouse. We try not to gloat about it too often. ;)

Edit: :blink: I must have taken longer to type this up than I thought. Flyn snuck a post in on me! :o

[Kevin]

The evolution of this thread has also been an amusement to me.  It's almost like we're hearing an open discussion between GG and Treesh as facilitated by the fact that GG is at work (I'm guessing) :)

- mjdoom
[right][snapback]72337[/snapback][/right]

Yar I'm at work. We do stuff like this in IRC channels at times too. We'll be having a discussion with other people in the channel then one of us will think of something that we need to tell the other and we will have this whole private conversation in public. Gnu and Tal have both been witnesses to this and gotten hearty chuckles out of it.

As Treesh already said we intentionally do some of this just for the humor value but there are times that at least I don't realize it. Thinking I'm in an ICQ window while I'm in an IRC window. :)

[Kevin]

I do actually notice a difference between performance if I disable the second monitor before playing.  Or at least I did before I got the extra memory to bring me up to a gig. :)  But I wasn't just cloning; I was dualviewing so there could be a difference between what I saw and what you might see performance-wise.
Heh.  That's ok Swirly.  I had a dream the night before last where an old boss of mine (who I hated) kept sending me on quests to a field in front of the store.  I was quite annoyed when I woke up. ;)
[right][snapback]72321[/snapback][/right]

More of my geek is rubbing off on poor Treesh. Performance is degraded by cloning and by spanning/dual vision. With cloning you aren't using extra memory put you are adding an additional instruction on your rendering pipe for the data split. If you have two seperate RAMDACs each processes the scene individually, if you only have one you increase instruction cycles as well. Mutli RAMDACs (which is the common way) still puts more commands to the memory controllers (though the controller should still only do one fetch) to get the scene.

Spanning and dual vision will have to hold the memory for the other image that it has to paint on the other monitor, this will very depending on the resolution and color depth (just over 3MB for 1024x768x32bit color and yeah it is just straight math just multiply the res by the color depth and divide by 8 to get bytes then divide by 1024 to get kilobytes and agian to get mega or giga or what have you). You then also have the RAMDACs using someone of you pipe to get the scene just like with cloning.

There is some other overhead involved with both of them as well. So disabling either will net you some potential video memory as well as free up some execution cycles and cut down on the bandwidth on the cards bus.

[Shriek]

I've got a few responses, so I'll just lump them together at the bottom here--

On-topic: I've gotten the hang-up on exit a couple of times too--both since the big patch. Once I could bring up task manager, once it wouldn't show. I use an antiquated ATi 7500.

Related, @ Alram: I've gotten this several times recently as well. I haven't, however, had it happen when tabbing out from the login or selection screens, just the game interface. It was an every-time thing for me, so I've stopped trying. :(

Off-topic @ GG: Wow. I've been supporting Windows for ten years and I've never seen that key combination (alt-space), and oh, how I've looked. Any idea when that showed up? I used to use "alt then left", but in some version or other that stopped working... Thanks!

[swirly]

Just to make the conversation more knowledgable, I'll give my machine specs. First let me say that while everything is horribly old and underpowered, there is no way I can upgrade. Currently I have to debate if I can afford to pay for another month of gaming. So if $15 is an amount up for debate, any upgrade is unlikely to happen. : )

I guess the easiest way is to link to the specs that the machine came with. So thats here: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/documen...ocname=bph06043

Some changes have been made over the years though.

1: RAM has been double to 256 total.
2: My dad paid $40 for a GeForce4 MX 440, because it was better than what I had, cheap, and has s-video out.
3: My monitor is now a A90f+ because the other one went out (still sitting dead on my floor heh)
4: It runs XP currently.
5: I use an optical mouse now. : )
6: One of my brother's external harddrives is attached for storage space.

So yeah, I generally consider myself lucky to be able to play the game. Since my system is so weak, turning off things like cloning might be a good idea. To get back to the original problem, its just annoying that I didn't have the problem with it locking up on exit till this patch. So far it seems like exiting while in windowed mode will keep it from happening. At least it didn't lock up the whole one time I did it, which proves nothing since it didn't do it every time before. : ) I'll try getting new video drivers, though I recently reinstalled so I may already have the newest ones.