login then crash

[maibs]

having a wierd problem.
I log in
select my character
the location loads
the terrain displays
the screen flickers several times
the client crashes.

tried changing some video settings, no good.
tried reconfiguring my x-server settings, no good.

tried to play the offline game (using the cep open day mod)
no problem, display works fine.

only log I've noticed so far is an error regarding NVRM.

wierd that it doesn't crash the offline game though.

got me stumped anyway.

*edit*
okay it's running properly again.
I changed nothing between the game crashing everytime I logged in and the game working properly though ?
what I did do:
tried the HoTU offline module instead of the CEP open day (NS4 doesn't use CEP right ?) it loaded up and played fine.
logged in with an alternate character to the one that was crashing, had no problem.
logged in with the character that was crashing, had no problem.

wierd yes ?
perhaps some cached data that was refreshed when I logged in a different toon ?

I dunno for sure.

[Apokriphos]

Have you tried more then one character?

It could be one of several issues, ranging from:

Dual core processor problems
Vista problems
Non-current gfx card problems
Your character is logged in an area that has a tile that you can't translate (i.e. its poking out in the z axis and your gfx doesn't like)

If your Non Volatile RAM Memory is getting hosed, take a look at this link: http://www.nvnews.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=106851

[Amoenotep]

shiny water

[Korr]

I used to have a similar problem on servers that used hak paks (though I know NS4 doesnt). If I logged in with a character, then relogged another it would crash when I entered the game. I would have to close NWN and reload to be sure there wouldnt be a crash when entering with a new toon, and if I forgot and it did crash I would have to load a different toon than the one I wanted. Which of course required me to reload NWN again to play the one I wanted to play. I forget what had caused all this but that might help in future references.

[maibs]

NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 13, 0003 00000000 00008297 000009c4 ffffffff 0000000c
NVRM: Xid (0001:00): 13, 0003 00000000 00008297 000009c4 ffffffff 0000000c

yeah I get errors like this on the dmesg screen when it happens

guess the videocard isn't handling something properly intermittently
not a dual core cpu so no issue there, not even HT actually
not using vista (linux ftw)
so that pretty much just leaves the video system itself, could be driver related I guess, could also be operating system related, linux has been having some strange gtk+ errors lately

the character was in frozen reach in front of the ice giants cave at the time, oddly enough the terrain would appear without the UI or sprites for the character, the screen would flicker as though it was dumping frames or displaying corrupt frames ?

anyway, seems to have stopped now

probably one for the linux nwn forums I guess

[VagaStorm]

Fisrst have a look at shiny whater. Do you use the sdl that came with nwn or did you install one yourself? I would start by reinstaling sdl, then do video drivers. ATI or Nvidia?

What distro do you use?

Edit: Forgot to ask, do you use beryl or compiz? That has caused problems for me in the past. Best to deactivate b4 starting nwn.

[maibs]

I use suse 10.3
nvidia graphics card
256mb pcie
I dont use the sdl that came with NWN (it doesn't want to work, some kind of conflict) I use the one that comes with suse 10.3 wich is kept up to date (stable release versions)

no compiz or beryl (although I did tinker with it once, was fun for a while, then just got boring and was added bloat)

I'll try reinstalling sdl and nvidia drivers.

[Bargeld]

I am currently having this problem as well. From my research and experience, it is definately a video crash. Correct me if I am wrong, but NWN stores a number of recent 'areas' in cache to help speed loading when going back and forth between a few areas. This cache of areas is global to all of NWN regardless of toon/server/game/etc. As you play other toons, it removes the older cached areas to make room for the more recent areas that are being loaded. Over time, the corrupted area that is causing the crash will get removed and the area will be forced to be reloaded from scratch again, and put back into the temp cache.

I will play more in the morning with other toons to confirm that this has fixed my problem, otherwise I will be back asking for DM assistance

Also wanted to add that I have searched my PC and the internet for any reference as to where these cache files are stored, but was unable to find their location.