Windows 10 NWN issues

[badjabadjabadja]

Summary: My netbook used to play NWN (slowly, but enough to log in and chat on lowest settings) but since Windows 10 did the big update several months ago, it no longer runs online NWN in a playable fashion

Netbook Asus X205TA - 2GB RAM, approx 3GB free of 28GB on the eMMC..quad-core 1.33GHz Atom Intel HD Graphics (yes it's low spec but I only use it when away from home). Original OS win 8.1 which terminated in favour of Win10 home.

It runs NWN still.. and i can move around in the OC as well as can be expected, but when I log into any live server it is like it locks up. It reports 50+ FPS, but every action takes like 10 seconds (open inventory..... select item... equip item.. type message.. move from A to B = a minute?)

While I would not try any dangerous combat before, it was fine to craft or RP. I am considering the following:
# roll back all updates (if this is even possible)
# roll back to win 8.1 (I hate 8.1 almost as much as win 10, plus I deleted the recovery partition as it took too much room)
# wipe the lot & install win 7
# ditto, install linux (may be driver problems, & my linux experience is limited)

Any advice, suggestions, or rants about win 10 update welcome!

[slow feet]

So it works ok in single player mode?

Have you tried "right clicking" on the NWN icon and clicking on "troubleshot compatibility"?

I know there is an issue between NWN & Outlook 2013. One or the other may crash when you start up NWN or take it out of "full screen mode".

OGM...

[Gorgon]

Re: Windows 10 update WTF?: Some of my experiences and workarounds with Windows 10. Some are the reverse of what others say, like never run as Admin (but make sure you own the files), and less compatibility mode is better than more, but your mileage may vary.

Another older one, (quoting my own post from my sig, but it makes it easier to find in the tips and tricks topic): Re: NWN running sloooooooooooooooooooooow. That whole topic has various ideas to try, as well as the first, so I'll not start a 3rd with more suggestions here.

*edits* Ok, I lied. One thing I will add, that I think I forgot in them, is to install NWN somewhere else besides the default "Program Files(x86)" folder (or "Program Files", which is normally for 64 bit apps). The extra Windows security/protection on those folders can prevent the game from updating its own config files (it's a bloody old game), and you'll need to deal with UAC and admin permissions to tweak any of them. Use any other folder, like "Games" or just "Programs". I use that last one as a carry-over from the days of 8 characters making life easier, but it still does the job.

[Levis Pie]

# wipe the lot & install win 7

my results when doing this are crashes about every 1-5 minutes. usually 2-3 min range. but it's still playable.

[ArtOfLight]

If the game runs fine in single-player mode but not in multiplayer mode then it is likely not the game nor the operating system that are the primary culprit but rather how the game is interacting with the network/online play.

I would manually add the game to your Windows 10 Firewall (if you need instructions on how to do that, let me know). I would also make sure that you are running the game in administration mode but NOT in compatibility mode. You may also want to update the drivers for your network controller since this apparently started after a Windows update. (For instructions on how to do this in Windows 10, let me know).

[badjabadjabadja]

thanks for the replies - defo something I want to try to get sorted out before my next away-from-home trip.

Settings: admin privileges yes, also compat mode for XP

I tested in single player mode again, and it reports 30-50 FPS so I agree, it's not primarily the OS or game settings that are a problem.
I spoke to my brother as he has an identical netbook, and he also had problems with win 10 flailing about like an out of water fishy when trying to do anything involving net connectivity - he tried using the Google DNS settings (8.8.8.8 / 8.8.4.4) but ultimately he applied the Linux patch (wipe: install linux )

I have changed the DNS - unfortunately I'm in a crowded bar so the wifi is being hammered and all servers time out on connect. May test that again tomorrow somewhere quieter. Game is already on allowed list for all connection types in Win firewall.

As for win7, my main system runs Win7 64 ultimate and the game crashes maybe 3-4 times a year, although it does often crash in the initial start up once (ie in first 10 secs). I have machines running 8.1 as well as 10, and I much prefer 7 for general stability, ease of use, and not goddamn updating/restarting/whining at inconvenient times!

There is another flavour of Win10 I am willing to try - that's LTSB. https://www.howtogeek.com/273824/window ... explained/ Windows without all the cruft? Sounds perfect to me (I have already disabled all the 'fancy' cruft like Cortana, Edge, Tiles, gone back to classic shell start menu, but Win10 still irritates me immensely!)

Back to civilisation next week

[badjabadjabadja]

Well, I tried most of the various fixes today (changed DNS settings, run as admin, compat mode, CPU affinity) all seem to make no difference: it lets me log in, it reports 30FPS, but its more like 30 secs per frame/action

I think when I get back to civilisation my plan will be evaluation copy of Win10 LTSB as my brother's already successfully done so on the same hardware. The only downside seems to be losing the ability to customise the desktop when the evaluation runs out... shame

[Gorgon]

Summary: quad-core 1.33GHz Atom Intel HD Graphics

The Intel HD graphics used there is the same generation I tried when first moving up to a Win 10 NWN game system, and I had the same issues the second I got passed the log in screen (less than 1fps, and many textures totally messed up on top of that). The Win 10 drivers lack much of the OpenGL support needed to play the game, even though it should do OpenGL® 4.0 (depending on the processor version). I tossed in an old GeForce GTX 260, and it jumped up well past the 200fps that I cap the game at now.

Not really an option with a netbook, but I'd say that is the problem. You might find a driver update (or regression) that would help with your specific hardware, but I didn't have much luck (good luck getting Intel to update the old model drivers ). A CPU upgrade might get you to the HD 4000 version, which I've read will support NWN in Win 10 (your mileage may vary there), but if you are looking at that, a newer replacement second hand netbook might cost the same.

[Nighthawk4]

Just got a new laptop with Windows10. It might need to go back as it is very slow and doesn't run anything I try

I tried SW:TOR - took all evening to download the minimum required to run - then just freezes when I try to run it with the game scrunched into about a quarter of the screen

Then I tried NWN and Norton Security quarantined Nwnmain.exe. I got it back and then deleted the 30 day trial of Norton

Then I tried again and eventually got into the game. However, my character is a faint ghost and not properly visible. I tried a couple of characters with the same result. Oddly enough, when polymorphed she is visible, but not when going back to her normal form. Useful for an SD I suppose

I also had some errors where the game crashed whilst loading - the event log said a problem with nwdll.dll. This might have been due to running the altered version of nwmain.exe instead of the original.

Any ideas please? Is the laptop a pile of crap that needs to go back? It is an Acer Aspire 3 A315-21-9188, with AMD Radeon R5 graphics, AMD A9-9420 processor, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, so I would have thought it would be OK. Is there something idiotic I am doing wrong?

I will need to go back to my old laptop for tomorrow's DM Event unless I can sort this out in time

[Nighthawk4]

Turned off Environmental Mapping on Creatures and now I see my character. In fact I couldn't see any characters except a Fey before. Now I can see NPCs and my PC.

It's a start perhaps, but still not what I was hoping for my new laptop. £400 down the drain. Luckily they said I can take it back within 30 days for a refund - no questions asked. I might end up doing that

[slow feet]

Just got a new laptop with Windows10. It might need to go back as it is very slow and doesn't run anything I try

I tried SW:TOR - took all evening to download the minimum required to run - then just freezes when I try to run it with the game scrunched into about a quarter of the screen

Then I tried NWN and Norton Security quarantined Nwnmain.exe. I got it back and then deleted the 30 day trial of Norton

Then I tried again and eventually got into the game. However, my character is a faint ghost and not properly visible. I tried a couple of characters with the same result. Oddly enough, when polymorphed she is visible, but not when going back to her normal form. Useful for an SD I suppose

I also had some errors where the game crashed whilst loading - the event log said a problem with nwdll.dll. This might have been due to running the altered version of nwmain.exe instead of the original.

Any ideas please? Is the laptop a pile of crap that needs to go back? It is an Acer Aspire 3 A315-21-9188, with AMD Radeon R5 graphics, AMD A9-9420 processor, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, so I would have thought it would be OK. Is there something idiotic I am doing wrong?

I will need to go back to my old laptop for tomorrow's DM Event unless I can sort this out in time

For the Norton NWN quarantine, go into Norton, find where it did the quarantine and tell it to "undo". It will work after that. Norton has had that "feature" for years and years.

I've also found with Win10 it helps to do a "quick" virus scan after you do an update. The virus checkers are paranoid (go figure )

OGM....

OGM...

[tizmo]

Just got a new laptop with Windows10. It might need to go back as it is very slow and doesn't run anything I try

I tried SW:TOR - took all evening to download the minimum required to run - then just freezes when I try to run it with the game scrunched into about a quarter of the screen

Then I tried NWN and Norton Security quarantined Nwnmain.exe. I got it back and then deleted the 30 day trial of Norton

Then I tried again and eventually got into the game. However, my character is a faint ghost and not properly visible. I tried a couple of characters with the same result. Oddly enough, when polymorphed she is visible, but not when going back to her normal form. Useful for an SD I suppose

I also had some errors where the game crashed whilst loading - the event log said a problem with nwdll.dll. This might have been due to running the altered version of nwmain.exe instead of the original.

Any ideas please? Is the laptop a pile of crap that needs to go back? It is an Acer Aspire 3 A315-21-9188, with AMD Radeon R5 graphics, AMD A9-9420 processor, 8GB of DDR4 RAM, so I would have thought it would be OK. Is there something idiotic I am doing wrong?

I will need to go back to my old laptop for tomorrow's DM Event unless I can sort this out in time

Gorgon has many comments about how to tweak settings, but a few that I've found useful for my MS Surface (similar specs) are:
1. Run everything as a normal user (not administrator)
2. Don't use compatibility modes (that uses emulation which uses more processor/memory and slows it down)
3. Don't install into Program Files, instead install into C:/NeverwinterNights or something.
4. Right-click on your NWN directory and turn off Indexing, Searching, Virus scanning, everything that wants to repeatedly scan it.
5. Run the game with medium level or lower graphics settings.

[Nighthawk4]

It seems the laptop I bought has a dreadful Graphics chip

However, I can supposedly take it back to Tesco for a full refund within 30 days - no questions asked - which is nice

I have been looking at ASUS ROG Strix ZX553VD-DM640T from Amazon. This is twice the price but looks a much more suitable piece of kit. The only problem is the images on the Amazon.co.uk website show it with a US keyboard. I asked on the website but nobody seems able to tell me if the UK site provides a UK keyboard version. Is there any chance they simply used the same images on both websites? Surely they wouldn't sell a US keyboard version in the UK, would they?

So tempted .......

[Nighthawk4]

Update:

Crappy laptop going back to Tesco once I have wiped it

Better laptop ordered - hope it has a UK keyboard

New laptop arrives Friday - I am in work most of the day on Sunday - how is that for timing?

[tizmo]

Do it!

[Nighthawk4]

New laptop arrived and crappy one returned. All seems reasonably well so far

Most of my games seem to be working, including Avlis and the DMOM thingy

However, I now have prompts to install the Creators Update and I also have some newer nVidia drivers downloaded

Is it safe to install those?



Incidentally, the new laptop does have a UK keyboard