Freeze/Lockup When Loading Levels

[TheMC]

Hey Guys,

 

Big fan of TDM, been playing it for a while off and on over the last several years. Never had a technical issue I couldn't overcome until now. I recently rebuilt my rig, re-installed TDM, updated to 2.03, and now I can't load levels.

 

I get through mission briefing/equipment purchase just fine, but as soon as I hit an actual load screen, the game locks up after loading about 1/5 of the bar (see attached images). This happens on every mission I've tried (including the included training mission). There's no error popup, and it doesn't crash, it just hangs forever.

 

I've tried adjusting settings in the game itself (video quality, resolution, vsync, etc) to no avail. I'm stumped. Here's my system specs:

 

- Windows 7 (64 bit)

- Intel Core i7, 4.0GHz

- 32 GB RAM

- NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 (updated to latest drivers)

 

Any ideas or assistance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance guys!

 

[Bikerdude]

Evening

 

Delete your darkmod.config file (from the root of the darkmod folder) and then restart the game (it will then recreate the file from scratch etc. As a result of deleting said file you will then need to redo all your settings etc.

 

b.

[TheMC]

Thank you very much for the quick response. I deleted the file and relaunched - tried playing the Training Mission and the same thing happened. It hangs and never progresses... :-(

[TheMC]

I've also tried completely uninstalling and re-downloading TDM - same results. I'm open to any theories/suggestions...

[Bikerdude]

Can you copy & paste a copy oif the CTD error window that pops up, might give a hint as to what caused the crash.

[stumpy]

do you have any pagefile or have you like lots of people seem to do when they've got loads of memory, disabled the pagefile system.

[TheMC]

Can you copy & paste a copy oif the CTD error window that pops up, might give a hint as to what caused the crash.

 

That's the thing - there is no CTD. It just hangs on the mission load window forever. I have to forcibly exit the game with the Task Manager.

 

do you have any pagefile or have you like lots of people seem to do when they've got loads of memory, disabled the pagefile system.

 

I have not disabled the pagefile system, no...

[Springheel]

Two shots in the dark...make sure your fm folder is not set to read only, and make sure you don't have eax on in the sound menu. Both have caused weird issues for some folks in the past.

[TheMC]

UPDATE: My fm folder was set to Read-Only, so I unflagged that and tried the Training Mission again. Unfortunately, it hung at the same 1/5 loading bar.

 

In my frustration, I got up and walked away to have breakfast. But when I came back afterwards, the mission was loaded! I was shocked, so this time I decided I would time the process - I sat down and watched it, and my loading bar hung on that same spot for 22 minutes before progressing.

 

So, long story short, I'm not locking up as I previously thought, I'm just suffering from what I imagine are abnormally long load times. Does anyone have any ideas or tips to reduce this?

 

Thanks for all the continued support/responses guys, I really appreciate it!

 

 

EDIT: I've already tried disabling compression per this wiki's advice, but it unfortunately hasn't seemed to make a difference.

Edited October 25, 2015 by TheMC

[Bikerdude]

Go download and install Teamviewer & Skype (will need an ID) and then Drop me a PM

[nbohr1more]

Try this:

 

1) Open TheDarkMod.exe as Administrator

2) Alt + Enter to leave fullscreen

3) CTRL+Shift+ESC to open Task Manager

4) Go to the Processes tab and right click TheDarkMod.exe then set Priority to "High"

5) Right click on it again and set Affinity to one of the Cores other than 0 that you know is a real Core (2, 4, etc) and does not

have any load on it).

6) Alt+Enter to return to fullscreen

7) Install your mission and start it

 

Beyond the above, unless you have an SSD disk fragmentation will affect loading so defrag is applicable.

 

Also, post your Darkmod.cfg file (copy it to your desktop and rename it darkmod.cfg.txt ).

[Bikerdude]

• Try this:

Beyond the above, unless you have an SSD disk fragmentation will affect loading so defrag is applicable.

• If that fixes it for him/her how will it help moving forward..?

SSD dont get fragmented in the traditional sense, I think your confusing disfragmentation on normal mechanical HDD's. And on the subject @TheMC whats the make/model of the hard drive you have.?

[nbohr1more]

Right, if he has a mechanical HDD then defrag.

If SSD then do not defrag (it's an irrelevant concern, etc) though SSD firmware and drivers should obviously be evaluated.

 

As for the steps I outlined, they are there to ensure that he isn't affected by 3rd party software running in the background sapping

performance. If there's no difference in performance then that (mostly) proves that 3rd party software is not at fault. Otherwise,

look into disabling or uninstalling software that is causing the problem (or cleaning out malware, etc).

[TheMC]

 

• If that fixes it for him/her how will it help moving forward..?
• SSD dont get fragmented in the traditional sense, I think your confusing disfragmentation on normal mechanical HDD's. And on the subject @TheMC whats the make/model of the hard drive you have.?

 

 

The drive I have TDM on is an SSD: Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250GB

 

As for "third party software" running in the background eating up my CPU, I'm positive that's not the case here - this is very close to a fresh rig....

[Bikerdude]

@TheMC, the reason i asked to TV onto your PC is to see if I can see anything tat you mgiht have missed...

[TheMC]

@TheMC, the reason i asked to TV onto your PC is to see if I can see anything tat you mgiht have missed...

 

PM sent. Thank you sir.

[Bikerdude]

Tmc, fixed the issue himself. He is using KIS which is nown for being bloaty and combersome. So I suggested the following -

1. Add thedarkmod.exe (and darkradiant.exe if you use it) to the list of trusted application.
2. Doing so online research on how to turn down the settings to improve system perf, KIS is like using a sledgehammer, when all one needed was a hammer. The firewall is KIS is to far, far too complicated, when all you need is a 3rd party front end for the windows firewall.
3. KIS I beleive has a function where it will block executables from starting, its not like the useaul AV protection bu more of a it want so tmonitor and controll everying - dial this back or turn it off.
4. Upgrade to KIS 2016.
5. When your Current KIS lic. runs out, buy a KAV licence and just get a 3rd party front end for the Windows f/w.

[TheMC]

Hah, was just about to post here, but I see Bikerdude beat me to it. Basically, if I disable my AV just for the moment when I initially load the level, everything works fine. I can even save/reload once in the level with the AV running with no issues. So now I can finally pull off that heist I've been planning ;-P

 

Thank you all very much for all the support and assistance.

[Bikerdude]

Hah, was just about to post here, but I see Bikerdude beat me to it. Basically, if I disable my AV just for the moment when I initially load the level, everything works fine

No need to do that every time just read bullet point 1. in the post above.