Problems with Windows XP?

[Zwack]

I play on Window's XP, after about 1 - 2 hrs. of play time the horizons.exe starts thrashing my harddrive. I then begin to experience lag in the game and even the sound starts getting choppy. Anyone else experience this and if so any suggestions on how to fix it. Right now I logoff and wait for the horizons.exe to stop execution (which has taken up to 10 minutes before) and log in again.

[Torquil]

Horizons is known to be very memory consuming. Also, when playing, the horizons.exe file will start to consume more and more memory (due to texture loading, memory leaks (not relative actually)). This means the longer you have an active session, the more you'll start noticing several problems popping up.

The only solution to this is upgrading your amount of memory. When you have done this, don't forget to adjust your virtual memory settings in WinXP.

[HratLi]

Exactly what the other person said. What you are describing is probably the memory swapping to disk. I know that if you have less than 512MB memory it will happen regularly. My wife and I are running 1gb of ram and havn't had this problem since we upgraded.

As for the stopping of the execution, you can look around in task manager and endtask the horizons.exe and then wait about 10 seconds, then start again.

-HratLi

[Dobro]

I am upgrading my memory, in hopes I will be able to overcome some of that problem. There is a huge memory leak, when you go from land block to land block.

I notice it worst, when I am crafting, and going from collecting, to crafting, and then to selling, or delivering.

BTW, Zwack, Is that a Cervil you are using as your avatar?

[Zwack]

BTW, Zwack, Is that a Cervil you are using as your avatar?

lol, Yeah that is a pic of one of my boys.

[Lady Peaches]

Windows XP rules.

Therefore, thread locked as it is false and misleading.

[Torquil]

Come again ?

[Gilresk]

Yeah, thrashing harddrive is almost certainly the result of not enough memory. 1 Gig is really the minimum for good performance if you intend on playing for any extended periods of time. I'm currently running Windows XP on both of my PCs, one with 1.5 Gigs of memory, the other with a sad 256 Mb (It used to have Windows 98, so it didn't matter). I've never had trouble with disk thrashing on the 1.5 Gig machine, except sometimes a bit when taking screenshots (oops, when you have 2 Gigs of screenshots it's probably a good sign to reorganize that directory's contents elsewhere). On the machien with 256 Mb I get pretty poor performance if I portal more than once, so I avoid that. It's for my alt anyways so it's not a big deal.

[Imayo]

I had a similar problem until I set the system cache to a fixed size and moved it to a different hard drive than Windows or Horizons runs from.

[Goriax]

I would think that would improve how fast it swaps pages in and out so the thrashing would be less destructive. If you've got to thrash, do it quickly. If you're stuck with a memory hog and can't increase RAM (no matter what the program) that's probably not a bad thing to do.

I have a gig of memory and I still get to a thrashing situation after half a dozen ports (i.e., my allocated memory passes a gig). As far as I'm concerned it's the technical glitch they most need to fix.

Some people reported (in the Tazoon technical forums thus they're unavailable now) greatly reducing the memory leak by using different video drivers. So it may be the interaction between HZ and the video driver is causing some of the memory leak.

I realy wish they'd fix it.

[Sunuke]

1Gb is definatly the minimum memory need and not to forget a 2Gb swap file.

I have had my swap file on 1gb-2gb but then it seems that the system is more busy adjusting the swap file so now i have set it on a 2Gb permanent

I have ran Hz with 512Mb dual channel and even then it's lag everywhere

[MissAna]

Torquil,

when u say to adjust the virual memory settings in WinXP can you tell me what you would put that at for a system with 1gig memory? on one of my machines(the one that is played on most) every time i recall or portal i get bumped to desktop or freeze the computer up so bad that i have to restart the computer. This happens between 10 min repeatedly to every hour or so before i uninstalled Horizons and now its is bumping me when i portal or recall. Hope someone can help.

MissAna

[Sunuke]

I have noticed that my system runs more stable when i use a fixed virtual memory instead of 1Gb-2Gb

I have ordered a WD Raptor which has a seek time of aprox 4.5 and 10k rpm so i hope this will solve alot of problems too.

[gopher65]

hmmm. I'll have to try fixing my virtual memory. I only have 512 megs of DDR in dual channel :(.

[Bori Grimbattle]

I recently went from 512 to 1 gig myself and the amount of hard drive swap has dropped dramatically. What is interesting to note when you log out of the game, bring up task manager as soon as you are at the login screen. (cntrl-alt-del). Take a look at the memory Horizons is using. I have done this and watched the memory useage actually go up after I have logged out on certain occasions. Strange.....