Slow loadup, lost characters.

[Firedragon]

Hi, I have recently installed a GTX780 GPU and since then loadup times are very long, mainly "stalling" between 48 and 56%.
I uninstalled completely, reinstalled, entered my reference ID & key.
My old characters are no longer showing and loadup time is still very long.
Any ideas ?

[Vice]

Please follow the posting guideline of this section of the forum: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4651 Here is some generic information for the games in general:

- For loading issues at certain percentages: http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6595

- Most of the time, when you encounter loading problems, something else is running on your system that is interfering with the game being able to load the media it needs from disc into memory, usually caused by a security program of some kind. Either disc access is being blocked/hindered in some way, or memory, or both. So check your other running background programs and make sure any non-essential tasks are not running, any needed exceptions are applied for the game, and/or potential interfering programs are stopped.

It's possible that if such interference has been occurring, one or more of your profiles have been damaged/corrupted. You can check the save data folder for possible pilot*.* files that may still be there. The game accesses those in stages, so if one was damaged at some point, there may still be part of it left behind that you can send to me via e-mail for possible recovery. If the files aren't there, then they may have been removed due to some other reason (such as a hard drive reformat, deletion by an outside program, etc).

Long load times would likely relate to the same cause, some kind of interference that is hindering the read/write performance of your system's hard drive. So that's where I'd suggest focusing your search and troubleshooting.

[Rubber Chicken]

It doesn't hurt to copy your pilot profiles, map logs, flight logs, ship templates, and custom weapon templates (if you want to keep them) into a separate desktop folder when reinstalling. That way you can copy them to a separate drive, or simply copy and paste them back into the game folder when the install is complete.

I also keep a copy of mods I use in the folder, as well as the keymap, sticklist, stickt, and swcfg files. That way when I copy them back into a fresh install, I don't have to re-bind my keys / joystick settings and most of my options settings are preserved.

[Firedragon]

Game was loading fine with my GTX670 - only thing changed is the graphics card.
Unfortunately I did not think to save any profiles when I uninstalled/reinstalled.

Latest version of Evochron Mercenary
CPU = i7 2600
Windows 7 64bit home premium
16 meg ram
Nvidia GTX 780 with latest drivers

[Edited on 4-1-2014 by Firedragon]

[Vice]

You can uninstall/reinstall the game without losing your profiles. If those are gone, something else happened to physically delete them from your hard drive (you would either have to manually delete the save data folder yourself, an external program deletes it, or a reformat of the hard drive). First, find out what the save data folder contains, that will help inform you at what point you are at and what may have happened.

Another possibility is you may have used a savedir redirect that got removed somehow, so your save games are still somewhere on your hard drive, but now the game is looking in the default location rather than a custom one you may have specified earlier.

If you rule out external program factors as a cause for performance issues, you may be having some kind of device conflict or driver problem with your new video card. The install may not have been done properly and will just need to be corrected.

Also, to abide by the guidelines, always be sure to specify the 'game' when posting in this section of the forum. I know which game you are referring to, but others may not and it will help those running searches for the same issue.

[Firedragon]

"You can uninstall/reinstall the game without losing your profiles. If those are gone, something else happened to physically delete them from your hard drive (you would either have to manually delete the save data folder yourself, an external program deletes it, or a reformat of the hard drive). First, find out what the save data folder contains, that will help inform you at what point you are at and what may have happened."

I uninstalled through Control Panel. Restarted, reinstalled and entered my ID's.
My old pilot profile file is empty, and I can find no other "save data folder". No custom savedir redirect.

"Also, to abide by the guidelines, always be sure to specify the 'game' when posting in this section of the forum. I know which game you are referring to, but others may not and it will help those running searches for the same issue."
Post edited.

[Vice]

Ok, doesn't sound like anything that would be related to the game-side of things. Sounds like you have other things going on with your system. If you complete the steps here, I can look at your configuration for possible issues: http://www.starwraith.com/evochronmercenary/faq.htm#8

Also, in addition to the msinfo report, please also send me a screenshot of the contents of your save data folder from Windows File Explorer. Please also send me any files in the save data folder that may have 'crash' in the filename. And include any fragments/files with 'pilot' in the name that may still be in the save data folder. Send to the address at starwraith.com > contact

[Capt_Caveman]

when you installed your new video card, did you uninstall old video drivers first ?

[Firedragon]

"when you installed your new video card, did you uninstall old video drivers first ? "

Yes, uninstalled them first.
Very weird, other games are loading perfectly.

[Maarschalk]

Do you have any mods installed? If so that might be the problem.....

[Firedragon]

No mods.