So, last night I verified that even a successful application of patch 3.2 to a brand new install of WOTLK results in a patch.mpq file that is not the same size as the patch.mpq file, at the same patch level (3.2), on a non-Dell XPS 630i machine.

I'm tired of patching on my laptop and copying it over to my desktop, which passes every diagnostic test, and runs every other application and game just fine.

I'll buy that there's an issue between the CPU and memory clock settings on the 630i as supplied from the factory by Dell and Blizzard's updater. But, can anyone help with what more appropriate settings would be? There are about 6 different types of processors you could get with the XPS 630i, and I don't know enough about over/underclocking to do anything but go with the BIOS default settings. The 630i isn't available from Dell any longer, so getting a test system could be a bit difficult.

There seem to be enough people impacted by this that it makes sense to try to solve it.. Dell and Blizzard pointing fingers really isn't getting anything solved.

If anyone at Blizzard support who is well versed on this issue and on clocking settings for PCs wants to work to help solve the issue, I am MORE than willing to do the legwork and provide any helpful diagnostic information.

Hi Manannan,

You can usually find all sorts of fancy processor information by checking the model on CPU-Z, then referencing it on http://processorfinder.intel.com/
It'll list speed, core, bus speed and such. CPU-Z is needed to find more detailed information like the stepping if there's multiple revisions.

I'm trying to grab one myself to see if I can take it apart and dig at it. Someone here has one...

Keep in mind that patch.MPQ is dependent on your game installation. patch.MPQ gets built from files that it finds in the original game install but has to be updated. We never write to common.MPQ, common-2.MPQ, expansion.MPQ, lichking.MPQ and the other base files so stuff goes to the other files. You may want to copy over your other computer's World of Warcraft folder and try patching that one. It's about the only way to see how patch.MPQ is built. You can use a program called HashTab to check the individual files and compare them.

1:1 is a good ratio but not required. A computer can have slower or faster RAM as long as it's supported by the chipset memory controller since you have a Core 2 processor. The memory controller just has to pass data when it's set and stable. If it's a bit slower, then your computer will have a few wasted clocks waiting for data but no errors. If it's faster, there's wasted potential but again, no error.

A clean Wrath install from the same disc should produce the same set of files. This is assuming you disconnect the computer from the internet before installing. Our Wrath disc can download additional bits of data online but I don't know what it exactly downloads. We do not provide a way to access stuff inside of MPQ files.

It looks like I'm able to acquire one of these computers on Tuesday. I'm not sure how much I can dig into it and how quickly. Most of my spare parts are AMD parts so I won't be able to swap things very much.

If you really want to try something, you can set the Blizzard Updater file to run on one core using RunFirst and see what happens - http://www.activeplus.com/Products/RunFirst

I have a lot of random ideas floating in my head for when I get this machine. Hopefully no one here tries to steal it in the process to reenact an Office Space scene. :)

This computer baffles me... it's never consistent.

630i: 1
Dat: 0

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Q u o t e:


The point is that there are many, MANY folks that have a patching issue with the Blizzard Downloader. It just makes sense to have a full client download available. EVE Online does this and it works well. This company enjoys profits unheard of in the video gaming industry... this is a service which would eliminate the THOUSANDS of complaints that pour in after every patch. It's money well spent in my opinion.

TJ

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Q u o t e:
Download almost 16gigs of information, when you can just download less than half that, and unpack and install it?

Blizzard's not going to do that unfortunately. It'd cost them a lot of money for the additional bandwidth.

---

The question would be this: what purpose would that serve? People that copied their game from another system reported error 132s happening at random spots. Looking at the crash log shows some very mangled data. Dev's philosophy is that if you can't handle game file packing and unpacking, you're going to end up with more serious issues. These 132s do show that.

No. It was 2:30 in the morning and I wanted sleep. I had insomnia the other day so I was running off of about an hour or two of sleep. More will happen tonight when I get home.

I see some configuration issues on the XPS 630i that I have. The multiplier is off by .5 on this Q9550. I'll have to fix that and see what happens.

I have a Pentium 4 LGA 775, RAID controller, some RAM, a MSI P43 Neo and a new hard drive to play with tonight. Let's see which one kicks. I'm tempted to put in a new hard drive, install Windows Vista Home Premium 32 (that's what the one I have came with) and see how it behaves. Then I'll grab all the MD5 checksums, then transplant all the Dell parts that MSI motherboard and see what happens.

Don't try this at home. It'll void your warranty.

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Q u o t e:
The only thing worse than having a Dell 630i for WoW right now is being hacked Monday, waiting in que for a gm from 11am est until server down, and then not being able to log in from tuesday til present.

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Sorry to hear that, man.

Being ok in a confined area is not a good sign but it'll let me run around the places you mentioned if I can get it up and running.

I managed to narrow it down to a setting or the motherboard itself. It worked great when I tossed everything except this computer's second video card onto the most inexpensive 4-DIMM equipped motherboard at Fry's at all default settings. Poking at what, though, will not be fun. We haven't seen reports from other nForce 650i SLI chipsets so I'm not sure what to make of it all.

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Q u o t e:
darth you get this fixed and you live any where near detroit michigan you let me know i am taking you to the booby bar!!! oh and btw i can log on to my low level alts that aren't in dal and run around no problems bgs and everything but if i go on either of my mains they stuck in dal and currently stuck to where i can't even log on them crashes before they load which sucks cause they have my money i would like to send some to my lowbies.

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Your level 80s are currently in Goldshire. Maybe that won't crash you and a mailbox is in the area.

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Q u o t e:
did the 2 system thingy but now I am getting the following error.

This application has encountered a critical error:

ERROR #0 (0x85100000) Assertion Failure
Program: C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\WoW.exe
File: .\WowConnection.cpp
Line: 104
Expr: socket() returned -1, reason: can't create socket (No network connection available?)

What did I do wrong & how do i fix it?

---

That's either Windows UAC preventing it from running (you moved it from another computer so it treats it as being foreign and possibly dangerous) or your internet security software blocking it. Please check both cases.

Oops :)
UAC is Windows Vista and 7's protection layer. They're responsible for keeping programs from doing harm. A sudden transfer of a program from another computer can trigger it and start blocking stuff. You can read a bit more here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-vista/features/user-account-control.aspx

Before you turn it off, try installing this - http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/

Once it's done, right-click your World of Warcraft folder and click on Take Ownership. Let the command prompt cycle through all of your files. When it's done, try running it again and see if it can connect. If it can't, try this - http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-user-account-control-uac-the-easy-way-on-windows-vista/

If your Launcher isn't doing anything, you can click Options and then click on Downloader Options. Uncheck the last box. If your launcher is downloading stuff, click the Downloader button. Click on View, then Preferences. Uncheck the second box.

This only helps if the patch itself is corrupt. In most cases (and the computer I'm on at home), this is not it.

Update
It's not completely stable on 1200MHz FSB for normal day-day usage but it make it stable enough for patching


-------------------------

It looks like there's some very slight instability on this (the XPS I received) setup. I got it working on the original hardware 4x (clean reinstall, download and patch) when I knocked the Front Side Bus down to 1200MHz from 1333MHz. It had a Q9550 so the 2.83GHz processor became a 2.55GHz processor. I didn't feel any performance loss flying around and running in Dalaran. I'm not sure what type of processors are available and what your front side busses are. Can you all give me the processor name and front side bus that you use? I'd just like to collect some data as a side thing to this. CPU-Z can identify it for you if you do not know. It's a free program that can be found online.

Three things to keep in mind:

1. If you screw up and the Dell computer locks up, it takes two full power shutoffs for it to revert. That's when you hold down the power button for ~5 seconds and it powers off.

[change settings to something bad] -> Save Settings
Computer tries to auto-restart and is stuck -> hold power button to turn it off
Push power button to turn on -> Computer is stuck again -> hold power button to turn it off
Push power button to turn it on -> Computer automatically reverts to default settings. It requires you to enter setup again or hit a button to continue.

2. You don't want to overclock or underclock too much. This system doesn't seem happy either way. Too slow of a FSB (1333MHz -> 1066MHz) can also cause it to do #1. I used a number in the middle. 1200 MHz was good for my case. 1300MHz and 1325 MHz still produced patch errors where 1200MHz gave me good, repeatable results.
FYI, My processor was a 1333MHz FSB processor. If you have an older model check your FSB! You do not want to overclock your parts by using the numbers I tried! http://processorfinder.intel.com/

3. You will want to ask a Dell representative to walk you through this. It seems pretty safeguarded as a modern motherboard feature but there's always the scary "oh crap I broke it" factor. They will also know your system setup and configuration better in case you have a different type of processor family or such, and what numbers will work. The general thing you want to talk to them about is that the current FSB might be a bit too tight, that you want to unlink the FSB from the memory clock, and lower the FSB a bit (~100-133MHz)

Any chance you can experiment for me, Doomskull? I want to verify my findings on the computer last night but I don't want the company to be held responsible if something goes wrong, so you might want to call up Dell and see if they can walk you thru the following:

Disable C1E
Disable SpeedStep
Unlink your front bus speed and memory
Drop FSB to 1200MHz


Once that's all done, have Dell step you through saving the settings. That should be it. Reinstall the game and repatch.

Many warranties voided when I did this to check out the parts... http://datasian.homeserver.com/web/images/work/xps630i/day2/PC170039.jpg

Don't try this at home!
(Obligatory reminder - some of the sites I linked are third party sites and not affiliated with the company. Use them at your own risk)

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Q u o t e:


I tried doing this and it just ended up causing my system to lock up randomly. I doubt it would survive a patching session even if it theoretically worked. If anyone uses this method to patch up their game, i'd recommend going back to default settings as soon as you are finished.

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What kind of processor do you have? Doom and I had the Q9550 (1333MHz FSB) so it was a slight underclock for us. Something like a Q6600 (1066MHz FSB) would be an overclock. We want to know what processors people have so we don't get into overclock conditions.

If your processor's fsb is 1333, you can use it. We're not playing with the multiplier so you will be ok. I have limited access to the forums until Wed. I am posting from a phone

http://processorfinder.intel.com/details.aspx?sSpec=SLAWR

1333 x 8.0 is your default.

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Q u o t e:


Good to hear. Everything i've read suggests changing those settings can potentially impact your CPU. You might want to go back to the old settings and only make those changes when you need to install/patch your game.

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The only real impact that I observed was that you're running at 2.55GHz instead of 2.86 GHz. Memory ratio still doesn't match up but they never did with the 800MHz RAM on board. The system I ran it on passed Linpack and did a good chunk of Prime 95 before I gave it back.

Also keep in mind that there were people that reported crashing to Error 132s if they were able to get the game installed with the default configuration. If your system is stable with the 1200MHz number, maybe try it there for a bit and see what happens. I left the owner's XPS 630i at that number as well.

I'm not supposed to be posting on my time off but this seems to be the case for the XPS I worked with:

1. The repair utility won't find anything.
2. The data written seems to be corrupted. You can move a "patched" game from the XPS to another machine and the other machine will crash the same way as the XPS. Same is with patching: patched on an XPS to 3.2.0 somehow but with bad data will make the other machine crash at the same spot when applying the 3.3.0 patch. The opposite does not seem to be true: working game from a working machine to the XPS will make the XPS crash, although the written data there is good.


Best to do a clean install. If you have a friend that plays, borrow their Wrath disk for an install.

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Q u o t e:
I changed the settings you suggested, installed game fine. But when I went in and changed the settings back to factory settings, computer died on me. It is now a paper weight that cant even find an operating system or recognize both of my hard drives. After 3 hours on phone with Dell tech support they are sending me 2 new hard drives, but I dont think that is the problem.

Cries :(

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The settings mentioned in the article didn't touch the southbridge/NVIDIA RAID controller. That stuff is isolated over here:
http://datasian.homeserver.com/web/images/work/xps630i/day1/PC150024.jpg
Do your drives show up at all?
If your system was set up in a RAID configuration previously and you used the Dell load defaults, you might have unlinked your RAID. In that case, the easy fix is to go into the screen I linked and just turn on the NVRAID. 2 drives are usually striped (RAID 0). I don't know how to set it up on that board as I no longer have this system.

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Q u o t e:
im wondering, when you guys are saying "have been unable to patch" what is the actual error(s) that happen that prevent the patch?

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It's quite random. I've had it happen at the following during my testing:

Northrend_26_22.adt CRC Mismatch
UR_TitanHallsHeroWalk.mp3 Unable to open
IR_Walkz_02.mp3 Unable to open
Northrend_33_17.adt CRC Mismatch
and so on


--note--
The links I use are third party links. Use them at your own risk

*bump, hoping for doomskull*

You can re-enable C1E and it'd probably be fine. If your computer doesn't like the setting, you probably would want to keep it at the defaults. The computer I was on didn't freeze.

You don't want to enable the RAID unless your computer came like that. RAID is a type of hard drive setup. We don't want to touch that. HDD SMART just monitors the hard drive and reports stuff if things fail.

The reason *I* turned C1E off was to turn off all forms of throttling. It's the only way for me to reproduce issues 100% of the time regardless of what the processor was trying to do. If I turned it on and the patch worked fine but the processor was throttling itself, I won't know what will happen if it's running at full speed.

In theory, if the processor ran fine at full (disabled C1E and 1200MHz FSB) speed, it'll run the same way with C1E on. Turn yours on. See what happens.

Unlinking the FSB disables SpeedStep I think so we can't mess with that.

You'll need to consult with Dell if you need assistance. I can only tell you what I did to get my particular system to work. Your mileage may vary.

This thread is a bit more for tech-savvy users. If you don't know what to change when reading post #77 and the ones after that, you don't want to change stuff. Call your system manufacturer and tell them that you have a problem with the front side bus running at full speed. Request that they help you set it at 1200MHz. You'll need to uninstall and reinstall the game after it boots up successfully as bad data files were written at the old speed.


As an aside, I wonder if a number before 1300MHz will work, like 1233 or 1250MHz? 1300 and up didn't work for the machine I had.

There's a few XPS 630i's that work. I just give them the thumbs up and tell people to treasure it.

1200MHz is considered as underclocking. Your processor will be running at less than full speed, so you'd lose roughly ~250MHz ((1200/4) * 7.5) vs your default ((1333/4)*7.5). http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=33922
We can leave C1E alone too. With the way your manufacturer set up the motherboard, if things fail, you can always go in and change the number back to 1333.

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Q u o t e:
Lol, as a side note Datth, dont know if you have dealt with Dell overseas support................its a train wreck and a half.........they have no clue-the solution to everything is "wipe your hard drive". ;)

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I never dealt with their support in recent years. Well..you saw pictures of what I did to it.
http://datasian.homeserver.com/web/images/work/xps630i/day2/PC170038.JPG
http://datasian.homeserver.com/web/images/work/xps630i/day2/PC170039.JPG
I'm a warranty voider. If I buy a pre-built system, it probably means that there was an awesome sales for me to use it as barebone or spare parts. I only talk to their sales team and their credit card people. :P

Alfalfa

Dat is not able to post right now so he asked me to.

C1E let him reproduce errors consistently and is not needed.

You are welcome, if he has any other updates he can't make then I will probably be back.

He is the real expert on what is going on.

---

Q u o t e:
First off, thanks a lot for all of your help Datth, it is greatly appreciated :)

I just bought a 630i and have been frustrated for days trying to install 3.3, until I found this post.

I plan on changing my settings within the next couple of days, but just a quick question first: Are you saying now that I do not have to disable C1E? I don't want to change anything that I don't have to, but if I need to I am willing to disable it.

Also, if I restore my computer's default settings after re-installing the game will I have to change the setttings again every time there is a new patch? If so I am just going to leave it at the new settings to save the hassle, unless it starts to freeze up.

Thank you

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I disabled C1E to stop the clock speed from bouncing around and run at max speed. If I'm going to test a downclock, I don't want to do an extra downclocked downclock and get weird results. I want to know that if I run it at the max FSB and max multiplier (1200MHz FSB and 8.5 multiplier in my case) , can I still patch? If I can patch there, then I can patch with C1E on.

In other words, you can turn C1E off if you want to.

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Q u o t e:
Also, if I restore my computer's default settings after re-installing the game will I have to change the setttings again every time there is a new patch? If so I am just going to leave it at the new settings to save the hassle, unless it starts to freeze up.

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I've seen the default settings nibble away at data during patching so you might want to try the slower setting again. There are reports of people hitting error 132s and 134s on these computers while doing stuff like flying out of Dalaran or being in a heavy-duty 25-man raid so if you get those too, you might want to try lower settings.

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Q u o t e:
*bump* need to know how much of my original settings i can restore now that i have the game back on and going

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If it works, sure. If it starts acting funky again, no. :)

I don't have this computer anymore so I can't tell you too much more about it. The owner seems happy at the slower speed that I left it at.

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Q u o t e:
I'm a network Systems engineer of about 14 years now.

This isn't ram nor hard drive corruption. This is a Vista (we have 64 bit)/630i problem that i've been trying to troubleshoot for a year. I think it may have something to do with the Nforce chipsets memory management and it's interaction with the patching. I've ruled out hardware (my wife has the same model computer and has the same random patch failures) and I've rules out virus software.

I play many many games and never have any problems with our 630i's in any other way. My computer is super clean and well kept.

I used to think this was a Mcafee problem so I rebooted in to safe mode and disabled mcafee. That seemed to work but it was just a fluke. I've done that and still had my wow corrupted. It' also corrupts in different ways. Sometimes it's a map, sometimes it's wow.exe. The errors thrown always point to bad memory but when i bought my wife the came computer 6 months after mine, she had the same random corruptions. patch 3.3 for example corrupted on mine, then on hers. I had to reinstall from scratch on mine, then copy over to hers (again).

It's kind of a sad state of affairs. I've been playing WoW since 2004 ish but I'm finding myself not playing hardly anymore for long periods of time every time this happens. I spend my whole day troubleshooting Windows server problems at work all day, I only have so much patience to take that home with me and work on WoW all the time.

So far in the last year or so I'd say wow has corrupted in some way on about 40% of the patched, and it's completely random and my wifes will sometimes get through it and mine won't or mine will and her won't. When they both don't it sucks.

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We can discount OS out of the equation. I put XP 32-bit and 7 64-bit as well on that machine. One example:

http://datasian.homeserver.com/web/images/work/xps630i/day2/xps630i_win7format_fail.png

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Q u o t e:
hey guys ive been having the same issue and im just a bout to reinstall.. ive disabled c1e and disabled speedstep.. unlinked front bus speed and memory and dropped fsb to 12200mhz.. but im reinstalling and i just had 1 question.. i know for vista people had trouble on where to install it.. i was just wondering which is the best place.. the default that opens up .. C/users/games or what not.. or C/program files/wow... ive had it under program files for as long as i can remember.. just wondering if anyone knows whats better

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We prefer C:\Users\Public\Games\World of Warcraft\ for Vista and 7 if you plan to leave UAC on.

Sorry, I just got back from visiting friends and family.

It's a 132, and it's an unstable type. You can try to just kick your FSB down to 1200 and see what happens. You only have to hit two settings - the FSB - Memory Clock Mode setting to Unlinked and setting your FSB (QDR), MHz setting to 1200. The other stuff is fine to leave alone. Some people reported that they got periodic hiccups but I haven't noticed it on the one I used. I left it like that for the owner too and he hasn't reported anything, and he raids often.

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Q u o t e:
1. After the game has been uninstalled and reinstalled at 1200 MHz FSB, is it ok to ramp the FSB back up to 1333MHz afterward? I.E. would the system have issues playing the files installed at a lower speed rather than at a higher one?

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Might crash the game. You're free to try it. The motherboard seems a bit picky with data at the full 1333MHz FSB. A cheap MSI one I threw the parts into didn't care if it was at 1333MHz. I overclocked it to 1600MHz FSB for fun and it ran fine, too. Remember that error 132s are during-game crashes when the computer does something the game didn't expect. Data files are questionable but bad data files tend to crash to 134s instead of 132s.

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Q u o t e:
2. Would disabling write-caching on the Hard Drive while installing any patches make any difference (I have a 10K RPM HDD...maybe the culprit lies in the speed of the HDD and the way it interacts with the bus' on the system board)?

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Doesn't seem to. The errors are happening during decompression in RAM.

Doing these changes automatically turns off Intel SpeedStep so if you're getting lockups, you'll want to check the huge heatsink thing and make sure it's nice and clean. There's a fan wedged somewhere inside. You won't have the processor throttling to save you from temperature issues if it's having problems.

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Q u o t e:
If the errors are occuring in RAM decompression (found out tonight I can't go to Zul'Drak either- got out by turning all my settings to 0 in Effects, and 800X600 in resolution-but I can go to IC, Stormpeaks, CSF, BT and Shola with no crashes (WEIRD!)), then would replacing the RAM be a choice?

I looked at my chips- all 4 are Kingston Branded 1 GB DIMMs...Not too fond of Kingston RAM actually. Have you tried different RAM brands in the 630i you tore apart for testing? If so, did it make a difference? I'm perfectly willing to shell out some cash for better RAM (esp since I know what brand it is now)

(Thanks again- it's so refreshing to talk to someone who knows what they're talking about with these systems!)

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Sorry, you guys were posting at times when I'm not at work (I work Tues-Sat, 8 AM - 5 PM).

I threw in some G-Skill RAM from my media center into the PC. Doesn't seem to make a difference, and it works on the media center box. The Dell modules I had (http://datasian.homeserver.com/web/images/work/xps630i/day1/PC150015.jpg) worked fine in the MSI motherboard I put it in (along with all the other Dell parts).

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Q u o t e:
Ok, so Ive been reading this thread, I posted my computer info a few posts back but didnt get an answer. I went into the setup and changed the fsb down to 1200, but my computer would not start back up, would keep getting errors or the screen would just turn black and never do anything until I changed it back to 1333, any advice.

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You're free to try some of the numbers that I haven't tried between 1200 - 1300, like 1233 or 1250. Your mileage may vary.

So the computer that I worked on wasn't exactly 100% happy at that front side bus speed although it got it stable enough to patch and play for a while. If you're interested in getting the perfect combination of settings, it may be better to hit up on a web forum that's dedicated to overclocking and tweaking like Tom's Hardware, HardOCP or Anandtech (among many others). There might be some voltage tweaks and such that can help out. If you want help from the manufacturer, you're always free to contact them too since they're the ones that made your system and might know of some fixes as it doesn't seem to be fully stable at the default speeds.

*cry*

Keep in mind that if you get it while underclocked, the base files might not be happy so a revert might be needed. To revert the game, go to your World of Warcraft\Data\ folder and delete the patch.MPQ file. If you have patch-2.MPQ and patch-3.MPQ, delete those as well. Go back to the World of Warcraft folder and run the repair utility. Once it's done, you'll have to repatch back to the current version and hopefully that will clear up any version mismatches.

You can just install the entire game client from the Lich King disc to save you some time.

The downloader uses bittorrent technology so it does checking on each little piece of data it gets to see if it's valid. Besides, I tried copying it from two known working source (one off of my Windows Home Server box and one off of my main i7 box) and it couldn't patch properly from it. You're free to try full speed but you might want to make a duplicate WoW folder so you don't have to reinstall again if it fails.

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Q u o t e:
CAN WE GET THIS THREAD STICKY'D?


-.-



Edit: In my 5 months off from WoW, I played Aion(and I'm still playing).

How can I install and run Aion perfectly fine... a game that takes sooo much more rendering power than stick-figure-WoW.

Lol.

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We like decompressing. I'm not sure if Aion has that much compression as I don't have that game client, nor have I studied it in detail. You need a completely stable system to do what we do with our client. It can sort of be a benchmark on its own right.

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Q u o t e:
LOL


Is there a way I can speed this up?:

http://img12.imageshack.us/img12/7608/30102656.jpg


Transfering files from other computer to mine over LAN.

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That's over LAN? That looks like Wireless B or G speeds.

May I get a screenshot of that 44523 days? :)

For hardwire, your Dell XPS 630i should have a gigabit adapter. I *think* a 430 has a gigabit too but I've only seen those computers in person one time in my life. You should be going around ~8-10 MB/sec going thru a regular 100 mbps router, and anywhere from 50 - 90 MB/sec on a gigabit switch or router. Did you try restarting both computers? The game folder that you're copying on doesn't have a lot of addons or custom files, does it? Having a lot of files will slow down a copy.

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Q u o t e:
OK!

So 1266 MHz= Lock ups. Horrid ones. Gave up.

1233? Locked up at 97% of 3.2.0 loading...

Ran it again- got to 100%. 3.3.0a started downloading but I cancelled it...for now.

I decided to try an old fix:

I copied my girlfriend's WoW folder from her 2 year-old Dell XPS 210 onto an external USB hard drive.

I then copied it to my system and...

Instantly played. Even went into Zul'Drak and Grizzly Hills for the first time since mid-December.


So, I suppose I'll work on the other install as a project to see if I can get it to work. In the meantime, it looks like it will be stable and I can play.

Since Blizz is so big on compression I don't suppose there's any place I can download or get the patches- hec- the whole 3.0 to 3.3.2 files uncompressed, is there?

Because apparently the direct copy method worked for me yet again. And my FSB is set to 1333 MHz at the moment, too!

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Having another computer do all the patch work for you is possible too but shouldn't be the way to go. We can't really do much to this specific computer series as all of its own parts work great when transplanted on another motherboard at stock settings. Hardware tweaks seem to get it to work in a sense but it's not truly happy at those settings, either. I don't know what to tell you folks other than it seems that there seems to be a hardware issue somewhere.

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Q u o t e:
He just updated the thread I created. Here is what he suggested:

Hmm, it looks like you pretty much had the same setup, except for the OS and the Video Card. Now from what I read, the patch has a problem extracting the files properly, leading to corruption?

What I have also been seeing from online, is that the users that are having this problem with the XPS 630i, all have the Q9x series processor. We here at the forum, have found that the Q9x series CPUs with the 630i motherboard FAIL to overclock at all. I think that the problem here is actually the motherboard of the system. It seems like the motherboard is having a problem communicating with the CPU and RAM properly, and causing the files to become corrupt during extraction. I know this also happens when there are users that OC their systems and dont not have the OC stable. From the other posts I have also read and from what you stated, it seems like the patch has a better chance of extracting and installing when the FSB was dropped to 1200 or lower.

So here is my conclusion, I think that there is DEFINITELY a hardware issue here, and I think the only way this will be fixed is by getting a new motherboard. Or also, a different CPU with maybe a 1066 stock FSB, but I wouldnt be too sure about a CPU swap.

If I were you, I would just go for a new motherboard, like the 780i, or equivalent. Or at least for the time being, I would use the Dual PC method to apply the patches until you decide on a solution.

I guess it is a good time to upgrade the motherboard, because the Dell Motherboard is actually holding all your other components from their full potential, such as your video card, because the stock motherboard only has an 8x 1.1 PCIE port, vs the newer boards with 16x 2.0 PCIE ports.


Basically, the stock motherboard is a piece of !@*!. Widely accepted piece of !@*!. I'm already looking/saving up for a new motherboard.

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It looks like my experiences with this machine matches what those guys are finding. I didn't have a different processor to test but I did throw all the parts in a very inexpensive P45-based motherboard. It ran flawlessly there. It doesn't support SLI so I couldn't put both of the computer's 9800GTs in but it worked well enough with one card. Keep in mind that Dell's Windows installation disc does not support installing on non-Dell motherboards.

You're always free to post your experiences here. I'm a stock-setting type of guy. I only overclock and underclock when nothing else wants to work. My knowledge of such things are pretty low overall so if you find some magical voltage or timing to get a 1200MHz FSB to run without the system freaking out, much appreciated :)

One thing I did find is that installation data is hardly corrupted at the default speed, but if you manage to patch the game, it's probably corrupted.

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Q u o t e:


Hey I know some people do not have as much computer/technical knowledge as others but i was wondering if there is any way i can post a video on this forum? When i get home I could film the underclocking of the 630i and the patching process just so people get the idea of whats going on.
If so let me know how i can put up a video on here, i think it would be help full to some (the qq'ing grandmother LMAO)

Thanx Hamikilo

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You can always post a youtube of something if you want. Just don't rickroll people.

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Q u o t e:
Thanks Dathh for all the help you've posted so far.

I followed your instructions and lowered my front side bus to 1200 and the game patched fine the first try.

However now the game freezes roughly every 30 minutes-1 hour. Now I'm having trouble reversing what I changed. Do you possibly have a solution for this?

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Other than bumping back to a 1333 FSB, I'm not sure. It seems finicky with FSB settings so I'm not sure if dropping the processor voltage or such will help at lower settings. Any of the more advanced overclocking groups might be able to help you if you want to stay at 1200MHz FSB or something lower. I couldn't get the computer to boot up at the 1066 MHz FSB so don't use that setting :)

We're not the system manufacturer so we can't quite walk you thru the process of modifying your BIOS. There are lots of resources online as well as the Dell help page on how to configure your frontside bus setting.

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Q u o t e:
Datth,

i have a dell core 2 Quad pretty much the same specs as what you previously worked with maybe a lil better.

id be willing to send you my tower if you need a machine to tinker with .. i could care less if you burnt it to the ground honestly.. just let me know.

i personally dont get the patching issues at all.. but i do get dropped to desktop a few times a week due to map errors. i keep stomaching this problem.. but this problem is one reason i went to mac..

anyways.. hit me up if you need one of these lovely paperweights.

-Skullgrinder

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I'm about to move pretty soon, and my girlfriend would kill me if I have more computers laying around. I already have 3 spare cases I don't know what to do with. A total of 6 computers in a 1 bed/1 bath apartment would not be fun times. Besides, I'd just be tempted to go the route that some other forums are posting - throwing in a new motherboard and calling it a day. The XPS components I borrowed all worked fine in an inexpensive MSI P45 board. I won't get LightFX support but I'm not into fancy lights.

Perhaps you'll have some luck going that route. Core 2 Quads are still pretty pricy on the price scale, and you can get a nice motherboard and a copy of Windows 7 OEM for less than one of those C2Q's. It would make a nice spare computer.

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Q u o t e:
So I tried the FSB underclocking, doesn't work for me, I still get CRC errors when upgradeing. Im going to try buying a nforce 750i from asus (hopefully compatible) and getting it installed and try again. Gonna cost me $100 so if this doesn't work I'm gonna quit that PC and WoW for ever.

Im thinking of going office-space like on that PC and recording it on youtube if it fails.

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Did you do a full reinstall of the game? What we're seeing is that some game files got corrupted if it "patched successfully" but sort of slipped past verification of the older patches. Clean install fixes it.

Basically the is only two things to worry about for a motherboard:
1. Does it support your Core 2 processor?
2. Did your setup come with SLI? If so and you want to keep using it, find an SLI-compatible motherboard (you're limited to nForce chipsets here). If you have one video card, anything like a P35, P45 or an nForce chipset is fair game. They just need to support your specific Core 2 processor.

And win on the Office Space thing.