Uninstalled DA:O and still laggy

[notaddc]

I uninstalled the game and reinstalled it so that I could have patch 1.0 back again because the 1.3 patch was lagging me and everyone said it lags everyone and to reinstall the game and it should fix it, I kept my save files and config and all of that but the game still lags is it still v 1.3 because I kept those files? Is there anyway to save the save files and/or config files and reinstall the game while still running v1.0? or are the save files now totally useless because I converted to v1.3 after playing those save files a bit? where might the save and config files be located so that I can just copy those and save them and not the v1.3? (I'm using windows 7)

 

When looking at the config utility and clicking the "game" tab I can see the versions they are:

 

DAorigins.exe v1.00

DAoriginslauncher.exe v1.01

DAoriginsconfig.exe v1.03

Uninstall Dragon Age.exe v1.03

 

why are they all different? is it because I kept the save files/config and all that in the Bioware folder?

 

 

Thanks for reading!

 

- notaddc

[DarkeWolf]

Well, I'm not 100% sure of what your problem that you're having is. I do know that when you uninstall it, you need to make sure to clean out any registry entries for dragon age before doing your reinstall.

You can do this via the windows regedit command and then doing a search for dragon age in the registry. or you can use a program like ccleaner (free) or revo uninstaller pro (not free).

 

the savegame info does contain patch info in it. To clear that out, you'd need to force load your new savegame after the reinstall, and then create a new savegame, naming it something like "savegame clean" or whatever. Shut down the game, and then load up the clean save once you restart the game.

 

I will go ahead and mention tho too... that on many computers, the lag isnt an issue with patches. its the game itself, and it's poorly written memory usages. This game sucks down ram like a gluttunous PIG. Especially when doing savegame loads, area transitions, and in large areas like denerim and orzammar.

 

You can try to help cut that down, by streamlining what programs you have running in the background. By holding the ctrl + alt + del (delete) keys on your kybrd and doing an end process on any programs that you know aren't necessary to be running at the time.

you can also go into your game settings, and set your graphics to be lower and details lower. (tho anything below medium will not show eye colors) and turn off persistant gore, the subtitling, and the floating damage numbers.

[notaddc]

Well, I'm not 100% sure of what your problem that you're having is. I do know that when you uninstall it, you need to make sure to clean out any registry entries for dragon age before doing your reinstall.

You can do this via the windows regedit command and then doing a search for dragon age in the registry. or you can use a program like ccleaner (free) or revo uninstaller pro (not free).

 

the savegame info does contain patch info in it. To clear that out, you'd need to force load your new savegame after the reinstall, and then create a new savegame, naming it something like "savegame clean" or whatever. Shut down the game, and then load up the clean save once you restart the game.

 

I will go ahead and mention tho too... that on many computers, the lag isnt an issue with patches. its the game itself, and it's poorly written memory usages. This game sucks down ram like a gluttunous PIG. Especially when doing savegame loads, area transitions, and in large areas like denerim and orzammar.

 

You can try to help cut that down, by streamlining what programs you have running in the background. By holding the ctrl + alt + del (delete) keys on your kybrd and doing an end process on any programs that you know aren't necessary to be running at the time.

you can also go into your game settings, and set your graphics to be lower and details lower. (tho anything below medium will not show eye colors) and turn off persistant gore, the subtitling, and the floating damage numbers.

 

I have an AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core Processor 2.220 GHZ

 

2 GB Ram

 

2 ATi Radeon HD 3600's hooked up through Crossfire

 

I don't think my computer is the problem, I am able to handle games like Mass Effect 2 with the graphics spiked all the way up, even in this game I have everything thrown up but Aliasing or w/e and the frames are fine for like 10 mins than bog down like everyone mentions, at the start of the game I had no lag at all it was only until I installed that patch that I noticed huge lag and memory usage spiked like crazy,

 

also what do you mean by "you'd need to force load your new savegame" how would you do that?

 

What I am asking is how do I uninstall the game while keeping the saved games but losing patch 1.03 and I think you answered me, I will try these things I just need to know how to forceload..

[Codifer]

When you start your saved game there will be two boxes that will prompt you about force load. The first will give the option to activate all of the un-checked content, the second will warn of absolute disaster possibilities and horrid corruption. Scared me silly until I learned to ignore it.

 

The lagginess of DAO is strange. I had experienced it in several areas and conditions. Any fire, smoke or fog, for instance. Or heavy and busy battles (Ostagar at night was almost a slide show). Redcliff Village, the Denerim Market district and Lothering were very slow. My machine is right at the lower threshold for DAO (AMD at 1.9G, ATI X850 and 3G RAM Patch 1.02A).

 

For the last couple of nights, however, these laggy problems are all but gone. This is a mystery.

 

Three nights ago all hell broke loose with the machine. I was online, had DAUpdater open but the game was off. Everything began a rapid and repeated scrolling and flashing. Control Alt Delete did nothing.... nothing would shut down. Computer froze, motherboard began beeping and my only option was to shut off the power manually.

 

Restart was normal.

 

The next day I moved about 12G of files from C drive to external Hard Disk which left my with 20 G free on the main drive where the game files are (game itself is on a second internal drive).

 

While I am pleased that the game is now mysteriously faster after the crash (or due to more free space), I have noted troubles starting XP Pro. I can hear a distinct click pause click from the HD and I know that it will freeze with the busy light full on. On the second or third attempt I can hear the HD fire up and Windows will then start.

 

Is this a sign that the hard drive is about to go belly up?

 

I am transferring as much as I can to the back up just in case.

 

I hope I did not hijack the thread.... my apologies.

[roninsoul7]

@Codifier

 

If your hard drive is making noise above and beyond the usual, then yes, it is usually the first hint that it is going to die soon. Backing things up and getting prepared to put a new hard drive in it's place is a good idea. As for room on your hard drive speeding things up again, that would be the page file system, all programs are loaded into there and the ram to run, so no room or little room on your hard drive can create a chokepoint as the page file fills up, then has to empty again to keep things running.

[Codifer]

Thank you Roninsooul7.

 

I have already copied all the game files and all the downloads as well as other critical files and records.

 

I guess that I had best do some research as to the procedure and develop a plan. I see that Frye's has a 500g Western Digital for $60.00. I hope that I could put it in the second slot and copy programs directly to it from the primary and the external. Hopefully the copied windows program will work when I install the new one then to the primary and put the current secondary (which contains DAO) back in.

 

It is probably not that simple though.

 

We shall see.

[roninsoul7]

My suggestion is to either look for a ghosting program to move stuff from the old to the new hard drive, or to install your windows on your old Hard drive, reinstall the programs and just move the saves over. Both will take some time and work, but the second version has the advantage of being a clean install of your operating system. Then get the program PCdecrapifier and run it once, it won't get rid of all problems, but it does go a long way on helping get rid of some of the more common ones. A new hard drive is always a long process, but well worth the time when you have more room to play around with.

[DarkeWolf]

Well, I'm not 100% sure of what your problem that you're having is. I do know that when you uninstall it, you need to make sure to clean out any registry entries for dragon age before doing your reinstall.

You can do this via the windows regedit command and then doing a search for dragon age in the registry. or you can use a program like ccleaner (free) or revo uninstaller pro (not free).

 

the savegame info does contain patch info in it. To clear that out, you'd need to force load your new savegame after the reinstall, and then create a new savegame, naming it something like "savegame clean" or whatever. Shut down the game, and then load up the clean save once you restart the game.

 

I will go ahead and mention tho too... that on many computers, the lag isnt an issue with patches. its the game itself, and it's poorly written memory usages. This game sucks down ram like a gluttunous PIG. Especially when doing savegame loads, area transitions, and in large areas like denerim and orzammar.

 

You can try to help cut that down, by streamlining what programs you have running in the background. By holding the ctrl + alt + del (delete) keys on your kybrd and doing an end process on any programs that you know aren't necessary to be running at the time.

you can also go into your game settings, and set your graphics to be lower and details lower. (tho anything below medium will not show eye colors) and turn off persistant gore, the subtitling, and the floating damage numbers.

 

I have an AMD Phenom 9500 Quad-Core Processor 2.220 GHZ

 

2 GB Ram

 

2 ATi Radeon HD 3600's hooked up through Crossfire

 

I don't think my computer is the problem, I am able to handle games like Mass Effect 2 with the graphics spiked all the way up, even in this game I have everything thrown up but Aliasing or w/e and the frames are fine for like 10 mins than bog down like everyone mentions, at the start of the game I had no lag at all it was only until I installed that patch that I noticed huge lag and memory usage spiked like crazy,

 

also what do you mean by "you'd need to force load your new savegame" how would you do that?

 

What I am asking is how do I uninstall the game while keeping the saved games but losing patch 1.03 and I think you answered me, I will try these things I just need to know how to forceload..

 

I've seen folks on here with quad CPU's and 6-8 gigs of RAM having these issues. No, its not your computer, its because as I mentioned... the game has an eating disorder when handling RAM. Its like it doesnt know when it should eat it, how much of it to eat, and when to recycle it. So it just keeps sucking it down, sucking it down, sucking it down, until there's nothing left, it starves, and crashes.

Which is why I posted the steps that I did, so as for your comp to be able to provide more resources for it to hog down.

 

Yeah, just backup your characters folder, and your screenshots folder (if you have any screenies that you want to keep. Then use an uninstaller program on it that will get rid of registry entries or after uninstalling, use a registry cleaner. Or if doing it manually, remove the dragon age entries from the registry.

[DarkeWolf]

Thank you Roninsooul7.

 

I have already copied all the game files and all the downloads as well as other critical files and records.

 

I guess that I had best do some research as to the procedure and develop a plan. I see that Frye's has a 500g Western Digital for $60.00. I hope that I could put it in the second slot and copy programs directly to it from the primary and the external. Hopefully the copied windows program will work when I install the new one then to the primary and put the current secondary (which contains DAO) back in.

 

It is probably not that simple though.

 

We shall see.

 

Yeah, that clicking sound generally means that the read/write head on the drive platters isnt moving correctly, and will only get worse as time passes. And depending on what the issue is, it could end up scratching/gouging one or more of the platters, which gets Really bad. So its definitely good that you're making backups NOW, rather than later. :thumbsup:

 

UNFORTUNATELY, A program's registry entries, along with a bunch of other information, tells the computer WHERE to look in the computer for it to run the program.

So those registries are going to tell it to look on C: and its not going to be there. So no, they won't run from that other hdd, unless you know how to edit their registry entries, WHICH I DO NOT RECOMMEND TRYING TO DO. Even experienced technicians shy away from that.

 

also, microcenter has one on sale for about 10 bucks less. http://www.microcenter.com/search/search_results.phtml?N=4294966957

a 750 giger for 30 more. http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0331721

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0315255

and a terabyte drive for about 80. http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0334157

 

thats of course, if your computer uses a sata drive. If it uses the older ide drives, then ignore those as they wont fit your cables.

[Codifer]

Thank you DarkWolf.

 

The current drives are IDE 40 pin. The ASUS MoBo does have connections for SATA but, when I built the machine, I did not use them.... I don't remember why. When I dug into my paperwork, I realized that I built this in late 2004 on a fairly tight budget. I have had six years of hard use on the current main drive so I cannot complain too much. I think that I will look for a replacement which is IDE compatible so as not to make too many changes at once. Maybe someday I will build another machine..... must catch up on all the technology first.

 

When I find a replacement IDE hdd, the plan was to place it (temporarily) in the secondary hdd slot and copy all the programs, including Windows, from the current (and dying) primary onto it. I would then remove the current primary and install the new hdd with all the copied programs into the primary slot. That way, the new one would be the "C" drive.

 

Or

 

I could just install the new one directly to the primary and (as Ronin suggested) install a fresh Windows XP. This might make more sense. Heck, I might even do the service packs to at least SP2. The fresh Windows makes sense.... even more so now that I did find the XP Install Disc while I was searching for the manuals. This way would allow for a more selective transfer of files and programs (it is amazing how much crap can accumulate in six years and, with so many programs installed and then uninstalled, I shudder to think of what the registry must look like). Either way it will be a lot of work and tuning.

 

In things more DA:O related, is there a limit to the number of times that the program disc will allow one to install or re-install? Also, does it make a difference in performance if the game files (all 15 Gigs) are on the primary or on the secondary drive?

 

I thank you all for your help.

 

Edit to add: When I referred to "Primary" I should have called it "Master" and "secondary" should have been "Slave".