Does lotro now require a 64 bit OS ?

[PaulJK]

Firstly, I'm a casual player and have recently got the lotro bug again so much so that I purchased a quest pack and bought RoR edition for extra/new content. I have been VIP before and would like to do so again for more content but ever since I installed RoR and some recent patches the client crashes, with alarming regularity. It is better in non mounted combat regions it seems but can still crash. Prior to installing RoR I had no problems at all and the client would rarely crash. Luckily most times it crashes now is in passive situations like entering or exiting buildings but it has got me killed on numerous occasions as well.

My system is intel i5 cpu @ 2.8ghz, 4 gig ram installed (2.96 gig shown available by windows) and a 1 gig Radeon HD 57xx gfx card. OS is xp 32 bit home edition.

I have searched for possible causes and solutions and read so much that my eyes hurt. End result is that I am non the wiser for a solution and have an endless list of possible causes. Generally it seems to be a popular opinion that it is a memory problem and the magic number seems to be less than 3 gig available causing the problems. There are various tricks and ways suggested to enable more than 3 gig memory in a 32 bit OS but having tried them all with no success I am resigned to not fixing it with my current setup. Having also read that 32 bit OS's cannot ever really access more than 3 gig of memory, if this is the cause of the problems, then the only way I can fix it is to upgrade my OS. Hence the question in the title, if this is so are the min requirement for lotro now that you require a 64 bit OS because a 32 bit OS just can't give you enough memory.

I am interested to know if anyone else has had this problem on a 32 bit OS with RoR installed and have fixed it. Conversely, those that have no problems with RoR, are you running a similar setup to me?

My dilemmas are, do I buy a 64 bit OS in the hope that it will fix the problem? Do I go VIP or purchase future content? I know the problem is not limited to just me but I have yet to read of someone having the same problem and fixing it. Has anyone actually solved this problem and if so how did you do it? Do I just give up on the game and find something else? (I'd hate for that to be the solution).

Please post a reply if you have some constructive info etc. Meanwhile, I'll log back in again and carry on with Hytbold rebuild....

[Sapience]

Firstly, I'm a casual player and have recently got the lotro bug again so much so that I purchased a quest pack and bought RoR edition for extra/new content. I have been VIP before and would like to do so again for more content but ever since I installed RoR and some recent patches the client crashes, with alarming regularity. It is better in non mounted combat regions it seems but can still crash. Prior to installing RoR I had no problems at all and the client would rarely crash. Luckily most times it crashes now is in passive situations like entering or exiting buildings but it has got me killed on numerous occasions as well.

My system is intel i5 cpu @ 2.8ghz, 4 gig ram installed (2.96 gig shown available by windows) and a 1 gig Radeon HD 57xx gfx card. OS is xp 32 bit home edition.

I have searched for possible causes and solutions and read so much that my eyes hurt. End result is that I am non the wiser for a solution and have an endless list of possible causes. Generally it seems to be a popular opinion that it is a memory problem and the magic number seems to be less than 3 gig available causing the problems. There are various tricks and ways suggested to enable more than 3 gig memory in a 32 bit OS but having tried them all with no success I am resigned to not fixing it with my current setup. Having also read that 32 bit OS's cannot ever really access more than 3 gig of memory, if this is the cause of the problems, then the only way I can fix it is to upgrade my OS. Hence the question in the title, if this is so are the min requirement for lotro now that you require a 64 bit OS because a 32 bit OS just can't give you enough memory.

I am interested to know if anyone else has had this problem on a 32 bit OS with RoR installed and have fixed it. Conversely, those that have no problems with RoR, are you running a similar setup to me?

My dilemmas are, do I buy a 64 bit OS in the hope that it will fix the problem? Do I go VIP or purchase future content? I know the problem is not limited to just me but I have yet to read of someone having the same problem and fixing it. Has anyone actually solved this problem and if so how did you do it? Do I just give up on the game and find something else? (I'd hate for that to be the solution).

Please post a reply if you have some constructive info etc. Meanwhile, I'll log back in again and carry on with Hytbold rebuild....

LOTRO is a 32bit application, but a 64 bit OS will help a great deal as it will allow more memory overhead for your PC to work with. Even before Rohan released, we encouraged players to choose a 64 bit OS. Especially as Vista 32 bit had some known memory handling issues with 4GB or more total memory installed in a system.

Considering XP is no longer supported by Microsoft, upgrading your OS should probably be on your 'to do' list. Given that, since there is no price difference between a 32 and 64 bit version, go with the 64.

[banjolier]

My system is intel i5 cpu @ 2.8ghz, 4 gig ram installed (2.96 gig shown available by windows) and a 1 gig Radeon HD 57xx gfx card. OS is xp 32 bit home edition.

[...]

I am interested to know if anyone else has had this problem on a 32 bit OS with RoR installed and have fixed it. Conversely, those that have no problems with RoR, are you running a similar setup to me?

I ran LotRO for quite some time on a barebones Pentium 4 3.0ghz, single-core, 32-bit, with 2gb of RAM and a 128mb business-class graphics card. I used Win7 32-bit instead of WinXP. I did have crashes once in a while, particularly during long periods of playtime, and more frequently in Dunland/GR/Rohan than in earlier areas.

But it was remarkably stable. I didn't use the computer for anything else -- all web browsing and other programs were done on a different computer. Literally, the only programs running were Windows, LotRO, and Synergy (a tiny software-KVM utility program).

One of the steps that I took to minimize crash potential was to regularly take breaks and restart the LotRO client. If I'd been playing for a couple of hours on one alt and intended to play for a while longer, I'd stop at a quest hub and exit / restart the client. If I'd been questing and was joining up for instances, I'd exit / restart the client. If I'd been working on one alt and planned to start working on another, I'd exit / restart the client. This helped keep memory leakage down to a minimum. It didn't prevent all crashes, but I didn't deal with daily crashes like some were reporting.

I used this setup until Jan 2013, when I built my current i5/Win8x64 system.

[Castorix]

OS is xp 32 bit home edition.
// ...
I am interested to know if anyone else has had this problem on a 32 bit OS with RoR installed and have fixed it.

You cannot fix it : some memory leaks have been introduced with RoR, still not fixed, and the Memory Manager of XP 32-bit cannot manage them like the one on 64-bit OS.
You can easily see the VM of lotroclient.exe increase when the leak is fired...

[Yula_the_Mighty]

What I found was the Lotro did not run well on a 32-Bit OS if you had too much memory installed. It works best if you have 2 GBs. It tends to crash a lot on machines with 4 GBs. If you got 4 GB in your machine go to a 64bit OS. Or pull out 2 GB or perhaps I GB of your RAM.

[Leixy]

I know on my HD version of lotro, my memory puts lotro about 2.2GB of system RAM (non-gpu). 2.2 GB on a 32 bit OS (esp pre-Win 8) would virtually choke off the PC from the basic needs it has for normal system operations since 32 bit OSs are capped at 3.2GB system RAM. even if you have 4 GB of RAM, on a 32 bit OS, only 3.2 GB is available to use.

besides my gaming desktops, I have 1 lappy that has lotro installed, 32 bit Win 8. to help alleviate this memory problem, I installed the non-HD version (standard) version of LOTRO which uses less system resources.

[JustAmy]

I too have a 32 bit system and I found my system crashing alot when I started into Rohan. I did some googling and found this website:

http://###################/forum/top...ders-of-rohan/

Fixed the problem right up for me.

To enable the 3GB switch on Windows Vista™ or Windows 7:

Right-click Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072"
Restart the computer.

To disable the 3GB switch:

Right-click on Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /deletevalue IncreaseUserVa"
Restart the computer.

[manstan]

"My system is intel i5 cpu @ 2.8ghz, 4 gig ram installed (2.96 gig shown available by windows) and a 1 gig Radeon HD 57xx gfx card. OS is xp 32 bit home edition."

With a 32 bit OS you will never use that 4 gig. You might have it, but it wont use it. With out a bit of tweaking that 32bit OS will never use more then 2 gig. More over that is a rather out dated card. When you step outside your comp has to render everything and your comp may not have the available ram to do it so crash.

So yes, before you spend another dime on upgrading that comp get W7 64bit. A new graphics card might help, expanding the ram will do you no good, so a new OS will give you the most bang for the buck.

[EmyrSelyf]

Prior to installing RoR I had no problems at all and the client would rarely crash. Luckily most times it crashes now is in passive situations like entering or exiting buildings

Feel free to post answers in the technical forum and follow the sticky as much as possible (on how to post there).

Is this a crash to desktop or a bluescreen or a blackscreen?

Did you work through the connection sticky, especially the section on ports?
(I'm mentioning ports especially because of the "most times" zoning crashes. This could be a second issue.)
Is the lotro client added as an exception to your firewall, virus real time scanning, and any internet provider software?
Is this the only computer accessing lotro through your router? If so, did you port forward?
Are any ports blocked by internet/security software on your machine?

Is windows update turned on? Are all drivers updated?
sound card/onboard sound, mobo bios, GPU drivers, mouse, headset, keyboard etc
Have you run MEMtest?
How big (and old) is your PSU?

Did you disk check, defrag (if not on an ssd) scan with malwarebytes and reinstall the client?
Did you reinstall directx? http://support.microsoft.com/kb/179113
Net framework? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/downl....aspx?id=30135

[catofnine]

I am interested to know if anyone else has had this problem on a 32 bit OS with RoR installed and have fixed it. Conversely, those that have no problems with RoR, are you running a similar setup to me?

I run Win 7 Pro 32 bit and Win XP pro 32 bit (dual boot) and was experiencing the crashes you mentioned while only playing RoR content and going through doorways in RoI.

My specs on my antique machine:
Athlon 64X2 Dual Core 2.6 Ghz
2GB Ram
Radeon HD5670 1gb


This solution more than anything helped with the crashing, but I do get lag spikes sometimes in mounted combat (not as much as before):

https://www.lotro.com/en/forums/show...32-bit-Windows

Scroll down for instructions for XP. I stopped crashing through doorways, whenever the music changes etc. Can play pretty much uninterrupted. I do kill all background apps i.e. no antivirus, music player just to minimize the amount of hitching that happens during mounted combat.

Hope this helps you some. Good luck!


Edit: I should mention that I play on Win 7 most of the time. I did try out RoR content in XP after the fix, and it works though.

[LordVoronturEU]

Firstly, I'm a casual player and have recently got the lotro bug again so much so that I purchased a quest pack and bought RoR edition for extra/new content. I have been VIP before and would like to do so again for more content but ever since I installed RoR and some recent patches the client crashes, with alarming regularity. It is better in non mounted combat regions it seems but can still crash. Prior to installing RoR I had no problems at all and the client would rarely crash. Luckily most times it crashes now is in passive situations like entering or exiting buildings but it has got me killed on numerous occasions as well.

My system is intel i5 cpu @ 2.8ghz, 4 gig ram installed (2.96 gig shown available by windows) and a 1 gig Radeon HD 57xx gfx card. OS is xp 32 bit home edition.

I have searched for possible causes and solutions and read so much that my eyes hurt. End result is that I am non the wiser for a solution and have an endless list of possible causes. Generally it seems to be a popular opinion that it is a memory problem and the magic number seems to be less than 3 gig available causing the problems. There are various tricks and ways suggested to enable more than 3 gig memory in a 32 bit OS but having tried them all with no success I am resigned to not fixing it with my current setup. Having also read that 32 bit OS's cannot ever really access more than 3 gig of memory, if this is the cause of the problems, then the only way I can fix it is to upgrade my OS. Hence the question in the title, if this is so are the min requirement for lotro now that you require a 64 bit OS because a 32 bit OS just can't give you enough memory.

I am interested to know if anyone else has had this problem on a 32 bit OS with RoR installed and have fixed it. Conversely, those that have no problems with RoR, are you running a similar setup to me?

My dilemmas are, do I buy a 64 bit OS in the hope that it will fix the problem? Do I go VIP or purchase future content? I know the problem is not limited to just me but I have yet to read of someone having the same problem and fixing it. Has anyone actually solved this problem and if so how did you do it? Do I just give up on the game and find something else? (I'd hate for that to be the solution).

Please post a reply if you have some constructive info etc. Meanwhile, I'll log back in again and carry on with Hytbold rebuild....

I would recommend that you invest in a new OS.
XP is on it's last legs, as far as support is concerned.
I recommend that you get one of the Windows 7 64 bit versions. Usually, when you buy the Retail copy, you get both a 32 bit and a 64 bit disc.
Avoid Vista at all costs.
Personally, I have Windows 7 Ultimate, and this is likely the best Windows OS I've ever used.
I've not tried Windows 8 yet.

[Leixy]

For gaming I highly recommend Win 8 64 bit. Less base windows memory needs, faster boot times than win 7, better graphics ability.

takes about a week to get used to the OS changes, but you'll see just as good, if not better gaming bench scores in Win 8 gaming environment. (my fps in games jumped 15% switching to Win 8 64 bit on the same machine).

and since Win 8 uses far less memory resources than Win 7, you'll have less demand from system processes on the CPU.

[PaulJK]

Thanks for all the useful replies and tips. It is about time I upgraded my OS, I've known that for awhile but XP has been good to me. I will go for a win 7 64 bit version, win 8 seems too much touchscreen based and some stuff I have read on it so far makes it look the poorer option when compared to win 7. Many thanks again to all posters

[wonkeysmoker1]

Put simply.

LOTRO is a 32bit application. Any memory above 4gb will not be usable by the application. However, a 64bit OS would have access to more than 4gb RAM. this would allow your other system processes to use the memory space above 4GB, which will free up memory for LOTRO to use.

It's possible that turbine may update this to 64bit, at some point, but given the age it's not likely.

[Castorix]

LOTRO is a 32bit application. Any memory above 4gb will not be usable by the application. However, a 64bit OS would have access to more than 4gb RAM. this would allow your other system processes to use the memory space above 4GB, which will free up memory for LOTRO to use

But if they fix the memory leaks, it will work without crashing on a >10 years old PC with XP SP1 and DX 9.0
When you release correctly the allocated memory, you don't need GB of RAM...

[Sapience]

I too have a 32 bit system and I found my system crashing alot when I started into Rohan. I did some googling and found this website:

Fixed the problem right up for me.

To enable the 3GB switch on Windows Vista™ or Windows 7:

Right-click Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072"
Restart the computer.

To disable the 3GB switch:

Right-click on Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /deletevalue IncreaseUserVa"
Restart the computer.

We have long cautioned players against this. Mostly because if you do not know exactly what this is doing and why, and how, you can cause other issues for yourself down the road.

[Almagnus1]

A word to the wise.... XP is going to stop being supported by Microsoft in April of next year.

You have no excuse to NOT be on a 64 bit OS, especially if you can hork up the money for an i5.

Why handicap yourself with an outdated OS?

[Kerin_Eldar]

Considering XP is no longer supported by Microsoft,

My Windows Update would seem to suggest you're wrong.

[xandervix_tog]

http://support.microsoft.com/lifecyc...=en-gb&c2=1173
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-AU/w...d-support-help
Mainstream Support ended 2009
Extended Support will end April 8th (or April 14th) 2014, including cessation of updates.

[Rainothon]

My Windows Update would seem to suggest you're wrong.

At this moment XP is still supported, true.

After 8th of April 2014, however, support ends.

Regardless end of support, if you have 2+ Gb RAM you will do yourself a huge favor by updating to windows 7 64bit. Forget Vista/windows 8. Windows 7 64bit is the XP of the moment, and is the win95 of the moment.

[Rainothon]

I too have a 32 bit system and I found my system crashing alot when I started into Rohan. I did some googling and found this website:

http://###################/forum/top...ders-of-rohan/

Fixed the problem right up for me.

To enable the 3GB switch on Windows Vista™ or Windows 7:

Right-click Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072"
Restart the computer.

To disable the 3GB switch:

Right-click on Command Prompt in the Accessories program group of the Start menu. Click Run as Administrator.
At the command prompt, enter "bcdedit /deletevalue IncreaseUserVa"
Restart the computer.

I'd be a bit careful with any info from a forum behind a swearword/pr0n website. What's up with that anyway? Folks on a pr0n/swearword website discussing LOTRO?

[Grimdi]

I'd be a bit careful with any info from a forum behind a swearword/pr0n website. What's up with that anyway? Folks on a pr0n/swearword website discussing LOTRO?

Or maybe the wordfilter is just going crazy (hint: it's easy to find the link with google for the last part of the URL, and it's perfectly SFW).

[Rainothon]

Or maybe the wordfilter is just going crazy (hint: it's easy to find the link with google for the last part of the URL, and it's perfectly SFW).

Oh! Wow. I'd have something to say about that if I were in the Player Council.

I'll leave it at that, though I have a lot more to say if you let me.

[PhotoRob]

A word to the wise.... XP is going to stop being supported by Microsoft in April of next year.

You have no excuse to NOT be on a 64 bit OS, especially if you can hork up the money for an i5.

Why handicap yourself with an outdated OS?

There is a perfectly good reason not to upgrade (I use the term very liberally) to a 64-bit OS. Cost. Many of us simply do not have the money to do this.

So unless you wish to help by donating funds for this, then STOP SUGGESTING IT!

[BangoTwinkletoes]

When lotro came out I used to play (and raid & pvp) on an old amd athlon xp3700+ win xp machine with 1 gig ram, a nvidia 7800gtx card (the one from 2005, not the current) and a 500mb hard disk. Worked perfectly ok, was stable and at medium settings I would get very decent FPS.

After a couple of iterations of upgrade I have now a iCore 5 3750k win 7 64bit machine, a 2gb AMD 7850 gfx card, 8 gig ram and the game running on an SSD.

Of all the improvements, it's the SSD that has made the biggest and most noticeable difference. But apart from that I'd still be certain of lotro running on the old machine, XP out-of-support-in-2014 notwithstanding.