Alt+Tab / closing the game makes it impossible to restart it

[Entchenklein]

Hi there

I've got pretty much the same issue as this person on reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/lotro/comme...lttabbing_and/

If i start my pc and run lotro everything will work perfectly. But if i alt+tab out / click on my 2nd monitor the game will crash and i'm unable to boot it up again untill i delete my UserPreferences.ini file. The same issue occures if i just close the game normally. It seems that restarting my pc also fixes the problem.

Is there any known solution for this except for upgrading to Windows 11? Can't do that atm bc of compatibility issues.

I literally tried every possible solution u'd find on the internet. I did all the dx9 and c++ redistributable thing, i changed the UserPreferences File, i tried the steam version, i tried the different graphics settings ingame, i tried compatibility mode, etc...

My main issue isn't even that the game crashes when i alt+tab out... what really annoys me is that i can't restart it afterwards untill i restarted my pc / delete the .ini file.

Here are some of my tech specs but idk

AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor, 3.59 GHz
16.0 GB RM
Windows 10 64-Bit
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti

i'd be so grateful for any help!

[Tralfazz]

Not a fix, but a possible workaround: Run the game in Full Screen Windowed mode rather than Full Screen mode.

[Entchenklein]

Not a fix, but a possible workaround: Run the game in Full Screen Windowed mode rather than Full Screen mode.

Hi there
thanks for the suggestion, but ingame settings have no impact at all on the issue, i tried all 3 window modes

[Tralfazz]

Does this behavior occur when your second monitor is disconnected?

Do you have each of your monitors running from a different video card, or the same one?

If you have both integrated graphics and a discrete video card, are both monitors being handled by the discrete video card?

[Entchenklein]

Does this behavior occur when your second monitor is disconnected?

Do you have each of your monitors running from a different video card, or the same one?

If you have both integrated graphics and a discrete video card, are both monitors being handled by the discrete video card?

As far as i can tell both monitors are being handled by the same gpu...
having the monitor connected / disconnected doesn't have any effects on the problem

[FilmoreGraves]

I used to play this with my wife and son and all 3 of us had it working fine, game works fine for both myself and my wife from an old install we just updated.

My son however on a new install we are having issues, first it would crash trying to switch to d11 from dx 9 or even changing the resolution which was wrong for some reason. I changed that directly in the userini, changed the resolution and d3d9 to d3d11 and poof that is sorted we now have the proper resolution and the game client shows it is running in directx11.

HOWEVER he cannot alt tab out, if he does the cursor on the desktop remains the in game cursor, we can't click on anything using the mouse, I can open task manage with the keyboard but cannot right click the lotro.exe to end task. Nor can I alt tab back in game...the only thing we can do is restart the PC....

Gotta be something stupid doing this we can fix.

I posted here in this thread cause I feel the same issue may be causing these problems.

[Laura_of_Dor-lomin]

I used to play this with my wife and son and all 3 of us had it working fine, game works fine for both myself and my wife from an old install we just updated.

My son however on a new install we are having issues, first it would crash trying to switch to d11 from dx 9 or even changing the resolution which was wrong for some reason. I changed that directly in the userini, changed the resolution and d3d9 to d3d11 and poof that is sorted we now have the proper resolution and the game client shows it is running in directx11.

HOWEVER he cannot alt tab out, if he does the cursor on the desktop remains the in game cursor, we can't click on anything using the mouse, I can open task manage with the keyboard but cannot right click the lotro.exe to end task. Nor can I alt tab back in game...the only thing we can do is restart the PC....

Gotta be something stupid doing this we can fix.

I posted here in this thread cause I feel the same issue may be causing these problems.

Hi! Have you tried the solution at the top of this thread? Sounds very similar. There's also other tips farther down that might help if the initial post does not. If it helps, consider bumping that thread up via a reply!

[FilmoreGraves]

Hi! Have you tried the solution at the top of this thread? Sounds very similar. There's also other tips farther down that might help if the initial post does not. If it helps, consider bumping that thread up via a reply!

I will give it a try but the game itself isn't crashing it is still there it's just like it wont come back to the front and I am not sure why when alt tabbed out the mouse cursor remain the in game version instead of changing to the normal desktop cursor.

[FilmoreGraves]

Tried eveything in the other Hugin thread and the game just wont work on dx9 and the fixes do nothing. The game works on dx11 however while I got the game working in that you can change resolutions etc go FS or windowed you I canot alt tab out.

When I do alt tab out I got my cursor like normal now so can click around on the desktop etc HOWEVER when I either alt tab back to the game or click the lotro icon on the taskbar the cursor changes to the game cursor but the game itself never comes to the front. At this point I can't get my regular desktop cursor back so...

I have to either restart the PC or ctrl alt del and sign out and back on to get the client to close. I did note when I do ctrl alt del that little wondows that pops up give me my regular mouse cursor back but if I choose open task manager it goes back to the game cursor and unable to click anything ont he desktop or task manager.

[Entchenklein]

I'm kinda disappointed, ngl... This kind of problem seems to be a huge issue for a lot of players for a long time. i don't get why there is no effort to adress it.

[Dervacus]

Are you running your 2nd monitor to extend LotRO or are you using it for browsing/etc.?

[Entchenklein]

Are you running your 2nd monitor to extend LotRO or are you using it for browsing/etc.?

I'm using it for browsing but i can legit pluck it out & it won't make a difference....

[Dervacus]

I'm using it for browsing but i can legit pluck it out & it won't make a difference....

I have the same set up. I use my main for playing LotRO and my 2nd monitor for browser. As Tralfazz stated, you'll want to go to Options > Graphics > Display > Screen Mode > Full Screen (Windowed). You will never need to use ALT+TAB as this option will allow you to move your cursor freely between the two monitors

[Entchenklein]

I have the same set up. I use my main for playing LotRO and my 2nd monitor for browser. As Tralfazz stated, you'll want to go to Options > Graphics > Display > Screen Mode > Full Screen (Windowed). You will never need to use ALT+TAB as this option will allow you to move your cursor freely between the two monitors

the game will also crash if i use windows full screen and just move my mouse outside of the game & click on smth, it doesnt matter if i actualy use alt+tab or anything else

[Dervacus]

the game will also crash if i use windows full screen and just move my mouse outside of the game & click on smth, it doesnt matter if i actualy use alt+tab or anything else

Yikes! It shouldn't do that so hopefully someone can help you