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Generic Troubleshooting Page


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Title. Fixes for generic issues and stuff.

 

I brought it up again just in case.

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I am thinking that we need a set of 'Guides' that are formatted very differently from a normal page. Perhaps it could benefit from a new namespace.

 

For example:

Guide:Windows game troubleshooting

Guide:Linux gaming beginner's guide

Guide:PC gaming on a TV and couch (this one exists already)

 

So for Ratchet's example, we could do 'Guide:Windows game troubleshooting' to cover everything you'd need to check first.

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There could still be a generic Windows troubleshooting page, along with a list of all the OSs, as you listed them on your page.

 

The pages will probably shape up better once some work on them is started.

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Some of the most generic things that comes to my mind:

  • Update your graphics card drivers (with link to graphics card page)
  • Update your audio card drivers (with link to audio card page)
  • Update DirectX (with link either to Microsoft Windows page or directX page, directly the web updater or the dedicated knowledge base article)
  • Update Windows with everything (as in there's the green tick in windows update after updates checking has been performed)
  • Update your BIOS/chipset/joystick/network adapter/disk/mouse/keyboard driver-firmware
  • Disable (and if necessary even try to temporarily uninstall) any AV software
  • Make sure codecs aren't messed up
  • Disable v-sync if game lags [and if this solved your issue but you hate tearing as hell check here(we should write on this last page something more about triple buffering perhaps)]
  • If this still hasn't solved lag, lower quality settings (noshit sherlock)
  • Make sure there's no high load activity on your network before playing online games (noshit sherlock)²
  • Make sure cpu (link to task manager) and gpu (link to either gpu-z, msi afterburner, whatever) are free (~0% activity) before starting games
  • If you have an IGP and a dedicated graphics card make sure you are not using the former [with a link to an hypothetic nvidia optimus paragraph in an intel or nvidia page (why I never heard of issues with amd enduro?)]
  • Fullscreen should give a bit more performance than windowed mode (ok, i really don't remember what were the facts behind this claim, and I don't even know if it's still true nowadays)
  • Try to disable overlays (steam/origin/uplay/rivatuner/fraps) if there are problems

 

 

ThatOneReaper, if you are reading this, I haven't forgot what I said you yesterday.. but I couldn't respect my deadlines for today.. I'll try to word everything in the next days

 

 

EDIT: some of these are really generic, others are windows specific.. I guess we should have move the latter to OS specific pages and just have a link for every one in generic page.

Generic page should then be possibly included under ==Issues fixed== for every game

Edited by Mirh
added link to chipset
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  • 2 months later...

Oh, this is a pesky one: sometimes games will refuse to run, just because they conflict with some -god-only-knows-why- not well identified human interface device.

 

Which basically means everything that's USB (from mouses to webcams.. to cpu coolers) may potentially have side effects with some software.

 

Years ago I had something similar with burnout paradise, but I can't now reproduce it anymore (it would have been nice to find a solution other than disabling/disconnecting the device)

 

EDIT: DriverView and DevManView are fantastic to check this kind of things

Edited by Mirh
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Considering we already have Microsoft Windows page issues, I'd say a fair distinction between the two articles is needed.

 

Imo, generic troubleshooting should list everything you would already expect somebody to have done, while the other one should just be a place for the common actions some games might require

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  • 1 month later...

Should we give for granted that users must already have external libraries updated?

For example, here

 

EDIT: Mirror%27s_Edge#Issues_fixed

Edited by Mirh
IP.board screwed link of course
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Games using PhysX typically fail with no feedback (game exits or crashes with no error message), so I'd lean towards covering it on that basis. There is also the issue of legacy PhysX--games bundling AGEIA's PhysX installers need Nvidia's legacy installer in order to use those versions alongside modern PhysX.

 

Games relying on other dependencies like DirectX, .NET, or C++ will typically show an error message naming the missing file.

​

​I've been thinking recently about the best way of handling such crucial cases (which is currently done through manual listing in the key points).

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Legacy Physx is more of an exceptional case imo. It definitively needs to be mentioned.

 

Though, I'd say that the point is not whether there's an error message (I know a couple of noobs that even then wouldn't know what to do with the exotic VC++ warning message) but whether we should assume those components (if present) should always be updated.

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  • 2 months later...

I have made a WIP version: User:Garrett/Troubleshooting. Feel free to edit/expand/etc. Main page has no styling for now (navigation layout would probably be something clear like the editing guide).

Legacy pages (e.g. Rainbow color problems in older games) are currently linked to but would be absorbed in altered form when the troubleshooting pages go live.

Information from User:Garrett/Research would also be included but completely rewritten/rearranged.

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Guest

Did you pick a name for the page yet? Would Generic Game Troubleshooting be okay? Along with Windows Game Troubleshooting.

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