houtex

Aaannndd... I spoke too soon.

I probably should have exited and reentered, but I didn't. I wanted to play.

But just now, I started it up... and the error is back. And that word is back in the registry key.

Odd. o.0

So I dunno what I'm doin' wrong to get that flag set, but I'm doin' it. I'm awesome that way.

Maybe it's because I keep running the Brawl/WP Brute on Champion. Or the Gimp Mode Laptop Warrior on Guardian. Exceptin' those, I've not run any others during this error time.

Is there anything else you want me to try, Tex, or anyone? I'm game, to a certain extent, but reminder: Game works, really don't care, but am willing to help the Devs if I can with this. I know I'm not the only one, and there is *a* reason that flag gets set... just what, I dunno.

Merry Holidays and such.

Unpossible right?

WRONG.

And no, it's NOT the Internet, although you'd think a computer guy like myself
would heavliy use it...

No, I'm a 'hands on, brick and mortar' kind of shopper. I'm not into getting things, then returning them because they don't fit or whatever, because I couldn't put my hands on it. Oh, I've done it, but every time I worry "it is right?" And sometimes... no, it's not. Arrgh.

In any event, this Christmas, I've had... well, issues... shopping. I am justthat messed up, and so *today was the fracking day*.

One lucky thing is that we all in my groupage draw names, so I only have to worry about 5 kids and 1 adult, and bring food... which reminds me, I have to get that stuff to make the thing I'm makin'... meh.

So, anyway, filled with excitement, dread, and forboding, and also realizing that even with 'just 6' people to deal with... this could take *all day*.

I was done in 2.5 hours. And that is mostly travel!

The shopping experience:

1) Get up, get dressed, deal with morning pains and such, get the fudge out of the house.
2) Get fuel for my car
3) Get fuel for myself in the form of a breakfast sammich.
4) Drive to Toys R Us.
5) Shop for everyone, and DONE.
6) Head to home, but stop for lunch.
7) Actually get home, unpack the car.

That's right, Toys R Us had everything I needed, on Christmas Eve, including what I needed for my adult. They are ALL getting what they would want/need/have to have.

I'm just uber pleased with myself. And I thought this was gonna be horrible.

So, folks, remember, if you absolutely, positively, have to buy anything for anyone and it has to be done in one stop, one day? Toys R Us. You could *live* there, if they'd let you.

Well, except they don't have internet, so I couldn't run City of Heroes there. (And with this line, it's now an officially "game-related" post, as required by the forum descripion. Praise me. PRAISE ME!)

Merry Christmas to all, and Happy New Year too!

/please note, this is not a plug for Toys R Us. Not at all. It could probably have been Target or WallyWorld or (insert mega-store here).
//City of Heroes
///City of Villains
////Going Rogue
/////FREEEDOOOOOMMMMMM!!!
//////There. All talked about. You're welcome Mods/Devs!

If THIS is your computer:
http://www.dell.com/us/dfh/p/inspiron-530s/pd

Then you won't be buying just *any* power supply:
https://www.google.com/#q=dell+530s+...w=1680&bih=892

Weaksauce 250? Nice. Although I do see a 400W from a place I've never SEEN before...

Also, I'm not terribly sure a standard power supply will work anyway, as Dell has been known to wire their completely differently. That difference can result in a dead motherboard when a 'regular' power supply is plugged in, although I can't specifically speak for the 530s and it's mobo's wiring.

THIS, people, is why you do not buy a botique or cute looking, or just plain small boxed computer... parts for it SUCK. You might as well buy a laptop in the first place.

I sincerely wish you luck, VoodooGirl.

/I might be a little bit biased by years of abuse... er, experience, with these kinds of things...

The flesh eating bacteria will run rampant and eat us all... and may or may not result in zombification, but that's a low percentage chance-to-hit, I'd guess.

Or maybe the sun will have a massive rogue planet zoom into it, upon which it belches out a gigantic CME that incinerates us all (as there is writing that says there won't be a flood again... but there will be fire... that'd be a fire, I think.)

Or the god/spiking earth thing. I kinda like that. It'd put us in our place on how things really are(tm)

/Matuse: Hush you. There is paranoia to spread, logic and reason don't apply here.

You know how there's (supposedly) no two snowflakes alike? (Although I really think this has been disproven, but let's go with it...)

Well, that's about what all my characters are: different. From an overwhelmingly (for me, anyway) uberpowerful claws/WP scrapper, to a very potent Mind/Emp 'troller, to a beautiful, but evil, maiden who controls zombies, and makes them dance to Macho Man and recite Who's on First, with emotes (or used to... I gotta fix that one day, they messed it all up, silly Devs. ), to a stalker woman who wears next to nothing, to a wholly different stalker who wears a clown costume, to, my latest, a brawl only brute with will power and build up.

Different things make me happy... and that is but a short list of my fun characters.

Ok, so I took out CrashPromptSafeMode like you suggested to me Tex, just to see how it worked without it.

I *almost* thought about putting 'nothing' there, replacing CrashPromptSafeMode, but figured that might make the game mad. Anyway, I deleted the CrashPromptSafeMode and exited the registry editor. Started up via the icon on the desktop... launcher launches...

>>>>>Tada!!!<<<<<
No error! Yay and such. I then stuck myself into the game, and didn't come out of it for quite a while.

So... that string must be gettin' stuck in there at some point... although I, for the life of me, cannot remember the last time I ever crashed with Co*... it has been a WHILE. Perhaps it was a power outage... but again, that happened quite a while back, and I don't remember this immediately popping up when power came back and I started the client again...

If it matters... I would ask that there be a 'No, don't start, just quit' option on that error, as well as it actually DO what it says... i.e, go into Safe Mode if I tell it to. The hope is, of course, that this doesn't pop up, but if it does... it'd be nice if it worked the way it was supposed to... namely, "ok" = Safe Mode (and it actually do that), and 'X' = Don't run the game. Which means there really ought to be an 'Ignore' button to let you bang your head against a wall, and there ought to be an actual 'Cancel' button instead of the 'X'.

But again, what do I know. I'm just a former programmer of industrial operator interfaces and PLC monitoring/actioning runtime programs from the old DOS days who somehow migrated into networking, computer hardware and software, telephone operations, cabling, and punchdowns, Internet connectivity and routing, home theatre stuff (begrudginly, but it's part of the job...)

Oh, and I can do bathroom partitions. Seriously. Actually nice work, pays decent, but man the s**t you gotta deal with...

I think that's it... Uh, anyway, the dialog is broken. Fix it.

But first, thanks much for your help, Tex! That registry entry was it!

/Like number 99342 on the list of 1000000 things you gotta do, right?

Much ado about not a whole lot here people.

1) If the Co* database is hacked... you will lose, perhaps a couple of days of playing time. Maybe. The database IS backed up... this is how things CAN BE brought back. It has already happened. So if the ENTIRE database is hacked... you clean up the mess, close the hole, and restore the servers from a couple of days ago... maybe not in that order, but pretty much.

2) If the User accounts are hacked, more games can be purchased, or perhaps items. Either of which can be used for 'gone to the americans!' type horrificness. But again, that's where backups could be important, as well as a good Customer Service to fix that issue. And change your password, yo.

3) If the credit card information database is hacked, this also can be dealt with. Everyone gets a freebie short credit alert plan, as Paragon Studios and NCSoft should make it so, and then it's not terribly hard to get a police statement, send it off, and protect yourself for 7 years. This, in effect is what I did... SOMEONE got my info, and opened a couple of accounts. I caught them doing it pretty quick, and shut it all down in about 1 day.

It's scary, sure, but once you've been robbed at knifepoint, had the house burgled, and had your personal information violated... it's just not a huge deal anymore, to me.

Let 'em get my CC info. It won't work in 1 day, if it works at all for ya. I'm watchin youuuu...

/Of course, this is my 'merican experience, so if you're not 'merican, then your issues with this kind of stuff might differ.
//Really tryin' to not need any credit anything, so I can't care much anymore about my credit score these days...
///Hopefully soon(tm) it'll all be over, and I'll never need Credit again.
////That's a day I'll be gettin' drunk about.

Epic. Simply Epic.

Now all that's left (if it's not been done yet) is to have Sister Flame immortalized in Co* somewhere. I don't think that's been done... Perhaps a trainer, or maybe a contact that sends you off on an adventure regarding Clockwork.

I demand this thread be balanced out with more Orion Slave Elf Women. Make it so... oh, wait, wrong show... Well, do it anyway.

Btw, obviously, I'm just posting as I go, so... bear with.

So this time, when I exited the safe mode (did it again, just because I thought maybe I messed up, Safe Mode looks so... good...) I didn't abort the countdown to exit... I just let it count down...

Play now... Nope, error. Heh. Almost amusing now...

Exit, now I'm gonna specifically go into Safe Mode by TELLING it to via the launcher, rather than have it recommend it with the error... Click that box... play now... error

Wait, what?! Why am I getting an error when I clearly WANT to start safe mode...?

Grr... fine, OK. And then.. zOMG SCREEN IT BLACK!!1!!eleventyunexpected!!11!

Oh... NOW it's in actual Safe Mode.

So... Note to all, the 'wanna start in safe mode?' question is, as I understand the cake is in Portal, a LIE. It won't do it! Boo, Paragon Studios Devs. Boo.

But I love you all the same, so don't hurt me much, k?

Ok, NOW I'm in Safe Mode... there. It looks properly hoopty. But now there's an invisible cursor. Boy THAT is fun right there, folks... but... I figure my way through... and.... exited.

That was painful. Ok, Safe Mode officially actually happened. Now... let's see what we hath wrought... exit the launcher. Start over...

Nope. ok, gotta go in.. wha...? Oh, oops, forgot to uncheck safe mode..

Ok, start over again... scratch... run the Co* icon... launcher... loading... blam, error.

So. I'm now done. I don't care. I get in, I can play... I'm fine.

It's obviously broken... perhaps it's a Vista32 thing. Or maybe it's like Joker Products... lipstick alone won't kill ya, but lipstick + deodorant=deathly grin from Smilex.

Meh. Ok, y'all have fun in the thread, I'm out. G'night, and thanks for watching!

(Thanks, TJ... as you see, it actually wasn't goin' in SM. I'll PM Warrant probably later maybe if I feel like it. Not sure I care anymore, it's just weird. I'm ok with weird, as long as it plays. )

(Edit - I was writing this when you posted, TJ, so the first sentence looks a little odd... I agree, something to try. So I did, posted, and... then yours showed up. Heh.)

As a lark, although I'm generally loathe to go Safe Mode... ugh... I did it. Just to the login screen. Then I got out... then started it again... Error again.

Ok, go safe mode, and then log in with Notebook Warrior on Guardian. He's what I use for my crappy lappy, which is akin to safe mode when it's running. Well, when I had it. It died, this new one... well, lets just say I really don't care to run Co* with it anyway, so I don't know what it looks like in it.

Well, safe mode is... Huh. Safe mode looks oddly like... normal mode? When did that happen? Odd. I'll have to look up what's different about safe vs normal now... used to be it went 640x480 and lowest graphics...

Guess I missed something.

Well, ok, so that's safe mode. Coulda fooled me. Whatevs. Exiting now... Quit all the way to desktop, no issues.

Ok, startup now... Nope, still gettin' it.

Weird. o.0

Ok, so with the game checked, it's off to do the drivers... I have done so.

Old: 280.26
Newest: 285.62

Let's see how that works...

Blap. Message. Click the X... go in to the login... Log in... zone in... play around with Insane Chopper on Champion... Smack some baddies around, get a present, get +2 Frostlings from that, die, and close the game up, quit to desktop. Normal.

So... I did NOT CRASH. I played normally, except for that message.

Gonna start it again, from scratch... click the Co* icon... NC launcher shows up... Biff, error again.

This time, I don't even go in, I just exit at the log in. The launcher is still running... so I'll hit 'play now.'...

Chuck Testa? Nooope, error message.

I think there's something fundamentally broken. It's not a huge deal, as I just X the X (X all the Xs?) but I find it... odd.

Slightly irritating, yes... but... more odd than anything else.

While I'm open to ideas, I pretty much don't really care. Just in case anyone else has it... there's a head start for ya... but just 'X' it and don't worry, and it'll be fine, I bet.

/odd they don't have a "don't start" option on the thing.. just 'Ok' (which means 'safe mode') and 'X' (which means 'run normally?' )

So, after I posted this, I went ahead and started the game up, but only to the login, then exited the thing.

Using the Launcher, I did the Repair (Consistency Check) option, and it's just completed....

Starting up...

Blam, there's that error message.

Odd. o.0

http://boards.cityofheroes.com/showthread.php?t=280383

This thread's the only one I know of talkin' about this message... if there are others, well, enlighten me.

I have this error as well. Verbatim:

Frellin' 1 and 2 years away. So it'll be 2.5 before I see them, because I'll wait until they both have 2 DVDs worth of extra materials, just like I did with the LotR trilogy.

I *intentionally* stayed away from all three of them, then saw them in glorious awesomeness over 6 days after I finally got the third DVD set.

It was epic, and worth the wait for the right version (i.e., 15 hours of it. )

And so it will be that I will wait for 2.5 years to get the extended version the Hobbits, in glorious 5-6 hours of 2-3 days worth of viewing awesome.

Enjoy it when y'all go, but don't tell me.

/already know this story.
//didn't know latter half of Two Towers, and none of the Return of the King, so it was sweet newness... hard to come by these decades.

Lose the tights. They clash.



Very nice!

Huh. While not on Liberty, I was recently (couple of days or so ago?) trying to fight fires in Champion... Must be the coffee..?

Maybe it was a patch afterwards, but I don't recall one...

It took me a while to get that "DANGIT, I'M RIGHT AND YOU ALL AREN'T" type of attitude outta my system. Probably still some lurkin', but I suppress it... totally not worth an anyurism.

Now, I don't generally answer threads unless one of two things happen:

1) I can be a smart-alec and get away with it, if desired...
2) and/or I can be helpful, or at least think I might...

If I have an *opinion*, I take it up with rules 1 and 2, and then go with rule three as a decider:

3) I do not have to do anything, except maybe hit 'next'. Might not be worth it to post.

And dismiss the topic from my head when rule 3 is executed. Oh, yeah, and this:

4) The internet (which includes forums) is full of idiots, myself included. So I take it all with a grain of salt, and don't overreact, or get high blood pressure. Totally not worth it.

There. Think that about covers it. I enjoy dabbling with the forums, but it's not like I have to be right or make someone believe my point of view. I'll tell my side, maybe a couple of follow ups, but then... kinda got other stuff to do.

/dunno if that helps, but I had the same issue a while back, so...

I... don't believe I missed this. How did that ever happen...?*cough*forum bug*cough*...

Well, I'm sure that China will be a good thing(tm) for ya. But for us, I think this sums it up:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSZwL...eature=related
Just insert '' 'tea" for "piggy" and it'll be about right, methinks.

Be well, Avatea! Don't be a stranger!

/in case she comes lurkin' in...

Cowering behind a rock with a PU Teammate in Talos, with a mission door being 'guarded' by some +6 or so Freakshow. Bad enough, but then I wailed in Broadcast "we need help! C'mere and get these +6 baddies outta our door! Pleeeease!"

At the time, both of us were awful sure there was NO WAY we could just run past the baddies click the door and dive in the mission...

Quite a few someones actually answered the call, dispatched the two baddies... I mentioned it was only two minions, right? And then said "That's it?"

"Yep! Thanks!"

"Uh... ok."

At which point, I figured it out, and my mind screamed "NOOB!" But off we went and had a grand time in the mission.

/Before I learned now to run across the Hollows as a level 1.
//Before the Empire... er, Rogue Isles.

I don't know DC. But I do sympathize with all of you who do. My sincere best wishes to DC and his family. I don't know what else to say about that.

But I do I have to say this: I'm with Jennifer-Anne Lulipop. Whether or not DC can hear, or read, it, tell him anyway.

/Imma fix my motorcycle this weekend, I hope, and get on it on Christmas Day. Been too long... again.
//"...live like you were dyin'."

I've always thought it said, for some reason:

"The Brothers and the Sisters! The UK is in the house!"

But perhaps I'm mistaken. And yeah, there needs to be some new music. Perhaps they can tune to one of those CO* radio stations...

/'Scuse me, while I kiss this guy.
//Burnin' up the streets of Avalon.
///I see a bathroom on the right.

These are totally sweet! Well done, Rockmar!

/may dig out a couple for ya later...