AMD Known Issue shortcut problem?

[Zengez]

Ok, I had this problem when I tried to play normal EQ, so not a big surprise that the Emu has it, problem is how i fixed it seems to not fly so much...


Basically AMD duel core systems have a problem with switching threads between the CPU's and makes EQ do all sorts of crazy stuff that makes the game not playable... To fix this (for live) i downloaded a program called Run First, to make it so EQ would run on just the first CPU of my duel core system.

Problem now is, to bypass the patcher i have to put Patchme on teh end of a shortcut to EQgame.exe, but runfirst works by putting the program in teh folder, then making a shortcut to that with the intended program added afterward (example, runfirst shortcut says "C:/Sony/Everquest/Runfirst.exe" everquest.exe)

Now i thought i'd try the same concept and make the runfirst point to the shortcut for eqgame, however that appears to not work as it runs the runfirst black program then never runs the eqgame to load the game. I also tried making the runfirst shortcut point to eqgame with patchme listed afterward ("C:/Sony/Everquest/Runfirst.exe" everquest.exe patchme) and that also meets with no success... if i just do ("C:/Sony/Everquest/Runfirst.exe" everquest.exe then it comes up, must run everquest.exe, as expected.

So i know i'm not the only one out there with a duel core system and/or hyperthreaded cpu.... so has anyone else got this problem and/or know of a way to fix it? i heard theres a microsoft hotfix but you have to pay them money to decide if it's worth their time to tell you how to install it :-P

Thanks!

[Scorpious2k]

Have you tried this program? http://www.majorgeeks.com/WinLauncherXP_d870.html

[Zengez]

Awesome, just tested and it works great, thanks!

Now to find a list of ports to foward for my new server ;) 1 down, many to go to have a working world heh

[cutterjohn]

The problem is NOT switching threads between core, but a problem of a register that keeps track of time(sorry, but I don't use x86 alot and have forgotten the idiotic naming register naming scheme) go out of synch eventually between cores. So, when some bright boy programmer decides to read the timing register directly rather than going through a M$(or other) provided API AND the thread has switched cores AND the algorithm is timing dependent, BANG!, freaky results. i.e. too fast, too slow, choppy, jerks, etc.

IIRC the AMD "fix" just occasionally synchronizes the registers and adds an alternating timing method to windows startup. The download says it's for XP or XP-64, but it appears to work fine for my win2k setup as well. (I was getting insta night/day w/G3 so decided to try the AMD processor optimization fix on my win2k box and fixed the problem... no problems with any other games or apps since then either.)

BTW: If you do enough googling, and other searching you can find the exact problem description buried out there on the web somewhere.

[chazman05]

This program does not work for me, it prompts me to run EverQuest.exe