A Few Workarounds to Get EQ2 Running on Windows XP

Written by Feldon on . Posted in EQ2, Game Updates & Maintenance

windowsxp_endoflife

CAUTION: After June 2016, barring some miraculous workaround, it will no longer be possible to play EverQuest II on Windows XP. The exact change being made has not been explained but this is what we know.

Despite going end-of-life on April 8, 2014 and no longer receiving crucial security updates, Windows XP continues to serve the computers of a surprising number of EverQuest II players a decade after its introduction. The reasons for running such an old operating system seem to center on inertia (the horror of locating and reinstalling all of one’s software) and budget. Windows 7 is not exactly a free upgrade, and Microsoft has never offered a direct XP -> 7 upgrade path. Also, Windows Driver Model, introduced with Vista and carried forth in 7, 8, and 10, has left behind a mountain of older hardware that will never sport Windows 7-compatible drivers. For those EQ2 players on a fixed income, a $300 expenditure for a new or upgraded computer and Windows 7 license can be difficult to justify.

Last Tuesday’s update brought us Fabled versions of dungeons and raid zones hearkening back to the Echoes of Faydwer expansion. It also brought an unexpected change that is making it difficult for certain Windows XP users to login to EverQuest II. This is a situation that is frustrating for both players and developers. Players want to login to EQ2 without making changes to their computers. Meanwhile the EQ2 team has to spend extra time investigating and debugging game client crashes in Windows XP — time they could spend working on other things.

After the jump, some player-reported temporary workarounds to get EQ2 running on Windows XP…

Increasing Program Memory to 3GB

32-bit versions of Windows (nearly all Windows XP installations are 32-bit) are only able to address 4GB of memory. Assuming you have 4GB of RAM, here’s some step-by-step instructions that re-shuffles your computer’s memory so that more is available for programs like EverQuest II:

(1) Go to the Start menu and in the search box type cmd, don’t hit enter.
(2) Wait until cmd.exe appears on the menu and then right click and select Run as Administrator.
(3) Run this command: BCDEDIT.EXE /Set IncreaseUserVa 3072

You can copy and paste that into the command prompt by using the right click menu (keyboard shortcuts CTRL+C and CTRL+V don’t work in the command line).

(4) Restart for the changes to take effect.

Here’s an explanation:

Windows partitions the available 4GB of address space on a 32 bit system in half, so that the kernel get 2GB and the program gets 2GB (its virtualized so each program gets 2GB). The “bcedit /set IncreaseUserVA 3072” command changes the partitioning so that each program gets 3GB and kernel space only gets 1GB. Mostly this works fine, but…you can run into trouble. It is usually some driver that runs in kernel space that has been hard coded to assume it has 2GB of address space available…

NOTE: The EverQuest II client is already “Large Address Aware” since LU44 in 2008, so once you make this change and reboot, the EQ2 client will use up to 3GB of RAM, again assuming you have 4GB total RAM.

WARNING: Changing this value can result in system instability/crashes. If you experience this issue, follow the instructions above to roll back to the default setting of 2GB for system and 2GB for programs. Change step #3 to: “BCDEDIT.EXE /deletevalue IncreaseUserVa“.

Forcing a Repatch of Assetslib.vpl

This is one of the odder fixes reported by players, but Beyoncia has reported that by deleting the file Assetslib.vpl from their EverQuest II folder, they are able to login to EQ2 when they would have otherwise crashed to the desktop.

Reporting EQ2 Client Crashes?

EverQuest II programmer Dave “Maevianiu” Kish has created a thread soliciting player crash reports. If you are experiencing crashes and remember which character/date/server you were on at the time, you can post your report there!

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Comments (13)

  • Hoot

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    I think no only paid around $30 for a direct upgrade for Windows 7 along with an OXE of XP to act as the jump platform. Costed a total of $120 when building my PC in late 2009.

    It’s 2015, and just think of the mindset of people in 2005 complaining about games not running on a PC with Windows 3.0 from 1991. Makes you wonder, do people still get upset for having to use DVD’s instead of CD’s still?

    Reply

  • Sunje

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    XP in the year 2015? cmon…

    Reply

  • Someperson

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    With the f2p model people still running xp are able to play this game. And a lot of fixed income people are still running xp. But let’s give credit to the developers. Most software companies would not go to this length

    Reply

  • Eschia

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    Some advice for those on a fixed budget, who desperately want something better than XP, and are fine with switching their OS; EQ2 runs perfectly on Ubuntu with WINE. I know what you’re thinkin… “It’s hard to use”, or “that’s a server OS”. Well my friends, this isn’t true. It has drivers for just about about anything, isn’t hard to set up, and can run most windows games. There are also linux versions of firefox, chrome, skype, and lots of other things. For what it don’t have, you can run in wine. Heck I’ve got GW2 running right now on Linux Mint. 😛

    Reply

    • Shepherd

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      I can attest to EQ2 being able to run on linux through wine. I used to hardcore raid on my Kubuntu installation. 🙂
      I recommend people installing the 32-bit system though if you intend to use ACT or just wining a lot of different programs, just ends up being a lot easier not having to use WINEPREFIX .

      Reply

    • Armageddoux

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      I have no doubt you can use it correctly, but you must remember that in case of some troubles, you will never know if this is the fault of the program (EQ2), the hosted OS (Windows XP) or the hosting OS itself (Linux). Besides : I doubt seriously that running Windows XP inside Linux may correct the problems inherent to Windows XP (Particularly as regards the limitations of memory) !

      Reply

      • Shepherd

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        wine is not a OS emulator, it doesn’t actually host another OS in it to run the programs, it just redirects the library calls to the right place. (a bit more complicated but it doesn’t use a windows image)
        You also have a choice of which windows version the program was meant for, meaning you can chose windows 7 instead of chosing windows XP if you use wine inside a linux install.

        There are some possible complications though and since it’s not officially supported by DBG you never know when a patch is going to get in your way.

        Reply

        • Eschia

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          True it’s not officially supported. This is why when I beta test a MMO under wine (currently in the closed beta for the repopulation) I try to make my bug reports as generic as possible. lol

          Reply

      • Eschia

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        Wine doesn’t emulate or host windows xp/7/vista, it’s actually a compatibility layer / wrapper that lets you double click and launch a windows .exe file and it will run like a regular linux app. Not all windows exe work but most will. It basically translates windows binary to linux binary. So the XP related memory issues aren’t present under wine.

        Reply

        • Demoneque

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          W.I.N.E. – Wine Is Not Emulation!

          Reply

  • Armageddoux

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    Some guildies of mine noticed (and they are probably right) that the BCDEdit command was added with Vista and this command is not natively known by Windows XP (though you can add it with download and some dll registrations … not so easy for basic users).

    There is an older trick for same subject which was published on http://www.guerrier-celeste.fr a year ago which explain how to do the trick without BCDEdit.exe command , you can find it at : http://www.guerrier-celeste.fr/forum/trucs-et-astuces/19-windows-reduire-les-deco-en-zonant.html

    Reply

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