*Sigh*

After a nice format and reinstall of Vista (version Ultimate 64-bit,  SP1), I installed MXO from the CDs.  Everything goes smoothly until it tries to update the game.  Then it runs forever, takes hours in which the green download bar goes up and down, while the blue update bar stays just shy of the top...before returning a "bad checksum", "Code - 2" and asking if I have a possible virus.

I wanted to get this post out there, but I'll also try to do a grab of the message next time I'm on that machine.  Meanwhile, I'm installing the game to a secondary hard drive.  And I've tried:

• Defragmenting after install and before update
• Defragging again after all files are downloaded
• Killing all unnecessary programs and services and raising priority to "High"
• Removing the files to see if re-downloading them would go correctly
• Reinstalling to a different folder
• Running install as Admin (or not), running game as Admin (or not), or just disabling UAC altogether
• Letting Vista have swap space on the secondary drive too
• Using Station Launcher to update the game (same error message occurs)
• Uninstall.  Defrag.  Let installer get through disc 1, defrag, disc 2, defrag, disc 3, defrag, run updater, defrag, run updater again
• Launch using a commmand-line switch that sets High Priority to launcher.exe and matrix.exe

It seems to get hung up on the .pkb files, in particular, sounds.pkb.  Sometimes it's one file that throws the error, sometimes it's another.  I've even gone bat-looney and given full control rights to all users, dropped the firewall and A/V programs, and installed, run, and updated the game, all to the same result.

I'm going to try copying all the files from another (up-to-date) Vista machine and see if that helps.  If not, I'll try installing on C:\.  But I'm baffled--before the format, I'd had it installed on the secondary drive with no problems.

Suggestions?  Ideas?  I'm stumped!

Specs:

ASUS A8N SLi Deluxe Motherboard

AMD Athlon X2 4400+ @ 2.2GHz

4GB OCZ Platinum RAM at recommended voltage and timings (4 x 1GB, Dual-channel enabled, etc.)

2 separate (but identical) WD SATA 2.0 (3.0Gb/s) HDs, with ReadyBoost on dedicated hi-speed Patriot XT 4GB USB Drive

2 x BFG Tech nVidia 8800GTS OC, 512MB ea.in SLi

Sound Blaster Audigy X-FI Audio card

SATA 2.0 DVD +/- RW drive

Vista Ultimate 64-bit edition

WEI 5.0

I've been reading a lot about in-game advertising lately, and I thought we could use this thread to post our thoughts.  At this time, the impression I get is that MXO is understaffed because it's underfunded.  More sponsorship would mean more revenue, which in turn leads to more people and more stuff.  The Matrix is the perfect environment to do this because it's a simulation of a reality very similar to our own.

My thoughts:

1) Intel, Alienware, MS Development: good.  Chattering Jeep billboards: bad.

2) Biggest squandered opportunity:  fashion.  No other game places as much emphasis on your look and your style.  Show this to major fashion labels, and just like Rocawear, they'll be on board.  The big plus here is the subtlety:  what fashion junkie wouldn't want to show off a genuine look?  SOE could pitch this to everyone from Armani to Hot Topic and someone's going to want to bite.  You keep in continuity because the style of the Matrix films is not only high-fashion, but it set some fashion trends of its own.

 3) Last thing anyone wants to see:  NASCAR-ism.  Keep ad space as-is, don't grow any new billboards, just fill the ones you've got and do so in a way that fits the audience: we prefer gaming and computers more than we do Geico and Chrysler.

Hello:

 I'll cut straight to it and share all I've learned and what I've done.

My system is:

AMD AthlonXP 3200+ (Barton Core @ 400MHz, 2.2GHz)

GigaByte GA/7N400 Pro 2 ATX motherboard (nVidia nForce2 @ 67MHz, dual channel, ultra400, multiplier 11.0)

2GB OCZ Enhanced Latency DDR 400 (PC 3200) RAM @ 2X1024MB dual-channel configured (2.6V @ 2-3-2-6)

eVGA nVidia GeForce 7800 GS SC 256MB AGP (yes AGP) (460MHz core, 1350MHz memory stock settings)

160GB SATA Western Digital Caviar SE HD @ 7200RPM (on motherboard controller) <--Windows XP SP-2

Sound Blaster Audigy X-Fi Fatal1ty edition

Sony DRU 530A DVD+/-RW

Microsoft Wireless Natural Keyboard/Wireless Intellimouse Explorer, Belkin Nostromo n52

10/100 Ethernet connection to LinkSys WRT54GX Wireless G router, Motorola SB5100 SurfBoard cable modem, 512K (down) broadband (128K up)

Rules:

No overclocking, all drivers and supporting software (e.g., nVidia nForce utility) kept up to date, Avast Antivirus/Firewall suite, SpyBot/Ad-Aware all run regularly and kept updated, hard drive defragmented regularly and system patched as updates are released.  Close all non-essential apps and minimize what loads on startup if possible

Water-cooled:  Koolance EXOS runs to CPU, hard drives (see below), video card's GPU *and* voltage regulator (one block each), sound card, and north bridge nForce chipset.  CPU temp at full load is ~52C, GPU ~54C, overall system temp ~41C

This machine will run any game you can buy, for hours on end, and never crash.  With The Matrix Online, it crashes at random.  Trouble is, I can never find anything, in any logs, telling me what went wrong.  I'll be playing and the screen will go black, about 5 seconds later I'll get a half-second long loop of sound, that stutters and replays, and everything's locked solid and only recoverable by a reboot.

The reason I think I may be different from all the cases I've searched through here is that after the crash, when I reboot and get back in, my performance goes up!  Everything runs really smooth, AA on full, high framerate, etc.  It's as if there was some sort of "clutter" (temp files? memory leaks?) created by the program that it dumped out and managed to clear away

Here's what I've tried:

Various settings, low and high (still crashes on low about as often as on high), manual and "automatic" (using MXO presets or tweaking elements individually)

Re-installing

Doing the "Tricksy" program check the way described at http://forums.station.sony.com/mxo/..._id=12400011161

Underclocking

Removing side panel from case (still maintain system fans with clean airflow front to back and a fancard with open slot beneath it on the video card)

Manually locking in Page File size, or letting Windows manage my Page File

Power Supply upgraded to Ultra X-Connect 2 550W dual rail Continuous Power System

And now:

MXO is now installed on a soft SATA RAID array of two drives @ 250GB ea., hooked to a dedicated PCI RAID card @ 3.0Gb/sec. transfer rate (dual Western Digital Caviar 7200RPM SATA 16MB Cache) that simply screams through the Promise (Silicon Image chipset) 4-port controller

I'm beginning to think the problem has something to do with "garbage management", be that temp files on the hard drive or areas of system or video memory that aren't getting properly cleaned out.  But I'd need some help to find out for sure.

 Thanks in advance to anyone who can offer me advice.

 WinterMute

 (DXDiag and config log follows)