Randomly Disconnects to Login Screen with no Errors

galogon · April 2016

Hey all.

So the issue is this:
I've been away from the game since Orsinium, and never before had any major disconnect, graphical or error issues. I came back to ESO about 2 weeks ago, and now, every once in a while and for at least one time during each play session, I get a sudden disconnect back to the login screen, with no visible error warning and while doing pretty much anything - questing, browsing the market, crafting, fighting a dungeon boss, etc. It simply disconnects me back to the login screen.

There really is no pattern in terms of frequency - it can happen once in a play session of 3 hours, or five times within that time period.

I've tried playing both in a laptop and a desktop, both of which using the same wired internet connection (a very stable 200mbps, wired connection with a static IP) and running on the same OS, Win 10 x64. Nothing has changed from my end since before I took a break from the game.

I also tried all the steps listed in a sticky made by Zenimax, in which I made sure no outdated addons are present (didn't remove them all though, but for what I can gather it doesn't really help much), the firewall/antivirus had the proper exceptions for the game, changed both the launcher and the eso.exe to run as admin with compatibility to XP SP3, flushed the DNS and all of that, and I also tried port forwarding directly from the router. I even went further and asked my internet provider for a complete reset of my service/router from their end, but all with no success.

Most notably, though, I tried running the 64bit client and, as it turns out, there are no Disconnects whatsoever. Problem is, it's just too buggy for me to play comfortably, with all the sound artifacts and noises, the constant textures flipping out, the UI getting stuck and acting weird and, yeah, a couple of crashes with numbered errors.

It's a shame, really, the game is in a really good place right now regarding everything else. But this is becoming such a drawback to me, especially when in happens while in party groups, as I usually have to wait a minute or two so that my in-game "ghost" disappears and I can log back in, and when I do, I usually am already out of the group.

I've seen in a couple of forum posts that there are a lot of similar cases out there. Has anyone managed to find a proper solution to this? Is Zenimax even looking into it? There's really no meaningful answer from their part anywhere.

I hope someone can help me out, and thanks in advance.

mumbling-midget · April 2016

Reading some of the posts, some people have been lucky and seem to have resolved their issues.

I've tried everything, well everything that's been suggested in the posts and via email with the powers that be.
Nothing has worked.
I can play on occasion, and play for hours....once on I don't get disconnected.
It's getting on in the first place that's the problem lol!!

The latest question from ESO Suppoer is if I can play on the NA server.
Hmmm i'm in the UK, is there a reason i'd have this installed? And if so.....how?
=D

Kenny_McCormick · April 2016

I have this issue aswell but when I get to login it takes 3 tries to log back in..
1st time it hangs.
2nd it gives me a 301 error (BTW its not my internet! I do not get DCed from Voice Chats (while I'm playing ESO or otherwise) or any other game like this!)
3rd time I can get in ( sometimes it will boot me back to login and when I get into character select it is all black..EXCEPT all the UI is there for char select)
this doesn't just happen to me on PC or Laptop..it happens to me on Console too. same exact god damn thing

so @ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_GaryA @ZOS_KaiSchober and @ZOS_TristanK this may be an issue with your servers connecting to US.....as I don't have issues connecting to your servers! this is a very big problem when you are fighting a boss and get DCed out of nowhere and login dead or at the start of the dungeon and have to do those long dungeon quests again!

this topic has been a very big issue. yet we get NO response from you Zeni

since this started what. 5 months ago? we have heard of nothing that pertains to you taking this issue as an actual problem nor will you state that this is an issue and you are working on it! all we want is to know that you know it is an issue and that you are looking into it! I have had this issue for 5 freakin months with no fix or possible fixes from you guys!

@ZOS_GinaBruno @ZOS_JessicaFolsom @ZOS_GaryA @ZOS_KaiSchober @ZOS_TristanK all I want is for one of you to atleast look into this issue. and since it has been here for 5+ months. I suspect you don't take our (The Customers) game issues very seriously.

- Kenny McCormick

Xael · April 2016

I have had this issue for quite a while now and even have a thread up that was never responded to (go figure).

http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/250735/crashing-to-login-screen-a-lot#latest

galogon · April 2016

It really is unfortunate. After a thorough search on the forums, reddit and other related communities, this seems to be a much more widespread problem than I ever realized it was. And everything seems to have started a few months back, by the time I took a break from the game.

There's clearly something wrong with the game client itself, as I have no similar issues in any other multiplayer/mmo games or even voice chats. And even more peculiar is the fact that the 64bit client doesn't seem to have this particular issue, yet the 2 year old, heavily fixed and tested 32bit client does.

Can we please get some form of acknowledgement from Zenimax and some more insight into what might be triggering these random disconnects?

Kenny_McCormick · April 2016

galogon wrote: »

It really is unfortunate. After a thorough search on the forums, reddit and other related communities, this seems to be a much more widespread problem than I ever realized it was. And everything seems to have started a few months back, by the time I took a break from the game.

There's clearly something wrong with the game client itself, as I have no similar issues in any other multiplayer/mmo games or even voice chats. And even more peculiar is the fact that the 64bit client doesn't seem to have this particular issue, yet the 2 year old, heavily fixed and tested 32bit client does.

Can we please get some form of acknowledgement from Zenimax and some more insight into what might be triggering these random disconnects?

64 bit has this issue for me now..when I first started using it it didn't..but it seems to have acquired the problem after while. I may see if it swaps back and forth. ill try the 32 bit and see if it still gives me the issue..if not and then after awhile it does. it means that what ever the issue is takes awhile to swap to the other client!

galogon · April 2016

I have since done a longer play session, and it is happening much more frequently.
There's now something like 30 minutes in-between disconnections. It's getting pretty ridiculous.

galogon · April 2016

Well, it seems all I have left is to rely on the awfully slow and near useless tickets to get some form of official "help", if there's any to be expected.

I really must say, the game is a lot of fun and the visuals are breathtaking. But the stability issues, bugs and the tech assistance (or lack thereof) are such buzz killers.
I think I'll just take a break again and hope for some form of improvement, in a year from now.

Signing off.

alefry93 · April 2016

I have the same issue every time I play every 30 minutes from the launch of the game I suddenly come get disconnected from the game without any warning or error messages.

FleetwoodSmack · April 2016

Pretty much the same. Did just about everything other than disabling my addons and reinstalling (or doing that depot folder thing). Gonna disable my addons and see if I get the boot. If I don't, well there's a few things I can post back with.

Upularity · April 2016

This issue still happening yet no fix over 2 weeks

FleetwoodSmack · April 2016

Aaaaaaand removing the addons didn't work. Well... This is certainly nice considering I bought a new rig to just PLAY the game and now it has all of this. =/

galogon · April 2016

What I find really appalling is the degree of passiveness that goes around here, regarding the game's tech assistance. I mean, the lack of communication has been a major concern since day one, and two years later it has simply worsen. Clearly the silence and generic answers spread all throughout the tech assist forum just show that the team behind ESO was and still is simply over their heads, regarding the whole game engine and the network structure behind it.

Ah, but content keeps pouring out, and the effort is dully noted, but you know what would make me properly appreciate that? Not having it tainting the core game with bugs and even more problems, each and every single time.

Seriously guys, priorities. Stability, performance, balance and Then new content, always weaving in proper Communication and Acknowledgement within your player base.

Oh, and totally on a side note, you might as well get rid of the ridiculous badge award system within the forums. A couple of stars that properly measure the amount of comments I made so far can either be great or terribly sad. I mean, how proud do you think I am of publicly wearing a star badge that translates a 100% amount of posts that either relate to game breaking problems and issues, or to a generalized dissatisfaction and disappointment with your team?

Upularity · April 2016

Note, this only happens in 32bit I login fine with 64bit.

FleetwoodSmack · April 2016

galogon wrote: »

What I find really appalling is the degree of passiveness that goes around here, regarding the game's tech assistance. I mean, the lack of communication has been a major concern since day one, and two years later it has simply worsen. Clearly the silence and generic answers spread all throughout the tech assist forum just show that the team behind ESO was and still is simply over their heads, regarding the whole game engine and the network structure behind it.

Ah, but content keeps pouring out, and the effort is dully noted, but you know what would make me properly appreciate that? Not having it tainting the core game with bugs and even more problems, each and every single time.

Seriously guys, priorities. Stability, performance, balance and Then new content, always weaving in proper Communication and Acknowledgement within your player base.

Oh, and totally on a side note, you might as well get rid of the ridiculous badge award system within the forums. A couple of stars that properly measure the amount of comments I made so far can either be great or terribly sad. I mean, how proud do you think I am of publicly wearing a star badge that translates a 100% amount of posts that either relate to game breaking problems and issues, or to a generalized dissatisfaction and disappointment with your team?

Yeah. It's pretty passive. If they can't figure it out, according to some threads they blame the user's system/ISP/ports when there shouldn't even be this problem. It's.. A perplexing issue. But apparently it's not all that widely experienced (despite the mounds and mounds of threads having this issue). It'd be nice if people posted back with the fixes. I know I will if I get my situation fixed because I don't trust CS enough to do it.

mumbling-midget · April 2016

I'LL post a fix when I find a permenant one.
Have had this problem for 3-4 weeks now.

FleetwoodSmack · April 2016

mumbling-midget wrote: »

I'LL post a fix when I find a permenant one.
Have had this problem for 3-4 weeks now.

I might have found something that might help. I posted it over here. If any of this doesn't work, I really have no idea. ._. These issues are becoming more and more frustrating.

galogon · April 2016

IndyWendieGo wrote: »

mumbling-midget wrote: »

I'LL post a fix when I find a permanent one.
Have had this problem for 3-4 weeks now.

I might have found something that might help. I posted it over here. If any of this doesn't work, I really have no idea. ._. These issues are becoming more and more frustrating.

Tried all that, nothing worked.
To be honest, right now it all comes down to Zenimax either fixing the issue on their side or simply ignoring it.

galogon · April 2016

Has anyone tried playing the game in another computer, with a wired connection to the same router and with the exact same configurations/addons installed, to see if the same symptoms occur?

I have an older desktop pc at home where I have once played ESO as well - now I usually play at my laptop with everything topped at the max graphical settings, so that I can't replicate in the desktop but I think I'll try reinstalling ESO in it and starting out with a play session with no addons whatsoever and see how it goes. I'll then add the same addons and copy over the settings.

FleetwoodSmack · April 2016

Honestly, I upped my MTU and I really think it was the SavedVariables from the addons. So I got rid of all my addons and the SavedVariables and started fresh. I was able to get over two hours today even in the heat of peaktime in Cyrodiil. Then rebooted my computer and did it again for over four hours as opposed to the crashes I've been having. It's worth a shot. Though if you start crashing after you copy the settings over then that'd be confirmation there.

galogon · April 2016

So, I'm still at the laptop and after a 2 hour play session with absolutely no addons installed and all their settings - and even the game's - completely deleted/reset, there were no disconnects at all (I had previously repaired the game and reinstalled all the addons while keeping most of the saved data and configs but it didn't work).
I'm still a little bit skeptical about it but it does seem to help. Maybe it's not the addons in themselves but related to their saved settings (or the game's) that simply might have gone awry with the new Updates and DLCs - which seems to be a trend with ESO.
I might leave it at that for at least one more day and eventually reinstall a couple of addons, but strictly the ones I consider vital for a better experience, and then see how that goes.

Also, kinda off-topic but aren't the servers getting more and more laggy these days? I've been noticing some severe spikes going up, either in the world or in dungeons.

FleetwoodSmack · April 2016

galogon wrote: »

So, I'm still at the laptop and after a 2 hour play session with absolutely no addons installed and all their settings - and even the game's - completely deleted/reset, there were no disconnects at all (I had previously repaired the game and reinstalled all the addons while keeping most of the saved data and configs but it didn't work).
I'm still a little bit skeptical about it but it does seem to help. Maybe it's not the addons in themselves but related to their saved settings (or the game's) that simply might have gone awry with the new Updates and DLCs - which seems to be a trend with ESO.
I might leave it at that for at least one more day and eventually reinstall a couple of addons, but strictly the ones I consider vital for a better experience, and then see how that goes.

Also, kinda off-topic but aren't the servers getting more and more laggy these days? I've been noticing some severe spikes going up, either in the world or in dungeons.

That's originally what I was thinking. Either something to do with the SavedVariables or the addons themselves for some weird reason. I started running addons about a day or two after seeing that I wasn't getting disconnected any longer and then raised my MTU back to 1500 which leads me to believe that it had to do with the SavedVariable folder. Wondering if the API still accesses those even if the addons are disabled or removed, in all honesty. Though with most of the addons I use, I managed to log a whopping 11 hours today since I had a free day.

And yeah. It's been kinda laggy for a while now. =/ Encountered that even with my old unit. But it's good that you got back in the game at least! \o/

Laguz · April 2016

I've also done some testing myself, since @IndyWendieGo tested with MTU and addons, I choose to test some other stuff.
I'm sure that it works to reset the SavedVariables, but I do think this is just a temporary fix. My approach was more to make the internet connection itself more reliable.

lowering the MTU is one option, but I think it only works if the network card is already fragmenting the packets,
here is the guide again for that.

then all the things in this guide, although this only lowered my ping some, still had random logouts but I would recommend them.

I also changed my default dns to the google public dns.

Then after all the above, the most important setting seem to be "Large Send Offload", just disable this. Its mentioned in the MTU guide, but this setting alone seems to be the biggest cause of random logouts.

This made my game sessions much better, without tinkering with addons etc.

Kenny_McCormick · April 2016

trying this http://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/226764/possible-solution-getting-kicked-to-log-in-screen-in-pvp-after-everyone-freezes-but-you however when I ping my mtu I get no loss of packets! so I guess I only had to disable the Large Send Offload and then I think I'm set

tell me if I'm wrong tho!

will come back after awhile of playing and will let you know if this solved my problem for now!

galogon · April 2016

For the time being, the deletion of the SavedVariables, the game configs and all addons does seem to have cleared up the random disconnects.

I have then reinstalled most of the addons I needed, reconfigured everything once more and, for now, I am free of error-less crashes to the login screen.

I am not overly optimistic though. I'll wait a couple of weeks before accounting it as a success. And if the DCs do return, I'll try the MTU thing once again with the extra steps mentioned.

FleetwoodSmack · April 2016

galogon wrote: »

For the time being, the deletion of the SavedVariables, the game configs and all addons does seem to have cleared up the random disconnects.

I have then reinstalled most of the addons I needed, reconfigured everything once more and, for now, I am free of error-less crashes to the login screen.

I am not overly optimistic though. I'll wait a couple of weeks before accounting it as a success. And if the DCs do return, I'll try the MTU thing once again with the extra steps mentioned.

Same. So far four days without that folder, three days with normal MTU and it's been working. Though for those that have abysmal ping along with those disconnects, I think it might be helpful to disable the LSO and reduce the MTU. I've been purposely trying to find the largest battles in Trueflame NA and I crashed maybe twice? But that was after a few hours of gameplay with a lot going on. Really strange.

sigsergv · April 2016

Is anyone using MasterMerchant addon? It stores huge amounts of data and could be a reason of these crashes/logout.

galogon · April 2016

sigsergv wrote: »

Is anyone using MasterMerchant addon? It stores huge amounts of data and could be a reason of these crashes/logout.

I used to, but when the disconnects started happening, it was one of the first things to go away - that, and HarvestMap. It didn't help at the time, though I haven't really tried reinstalling it again as I no longer find any need for that.

FleetwoodSmack · April 2016

galogon wrote: »

sigsergv wrote: »

Is anyone using MasterMerchant addon? It stores huge amounts of data and could be a reason of these crashes/logout.

I used to, but when the disconnects started happening, it was one of the first things to go away - that, and HarvestMap. It didn't help at the time, though I haven't really tried reinstalling it again as I no longer find any need for that.

And the same exact thing happened with me. Though I've re-installed it and no crashes what so ever still. Master Merchant that is. I don't need Harvest Map anymore since I pretty much know my runs by heart.

FleetwoodSmack · April 2016

Still no random boots to login. I'd say it's definitely something to do with the addons. @galogon has anything changed on your end yet?

Annalyse · April 2016

As of yesterday, I am having this problem also. I thought at first it was my internet connection because the minute I started playing ESO everything slowed down (navigating browsers and such) and then I would crash to the login screen after a short time (but not disconnect from the internet). However, I have since tried other games and nothing else seems to cause this issue. I have never once had a problem with ESO in the many months I have been playing so I'm not sure what is happening.

I tried the trick of removing SavedVariables and AddOns but that hasn't worked for me. I don't have access to my router since I share internet with my landlady who lives above so I can't fiddle with settings, though I did get her to try resetting it for me. Any other ideas?