Win32 HLDS Steam & ESF Trouble

New Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
6
Best answers
0
First the good news: Unlike most of the posts I found while searching for my problem, I do not need help installing or configuring ESF to run with either WON or Steam versions of HLDS. The bad news: I am having a TON of stability problems with my ESF server under Steam.

Some of the members of this board I would be willing to bet visited my ESF 1.1 server on WON up until the release of ESF 1.2 ({mBd} Clan Server). HLStats reported over 6000 unique players were on my server since the beginning of this year. Now, like the rest of the ESF community, I am trying to make the jump to Steam (I have been using Steam for quite some time for my other mods such as cstrike and dod). Unfortunately, Steam does not want to cooperate. This is the best description I can give of the problem:

I am running Windows XP with ALL updates as of 6/8/04. This box runs HLDS ONLY, nothing else (no antivirus, no nothing). I have installed HLDS for Steam (the separate installer file, not the user version of Steam). After about 24-48 hours worth of use, HLDS (in either console mode or GUI mode) will shoot up to using 100% of my CPU cycles and will be totally unresponsive until I connect to the server and terminate the HLDS process and begin again. For someone who is trying to have a ESF server up 24/7, this is very inconvienent. My max players is typically set at 4 since I am limited in bandwith by my ISP. My WON ESF 1.1 server would occasionally crash after about a week worth of use, but since the program would completely exit (as opposed to locking up like 1.2), I was able to schedule Windows to detect if the process was running and execute it if it was not.

Now, the list of what I have tried in order to solve this problem: First of all, I disabled metamod and amx and ran the steam server without any type of modification. Same result. I then installed ESF onto my windows 2000 box and tried it there without amx or metamod. Same result. As of today (6/8/04), I have reverted back to WON using ESF 1.2 with metamod and amx installed. The server has presently been up a week with no problems whatsoever.

I know this was long winded, but I tried to cover all the bases in one post. So now comes the hard part: any suggestions?

{mBd} Brolly
{mBd} Clan Member & Server Admin
 
New Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
6
Best answers
0
Hopefully the right people read my post soon. I can't imagine I am the only person who runs a Win32 dedicated 1.2 ESF server.

Some more information: I forgot to mention that during my testing, I also ran a Steam install of Half-Life (valve) running standard Half-Life maps. All other factors remained the same (WinXP box with nothing but HLDS installed, 4 players max) and in this case the server did not crash for the week that I had it up. This was the exact same install of Steam that I was using to run ESF, I just switched to the valve mod for testing purposes. AMX and Metamod were not active for my using of the valve mod.

Also, the crashing seems to only occur when the server is in use and players are on it. Every time I check my logs after a crash, it always lists a few players and their kills and then the log just stops. No time outs or people leaving the server, the log just ends at the last kill.

More information I forgot to mention: I am using the Dedicated Server install available from the ESForces website. The version I used was the self-extracting exe.

Just to further clarify, as far as I can tell this is a problem specific to the interaction between ESF and Steam, as I don't have this problem while running ESF on WON nor when running Steam with the standard valve mod.

Once again any legitimate attempts at finding a solution are welcome.

{mBd} Brolly
{mBd} Clan Member & Server Administrator
 
Lost in space
Banned
💻 Oldtimer
Joined
Dec 21, 2003
Messages
3,608
Best answers
0
why not just do a clean install of xp , updating xp is good , but some of the updates can actually root up the system , so i only intsall nessacary ones (virus,security). if u have got service pack 2 release candidate 2 it's crap , my bro is running it and he had to play around with it , it did crap like screw the network up and i could not see him on the network plus it's a beta sp. why would any1 use a beta sp or update for xp ? it just proves the beta sp's and updates suck big time , anyway just try a clean install , install the clients for dedicated server and don't do updates all the time , or set your updating to maual not auto and take a look at what they do and so on (or if u still want a 2nd word on them , not being microsofts look up the name of the update or some text like "is it worth getting #name of update#) and see what people say bout it

EDIT: By the way , do u know how u can get evm , eea to work on 1.2 (This is not a thing i need to know but the owner of the internet cafe i go to wants to know how he can get evm working on esf1.2)
 
New Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2004
Messages
6
Best answers
0
The computer running HLDS is a very recent clean install of Windows XP. I do not have any beta SPs on this machine, and betas are only meant for testing purposes anyway. I have updated XP after the clean install, as I do all of my machines. I do not believe this is the proper place for a debate on updates, however, and I have no intention on entering into one.

Also as I stated before, I do NOT use the client version of Steam to run my dedicated server. Instead, I downloaded the file from Valve specifically meant only for dedicated Win32 Steam servers.

The bottom line is this: This machine runs ESF 1.2 just fine on WON, and runs standard Half-Life just fine on Steam. I am quantifying "just fine" as a server that runs for at least a week without crashing while being accessed by internet players. Also as I have said before, I installed ESF (on Steam) on my Windows 2000 machine and after 24-48 hours, it had the exact same result.

Obviously I appreciate any assisitance that anyone has to offer, but please read my posts before answering. Also. please do not ask your own questions in my thread. If you wish to have someone help you with your problem, please make your own threat rather than confusing mine.

{mBd} Brolly
{mBd} Clan Member & Server Admin
 
Active Member
🚂 Steam Linked
💻 Oldtimer
Joined
Nov 4, 2002
Messages
1,061
Best answers
0
Theres nothing we could do for him in server chat. I have this same problem with scorched earth and its the reason it is now running 1.1 for the time because I can't deal with the server locking up all the time like that. I don't know what is wrong with steam/esf ded but the only thing I have been able to find is...
http://forum.esforces.com/showthread.php?t=42223
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top Bottom