FARR prevents DiRT 2 from starting

[rob0t]

I have no idea how these two programs could be connected but:
Dirt 2 does not work (crashes to desktop after dirt 2 logo) if FARR is started. (and Dirt 2 starts normally after FARR is closed)
Win Vista 64bit SP2
any ideas?

[mouser]

that is straaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaange.

does Dirt2 refuse to start even if farr is minimized to tray?

[rob0t]

yes

[mouser]

wow that is strange.. i have never heard of such a thing before.. i'm trying to think how it could even happen...
did you install any extra farr plugins?
does Dirt2 give an error message?

the only thing i can think of is that FARR might reserve a hotkey that the Dirt2 program doesnt want to be reserved.. you could try going to the FARR options Hotkeys tab and unchecking all the hotkeys and then running it, to see if that makes a difference.

[rob0t]

funny, I already made same guess and checked with all hotkeys disabled and same thing happens
no error from dirt 2 (worth noting that there are many problems with dirt 2 startup - I bet not all are connected with FARR)

plugins:
data generator
farr alttab
farrfox
fcalc
farrsubscript
network connections plugin

disabling them (unticking disables them?) does not help

[lanux128]

it is strange that your game crashes with Farr running in the background.. did you launch the game with Farr? also what is your PC specs and does your copy of Dirt 2 has the GFWL account set-up properly?

[rob0t]

it sure is strange and I guess that it must be some wierd software combinatian but the game repeatedly starts when FARR is closed...
I dont launch the game with farr
I believe that GFWL works correctly because multiplayer works  
specs:
P5Q-E
E5200 @3.15GHz
4GB RAM
HD4850

[lanux128]

maybe you want to try this to see if it improves the situation: Hotfix to improve Dirt 2 performance.

• http://support.amd.c...rt2-performance.aspx

[lanux128]

btw i noticed that there is a recent patch for this game. among the issues that was fixed is "a rare crash during the loading sequence". i wonder if your game is already patched?

• http://www.bigdownlo...pc/dirt-2-v11-patch/

[rob0t]

maybe you want to try this to see if it improves the situation: Hotfix to improve Dirt 2 performance.

• http://support.amd.c...rt2-performance.aspx

-lanux128 (June 22, 2010, 10:46 AM)

it would be even more crazy if that patch helped here

also its a hotfix for some 2009 drivers
and: "This driver is provided as-is and is not supported by AMD. It has not completed full AMD testing, and is only recommended for users experiencing the particular issue described above."
and it was removed from amd servers
and description says that its for ATI CrossFireX problems

I don't think it is a good idea to install this thing

[rob0t]

btw i noticed that there is a recent patch for this game. among the issues that was fixed is "a rare crash during the loading sequence". i wonder if your game is already patched?

• http://www.bigdownlo...pc/dirt-2-v11-patch/

-lanux128 (June 22, 2010, 10:53 AM)

yes, it is patched

[lanux128]

in that case, it might be faster to write a batch file that closes Farr and launches your game and later when you're done playing, do the reverse..

[bartoncasey]

I ran in to this as well. When it ran after I killed off everything in my status tray, I figured the culprit must have been something like Daemon Tools or AVG. I was pretty surprised that it ended up being FARR. 32-bit XP here, with a single NVidia graphics card.

It's quite happy to run alongside Autohotkey. However, the autohotkey bindings don't work within the game. This makes me think that Dirt2 is doing some low-level keyboard stuff that is conflicting with FARR.

[Jabberwock]

I use Ctrl+`. It's quite convenient as it does not require looking at the keyboard (I could not do e.g. Win + function or Pause like that) and still does not interfere with my more frequently used shortcuts (I use it a lot, but not as often as my "work" cuts).

I might be a bit obsessive about it, but I don't like to move my fingers from where they belong, i.e. the home keys (yes, I know, the sentence just invites all those NSFW comments ). As my work requires quite a lot of typing - I am a translator - I prefer to have everything close to my fingertips. In my work applications I have most of the commands available as Left Alt + home-or-near-home keys, i.e. JKL;UIOPNM (<- that was easy to type  ). At some point I had even arrow keys redefined as Ctrl+JKL: but it turned out they were not used that much.

Sorry for that aside, but I think it's still on the topic, considering that FARR is all about eliminating that productivity-killing monster i.e. mouse + desktop, menus etc.

[skajfes]

I use Ctrl+`. It's quite convenient as it does not require looking at the keyboard (I could not do e.g. Win + function or Pause like that) and still does not interfere with my more frequently used shortcuts (I use it a lot, but not as often as my "work" cuts).

I might be a bit obsessive about it, but I don't like to move my fingers from where they belong, i.e. the home keys (yes, I know, the sentence just invites all those NSFW comments ). As my work requires quite a lot of typing - I am a translator - I prefer to have everything close to my fingertips. In my work applications I have most of the commands available as Left Alt + home-or-near-home keys, i.e. JKL;UIOPNM (<- that was easy to type  ). At some point I had even arrow keys redefined as Ctrl+JKL: but it turned out they were not used that much.

Sorry for that aside, but I think it's still on the topic, considering that FARR is all about eliminating that productivity-killing monster i.e. mouse + desktop, menus etc.

-Jabberwock (July 15, 2010, 03:43 AM)

Wrong thread?

[lanux128]

I use Ctrl+`. It's quite convenient as it does not require looking at the keyboard (I could not do e.g. Win + function or Pause like that) and still does not interfere with my more frequently used shortcuts (I use it a lot, but not as often as my "work" cuts).
...

-Jabberwock (July 15, 2010, 03:43 AM)

this thread would have made more sense..

• What hotkey(s) do *you* use to trigger FARR?

[andhar]

I can confirm that "Dirt 2" does not start with FARR in the background. Before starting a high performance game like dirt I close all unneccessary processes via GameBooster which is able to stop processes and restart them after switching back to "normal mode". But I never thought that FARR is the program causing the crashes of "Dirt 2". After adding FARR to the list of processes to be closed for "gaming mode" all is fine.

I use WinXP Home SP3 (32 Bit)