Fixes for common problems PLEASE READ HERE FOR SERIOUSLY ACHIEVEMENT BUG!!!!

[T35513R]

The following comes from T-Bone regarding Chainsaw in his post here

Chainsaw FAQ:

Hey guys I did some experimenting with the Chainsaw and I found some interesting information that some of you might be interested in.

To start.

1) The magic number of shots to take down an opponent's chainsaw is specifically three ammo shots. Does not matter if its the lancer, hammerburst, or COQ pistol. Now timing is everything. You have to shoot the three shots fast and effective. Roughly under two seconds or your opponents chainsaw will not lower. He will just continue to run. Now weapons such as the shotgun roughly takes one "good" hit and I mean good. Sometimes two. The flamethrower just needs one quick push of the trigger which will use two of its ammo. Cool thing about the flamethrower is that it's so powerful that if you land two ammo shots your opponent is pratically dead. The Boltak Pistol only needs one shot to disrupt an opponent's chainsaw. Now I will not discuss the other weapons because if you hit an opponent its not going to matter if they have the chainsaw out because they will be dead. (ex. boom and torque.)

2) If you are trying to chainsaw someone and they knock your chainsaw down you have to wait three seconds before chainsawing again. The reason is that if you try to chainsaw under three seconds you will stumble back again such as if your chainsaw got lowered again. Why this happens I do not know. It just appears to be a glitch.

Now I will talk about the vision of the person trying to chainsaw.

3) If you have your chainsaw up and you have an enemy close by. Roughly two to three feet in front of you. You will pull them in and turn them into kibble and bits.

4) If you have your chainsaw up and your opponent is right up against you and 90 degrees left from your vision (or directly left of your character) you will chainsaw them.

5) That fact is not the same if your opponent is on your right. If your opponent is on your right side. They have to be roughly 45 degrees from your right. If they are directly to your right (or 90 degrees) you will not chainsaw them automatically. I assume that this is the proper angle that you should be at when chainsawing someone. Which means that Epic will have to fix number 4 to make it more balanced.

6) Another fact that I found strangely odd is that sometimes when you are shooting someone who is revving up their chainsaw they will not lower it. This is obviously a glitched. I have killed people revving in my test and they never lowered their chainsaw in the process.

7) The strangest glitched that I found while performing this test is related to number 6. If your opponent indeed is not bringing down his chainsaw when you shoot him, you can actually walk up to him and shoot your lancer while he's revving and you two will automatically enter a duel when your close enough. How I found this out. I had a test dummy that just stood there revving his chainsaw while I continued to shoot and got directly in front of him. I find this glitch on and humerous and cant wait till epic finishes it.



Hope this information is valuable to some of you guys. Have fun playing the game and experiment yourself.

Peace

T-BONE


Complaints regarding bugs!!!

Please note, this thread is mainly for providing a central location to find fixes to common problems that have popped up. If you have issues or complaints there is a thread stickied here. Please use that as appropriate and reserve this thread for solutions. If there is a particularly egregious problem that you see occurring multiple times which is not listed below, please PM me. Thanks!!!

NEWEST ISSUES WITH FIXES

"SERIOUSLY" ACHIEVEMENT NOT ACHIEVED

UPDATED 04/02/2008

According to poster PunkLivz found here, Mark Rein states the following regarding SERIOUSLY achievement errors:


Link to picture of email for all those who need proof.

"Here is what our Gears of War producer, Rod Fergusson, replied when someone asked about not getting the "Seriously" achievement which probably applies similarly to your question...

I’m assuming that you’re taking your kill count from the Leaderboards. Unfortunately the number on the Leaderboard doesn’t necessarily reflect your progress towards the "Seriously..." achievement, although it’s usually very close. Due to the way Ranked Matches work, if a match is aborted (either by you or the host quitting before it’s complete), if enough rounds have been played then those will get counted towards the Leaderboards but because the match was not fully completed, those kills will not count towards the "Seriously..." achievement. Over time this usually means that there is a small difference between the number on the Leaderboards and your achievement count.

Nothing it broken, you just need to keep playing for a little while longer in matches that go all the way to the end and you will ultimately get the achievement."


NEW TIP!

Accord to ExpLiciTSainT in the post found here: "if you enable QoS in your router to allow Xbox traffic priority 1 versus computer traffic of priority 255, you will to make your response time for your Xbox a lot snappier. Did this in my house for all devices. Works great!"

NEW TIP!


According to VINRage in the post found here there is a language fix as follows:

"So, the story is like that, i have a Polish version of game, my friend got russian (dont know how to spell it) version of game. And we both didn't hear the voices of our chracter AND VOICES at the end of the round !

And now, I (briliant guy ;D) though "maybe it's because of languange" so i went to.:

D:\Program Files\Microsoft Games\Gears of War\Binaries

opened a lang.txt and it looks like this.:

0414
0409

So, if u have ORYGINAL copy of Gears of War in other languange than English, u wont hear the voices of other characters until ur lang.txt file will have only "0409" written in it. So it will look like that.:

0409"

Thanks Vin!





A. CONNECTION QUALITY MESSAGES SINCE PATCH


1.)Usually these messages appear, not because your connection quality has dropped, but because someone has decided to leave the match. Whereas prior to the patch you would just see a "______ left" message, now everyone's player freezes and you get the connection error. If this happens, WAIT FOR AT LEAST 30 SECONDS for the message to clear.
a)Tip: I don't know if this happens when connection quality actually drops, but with this above error you can still always hear your other players. Tell them to wait it out for a second, see what happens.
b) Addendum - Thanks to Hickeroar for clarification - Not everyone has this issue when players drop in matches.
c) Addendum part deux - Sir Fuzzles comments that it appears the connection bug occurs when something shuts off their xbox while still in the room. I.E., that if you just quit the match that no message appears except the regular *xxx quit***

B. VGA ISSUES SINCE THE PATCH UPDATE!!!! FIXED WITH RECENT PATCH!!!

OLD ISSUES WITH FIXES

I. Mic problems - UPDATE!!!! FIXED WITH JANUARY PATCH!!!

II. Connection Problems - Unknown definitive cause at this time.
1.) Make certain the firmware on your router is up to date. UPDATE: RECENT MICROSOFT UPDATE HAS AFFECTED SOME ROUTERS. PLEASE UPDATE FIRMWARE IF YOU ARE GETTING "FIREWALL" SETTING ERROSR UNEXPECTEDLY Reference
2.) This error is potentially due to closed ports on the router, again seethis page for help.
3.) When searching for matches, try and join a match which is less than almost full. Disconnect errors have been attributed to matches being full. As there is no "match too full" error, you only can get a generic "disconnected from host" error.

III. Getting Split-Screen Multiplayer online to work with one Gold and on non-Gold member:
1) This post suggests "What you want to do is have only one player signed in (gold member). Then, go into versus > xbox live > player match - once you get to the menu that asks you to either host a game, find a custom game, or quick match, thats when the second player should press Y and then the guide should show up. Scroll down untill you see guest." (thanks to ban381)

IV. Host Manipulation/Stand By hacks
1) For official word on this go here.

V. VGA with non-widescreen monitor. UPDATE: SEE NEW PROBLEMS WITH VGA ABOVE

VI. - Dish Best Served Cold Accomplishment not achieved.
UPDATE!!!! FIXED WITH JANUARY PATCH!!!

VII. - Chainsaw glitches
1) Chainsawing someone while in cover/close to an object leaves you stuckUPDATE!!!! FIXED WITH JANUARY PATCH!!!
1) Chainsawing thin air leading to dismemberment - (more a visual glitch than anything. USE THE FORCE FENIX)
2) Invincible chainsaw - I really don't know if this is a glitch, considering the animation takes so long, it might just be a balancer. In fact, I rather like that you can't be harmed while chainsawing someone, but some might consider it a glitch. My vote goes for keeping it, because if you're going to get smashed afterwards, it'll happen regardless of the three second wait for it. Now, go an abuse the trick with abandon ;-)

VIII - Getting stuck while switching weapons glitch (may work for other "stuck" glitches). Switching between weapons can sometimes "free" you from these circumstances. I can verify this as I got stuck last night and just had to switch out and back with my weapons. Seems to happen when you grab a new weapon and then boost into cover quickly.

IX - Melee glitches: - (Thanks to aldenceise in his thread here)
1. after a grenade tag, if the tagged individual is downed to the ground the explosion from the grenade doesn't kill him.

2. when someone's doing a barrel roll and gets meleed in the process there's no stun effect. i'm surprised not a lot of people have caught on to rolling into people with the shotgun by now.

3. may not be a bug, but meleeing with the hammer of dawn neither seems to stun nor does nearly as much damage as any other weapon, including pistols.


X - LAG Issues -
a) Host Shotgun seems more likely to gib/kill in certain cases.
b) Bullets take 2-3 seconds after firing to reach their target

These issues are, for the most part, seem to most likely be related to connection issues. I've experienced both, but only intermittently. For the most part everything seems to run well, though I've seen enough mentions of this to include it here. Any advice beyond upgrading your internets is appreciated.

XI - General Glitches - Randomly not recording achievements, not allowing insane mode to be played after completing hardcore, Pushable cars get stuck sometimes, general collision detection bugs. There probably will not be any quick and easy fixes for these, many may be due to the various random errors that come with any release. Will post any fixes if anyone PM's me, other wise will just leave this here as a general notification.

Red lights of Death (specific identifications and instructions -
Thanks to DS Kristoba for finding these:

2 flashing red light on left quadrant
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907533

all flash red except for upper right quadrant
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/907534

all flash red
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/906652


Any other problems/solutions either post here or PM me and I'll try and update as information flows in.

Thanks!
-Tessier Ashpool, INC.

Appendix:

******How to help your computer and internet run more efficiently*********
DISCLAIMER: I am not a computer person, and these are just things I've found from searching around internet and what works for my system. If anybody has a better grasp and suggest other things, please PM me! I'll update as info comes in, thanks!

There have been some people talking about lag issues around here, and though this may be due to factors beyond your control (you live in a high use neighborhood and there's not enough bandwith to go around, a squirrell is chewing on the cable outside, things of that nature), there are some things you can do to help yourself out.

1) If you have more than one device connected to the network, another computer, another wireless device, it can slow you connection down. I've noticed this at my home, and even have had some dropouts when my girlfriend on the computer and I'm online too. Anything that's connected to your network might POSSIBLY be interrupting your connection

2) Make sure (if you can) to change your wireless settings (if you're connecting wirelessly) to the 802.11a setting. This avoids interference that often comes with the 802.11b or 802.11g settings from other devices such as remote controls.

3)CHECK YOUR COMPUTER FOR SPYWARE, MALWARE, AND REGISTRY BUGS. This is one that seems kind of obvious but I don't think many people necessarily think about it terms of internet connection. If you have 50 little spyware programs each reporting just a teeny bit of information back to wherever, it's going to slow down your connection (and your computer). If your computer is using the same bandwith, this could be interfering with your fragging. Not good. Here's some things to help:

HELPFUL PROGRAMS

1) AVG Antivirus - FREE - This is an excellent anti-spywar/malware applications. Catches things that Ad-Aware seems not to.

2) Ad-Aware - FREE - A great and widely used anti spyware program.

3) http://www.liutilities.com/products/registrybooster/Registry Booster - NOT FREE - This is a program that searches your registry for corrupt files, fragmentation errors. Can help your computer run much more smoothly, though it does cost a bit.

[micro23]

after speaking with some people from epic I updated my firmware on my router (wrt54g) since then I have not had any problems connecting or people connecting to my games. Big improvement.

[gloomlord]

Might want to include the gigantic complaint that everyone has with the MP lobby system (or complete lack thereof)... of course doing so may get your thread closed ultimately, but it's certainly the #1 concern on many people's minds.

[T35513R]

Yeah, I'm kind of in a quandry about that one. As there's no official, or even un-official fix yet, I'm hesitant. However, if it'll stop people posting a bajillion threads I'll post it as "unresolved" until official word comes so people can just check here first.

[gloomlord]

For what it's worth (nothing, actually): You've got my vote for a sticky, the same bugs come up over and over and over again in new threads.

[Zieu]

For what it's worth (nothing, actually): You've got my vote for a sticky, the same bugs come up over and over and over again in new threads.

Agreed. I hate repeat threads, especially when they're right above each other.

[psyco blade]

well my bug that i have was not posted up on here please check it out and awnser it the thread is called please help!!!!

[T35513R]

Thanks for the support all. Psychoblade, it looks like your post was in the Unreal forums, is this a Gears related lag?

[Static]

Several times during multiplayer I've suffered from a severe issue with the chainsaw. I'll go up to chainsaw somebody, and then instead of killing them, it merely downs them and I am stuck and cannot move. Very sucky, and very annoying. This has happened to some of my friends as well and seems to be a rather common occurance.

[T35513R]

Added the problem to the list static, listed as Unresolved.

[MACsDADDY]

I was playing on the map(Not sure of the name) the one with the Sniper Rifle in a garage type building and it has a helicopter.

I was taking cover on a wall in the garage and got stuck. All I saw wasa grey screen. I can still shoot and see all my weapons but couldn't move. I don't think the other team could eve see me, cause I was getting shot at right before it happened and I was still alive during this whole process until the last guy on my team killed them all. If not it would have been a draw casue they couldn't see me.

[T35513R]

Corrected some errors - Please keep this thread bumped to avoid reading the same threads over and over.

[Lbartley]

I should be finishing up on Insane co-op sometime tomorrow, so I'll update on the Achievement problem then.

[Zieu]

Bump... (10 chars)

[Left420]

heres an issue. stats not posting. i have only had 1 or 2 games post stats since friday. i have dropped from 98 to 225 on the eladerboard because of it

[xXFaNtAsMaXx]

I've only seen it once or twice, but there's a bug where you can fall through the floor when you jump off a short ledge. I've seen it happen in the warehouse.

There's also a minor glitch with the chainsaw where if you start chainsawing someone and they dodge or run away before you get like 10% into their body, they'll dodge/run away, but will still get chopped to pieces and die from the chainsaw while the chainsawer saws away at the air.

Heh, speaking of the chainsaw, the getting stuck after chainsawing someone bug just happened to my friend while I was posting this..

[T35513R]

Updated with chainsaw glitches/stats glitches.

[JOEY CANUCK]

the mic fix does not work for the 360 wireless headsets; does anyone know of a potential fix for that?

[Left420]

it appears the stats not posting issue is only if you host a game. the host does not get any stats recorded.

i just played 4 games, i took turns hosting and not hosting. in any game i host i do not get stats for. if i play and some one else is the host i get stats for it.

serious issue as when you play in some one elses game you tend to play against teams of friends.

[tarehart]

I've been getting fairly frequent "disc unreadable" errors (about six so far). My GoW disc is clean and free of scratches, and my 360 does not have a history of such issues. This error generally occurs during single player, when the drive seems to be in heavy use as the next scenario is loading. There is no single area of the game where the error occurs, and I have successfully loaded every part of the game at some point. From what I have read on other forums, different boxes can perform differently with the same disc.

Did you guys ask the 360 to jack up the read speed or something? I'd rather have it chill out a little and give me a brief loading bar.

[Wario64]

I posted this in another thread, not too sure if it belongs here but I'll repost it anyway:


Gears of Wars has crashed on me quite a number of times, about 5 times just in 2 days. It was enough to worry me.

I also encountered some other problems that are pissing me off. First off, I completed the game on hardcore difficulty alone. But for some reason, my achievements did not get unlocked for most of the acts. The only achievements I got were the ones with killing a Berserker, RAMM, etc., and I got CASUAL achievements for Act1 and Casual + Hardcore for Act4. NONE for the other achievements, even though I completed all acts on hardcore difficulty. I have no idea why...you can see my Gamecard here if you want proof: http://live.xbox.com/member/WarioSixFour

That's not the end of my problems...I also can't replay the game on Insane difficulty for whatever reason. It's greyed out on my difficulty screen, and I really want to play it on insane. I also cannot choose to replay certain acts when I try to load other chapters.

On addition to the achievements bug I have, I played insane difficulty via XBL co-op since it's the only way for me to play it and it didnt unlock any insane Act achievements either.

If someone has solutions for me to have insane difficulty playable without doing co-op, I'd like to hear it. I'm not too concern with my achievements but I have a feeling they're the reason why I cant choose insane

[tiltm0dearmy]

I've found 2 glitches, that i haven't tried to reproduce yet.

1.) I started with a lancer, enemy picked up the boomshot. the enemy fired one rocket at me, then i killed him. I picked up his boomshot, saw they was only one round left, and picked my lancer back up. From this point on until the end of the round I didn't have to reload my lancer. I don't think it was lag. This was on the map with all cars in the middle(forget the name).

2.) Don't remember this map name either. Its the one with the heli-pads and the longshot in semi container. I go to pickup this gun pressed A instead of X and rolled through the boxes at the back of the trailer off the map. Eventually the game autosuicided me.

I'll update map names when I get home.

[Lbartley]

Well, I finished up Insane tonight. I think it's safe to say that the problem with "A Dish Best Served Cold" is the problem outlined in my other post.

[BulletzRscene]

imma gonna bump this for no reason...

[gloomlord]

bump.... good info here.

[RandomScrub]

Small chainsaw problem that happens to me often. When chain sawing someone, their body bursts into pieces instantly, and instead of the chainsaw animation happening with me chain sawing someone else, it looks as if my character is getting chain sawed (shaking wildly, etc). Then the animation ends, I'm fine, and can go on moving again.

I think it happens more often when two players rush each other with the chain saw. It's just confusing....

[UnrealJ0E]

can someone update me on the microphone problem for xbox live...i cant hear anyone or be heard...havent really heard much about this problem.??

[RandomScrub]

Lots of people are having it. I think it is in the first post. Apparently it is a problem on Microsoft's end, and they are working on it.

[PRODIGY DEV]

yeah I was playing on a decent team last night for a while, then out of nowhere.... one of our guys mics just cut out for the duration of the evening.
Kinda hindered the tactics a wee bit... like playing a piano and one finger doesn't respond lol

[T35513R]

Thanks for the bump - Prodigy check the mic posts in the first thread, maybe some help there. Still lots of problems for me, especially with the wireless mic which doesn't have an option to "unplug/plug" the controller.

Updated the Leaderboard post with a link to the "official" complaint thread.

Adding a post to regard the achievements problem, though unfortunately I doubt we'll get any quick fix soon.

Thanks all for the bumps, I imagine these forums are going to start getting really busy now that most everyone has the game.

[PRODIGY DEV]

Thanks for the bump - Prodigy check the mic posts in the first thread, maybe some help there. Still lots of problems for me, especially with the wireless mic which doesn't have an option to "unplug/plug" the controller.

Will do, thanks

[CallMeMonkey]

I've got an issue with randomly being signed out of Live when attempting to join a match (unranked) or during a match. This does not happen when playing online co-op (that I can tell).

[JOEY CANUCK]

the mic fix does not work for the 360 wireless headsets; does anyone know of a potential fix for that?

anybody know/can confirm?

[Bryant21]

Hello,

While I was playing online, I went to select my shotgun, and my player got stuck in the animation. I was running around with no weapons out unable to kill anyone or switch to my shotgun, grenades, or pistol, it was actually kinda funny. My teammate however told me to switch back to the rifle, then back to the shotgun and it worked fine.

[CoreyDB]

Totally agree, please have a patch by Friday epic!

[T35513R]

Entering information about how to get "unstuck" with weapons switch. Bumping gratioutously. Spelling wrong. Also adding link to Mark Rein's multiplayer suggestions thread.

[DeepSixx]

Note for Epic- Chainsaw Stuck glitch - noticed this last night on mansion. I rolled past a player on the left, and he chainsawed me pointed 90 degrees away. No animation, I just instantly was cut in half like a shotgun had blasted me. Then the guy who chainsawed me was stuck in one place. One thing of interst is I was the host, so perhaps the chainsaw glitch is a lag issue, with the game trying to "compensate" for the lag between host and client players.

Also while playing with Epic on "Emergence Day", again on mansion I wasn't able to curb stomp a player, almost in the same exact area the chainsaw glitch occured (on top the stair directly inside from the spawn). Epic 4 ran over and he couldn't curb stomp the player either...it wouldn't give the "X" curb stomp icon for either him or I.

Other than those two glitches I seen over the course of 50-75 games, I've seen nothing else weird except for the chainsaw animation lag causing some very flustrating situations where you get cut up 10 feet from a player. I've noticed the occurance seems worse when I host, which is strange. I've also been cut in half by shotguns from 8-10 feet in execution with the enemy telling me he was in disbelief as on both our screen we were 10 feet away and he cut me in half with a single shot.

DeepSixx

[Dongaldo]

The only problem I have had is the microphone issues. Sometimes I can hear everyone and they can't hear me. Sometimes I can't hear anyone and they can hear me. I'll definately give the afformentioned suggestions a try tonight.

Other than this I haven't experienced any mentionable glitches.

[Antor]

One time when I was playing online MP, I used the roadie run then I switched to my grenades for a second then I switched back to my Assault rife and something really weird happened. Well, when I went to aim my Assault rife instead of just having a normal reticule I also had the Grenade aiming system over the normal Reticule. I was like what the hell the first time I saw it, I tried to switch weapons back and forth to get it to go away, but it didn't go away. So the only way I fixed it was by Roadie running again.

It was a weird glitch that I haven't heard much about so, I was just curious if anyone else has encountered this glitch?

[Axeman]

I didn't read through the thread so sorry if this one has been said before:
On clockwork- I just curbstomped a guy right below a barrier (just below and to the left of the troika if you're facing the front of the troika).

I crouched in cover right after and attempted to mantle the barrier and I feel through the map.

Everything was black and if I looked up I saw a white-ish ceiling. I could still shoot, change weapons, zoom, aim, etc.
The other team couldn't find me (I was the last person alive on my team) and I eventually had to throw a grenade which hit a wall(?) in the blackness that surrounded me and I suicided to end the round.

Then- next round- I'm back to the spawn area and everything is back to normal. When it first happened I actually thought my 360 froze or was having a graphical glitch, but I could hear people walking above me and I could still do all the things I mentioned above.

Weird.

-Axe