Disabling the MOTD?

[abiscuit]

Some of you may recall I have crashing issues whenever the server changes maps, or sometimes even when the server loads a map in general. After some more research and getting tired of having to end task TF2 all the time, I've determined when the MOTD (Message of the Day) is loading could be the source of my troubles. So, is there any way to disable the MOTD on the client side?

[MMX]

I think not. But did you already try to start with a fresh tf2 "install"?

You would just have to rename the "team fortress 2" folder inside your profile folder of the steam folder to something else and start the game.

This will cause steam to recreate the directory and start with a "fresh" version without any modifications. If you still have a issue with the MotD then you also most likely have issues with your OS/IE. But thats just speculation.

If you don't have the issue anymore i would consider migrating the backup tf2 folder into you fresh tf2 STEP by STEP. I would then pay attention on the config files. don't forget the maps, maybe screen shots too.

[Araris]

Woah, can I just say that that is an epic avatar abiscuit.

[Plinko]

Did you delete the .blob files - not sure if the MOTD loads into one of those files or not but they have been known to be behind a fair amount of crashes. . .

[abiscuit]

Oddly enough, I did have a fresh TF2 install just last month, the crash was still occurring before the reinstall and still happens now.

Plinko, where are the .blob files located and does deleting them cause any adverse effects?

[Plinko]

In your Steam folder there is a clientregistry.blob, deleting that should have no ill effects. Yopu can always pull the re-naming ploy to be safe.

I've solved some crashing problems by deleting it before. I am not sure what the APPUpdateStats.blob is so I'd leave it. If you're truly a fresh install of TF2, I doubt there's anything old in the temp folders that could be at fault - I definitely cannot find a location that loads the MOTD.

**I did a little more research and as far as I can see the MOTD is HTML, you look at it just like you would see anything via the Steam community tabs (I suspected thatbefore anyway). I did see some people reporting MOTD crashes but those were all people running Linux and Wine which was crashing when MOTDs loaded for some reason in Steam games.

[Stevo]

It could be a problem with IE. Do you have any download managers or anything that messes with IE? Also, what OS and IE version are you using?

[abiscuit]

I'm using Windows Vista and IE7. Though I never even touch IE because I use firefox.

I'll try deleting the .blob file.

[Stevo]

Lots of people seem to have the same problem with IE7 on Vista, but I can't find a fix. Some said that if they don't move the mouse until they pass the MOTD, it works.

[abiscuit]

The mouse thing doesn't work. I've seen and tried it before, but to no avail. This crash appears randomly; some days I can go all day without crashing and other days it will crash every single time the map switches.

Oddly enough, I didn't crash last night after deleting the .blob file, but I'm not calling it problem solved yet.

[MMX]

Okay I found a thread a the steam forums http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/s ... light=MOTD

But I guess it wont help a lot.

You could try to deactivate some "modules" plugins and so on. But please only do so if you are really shure what you are doing. You are able to screw your IE or even the Explorer. If you are unsure you can post us a screenshot of all loaded plugins.

Here is the tool: AutoRuns http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 63902.aspx

[abiscuit]

Bump.

I found a sort-of fix for this. Making IE run in offline mode will stop the crash, but because Steam uses IE I'll have to turn it back on when I need to use Steam for those things, including reserve slots. Slight annoyance, but it beats having to restart TF2 every other map.

[MMX]

Have you considered to reinstall your OS?

[Masakari]

Make sure that your version of IE is totally up to date to.