AMS issue: Continous multiplayer disconnects

Cosmo Marsh · Jan 31, 2017

Posted this on Reiza forums also but not had much luck so going to ask here too.

I'm having a bit of a problem with AMS and multiplayer. For some reason AMS keeps disconnecting me from online servers - it can do this from anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes after joining, sometimes it doesn't disconnect me but that's rare.

I've already tried reinstalling the game, removing all non-vanilla plugins and verifying game files; none of these have helped. The only way I managed to get it to not disco me was with a router reset and that had its complications - including messing up my internet so I couldn't even join servers for a while - but the event I did was just 30 minutes. It's likely I would have been disconnected shortly after.

Obviously this makes AMS races online nearly impossible to do, and it's really annoying me as Automobilista is an awesome simulator and I wish I could race online more but this is happening!

If anyone has any suggestions they'd be very much welcome.

- Joshua

Slalom823 · Feb 1, 2017

Just a random thought, but could it be a video card driver?

Yapci · Feb 1, 2017

This happened to me last Friday when the server changed from warm up to race. AMS crashed and closed.

On Sunday I joined another race and was all ok.

Verified integrity and was all fine.

No 3rd party content apart from Silverstone from Patrick, so don't know why.

Hope you get it solved anyway!

Gringo · Feb 1, 2017

Sounds like you have issues with your router... does the router have a firewall or some anti hack / blocking capability. Make sure you have opened (port forward) the correct incoming / outgoing ports. Its possible that the router has hardware problem.

These issues are always hard to track down. It could be anti virus software, network hardware, network software, even a bad network cable, or if on wifi some interference from another router on the same channel or maybe weak signal strength (a cable is best for gaming). The list is quite long.

For almost everyone AMS has reliable / stable network reputation.

xnorb · Feb 1, 2017

Joshums Anderson said:
The only way I managed to get it to not disco me was with a router reset

I'd call that a pretty solid indication on where the problem lies.
But i wouldn't know why your router should disconnect you from AMS when it doesn't do that for any other game (i assume other games don't show that issue?)

Cosmo Marsh · Feb 1, 2017

Slalom823 said:
Just a random thought, but could it be a video card driver?

I haven't checked but I don't know why a video card driver would cause connection to an AMS internet server. Will update just in case.

Yapci said:
This happened to me last Friday when the server changed from warm up to race. AMS crashed and closed.

On Sunday I joined another race and was all ok.

Verified integrity and was all fine.

No 3rd party content apart from Silverstone from Patrick, so don't know why.

Hope you get it solved anyway!

At the time of testing I only had necessary league mods and tracks installed. I'm quite sure therefore it's not a mod causing it and even on a vanilla install it would disco me. I've tried verifying files and that didn't fix it.

Gringo said:
Sounds like you have issues with your router... does the router have a firewall or some anti hack / blocking capability. Make sure you have opened (port forward) the correct incoming / outgoing ports. Its possible that the router has hardware problem.

These issues are always hard to track down. It could be anti virus software, network hardware, network software, even a bad network cable, or if on wifi some interference from another router on the same channel or maybe weak signal strength (a cable is best for gaming). The list is quite long.

For almost everyone AMS has reliable / stable network reputation.

Router doesn't have a firewall to my knowledge. I've tried disabling antivirus I think but that didn't affect it before these problems started happening. I've also tried forwarding various ports, the correct ones for AMS I believe, and that didn't fix it.

xnorb said:
I'd call that a pretty solid indication on where the problem lies.
But i wouldn't know why your router should disconnect you from AMS when it doesn't do that for any other game (i assume other games don't show that issue?)

I have had router issues before but I lose all Internet connection when they occur. I do find it strange this is AMS exclusive and doesn't happen on the likes of R3E, rFactor 2, etc.

Reb.Ellion · Feb 1, 2017

Dann Murillo · Feb 2, 2017

Are your router & modem 2 separate pieces of hardware? I understand it does not happen in all games but perhaps, as a test, you could bypass the router and connect directly to the modem to confirm it is not your issue. No one else has seems to have problems like this in AMS so we have to go with the old process of elimination.

Also this may be a long shot but perhaps it's your video card. What do you have? Perhaps it is running out of memory and kind of crashing on ya.

Cosmo Marsh · Feb 3, 2017

Dann Murillo said:
Are your router & modem 2 separate pieces of hardware? I understand it does not happen in all games but perhaps, as a test, you could bypass the router and connect directly to the modem to confirm it is not your issue. No one else has seems to have problems like this in AMS so we have to go with the old process of elimination.

Also this may be a long shot but perhaps it's your video card. What do you have? Perhaps it is running out of memory and kind of crashing on ya.

Nope, I only have one device.

My PC is upstairs so it has to use a wired connection via Ethernet to a powerline adaptor which goes downstairs into the receiving adaptor, then into an Ethernet cable to the router/modem. Moving the router into my room and using it directly isn't really an option as others in my home use powerline adaptors and the long and short of it is that it wouldn't be logistical to have the router in my room.

I think I have a Geforce GTX 950 Ti 2GB so memory shouldn't really be the issue here.

Cosmo Marsh · Feb 3, 2017

Joshums Anderson said:
I think I have a Geforce GTX 950 Ti 2GB so memory shouldn't really be the issue here.

Would edit but I'm actually quite wrong here; it's a GTX750 Ti.

PicoBp · Feb 4, 2017

Joshums Anderson said:
powerline adaptor

There's your issue. Try direct cabling, even temporarily somehow. My bet's on it will be stable as heck.

Cosmo Marsh · Feb 4, 2017

PicoBp said:
There's your issue. Try direct cabling, even temporarily somehow. My bet's on it will be stable as heck.

I would, but as I said above it's not really logistically possible short of getting my own router since others in the house use these, and the internet. Plus, this setup has never caused issues before. It's only recently AMS has had an aversion to working for more than half an hour.

In addition, this is AMS exclusive for me - rFactor 2, R3E, you name it, it doesn't do this. Only AMS seems to have these issues. I'd put it down to an internet issue if this weren't the case.

Cosmo Marsh · Feb 5, 2017

I think I may have fixed this.

What seems to have done it is applying a 4gb patch to AMS; I discovered it's 32-bit based and not 64-bit as I thought, and given I never had issues with rF1 or SCE with a 4gb patch, this leads me to think AMS was running out or ran out of available memory (of a maximum of 2GB) and kicked me from a multiplayer server.

Since applying the patch I've been in a server for an hour continuously, which at the bare minimum is an improvement on what I had before. I will keep an eye on this and report back after a league race I'm doing tonight. I find it interesting I need the 4GB patch now though, I never did before.

Cosmo Marsh · Feb 5, 2017

Can confirm that it held through a 20 minute qualifying session and a 30 minute race. Seems like that did fix it.

Will Mazeo · Feb 6, 2017

That's very strange and looks like a problem on your end, AMS is already allowed by default to go up to 4gb RAM use (tho above 3.2gb you start having issues)