Tried to log in to US West on 7 April (13:30 or 14:30 Bnet time) and got the hang at “Checking Versions”. After 2-3 minutes got the “can not connect to battlenet” notice.
Checked US East–same thing. Tried US West again, and it was still “Checking Versions” after 6 minutes, so I disconnected.
Internet connection is good, as I can go to other web sites and have no problem. NO VPN.
Tracert to uswest. battle. net went through fine.
What is going on?
30 min later, I can play on US West again. Play for 30 min. Create mule game. Burn it in for 7+ min. Return and drop a few items.
Try to bring in a char and BNet drops everything–game shut down and dropped to desktop. Restart game–hang at “Checking Versions”.
FUN PART:
US West–hangs at “Checking Versions”.
US East–no problems. Waits a sec or two at Checking Versions and then goes to choose acct.
Europe–no problems. Same as US East.
Asia–no problems. Same as US East.
Thus, this is a US West-specific problem.
More fun and games about an hour or so later:
BNet does it AGAIN. Leveled a char. Burned in new game with mule. Brought in char with items, dropped, and did some muling. Maybe 5-6 chars total.
LAST ITEM (nothing valuable, but still…) BNet drops its drawers again.
Try to get back–“Checking Versions”. US East works fine. So, the problem is with US West.
Try to log in to US West again–“Checking Versions”. Left it there at about 12:16pm Chicago time. Checked screen 30 minutes later. No change (still “Checking Versions”).
Thus, something is broken with “Checking Versions” on US West.
It is up to Activision/Blizzard to fix it.
This is also a VERY GOOD INDICATOR of how they will treat customers in the future.
Would YOU buy from such a company? I shall NOT.
It has been a couple hours, and BNet has gotten worse.
When I try to log in to BNet on US West, it hangs at “Checking Versions”. But NOW, when I click on “Cancel”, the game freezes and locks up the computer (only CAD works)–then shuts down D2 completely. At which time, everything else works fine. Can still get to the character login screen on US East, but not US West.
It is now approx 11:30am (Central US/Chicago time) the next day.
Same problem. Sits at “Checking Versions” = infinite loop.
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At about noon, I decided to fix Bliz’s wagon–my way.
I am using a new PowerSpec Win 10 Pro 64-bit (10th gen I7-10700, 32gb, 1TB SSD M2, 4TB D-drive (empty), Radeon RX 5700 w/8gb memory).
I used the system to remove D2/LOD.
I downloaded (AGAIN !!) D2 and installed it, using my CD Key from my account
I downloaded (AGAIN !!) LOD and installed it, using my DC Key from my account.
I ran Sven’s Glide Wrapper and put it in the D2 directory.
I added -3dfx to the start command.
I tried to access US East, where the system downloaded and updated D2.
I tried to access US West–and got the “Checking Versions” infinite loop AGAIN.
So, this IS a problem with US West. As proven once again.
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About 3:30 PM Chicago time, I was finally able to get into US West ONE TIME. Of course, it was the wrong account, so I had to try to get to the correct account. And the loop began AGAIN. However, what I did was to go to Europe, get access there, exit Europe, and immediately try to log into US West. GOT IN AGAIN !! So that is what I try to do–but it does not always work. As long as you do NOT change accounts, you can play between the characters on that one account. If you try to change accounts, then you will get the “Checking Versions” loop and might not be able to get back to the game you were in for some time. So, no transferring items between accounts by yourself. But you can reasonably transfer items between characters on the same account.
Meantime, let us see how long it will take for this to get fixed. We now have three people with the identical problem.
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Now 3:30pm Chicago time on 09 April. Problem still exists, but I can sometimes get on if I get onto the Europe or Asia server, exit, and then try to join US West. Other three servers have no problems. There is now (sometimes) a short wait while “Connecting to the fastest server”, but that is maybe 15 seconds. Then it is a crapshoot as to whether or not I get on to US West. I give it up to 30 seconds. If no success, then (successfully !!) log on to another realm server, exit and then retry US West again.
Now we are up to five people with the same problem…
Just tried to rejoin US West. No luck, even after joining other realms. Tracert still shows it gets to BNet–where it times out (which is what it should do).
Tried to get back in a bit later and could not do so. Tried twice with each of other realms (US East to US West, Europe to US West, and Asia to US West). None worked, so I gave up for the rest of the night.
NEXT DAY (Sat, 10 April): First try did not work but second attempt did get me into US West (FINALLY !!). Played char for hours and muled items to characters on same account (i.e. no changing accounts due to inability to reliably join US West). When done, exited account and tried to log back in. No go. Did the change-realm routine, and was finally able to get to account on third attempt. Thus, the problem exists and is persistent over an extended period of time–even after characters have been played for 4+ hours.
Noted response by Customer Service (below). People tend to NOT report problems because they mostly do not get their problems fixed unless there are lots of reports about the same problem. Logging into BNet has long been either GOOD or BAD, and it has mostly been GOOD (unless BNet fails). When BNet fails, the volume of reports tends to be VERY quick and a VERY large number of them. So, fixing the problem becomes a priority. Note the muting of in-game chat last ladder? It is GONE this ladder because of the complaints.
If you are thinking of D2 Resurrected, that does not run as the current D2/LOD does. D2R runs on a different system, so the problems are different. What will those problems be? Don’t know.
Mon, 12 April:
Noon (Chicago time); Just tried to log onto BNet and did so on the first attempt. Perhaps they fixed it? Again, can’t say–but this is a good first sign.
Played a bit, then had to log off shortly after 1:30 (so played for 90 min or so). It is now about 1:45pm, and I can not log in. Same problem as previously: Hangs at “Checking Versions”. Can get to the other three realms (US East, Asia, and Europe)–but not US West. The problem is NOT YET FIXED.
Tuesday, 13 April, 10:30am Chicago time:
I checked a couple of the item-seller web sites. They are also having problems. One is “down for maintenance” and is supposed to be back up on 14 April. Another site says deliveries take 8 hrs–or more.
Have you noticed there are virtually NO BOTS running? All the chant, Baal, and leveling promo/sales-bots are GONE. There are a few that made it through, but when they drop out, they can’t come back (for the same reasons we have problems accessing the game).
Sat, 17 April, approx 2:45pm Chicago time:
Things seems to have improved on USWest, as I am seeing a fair number of bot games (chant, Baal, Diablo) once again.
Was in a game and–once again–got “YCHBI” (Your connection has been interrupted). Am not able to log in to USWest–but the other three realms connect with no problems. USEast seems to have a “…fastest server” issue, as it sat there for 15 seconds (a couple times) until it suddenly changed and I got to the login screen.
USWest has a hang (multiple times) at the same spot ("…fastest server") and then goes on to hang at “Checking Versions” (again). Tried the multiple login tricks a few times but none worked.
Just tried again (after the above post on Sat) and did not get in. Logged into Europe (success), logged out, and tried USWest–success !!
Now my last char on this ladder is completed–unless they get pushed further, which is something that will require serious thought due to the inability to change accounts and move appropriate gear between characters on different accounts (on ladder, of course).
