Curse

screen317 · Jul 08, 2008, 05:22 PM // 17:22

Most certainly the bane of some of our existences, I'm stuck with an integrated Intel card for a couple months until I get a new laptop.

The topic has been brought up in the past, but I haven't seen anything recent about it.

Guild Wars (Prophecies hehe-- haven't grown tired of it in the two years I've been playing) crashes randomly with graphics card driver errors; updating the driver resulted in no improvement.

Are there any known workarounds (that still work...) for GW To play on my system? Specs are as follows (as per dxdiag..):

------------------
System Information
------------------
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp.080413-2111)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Compaq Presario 061
System Model: PJ517AA-ABA SR1220NX NA440
BIOS: Rev. 3.03
Processor: Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 2.93GHz
Memory: 2040MB RAM
Page File: 487MB used, 3449MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: Intel(R) 82845G/GL/GE/PE/GV Graphics Controller
Manufacturer: Intel Corporation
Chip type: Intel(R) 82845G Graphics Controller

Your thoughts are very much appreciated.

Kindest regards,

-screen317

screen317 · Jul 08, 2008, 05:28 PM // 17:28

Thank you to whoever moved the topic-- my ignorance is clearly showing.

Snograt · Jul 08, 2008, 05:31 PM // 17:31

Just the usual GW-crippling tweaks. Try a combination of -dx8 and -noshaders. Try both separately then both together and see if it helps at all.

Oh, and it may be time to free up some HD space - delete all that crap you're not using any more and run ccleaner.

(Don't worry about the move - we're in the middle of reorganising this forum, so lots of threads will be moved around before people get used to the new layout

(Wasn't me, by the way ^^))

screen317 · Jul 08, 2008, 05:40 PM // 17:40

Have tried various things in the past including -dx8 and -noshaders..

I keep constant maintenance of my computer; CCleaner is run often, I'm always uninstalling old games and whatnot....

Unfortunately one of the only game I do play now is Guild Wars (at least... I want to :P ), so this is truly an annoyance.... :|

Thanks for your response though; I appreciate it.

moriz · Jul 08, 2008, 05:43 PM // 17:43

*raises hand* it was me. i am guilty.

if i remember correctly, there was a very old thread detailing a few fixes. here's what i've remembered:

-roll back to an OLDER driver. i can't remember the driver version, but i distinctively remember a driver version where you won't crash everytime you open your inventory.

-go to the OpenGL settings for your driver (it's in the control panel) and set driver memory footprint to "high". this SHOULD force the driver to take as much memory as it can, which might get you better performance.

-download a program called "3Danalyzer", and run GW through it with a few settings checked. unfortunately i don't remember what those are. this option will ensure GW will run, but can potentially give you some pretty weird results.

screen317 · Jul 08, 2008, 05:46 PM // 17:46

Thank you for the response, moriz!

Quote:

-roll back to an OLDER driver. i can't remember the driver version, but i distinctively remember a driver version where you won't crash everytime you open your inventory.

Issue isn't with inventory, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it ... lol), and I have tried rolling back in the past..

Quote:

-go to the OpenGL settings for your driver (it's in the control panel) and set driver memory footprint to "high". this SHOULD force the driver to take as much memory as it can, which might get you better performance.

Did this too-- didn't help; graphics card driver is still crashing.

Quote:

-download a program called "3Danalyzer", and run GW through it with a few settings checked. unfortunately i don't remember what those are. this option will ensure GW will run, but can potentially give you some pretty weird results.

I've heard of this, but I never knew which settings to select. I honestly don't mind "pretty weird results" as long as I can play the game....

moriz · Jul 08, 2008, 05:53 PM // 17:53

aha, here it is:

now, i don't know what kind of crashes you are getting and in what situation, but i do know these settings allow older intel GMAs to go into the wehhan terrace area and asura areas. it might be the one you need.

screen317 · Jul 08, 2008, 05:58 PM // 17:58

Thank you very much! Will give it a try and report back.

Cyb3r · Jul 08, 2008, 06:00 PM // 18:00

yes indeed Moriz if i recall right (not 100% sure) the drivers of those graphicscards where never all that stable with alot of games

In this case it should help if the pixelshaders are disabled (waiting on rahja's idea on this one he's way better with things like these)

Snograt · Jul 08, 2008, 07:27 PM // 19:27

Incidentally, this is the recommended place from which to download 3d-Analyze - http://www.tommti-systems.com/main-Dateien/files.html - recommended, as it's the source

screen317 · Jul 09, 2008, 06:06 AM // 06:06

By Jove he's done it!!!

Upon applying the appropriate 3DAnalyze changes, Guild Wars now runs perfectly. Stress tested for 4 hours with no crash (will play more tomorrow to ensure its success...)

Either way, I am utterly ecstatic.

Thank you so very much moriz and everyone else who provided suggestions (Snograt, Cyb3r); it's really awesome that you help out everyone with their hardware issues. Heh... I'm on the other end of the stick fighting spyware-- more of a software guy you could say.

Best regards,

-screen317

Snograt · Jul 09, 2008, 07:43 AM // 07:43

Helping people in this forum is almost as much fun as Guild wars

Lord Sojar · Jul 09, 2008, 11:22 PM // 23:22

Ze flying monkeys are well trained.

*tosses Moriz and Snograt a banana*

<font color="darkblue" font size="5">Excellent work.</font>

Willow111 · Jul 19, 2008, 04:14 AM // 04:14

I too am using an Intel 82845G graphics......*sigh* I too am having trouble with crashes because of my graphic....okay so I found this thread and thought YAY! I went and downloaded the 3D-analyze...now I'm stuck, step one, select an exe or batch...I click it and find my guild wars and click on it, open it and.......nothing! What gives do I need to find it somewhere else or what?

screen317 · Jul 19, 2008, 08:23 PM // 20:23

Quote:

I click it and find my guild wars

You selected C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\GW.exe, correct?

Willow111 · Jul 19, 2008, 09:47 PM // 21:47

*tries to hide her blondness*

No I was just trying to click the guild wars icon. I got it now, thanks bunches screen317

screen317 · Jul 20, 2008, 06:19 AM // 06:19

Good to hear!

osider · Feb 18, 2009, 04:40 AM // 04:40

dont know if any one will see this since the topic is kinda old but i installed 3danalyzer when i select it and run it says "could not copy C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\GW.exe\forceDLL.dll to C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\GW.exe\forceDLL.dll" what do i do

Crispie · Apr 17, 2011, 01:45 PM // 13:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by osider

dont know if any one will see this since the topic is kinda old but i installed 3danalyzer when i select it and run it says "could not copy C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\GW.exe\forceDLL.dll to C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\GW.exe\forceDLL.dll" what do i do

3danalyzer also fixed my issue. For future reference, run 3danalyzer under administrator and it will fix this issue.