Curse

Venerac · Aug 06, 2008, 06:35 PM // 18:35

So yeah, this is what happens:

I launch guild wars and after about 2-5 minutes of play time, the game freezes

after another 10-20 seconds my computer just reboots all of a sudden

when the comp is back up, theres a window that says "Windows just recovered from a serious error." or something like that

so I click send error report and this is the page I get:

http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/R...5-7aa09bdfe4d3

does anyone know whats going on and how I can fix it?

This is my computer:

Dell Optiplex GX745
1.8 intel core 2 duo
1 gig ram
80gig harddirve
Video card: Intel Q965/Q963 Express Chipset Family,

Ferret Deathsquad · Aug 06, 2008, 06:41 PM // 18:41

What kind of computer are you using and what does it have.
(such as)
Hp Pavalion a6118X
1.60 dual processor
2 gig ram
320 gig hard drive
On board video card/128 meg video card

Tarun · Aug 06, 2008, 06:43 PM // 18:43

Disabling the Automatic restart to get the blue screen code and file will help immensely.

Right click My Computer
Click Properties
Click the Advanced tab.
Under Startup and Recovery click Settings
Under System failure uncheck Automatically restart

Venerac · Aug 06, 2008, 06:51 PM // 18:51

Dell Optiplex GX745
1.8 intel core 2 duo
1 gig ram
80gig harddirve

how do I find out what my video card is?

Venerac · Aug 06, 2008, 07:12 PM // 19:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tarun

Disabling the Automatic restart to get the blue screen code and file will help immensely.

Right click My Computer
Click Properties
Click the Advanced tab.
Under Startup and Recovery click Settings
Under System failure uncheck Automatically restart

is this what you were talking about?

STOP: 0x0000008E (0x80000004, 0x80705AC9, 0xF6F01EB4, 0x00000000)

Quaker · Aug 06, 2008, 07:27 PM // 19:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Venerac

I launch guild wars and after about 2-5 minutes of play time, the game freezes

after another 10-20 my computer just reboots all of a sudden

Edit: it's 10-20 sec.

At any rate, my guess is that you have on-board graphics. It sounds like it could be:
1. The lock up of GW could be related to whatever bug is cured by forcing GW to run in only one Processor.
The reboot, in that case, could be a result of the GPU locking up and/or affecting other systems.

2. Over-heating could be the problem. A 3D graphic game like GW will cause the graphics processor (GPU) to work harder and the higher the graphics settings, the harder it has to work. In this case the GPU (or it's function) is built into one of the main motherboard chips, so, if it overheats, other problems can occur.

3. Something else.

Solutions:
1. Try forcing GW to run in only one core. Search these forums for details and/or google "ForceCore"

2. Open the machine up and blow/vacuum the dust out. Make sure all the heatsinks are reasonably dust free and all fans are running.
- Add a cooling fan if there's a space available.
- knock back the graphics settings in GW to reduce the load on the GPU.

3. Something else.

Venerac · Aug 06, 2008, 07:35 PM // 19:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaker

During those 10-20 minutes, are you playing GW, or is it still frozen, or did you stop GW but are doing something else, or what?

At any rate, my guess is that you have on-board graphics. It sounds like it could be:
1. The lock up of GW could be related to whatever bug is cured by forcing GW to run in only one Processor.
The reboot, in that case, would probably be an unrelated problem resulting from overheating, or the failure of some major component, or it could be related to noise spikes on the power lines.

2. Over-heating could be the problem. A 3D graphic game like GW will cause the graphics processor (GPU) to work harder and the higher the graphics settings, the harder it has to work. In this case the GPU (or it's function) is built into one of the main motherboard chips, so, if it overheats, other problems can occur.

3. Something else.

Solutions:
1. Try forcing GW to run in only one core. Search these forums for details and/or google "ForceCore"
- Try to notice if some major appliance turns on or off at the same time the computer reboots. Get a power bar with a good noise filter.
- If it's just some random failure, the Power Supply is a good place to start.

2. Open the machine up and blow/vacuum the dust out. Make sure all the heatsinks are reasonably dust free and all fans are running.
- Add a cooling fan if there's a space available.
- knock back the graphics settings in GW to reduce the load on the GPU.

3. Something else.

I meant 10-20 seconds, sry
but anyway, everything is frozen, I cant alt+tab or ctrl+alt+del

thx for the help, ill try it and come back with my results

Dzjudz · Aug 06, 2008, 07:49 PM // 19:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by Venerac

how do I find out what my video card is?

One way to find out is: Start -> Execute... -> dxdiag -> OK

Venerac · Aug 06, 2008, 10:05 PM // 22:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaker

Solutions:
1. Try forcing GW to run in only one core. Search these forums for details and/or google "ForceCore"

did that, didnt help

Quote:

Originally Posted by Quaker

2. Open the machine up and blow/vacuum the dust out. Make sure all the heatsinks are reasonably dust free and all fans are running.
- Add a cooling fan if there's a space available.
- knock back the graphics settings in GW to reduce the load on the GPU.

did that too, didnt help

so basically, my computer hates GW.
thx for trying to help

Brianna · Aug 06, 2008, 10:23 PM // 22:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Venerac

Video card: Intel Q965/Q963 Express Chipset Family,

GMA 3000

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wiki

The 946GZ, Q965 and Q963 chipsets use GMA 3000.[3][4] The GMA 3000 3D core is very different from the X3000, despite similar names. It is based more directly on the previous generation GMA 900 and GMA 950 graphics, and belonging to the same "i915" family with them. It has pixel and vertex shaders which only supports shader model 2.0 features, and the vertex shaders are still only software provided. In addition, hardware video acceleration such as hardware-based iDCT computation, ProcAmp (video stream independent color correction), VC-1 decoding are not implemented in hardware. Of the GMA 3000-equipped chipsets, only Q965 retains dual independent display support. The core speed is rated 400 MHz with 1.6 Gpixel/s fill rate in datasheets, but was listed as 667MHz core in white paper.[5]

Memory controller can now address maximum 256MB memory.

The integrated serial DVO ports has increased top speed to 270Mpixel/s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA_950#GMA_3000

I am strongly willing to wager that the Integrated graphics is your problem. I bolded the most obvious part, it is based on the 900-950 as it says, anything even remotely being related to that is lolsuck for gaming. It's old as hell too.

Integrated graphics are not made for gaming, they are just something to be there so you can display video, I'm surprised people still play some things on them.

If this is hypothetically the case, then a new video card is in proposal. If your computer does not have the option for an AGP X4/8 Bus or a PCI-Express X16 lane, then you will have to stick with a good old PCI Bus graphics card, which will do much better than what you have now. I think most people buy a GeForce 6200 for PCI, and those seem to work fine for GW.

Mind you it's not super performance with that, but at any rate it would be better than what you have now - whether the integrated is causing the crash or not. I'm still betting the Integrated is the culprit though.

If it is not the Integrated graphics, then my next guess is your sound card/something related to sound is causing the crash. Next guesses are RAM or Power Supply, but that is for later.

Quote:

"How do I check if I have a PCI-E or AGPX4/8?"

Bust out your computer's manual and search in it, see if it mentions anything on the motherboard capabilities. If you do not have that, or the manual is vague on information about it - do this: Open the side of the computer, and look onto the motherboard.

Below are examples of what an AGP Bus or PCI-E lane are going to look like.

*PCI-Express X16 lane: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:PCI-Express-Bus.jpg It will look like this, and it will sometimes/usually have a label near it saying ''PCI-E or "PCI-Express" for example, sometimes not, depends.

*AGP: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:AGP_slot.jpg It will look something like this, usually with brown/yellow/some other odd colors, PCI-E can have these too though, so yeah. As above, it may say AGP-X4/8 somewhere near the slot.

Try this: Right click your Guild Wars Icon, and at the end of the target line add a space, then put "-no sound -noshaders -dx8" without quotes. It will look something like this: ""C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -nosound -noshaders -dx8" without quotes.

Let us know if you still crash on those, and if not or if so, try just using one command line at a time and see if one fixes or does not fix the problem. http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Command_Line

Hope any of this helps, if not then the information can be taken or left, either way, good luck.

Venerac · Aug 06, 2008, 10:38 PM // 22:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Brianna

GMA 3000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_GMA_950#GMA_3000

I am strongly willing to wager that the Integrated graphics is your problem. I bolded the most obvious part, it is based on the 900-950 as it says, anything even remotely being related to that is lolsuck for gaming. It's old as hell too.

Integrated graphics are not made for gaming, they are just something to be there so you can display video, I'm surprised people still play some things on them.

well that sucks...

and weird too, I used to play WoW on this comp w/ no problems

anyway, can this be fixed by getting a graphics card?

Brianna · Aug 06, 2008, 10:57 PM // 22:57

Yep, I have edited my post a lot explaining everything, just read up on it.

If you can find out what your motherboard's capabilities are, then we can boil down our options here. It's not possible to recommend you any specific card other than a PCI version (universal) at the moment, but If you have an AGP or PCI-E lane you can get a much better card.

But just to add, let's not jump to too many conclusions just yet, I was just throwing it out there for now in case. Try the command lines switches that I provided in my above post, play around with them and see if they help at all, and if they do, find out which one is helping specifically by using them one by one or in combination's.

Mind you, they do not have any direct order in which they need to be placed, by combination I only mean ''-nosound -dx8'' for example, and so on.

About the WoW thing: I believe Guild Wars is a lot crabbier than other games when it comes to hardware specifics, for instance most people who have integrated graphics are not going to make it very far in Eye of the North, because Integrated graphics chips lack simple features necessary for the game to execute properly, causing some people to crash in certain towns: Example, Rata Sum.

At any rate, every game is also different from each other on a lot of levels, so it is really hard to compare one to the other.

moriz · Aug 06, 2008, 11:16 PM // 23:16

because i'm so awesome, here's the user manual for your computer:

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...G_en/index.htm

you didn't tell us which form-factor your pc is. tell us which one it is so we can help you some more.

Venerac · Aug 06, 2008, 11:41 PM // 23:41

Quote:

Originally Posted by moriz

because i'm so awesome, here's the user manual for your computer:

http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...G_en/index.htm

you didn't tell us which form-factor your pc is. tell us which one it is so we can help you some more.

cool, thx

and its the desktop computer

moriz · Aug 07, 2008, 12:35 AM // 00:35

you DO have PCI-e x16. however, due to the fact that you have a "desktop" computer, it can only accept low profile graphic cards. that's a pretty huge limitation.

this is about as powerful as you can get:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102754

Venerac · Aug 07, 2008, 12:42 AM // 00:42

I think its fixed now, cause i've been playing for 30 mins with no problems
if the problem was not fixed, it would've crashed by now

what seemed to solve the problem was adding "-noshaders -dx8" to the end of the target

if it eventually crashes again, i'll tell you guys

but in the meantime: THANK YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH!!!

Brianna · Aug 07, 2008, 01:13 AM // 01:13

Yup then it was your Integrated graphics.

Cheers!