Curse

StephenD · Jul 28, 2005, 10:01 PM // 22:01

Well, here's an unofficial fix which I've found solves 99.9% of the Blue Screen of Death problems for users with Ati graphics card problems, here's a little guide on how to eradicate the problem until ArenaNet or ATI solves the issue in another driver issue, it IS a driver issue which is causing the bug, I'm fairly certain. (Or a conflict, although that's less likely as all sorts of motherboard types and chipsets have been having the same problem)

Just before we begin, if you have an Ati 9XXX card this tutorial will suit you, as with 8XXX and 7XXX cards, and no doubt the Xxxx series also, it's well worth a try

:

1. Download the Catalyst 5.5 drivers from the Ati Website (For Windows XP/NT Users):
http://www.ati.com/

2. Download Driver Cleaner 3 from here:
http://www.drivercleaner.net/dc.htm

3. Install Driver Cleaner 3, but do not use it yet.

4. Uninstall the Ati Display drivers using the good old fashioned method (Start-> Control Panel->Add/Remove Programs) Ati Display Driver should be near the top of the list, restart your computer after the installation has finished.
(Your Windows should by now be using only Standard VGA drivers, the resolution maybe a little smaller than usual, do not worry, this is normal. You will also get some 'Windows has found some new hardware messages', just close the boxes when they come up, this is just the graphics card being detected.

5. Run Driver Cleaner 3, select ATI from the dropdown box and click on "Clean"
(Warning: Ensure that ATI is selected before you click clean, mainly because Driver Cleaner has the option to wipe out other system drivers if you select the wrong manufacturer from the list, and this can cause huge system instability)

6. Restart your computer once the cleaning is finished (After clicking "close" in Driver Cleaner)

7. Install the 5.5 drivers, restart the computer, play GW and hopefully your problems should be solved..

8. Enjoy GW how it should be!

Also, here's a few user suggested tips:

Suggested by Hysteria- If you have a Radeon 9600 card, ensure Fast Writes are on in the BIOS, for other cards it wouldn't cause much difference if it was off, but if you're having severe stability problems, maybe worth a try enabling it..
(Thanks for the tip Hysteria! )

Suggested by Zakarr- Use memtest (http://www.memtest86.com/) to test your computers memory for errors and problems.
(Thanks for the tip Zakarr! )

Well, this should help some of you technology newbies in playing GW if you previously had this issue, it should work, it did on my system and quite a few other systems who's owners I've suggested it to, here's my system specifications anyways:

AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Overclocked to 3200+ (2.2GHZ)
1GB PC3200 RAM
Abit NF7-SV2.0 Motherboard
Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB
Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 120GB SATA HDD

Also, stay clear of the Catalyst 5.6, 5.7 and mainly the lower than 5.5 versions for Guild Wars, these can cause other problems, and the 5.6 and 5.7 driver series caused the BSOD in my case (Plus in other systems also). From what I've found out the 5.5 drivers are really the best for GW performance and stability, and use this tutorial at your own risk, it should more than likely work, it has for myself and other users.

(P.S: I will not be held responsible for any system issues caused by this tutorial, the actions shown here should not cause any systemproblem/instability if followed correctly).

Also DC3 can be used for clearing out other uninstalled drivers, so if you've previously had any other cards installed into your machine, e.g. say an Nvidia card and have uninstalled the drivers, select Nvidia from the dropdown box and it should clean the remnants from the Nvidia drivers..

If you have any questions, then just ask me...

Stephen.

Hysteria · Jul 28, 2005, 10:24 PM // 22:24

Good sound advice. I use the cat uninstaller utility available from ATI's site before I install a new cat version. No matter what make your video card is everyone should unistall the previous version of drivers and clean up any remnants with driver cleaner. I currently use the 5.7's on my 9800 Pro with no issues nor have I had any with any version and Guild Wars. The 5.7's actually have a a few optimizations for the 128 meg cars which some of you might see a descent boost in performace from. Btw, 9600's seem to work more stable with fast writes enabled, at least thats what I have heard.

StephenD · Jul 28, 2005, 10:27 PM // 22:27

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hysteria

Good sound advice. I use the cat uninstaller utility available from ATI's site before I install a new cat version. No matter what make your video card is everyone should unistall the previous version of drivers and clean up any remnants with driver cleaner. I currently use the 5.7's on my 9800 Pro with no issues nor have I had any with any version and Guild Wars. The 5.7's actually have a a few optimizations for the 128 meg cars which some of you might see a descent boost in performace from. Btw, 9600's seem to work more stable with fast writes enabled, at least thats what I have heard.

Yep, one good thing mentioned there is if you have a 9600 ensure fast writes are enabled, cheers for bringing that to my mind Hysteria

I suppose the tut varies from card to card, which is why you're probably having no problems with the 5.7, but if you're having problems with that version, by all means the tutorial may help!

I've never used the Cat uninstaller utility, mainly because I don't want my Ati Tray Tools to be uninstalled by it, even then I don't think it totally eradicates the old driver dll's etc from the system, which DC3 does. All it does is just uninstall any ATI related program (E.g. the control panel, ATI Tray tools etc)

MaglorD · Jul 29, 2005, 01:56 AM // 01:56

Actually, it's not ATI, it's specific to the user's system. I use the X800 XT PE and have never ever experienced BSOD ever since I started playing GW in Apr 2005.

StephenD · Jul 29, 2005, 08:24 AM // 08:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaglorD

Actually, it's not ATI, it's specific to the user's system. I use the X800 XT PE and have never ever experienced BSOD ever since I started playing GW in Apr 2005.

It's the only game which is doing it with my system, installing the 5.5 drivers solved the problem for me and it solved the problem for others.

If YOU'RE not having any problems with the other drivers installed, then this advice isn't needed, although Driver Cleaner works with other things, but if you're having BSOD problems, then by all means try this if you have an ATI card.

Zakarr · Jul 29, 2005, 09:28 AM // 09:28

I had crashing problems, BSODs, white cubes and things like that. BSODs were common especially at pre-searing. Characters replaced by white cubes happened almost daily. Crashing especially middle of fights like kick to desktop and throwing error message window. I blamed Guild Wars from it because other more heavy games like Doom 3, Far Cry, Half-Life 2 and UT2004 ran without problems.

But guess what? I finally ran memtest and it gave me 3 errors in 15 minutes. One of my memory modules is faulty and I removed it. I have played GW about a week after removing the module and all those problems are gone. Now GW works flawlessly. I used to get problems daily.

Quite strange but I guess that Guild Wars use memory differently. I strongly recommend to check your memory modules. Even if memtest doesn't report errors, remove modules one by one and see if anything changes.

BTW: I have ATI card. X800 XL and Cat 5.7 drivers.

cannonfodder · Jul 29, 2005, 05:20 PM // 17:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by StephenD

Also, stay clear of the Catalyst 5.6, 5.7 and mainly the lower than 5.5 versions for Guild Wars, these can cause other problems, and the 5.6 and 5.7 driver series caused the BSOD in my case (Plus in other systems also). From what I've found out the 5.5 drivers are really the best for GW performance and stability, and use this tutorial at your own risk, it should more than likely work, it has for myself and other users.

Well I have an X800XL and have tested all driver versions from 5.4(which came with the card), 5.5, 5.6 and 5.7, and I have seen very little difference with any of them, I have no BSOD, and never have. It has to be system specific, don't get me wrong your advice is ok, but not every ATI card user has problems...

My specs are..

AMD643700(san diego)@stock
Asus A8V motherboard
1gb of g-skill le
2x400g seagate barracuda's
X800xl

EDIT - Also StephenD I notice your Athlon XP is overclocked, most if not all BSOD can be because of this, and I know this especially with Guild wars because, I bought my San Diego chip for this and Guild wars was a bit touchy with any form of overclock..., You chip, combined with maybe memory conflicts, due to your overclock can cause this problem you have had

sledgeunderhill · Jul 29, 2005, 05:27 PM // 17:27

I'm using an ATI X800XL on WinXP SP2 and using the NGO optimized 5.7 drivers.

The plain vanilla 5.7 drivers were OK, but I like the NGO package because it installs ATI tools at the same time with a lot of standard tweaks. The ATI tools also provides on screen display of a variety of stats, including frame rates, GPU temps, and heapsize.

StephenD · Jul 29, 2005, 07:13 PM // 19:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by cannonfodder

Well I have an X800XL and have tested all driver versions from 5.4(which came with the card), 5.5, 5.6 and 5.7, and I have seen very little difference with any of them, I have no BSOD, and never have. It has to be system specific, don't get me wrong your advice is ok, but not every ATI card user has problems...

My specs are..

AMD643700(san diego)@stock
Asus A8V motherboard
1gb of g-skill le
2x400g seagate barracuda's
X800xl

EDIT - Also StephenD I notice your Athlon XP is overclocked, most if not all BSOD can be because of this, and I know this especially with Guild wars because, I bought my San Diego chip for this and Guild wars was a bit touchy with any form of overclock..., You chip, combined with maybe memory conflicts, due to your overclock can cause this problem you have had

Everything is working fine with the 5.5 drivers now, so I'm assuming it was just a driver related issue, the memtests have came up fine, as have temps etc.

The overclock is stable in other games and XP, and also in GW.

cannonfodder · Jul 29, 2005, 09:08 PM // 21:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by StephenD

Everything is working fine with the 5.5 drivers now, so I'm assuming it was just a driver related issue, the memtests have came up fine, as have temps etc.

The overclock is stable in other games and XP, and also in GW.

Good one mate, i'm glad it's working for you, and your possibly right it was a driver issue, but also i'm kind of right because other versions of the cat drivers are conflicting with something in your system, and rolling back to the 5.5's worked for you. It wouldn't just be the driver versions and if i were you, i'd want to know whats wrong.......

Frits · Jul 30, 2005, 10:49 AM // 10:49

This hasnt worked for me

StephenD · Jul 30, 2005, 12:30 PM // 12:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by Frits

This hasnt worked for me

What's your system specs?

Sorry, I should've mentioned that this'll fix the problem in some configurations, and it won't in others..

EternalTempest · Jul 30, 2005, 03:56 PM // 15:56

(Slightly Off-Topic)
I did a similar thing with Nvidia and the BSOD on exit.
If you do the same thing, get the newest (non-beta) driver from nvidia then uninstall, reboot, run driver cleaner, reboot, install drivers.

It seemed to clear up the issue (or make it happen far less that I don't notice it) with my pc.

Edge Martinez · Jul 31, 2005, 05:02 PM // 17:02

Ok, found wood to knock on... I have never experienced BSOD with my 9250 ATI card or any other problems whatsoever on any game. I'd say GW is probably the most modern game that I run (soon to share time with Warworld

).

My question is for all the ATI knowledgeable people. When I first installed this card a few months ago, I used the driver from the installation cd that came with it. Anyhow, the instruction manual (yes I'm a n00b to this) recommended that I don't ever change drivers unless I run into problems. I experience little to no lag and am enjoying a stunning visual experience with every game I play. So the question... What is the benefit of upgrading Catalyst with each new release? Sorry if it's a simple answer, but I'm looking at it with the If it ain't broke, don't fix it mindset, yet I'm curious on what I'm missing out on.

Thanks,
Edge

aeroclown · Aug 01, 2005, 02:56 PM // 14:56

<- Uses catalyst 5.7

As I have said before and Ill say again, I dont believe that the drivers alone are the cause of many peoples problems. There has to be some sort of underlying conflict that are resolved by a roll back. It would be tough to isolate though since so many things are effected by driver installations.

Kishin · Aug 01, 2005, 07:08 PM // 19:08

I've been trying to switch back to Catalyst 5.5 for awhile now, but the system seems to vehemently resist this idea. After removing the old drivers and running Driver Cleaner, I go to install Catalyst 5.5, only to be told that the 'required components' are missing. I have no idea how I could circumvent this.

Infecta · Aug 04, 2005, 04:33 PM // 16:33

Most Excellent. this fix has seemed to work for me. I used Guild Wars for 6 hours straight for the very first time since getting the game. Thanks!!!

Kishin · Aug 04, 2005, 04:49 PM // 16:49

Still cant seem to get this to work, as I end up getting an NF error telling me there's no video driver when I go to install Catalyst 5.5, even though the basic VGA driver is installed and working perfectly. Go figure.

Infecta · Aug 04, 2005, 05:16 PM // 17:16

I had that happen to me as well. What i did was go into windows in safe mode, remove the drivers from control panel there. run driver cleaner from there too. Then I rebooted and reinstalled the driver which worked. Good luck!

Kishin · Aug 05, 2005, 05:54 PM // 17:54

Tried it. Same problem. "INF Error, Video driver not found" *shrug*

Not much I can do, I guess.