Curse

Grasle · May 23, 2007, 03:21 AM // 03:21

Well, this problem has been around for...well, a LONG time now. Around 1-4 months after Faction was released.

My problem is this:
I start up Guild Wars. Everything's loading up fine. I log in, select my character, and here I am, in a town. The thing is, first off, it does take a while to load. When it finally does load everything, my FPS is like 8, STANDING STILL. When I move around, my FPS is literally 1-5 FPS. After a few minutes of playing, I get this really odd thing. The screen just goes black. I can hear Guild Wars playing, and when I Alt+Tab, I can here the sound stop because GW was minimized. Then I Alt+Tab again and it starts because GW is maximized, meaning everything is working but the visuals.

Guild Wars used to work perfect. Things ran smoothly and fine, but around Faction's release, things have been so bad. I haven't been able to play GW

Microsoft Windows XP
AMD Semphron
1.10GHz
512 MD of RAM
RADEON 8500 / RADEON 8500 LE
64 MB

When I play games like Flyff, GunZ, etc. it runs fine (although there was one day when I played Flyff I got a Direct sound error thing and there was no sound when playing. And I have no lag when I get that error, and some lag when the sound does work. Maybe it's my sound?)

EDIT: I have tried -nosound, but I still get the same problem.

PLEASE HELP! (sorry for the length)

FlameoutAlchemist · May 23, 2007, 03:31 AM // 03:31

What kind of video card do you have? (Type and amount of memory it has)

Grasle · May 23, 2007, 08:54 PM // 20:54

It's a RADEON 8500 / RADEON 8500 LE
64 MB

Grasle · May 25, 2007, 12:19 AM // 00:19

Just a bump, to try and move it up.

Matsumi · May 25, 2007, 02:31 AM // 02:31

With that card I would use the directX 8 switch on your shortcut path, altering it to look like this

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -dx8

Maybe also toning down some other graphical settings in the options menu

Grasle · May 25, 2007, 07:37 PM // 19:37

Thanks, but I tried it and it didn't help. Luckily I managed to close GW before it went to the black screen. But yeah, it's still just as bad =\

tijo · May 25, 2007, 11:41 PM // 23:41

If you haven't done so already, update your drivers. Also your system is a little weak for Guild Wars especially with nightfall. -noshaders could also be useful (don't remember is dx8 supports shaders but i don't think so, as a result you might not have to use -noshaders if you are forcing dx8). Also check how much ram the background tasks are taking when you aren't using any program although i don't think you problem is ram related, it can't hurt to check.

Grasle · May 26, 2007, 01:20 AM // 01:20

Alright. Yeah, I've been using -noshaders and -dx8, but it hasn't helped. Nothing is running in my background either. With nothing running, my CPU usage is 0-4%

I used to be able to play Guild Wars for 7 months, but then I couldn't. It was so long ago, I don't know what happened.

VanDamselx · May 26, 2007, 01:47 AM // 01:47

I had that same ATI graphics card (higher memory, however) and I used to have issues with getting black triangles all across my screen and it would also just randomly restart my computer. I downloaded catalyst, updated my drivers and I just got so fed up I replaced it with another graphics card I had around the house. My new ATI works fine, but the 8500 series just seemed to mess my computer up. If you are seriously at the end of your rope, buy a new one. You can find cheap ones on pricewatch.com

Grasle · May 26, 2007, 11:01 PM // 23:01

All right. Thanks. I might just buy a new one.

Con89 · May 26, 2007, 11:35 PM // 23:35

I have the exact same problem. After a while when I'm playing, my screen freezes up and it goes black. I can still hear the music going but my screen is just black. I can not alt+tab out of it or anything so I always have to restart my computer. Any suggestions? I'm running the below..

AMD athlon (tm) xp 2000+
1.66ghz
1.0g of ram
ati 9600/x1050 series

Orphan Anthem · May 27, 2007, 03:27 AM // 03:27

try this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N560NCIsaS8

A friend of mine just had the same problem. its aparently something they tryed fixing with the last patch

tijo · May 27, 2007, 04:23 AM // 04:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grasle

Alright.Nothing is running in my background either. With nothing running, my CPU usage is 0-4%

I mean RAM usage, and you most likely have some sort of anti-virus etc. program running in the background that's not using the CPU much but using RAM instead. But in any case, i think we've determined your problem is not related to that it's just to clear things up a bit.

Also if you can, try reverting to an older driver. If the problem is a bug in recent drivers, that might just fix it.

EDIT: fixed some typos.

Matsumi · May 27, 2007, 02:51 PM // 14:51

Usually a black screen is a sign that there's a driver malfunction or hardware problem producing an infinite loop in the video feed. I would try downloading the updated drivers for your card, and using the catalyst uninstaller to get rid of the old stuff, then installing the new downloaded driver.

Catalyst uninstaller http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/Oth...aller-10.shtml

Grasle · May 29, 2007, 12:11 AM // 00:11

I'm a bit of a hardware newbie, so I might need a little help with the updating.

Do I download an update for a later RADEON card, like 9000, or do I find an 8500 update that's after 6/6/2001? And I'm also having a bit of trouble finding an update. I've Googled for one, but I haven't had any luck.

Matsumi · May 29, 2007, 02:02 AM // 02:02

No, download the most recent driver version for the radeon 8500 series from here

http://ati.amd.com/support/driver.html

and then use the catalyst uninstaller, after that's done you may need to reboot, then install the most current driver that you downloaded.

turtleghandi · May 30, 2007, 05:00 AM // 05:00

I'm actually having the same issue on my 7800. I've tried different drivers and even reformatted my hd and still no luck. My other games run just fine, so i believe it may be an issue with the latest Guild Wars update.

Batmaniii · May 31, 2007, 02:35 AM // 02:35

Ill use this thread to post my similiar problem.
I can run gw in fullscreen mode longer than I can in windowed. In windowed mode I can run gw maybe 20 min to 2h without crashing. This crash is that the computer just shuts off, the screen has a ?Hz sign over it.. i restart the computer and put hz to 75.. I log in on gw, the computer shuts off again. And it doesnt restart. In fullscreen mode I can run the game 3-4h, and when I crash on fullscreen the game just stops responding. I cant tab out, I cant do anything else than to manually restart the computer. Gw worked fine a while ago.. I have formated, reinstalled drivers, vacuumed the computer and checked the fans.. what is this problem suddenly occuring? And I have checked for viruses..

And also I can post what I usually run while playin gw.
MSN
Firefox (sometimes when I need wiki)
And those are the programs, the only icons in my taskbar are windows sound options and msn. Sometimes I run the ventrilo server also.. when needed for AB and such.
I run on AMD 2400+
512 mb ram
40 gb disk
GeForce fx5200.. the problem was never as bothering as it is now =\

Matsumi · May 31, 2007, 02:53 AM // 02:53

The problem you're experiencing Batmaniii, sounds more like an overheating issue. That's typically how a computer reacts to an overheating processor. See if you can download a temperature monitoring program, and check your temps when idle, and also while guild wars is running. Other things would be to clear the dust off of the heatsink and fan of the CPU, and make sure there's enough airflow into the case. Also, check that your heatsink is properly mounted on the CPU.

Grasle · Jun 06, 2007, 02:43 AM // 02:43

I'm bumping this. Perhaps I'll have luck.