Curse

Dirkiess · Jun 01, 2005, 10:18 AM // 10:18

Ok. I thought as this was the Technical Corner and there appear to be a lot of people that are experiencing the same lockups in game, and more often than not it appears to be with some sort of ATI Graphics card involved in the system.
I'm yet to hear about the same fault with an Nvidia card, so would be interesting to find out if there are any out there with the following symptoms.

This is the problem people seem to be having.

Playing the game, and randomly it will just lock up, graphics go glitchy, screen switched into standby mode and you have to either pull the plug or hold the Power Button in to switch off and then reboot the machine.

I thought it would be better to pull all these reported problems into one Thread instead of having dozens of threads regarding similar problems and people explaining the same resolutions over and over.

The most noted problem i seem to be seeing is related to the ATI 9xxx series Graphics Card being installed in the system.

Ok, a lot of people point towards overheating of the system, which i don't doubt as being a possible cause of this problem. However, it just seems a little suspect that ATI 9xxx series seems to be in most of the machines that are having problems.
The reason i say this, is my friends PC has exactly the same problems as mentioned above and is running an ATI 9800 in there system.

Ok, all those with a problem, please report here, exactly what card you are using and the drivers you have installed for that card.
Also, please add in the Motherboard details and specs of your system plus Power supply details.
One last thing, add in what OS you are running as well.

Maybe we can track this and see if there are similarity's, or if indeed, it is just one thing, a Major Over Heating problem, or a lack of Power in there Power Supply which could be a cause for concern and a need for all those involved to increase the Air Flow or update the Power Supply, or something for GW to look into.

I hope this post helps with people bringing there issues together, so all those helping out with advice don't have to keep repeating themselves.

Dirkiess · Jun 01, 2005, 12:10 PM // 12:10

I updated the Title to make it more noticeable but it doesn't seem to have updated the Title for Forum readers to see?

Is this done by the Forum Admin or does it take time to go through??

magichacker · Jun 01, 2005, 03:47 PM // 15:47

Not sure if this will help anyone or not.

I was having the black screen error with an old MX440 128mb error and would have to do a hard restart.

I think this card was overheating from the stress of Guild Wars was how this error would come about and it was fixed by getting a new graphics card....but

I went and bought a Nvidia 6200 BFG card and it fixed that error but then then would get the screen lockups along with the restart after getting this card.

Here is my system specs
AMD 2600
512 MB ram
80 GB Hard Drive
400 watt power supply
VIA motherboard (SEE BELOW FOR THOSE WITH VIA MOTHERBOARDS)

I think I may have fixed my problem ( crosses fingers ) I have for the past two days with my kids playing also logged about 9 hours of play time with no problem. What I did was updated the VIA drivers on www.viaarena.com and installed the v4.56 drivers. I'll post again if I have any errors.

I hope this helps anyone with these problems I love the game.

Trilok Verichan

Svenn · Jun 02, 2005, 12:21 AM // 00:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirkiess

I updated the Title to make it more noticeable but it doesn't seem to have updated the Title for Forum readers to see? Is this done by the Forum Admin or does it take time to go through??

I tried the same thing in the past...apparently you can only change the subject/title of an individual post, not the thread name.

MaglorD · Jun 02, 2005, 02:33 AM // 02:33

This game was designed to be used on ATI cards so how can it be worse than Nvidia. For your info, the game is flawless on my ATI card.

Lunarbunny · Jun 02, 2005, 05:13 AM // 05:13

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaglorD

This game was designed to be used on ATI cards so how can it be worse than Nvidia. For your info, the game is flawless on my ATI card.

Sponsoring. HL2 was also a GITG ATI title...but standard benchmarking showed them to be running at the same level.
UT2004 is labeled as a TWIMTBP nVidia title...but it runs fine on ATIs.

MaglorD · Jun 02, 2005, 05:25 AM // 05:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lunarbunny

Sponsoring. HL2 was also a GITG ATI title...but standard benchmarking showed them to be running at the same level.
UT2004 is labeled as a TWIMTBP nVidia title...but it runs fine on ATIs.

umm yea but the OP seems to be implying the ATI runs into more problems.
BTW, doom 3 runs much better on Nvidia than ATI...so whoever sponsors the game makes a difference.

boots559 · Jun 02, 2005, 07:04 AM // 07:04

I'm also having the retarded random crashes anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, few resets and blah blah, lately it's just crashing with the screen not moving, anyway heres my awesome computer info

fic am37 motherboard
http://www.fic.com.tw/product/mother...x?model_id=107
amd althlon xp 2600+ @ 2.1ghz
512 pc2100 memory
the leet realtek ac'97 sound crap from the motherboard
xfx 6600gt agp
420w power supply
40@+5v
18@+12v
30@+3.3v
0.3@-5v
0.8@-12v

not much of a gaming pc but it gets me by, this is the only game i've ever had this much problem with, my video card and cpu run kinda hot. 62C idle on the video card

so i have some arctic silver 5 and a fan card coming in today or tomorrow, the thermal paste on the card has some dirt on it(dirt, the ultimate thermal compound) so i hope that fixes the problem, if it doesn't i'll prob end up selling my acct to my friend for $40 and go buy ut'04 or something. which would suck since i've had high hopes for guild wars since i first heard of it in sept.

Dirkiess · Jun 02, 2005, 09:11 AM // 09:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaglorD

umm yea but the OP seems to be implying the ATI runs into more problems.
BTW, doom 3 runs much better on Nvidia than ATI...so whoever sponsors the game makes a difference.

Actually, I wasn't implying anything. I also have an ATI system with an X800 pro and the game run fantastically on my machine.
Not flaming, but seems you just read ATI and thought I love my ATI, don't insult it. I was trying to help people.

The reason i mentioned ATI is because i noticed a lot of posts related to ATI 9xxx series cards being posted on this forum, with different machine setups, and all with the same problems.
This was cause for concern as there could be an issue with the newer drivers released, not improving functions on the older ATI cards, but maybe hindering there compatibility with gaming on newer games as they don't have the same functions.
Or, as some people also suspect, it could be a Heat or Power supply issue.

I was trying to get people to post there challenges in one Post, to save others the time and energy of repeating themselves in helping these people try and get there machines running.

If there are those with Nvidia cards that are also having issues, then it would be good to have them post here, which i originally posted above, because if they are also having the same problems, then we can probably rule out the ATI Driver issue and people can start checking on Heat and Power.

This would infact help most people straight away. Either that, or it would be something ATI would need to look into as a result of there increased efforts in providing major Driver updates, that could be affecting older cards, or something for ANet to investigate, which would be good for them also.

All the above statements are only my analysis of what i have seen posted on this forum, and in no way is it meant to be an insult to the ATI or Nvidia (I love my card) camps, so get over that.

It's meant to help people combine there efforts in helping others resolve there issues, quickly and easily, and hopefully get these people up and running so they can also enjoy there gaming experience of GW.

Dirkiess · Jun 02, 2005, 09:18 AM // 09:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by boots559

I'm also having the retarded random crashes anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, few resets and blah blah, lately it's just crashing with the screen not moving, anyway heres my awesome computer info

fic am37 motherboard
http://www.fic.com.tw/product/mother...x?model_id=107
amd althlon xp 2600+ @ 2.1ghz
512 pc2100 memory
the leet realtek ac'97 sound crap from the motherboard
xfx 6600gt agp
420w power supply
40@+5v
18@+12v
30@+3.3v
0.3@-5v
0.8@-12v

not much of a gaming pc but it gets me by, this is the only game i've ever had this much problem with, my video card and cpu run kinda hot. 62C idle on the video card

so i have some arctic silver 5 and a fan card coming in today or tomorrow, the thermal paste on the card has some dirt on it(dirt, the ultimate thermal compound) so i hope that fixes the problem, if it doesn't i'll prob end up selling my acct to my friend for $40 and go buy ut'04 or something. which would suck since i've had high hopes for guild wars since i first heard of it in sept.

Would love to hear if your new Fan and Artic Silver compound help to alleviate your symptoms as this would help others in there search for a solution.

If it doesn't, don't give up but try changing the drivers as well back to the originals and see what happens. Obviously, only if the new Fan doesn't work.

Trying to pinpoint the exact cause of this challenge will help a lot of gamers, even my friend who has the same issue, to finally resolve it.
THere's doesn't get anywhere near as Hot, so i haven't tried anything on the Heat front yet.
I will be checking the Power Supply though, as mentioned by others just to be certain.

Dirkiess · Jun 02, 2005, 09:26 AM // 09:26

To Forum Admin,

Is it possible to update the Title to the following please?

"Issues with Machine Lockups and Overheating. Add your details here. "

I would appreciate it a lot and would get more people posting there issues here than keep creating new threads with the same challenges.

Many Thanks.

MaglorD · Jun 02, 2005, 09:57 AM // 09:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirkiess

Actually, I wasn't implying anything. I also have an ATI system with an X800 pro and the game run fantastically on my machine.
Not flaming, but seems you just read ATI and thought I love my ATI, don't insult it. I was trying to help people.

Well this may seem redundant...

Let me tell you why I thought you were zeroing on ATI. It's because you said "more often than not it appears to be with some sort of ATI Graphics card involved in the system". If this isn't implying, don't know what is. Again, we all entitled to free speech and as long as no one is rude, we can say whatever we want...not flaming at all.

I don't belong to either camp as I own top-end cards from both ATI and Nvidia.

boots559 · Jun 02, 2005, 11:11 AM // 11:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dirkiess

Would love to hear if your new Fan and Artic Silver compound help to alleviate your symptoms as this would help others in there search for a solution.

If it doesn't, don't give up but try changing the drivers as well back to the originals and see what happens. Obviously, only if the new Fan doesn't work.

Trying to pinpoint the exact cause of this challenge will help a lot of gamers, even my friend who has the same issue, to finally resolve it.
THere's doesn't get anywhere near as Hot, so i haven't tried anything on the Heat front yet.
I will be checking the Power Supply though, as mentioned by others just to be certain.

god, i've tryed many drivers already without the arctic silver 5 and the fan card, so if it isn't a heat problem i duno what else it could be. I've ran memtest86 or whatever it's called for two nights in for about 10-12 hours each night with 0 errors both times, reinstalled windows twice since i've gotten the game, i'm outa ideas. i'd throw a new heatsink on the video card, but theres only two that i know of for the 6600gt agp, (http://www.stasisthermal.com/sess/ut...dex.shopscript , and i've heard the zalman VF700-Cu will fit, only i don't think the zalman will fit in my case with the side on.)

so unless this works, or i get a new case for the zalman heatsink,which would lead into awhole lot of other problems for me and cost more than i wanna pay for a $50 game, or AN find a way to change the game code to lower the temps(since this game seems to run about 8C or so hotter than every game i've played on this machine) or i'll end up prob just giving up on gw and get another game, or start saving up for a used ps2 to modchip for my pirating desires. In any case, i'll report back if it works or not. /endrant

Dirkiess · Jun 02, 2005, 07:40 PM // 19:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by boots559

god, i've tryed many drivers already without the arctic silver 5 and the fan card, so if it isn't a heat problem i duno what else it could be.

Totally understand where you're coming from.

To all readers/posters,

What I'm trying to do is centralise these issues into one thread instead of having dozens of threads all about the same thing being created, answers to questions given, threads disappear and new threads created and it all starts again. THis way people can concentrate more on helping others with totally different issues, and those with these issues can search this Thread.

If more people experience this problem, but there are different solutions other than Heat and PSU that resolves there problems, then it may be more than just Heat and Power causing the Problem.

Ok, MaglorD assumes I'm pointing this at ATI cards(Not having a go), but from the Threads I have read on this Forum so far, the Posters all seem to have ATI cards with the problems specified. Whether it's supposed to run Better with ATI cards or not, I really don't care. That is not the intention of this Thread.

It's for centralising.

Anyway, as it appears there are a few NVidia cards been added to this post, it would be interesting to see what solutions are being used to resolve this issue.

If it appears there is more to it, then this is something that ANet needs to look into, especially if it's happening on a lot more older style cards. WHy would that happen, I have no idea.

So, before you Post, Unless you have a Solution, or a Problem that hasn't already been listed, then please don't make this Post longer than it needs to be.

Many thanks to any helpers and techies who have a lot more info on some of the issues arising, especially when it comes to voltages. I've learnt a few things myself over the last day or so.

I look forward to hearing more and hopefully getting these issues resolved once and for all.

beckermanex · Jun 02, 2005, 10:09 PM // 22:09

Figured I would throw my hat over the wall on this one:

As stated in another thread in the forum, I experience lock-ups periodically while playing the game. The time in-between is never the same (sometimes hours will go by, other times I could lock-up every two minutes). The game will freeze the screen like it is lagging out, but won't let me do anything (CTRL+ALT+DEL, hit Start button on my keyboard, ALT+F4 out, etc.). I have to resort to hitting the reset button to escape from the hardlock.

At first I thought faulty drivers, so I upgraded everything to the latest and greatest versions. I frequently upgrade my video card drivers to the latest versions (problems started with CAT 5.4, continued with CAT 5.5). I can run other games like Max Payne 2, Domination, Halo, and Aquamark and have no problems what-so-ever so it seems to be isolated to GW.

Next I thought overheating, but, even at full load, my CPU and case temps never go above 45C. The video card is hot to the touch, but never scorching, with the stock cooler on board.

Finally, my path lead me to my USB wireless adapter thinking the packaged monitoring program may be causing me to lose my network connection, but that wouldn't explain the computer locking up and not letting me get back to Windows.

Last night I lowered all of my graphical settings to the bare-min and it seemed to run stable enough to let me play for a couple hours before I manually logged off.

Here are the specs on my system:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+
Gigabyte GA-K8N-Pro Motherboard (w/ latest BIOS rev)
ATI Radeon 9600 PRO 128MB (Catalyst 5.5 Drivers)
512MB RAM
450w Thermaltake PSU
Linksys W54GUSB Wireless Adapter
SoundBlaster Audigy ZS 2
Windows XP Professional SP2

It's been suggested I try going back to Catalyst 4.11 drivers since the 5.x series seems to have problems. Its either that or take a trip to Fry's, buy a new video card and give it a try to see if its the problem.

Any advice is greatly appreciated...

Dirkiess · Jun 02, 2005, 10:21 PM // 22:21

Quote:

Originally Posted by beckermanex

At first I thought faulty drivers, so I upgraded everything to the latest and greatest versions. I frequently upgrade my video card drivers to the latest versions (problems started with CAT 5.4, continued with CAT 5.5). I can run other games like Max Payne 2, Domination, Halo, and Aquamark and have no problems what-so-ever so it seems to be isolated to GW.

It's been suggested I try going back to Catalyst 4.11 drivers since the 5.x series seems to have problems. Its either that or take a trip to Fry's, but a new video card and give it a try to see if its the problem.

Any advice is greatly appreciated...

I'm the same as you, I like to keep up to date with the latest drivers, but on the odd occasion, i have found they cause a problem or 2 that wasn't there before.

The suggestion for the Cat 4.11 was mine.

This was the thread I started trying to log down all the issues in one thread instead of going back and forth through dozens when all the problems seem to be revolving around the same descriptions and more often than not, they have the older 9xxx series ATI cards in them.

With regards to what you said above, you mentioned that the problems started with Cat 5.4 and carried on with 5.5. See how Cat 4.11 performs and see if you have any more problems with the Machine totally locking up or Graphics going buggy then locking. If this works ok, then move up the scale.
I know this is a lot to ask, but the more testing that can be done a possible solution can be tied down and ANet and ATI can work on a fix/solution so we can all use the latest drivers.
This happens on my friends machine so I went back to Cat 4.5 which are the drivers that came with the card which happens to be an ATI 9800pro.

Let me know how your findings go, because if you find this works, then we know we have a possible cause.

One thing that just came to mind. I wonder if using an older driver actually causes any difference in the Temperatures, depending on how the card is used with those drivers. SOmething to ponder on and Test out.

wolfieshaw · Jun 02, 2005, 10:24 PM // 22:24

sorry no solution but a list of symtoms and get outs that sometime work.

when scenery starts to disappear and pop back if you can leave the mission and log off back on the problem will stay away for another hour or 2.

if in mission crt,alt,delete check desk top for an error message which i failed to note
which says an action has failed to terminate ok it and go back to game for another hour or more without problems.

if your screen is 640x480 4colour reboot as the game is lost.

i hope this will help someone find a solution or at least help you finish a mission in time.

specs:
gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 motherboard
amd64 3200+
1024 ram kingston
nvidia 6600 pcie 256 ram
550 watt psu
160gb sata hd
windows xp pro

beckermanex · Jun 02, 2005, 10:27 PM // 22:27

Well my massive Volcano 12 heatsink being right next to the AGP slot certainly doesn't help the temperatures of the video card at all

But even so, I have a front intake 120mm fan, rear exhaust 120mm, and a 80mm exhaust on my side window directly above the CPU fan (running at 5600rpm) so I've started to lean away from overheating as a cause and focus on drivers and/or network issues.

Dirkiess · Jun 02, 2005, 10:32 PM // 22:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by wolfieshaw

when scenery starts to disappear and pop back if you can leave the mission and log off back on the problem will stay away for another hour or 2.

if in mission crt,alt,delete check desk top for an error message which i failed to note
which says an action has failed to terminate ok it and go back to game for another hour or more without problems.

Interesting. Will have to look out for any errors that may be on the desktop, if there are any for me. But with the lock ups on my friends machine, it may not be an option. If you get it again, is it possible to make a note of it, and log it here. Will give us something to fire at ANet.

As for the scenery disappearing, that is a new one on me. Personally, on my friends machine, the music sometimes still plays in the background, the whole machine has frozen, but the mouse moves around a blob of graphics and the you have to press the Power Switch to reboot.

Dirkiess · Jun 02, 2005, 10:40 PM // 22:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by beckermanex

Well my massive Volcano 12 heatsink being right next to the AGP slot certainly doesn't help the temperatures of the video card at all

But even so, I have a front intake 120mm fan, rear exhaust 120mm, and a 80mm exhaust on my side window directly above the CPU fan (running at 5600rpm) so I've started to lean away from overheating as a cause and focus on drivers and/or network issues.

Same here. I looked at the heating issue as my first port of call, as it only ever happened when playing in games, and normally some hard hitting ones at that. GW and one other i tried. Can't remember the name right this minute though, are the two major issues I'm having right now.

THere was a Plastic tunnel attached to the side case that was getting hot, so i decided to remove it, in case it was increasing the temp, which i found it did, by several degrees. Removing the side panel also decreased the temp, but i found the game would still crash.
So I have gone for Drivers. Reason for this, memory, CPU and Graphics card have all been swapped out by the PC Manufacturer. Only things left were the Hard Drive and PSU. I used a spare HDD, same problem.
As for the PSU,which some people have mentioned, that isn't a problem on my friends machine. Not enough grunt to be of concern.

Oh, and regarding the Network, that has also been of interest to me. My friends network seems to work fine, but i have run the PC at my house and it's been on all day with the other game that would crash, and no problem, this was connected to my network as well.
Bring it back to my friends house, and it would crash after a few hours, sometimes only 30 mins.

I have reduced the overall software on the PC to a bare minimum, including the NEtwork software for email etc that is provided by the Cable company. FOund i didn't need it to log on to there network anyway. Works of the Cable Number.

Still testing.