Curse

jlg6184 · May 04, 2009, 01:45 AM // 01:45

Alright, prior to rebuilding my system, GW's ran flawlessly. I now have:
AMD X2 5000+
BIOSTAR GF8200 M2+ Mobo
2 Gbs of OCZ 6400 ddr2
8800GT 512mb EVGA

Alright, now when I run Guild Wars, it runs anywhere from 5 minutes to 5 hours, but has random freezes *hard freeze, hold computer locks up*.
This happens in windowed mode, fullscreen, basically no matter what. The odd thing is that this only happens in guild wars. I can play everything else I own (BioShock, Fallout 2 , Far Cry 2, Mass Effect--just to name a few) without any issues at all. GW runs great right up until it freezes, with absolutely no warning as to that it might freeze. To be on the safe side, I checked everything, temps are acceptable, voltage is right, drivers are up-to-date, I am just stumped. Any ideas at all that may help me remedy this problem.

Also the nvidia driver I am using is the 182.50 driver (current driver)
Thank you in advance for any and all assistatnce.

Braxton619 · May 04, 2009, 04:11 AM // 04:11

Try these:

1. Install latest drivers from every part on your computer.
2. Upgrade to XP SP3.
3. Make sure your not running anything in the background(virus scans, etc.)
4. Set it to lowest graphics and sound.

What is hurting it, is your RAM. I have 3GB of RAM on XP and I never freeze. You could try to upgrade your RAM to 3-5GB and if your running Vista, upgrade it to 8GB(because Vista is awful)

jlg6184 · May 04, 2009, 05:22 AM // 05:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Leet Tankur

Try these:

1. Install latest drivers from every part on your computer.
2. Upgrade to XP SP3.
3. Make sure your not running anything in the background(virus scans, etc.)
4. Set it to lowest graphics and sound.

What is hurting it, is your RAM. I have 3GB of RAM on XP and I never freeze. You could try to upgrade your RAM to 3-5GB and if your running Vista, upgrade it to 8GB(because Vista is awful)

Thanks for the input. I have XP SP3 (and all available updates), I have all the latest drivers for everything in my system. Apart from that, I am not sure what more ram could possibly do, my old system was an old 754 AMD 64 3000+ and had 2 gb of pc3200, with the same video card and guild wars ran great. So I am not sure that lowering the graphics would really do anything (as I play higher requirement games on higher settings without problems.) Anyway, I may go ahead and lower the settings a bit to see if that helps, but I am open to other input, as I don't feel this will remedy the situation.
Again thank you for you input, and your willingness to help out, I will post results of lowering graphics likely tomorrow.

EDIT: After attempting to lower the graphics ingame, I still have the same issues as before, get the random hard lock up of my system...

Elder III · May 04, 2009, 09:41 PM // 21:41

2GB if RAM is plenty on an XP system for most apps... certainly for GW.

If this is happening only with GW you could try the "-repair" command or if that doesn't work re-install your gw.dat file (use "-image" if you don't have the discs) --- if you need them, you can find all the details on how to do both of those things if you search the forums here.

Doesn't your motherboard have integrated graphics? If so try running GW on that for a few hours, it's not likely, but it could be a driver/card incompatibility...

majurglery · May 04, 2009, 10:00 PM // 22:00

This same thing has been happening to me, i have even gotten a BSOD once, but during mine, my whole computer freezes, not just GW. I know it has somehting to do with guildwars because i can play any other game and nothing like this happens, and my computer is definately powerful enough to run guildwars. GW has ran fine before, so i doubt its component coflicts. I am running vista 64 BTW

jlg6184 · May 04, 2009, 11:35 PM // 23:35

Quote:

2GB if RAM is plenty on an XP system for most apps... certainly for GW.

If this is happening only with GW you could try the "-repair" command or if that doesn't work re-install your gw.dat file (use "-image" if you don't have the discs) --- if you need them, you can find all the details on how to do both of those things if you search the forums here.

Doesn't your motherboard have integrated graphics? If so try running GW on that for a few hours, it's not likely, but it could be a driver/card incompatibility...

I will try the repair command and image command if necessary to see if that fixes the problem. Lowering the graphics did nothing to fix the issues, got to play a bit longer before it happened, but that isn't saying much as it happens anywhere from 5 minute to 5 hours into gameplay. I may also try the onboard video if the -repair and -image don't work. Thanks for the suggestions.

Quote:

Originally Posted by majurglery

This same thing has been happening to me, i have even gotten a BSOD once, but during mine, my whole computer freezes, not just GW. I know it has somehting to do with guildwars because i can play any other game and nothing like this happens, and my computer is definately powerful enough to run guildwars. GW has ran fine before, so i doubt its component coflicts. I am running vista 64 BTW

Mine isn't just Guild Wars that freezes, it is a whole system freeze. And my issues are much like yours, nothing else will cause the crash...Played Combat Arms, Bioshock, Mass Effect all without problems, but GW has this freeze issue.

EDIT: Tried the -repair (did nothing), and tried -image (downloaded bunch of stuff) and neither worked, still have the sporadic freezing issues.

jlg6184 · May 10, 2009, 01:35 AM // 01:35

Alright, it has been a few days since my last post, and I have tried a few things, and still can not pinpoint what actually is causing my issues. I reinstalled windows (basically because I didn't have anything else to do), and installed the newest nvidia drivers, then installed Guild Wars (client from webpage) still to no avail the problem is recurring, and at this point I just have no clue what it is, I mean every other game I own plays wonderfully, and GW still just freezes my system randomly. My dual core is running at fairly decent temps (core 1 runs about 38C, core 2 runs about 30C)--both just running winxp and standard programs, no games), and my 8800gt idles at about 60-63C. This is the only problem I can simulate 9 out of 10 times (GW Freezing) and I have yet to make any of my other computer games freeze (regardless of the graphic settings). So I really am at a loss, I mean the voltages of my PSU check out (650W), so I am still looking for any other ideas, thanks again in advance.

EDIT: Since reinstalling, it appears to be freezing with more frequency btw.

pedro11 · Jun 11, 2009, 04:06 PM // 16:06

I'm having the same issue as jlg6184, after it started happening I did a clean install of windows on a new hd, it's a clean install of Vista 64 all drivers and patches are up to date

Specs are
AMD dual core 6400+ (average temp is 36 c)
8gb of PC2-6400 OCZ Ram
Gigabyte GA-MA74GM-S2 AMD740G motherboard
EVGA 8800gt
Antec Earthwatts 750W Power Supply

I've downloaded a new .dat tried the -repair still get the lock, tried running GW full screen and in windowed mode.

I am able to play other games with out issue, I too am at a loss and would love to play GW again but can't until I find out a resolution

Thanks in advance

Ec]-[oMaN · Jun 11, 2009, 04:48 PM // 16:48

Stress testing tools/benchmarks

http://forums.techpowerup.com/showthread.php?t=20251

Mainly try stress testing cpu/memory, then stress test the GPU/video card, more often than not some games stress certain things more than other games do and there can still be hardware related problems.

This is especially true if you have uninstalled GW, deleted its folder and re-installed it if the same problems are occurring it's probably hardware/software related.

Have you also tried a previous video card driver, something older than the current?

CCleaner is great for cleaning up programs/hd and registry. I usually run it after an uninstall of software/drivers.

http://www.ccleaner.com/

I'd still put my weight on there being something flakey with your new combination of hardware/drivers since it ran fine before. Memory timings/voltage, chipset drivers, bios drivers, the whole shabang.

rick1027 · Jun 11, 2009, 06:54 PM // 18:54

what the size of your psu ive seen an overstressed psu do this before

pedro11 · Jun 12, 2009, 04:10 AM // 04:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by rick1027

what the size of your psu ive seen an overstressed psu do this before

I'm using a 750w and jlg6184 said he was using a 650W

rick1027 · Jun 12, 2009, 05:45 AM // 05:45

only thing i can see is your both using the 8800gt might be an issue with that y'all just get updated driver maybe trying a rollback to an earlier driver used to be a site that gave better driver for nvidia cards but i cant recall what it was yall dont by chance have antiliasing on. im thinking its the specific drivers with the 8800 gt. the more research i do i find a lot of different people have the same problem with the same card. you should try older drivers if possible or if your using older driver upgrade to the latest

UNOXani · Jun 13, 2009, 08:34 AM // 08:34

I had something similar to this when I rebuilt my system early last year, in the end the thing that fixed it was i discovered the heatsink/fan wasnt quite seated right on the processor/board (Curse the new intel 4 threads into the board design), reseated it and got some decent thermal paste whilst I was at it, and its been fine since.

Only ever did it with Guildwars to, everything else seemed fine!!

rick1027 · Jun 14, 2009, 02:30 AM // 02:30

that was gonna be my next thought they might do if everything else didnt work. i had a 650w powersupply go when runnimg guild wars problem it was a cheapo one got the same size of a better brand name and had no problem since

pedro11 · Jun 18, 2009, 05:10 AM // 05:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by xanidark

I had something similar to this when I rebuilt my system early last year, in the end the thing that fixed it was i discovered the heatsink/fan wasnt quite seated right on the processor/board (Curse the new intel 4 threads into the board design), reseated it and got some decent thermal paste whilst I was at it, and its been fine since.

Only ever did it with Guildwars to, everything else seemed fine!!

decided to try reseating the heatsink with good paste, still freezing. next stop is a new graphics card

rick1027 · Jun 18, 2009, 08:29 PM // 20:29

i had similar problems with my 8800gt and it ended up overloading my psu my psu was a an antec and it was a round 750 ended up getting a corsair 850w and it went away. something about that card for me always required a huge psu ive had cards afterward that didnt need as big of a psu. i no longer use that 8800gt i ended upgrading then i built a new one this year

jamnog · Jun 19, 2009, 04:23 PM // 16:23

start > control panel > admin tools > event viewer
click application viewer and system looks for any red cross around the time of the crash.
tell me what it says.

I might not be able to help but I think this might be a rout you could take

Rolgalthor · Jun 19, 2009, 05:04 PM // 17:04

I had the same issue when I built my Core i7. The only thing that I could find to cure it was to keep vsync turned on. I left everything else set on high. I havent crashed since.

Pariah · Jun 19, 2009, 07:42 PM // 19:42

This is a common problem. It has come up on game forums periodically over the last 3 years or so. Nobody has ever been able to figure out what causes it.

I have had this problem myself for years. In my attempts to solve it I have tested and tried the following (not necessarily in the order listed) :

1 - run -repair
2 - delete and reinstall GW
3 - run several different versions of the graphics drivers
4 - changed the graphics cards
5 - run several different versions of the sound drivers
6 - changed the sound cards
7 - temperatures are all good
8 - changed the Power Supply (currently running a 1100w psu)
9 - memory checked good
10 - changed memory anyway
11 - updated XP to sp3
12 - cursed a lot
13 - reinstalled windows
14 - turned off everything in the background
15 - got drunk
16 - turned all game settings to minimum
17 - gave up

Nothing on that list has made any difference at all. I am sure there are a dozen other things I have tried that have also failed to solve this.

moriz · Jun 20, 2009, 12:01 AM // 00:01

i've seen quite a few of these cases, and unless my memory is failing me, almost EVERY one of them involved a geforce 8 series. i'm quite sure there's nothing wrong with the cards. it almost sounds like the GW client just doesn't like the 8 series all that much.

as a last ditch effort, try downgrading your video card driver to forceware 169.21. i believe the 169.xx drivers were the last batch that didn't produce problems in GW.

NOTE: you'll lose performance in just about every game released in the last two years, since you'll lose all the driver level optimizations for those games.