Curse

Puddingbroodje · Apr 22, 2008, 07:54 PM // 19:54

i got this error 3 times within 5 minutes... all the time i get this error i am in prophecies. this time i was in Tombs of Primevall kings.

Yesterday i got these errors also when i was in Sorrow's Furnace.

Anyone else has this isues?

system:
Windows Vista SP1 (Ultimate)
2048 Ram (2gb)
AMD Athlon X2 3800+
SATA Maxtor 200gb
Nvidia 8800GT 512

Covah · Apr 22, 2008, 08:02 PM // 20:02

try -image? see if your data archive is corrupt?

Puddingbroodje · Apr 22, 2008, 08:14 PM // 20:14

-image works fine i do that everytime there is an update.

i got this error 4 times followed with an BSOD
i only get this when i play GW.

Chthon · Apr 22, 2008, 08:35 PM // 20:35

Who sees two cores? I see two cores!

GW is not stable on multiple cores. Force it to one core. See if that fixes it.

Puddingbroodje · Apr 22, 2008, 08:55 PM // 20:55

and how am i supposed to do that? In the BIOS?
I don't think it's a core problem imo..

but a little side question: Is it usefull to send the error to anet? (Send report to ArenaNet) or are they never gonna look at it?

FiftyFiveD · Apr 22, 2008, 10:57 PM // 22:57

i had a gw.exe problem previously and reported it to Anet and they successfully helped me out w/n a few days.....

Covah · Apr 22, 2008, 11:28 PM // 23:28

[QUOTE=Puddingbroodje]and how am i supposed to do that? In the BIOS?
/QUOTE]

CTRL ALT DLT go to processes, rightclick on gw.exe, set affinity, and only have one core checked.

I run 2 cores and GW is fine for me.

Puddingbroodje · Apr 23, 2008, 10:28 AM // 10:28

i reinstalled GW and after a long wait of -image i tried it again.
With a little bit of succes, gw now crashes now and then without the gw.exe error, and when i tried to force gw to use 1 core i had no crashes. *knocks on wood*

Puddingbroodje · Apr 26, 2008, 09:28 PM // 21:28

Update:
The gw.exe error is back....

Brianna · Apr 26, 2008, 09:42 PM // 21:42

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puddingbroodje

i reinstalled GW and after a long wait of -image i tried it again.
With a little bit of succes, gw now crashes now and then without the gw.exe error, and when i tried to force gw to use 1 core i had no crashes. *knocks on wood*

Well if it works on only one core, then run it on one core. It's a known problem that people sometimes get with running Guild Wars on two cores.

For example on my windows XP pro I can't run it on two cores, I get problems, but on the same computer with Vista Ultimate 64 bit I get smooth performance on two.

Snograt · Apr 26, 2008, 10:17 PM // 22:17

Yeah, we've been here before. Sometimes it's happy with 2 cores, sometimes it's happy with 4 cores, sometimes it insists on only one. It's all down to many variables - combination of components. As far as we can tell, at least.

Give it a try - set the affinity to one core as above, if it does work, there's your problem. If it doesn't, then we start to look for other possible causes.

If it does turn out to be a multi-core problem, it's time to get ForceCore which has the same effect but means you don't need to do it manually every time. (The Ctrl-Alt-Del version is a one-shot - GW will revert to running on all available cores next boot. Oh, and it's Shift-Ctrl-Esc nowadays

)

Puddingbroodje · Apr 26, 2008, 10:20 PM // 22:20

i get the gw.exe error on dual core as well on one core so i don't think that is the problem.

Snograt · Apr 26, 2008, 10:27 PM // 22:27

Hum.

Well, one thing that springs to mind is that, just because you regularly -image the .dat, it doesn't mean that it isn't corrupt. You may wish to delete your .dat, install the latest one you have on disc (the one on EotN would be the most recent) and then do an -image.

Failing that, post the entire crash log - not just the little bit we can see above. Someone with more tech savvy than me might see what is actually causing the crash.

Puddingbroodje · Apr 26, 2008, 10:51 PM // 22:51

i will do that!

but this isn't funny anymore, just a minute ago i got an BSOD with the message:
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
i can remember this as a memory error, am i right?
but i only get this when i play GW, when i play another game like UT i can play it for hours without any errors.

Snograt · Apr 26, 2008, 11:06 PM // 23:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Microsoft

This bug check is issued if paged memory (or invalid memory) is accessed when the IRQL is too high.

The error that generates this bug check usually occurs after the installation of a faulty device driver, system service, or BIOS.

If you encounter bug check 0xA while upgrading to a later version of Windows, this error might be caused by a device driver, a system service, a virus scanner, or a backup tool that is incompatible with the new version.

I have seen elsewhere that IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL can be caused by overheating processors or bad memory, not sure how true that is, though.

If we go with the MS version, have you recently upgraded to Vista, or has your system always had Vista? If the latter, have you recently installed SP1? I know I had it myself recently, but I'm not sure what caused it, although virus scanner does ring a bell. ZoneAlarm for one is certainly struggling badly with Vista.

Chthon · Apr 27, 2008, 04:23 AM // 04:23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Puddingbroodje

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Can mean either (a) you have a hardware conflict because plug-n-play incorrectly allocated IRQ's to your hardware (or your hardware configuration is such that no workable IRQ configuration exists for it), or (b) one of your hardware drivers has a bug that causes it to make invalid calls on the wrong IRQ.

Solution:
First check for an IRQ conflict. Don't always trust Windows that there's no conflict on a shared IRQ -- your video card and sound card probably can't share an IRQ, no matter what Windows thinks. If you find a dubious configuration, you'll have to uninstall and physically remove components and reshuffle the order you install in and what goes in which slot until plug-n-play comes up with a workable configuration.
Second, assuming no actual IRQ conflicts, then you need to find the buggy driver. Try updating all your drivers (maybe the problem is already fixed by an updated driver). If that doesn't help, you'll have to uninstall and remove things one at a time until you figure out which device is causing the problem. Then live without that device until a fixed driver is released.

(@Snogorat: It's possible that bad RAM (probably on the video card) or overheating could just happen to be corrupting data destined to become an IRQ signal in a way that mimics this error, but it's unlikely, and would probably also cause other noticeable (and constant) problems if it were happening.)

Puddingbroodje · Apr 27, 2008, 07:52 AM // 07:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snograt

I have seen elsewhere that IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL can be caused by overheating processors or bad memory, not sure how true that is, though.

If we go with the MS version, have you recently upgraded to Vista, or has your system always had Vista? If the latter, have you recently installed SP1? I know I had it myself recently, but I'm not sure what caused it, although virus scanner does ring a bell. ZoneAlarm for one is certainly struggling badly with Vista.

now did you mention, i recently installed SP1 on Vista and if i'm thinking correctly, the isseus started after SP1...

Edit:
here is my DxDiag Log:
http://puddingbroodje.nl/DxDiag.txt

i think is similar to the text from the error.

Snograt · Apr 27, 2008, 02:40 PM // 14:40

The dxdiag log just shows what hardware you have and which drivers, etc. That error log would show what actually failed. (I learned several new Dutch words from that log however, I'm particularly fond of USB-hoofdhub

)

I think that it is likely an SP1 problem, and that something that was perfectly happy working with Vista suddenly isn't. It's a problem that is only happening while GW is running which complicates matters somewhat. Cthon's solution sounds spot on to me - I'd go with that.

It is odd how many problems we see that only occur when GW is running - it's natural to assume GW itself is at fault, but it seems that it often isn't. Maybe GW makes calls to odd places that can cause conflicts? I dunno, I'm just theorising here.

Chthon · Apr 27, 2008, 06:14 PM // 18:14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Snograt

It is odd how many problems we see that only occur when GW is running - it's natural to assume GW itself is at fault, but it seems that it often isn't. Maybe GW makes calls to odd places that can cause conflicts? I dunno, I'm just theorising here.

Just by way of general info, GW brings a lot of errors to the surface because it uses a lot of resources that don't get used when the computer is just idling. Just like you wouldn't notice if your DVD drive was totally busted unless you tried to play a DVD, you don't notice problems with the advanced features on your video and sound cards, or (more rarely) bad RAM that's high in the address space until you try to play GW (or some other "serious" PC game).

Puddingbroodje · Apr 28, 2008, 09:48 AM // 09:48

and that is the whole "problem" i only get it when i play Guild Wars.
I can play UT2k4 for hours without any problems.