Curse

BeXoR · Oct 15, 2006, 04:36 AM // 04:36

My game has recently been running at an unplayable 4FPS for absolutely no good reason at all.
In cities, I can move around fine, with moderate FPS (as recent as the Nightfall preview event it would run flawlessly).
I can even enter a mission alone with no problems.
But if I enter with other players or henchmen, my FPS sits fine at about 60 if I stand there and do nothing. The second I take a step or turn my camera (but not zooming in and out), my fps drops as low as 0.

If I take a look at GW in my processes, it's set to the lowest priority possible. If I turn it up, close processes window, and open the processes window agan, GW will once more be at the lowest possible. I believe this might have something to do with my loss of GW playability.

Anyone know what's up?

I've freshly uninstalled and reinstalled all my graphics drivers, unin/reinstalled DirectX 9c, updated Windows with all patches and Service Pack 1, and throughoutly checked my ram for stability, damage, and proper seating.
My system is not overheating.
I gurantee it is no driver error and no faulty hardware. Besides, none of that would explain the forced low priority, while everything else runs fine.
I am not overclocking.
I can run a game like Prey or Quake 4 or whatever other high end gfx card memory game out there on maximum settings with around 60fps, so it's not my graphics card being damaged.

People are notorious for blaming users for software or OS issues, and I'd appriciate people straying away from suggesting I run Memtest or something else that is irrelevant.
I have also tried a system restore point to before the Nightfall preview event (which I could play flawlessly), and that did not change anything. The game still defaulted to and refused to change from lowest priority, and my FPS still drops to nothing.
There have been no hardware changes.

Edit: The FPS drop remains the same, no matter if on lowest settings, or highest.
BeXoR (I'm not her, she's using her acct to post this for me) also informs me that priorities can't be changed, GW is hardcoded in that... So... if anyone has any other hints for me that'd be great. Her's runs fine.

EF2NYD · Oct 15, 2006, 07:20 AM // 07:20

Make sure the power cable is connected to the graphics card if applicable.

BeXoR · Oct 15, 2006, 07:36 AM // 07:36

It is, yes. All my hardware is in order. Prey and Quake 4 would surely not run on max settings if the power was not plugged in.

aeroclown · Oct 15, 2006, 08:59 PM // 20:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by BeXoR

My game has recently been running at an unplayable 4FPS for absolutely no good reason at all.
In cities, I can move around fine, with moderate FPS (as recent as the Nightfall preview event it would run flawlessly).
I can even enter a mission alone with no problems.
But if I enter with other players or henchmen, my FPS sits fine at about 60 if I stand there and do nothing. The second I take a step or turn my camera (but not zooming in and out), my fps drops as low as 0.

If I take a look at GW in my processes, it's set to the lowest priority possible. If I turn it up, close processes window, and open the processes window agan, GW will once more be at the lowest possible. I believe this might have something to do with my loss of GW playability.

Anyone know what's up?

I've freshly uninstalled and reinstalled all my graphics drivers, unin/reinstalled DirectX 9c, updated Windows with all patches and Service Pack 1, and throughoutly checked my ram for stability, damage, and proper seating.
My system is not overheating.
I gurantee it is no driver error and no faulty hardware. Besides, none of that would explain the forced low priority, while everything else runs fine.
I am not overclocking.
I can run a game like Prey or Quake 4 or whatever other high end gfx card memory game out there on maximum settings with around 60fps, so it's not my graphics card being damaged.

People are notorious for blaming users for software or OS issues, and I'd appriciate people straying away from suggesting I run Memtest or something else that is irrelevant.
I have also tried a system restore point to before the Nightfall preview event (which I could play flawlessly), and that did not change anything. The game still defaulted to and refused to change from lowest priority, and my FPS still drops to nothing.
There have been no hardware changes.

Edit: The FPS drop remains the same, no matter if on lowest settings, or highest.
BeXoR (I'm not her, she's using her acct to post this for me) also informs me that priorities can't be changed, GW is hardcoded in that... So... if anyone has any other hints for me that'd be great. Her's runs fine.

Technically the Priority is not such that it is hardcoded, but such that it is dynamic. Guildwars only aquires a normal or high level of priority when the game itself is the on screen focus. If the game is not the on screen focus then it changes to a low priority setting to allow you to perform other desktop task while the game remains open in the background.

it should also be noted that if you are running windows XP you should have Service Pack 2 installed. Microsoft has ended support For ALL Revisions of Windows Below XP SP2. This means that your system is open and vunerable.

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/sup...ofsupport.mspx

You should insure you are running service pack 2.

You should also locate Memcheck and run it to esure that your systems memory chips have no errors. Large chips much like large drives tend to have an increased probability of failure.

Check to make sure that your system is virus free and spyware free. Remove bloated software like NAV and Mcafee, and replace them with software that is thin. Replacing applications like the Norton Anti-Virus suite or the Mcafee suite alone can restore performance to systems that appear to have become slow or sluggish.

Also look at the software that you have installed or removed in the time span for which the failure started. Removal of something critical or an update to other pieces of software can also cause internal problems, Software conflicts.
Check your installation of guildwars, try finding contig as listed on this site and check the fragments of the dat file, if all else fails Try reinstalling, or performing a fresh install of Guildwars.

Ensure that your system has atleast 10-15% of the total disk space free, failure to do so can cause a range of performance issues.

Also keep in mind that this game is a thin client system that requires a good clean active connection to and from the server for which it connects. If there are issues within the route, what seems like a hardware failure could be something less local.

Ensure that your power supply is rated for the level of hardware that you have in your system. Use a Volt meter(If you are comfortable) and test its throughput to ensure that the unit is actually pushing the wattage it claims, if it is not then the power supply is not able to provide the required power for the given rate of consumption. It is a known fact that just because a power supply says so on the label dosn't mean it is so. Power Supplies are made to varying standards by the many companies that produce the units. Each of which have different levels of tolerance on overall output levels.

Kern Wolf · Oct 15, 2006, 11:17 PM // 23:17

Excellent advice given in the previous post....
I would uninstall GW altogether 1st and do all the above listed. Also, see if the video card's web site has updated drivers, and install those (I have an ATI radeon 9800 card in my PC; if I use Microsoft's update drivers for it, my desktop looks like crap). Then, go ahead and reinstall GW. I would also clean up your registry, if possible (you can download "regclean" from zdnet.com)...