Curse

Missara Leon · Jun 16, 2006, 08:06 PM // 20:06

So i've already been in touch with playNC. They checked my system and I do indeed meet the req's to play guildwars.

Here's the frustrating part. Randomly...COMPLETELY randomly...my computer will do a complete shutdown. As if i've gone to the start menu and told it to restart. This only happens RANDOMLY when i'm playing guildwars. I'd like to say its cuz of lag while in towns...but nope...The other weird thing is this..and it's happened 3 times in the past 5 days.

I went to Vizunah with my ele. I loaded into the last district ON PURPOSE...no people, less lag. My computer rebooted the minute I got in there. When I finally loaded back into windows and opened up Guildwars. The game loaded my ele into Kieneng instead of vizunah. I took one step...it crashed again. When I loaded back the third time, the game loaded me properly into Vizunah.

Three times this has happened. I don't know why. My father is cisco certified admin who CHECKED MY MACHINE....for....everything. The playNC people I worked with...had me do test after test. I thought it might be my ram going...but this only happens during guildwars. My roomy plays doom3, unreal tournament AND starwars knights of the old republic...it never crashes on him.

Any idea's?

EF2NYD · Jun 16, 2006, 10:52 PM // 22:52

Make sure your CPU isn't toast. GW is CPU intensive.

erick5876 · Jun 17, 2006, 04:09 AM // 04:09

try reinstalling GW. also run virus scan.

Matsumi · Jun 17, 2006, 04:28 AM // 04:28

Usually when a computer completely shuts down at random, it's a sign of overheating CPU or overheating in general. Strange that it doesn't happen in the other games, GW must be CPU intensive. Also, try monitoring the temps with something like this...

http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=311

or you could try this out to see if it's errors caused by memory

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

Missara Leon · Jun 17, 2006, 08:07 AM // 08:07

Thank you. I was told by my roomy..who's computer this is...that he has...three fans? And one of them is right near the CPU. I don't know how accurate this is and I will take advantage of that program for monitoring heat.

I haven't tried reinstalling guildwars...but I have run virus scans. I also routinely do spyware/malware maintnence.

Any other solutions or advice is welcome ^^

Matsumi · Jun 17, 2006, 08:15 AM // 08:15

If your computer is actually restarting instead of shutting down all the way, it could be an error message that you're not seeing. If you go into your system properties by going into control panel and system, click on the advanced tab at the top, then click settings next to "startup and recovery", and uncheck automatically restart under "system failure". Then the next time it occurs you will get the error message instead of it restarting. Which you can write down and post up here, unless you would like to research it yourself. Either way, the second link I put up there for the memory diagnostic should help with that.

gnenor · Jun 19, 2006, 04:48 AM // 04:48

Hi, I've been having similar problems with GW. My pc just restarts randomly on its own when i'm playing. Last week, I installed new RAM (2x512mb) and a video card (ATI X800XL pci-e) and played GW and it was fine the first day. But then the next day, it started restarting randomly. I could be playing for 2 hours before it happens or just 30 min. I reinstalled all the video drivers and also ran Memtest86+ on my new RAM and zero errors after several passes.

I read your posts about "unchecking the automatically restart under system failure" and I've done that and when the system restarts there is no blue screen indicating the error message. Could I be having PSU problems? or somthing else?
I have a Dell Dimension 5100 and the PSu it came with is 305W. The vidoe card requires minimum of 300W. I only have 1 DVD-rom, 1 HD, no sound card (its built in) so I think the PSU should be ok.

Any help is greatly appreciated

gamer291 · Jun 19, 2006, 04:54 AM // 04:54

that happened to me and ppl were saying i needed a new video card, a new power supply, but no i went and bought my self a little 10 dollar 3 speed fan and i leave it on high, now i have 4 fans plus the video card and cpu fans in computer and my computer does not restart anymore while playing Gw

Bigger Redd · Jun 19, 2006, 05:08 AM // 05:08

I would begin to suspect the memory as you've already checked, and found to be good. Next thing I'd check would be the power supply (as your worrying about now).

Dell's seem to usually only put power supplies that will be sufficient for the included factory hardware, so If I were you, I would maybe test with a better one. Something with more amps on the +12v line. If you could, list the amps on each rail (+12V is the one you'll need to worry about most)

gnenor · Jun 19, 2006, 05:34 AM // 05:34

thanks for responding guys.
Bigger Redd, how do i find out what the amps are on the +12v line for my PSU? (sorry for asking but I'm pretty noob to the technical side of computer things)

Feminist Terrorist · Jun 19, 2006, 06:58 AM // 06:58

Ya know, I had similar problems, but with another game. Neither my husband nor I could figure out what the problem was, so we took it to BestBuy and had their GeekSquad do a diagnostic on it. Twice. The first time, they simply reset the Cmos, but it started rebooting again a few weeks later. Second diagnostic, they said the video card was bad. I replaced it, and have had no problems in over a month. So...you might want to take it somewhere and get it properly checked out.

gnenor · Jun 24, 2006, 02:47 PM // 14:47

I finally had some time to open up my pc case again to take a look. I took out the Dell PSU and found the following on a sticker:
+5v 22A -12v 1A
+12vA 18A -3.3v 17A
+12vB 18A -5vsB 2A
I'm not quite what all these figures mean though.

alchohol · Jun 24, 2006, 03:45 PM // 15:45

I agree with matsumi.

Sounds like dust bunnies. Check for dust clogging cpu heatsink fins, fans etc. Take off the pc cover and use a good light. you'd be surprised what you find.

Use a hairdryer to blow out the dust....preferably outside.