Curse

Darkwood · Aug 31, 2005, 11:51 PM // 23:51

I tried updating to every single ATI driver available. Didn't work. Updated my Nvidia Soundstorm sound driver. No go. Updated my BIOS - and eventhough the software said a new driver was available my comp. went crazy. Updated my screen driver - no result. I did every single driver install with drivercleaner just to make sure no conflicts existed.

After having consulted with GW tech support they finally got tired and my last message was " there are no known issues with ATI products". No known issues!!?? Well, ask half the GW population!

Anyway, it was back to basics for me. If the new stuff doesn't work, get back and dig out all your old cds and install them. I reinstalled my ancient 3.1 ATI driver as well as the old Nvidia sound driver and put back the good old pluck and play screen driver. I then updated the 3.1 driver to a TYAN 7.88 driver and gave GW a go with butterflies in my stomach. Guess what? GW loves the old stuff!!! It rebooted, frooze and whatnot with hightech drivers and now it spins like a ferrari. In my first session I played 8 hrs in a row ( heh) and it was clear skies all the way

Before I entered this state of bliss I was fairly desperate so if any Radeon 9700 Pro users are out there and desperate then lemme me know and Ill try and help

- We all walk dark paths, but none is as bleak as that of a Necromancer-

MaglorD · Sep 01, 2005, 07:37 AM // 07:37

There are no known issues with my ATI card and GW :P
Runs smooth as silk with all graphics options maxed on the latest Cats.

LivingDeadGrrl · Sep 01, 2005, 01:01 PM // 13:01

Well, let me tell ya, from the girl who rebuilt her PC twice recently due to numerous problems... there IS a problem with something in regards to the ATI 9x drivers. I absolutely believe that now. I'm sure you wanna know why so I'll tell ya!

Long story short (no, really.... LONG), I had to send my ATI AIW 9800 Pro back to ATI for repairs. While waiting for it to be fixed, my sis gave me a 'loaner' video card, an ATI 7200. I've been able to play GW for the past week, have my PC running without incident. Yesterday, FedEx came with my video card from ATI. They were nice enough to overnight it to me! I have a Sharp Aquos tv for a monitor, which is weird about showing me the boot screen, so I schlepped my PC into another room, hooked it up to a regular TV, uninstalled the old software, installed the new card and the software for it, ASSumed everything was fine, unhooked it and took it back in my room. I did some web surfing, and then was excited to see what GW would look like, so I logged in. I was in the game for less than 10 minutes, and my PC locked up. I couldn't tell what occurred (this particular Aquos only has two resolutions and should your PC pick a resolution that isn't one of the two, I get a blue screen.. nice eh?), so I rebooted, came here, and remembered someone saying to roll the drivers back to 5.5 Catalyst. I did that, and was truly afraid to play GW because I was already aggravated. Woke up this morning, left the PC running overnight just to see what would happen, and when I flipped the set to PC mode, I had a blue screen. Wiggled the mouse, and I never got a picture, I had to use the reset button.

I'm waiting two more minutes and then I'm calling ATI Technical support. If they can't give me what I need, I guess I'll be going back to NVidia or something. Someone over at ATI needs to be fired.

film · Sep 01, 2005, 01:04 PM // 13:04

simplist solution ever...... GET OMEGA DRIVERS!!!! http://www.omegadrivers.net/

Manheim · Sep 01, 2005, 03:27 PM // 15:27

nVidia for the win.

Carinae · Sep 01, 2005, 03:48 PM // 15:48

I'm running a 9700 Pro with everything maxed and have no problems at all. I think 5.5 or 5.6 drivers.

gglass · Sep 01, 2005, 08:44 PM // 20:44

I have had nothing but problems running GW and a 9700 Pro video card. I ran very old drivers to the latest with no success. The system would lock up after a few minutes of game play.

I finally tried the Omega drivers (link above) and most lockup issues went away immidiatly! The game will still lock up, but usually after hours of game play... not minutes.

I did find that turning on V-Sync in the video settings is essential!

Xue Yi Liang · Sep 01, 2005, 08:59 PM // 20:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by film

simplist solution ever...... GET OMEGA DRIVERS!!!! http://www.omegadrivers.net/

I'll second that...
I've got a Radeon 9800 mobility in my laptop. The ATI drivers were buggy with Doom 3 and GTA - then I installed the Omega Drivers which fixed everything.

PS - if you download the Omega Drivers read the instructions carefully or you'll have a big headache on your hands.

Old Dood · Sep 02, 2005, 12:05 AM // 00:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xue Yi Liang

PS - if you download the Omega Drivers read the instructions carefully or you'll have a big headache on your hands.

HeHeHe! Yes those darn computer generated headaches. I get into trouble when I try to "Fix things" while I am tired and grumpy. Thinking it will be a quick fix, and end up working on it for hours cussing myself because I didn't step back and rest/nap and try it while I am fresh.

OR!! I didn't take the time to "Read the Instructions" because I know better then they do.

LivingDeadGrrl · Sep 02, 2005, 01:35 PM // 13:35

I've read about the Omega drivers, and have been tempted to try them out, but what I absolutely couldn't take right now is yet another problem caused by another fix, especially when dealing with the ATI Tech folks who will only whine about using their drivers. The messed up thing is that I never had an issue with my video card until July 1st, and coincidentally I think that's the day ArenaNet patched their game.

What I've done for now is tweaked some of the settings, and I'm currently running GW to see if it'll crash.. 10 minutes now, nothing yet ...but that means veeeery little at this point *lol*

Jake · Sep 02, 2005, 04:45 PM // 16:45

9700Pro here using the most recent driver update, no known issues.

LivingDeadGrrl · Sep 03, 2005, 01:22 AM // 01:22

I know as soon as I say this I'm going to regret it because my PC will freeze up and then I'll be right back here talkin' about "nevermind, it didn't work" but... my PC has been running since this morning, played GW for about 30 minutes with no problems, hasn't locked up once, and I did two things (not sure which one was the 'fix' though)

1. I turned off AGP Fast Write in BIOS (everything else was already disabled) and
2. I went into the SMARTGART settings, and set the AGP for 4X instead of 8X.

I'm half tempted to put it back on 8X just to see if the fast write was the problem, but I ain't in the mood to temp the Fates right now. But this is the smoothest my PC has run for a little over 2 months.

torgan skullkrusher · Sep 05, 2005, 11:44 AM // 11:44

Well i have been playing GW fine for months and once i updated to catalyst 5.8, there were some gw updates about the same time i have had a load of memory errors reported from direct X for my redeon 9700 pro.

I sort of solved this by only playing for an hour or two and then rebooting, feels like a memory leak to me.

All was good until sunday, now i get random reeboots and freezes after not much time in the game.

I am going to go back to catalyst 5.3 and try each driver untill i get a stable one.

system is an Intel Prescot 3.4 ghz 1mb cache, radeon 9700 pro, 1gb ram. CPU temp is around 55 - 60 C so temp is not a problem. System temp is around 35 C.

Shinryuu · Sep 05, 2005, 09:38 PM // 21:38

I've been using 4.11 drivers, they are much faster than the 5.x's that are out there. The reason why mines kept restarting was because I didn't set a higher voltage to the video card, since ATi's need at least 1.6v not 1.5v.

torgan skullkrusher · Sep 06, 2005, 07:32 AM // 07:32

Well tried 5.4 as thats the last good one i remember and it was fine until i joined a prty and then crashed 4 times in 30 mins ?

Hopefully there will be some "fixed" code as part of the download on wed.

Toral Xi · Sep 06, 2005, 07:47 PM // 19:47

I used to have problems with my 9800 pro, I would play for like 10 min and then computer would either lock-up, restart, or I would get a blank screen and I would restart it myself. I tried the latest omega drivers and the latest catalyst drivers and still had a problem.
It was very puzzling because guild wars is the only game that I would have any problems with. Under suspicion it may be a heat issue I tried playing the game with the side panel off of the computer and the overhead room fan on, sure enough, no problems even after a couple of hours of play. I have since purchased and aftermarket cooler for the video card (the stock one stinks), and I am adding an additional case fan. So far no problems even playing 4-6 hrs at a time.

Old Dood · Sep 06, 2005, 08:06 PM // 20:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toral Xi

I used to have problems with my 9800 pro, I would play for like 10 min and then computer would either lock-up, restart, or I would get a blank screen and I would restart it myself. I tried the latest omega drivers and the latest catalyst drivers and still had a problem.
It was very puzzling because guild wars is the only game that I would have any problems with. Under suspicion it may be a heat issue I tried playing the game with the side panel off of the computer and the overhead room fan on, sure enough, no problems even after a couple of hours of play. I have since purchased and aftermarket cooler for the video card (the stock one stinks), and I am adding an additional case fan. So far no problems even playing 4-6 hrs at a time.

Yes! With my 9800pro in my Dim 4600 box I left the PCI slot next to the AGP slot opened. Also left the slot cover off. I did this from day one when I added that card. Never a heat problem, never a crash. Also with a 250w PSU I had to make sure I wasn't drawing too much power from the PSU in order to make sure the vid card would have enough.

Simple fixes are the best. Never hurts when you are bored to open up your computer box and go to town and clean it too. I am amazed how fast the dust and dirt collects everywhere!

Shinryuu · Sep 07, 2005, 04:58 AM // 04:58

Invest in a slot cooler if you have to. I believe that the video card stock cooling shouldn't be a problem because why would ATI or any other company wouldn't make these HS/Fan just to fail or crap out after a long period of time. But at least having a good circulation through your computer is better.

Other things that I have done are
Disabling AGP Fast Write
Enabling 8x AGP mode
AGP voltage @ 1.6v instead of 1.5v.
Complete uninstall of ATi drivers and clean install.

I have been changing the voltage on my vcore for my AMD to about 1.7v. I'm not sure what processor it is since a lot of programs have been giving me some weird readings. First I got 3200+, then 3000+, and AMD-M. All I know that it runs at 2.2ghz, temperature reading at around 46-54 degrees celcius. While my computer run at around 36 degrees celcius.

Toral Xi · Sep 07, 2005, 08:01 PM // 20:01

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles...571&cid=3&pg=5

Here is the address of an article which shows the benefit of aftermarket coolers. On this particular card it is being manufactured for sale with the cooler already on to save you the job of doing it yourself.
Of particular note is page 18 showing the temperature differences of each card. The card itself is new and expensive but the best part is that you can purchase the cooler alone (I got mine at newegg for $13) and it will benefit your older card as well, just like it did with my 9800 pro (it keeps it about 11-12 degrees celsius cooler than with the stock fan).
It took me less than 15 minutes to put it on and like I said, I have had no problems with the game restarting since.

Manderlock · Sep 07, 2005, 08:19 PM // 20:19

Mine works just fine