Does anyone know why this is happening?

For some reason when I have been playing GW, at random times the game freezes itself and my entire comp for about 5 seconds - 15 or 20 seconds roughly and then when the comp works again, I get messed up graphics in Guild Wars:

http://img131.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gw038gd8.jpg

http://img131.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gw001kh9.jpg

http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gw005ft3.jpg

http://img149.imageshack.us/my.php?image=gw006wn0.jpg

it can sometimes be even worse than this though like yesterday, when the graphics messed up, the entire GW screen became a very bright white >_< it fixes itself when I minimize GW and then maximize it again but its annoying, specially with PUGs or guildies who don't know whats wrong and just go ahead expecting you to follow (or in some cases, pugs thinking your leeching)

Any ideas?

May i ask, are you using texmod when this happens?

Nope, beside it happened before I downloaded texmod (although I am not using it in any of these pictures)

have you upgraded all your video drivers then? (just going through the basics ^^)

As far as I know yes (updated them as soon as I got the comp since the comp was custom built by a shop, it had no OS or graphic drivers on it), this only started happening with my new computer (my old one didn't have any problems with GW but it had problems with other games like Half life 2 and the sims 2)

My basic computer specs is:

AMD Athlon 6400 X2
4gb of RAM (3.25 being used because it isn't a 64bit OS)
512mb 8800GT

probably should have mentioned these in the first post sorry

Umm, I will resolve this case later, because I need sleep. Although, I hate to say... looks like your graphics card is toast. We can work on this more in depth later on, or jiggles can go superman and solve it before the trolls come. Trust me, they will come, they love issues like this one.

Anywho, I really hope it isn't what I think, which I will explain later. Best of luck to you.

Knowing how new the card is (and the pc setup in general, since I saw it being setup myself) I am not sure.

I already suggested to clean out the fans, and that seems to have not helped as well as I thought it would.

I don't think the card is dead.. after all it isn't even a year old yet, but then again, I am not sure.

Does it happen in other games? If not, it might be a corrupted .dat file and the good 'ol re-installing will help.

doesn't happen in other games, although I am now scared to try any high graphical games >_>

if I don't get any other possible answers, I'll reinstall it and do the image command tonight (possibly before I go to bed since I have dealt with GW doing this for over a month at least I can handle a day with it like this)

It sounds like your graphic card is possibly overheating and/or about to die.

I'd download CoreTemp (http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/) and tell us what your temps are.

http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/667...temppicya3.jpg

took a pic of the info it gave me

an 8800 gt eats guildwars. Other than what Rahaj may think it is. a quick thing to try to fix it is reseat the card. dust can cause a bad contact. This happened to me.

steps to reseat, you will need a can of air and a screwdriver(probably a philps tip:
turn off the pc and unplug it.
take off side of case.
there is prob 1 screw you can see now holding it to the case by the metal bracket.remove it there may also be a small little clip looking thing near the back of the slot. press it down and pull out the card.
now use a can of air and blow out the slot. please only use the computer canned air and nothing else.
look at the contacts on the card for dust/dirt/plastic wrap ect. blow it off as well.
push it firmly back into place, add screw, power up.

fix? I hope so if not wait for rahja.

also i suggest getting riva tuner. the 8800gt likes to leave its fans on 20% power. i like to set mine up to atleast 50-70% when gaming. you can goolge for a tutorial on riva tuner and where to dl it.

Stuart, you have obscenely high core temperatures, I am going to recommend you make sure your fan(s) is not blocked and is cleaned thoroughly. If that doesn't help, you'll want to look into getting more/better fans. I don't use it personally, but a good friend recommended this, also: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835100007

It's grease which you can apply to your system, it'll lower temps by ~5-10 degrees C, but only get this if the fans aren't enough. (You'll want to find a non-OEM version, probably.)

Those temperatures are strangling your system and not good at all, especially not for the video card.

EDIT:
you're going to want to try to get to ~45 C, mind you thats at 100% load, so it should be a lot less at the loads your cores have.

god, I just looked at the side fan and it has ALOT of dust on it

I just took the dust off of there. god I am alergic to dust as well but my brother won't help (he just said dust it down) and mums not in >_<

I can't do the back fan just now because if I pulled it out, it will take out one or two of the things in the back >_<

Try some of this stuff - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16846101050 It's an air duster, basically a can of pressurised air. Blows the crap right out without needing any disassembly. Oh, and get yourself a filter mask - dirt cheap (from any hardware store) and avoids any dust allergy nastiness.

oh thanks for the link, I might look for a UK link later

Getting mum to look in Asda while she is there today, if she doesn't get any, I'll order online (saves hassle of looking around shops =P lol ), and from what I was told, you do need to take the case off when using compressed air so you deffinetly get rid of the dust in and out of it

edit: if it doesn't work, I'll come to the conclusion of either 1) the card is dieing or 2) the fans SUCK (or both O.o )

?

60 degrees is very normal for a 8800 GT :/

Doesn't matter when the GPU overheats it overheats and stops working properly regardless of how much or how little work it has to do.

Make sure you dust out your PC regularly and make sure you have adequate airflow.

Note to self: stop assuming people are in America. The guy's a Scot ><

Sorry 'bout that - try here https://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/...tml?BEL-734004 although you can likely get it cheaper from a non-pc specialist supplier. You have Maplins up there?

yeah, I'll be in glasgow tomorrow and I know where one is actually