Something weird is up, and I hate it

When I open up Guild Wars, it lets me play for a while, chat, walk, whatever. And so it goes for a minute or so. And then my full screen freezes, and a pixel-stretch kind or some other kind of pattern fills my computer. Eventually, my computer restarts. This only happens when I have Guild Wars on - can anyone help me?

I'd appreciate the help ultimately, thank you guys

A bit of information will be helpful. What kind of computer do you have, monitor size and graphics card and windows version. Usualy what causes a game to freeze is heat issues. Try to reset your ingame video options lower to take some of the load off your video card. bur we do need more info.

Mega Mouse

Microsoft Windows XP Professional version 2002
Intel
Pentium 4 CPU3.00 GHz
2.99 GHz, 1 GB of RAM

I have about 4 PC's and this one is the one I usually play Guild Wars on..thats the info I got from My Computer Properties by the way :P How do I find out Graphics Card info on a dell?

From the start menu, click on Run..type dxdiag..enter
all graphics details are listed as are your computer specs.

NVIDIA GeForce 6800 GTO
NVIDIA
GeForce 6800 Series GPU
Integrated RAMDAC
Approx. Total Memory: 256.0 MB
1280x1024 (32 bit) (75 Hz)
Plug and Play Monitor

Sounds like overheating problems to me. It's probably the GPU getting too hot, check if all the fans are running, and maybe if opening the case/ placing it somewhere cooler or so helps...

Mala is right in thinking it is an overheating issue seeing as you have a rather good graphics card. If there is a spot to put a fan on the side of your case directly adjacent to the graphics card go out and get one. Have it blowing the air into the case right at the card. That may help. If there is no spot you can make a blow hole in that area if you feel comfortable doing so. Just be careful when making the hole as the steel in the case will not cut very easy and I do not recommend this operation for new modders as it can easily be screwed up.

Mega Mouse

Many times a simple cleaning will suffice and get your machine back on track. I suggest the purchase of a can of compressed air and a thorough dusting of the interior of your case. Dust traps heat, so remove all that you can safely. Places to focus on are the heatsinks and fans on the CPU, GPU, and chipset. This may require you to remove some components to gain access to these areas. Clean any case fans that you have and give your RAM a shot of cleaning as well.

I had overheating problems with my ATI x700. If nothing else, remove your side panel and it should help. And if that's not enough, take a small little electric fan and blow it into the area :P. I now have a new computer and a new card, with a Zalman VF900 fan on it. Very quiet and very efficient, if you want to look into it. Though putting one on your card may very well void your warranty.

You also might want to try blowing a bunch of compressed air into the computer, as cleaning it can have a massive impact on performance.

But yeah, I like to get all the cooling I can. Graphics card and processor don't go above 50 C, ambient temp inside the case never above 35. Just do what you can to keep the card cool. But don't spray it with water or anything; do that and a tech support person will want to yell "PEBKAC!" ^^

This can do far more harm than good.

Computer cases are designed to run as cool as possible with the side-case on. Removing the side can disrupt the flow of air that cools your computer causing some spots to have a far higher temperature than others. Far higher, even, than with the sidewall included.

Playing with the sidewall off can cool parts of your computer, but it's not a good idea. Far better to purchase a few more fans and increase airflow that way.

did it look like this? but yeah, what they said^

Now that you mention it, I remember the whole reason I was overheating was because there was no airflow at all, something was wrong with the fans. So yeah, ignore the side panel thing, I wasn't thinking clearly. Full on Thanksgiving dinner ftl.

Thanks guys, I'll try everything here. And No it did not look like that - the whole screen became a weird pattern and I am unable to do anything, i.e. close Guild Wars, open another window, etc.

Try to either upgrade or downgrade graphics drivers.
You may also want to try 3dMark and some tools to test temperatures.

I also think its an over-heating issue. Remove the side panel and clear any visible dust from inside the case which might help. Personally, I gently blow on the fans to lift dust from inside (of which there can be lots) but do that at your own risk.

Best way to clean dust from a pc is to use a soft paint brush and gently remove as much dust as you can.

You should also do it in a well ventilated area so you don't breathe in to much of the dust particles.

I'll just repeat what I said in another post.

Same problem here. Overheating is not the issue for me. My system is watercooled and temperatures are usually about 10-15 degrees above room temperature. Graphics card is only 1 month old. Radeon X850 at stock speeds. Thought it was my drivers so I've switched around and tried several and my system still locks up when I try to play GW. I reintalled the game as well with the same results.

If I send a report to Anet and their support team tells me the reason my pc freezes ONLY with GW is because I have a heat issue I'm gonna burn my copy of the game and call it a day. I've run numerous benchmarking tools to stress my pc and put it on maximum load for hours earlier today. PC did not freeze once. Did not overheat. Everything was stable. Memtest, Sisoft Sandra, 3dmark among others. GW has never ever put my system at 100% capacity. My system has been the same for the last 2-3 months minus the occasional virus definitions and firewall updates. Already checked those off my list of potential problems. So the only thing left is the GW client itself since this problem ONLY started after their most recent updates.

the 6800 temps should be around 50-60c idle and 60-80 onload. u should be able to see the current temperature in your display properties unless your particular card doesnt have a thermo sensor (which is highly unlikely for the 6 series)

With the last few updates that A-Net and NC-Soft released they added a lot more "eye candy". Meaning it will tax your video card even harder than it did before. This can create problems that some players mistake for bugged programing when all they have to do is lower a couple of their graphic settings. Run any game at max resolution with everything turned on and it will cause problems. Best advice that I can give is to set Guild Wars to run at the native resolutionof your monitor (dont change it no matter what), set your initial graphics settings ingame rather conservative, then start to bump them up until you start to see problems then back down the last one a notch til Guild Wars is stable. I stress "TRYING TO RUN ANY GRAPHICS CARD ABOVE THE RECOMMENDED RESOLUTION FOR A PARTICULAR MONITOR CAN CAUSE OVERHEATING OF THE CARD". Certian cards will not run past certian resolutions for a reason "THEY CANNOT HANDLE IT". High end cards even can hit a resolution ceiling that should not be passed. Also with LCD monitors trying to run above the native resolution of the monitor can void the warranty not to mention killing an expensive monitor. So don't run your games over the recommended resolution of your monitor, it can and will cause headaches that will bite you in the end.

Mega Mouse

For info for all i have several monitors that I use: 21.5" widescreen I run at 1440x1250 with no problems at all and my laptop is a 17"widescreen that I can run at 1440 x900 with no problems. Those settings are the native resolution for both.

Nobody mentioned refresh rates, backing down hardware acceleration, or possible bad memory modules.

It could be your refresh set too high for your monitor. Try reducing your refresh rate and see if that makes a difference.

It could be faulty memory, but if you've checked it with Sandra, then maybe not.

You can try reducing your hardware acceleration to see if that makes a difference also. This is a normal tech support answer and is often overlooked.

Also, have you tried reseating your video card?