Hardware Failure: My system is not overheating

When I am in the login/character select GUI, GW will randomly crash telling me I had a hardware failure, stating the cause is overheating. This is bunk, because my system is well within reasonable temperature ranges and my system is Orthos/Memtest stable (48+ hours on Orthos, several runs of memtest). In addition, it's Intel Thermal Analysis Tool stable, which is a much more rigorous test than Orthos.

Hardware:
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.2ghz (watercooled, cool and stable)
RAM: 2GB Corsair PC-6400 DDR2
Video: 2x eVGA 7900GT KO Edition (SLI)
Motherboard: eVGA nForce 680i

The system is stable in all other games and apps, and it's running cool. There is no overheating of any kind occurring. Only GW has this issue and all of ArenaNet's solutions simply don't apply in my case.

Please save the "your system is overheating" or "your overclock is unstable" replies, because neither is the case. I play WoW, FEAR, BF2, NWN2 and any number of other games on a regular basis, with no issues at all.

Has anyone else run in to an issue like this? Could it be an SLI issue? It's not uncommon for games to have weird SLI issues. If you are having the issue, what Nvidia driver version are you using?

well..my computer is pretty low spec compared to yours.

ive had overheat messages when my system hasn't been overheating.

no idea what causes it, but with me its rare (maybe once per 1,000 hours of play)

Seeing as you have done some leg work already, try disabling the SLI and run Guild Wars without it on. If it runs fine then thereis a chance that oe of your video cards is defective.Remove one card at a time and try to run Guild Wars, if one of your cards is bad this is the way t tell. As of recently it seems that there are more issues cropping up with Nvidea video cards than ATI. Not sure why though. Hope what I suggested helps out.

Mega Mouse

I run sli and have palyed for 12 hours with no probs...The only issue i have is if i keep the computer on for like an hour and then fire up guild wars the cursor won't stop flashing kinda odd.

Ive got the issue too. Don't know why it is :s

Wasn't there some problem with a nVidia vid driver that was reporting hardware failure in some circumstances about a year back. I seem to remember something about that it, but pretty much ignored it since I switched to ATI after 4 dead nVidia cards in less than a month.

You may think that, but overclocking affects different games in different ways. I too can play FEAR, BF2, Guild Wars, HL2 and CSS without a single problem on my OC'd rig. However, a well known problem with X3: Reunion is that it doesn't like an overclocked system so you have to knock it back to regular speeds to get the bloody thing to run.

Just because you have a stable OC doesn't mean that it's not causing a problem with Guild Wars.

i notice other odd things in guild wars though like if im playing and i alt-tab to go on the web quicktime doesn't play in web pages. limewire is useless for me while i play, when i go into it the page is all blank if i have guild wars running.kinda weird i thought, as far your system i always stay away from evga boards(time for me to take some flack for having an opionbut as a computer tech i have seen alot of bad boards and evga had an issue with capasitors blowing up and expanding, due to bad voltage regulation. the video cards seem to be a-ok though.also there was an issue with nvdea's drivers that came out around the nightfall was released (Iforgot the driver number)Anyhoo If you haven't already, update your video card drivers and double check your sound drivers..(I did not see your card listed) But sound cards can cause direct x/hardware failure notices.

I had an issue like this . and i sorted it by downloading a GFX accelator


i dont have any link through sorry

I've had it since day one on this machine, but only if I leave it on the log-in screen for a minute or two -- no where else. In my case at any rate, it seems like a random glitch.

Why on earth would he want to download a GFX accelerator, the OP has 2 very fast cards, more than capable of playing GW, and what is this accelerator you keep babbling on about?, post a link to it, or contribute to the thread in some other way please.

I have to agree with Azagoth, most of us know the core2duo chips overclock really well, and they're stable, but it could be the overclock thats causing it

I agree the overclock may be the culprit here if you have done as I posted and found both cards to be good. Try resetting your machine to stock speeds. Then run Guild Wars for a bit. If that fixes the problem then cool. If not then I am stumped (Guild Wars does push the graphics processors more than a lot of other games, especialy after the NightFall campaign came out). I run one of the newest video cards out there. The ATI X1900XTX on DSL and my frame rates are in the 60+ range, and even then with my room temps at or below 70 degrees Guild Wars is the only game that heats it up. I run BF2, SOF2, RF-Online, Far Cry, Halo, Doom, and several other graphics intensive games all set for maximum quality. And Guild Wars is the only one that can even start to raise the temparature on my card.

Mega Mouse

GW wouldn't touch pushing these cards, I have one and get ~70fps on stock speeds with the card and proc at all max settings. Let alone overclocked and SLI.

I think the issue may lie in board. There's a few known issues with the 680i already, and they seem to be getting worse. I wouldn't touch one with a ten foot pole held by my worst enemy right now.

The issue may actually be a HDD corruption, that's being picked up as a visual error. Seen it a few times myself, on old NF2 chipsets at high FSB, where the SATA started walking around. Did it myself on a PATA drive at 285 FSB on a 1700 and an Infinity NF2.

Try the new BIOS available from nVidia, and if it's not that, I'd dump the board. If you still want 680i, the ASUS boards are non-reference and do not have these issues.

I'm not gonna assault your OC if it's that stable. Mine is a 3500+ at near 2.8 for GW. Gotta do something about these low end processors...

Well...can you test your CPU and GPU's temperture?

Anywhere over 50C is unacceptable.
over 40 is ok, but still bad
30 is best
20 is just impossible

OP - Did you resolve this issue? I'm having the exact same problem with this rig (with stock timings and voltages as of right now) and I alos play the same list of games you do without issue. Also - this system is Prime95 stable on both cores for 24+ hours so that points to the GPU over CPU or RAM.

Thx for a follow up if you have any more info, OP!


Cheers,
Odd


RIG =

-COOLERMASTER - WaveMaster
-ANTEC TRUEPOWER 2.0 550W EPS12V
-DFI UT NF4 SLI-DR w/6-23-05 BIOS
-AMD X2 4400 Toledo 2.2ghz Dual Core
-XP90c SINK + 92MM FAN
-2x512 OCZ EL PLATINUM ELITE PC4800 DDR
-MSI 7800GT 256mb
-SB X-FI EXTREME MEEYOOSACK
-WINDOWS XP PRO X64

Can I pitch in here too, guys? My own system is plagued by these overheating errors, and whilst it's overclocked, declocking the system doesn't solve the problem, It seems to be getting steadily worse, too, and whilst I'm fairly sure a nOS rebuild would sort it, I don't want to take the nuclear option just yet.

Opteron [email protected] 300 (2.7ghz) - works no better at stock FSB 200 (1.8ghz)
DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-DR
1GB G.Skill TCCD PC 4800
Gainward 7900GS @ 550/1500
Win XP

Like the other guys with this problem,my system should own Guild Wars and is perfectly stable with the overclock in all other games and application (including X3 mentioned above) and will run Prime95 until the cows come home! Guild Wars' technical support suggestion ("contact your computer manufacturer) is chuff all use if you've build your own, as no doubt many of us have!

There's clearly an issue here...surely someone has a fix that doesn't involve reinstalling Windows?

Same problem here and i am running on a high end system which interestingly i never had this problem on my old system which is 5 years ++ old.

I do know that here was a problem with the X-FI drivers causin g sstem instability a while back, but I think that has been fixed. This is starting to sound more like a bad mobo problem, but it is odd that it is only affecting a few players, and only with Guild Wars. Try increasing the airflow within your case, as this may be related to mponents upon the motherboard itself and not the Video cards. Inadequate airflow over the motherboard is something that is hardly discussed because it usually not an issue. Check the air temp coming out of your computers exhaust fans, if i seems overly hot then you may have a heat issue, warm is acceptable hot is not. If you can monitor the motherboard temps check to make sure they are within manufacturer tolerances.

Mega Mouse