Issues with Graphics and the Reasons for Them explained in some detail.

Alright, I have see many threads regarding graphical errors, corruptions, and abnormalities. So, this thread is going to give you all the heads up on how to address these issues and what the primary causes of the most common issues are, and if possible, how to resolve them. This guide is meant to diagnose issues, and to give users a concept of what MAY be wrong. It is written with a professional understanding, but that by no means makes this failsafe and 100%. I am not responsible for any misinterpretation or problems caused by following this guide or advise within.

Many people have been mentioning temperatures, but they don't know their system temperatures, voltages, etc. That ends here and now!

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PROBLEM #1: Corruptions

The graphics in game are corrupt, showing multiple colors, too few colors, all white, all black, purple, grey, red, blue, or yellow.


Those are just 2 examples I found browsing the forums. Those are corruptions of textures or polygon instructions being sent by the game through the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit)

To understand how this problem occurs, you have to understand how most modern and newer graphics cards function.

Now, there are many complexities that occur in order for numbers to appear as graphics. The simplistic version of this is as follows.

1. Guild Wars sends an instruction set to render (create and display on your screen) a texture (flat "picture" that wraps around an object giving it the appearance of depth, color, and surface) to the Graphics Processing Unit, or as I will refer to it in the rest of this guide, the GPU.
   
2. The GPU converts the numerical data into a visual anomaly, which is then sent to the DRAM section of the Graphics Card. The data however is in pieces, because it is easier for the GPU to process that data is small chunks then one large piece.
   
3. The data is sent over a fragment crossbar that distributes the data to through the correct nodes into the onboard RAM or main RAM.
   
4. The data is sent back out through the cache reserves on the GPU, thus displaying an image on your screen.

Now, this may confuse some of you, and that is fine, and totally understandable, this isn't exactly the easiest topic in the world. However, you will notice that even in my extremely simplified version, there are many steps to taking the data that Guild Wars sends and converting it into an image. Sometimes, during those steps, data can become corrupted. However, unless the corruption is SEVERE, the GPU can normally correct small errors using ECC (Error Correction Code).

Severe corruption is caused by 2 possible issues. One, the graphics drivers (the software that helps your operating system [in this case, Windows] understand how to properly use the graphics card) are malfunctioning. A quick reinstall will either confirm this to be the issue or rule it out. Try this first!!!

The second, and more dubious issue, is with the graphics card itself. Several issues may lead to corruptions, but there are 2 that seem to occur in 90% of the instances.

1. The graphics card has overheated or is overheating currently. Overheating can be caused by lack of airflow within the computer tower/case, too much dust buildup on the heatsink of graphics card (the metal encasement around the GPU), fan failure on the graphics card (if it is equip with this feature), thermal compound between the heatsink and GPU has dried out, creating a heat pocket, and insufficient cooling if the card has been overclocked (pushed past its stock speeds).
   
2. The graphics card has suffered an over volt (electrical discharge that has damaged the circuitry or destabilized the silicon wafers that comprise the GPU or RAMDACs. This could be from the power supply in the computer tower (known as a PSU) supplying unstable and high amounts of power to the GPU, the motherboard not controlling the flow correctly via the BIOS (Basic Input Output System), static discharge from handling the card improperly, or a short in the wiring or circuitry.

Both issues lead to something called silicon degradation. I don't really know how to explain this other then to use the actually term here. The Raman effect is weakened, which causes electrons (data) to be lost or changed via their inherit charge. The only way to fix this is through Raman amplification, and we don't all have industrial grade silicon lasers sitting at home, so returning to the manufacturer is your best bet here. To give you and idea of what a micro processor looks like, here are two (2) pictures of the Core 2 Duo "Conroe" from Intel. The first is the processor with its onboard heat spreader removed, and the second picture is of the actual CPU, the brain of the chip without all the printed circuit boards. The colorful areas are the two cores, and the brownish area is the large L2 cache. You can see, processors are extremely tiny.





To RETURN a defective or damaged (assuming it wasn't your fault directly), simply visit the manufacturers website, or give them a call. You want to request an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) from the manufacturer of your graphics card provided it is still under the manufacturers base/extended warranty.


PROBLEM #2: Errors

These occur when the program ceases to function and an error message comes up. In Guild Wars, these seem to be very rare. However, typically, unless recurring on a regular basis, these are nothing to worry about. Most graphical errors are caused by a misread from the memory (RAM), calculation error by the GPU, or skipping a thread completely.


PROBLEM #2: Abnormalities

Many people assume these to be their graphics card. While some are caused by insufficient power being supplied to the GPU or the GPU not being new enough, most are game bound errors (meaning the Guild Wars code failed to send some instruction). A great example is when the textures for armor don't fully load, giving the armor a bright shiny silver look to it, or when characters or weapons are boxes.

Here is an example:

In the above picture, the elementalist's headpiece failed to load correctly into the users graphics card cache/memory, so an empty set display is seen (lack of texture or polygons)

These abnormalities are usually easily solved with a restart of the Guild Wars client or a fresh reinstall of the client and GW.dat file. The white box glitch can be made worse through a reinstall however! The solution to the white box issue as illustrated in the photo above is as follows:

1). Right click the shortcut you use to open Guild Wars. Click Properties
2). On the bar labeled "Target" you will see something similar to this: "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe"
3). Insert "-image" at the end of the target, with a space between the quotes and the IMAGE tag. i.e. "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image
4). Press Apply, and Ok.
5). Double click the shortcut. The process will take a very long time if it is the first time doing this. Be patient, and do NOT run any other programs while doing this.
6). After the process is complete, repeat steps 1 and 2. Then, remove the -image tag and hit apply + ok.
7). Double click the shortcut, and open Guild Wars as normal. No more white boxes.
However, if the issue persists after that, it could be a corruption, not an abnormality. See above for solution.


OTHER ISSUES:

1. DirectX can corrupt its file system. Try reinstalling the newest version of directX, available here: DirectX Newest Version Download .
   
2. Windows may have a corruption on a massive scale. Format your Hard Drive after backing up important data, and install a fresh copy of Windows.
   
3. Guild Wars may be completely corrupted. Uninstall the game, download a new client, and start fresh.

Quick Problems, Quick Fixes! The FAQ Section! YEH!

• 1. Q- My screen has gone black and I can't see anything. What caused this?
     A- Check to make sure your monitor is plugged into the VGA/DVI slot on the graphics card, and is snug, and the connection leading into the monitor is the same. Restart the computer, if no picture comes up, the card may be corrupt (see above guide for reasons)
     
     
  2. Q- My FPS (Frames per Second) ingame is very low! What do I do?
     A- Several issues may have come up. Most likely, your graphics card has either be outdated and no longer supports the game as it used to, your graphics card drivers are corrupt (see above guide), Windows or the Guild Wars files have become corrupt or too badly fragmented (Consider fragmenting your hard drive, the GW.dat file, and reinstalling Guild Wars/Windows depending on the issue by follow THESE STEPS.), or your graphics card itself has been damaged and is corrupting data or not processing at peak speed/performance (see above guide)
     
     
  3. Q- My computer boots, but when Windows starts, the screen goes black.
     A- Typically, it is a driver corruption, but this can also be a sign the card is damaged. Try booting into Safe Mode in Windows, and reinstalling the graphics drivers. If the problem persists, boot into Safe Mode and reinstall the chipset drivers for your motherboard/mainboard. If both of these fail, Windows may be corrupt. Try formatting and installing a fresh copy. If this also fails, some of the higher level areas of your graphics card may be damaged. See above guide on how to RMA your card.

ALSO! Most people either have an ATi or nVidia graphics card. To download the newest version of the drivers, go to the following sites.

nVidia Driver Download Page

and

ATi Driver Download Page

I hope this guide helps. I am still more then happy to address individual issues, and users should post each issue within the thread if this guide doesn't solve the issue. I am Senior Chip Fab Engineer @ Intel, been working now for 5 months, and I have a masters degree in CEE (Computer Electronics Engineering). Hardware is my thing, not software though.

Good Luck with technology,

Rahjmesiter.

Thanks for the guide, Rahja

I ran into some issues about 2-3 weeks ago with my video and it took me a little while to figure out the problem, but it turned out to be a "cold bug" with the BFG OC 7800 GS card. They actually have to be running above 40C to get full performance. I'm definitely not a novice when it comes to hardware and software (over 10 years as a hardware and software tech with IBM), so this one baffled me. I finally found it by searching for my chipset and "low frame rates" on google and found a bunch of references on different hardware sites, along with workarounds for it. Now I use RivaTuner to adjust my fan speeds for different performance levels and never have problems with it "underheating" or overheating (42-47C constantly).

So if you follow the guide and still can't fix the problem, try searching google for your card and problem and see if it comes up. Someone else may have the same problem and the fix you need for it.

Its crappy soldering(-metal/paste/wire whatever its called), one of my guildmates from another game has a computer shop where once he got a bad batch of motherboards that would restart/shutdown when below 45-50c.

He had lots of fun trying to problem-track those motherboards until he figured it out, a unusually hot summer helped him out

But its a really wierd & rare error and nowadays most systems run hot unless you go for extra cooling anyway.

Actually, according to BFGs tech support, it's a bios issue that they've known about for a while but haven't bothered to fix. I didn't have a problem with the card when I got it in October, but starting in december/january, I had problems because the temp outside dropped to single digits, so the temp in my basement dropped into the 50s, which helped keep things cooler. go figure :P

Hiya,

I have a different problem. When i play, especially at higher resolutions, my game freezes for a sec or 2, then my screen turns black and i can still hear on the background as i;m being sloaughtered, but i can't see anything. Now if i'm in the highest resolution the only thing i can do is turn off my computer. In a lower scale, 1026*768 i can switch back and forth to windows and then when i go back to GW i get a screen again (hopefully in time )

Does any1 else have this problem and how can i fix it?

That sounds like a driver problem. The first thing I would do is remove your video drivers, run DriverCleaner Pro, and install the newest production drivers for your video card.

I agree completely with Dex. Typically, the black screen issue is caused by drivers or unplugged cords. Very rarely does it mean a bad graphics card.

UPDATED GUIDE: Added the "White Box" issue fix as illustrated in another thread.