Restart: always occurs when nearing Barradin Estate

Alright, I rolled a new Prophecies character today, every time I get close to Barradin Estate, approaching it from the road out of Lakeside County my system reboots like clock work.

It has happened 6 times already. I have defragmented my GW.DAT after making sure I had a full update. I also logged onto my other characters in another campaign and gave my Pre-Sear Ranger a "rest". No other problems but this restart issue at same approximate location. :/

EDIT: Logged onto my Pre-Searing Monk, the same thing happens. I have narrowed it down to the proximity of the windmill nearest Lakeside County. I walked my monk from Barradin Estate toward Lakeside and my computer restarted as soon as I neared that damn windmill. Something in that location is causing a spontaneous reboot.

Right when I have one of the Barradin Estate's buildings in sight, bam, a reboot.

Any ideas?

Have you tried contacting ANet? Probably your best bet...

Usually doing my favorite thing works. Delete Gw.dat and create a new shortcut from the Gw.exe on your desktop and give it the switch -image.

The target location should look like this:
"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image

The autopatcher client should close right after it's updated. You'll need to run a different shortcut to load the game, so deleting the shortcut or renaming it to Game Updates would be a good idea.

This generally will work 100% of the time for all non-hardware, non-server technicalities.

Ya, already reinstalled after a -repair...didn't improve the situation.

I also tried running with no sound and forcing DirectSound, no joy, still crashes in that area, I played my Nightfall and Factions characters without any issue, only my Pre-Searing are suffering this...

A trouble ticket has been submitted, my theory is that some sound event change specific to that location is causing my crash, but running with -nosound didn't prevent the crash, so I'm stumped.



Red Outlined Area: 10 consistent, unavoidable computer crashes
Yellow Outlined Area: 2 crashes, once while in the Barradin Estate Outpost and once after entering the zone from Barradin Estate Outpost.

Edit:

Yup, situation still stands: Green Hill County doesn't like my characters. I have been able to quest and level in every place in Pre-Searing without any problems but I can't set foot inside Green Hill County without a reboot happening. I even snuck through the Catacombs to try to get my Ranger into Barradin Estate, but my PC rebooted as I neared the Estate's Portal when I exited the Gargoyle Entrance.

UPDATE:

Sent Support my DXDIAG information, waiting their reply.

I uninstalled my Omega Drivers and installed ATI's latest drivers for my Radeon X1300, no change in my problem.

Game is rock solid for me <occasional lag> but near instant reboot in Green Hill County. I have played a total of 5 hours on this newest Prophecies Character, crash only occurs in GHC. My Monk who is about 6 months old has completed all the quests, but now also is victim of a crash on entry into GHC.

On a lark, I disabled triple-buffering, no improvement or change.

I am convinced something in the Green Hill County audio or video environment is triggering this crash on my system.

I am looking for anyone else with a similar issue tied to a specific in-game location.


Time of this report: 4/9/2007, 14:40:48
Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_gdr.061219-0316)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: ASUSTeK Computer INC.
System Model: A7N8X-E
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2500+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.0GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 343MB used, 3601MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Card name: Radeon X1300/X1550 Series
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: ATI Radeon Graphics Processor AGP (0x7146)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Display Memory: 256.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: LG FLATRON L1920P(Digital)
Monitor Max Res: 1280,1024
Driver Name: ati2dvag.dll
Driver Version: 6.14.0010.6677 (English)
DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 3/2/2007 14:53:36, 265728 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes

im having the same problem but its not specific to any location. my pc will just restart for no reason. i hear a buzzing sound my screen freezes and my computer restarts. didnt do this before the update. its really getting annoying because i cant progress any further in the game because it crashes before i can get Nandu Bay completed.

The buzzing sound might indicated that your problem is related to your soundcard. Have you tried the -nosound switch?

For those having any issues with Guild Wars that want to speed up the process with Support:

-Ensure you have the latest drivers for your system: audio/video

-Fully update the game:

1. Click Start and then click Run
2. Click Browse and select your gw.exe program. It will be in "C:\Program Files\Guild Wars" by default.
3. The Run window should now read-
"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe"

Modify the line in the run window to read

"C:\Program Files\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image

4. Press OK

Once downloading please start the game again as normal.


-Run a DirectX Diagnostic test on your system. This test (DxDiag) is simple and easy to run. To do so, please go to your Start Menu and then select the Run command. When the Run Dialogue box appears, please type in "DxDiag", without the quotes and click OK. A DirectX Diagnostics window will appear after a few moments. Once it has, please select the "Save All Information" button. This will save the generated output from the report we have just run. Then please update your incident at the provided link and attach the report. Once I receive it, I'll be better able to assist you with this issue.

-Get more information about your system than is available on the dxdiag. There is a program called Everest Home Edition that is freeware that can give us a ton of information about your system.
The download is here:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4181

-Try running Aquamark 3d to test your video hardware.

http://downloads.guru3d.com/download.php?det=673

Scroll to the bottom of the page and choose a Download Europe or Australia.
Scroll to the bottom of the next page and click 'I Agree'.

This will launch the download. Save the file somewhere on your system. After the download is complete, run the installation, then run the program.

Click the 'Select Measurement' option, then click the first option 'Aquamark Score Measurement'. Allow Aquamark to run through the score test. Report to us your final results, and let us know if you encounter any problems.

================================================== =======

One <possibly last> update on this topic:

After some graphic card and Bios changes that scaled back some of the slightly aggressive settings, the crashes still occur but far less frequently within Green Hill County and no where else in all 3 campaigns over 8 different characters.

So, some tolerance was changed in the game environment that my system doesn't like for some reason. My feeling is that this is related to the audio engine update in some way. To keep it simple, I have been using the -dsound switch when running the game since I have DirectSound/EAX compatible hardware.

I am opened minded enough to realize that computer hardware can "go bad" in various ways but it is very curious that this is only impacting me when I am in Green Hill County.

So, I guess the best I can do is just take a wait and see approach and have my trouble ticket filed away for possible future reference.

At least my Green Hill County crashes have been reduced in frequency.

So, if any of you feel like traipsing around Green Hill County, please do, and let me know if the sky falls on you.

I have a very similar problem in The Sulfurous Wastes/Alkali Pan zones
GW runs perfectly in all zones except that two. When i try to travel in that zones PC periodically freezes ( monitor goes to stand-by mode and sound card emits looping sounds) Only with reset key i was able to restart PC.
All drivers video/audio/mb etc - last versions
No overheating - now i just fully removed computer case and there is a
plenty of fans that cools all vital components

GW.dat - imaged & defragmented
I tried to play with -nosound - still freezes
Kuldebar Valiturus Can you please describe what exact BIOS settings you changed to lessen crashes probability?

I dropped AGP Speed down to 4X from 8X. This isn't as bad as it sounds because it really doesn't make a discernible difference but it does lessen the likelihood of errors that cause crashes.

Additionally, I disabled AGP Fast Writes for much the same reason as the AGP Speed. Both these measures were suggested by ANet/PlayNC support but I researched it a bit as well.

I have never had any further crash problems, but in all fairness I am no longer in Pre-Searing at Barradin Estate.

My feeling is that there was an environmental object, sound or audio, in that specific area that was causing this to happen. It was right after the "audio upgrade" update. Now, of course, I didn't expect the support guys to endorse my suspicions but they did give me a nod in that direction when I suggested it. My other issues <freezes, etc.> have since went away, so some things...work themselves out.