GW Freezes... forces manual reboot

Basically, if I'm playing guildwars, anywhere between after 30 min to an hr of playing the client freezes up.

I am still able to press where the frozen minimize button is and pull up my desktop screen to work fine.

However, going back into the frozen guildwars blacks out my screen, forcing me to turn the power off via a surge protector.

-I tried waiting to see if it would get "unfrozen" without minimizing it once... after about 6 hrs of waiting, I decided it wasn't going back to normal on its own.

-It usually happens during heavy fighting or movement in a town.

-It happens EVERY DAY, EVERY TIME I play nowadays.

-I vaccuumed the dust out of my computer and cleaned the insides, it did nothing.

-It started over a month ago, and I'm finally sick and tired of it, i want to play the BMP in peace :*(

Thanks for any help you can provide, or ask for any more info you may need!

Hi

The same thing happens to me, practically everyday now.

Like you I have vacummed the dust etc.

Sometimes, my Guild Wars simply closes down without pressing the 'X' button.

Sometimes, the screen freezes and I get like an echo-y sound and then shuts down.

I have tried using the repair functions and still does the same. I unistalled the and re-installed.

No avail.

My computer is fairly up to date (7months old)

I would appreciate some assistance as well.

Thanks in Advance

yeah, this is really becoming an issue, and the forced reboot is starting to damage my comp i think >.<

never use a vacuum cleaner inside a computer as the end of the nozzle generates a huge static build up which can kill your components. use a can of compressed air and blow the dust out instead. this may be a the reason for your ingoing problems.

the original issue was probably caused by heat buildup because of dust/poor ventilation.

however for a more informed guess it would be useful to know your system specifications and then we can go from there

I had this problem at one time but it wasn't just with Guild Wars it was with every game I played. I'd upgraded my graphics card and couldn't figure out what the problem was. It turned out to be a faulty graphics card and when I replaced it everything was fine. Not saying that's the same problem with your computer and I agree with Lord Cooper, you shouldn't use a vacuum cleaner inside a computer.

heh, when I say "vacuumed" my comp, i mean i left the case on and just went around the outside... I actually took the equivalent of a glasses wiper to the insides

although, it may have had the same effect, I still am willing to bet its on the graphics card, as this thing only happens with gw and only when there's a "heavy" area.

Apparently, I have a GeForce 6150 card, which looks really old. Processor says AMD Athlom(tm) 64 Processor 3200+. I'm on Windows XP.

Hopefully some of that helps, right now im looking to see if there are any drivers I can download that might patch up my crappy graphics card

Yeah...
not a good idea..
the vacuum builds up static electricity that can damage sensitive components in your comp..

Same thing has been happening to me lately, but I've had a ton of stuff running at the same time which is probably why... 2.4Ghz CPU is the weakest part of my system anyway Dunno why I didn't buy a better one to begin with

Are either of you using AMD Athlon X2 processors? My Guild Wars kept stalling until I started using Set Affinity to restrict it to one processor core. Unfortunately this has to be done via the Task Manager every time you run the game, but touch wood I haven't had another stall since.

I have been having the same problem, however, it is being caused by the new ventrilo client.

You'll be happy to know that many, many people have this problem and I don't think anyone has come up with a good solution yet. I've tried updating the video and sound card drivers, reinstalling WinXP, updating the AMD dual core cpu driver, deleting and re-downloading gw.dat, disabling Ventrilo, and some other things I can't recall off-hand - in various combinations and repeated attempts. All with no success.

But, since you can access the desktop when it freezes (sometimes you can't), try pressing CTRL-ALT-DEL to bring up the Task Manager and use it to "end task". That can save you from having to reboot.

I'd suggest underclocking your video card. If you have already tried cleaning up the chipset heatsink and it still is freezing then underclocking the card might work. I have a BFG 6800GT OC in one of my computers and it was freezing just like described here. I used an overclocking utility to remove the overclock BFG had set from the factory and it has been working fine since. Unfortunately RMA wasn't an option as the previous owner had updated the card's cooler.

I too have this issue. I am convinced it is due to cpu strain. My comp has no problems untill I open guildwars and some web browsers. Just opening up GW spikes and holds the cpu at 100% and it never goes down. I am using an AMD 3200+. I think that the wonderful game we all play is using a massive amount of cpu power over what they recommend. It does not look like this has anything to do with vid cards or the like. I am building a new system and when it is done I will report my findings. the new system will have a 6400+.