Vista & Guild Hall

Comp: new Gateway with an Intel processor (honestly, I forgot which one and I'm not at home), came with an nVidia 8500GT, running Vista and DX10

Problem: My guild has the Imperial Guild Hall, and this computer always lags out on the load screen when trying to go to the guild hall. Sometimes it gets stuck on "Connecting," other times it says it's "Downloading file" but it always sticks until I minimize or close the window. If I minimize, it closes the window anyway. Then an error box pops up that says there was a fatal error please send info to Anet.

I have no problems getting to my guild hall using other computers (we've got several, all running versions of XP but various brands, processors, and vid cards), it's just this one (with Vista) that does this.

Side note: I tried using the -image command to DL the files ahead of time, and this comp will NOT run -image. I tried every version listed in the sticky to do this, and tried the old-school way (Classic desktop, added the "-image" tagline to the shortcut command). Every time I try to run with the -image command the game starts to DL files then just crashes after a few seconds.

Any ideas?

The spherical teleporter things in the Imperial hall (if its the one I'm thinking of) have been known to cause video-related problems for some people. I'd recommend checking your video drivers.. make sure they're up-to-date, reinstall them perhaps. Does this issue happen in any other in-game areas?

Btw, DirectX 10 is irrelevant to Guild Wars as its a DX9 game.

Updated my drivers two days ago; the error occurred both before and after updating the drivers. This error has not occurred anywhere else.

Also, the error occurs both using the "Enter Guild Hall" interface button or if I map to the Battle Isles and then try to map-travel to the guild hall.

Have you tried running GW in XP "compatibility mode"?

Or, even better, have you tried installing XP on the computer and trashing Vista?

yes, I had this issue a while back, uninstall GW, reinstall and try again, mine works fine now under vista, not even with compatability... they added vista support in a patch 6 months ago

The comp is only 2 weeks old, and I did a fresh install then.

*sigh* I may try a re-install...but I did snag the HD from my old XP comp (mobo died on it), I may see about running GW from that drive instead.

TYVM for the suggestions guys.

Imperial hall is chalked full of bloom effects etc. Go to the graphic options in another outpost, and turn off post process effects. Load into the hall again, and see if it crashes.

Update:
Tried turning all graphics effects off or on lowest settings with slider to highest performance, no luck.
Tried running in compatability (Win XP SP2) mode, no luck.
Tried running as Admin, no luck.
Tried running as Admin in compatability mode, no luck.
Tried running off a second harddrive that already has the Guild Hall files, and it still did the same thing: lockup on download screen, client crash, then error message.

FWIW, here's the error code in full:

*--> Crash <--*
Assertion:
ZnMapCluster.cpp(884)
App: Gw.exe
ProgramId: 1
Build: 24681
When: 12/20/2007 21:40:57
Flags: 0

*--> System <--*
Name: AG-PC
IpAddr: 192.168.1.102
Processors: 2 [GenuineIntel:6:15:13]
OSVersion: 5.1

*--> Thread 0xfffffffe <--*
eax=fffffffe ebx=00bea824 ecx=00bea824 edx=00a09664 esi=00a09664 edi=00a09664
eip=00402721 esp=02cdf408 ebp=02cdf41c
cs=200202 ss=001b ds=0023 es=0023 fs=0023 gs=003b efl=00000000

ebx-32 00BEA804 00000040 00000000 3f800000 00000000
ebx-16 00BEA814 00000003 39aaaaab b9aaaaab 3f800000
ebx +0 00BEA824 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
ebx+16 00BEA834 00000000 41c8f91b 43454fd0 00000000
ebx+32 00BEA844 000c0cdb 00b4e405 00000000 00000000
ebx+48 00BEA854 00000000 21c36468 00000002 00000001
ecx-32 00BEA804 00000040 00000000 3f800000 00000000
ecx-16 00BEA814 00000003 39aaaaab b9aaaaab 3f800000
ecx +0 00BEA824 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000
ecx+16 00BEA834 00000000 41c8f91b 43454fd0 00000000
ecx+32 00BEA844 000c0cdb 00b4e405 00000000 00000000
ecx+48 00BEA854 00000000 21c36468 00000002 00000001
edx-32 00A09644 6f436e7a 3274736e 00000000 6f436e7a
edx-16 00A09654 3374736e 00000000 66416e7a 00000073
edx +0 00A09664 614d6e5a 756c4370 72657473 7070632e
edx+16 00A09674 00000000 0061004d 00690078 0075006d
edx+32 00A09684 0020006d 00720067 0075006f 0064006e
edx+48 00A09694 006f0063 00650076 00200072 00650074
esi-32 00A09644 6f436e7a 3274736e 00000000 6f436e7a
esi-16 00A09654 3374736e 00000000 66416e7a 00000073
esi +0 00A09664 614d6e5a 756c4370 72657473 7070632e
esi+16 00A09674 00000000 0061004d 00690078 0075006d
esi+32 00A09684 0020006d 00720067 0075006f 0064006e
esi+48 00A09694 006f0063 00650076 00200072 00650074
esi-32 00A09644 6f436e7a 3274736e 00000000 6f436e7a
esi-16 00A09654 3374736e 00000000 66416e7a 00000073
esi +0 00A09664 614d6e5a 756c4370 72657473 7070632e
esi+16 00A09674 00000000 0061004d 00690078 0075006d
esi+32 00A09684 0020006d 00720067 0075006f 0064006e
esi+48 00A09694 006f0063 00650076 00200072 00650074

*--> Code <--*
00402701 e88a7e18 0083c40c 5ec39090 90909055 ..~.....^......U
00402711 8bec83ec 0c56578b f28bf9e8 00000000 .....VW.........
00402721 8f45f454 8f45f855 8f45fc85 f68bd675 .E.T.E.U.E.....u
00402731 05babc45 9c008b4d 088d45f4 50518bcf ...E...M..E.PQ..
00402741 e80a0000 005f5e8b e55dc204 00909055 ....._^..].....U
00402751 8bec81ec f0030000 53568d85 10fcffff ........SV......

*--> Trace <--*
Pc:00402721 Fr:02cdf41c Rt:00725412 Arg:00000374 00000100 00000080 00000100

*--> Stack <--*
02CDF408 02cdf428 0000001c 00402721 02cdf408 (.......!'@.....
02CDF418 02cdf41c 02cdf754 00725412 00000374 ....T....Tr.t...
02CDF428 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF438 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF448 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF458 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF468 1dc6f184 148dd0a4 1dc632e8 2271d854 .........2..T.q"
02CDF478 0a6a7d10 1dc67188 1dc5c138 1dc5d53c .}j..q..8...<...
02CDF488 1dc6f058 1dc5cd44 148db9a8 148e75ec X...D........u..
02CDF498 14232024 1dc5d85c 148f6d34 1dc64288 $ #.\...4m...B..
02CDF4A8 1dc7108c 1dc71bf8 148da43c 13ec294c ........<...L)..
02CDF4B8 1dc68c44 1dc5e350 1dc5e3f0 13cc1844 D...P.......D...
02CDF4C8 1dc600b4 22722d14 1dc5e0d0 1259fe14 .....-r"......Y.
02CDF4D8 00000000 00000000 00000001 00000001 ................
02CDF4E8 00000002 00000002 00000002 00000003 ................
02CDF4F8 00000003 00000003 00000004 00000004 ................
02CDF508 00000005 00000005 00000005 00000006 ................
02CDF518 00000006 00000006 00000006 00000006 ................
02CDF528 00000006 00000006 00000007 00000007 ................
02CDF538 00000008 00000007 00000007 00000007 ................
02CDF548 148f61cc 148f28b8 2271d778 1dc74280 .a...(..x.q".B..
02CDF558 148e4124 148d7cfc 1dc7336c 1dc5e404 $A...|..l3......
02CDF568 1dc60348 00000000 00000000 00000000 H...............
02CDF578 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 ................
02CDF588 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 ................
02CDF598 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 ................
02CDF5A8 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000000 ................
02CDF5B8 00000002 00000002 00000002 00000002 ................
02CDF5C8 00000002 00000002 00000002 00000002 ................
02CDF5D8 00000002 00000002 00000002 00000002 ................
02CDF5E8 00000002 00000002 00000002 00000002 ................
02CDF5F8 00000002 00000002 00000002 00000002 ................
02CDF608 00000002 00000002 00000002 00000002 ................
02CDF618 00000000 00000002 00000002 00000002 ................
02CDF628 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF638 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF648 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF658 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF668 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF678 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF688 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF698 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF6A8 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF6B8 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF6C8 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF6D8 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF6E8 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF6F8 00000100 00000080 00000100 00000080 ................
02CDF708 00a0941c 1643ce40 1643ce40 126b38d8 ....@.C.@.C..8k.
02CDF718 0000001c 0000001c 00000040 02cdf770 ........@...p...
02CDF728 00000000 0000047d 02cdf4d8 02cdf468 ....}.......h...
02CDF738 02cdf5b8 1643ce40 02cdf548 00000004 ....@.C.H.......
02CDF748 02cdf538 02cdf628 00000008 02cdf7b8 8...(...........
02CDF758 0071d018 1643cda0 00720fa4 02cdfa50 ..q...C...r.P...
02CDF768 01000000 00000a41 00000000 0bee97b8 ....A...........
02CDF778 00000080 0000005e 00000040 00000000 ....^...@.......
02CDF788 00000000 00000000 00000000 00000040 ............@...
02CDF798 00000002 0bd46750 00000004 00000004 ....Pg..........
02CDF7A8 00000020 1aa9af61 1499110c 01000000 ...a...........
02CDF7B8 02cdf7d8 0071b58b 00000a41 1aa9af61 ......q.A...a...
02CDF7C8 14990ed8 14990ed8 02cdfa50 00000000 ........P.......
02CDF7D8 02cdf7f8 006c2a53 00000a41 1aa9a520 ....S*l.A... ...
02CDF7E8 14990ed8 00000002 21dbaabc 10000003 ...........!....
02CDF7F8 02cdfacc 006c4b17 000006d4 130d8c69 .....Kl.....i...

*--> LogQueue <--*
(2) Texture '' file not found
(2) Model: file '0x013959' could not be opened (2)

*--> DirectX Device Info <--*
VendorId = 0x10de
DeviceId = 0x0421
Version = 7.15.0011.6906
Description = NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT
Compat = 0x01000001
VidMem = 256 MB

*--> DirectSound Device Info <--*
3D channels = 32
2D channels = 32
EAX support = None
Device count = 4

Your Vista has been updated with Windows Update?

Did you start your game with the -image switch, so your client gets completely updated?
My shortcut looks like this in Vista: "G:\Guild Wars\Gw.exe" -image
Not sure if you need to disable UAC or something else for it to work.

Sound like reinstall and use the -image switch.

Going a bit of topic.
nVidia 8500GT, never tried that card but isn't it rather slow for gaming?

Going to do a complete uninstall & reinstall - this last crash somehow also deleted my skills Templates and Screens folders from within the directory. *sigh*

EDIT: Uninstalled everything, reinstalled client off the official site, ran -image overnight (and this time it worked), got into guild hall this AM. I'm guessing something was corrupted in my prior install. Anyway, thanks for all the help & suggestions.