Very confused.

Hi, I am running on a Dell Inspiron 1720 dual core 4gb ram, on paper it should run this game fine yes?

However i have been experiencing troubles with only this game on my laptop, i used to play GW on my old desktop which was a piece of crap but it still ran it lol.

The problem is basically, i log on and play like any other person would, i even set my gfx settings to lowest to reduce heat, but after playing it varies not a set time, the GW screen flickers and after the flcikering the fps drops to a very low rate roughly 7 where as before it was at a good 40. Then several minutes after this basically the GW screen just goes a greyish horrible colour, and then i have to close it down and relog.

I have even gone into the settings of GW and Vista and enabled the thingy which says about compatibility and still it doesn't work.

So if you took the time to read this, and you know the cure, i would appreciate it very much for your replies! Thanks!

what's the full specs of your laptop? more specifically, what graphic solution does it use?

Yeah, your graphics card probably sucks.

Yeah we need more info on your graphic specs before we can help.

moriz edit: kindly keep your dumb defy pain tank/AB crap away from here, thanks.

Inspiron 1720 uses intel graphics media accelerator x3100. Integrated chip that is very terrible even with relitively easy to process games. sorry nothing much you can do

All Intel GMA's are very terrible chipsets.. Sorry but whats happening is that cheap chipset is overheating over its max threshold and causing all that stuff to happen.

Sadly..the cure is getting a laptop or other computer that has a good GFX card.

we actually don't know for sure if he has intel GMA. as far as i can tell, dell laptops come with the option to upgrade graphics. though given how fast GW runs for OP at minimum, he probably DOES have intel GMA.

unfortunately, intel GMA graphics are often poorly supported. however, i've never heard of OP's symptoms on any computer. try upgrading your graphic drivers.. if that fails, send it back since it's quite possible that the laptop is defective.

intel GMAs suck... but they can usually handle GW without breaking themselves.

http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

Do a quick scan of your computer with that for Eyes of the North (most updated one), and see where exactly your computer is failing to run Guild Wars.

Soz for forgetting to put which gfx, it's an Nvidia Geforce 8600m GT, 256mb dedicated

I done this and it said everything passes however on the video and sound card driver bit it doesn't have a pass mark instead it has:

Video Card Driver Version (DirectX)
Your driver version number is: 7.15.11.7597: FYI, Your video card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper video card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.

Sound Card Driver Version
Your driver version number is: 6.0: FYI, Your sound card driver version is provided for your information, but it is not part of this analysis. But proper sound card driver versions are important to the proper operation of your product.

then your laptop is defective/broken. geforce 8600M GT should be able to run GW at max settings, at 60fps+. and it most certainly should not crap out on you like this. send it back and ask for a replacement. it should still be under warranty (at least, you'd hope so).

yes - Moriz is right, I have that card on one of my computers and it runs GW at a steady 60 FPS with no problems, on max settings too.

Dell has a standard 1 yr warranty, so if you have had it for less than 1 yr, call their tech support. They are usually pretty good; just tell them that you have problems with your graphics card and that you want a new laptop to replace it. They are bound by warranty to either replace it or repair it.

Well, it's a Dell and it has an 8600GT, I think I'll add this to my list of 8600GT fails.

But then again, have you tried any driver updates or anything else? Tried testing other games and seeing if they mess up too? Does this happen in Window / Fullscreen only or both? There's a lot of tests to be ran.

But naturally I'd just like to tack the 8600GT on the fail chart.

The problem is your 8600. I had the same prob on my Packard Bell.
8600 are flawed cards. Chipsets go to a around 100°C, and broke your system. My card have killed my computer, and it will do it to yours...
Sorry but you must change your computer fast, or you'll have lost your money in this computer.
Normally, you can play CoD4 in max settings, without problems this cards. If your cards fails, you can't play more than in 800*600 in lowest settings. Contact Dell immediatly to change your card. Do it fast, very very fast.

Note: sorry for my english i'm french

had a dell 1530 xps with the same card, same issue.
My bros 1530 got the same issue as well.
gfx card = bad

As others have said the card is defective. More importantly, this defect in the G84 chipset (which all 8600M use) was publicly acknowledged last fall. As dame nayru has said you need to call Dell and look into to this ASAP. I know Apple issued a statement saying they would fix all of their laptops free of charge for those with this card, as for other companies I am not sure.

i always asumed Nvidia to be one of the top manufacturers of gfx cards, but in future i shall keep a check and do my research, I have contacted dells technical support team via email, so just waiting for a reply.
Basically to sum it up, im 19 almost started playing GW at 14 on crappy desktop (still works!) quit at 16 played other games, n quit gaming, at 18 bought this, played GW and done all this flickering shit was like wtf, checked drivers they were fine apparently, tried playin in full screen and window, didn't do nothing, i even tried alt tab as soon as it flickered, which just delayed it.
it's the only game tht does it i play WoW on high settings which runs fine, red alert 3 is fine, CSS fine etc, is only GW which is the mistery! :S I feel there could be more to discuss, but thx for all your replies! BTW for my b'day going to invest in a laptop fan which could prove to be a good move?!

nvidia and amd/ati are basically tied right now, in terms of quality and performance of their graphic solutions.

however, the mobile versions of geforce 7 and 8 (maybe even 9 series) suffer from soldering material that's ill-suited for mobile platforms, which cause these devices to fail prematurely. i don't know if you have one of these failed chips though, since it should flatout not work after they break.

btw, i didn't know GW was out for 5 years... and the best investment you can have as a gamer, is to get a good desktop. never game on laptops unless you have to.