Wierd Video Issue

Hello all,

I am new to Guild Wars (just started playing a day or two ago. I really enjoy it, but I am having a problem. After I have been logged for 30 min to an hour, my video will go out. My HD monitor shows me the "no signal" mesage. If I move my mouse it comes back and I can play again. This happens a total of three or four times. After the thirud or fourth time this happens, the game will come back, but I will sound and no video. I believ am even able to move my character (last time I tried, I moved into range of an enemy and I heard him start attacking me). When I try to kill the process by bringing up my task manager, I am unable to select the task manager to end the process (I can see it, but I cannot access it). The only I have found to get around it is to hard boot my computer. If anyone can help me fix this issue that would be great. Thanks in advance.

P.S. This issue occurs every time I log in. In case you need to know, I am sitting behind a wireless router (it gives me my DSL internet access) and my computer more than meets the minimum system requirements (I have an Athalon 64 dual core processor, ATI Radeon X1300 PRO, and 4 gigs of ram).

You see i have an issue with mine too. I log into the game and it says my video card has crashed. And boots me out of the game. Also three or four times before I'm able to play. However I've played for awhile (i just got my fourth year) and this seams rather new as it hasn't happened to me before. When you can get into the game drop all your graphics and then if that works slowly increase to a safe level. Sorry if that doesn't help. That's how i fixed mine.

You are right. Your computer can handle guildwars very well, and shouldn't be struggling to play. Also, internet wouldn't have anything to do with this problem, its a PC problem.

My suggestion would be to check for the latest driver for your x1300. Get it, install that and see if the problem keeps happening.

Another possibility is, overheating. Make sure all air vents on the PC are allowing air in and out of the case, and none are blocked by anything including dust,...etc..

Overheating CAN cause problems like this. Since... it might just be that 30 mins into having to process the game, the GPU reaches the redline or just danger temperature and starts to become unpredictable.

I've noticed weird video crashes since last update.

I thought it was my video card since it is a couple years old

But it only happen when I'm playing GW and since I'm hearing others with similar problems maybe there was a problem in the last update

My problems are similar to both gamerlj and Dytonis. Sometimes the screen just goes completely and other times I get a message the video driver has crashed.

ATI card, by the way - I know GW has occasionally had problems with ATI in the past.

Thanks for the quick replies. I wanted to update my situation. I have found that if I play the game in windowed mode, then the issue I have had occurs once and then my computer pops up saying that my VPU wasn't responding to the commands the game was giving (basically the driver crashed) and so it was reset (at least I think that's what it said). Anyways, I don't have any issues with any other games I have, I am wondering if, as suggested, GW could having some kind of issue with my video card. Thanks again you all. Any more help to fix would be great.

P.S. My power supply started overheating a while back so I grabbed a fan and popped the cover off my case and have been using the fan to keep the power supplie cool (so I doubt overheating is the issue, though it is still possible). Also, could the issue be that the VPU doesn't have enough power? I am currently running my ATI video card, along with two Hard drives (a 1 TB and a 250 GB), my athalon 64 dual core processor, and 4 gigs of ram, all on a 250 watt power supply. Just wondering if power could be an issue.

AHH, the old VPU Recovery incident? I went through that for like TWO months for no reason last year. It stopped doing it by itself. Craziest thing was, after reinstalls and updates of drivers, and direct x it didn't work... a reinstall of Windows didn't work either. So...I was at the hands of my own computer to stop doing it whenever it felt necessary to let me play a game again and it did. Those 2 hellish months left me pissed off each day until it stopped. Then recently it did it exactly twice for no reason in Left 4 dead on the same day, and never did it again.

So basically, it's going to do it whenever it wants and it'll stop on it's own.

So randomly, like my graphics card I came to the conclusion of radio and wireless interference as my final answer to the entire problem.

Oh and...yeah, update that power supply IMMEDIATELY. The fact that PC even starts up is amazing, you are inviting not only a fire, but damage to critical components of your motherboard.

the OP's system is relatively low powered, so 250W SHOULD be enough.

The OP stated that the power supply was overheating.

Replace the power supply. Chrisworld is right: You will experience hardware faults with a defective, insufficient output, or overheating power supply, and continued use can result in component failure or even a fire in the worst case scenario.

upgrade your PSU mate, as soon as you can scrape $30-40 together, Newegg always has deals on name brand PSUs in the 400-500watt range for $40 or less