GW Only graphics issue

Okay, here's the problem I'm having. Guild Wars causes my graphics driver to crash so I get all these weird graphics problems, usually they are solved by just alt+tabbing out and going to desktop, but they've gotten worse.

This is what it looks like in-game;



And nothing fixes it, so my only option at that point is to go out to the desktop which looks like this (the 'clear' spot is where I just dragged and did a random desktop selection);



And then I fix that by going into sleep mode.

Normally I'd think it was just my graphics card going out or something, but I'm able to play other games, like SW:TFU or MW2 fine without any issues at all. The only game I have any problems in is GW. I've updated my graphics drivers since this started happening, but to no effect.

I have an Nvidea 8600 GT, Windows Vista HP. Any ideas?

I am having this Exact problem! I also have a NVIDIA 8600 GT, Windows 7 x64. I also updated my Graphics Drivers but no effect. I have been loking around the internet and i have no solution at all. The only way i can re-solve mine is by re-starting my PC. Anybody with information will help me alot as well!

Exact same thing happened to me the other day after alt + tabbing, though its never happened using minimise / maximise

ATI x4850 in crossfire with Cat 10.6, Win XP

Either overheating or a corrupted gw.dat file = monitor your temperatures and/or run the "-image" command.

I had the same thing with my old VGA, don't know the specs anymore. After changing the card it didn't happen again. I didn't reinstall or debugged gw.dat. So my guess is overheating.

Looks like either a failing card or overheating.

I suggest you check the card is properly seated in the slot, that the fan is working and the fan isn't full of dust.

I would also guess overheating. I would think that an 8600GT might have to struggle a bit to do GW at 1680x1050 at max settings. You could try knocking the graphics settings down a notch - particularly, set AA to 2x (if it's higher than that) or even OFF.

Not sure what SW:TFU is (Star Wars something?) and I guess MW2 is MechWarrior, but in any case, although you might think those games are graphically intensive, they don't necessarily utilize a lot of the more GPU intensive goodies that GW can.

Seems like overheating to me as well. I don't really have any fix suggestions that haven't already been said.

SW:TFU is Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, I believe, and MW2 is Modern Warfare 2.

Had the same problem with my old card (which WAS overheating, I found out.)
Replaced it with a 9800GT less than a month ago, and it's still happening even if GPU temperature doesn't go above 50C.

At this point, I figure either the dat is corrupted, or I'm having voltage issues. So if your card isn't dying, check your PSU and reimage your dat file.

mine definitely wasnt overheating, I monitor the temps closely, even have a shortcut key to view them in game and I clean my fans out regularly

to everyone its happened to: do you alt + tab or use the minimise button at the top?

its only happened to me after I alt + tabbed, never when using the minimise button

Hsiv is correct on that, it's The Force Unleashed and Modern Warfare 2, both of which I would *think* would be far, far more graphically intensive than Guild Wars. I have MW2 running with 2x AA at full 1680x1050 resolution and it never skips a beat - Force Unleashed running at 1440x900 and it only has some problems on the really heavy physics areas. I've played MW2 and TFU for several hours at a time and nothing happens with the graphics to indicate a problem. And yet yesterday in Guild Wars it took less than 10 minutes for this to manifest. I know that GW can be surprisingly graphics oriented, but I would think if it was a heating problem it would be happening across the board in all games, not *just* in Guild Wars.

That would lead me to think that it probably is a problem with the .dat. I didn't think that would be an issue, but I suppose there are graphics oriented drivers in there that could cause a problem. I'll try re-downloading it when I have some time.

Though I guess I should test the simplest thing first, how do you monitor heating on the GPU? I've never been 'hardcore' enough to have to do something like that?

:edit:

I use both Alt+tab and the Restore Down options relatively often to check wiki and other things, though my problem manifests regardless of whether I use them or not.

To monitor your GPU temperature, you can use a program like GPU-Z, which will monitor only your GPU but tell you everything there is to know about it as well, or a program that monitors CPU, HDD and GPU like HWmonitor, HWiNFO32 or Everest. The makers of CCleaner also have a monitoring program.

Thanks!

I used GPU-X while I messed around in GW for a few minutes. It looks like it topped out at about 79 degrees C. I'll have it up while I play GW for real this evening. 79 seems a little hot to me, but the people on the internet say about 75-85 is on the high end of the okay range for a GPU under load. Does that seem reasonable to you guys?

Yeah, 79 is high but should not endanger most GPUs. I'd still check for dust in your GPU fan since some GPUs are a little more sensitive to heat than others. You can also check your temps while playing MW2 since the game runs fine, it will give you a good reference point.

I would check temperatures after 30 mins to get a more realistic reading.

On another note, while you are right that MW2 and SW:TFU are more graphically intensive than GW, it always depends on your graphical settings: textures, shadows etc.

EDIT: Check the average and max temperatures as well as the current reading.

EDIT2: After an hour of playing GW, doing battle fro LA among other thing 1080p i got 75C max temp on a MR HD5870 so 79C on a desktop 8600 does indeed seem pretty high.

GW is notoriously heat sensitive - it will often choke on temperatures that other, more graphically impressive games, run smoothly on...

Compare your heat to MW2 and SW:TFU after playing all 3 for at least 20-30 mins. Most likely they'll be around 80°C+, so you better clean your GPU in time before it burns out. Mine did years ago ^^.
You could also try repairing or reinstalling GW, but I doubt that well help.

Mine is doing the same thing.

This never happened with my old 6800 on a much weaker computer playing GW for hours. Now I have a 9600 and this pops up after a few minutes.

Back in the day I remember NVidia cards really only played Guild Wars successfuly on a few versions of the drivers. Is it possible that one of the new drivers has a conflict with Guild Wars?

I'm not familiar with the graphics details of those games, but don't confuse "lots of fast moving graphics" with the amount of graphics power required. It doesn't matter as much to the video card, how fast the graphics move or the number of objects, as it matters what sort of graphics processes are being done on each pixel. In other words, just because GW is a slower moving game than those other titles, does not mean that the video card doesn't have to work hard to render all the lighting, reflections, AA, etc., routines that maxed out GW can use.

I did the -image to no avail.

My Guild Wars seems fixed from a good cleaning inside my computer.

Seems like you had a little too much dust in there, causing it to run hotter... not uncommon for GW.