At all costs, I must play Guild Wars! I require your Aid! - Guild Wars Guru archive powered by Guild Wars Legacy

Meneldil

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

United States [KS]

[none]

R/W

10 Feb 2006 at 20:43 - 1

Warriors, Elementalists, Monks, Mesmers (especially lady mesmers), Rangers, and ... and... okay fine... and necromancers, too...

I call upon your aid!

As the Charr regroup their armies, and the Stone Summit's hate grows, and the Undead arise in greater numbers, I have grown weak.

My friends, my computer, my great fort in which I defend Tyria and the lands of Guild Wars, is weaker than ever...

OK FINE I'll get to my point... look at this, and cry for those whose time has come... (I dunno...)

-NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
-Dell DIMENSION 8250
-Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.53 GHz
-2.52 GHz
-256 MB of RAM

I cannot buy anything. I don't care if the graphics look really really bad, I just want to be able to play without constant slowness! The game is sooo slow. Please, tell me what to do! I will do anything to speed up my game, ANYTHING!!! (saying anything means I am desperate and does not necessarily mean i will do anything, thank you)

EDIT: I HAVE DSL

Loviatar

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Feb 2005

10 Feb 2006 at 20:54 - 2

defrag

remove all spyware

close all unneeded processes running in background.

choose best performance over best quality in graphics choices.

go to 800x600 x 16 milliom colors (or less if it will let you)

BTW that 420mx has standard pc memory instead of graphics memory.

nvidia got blasted for that card

Meneldil

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

United States [KS]

[none]

R/W

10 Feb 2006 at 20:57 - 3

Thank you, O ALMIGHTY GOD OF COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE

but um, i still some more gods to worship, so um, NEED MORE GODS! HELP ME DEVINE ONES!

boxterduke

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

Walking the ruins of Ascalon

DVDF

Me/

10 Feb 2006 at 21:04 - 4

I recently changed the mobo and I had 2 sticks of 512 ram for a total of 1gig ram.
The new mobo did not like one of the sticks so I'm running 512 and the game takes forever to load things.
Buy at least more ram.
If u can afford to make your ram 1 gig then go for it.

Loviatar

Underworld Spelunker

Join Date: Feb 2005

10 Feb 2006 at 21:06 - 5

Quote:

Originally Posted by boxterduke

I
Buy at least more ram.
If u can afford to make your ram 1 gig then go for it.

that is the fun part.

he said he could not get ANYTHING.

we have to help with what he is stuck with

cvspro

Academy Page

Join Date: Dec 2005

California , USA

Jack Bauer is the only person in the world to win a game of connect four in three moves!

10 Feb 2006 at 21:16 - 6

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meneldil

-NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
-Dell DIMENSION 8250
-Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.53 GHz
-2.52 GHz
-256 MB of RAM

Your computer isn't really that bad ... as long as you run on slow settings it should be kewl ...

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meneldi

I just want to be able to play without constant slowness! The game is sooo slow. Please, tell me what to do! I will do anything to speed up my game, ANYTHING!!! (saying anything means I am desperate and does not necessarily mean i will do anything, thank you)

What is your connection type ... wifi ... dsl ... cable ... dail-up

I think the problem might lie in that my friend

I play guild wars on my laptop BTW ... the only problems I every get is the dreaded error=7, when im using wifi, and other than that its all good ... I just plug right into my router. My laptop has worse specs than your comp too, except I have 512 ram, but 256 is probably cool

Quote:

Originally Posted by Omega Complex

Unfortunately I have to be the evil god of bad news. The slowness has nothing to do with your actual computer. The ram would help in speedyness but 512 is better. However, the slowness is probably due to your "wonderful" video card. Go searching on newegg.com or have a garage sale. You need a new card.

yah the video card sucks but it should still work most of the time ... I used to play on intergrated and it was kewl

Service pack 2 will only help it alittle ... im assuming u want a big change

And can u explain what u mean by slowness : lag or always slow game play

EternalTempest

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Jun 2005

United States

Dark Side Ofthe Moon [DSM]

E/

10 Feb 2006 at 21:17 - 7

Here some windows xp (and service pack 2) tweaks to give you a small boost.

Disable Indexing Services - http://www.tweakxp.com/article37006.aspx

And Disable DEP
http://www.neowin.net/forum/lofivers...p/t307102.html

Quote:

Disable Data Execution Prevention (DEP)

WARNING: Microsoft recommends that you do NOT disable DEP globally.
To do this would make your computer less secure.

In cases where DEP causes application failures, Microsoft strongly recommends that you contact the application vendor to determine if a DEP-compatible update is available.
Installing such an update is the preferred solution for application compatibility issues with DEP.

Disabling DEP system-wide using boot.ini

1. Click Start, and then click ControlPanel.

2. Under Pickacategory, click PerformanceandMaintenance.

3. Under or Pick a Control Panel icon, click System.

4. Click the Advanced tab, and in the Startup and Recovery area, click Settings.

5. In the SystemStartup area, click Edit.

6. In Notepad, click Edit and then click Find.

7. In the Findwhat field, type /noexecute and then click FindNext.

8. In the Find dialog box click Cancel.

9. Replace the policy_level (for example, "OptIn" default) with "AlwaysOff” (without the quotes).

WARNING: Be sure to enter the text carefully.

Note: Your boot.ini file switch should now read:

/noexecute=AlwaysOff

10. In Notepad, click File and then click Save.

11. Click OK to close StartupandRecovery.

12. Click OK to close SystemProperties and then restart your computer.

This setting does not provide any DEP coverage for any part of the system, regardless of hardware DEP support.

Verifying DEP is Disabled

1. Click Start, and then click ControlPanel.

2. Under Pickacategory, click PerformanceandMaintenance.

3. Under or Pick a Control Panel icon, click System.

4. Click the Advanced tab.

5. In the Performance area, click Settings and then click DataExecutionPrevention.

6. Verify that the DEP settings are unavailable and then click OK to close PerformanceSettings.

7. Click OK to close SystemProperties then close PerformanceandMaintenance.

Omega Complex

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jun 2005

Arlington, TX

10 Feb 2006 at 21:17 - 8

Unfortunately I have to be the evil god of bad news. The slowness has nothing to do with your actual computer. The ram would help in speedyness but 512 is better. However, the slowness is probably due to your "wonderful" video card. Go searching on newegg.com or have a garage sale. You need a new card.

Meneldil

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

United States [KS]

[none]

R/W

10 Feb 2006 at 22:05 - 9

EDITED on top: I have DSL

Meneldil

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

United States [KS]

[none]

R/W

10 Feb 2006 at 22:10 - 10

OH DEAR GODS OF COMPUTER KNOWLEDGE.... I am screwed.

Rayea

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jun 2005

west yorkshire, Uk

Sisters of Serenity

N/Mo

10 Feb 2006 at 22:29 - 11

well, if you can stand the jolly jokes taken out on you by people...and have oyur own copy of ye olde windows 98, it might help give you a boost in the fact it wont swallow memory like a starved wolf at a cow factory...

(yes, i know it out of date, yes i know it old, but it works fine on older machines and since he has only got 256, and win xp would swallow half of that, sometimes its usefull to go back rather than forward....he did say..anything...to play faster....)

i still use win 98 se for my online machine, have bb cable and 512 meg mem...i dont lag too much, so it might be worth it if or when his machine coughs up a fit and needs wipeing...after all, whats one day of wipe, install 98, install drivers, update guildwars and try it out ^^

Eugaet

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2005

US

Righteous Apathy [RA]

10 Feb 2006 at 23:17 - 12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meneldil

-NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
-Dell DIMENSION 8250
-Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.53 GHz
-2.52 GHz
-256 MB of RAM
EDIT: I HAVE DSL

I don't see why you'd be having any problems with that setup unless you have the graphics settings set high. Or maybe that vidcard is a problem...I can't recall whether that's a good card or not.

Anyway, I'm running just fine on:

1GHz Celeron
768MB RAM
GeForce4 Ti4200
DSL

Try setting the game detail to the lowest setting and turn off all anti-aliasing. Then see if it's playable. And uninstall/kill any unnecessary processes that would be taking up bandwidth and/or memory. If you could afford anything (I know you said you can't), I'd look at getting more RAM.

EDIT: What Omega said.

ForeverGoNe

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: May 2005

Freelancing

11 Feb 2006 at 00:31 - 13

It's probably the RAM problem, because he doesn't have enough to run enough processes.

Even at low settings, at 256, you're gonna find it very difficult to play smoothly. I think upping it a notch to 512 won't hurt that much. Another 256 stick is just 20 bucks anyway. Getting a 512 would be even better and theyre fairly cheap, around 50~.

For me, I run GW on:

2.4GHz P4 Processor
1 Gig Ram
ATI Radeon AIW 9600XT

On high settings, it's a good combination but if you want to play smoothly, try aiming for your ram. That's most likely your problem.

Xaniera

Academy Page

Join Date: Dec 2005

The U.S. of A.

NuDE

Me/

11 Feb 2006 at 01:16 - 14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Loviatar

defrag

remove all spyware

close all unneeded processes running in background.

choose best performance over best quality in graphics choices.

go to 800x600 x 16 milliom colors (or less if it will let you)

I have to agree, this should give you back at least a little speed. Instructions on how to do all this, assuming you have WinXP service pack 2:

1. Defragment.
Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Defragmenter. Click your hard drive, (usually C

Analyze it, the tell it to defragment. This process is extremely long. I'm doing a test defragment right now, just to see exactly how it works, and after 10 minutes I'm at 5%. Once it's done, your hard drives will be squeaky-clean and logically organized.

2. Kill the Spyware!
Ad-Aware: http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-SE-...bj=dl&tag=top5
Spybot Search and Destroy: http://www.safer-networking.org/en/mirrors/index.html
Run both of those, and that should kill most, if not all spyware/trojans/etc. on your system. I say both because no two virus scanners scan in the same way, and what one doesn't catch another probably will.

3. Video Settings.
Rather obvious. GW's in-game menu should override any settings set by your desktop while playing, so whatever you want your desktop set to is fine the way it is. Low resolution, no antialiasing, best performance, etc.

Unfortunately, if you have no money for upgrades, you'll be stuck like this until you do, barely scraping enough power out of your computer to run GW. As soon as possible, upgrade that videocard! Stick with nVidia, but even just an FX5500 would help a lot, and they're only about 50$. Another 256 of ram couldn't hurt either.

Meneldil

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

United States [KS]

[none]

R/W

11 Feb 2006 at 15:43 - 15

New Graphics Card
and
More Ram, 512mb-1gig

=( guess i better start saving up...

Alias_X

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2005

11 Feb 2006 at 16:28 - 16

Weird, I had an GeForce MX 2, 256mb of ram, and a P4 1.7ghz CPU and it ran on max settings fine.

Beorn Drake

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Dec 2005

Alliance of the Old Gods

W/Mo

11 Feb 2006 at 17:16 - 17

What are the system requirements for Guild Wars?

Minimum System Specs:
Windows XP/2000/ME/98
Intel Pentium III 800 Mhz or equivalent
256 MB RAM
CD-ROM Drive
2 GB Available HDD Space
ATI Radeon 8500 or GeForce 3 or 4 MX Series Video Card with 32MB of VRAM
16-bit Sound Card
Internet connection
Keyboard and mouse

Recommended System Specs:
Windows XP/2000/ME/98
Intel Pentium III 1GHz or equivalent
512 MB RAM
CD-ROM Drive
2 GB Available HDD Space
ATI Radeon 9000 or GeForce 4 Ti Series Video Card with 64MB of VRAM
16-bit Sound Card
Internet connection
Keyboard and mouse

From the system req's it sounds like you just need more RAM but I would also try to optimise your connection, as mentioned above, by following the spyware cleanup advice and anything esle that may possibly using your connection as you play. My $0.02 however, is that I would also make sure that you have the current driver for your card as it should be working fine considering that it meets the recommended req's.

Meneldil

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

United States [KS]

[none]

R/W

11 Feb 2006 at 17:53 - 18

Would... um... "updating" the driver help ANY? I have no clue how...

Lerxst_of_Syrinx

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: Apr 2005

Mo/R

11 Feb 2006 at 18:10 - 19

RAM first then video card! The video card you have can do GW, but your system has barely enough RAM to run Windows XP...nevermind GW, too.

Beorn Drake

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Dec 2005

Alliance of the Old Gods

W/Mo

11 Feb 2006 at 18:25 - 20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meneldil

Would... um... "updating" the driver help ANY? I have no clue how...

Assuming you are running Win XP follow this link download and install. This link is to the current driver for you specific card from nvidia and may help along with a system cleanup. Worth a shot anyway until you can purchase some RAM.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/winxp_2k_81.98.html

Tachyon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Stoke, England

The Godless [GOD]

W/

11 Feb 2006 at 19:12 - 21

If you're running XP, then I'd suggest you shut down some processes that aren't required and suck up memory. For instance, if you don't have a printer then disable the printer spooler. Also, one thing that takes quite a bit of memory is the windows themes, so I'd shut that down too.

Just go into 'Computer Management', then Services and Applications' and then 'Services'. Scroll through the list to find the things you want to disable and right click on it. Then choose properties and set the start-up option to 'disable'.

Illusion

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where do you live?

Elite Mercenary Legion

11 Feb 2006 at 19:56 - 22

yea i have the same problem on my crappy computer and i want gw to run on it but it gets that error that either i dont have Direct X 9.0 (i do) or my video card is crap any one know how to get the game to run without switching my video card?

Edit: computers a 2000

Tachyon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Stoke, England

The Godless [GOD]

W/

11 Feb 2006 at 21:04 - 23

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illusion

yea i have the same problem on my crappy computer and i want gw to run on it but it gets that error that either i dont have Direct X 9.0 (i do) or my video card is crap any one know how to get the game to run without switching my video card?

Edit: computers a 2000

Need a bit more info than that if you don't mind. What are your system specs and what error message do you recieve?

Illusion

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where do you live?

Elite Mercenary Legion

11 Feb 2006 at 21:20 - 24

i think the error is a 3d innatalize input or somthing like that
2)224 MB of RAM
3)731 MHz
4)Intel Pentium III Processor
System:
Microsoft Windows XP
Proffesional
Version 2002
Service Pack 2

Meneldil

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

United States [KS]

[none]

R/W

11 Feb 2006 at 23:34 - 25

Guys, something bad happened, i think.
i tried updating the driver, but it always gives me error code -6005 when i press Setup

and now it says i have no NVIDIA display driver or no NVIDIA anything. it told me i had to remove the program so i did. now im stuck. i cant play guild wars or any games, and a lot of stuff doesnt work. this is serious. i need help.

Hurricane

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Nov 2005

..!

We plunder you now

E/

11 Feb 2006 at 23:48 - 26

Quote:

Originally Posted by Meneldil

Guys, something bad happened, i think.
i tried updating the driver, but it always gives me error code -6005 when i press Setup

and now it says i have no NVIDIA display driver or no NVIDIA anything. it told me i had to remove the program so i did. now im stuck. i cant play guild wars or any games, and a lot of stuff doesnt work. this is serious. i need help.

Got it from http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp?

Illusion

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where do you live?

Elite Mercenary Legion

12 Feb 2006 at 00:39 - 27

any 1 know how i can make my game work with out goin out and buyin somthing?

Meneldil

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

United States [KS]

[none]

R/W

12 Feb 2006 at 02:46 - 28

Guys, BAD NEWS
Device Manager and Add Hardware DO NOT WORK. What is going on?!??!!?

Tachyon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Stoke, England

The Godless [GOD]

W/

12 Feb 2006 at 03:31 - 29

Quote:

Originally Posted by Illusion

i think the error is a 3d innatalize input or somthing like that
2)224 MB of RAM
3)731 MHz
4)Intel Pentium III Processor
System:
Microsoft Windows XP
Proffesional
Version 2002
Service Pack 2

Well, for a start the stats you posted are below the minimum required as posted on the back of the Guild Wars case. I'm guessing that you have 1X128MB, 1x64MB and a 32MB module installed. That just isn't enough to be frank, hell XP alone will run quite slow on just 224MB.

Also, what graphics card do you have installed, is it onboard and sharing your system RAM. If so, then that's a major problem that will contribute to you not being able to run Guild Wars.

Illusion

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where do you live?

Elite Mercenary Legion

12 Feb 2006 at 03:36 - 30

where do i find my graphics card information?

Tachyon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Stoke, England

The Godless [GOD]

W/

12 Feb 2006 at 03:47 - 31

The easier option is to click on 'Start', then click 'Run' and enter dxdiag into the box and hit enter. Once it's finished loading, just click on the 'Display' tab at the top (3rd along) and it'll tell you what graphics card you are using,

Illusion

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where do you live?

Elite Mercenary Legion

12 Feb 2006 at 04:03 - 32

ok i did what u said and heres what i got you tell me which it is =)

EDIT: Scratch that, that was audio

Display =)
Name: ATI Technologys Inc. 3D RAGE IIC PCI
Manufacturers:ATI Technologys Inc
Chip Type: ATI 3D RAGE IIC PCI (A12/A13)
Approx total memory: 4.0 MB
Current Display mode: 800x600 (32 bit)(85Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play monitor

Tachyon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Stoke, England

The Godless [GOD]

W/

12 Feb 2006 at 04:05 - 33

That's your onboard sound info. You need to look at the information under the 'Display' tab.

What it should look like is this.

First one is the standard dxdiag screen.

Then when you click on the 'Display' tab, you should see information relating to your particular graphics card. Like this. :-

Illusion

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where do you live?

Elite Mercenary Legion

12 Feb 2006 at 04:10 - 34

o ok lemme try that am i able to SS it?

Illusion

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where do you live?

Elite Mercenary Legion

12 Feb 2006 at 04:19 - 35

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600)
System Model: VT82C692BX
BIOS: Ver 1.65
Processor: Intel Pentium III, ~730MHz
Memory: 224MB RAM
Page file: 172MB used, 374MB available
DirectX version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)

tell me if im missin ne info for u
ah now i see what im missin im missin NVIDEA
but my display is on my post #32

Illusion

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where do you live?

Elite Mercenary Legion

12 Feb 2006 at 04:26 - 36

ok im lost it says NVIDIA cant find any hardware compatible with mine ><

Tachyon

Forge Runner

Join Date: Nov 2005

Stoke, England

The Godless [GOD]

W/

12 Feb 2006 at 05:12 - 37

I'm sorry to say that going by your amended post (#32). you'll have no chance of running Guild Wars on your PC at all. Your graphics card only has 4MB of memory and you need at least a 32MB card to run Guild Wars on the lowest settings and with any sort of playability.

My suggestion would be to go and source yourself a cheap and cheerful replacement graphics card. I see that yours is PCI, do you happen to know if you have an AGP slot on your motherboard? If so, you can pick up a half decent card that'll allow you to pay Guild Wars for around the £30-£50 mark. If not, then it's still around the same price range for a similar PCI card.

Don't worry about looking for Nvidia, yours is made my ATI so you'll not find any reference to Nvidia.

Illusion

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jan 2006

Where do you live?

Elite Mercenary Legion

12 Feb 2006 at 14:41 - 38

ah ok thx

Meneldil

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Dec 2005

United States [KS]

[none]

R/W

12 Feb 2006 at 16:35 - 39

Please, back to my issue.

Add Hardware will not open.
Device Manager will not open.
I need help. This is serious now.

revannecroblade

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

12 Feb 2006 at 16:38 - 40

I have a slow down prob too and i was reading throguh here and was wodnering soemthing. I hit ctrl+alt+delete and i looked in processes and was wonder if there was anything i could stop to speed up my gw. here is a screen of it.