Inventory Lag

I really don't know fully how to describe this one, but any help I get would be much appreciated. I have been playing GW for a few weeks now and I have begun to notice a recurring problem on my computer. It is not a problem with my friends computer who sits right next to me on my network as we play. What happens is that everytime my inventory (I) is opened everything lags way up. When this happens the armor I am wearing in the inventory screen gets all choppy looking as well. Wait a couple minutes and it goes to normal, then close the inventory and bit of lag before I can continue. I have learned that the F9 key is magnificent and solves the issue of getting into my stuff without the lag. However, when I am trying to trade someone the inventory window automatically comes up and pow, lag comes back. My first guess was video card couldn't handle it because of the way the armor looks. However this doesnt entirely make sense as I am running a Nvidia FX 5200 that worked perfectly when I played City of Heroes last summer. In fact the drivers are up to date and everything. I know it is also not my ISP b/c my friend is on the same connection without problems.

Other specs of notable interest:
Computer age: 9 months
CPU: Pent 4 3 Ghz 800Mhz front side bus
RAM: 1 gig
Sound: Soundblaster Live
Graphics: Nvidia FX 5200

Have you tried this?

The 5*** GeForce cards have issues with the game. Read a little bit down that page and there is some suggestions about a fix.

Thank you for the reply. I have contacted Anet to get their response but thus far they have simply asked me to email them a dxdiag report, which I have done, and not heard back from them.

Furthermore, in regard to your post I had read about the problem with NVidia 5200 cards with driver 61.77 however I run on driver 71.89 released April 14, 2005 because I used to play City of Heros (Ironically also developed by NCsoft). My graphics already are not set to max for GW even though I play at max for all of my other games.

So ultimately I am still having the problem and seeking any further suggestions people might have, thank you.

This is a bug that other people have had... I can't remember if it was ever solved.

There should be some threads around here that involve it, try a search for "inventory" and see what turns up.

I will do the search in just a second, but do you suppose opening the 6112 port would have any bearing on this whatsoever? thx.

Edit: I did the search and found that yes others are having this problem but there does not appear to be a resolution for us sad folk. Bummer!

If you haven't opened that port you can try it and see what happens. Doubt it will fix the problem but you never know.

I'd love to hear what ANet says about this and if you can have them solve it please post up the solution. As you said, many people have this problem so things like this would help out people a lot. =)

First Response from Guild Wars Support:

Try this: go to Start>Run>type msconfig and click OK. Click on Selective Startup, uncheck Load Startup Items, then go to the Services tab. Click Hide All Microsoft Services then uncheck all the ones you see. Click OK and restart. This will help ensure that no other applications are interfering with the game.

Regards,
Guild Wars Support

Note: This did not solve anything and I sent them an email saying such. I run my systray light, basically only Virus protection which I refuse to turn off (too many bad experiences)

Second Response from Guild Wars Support:

Thanks for contacting GuildWars technical support. Although the video card is adequate for a game released a year ago, games of 2005 use more direct x 9 effects which will slow down your video card signficantly. Try to lower the graphics settings within the GuildWars configuration. To do this, load GuildWars, and at the login screen, select Options on the bottom right. Then where the visual quality slider is, slide the bar all the way to the left. Also make sure that you have anti-aliasing and post processing effects disabled. Save the settings, then attempt to play the game. Try that and let us know whether that helps to resolve the issue. We hope that it does.

Regards,
GuildWars Technical Support

Note: I am at work and can not try this at the time, but this is really sad. Basically they are saying that a GeForce FX 5200 card is old and can not effectively run their game. This is sad because this card isn't old, it is still prevelant in the market, and while it isn't top of the line it is a totally decent card for every other game out there that I have played. So I guess I have to lower my graphics options below the default settings (which already were not at max). I will post later to state if this actually solved the issue.

Note 2: I tried this as well with no luck. /SIGH

Third Response from Guild Wars Support:

Can you adjust your AGP settings? We suggest looking in the system BIOS. To do this, you will need to reboot your PC. When the PC first begins to reboot you will be prompted to enter the BIOS for several seconds. Press the key to enter the BIOS. Look for the display/video/graphics options. Next, look for FastWrite and AGP speed. If the options exist, disable Fast Write and lower the AGP speed to 4x if at all possible (if it isn't at 4x already). Try that and let us know what happens. We look forward to your response.

Regards,
Guildwars Technical Support

Note: I hope one of these things is working for someone out there. I will try this solution when I get home from work. Is there anyone out there, now that some time has passed, that has solved this yet? This is getting into stuff I am not entirely familiar with, I generally make it a rule to stay away from BIOS settings as to not mess anything up. Anyone know what doing what GW Tech suggests will actually do?

If you have the money invest $300-$400 in a nVidia GeForce 6800 GT. I have one and i run everything smoothly at highest graphics and 1200x1024 resolution!

Taking AGP to 4x will cut your AGP bus speed in half, appx. cutting your data stream in half. Some people have reported success with this, some in combination with disabling Fast Writes. Neither of these tweaks will "hurt" anything, just reduce performance a small amount, so give each a try separately and then together.

IMO, both of these options are goofy ways to work around overheating issues.

I know I am twisting this improperly, but this is almost becoming comical.
GW - We designed a game that works on a 64MB vid card
ME - Right on I have a 128 MB card
GW - Yeah sorry 128 isn't good enough, either turn its performance down so its like a 64MB card or buy a 256MB card
ME - I want a performing card so a 64MB card hurts and 256MB is more money than I have. Oh the agony!

Eh, I'll try their suggestion when I am free form work. But, my computer isn't overheating so it seems/sounds like a cruddy solution.

Fourth Response from Guild Wars Tech Support:

You should probably flash your BIOS to the latest one. Thank you.

Note: This had no effect on anything.

As of today Guild Wars Tech support still has no idea what is causing this. They think it is on the individual peoples' computers but have no idea how to solve it.

What type of system is your friend running?

I'm not sure exactly. I will have to find out eventually. He is a computer animator so I know his graphic specs excede mine for sure.