Issues with Machine Lockups and Overheating. Add you details here.

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

01 Jun 2005 at 10:18 - 1
Ok. I thought as this was the Technical Corner and there appear to be a lot of people that are experiencing the same lockups in game, and more often than not it appears to be with some sort of ATI Graphics card involved in the system.
I'm yet to hear about the same fault with an Nvidia card, so would be interesting to find out if there are any out there with the following symptoms.

This is the problem people seem to be having.

Playing the game, and randomly it will just lock up, graphics go glitchy, screen switched into standby mode and you have to either pull the plug or hold the Power Button in to switch off and then reboot the machine.

I thought it would be better to pull all these reported problems into one Thread instead of having dozens of threads regarding similar problems and people explaining the same resolutions over and over.

The most noted problem i seem to be seeing is related to the ATI 9xxx series Graphics Card being installed in the system.

Ok, a lot of people point towards overheating of the system, which i don't doubt as being a possible cause of this problem. However, it just seems a little suspect that ATI 9xxx series seems to be in most of the machines that are having problems.
The reason i say this, is my friends PC has exactly the same problems as mentioned above and is running an ATI 9800 in there system.

Ok, all those with a problem, please report here, exactly what card you are using and the drivers you have installed for that card.
Also, please add in the Motherboard details and specs of your system plus Power supply details.
One last thing, add in what OS you are running as well.

Maybe we can track this and see if there are similarity's, or if indeed, it is just one thing, a Major Over Heating problem, or a lack of Power in there Power Supply which could be a cause for concern and a need for all those involved to increase the Air Flow or update the Power Supply, or something for GW to look into.

I hope this post helps with people bringing there issues together, so all those helping out with advice don't have to keep repeating themselves.

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

01 Jun 2005 at 12:10 - 2
I updated the Title to make it more noticeable but it doesn't seem to have updated the Title for Forum readers to see?

Is this done by the Forum Admin or does it take time to go through??

magichacker

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: May 2005

01 Jun 2005 at 15:47 - 3
Not sure if this will help anyone or not.

I was having the black screen error with an old MX440 128mb error and would have to do a hard restart.

I think this card was overheating from the stress of Guild Wars was how this error would come about and it was fixed by getting a new graphics card....but

I went and bought a Nvidia 6200 BFG card and it fixed that error but then then would get the screen lockups along with the restart after getting this card.

Here is my system specs
AMD 2600
512 MB ram
80 GB Hard Drive
400 watt power supply
VIA motherboard (SEE BELOW FOR THOSE WITH VIA MOTHERBOARDS)

I think I may have fixed my problem ( crosses fingers ) I have for the past two days with my kids playing also logged about 9 hours of play time with no problem. What I did was updated the VIA drivers on www.viaarena.com and installed the v4.56 drivers. I'll post again if I have any errors.

I hope this helps anyone with these problems I love the game.

Trilok Verichan

Svenn

Svenn

Frost Gate Guardian

Join Date: May 2005

near Atlanta, GA - USA

Dark Entities (DE)

R/Mo

02 Jun 2005 at 00:21 - 4
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dirkiess
I updated the Title to make it more noticeable but it doesn't seem to have updated the Title for Forum readers to see? Is this done by the Forum Admin or does it take time to go through??
I tried the same thing in the past...apparently you can only change the subject/title of an individual post, not the thread name.

MaglorD

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2005

02 Jun 2005 at 02:33 - 5
This game was designed to be used on ATI cards so how can it be worse than Nvidia. For your info, the game is flawless on my ATI card.

Lunarbunny

Lunarbunny

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Apr 2005

Seattle, WA, USA [PST | GMT -8]

Ready and Willing [RAWR]

02 Jun 2005 at 05:13 - 6
Quote:
Originally Posted by MaglorD
This game was designed to be used on ATI cards so how can it be worse than Nvidia. For your info, the game is flawless on my ATI card.
Sponsoring. HL2 was also a GITG ATI title...but standard benchmarking showed them to be running at the same level.
UT2004 is labeled as a TWIMTBP nVidia title...but it runs fine on ATIs.

MaglorD

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2005

02 Jun 2005 at 05:25 - 7
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lunarbunny
Sponsoring. HL2 was also a GITG ATI title...but standard benchmarking showed them to be running at the same level.
UT2004 is labeled as a TWIMTBP nVidia title...but it runs fine on ATIs.
umm yea but the OP seems to be implying the ATI runs into more problems.
BTW, doom 3 runs much better on Nvidia than ATI...so whoever sponsors the game makes a difference.

boots559

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

02 Jun 2005 at 07:04 - 8
I'm also having the retarded random crashes anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, few resets and blah blah, lately it's just crashing with the screen not moving, anyway heres my awesome computer info


fic am37 motherboard
http://www.fic.com.tw/product/mother...x?model_id=107
amd althlon xp 2600+ @ 2.1ghz
512 pc2100 memory
the leet realtek ac'97 sound crap from the motherboard
xfx 6600gt agp
420w power supply
40@+5v
18@+12v
30@+3.3v
0.3@-5v
0.8@-12v

not much of a gaming pc but it gets me by, this is the only game i've ever had this much problem with, my video card and cpu run kinda hot. 62C idle on the video card so i have some arctic silver 5 and a fan card coming in today or tomorrow, the thermal paste on the card has some dirt on it(dirt, the ultimate thermal compound) so i hope that fixes the problem, if it doesn't i'll prob end up selling my acct to my friend for $40 and go buy ut'04 or something. which would suck since i've had high hopes for guild wars since i first heard of it in sept.

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

02 Jun 2005 at 09:11 - 9
Quote:
Originally Posted by MaglorD
umm yea but the OP seems to be implying the ATI runs into more problems.
BTW, doom 3 runs much better on Nvidia than ATI...so whoever sponsors the game makes a difference.
Actually, I wasn't implying anything. I also have an ATI system with an X800 pro and the game run fantastically on my machine.
Not flaming, but seems you just read ATI and thought I love my ATI, don't insult it. I was trying to help people.
The reason i mentioned ATI is because i noticed a lot of posts related to ATI 9xxx series cards being posted on this forum, with different machine setups, and all with the same problems.
This was cause for concern as there could be an issue with the newer drivers released, not improving functions on the older ATI cards, but maybe hindering there compatibility with gaming on newer games as they don't have the same functions.
Or, as some people also suspect, it could be a Heat or Power supply issue.

I was trying to get people to post there challenges in one Post, to save others the time and energy of repeating themselves in helping these people try and get there machines running.

If there are those with Nvidia cards that are also having issues, then it would be good to have them post here, which i originally posted above, because if they are also having the same problems, then we can probably rule out the ATI Driver issue and people can start checking on Heat and Power.

This would infact help most people straight away. Either that, or it would be something ATI would need to look into as a result of there increased efforts in providing major Driver updates, that could be affecting older cards, or something for ANet to investigate, which would be good for them also.

All the above statements are only my analysis of what i have seen posted on this forum, and in no way is it meant to be an insult to the ATI or Nvidia (I love my card) camps, so get over that.

It's meant to help people combine there efforts in helping others resolve there issues, quickly and easily, and hopefully get these people up and running so they can also enjoy there gaming experience of GW.

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

02 Jun 2005 at 09:18 - 10
Quote:
Originally Posted by boots559
I'm also having the retarded random crashes anywhere from 20 minutes to 2 hours, few resets and blah blah, lately it's just crashing with the screen not moving, anyway heres my awesome computer info


fic am37 motherboard
http://www.fic.com.tw/product/mother...x?model_id=107
amd althlon xp 2600+ @ 2.1ghz
512 pc2100 memory
the leet realtek ac'97 sound crap from the motherboard
xfx 6600gt agp
420w power supply
40@+5v
18@+12v
30@+3.3v
0.3@-5v
0.8@-12v

not much of a gaming pc but it gets me by, this is the only game i've ever had this much problem with, my video card and cpu run kinda hot. 62C idle on the video card so i have some arctic silver 5 and a fan card coming in today or tomorrow, the thermal paste on the card has some dirt on it(dirt, the ultimate thermal compound) so i hope that fixes the problem, if it doesn't i'll prob end up selling my acct to my friend for $40 and go buy ut'04 or something. which would suck since i've had high hopes for guild wars since i first heard of it in sept.
Would love to hear if your new Fan and Artic Silver compound help to alleviate your symptoms as this would help others in there search for a solution.
If it doesn't, don't give up but try changing the drivers as well back to the originals and see what happens. Obviously, only if the new Fan doesn't work.

Trying to pinpoint the exact cause of this challenge will help a lot of gamers, even my friend who has the same issue, to finally resolve it.
THere's doesn't get anywhere near as Hot, so i haven't tried anything on the Heat front yet.
I will be checking the Power Supply though, as mentioned by others just to be certain.

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

02 Jun 2005 at 09:26 - 11
To Forum Admin,

Is it possible to update the Title to the following please?

"Issues with Machine Lockups and Overheating. Add your details here. "

I would appreciate it a lot and would get more people posting there issues here than keep creating new threads with the same challenges.

Many Thanks.

MaglorD

Jungle Guide

Join Date: May 2005

02 Jun 2005 at 09:57 - 12
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dirkiess
Actually, I wasn't implying anything. I also have an ATI system with an X800 pro and the game run fantastically on my machine.
Not flaming, but seems you just read ATI and thought I love my ATI, don't insult it. I was trying to help people.
Well this may seem redundant...

Let me tell you why I thought you were zeroing on ATI. It's because you said "more often than not it appears to be with some sort of ATI Graphics card involved in the system". If this isn't implying, don't know what is. Again, we all entitled to free speech and as long as no one is rude, we can say whatever we want...not flaming at all.

I don't belong to either camp as I own top-end cards from both ATI and Nvidia.

boots559

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

02 Jun 2005 at 11:11 - 13
Quote:
Originally Posted by Dirkiess
Would love to hear if your new Fan and Artic Silver compound help to alleviate your symptoms as this would help others in there search for a solution.
If it doesn't, don't give up but try changing the drivers as well back to the originals and see what happens. Obviously, only if the new Fan doesn't work.

Trying to pinpoint the exact cause of this challenge will help a lot of gamers, even my friend who has the same issue, to finally resolve it.
THere's doesn't get anywhere near as Hot, so i haven't tried anything on the Heat front yet.
I will be checking the Power Supply though, as mentioned by others just to be certain.
god, i've tryed many drivers already without the arctic silver 5 and the fan card, so if it isn't a heat problem i duno what else it could be. I've ran memtest86 or whatever it's called for two nights in for about 10-12 hours each night with 0 errors both times, reinstalled windows twice since i've gotten the game, i'm outa ideas. i'd throw a new heatsink on the video card, but theres only two that i know of for the 6600gt agp, (http://www.stasisthermal.com/sess/ut...dex.shopscript , and i've heard the zalman VF700-Cu will fit, only i don't think the zalman will fit in my case with the side on.)

so unless this works, or i get a new case for the zalman heatsink,which would lead into awhole lot of other problems for me and cost more than i wanna pay for a $50 game, or AN find a way to change the game code to lower the temps(since this game seems to run about 8C or so hotter than every game i've played on this machine) or i'll end up prob just giving up on gw and get another game, or start saving up for a used ps2 to modchip for my pirating desires. In any case, i'll report back if it works or not. /endrant

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

02 Jun 2005 at 19:40 - 14
Quote:
Originally Posted by boots559
god, i've tryed many drivers already without the arctic silver 5 and the fan card, so if it isn't a heat problem i duno what else it could be.
Totally understand where you're coming from.

To all readers/posters,

What I'm trying to do is centralise these issues into one thread instead of having dozens of threads all about the same thing being created, answers to questions given, threads disappear and new threads created and it all starts again. THis way people can concentrate more on helping others with totally different issues, and those with these issues can search this Thread.

If more people experience this problem, but there are different solutions other than Heat and PSU that resolves there problems, then it may be more than just Heat and Power causing the Problem.

Ok, MaglorD assumes I'm pointing this at ATI cards(Not having a go), but from the Threads I have read on this Forum so far, the Posters all seem to have ATI cards with the problems specified. Whether it's supposed to run Better with ATI cards or not, I really don't care. That is not the intention of this Thread.

It's for centralising.

Anyway, as it appears there are a few NVidia cards been added to this post, it would be interesting to see what solutions are being used to resolve this issue.

If it appears there is more to it, then this is something that ANet needs to look into, especially if it's happening on a lot more older style cards. WHy would that happen, I have no idea.

So, before you Post, Unless you have a Solution, or a Problem that hasn't already been listed, then please don't make this Post longer than it needs to be.

Many thanks to any helpers and techies who have a lot more info on some of the issues arising, especially when it comes to voltages. I've learnt a few things myself over the last day or so.

I look forward to hearing more and hopefully getting these issues resolved once and for all.

beckermanex

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Mesa, Arizona

W/Mo

02 Jun 2005 at 22:09 - 15
Figured I would throw my hat over the wall on this one:

As stated in another thread in the forum, I experience lock-ups periodically while playing the game. The time in-between is never the same (sometimes hours will go by, other times I could lock-up every two minutes). The game will freeze the screen like it is lagging out, but won't let me do anything (CTRL+ALT+DEL, hit Start button on my keyboard, ALT+F4 out, etc.). I have to resort to hitting the reset button to escape from the hardlock.

At first I thought faulty drivers, so I upgraded everything to the latest and greatest versions. I frequently upgrade my video card drivers to the latest versions (problems started with CAT 5.4, continued with CAT 5.5). I can run other games like Max Payne 2, Domination, Halo, and Aquamark and have no problems what-so-ever so it seems to be isolated to GW.

Next I thought overheating, but, even at full load, my CPU and case temps never go above 45C. The video card is hot to the touch, but never scorching, with the stock cooler on board.

Finally, my path lead me to my USB wireless adapter thinking the packaged monitoring program may be causing me to lose my network connection, but that wouldn't explain the computer locking up and not letting me get back to Windows.

Last night I lowered all of my graphical settings to the bare-min and it seemed to run stable enough to let me play for a couple hours before I manually logged off.

Here are the specs on my system:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+
Gigabyte GA-K8N-Pro Motherboard (w/ latest BIOS rev)
ATI Radeon 9600 PRO 128MB (Catalyst 5.5 Drivers)
512MB RAM
450w Thermaltake PSU
Linksys W54GUSB Wireless Adapter
SoundBlaster Audigy ZS 2
Windows XP Professional SP2

It's been suggested I try going back to Catalyst 4.11 drivers since the 5.x series seems to have problems. Its either that or take a trip to Fry's, buy a new video card and give it a try to see if its the problem.

Any advice is greatly appreciated...

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

02 Jun 2005 at 22:21 - 16
Quote:
Originally Posted by beckermanex
At first I thought faulty drivers, so I upgraded everything to the latest and greatest versions. I frequently upgrade my video card drivers to the latest versions (problems started with CAT 5.4, continued with CAT 5.5). I can run other games like Max Payne 2, Domination, Halo, and Aquamark and have no problems what-so-ever so it seems to be isolated to GW.

It's been suggested I try going back to Catalyst 4.11 drivers since the 5.x series seems to have problems. Its either that or take a trip to Fry's, but a new video card and give it a try to see if its the problem.

Any advice is greatly appreciated...
I'm the same as you, I like to keep up to date with the latest drivers, but on the odd occasion, i have found they cause a problem or 2 that wasn't there before.

The suggestion for the Cat 4.11 was mine. This was the thread I started trying to log down all the issues in one thread instead of going back and forth through dozens when all the problems seem to be revolving around the same descriptions and more often than not, they have the older 9xxx series ATI cards in them.

With regards to what you said above, you mentioned that the problems started with Cat 5.4 and carried on with 5.5. See how Cat 4.11 performs and see if you have any more problems with the Machine totally locking up or Graphics going buggy then locking. If this works ok, then move up the scale.
I know this is a lot to ask, but the more testing that can be done a possible solution can be tied down and ANet and ATI can work on a fix/solution so we can all use the latest drivers.
This happens on my friends machine so I went back to Cat 4.5 which are the drivers that came with the card which happens to be an ATI 9800pro.

Let me know how your findings go, because if you find this works, then we know we have a possible cause.

One thing that just came to mind. I wonder if using an older driver actually causes any difference in the Temperatures, depending on how the card is used with those drivers. SOmething to ponder on and Test out.

wolfieshaw

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jun 2005

02 Jun 2005 at 22:24 - 17
sorry no solution but a list of symtoms and get outs that sometime work.

when scenery starts to disappear and pop back if you can leave the mission and log off back on the problem will stay away for another hour or 2.

if in mission crt,alt,delete check desk top for an error message which i failed to note
which says an action has failed to terminate ok it and go back to game for another hour or more without problems.

if your screen is 640x480 4colour reboot as the game is lost.

i hope this will help someone find a solution or at least help you finish a mission in time.

specs:
gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 motherboard
amd64 3200+
1024 ram kingston
nvidia 6600 pcie 256 ram
550 watt psu
160gb sata hd
windows xp pro

beckermanex

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Mesa, Arizona

W/Mo

02 Jun 2005 at 22:27 - 18
Well my massive Volcano 12 heatsink being right next to the AGP slot certainly doesn't help the temperatures of the video card at all

But even so, I have a front intake 120mm fan, rear exhaust 120mm, and a 80mm exhaust on my side window directly above the CPU fan (running at 5600rpm) so I've started to lean away from overheating as a cause and focus on drivers and/or network issues.

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

02 Jun 2005 at 22:32 - 19
Quote:
Originally Posted by wolfieshaw
when scenery starts to disappear and pop back if you can leave the mission and log off back on the problem will stay away for another hour or 2.

if in mission crt,alt,delete check desk top for an error message which i failed to note
which says an action has failed to terminate ok it and go back to game for another hour or more without problems.
Interesting. Will have to look out for any errors that may be on the desktop, if there are any for me. But with the lock ups on my friends machine, it may not be an option. If you get it again, is it possible to make a note of it, and log it here. Will give us something to fire at ANet.

As for the scenery disappearing, that is a new one on me. Personally, on my friends machine, the music sometimes still plays in the background, the whole machine has frozen, but the mouse moves around a blob of graphics and the you have to press the Power Switch to reboot.

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

02 Jun 2005 at 22:40 - 20
Quote:
Originally Posted by beckermanex
Well my massive Volcano 12 heatsink being right next to the AGP slot certainly doesn't help the temperatures of the video card at all

But even so, I have a front intake 120mm fan, rear exhaust 120mm, and a 80mm exhaust on my side window directly above the CPU fan (running at 5600rpm) so I've started to lean away from overheating as a cause and focus on drivers and/or network issues.
Same here. I looked at the heating issue as my first port of call, as it only ever happened when playing in games, and normally some hard hitting ones at that. GW and one other i tried. Can't remember the name right this minute though, are the two major issues I'm having right now.

THere was a Plastic tunnel attached to the side case that was getting hot, so i decided to remove it, in case it was increasing the temp, which i found it did, by several degrees. Removing the side panel also decreased the temp, but i found the game would still crash.
So I have gone for Drivers. Reason for this, memory, CPU and Graphics card have all been swapped out by the PC Manufacturer. Only things left were the Hard Drive and PSU. I used a spare HDD, same problem.
As for the PSU,which some people have mentioned, that isn't a problem on my friends machine. Not enough grunt to be of concern.

Oh, and regarding the Network, that has also been of interest to me. My friends network seems to work fine, but i have run the PC at my house and it's been on all day with the other game that would crash, and no problem, this was connected to my network as well.
Bring it back to my friends house, and it would crash after a few hours, sometimes only 30 mins.

I have reduced the overall software on the PC to a bare minimum, including the NEtwork software for email etc that is provided by the Cable company. FOund i didn't need it to log on to there network anyway. Works of the Cable Number.

Still testing.

beckermanex

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Mesa, Arizona

W/Mo

03 Jun 2005 at 15:09 - 21
Following up on one of my previous posts. I was running rock solid for three hours last night without changing a thing, besides lowering my graphical settings to the minimum. I did exit and come back a few hours later to experience one crash last night.

My next order of business is dig out the original OEM CD-ROM and try those drivers as that will be my final port of call before I start to try different video cards. Everything else in the system is less than 5 months old, and, as reiterated many times over, runs perfect with everything else.

Numa Pompilius

Numa Pompilius

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: May 2005

At an Insit.. Intis... a house.

Live Forever Or Die Trying [GLHF]

W/Me

03 Jun 2005 at 15:26 - 22
When games (e.g. Knights of the Old Republic II) have problems with ATI cards but not nVidia cards it's typically because the game uses OpenGL, and, no offence ATI owners, the OpenGL API of the ATI drivers sucks.

However, Guild Wars uses DirectX 9, so I doubt that GW will run worse on ATI cards than nVidia cards.

To get gfx glitches followed by gfx lockups is typical of heat or overclocking. One thing to watch out for is the automatic overclocking done by some ATI driver versions - check if there is an 'disable overdrive' checkbox in the settings, and if there is, check it. "Overdrive" is a feature which automatically overclocks the card based on temperature and load, which may cause problems if the ambient temperature around the card is too high.

Mercurial

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

03 Jun 2005 at 20:47 - 23
I already posted my problem without eyeing this one, but I thought I'd contribute my own problem and pseudo-remedy:

I can manage through the problem, it's just a real pain to deal with when it comes up.

Specs first:
Athlon64 3400+
MSI Neo Platinum motherboard (NVidia chipset)
1GB DDR400 GeIL memory
BFG 6800GT OC (!!! Down-clocked from 370MHz to NVidia-native 350MHz... will get into that below)
Dual-monitor setup
SB Audigy 2
x2 80GB Western Digital HDDs in RAID 0 array
520Watt PSU
Cable internet at (I think) 4Mb/s

The game will run fine for anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour or more, then all of a sudden my entire system freezes up for a good 5 to 10 seconds, followed by a second or so of life, then freezing again. It'll do this repeatedly until I minimize my screen (Win-key + D) and then bring it back up. Then it'll run fine for anywhere from a few minutes to a couple hours and it'll do it again. This is Guild Wars specific. There have been, on very rare occasions, instances where when I minimize the screen, one monitor will black out like it's not getting any video feed, and the other will revert to 800x600 @ 4-bit resolution. Restarting takes care of that... but it's a *very* rare occurance.

I'm presuming it to be my video card for reasons I'll get into in a moment, but it's not memory as I just purchased brand new DDR400.

I'm thinking it's my video card since somewhat similar events happen while playing Halo or Doom 3... "newer" games, you might say. My fix for that? Downclocked the video card.

I'm curious if it's a temperature problem or not, and have a plan in mind for looking into that (involves re-clocking my video card at higher and lower core frequencies and playing GW and Halo... hopefully I'll get around to it this weekend), but it averages high 70's/low 80's celsius while playing... the highest I see it reach is 86C. I've looked on other boards regarding temps... I've seen such varied temps, from 70C underload to (unbelievably enough) 110C! My CPU temp gets upto 65C... sometimes 70C.

boots559

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

06 Jun 2005 at 19:07 - 24
Boy, this has been an adventure.
I threw the arctic silver 5 on the video card, pluged it back in blah blah, go look at my idle temp, and it's higher than it was with the crap they threw on at the factory, i'm like wtf. so i pull the card back out thinking i might of put too much arctic silver 5 on it, being that it's the first time i've applyed this silver goo, when i pull the heatsink off on of the pins look kinda funny, and when i look at it the spring that holds the heatsink to the board is like competely missing, and due to the cage XFX throw around the heatsink i can't put it back on *sigh*

so i left the card out and ordered the vf700-cu heatsink(this was thurs.) and put my friends old geforce 4 mx 440 with the passive cooling *ugh* those 4 days were hell.
got the heatsink about 45 minutes ago and installed it, running about 47C idle only played about 10 minutes of gw so far but i was watching the temp as i was playing, it only went to 48. at stock it was running 64 idle and was in the 70's in about 5 minutes.

So heres hoping it stops the crashing...

beckermanex

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Mesa, Arizona

W/Mo

10 Jun 2005 at 18:31 - 25
Not sure if it matters at all, but I upgraded to the newly released CAT5.6 drivers last night and was solid for about 4 hours, no crashes, no glitches. I'm going to give it a few days before I really start to get happy, but I think I read somewhere else on the board that ATI recommended someone with an ATI card upgrade their drivers to CAT5.6 as an issue was resolved. We'll see...

beckermanex

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Mesa, Arizona

W/Mo

10 Jun 2005 at 20:15 - 26
Spoke a bit too soon on that last driver update, although, if you keep the VPU recovery option on (at least for me) the game will momentarily glitch out, but restore itself, although it resizes your desktop and messes up your screen resolution, but atleast you can keep playing.

Youki Souma

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

Florida

Immortalis Krieger

W/Me

10 Jun 2005 at 21:02 - 27
m7viq Motherboard
1 gig of ram
480 watt power supply
Nvidia GeForce Fx 5500 agp slot 256 mb
Amd Athlon Xp 1600+ 1.40 Ghz
Windows Xp Professional 2002 Service pack 2
Latest XP 200 drivers for card

Ive had the problem of the screen blacking out and the comp becoming totally non responsive. I used a 128 Mb Ati Radeon 9200 series card before, no change at all. The Arena Net guys havent been able to help me with this yet.

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

10 Jun 2005 at 21:08 - 28
Quote:
Originally Posted by Youki Souma
m7viq Motherboard
1 gig of ram
480 watt power supply
Nvidia GeForce Fx 5500 agp slot 256 mb
Amd Athlon Xp 1600+ 1.40 Ghz
Windows Xp Professional 2002 Service pack 2
Latest XP 200 drivers for card

Ive had the problem of the screen blacking out and the comp becoming totally non responsive. I used a 128 Mb Ati Radeon 9200 series card before, no change at all. The Arena Net guys havent been able to help me with this yet.
Don't know if this will help, but someone mentioned that SP 2 on XP Pro isn;t very stable. Don't know if this is true or not, I was just going by what that guy said.
Try and find out a little more on that, and maybe uninstall XP SP2 to see if that resolves any issues.

Another option is to play with the BIOS settings. Turn everything back to default and even switch off some of the Graphics Settings. See if this improves performance at all.

Youki Souma

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

Florida

Immortalis Krieger

W/Me

10 Jun 2005 at 21:16 - 29
The only thing Ive ever messed with in bios is pushing my agp slot aperture up to 256 mb to match the card. Im still waiting for response form Arena net guys, theyve tried helping a few times, but failure each time. Also, my prob is kinda different from everyone elses it seems, so Ill explain in more detail.

When mine blanks out, the screen goes black right away, no glitchy graphics. It makes a 'Click' and its off, but the monitor light is still green. No sound, no movement. Stays totally non responsive till I restart from the tower. This will happen anywhere form 2 seconds to 3 hours or more. I bought A new card $90, and a new power supply $160. And Im thinkning I may have to replace motherboard. Also a note on overheating, I keep my case off with a 9 inch fan pointed inside the entire day. And the average temp of my room is 75 degrees.

Wavelength

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: May 2005

11 Jun 2005 at 00:15 - 30
I have been having the same problem with random crashing. Usually having to hard boot the computer. Well, today I ran a freeware tool I have called "CleanUp!" and I noticed that one of the last files it erased was "GW.tmp". Next, I started up Guild Wars and entered the mission I have been trying to complete; listening carefully to the sound because it does start to skip before the game poops. Anyway, we didn't complete the mission, (Thursty River) but my game didn't crash. I even turned up some of the video options just to try to push a crash. We'll see with more testing, but I'm very excited that I was able to get through at least one 'session' without problems.

ps, You'll know you dl the right app if it plays toilet flushing sound while it runs.

akazukin cha cha

akazukin cha cha

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

Buffalo, NY

Alone I will prevail [solo]

11 Jun 2005 at 02:39 - 31
ok, I posted everywhere else, might as well post it here:

I have this system:
-------
Asus p4s800d-e motherboard
pentium4 2.6 ghz
520 watt ps
3 gigs of ddr ram
Radeon all-in-wonder 9700 pro-(I have a secondary card 'NVIDIA vanta', which is ass and i use just for a dual screen desktop, already diabled it to all hell to test if it had anything to do with it)
360 gig of 3 HDs(maxtor, maxtor, seagate) on 6 partitions-(i have tried install on all of them)
Windows XP w/ win serv pack 2
---------

I have tried everything suggested. Roll backs, reinstalls, system cleaners, lowered my agp write to 4x, disablked fastdraw, used direct3d and open gl. .....

Heating I dont believe to be an issue but I havent really dabbled with it. Someone suggested I mess with monitor power and refresh options, but i have never messed with them so I dont know what to do beyond default settings.

MY GAME, at first always locked up consistantly at 2 or so mins. Then I turned off fast draw and agp write to 4x, this gave me a FALSE glimmer of hope as it now freezes like 10-15 mins in.

This is all very aggravating to me, I have never had an issue with the system on any game....ever... which I guess is just luck on my part, but still. I cant think of ANYTHING that it could be, but I know it has something to do with the card and how it communicates with windows, I just can find any settings to mess witht hat I know about

-_-, I'm open to any suggestion at this point..

cha cha

mechaman

mechaman

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Mar 2005

Texas

11 Jun 2005 at 04:56 - 32
----------
Gigabyte GA-K8NSC-939
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
350 watt PSU
Corsair VS1GBKIT400 1GB Kit DDR400
Radeon 9800 pro
Soundblaster Audigy 2 ZS
120 gig HDD
Windows XP Pro SP1
----------
Recently built this comp; only salvaged a couple parts for the junker I used to use. (HDD, Sound card) Used to be able to play for hours on end with no problems, just recently started having hardlocks about a week ago. Usually happens when I'm trying to load of mission while in a group. Running on CAT 5.5 drivers and I'm pretty sure all my other drivers are up to date. All my other games work just fine except for Planetside, which also locks up everynow and then, but that isn't unusual.

EDIT: just updated my drivers to CAT5.6 and used driver cleaner and I haven't frozen yet. *Knocks on wood*

beckermanex

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

Mesa, Arizona

W/Mo

11 Jun 2005 at 05:37 - 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by Youki Souma
When mine blanks out, the screen goes black right away, no glitchy graphics. It makes a 'Click' and its off, but the monitor light is still green. No sound, no movement. Stays totally non responsive till I restart from the tower. This will happen anywhere form 2 seconds to 3 hours or more. I bought A new card $90, and a new power supply $160. And Im thinkning I may have to replace motherboard. Also a note on overheating, I keep my case off with a 9 inch fan pointed inside the entire day. And the average temp of my room is 75 degrees.
This is basically what mine does if I disable the VPU Recover option in the Catalyst Control Panel. If I leave the recover on, the game will come back after blanking out (as mentioned before). I'm still chugging away on finding a fix.

zeocen

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jun 2005

11 Jun 2005 at 07:53 - 34
Okay, my apologies if this has already been said.. I kinda skim-read this thread.. But I'd just like to say that I can pretty much safetly say I'm 100% certain it's not nvidia's OR arenanets fault.

The key thing with this problem stems from the Unreal Engine.. I've been having the EXACT same problem with many other games using the Unreal Engine (most recently, brothers in arms and also Lineage2, It was REALLY bad in Lineage2, both unreal engine games)

Guild Wars is also an unreal engine game.

Now I've been having this trouble for quite a while since I was playing Lineage2.. and everything I've researched has come down to nvidia cards conflicting with Unreal Engine and/or Unreal Engine + ServicePack 2.

Lineage2 has been out for almost 2 years, and I haven't seen an OUNCE of support for this issue in that time.. and now it happens with GuildWars, literally hundreds of people have this problem and still nothing has been done. I think the only option in the end is to get an ATI card.

I should note, today I downloaded the bf2 demo.. before that GW was crashing left right and center.. then I played bf2 for maybe about 4 - 5 hours with a few intervals inbetween, it ran perfectly. Then I went back to GW and what do you know, crash crash crash.

So yeah, that's why I'm pretty much certain it's 100% an Unreal Engine and nvidia issue, though neither sides have shown any sign of support in this issue. :/

johnisme

johnisme

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: May 2005

11 Jun 2005 at 08:01 - 35
For the first week of having the game it crashed twice to the desktop with my radeon 9800pro,since installing a 6800gt there has been no crashes in 3 weeks of playing.

zeocen

Pre-Searing Cadet

Join Date: Jun 2005

11 Jun 2005 at 09:03 - 36
Like I said there could be other deciding factors (SP2, AMD 64 etc) .. but the majority of this problem stems from Unreal Engine and Nvidia cards. Other random crashes from different setups are just coincidences imo

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

11 Jun 2005 at 10:50 - 37
Quote:
Originally Posted by Wavelength
I have been having the same problem with random crashing. Usually having to hard boot the computer. Well, today I ran a freeware tool I have called "CleanUp!" and I noticed that one of the last files it erased was "GW.tmp". Next, I started up Guild Wars and entered the mission I have been trying to complete; listening carefully to the sound because it does start to skip before the game poops. Anyway, we didn't complete the mission, (Thursty River) but my game didn't crash. I even turned up some of the video options just to try to push a crash. We'll see with more testing, but I'm very excited that I was able to get through at least one 'session' without problems.

ps, You'll know you dl the right app if it plays toilet flushing sound while it runs.
To those people who are having various crash problems, I would suggest to at least try this out first.

There are 2 places where there is a GW.TMP file.

The first is located in the Guild Wars game folder itself. I don't know what it does, so I would suggest cutting and pasting the GW.TMP file to another directory outside of the GuildWars directory. Then rerun the game and see how it performs. It's quite possible these files are recreated when GW starts.

For XP(I don't know if it exists in other OS's)
The 2nd place is located in the C:\Windows\Prefetch\ folder. There are two files located here. Called GW.exe######## and GW.TMP#######. The ######## is whatever appears after the file.
I think these are somehow created when GW.exe and GW.TMP is accessed. Again, cut and paste to another file location outside of this directory and the Windows directory.

If this is anything like other config files that can be created by other programs, it could well be they have been corrupted somehow and may be affecting the game.

Give it a go and any updates with regards to the game, please add them back here.

Lets hope we can get this cracked. A possible fix to these issues with so many different spec machines out there, may help Anet/NCsoft to locate a solution a lot faster.

To the poster regarding the Unreal Engine. Interesting thoughts there. I have no idea on that, as GW is the only Unreal engine game I know off that I run and I don't have any issues at the moment.
Anyone with ideas on that, greatly appreciated.

Dirkiess

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: May 2005

Uk, England.

E/Mo

11 Jun 2005 at 10:54 - 38
Quote:
Originally Posted by zeocen
Lineage2 has been out for almost 2 years, and I haven't seen an OUNCE of support for this issue in that time.. and now it happens with GuildWars, literally hundreds of people have this problem and still nothing has been done. I think the only option in the end is to get an ATI card.
:/
Interesting idea on the Unreal engine. No idea what impact it has on drivers and game so unsure of any ideas on that one at the moment.

As for using an ATI card over an NVidia, there are others here experiencing problems with ATI too. It seems to be various setups having these issues.

All in, some can be Hardware, Heat, and PSU related. Others have been found to just be a full reinstall and driver issues.

Doesn't appear to be much in the way of a definite overall solution for everyone, but various ideas are helping people to get up and running.

akazukin cha cha

akazukin cha cha

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Jun 2005

Buffalo, NY

Alone I will prevail [solo]

11 Jun 2005 at 19:51 - 39
It finally worked...

Well the heat issues seemed to solve it. I lowered my CPU threshhold to 70c and MB threshhold to 70c, then opened up the side of my tower and let a giant fan blow into it.

Then the game worked....

o_0

Thanks for all the help!
I suggest all you ATI card users look into heat issues and lock-ups resulting from heavy loads. That is what seemed to fix mine, no one can be sure. Mine is running the game at a toasty 52 c/ 125 f, not good even with the fan on it.

cha cha

miteethor

Academy Page

Join Date: May 2005

12 Jun 2005 at 06:28 - 40
Mine hard locks - it can be 2 min or 5 hours, but at least once a night everything will freeze completely - the screen locks on the last image, and the sound will go for another 10 seconds and then stop. Totally dead, no keyboard, etc, have to manually power off. Tonight it happened 6 times, always deep into a mission. I'll never finish this game like this!!

My Specs:

AMD Althlon 2700+
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
ASUS NForce2 MB
Used to be running old drivers, then I updated everything because of this freezing issue, and now it's worse.

Oh, and there's no way it's heat - I have 13 fans in my case. Even after 5 hours tonight my CPU temp was only 110 degrees Farenheit