Crashing Issues

Im just going to compile in everything from another forum.

Ok. Ive talked to tech support twice and both times with no prevail. Ill begin with my system specs then on to what usually occurs.

Prescott Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.40GHz 1024 lvl 2 cache
Antec 550w True Power Server Power supply
Gigabyte 8IG1000P-g Motherboard
BFG Tech NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra OC with Omega 1.6693 Drivers
1 Gig of PC 3200 Kingston HyperX Ultra Low Latency Ram Clocks (2,2,2,5)
160 Gig Segate Hard Drive

I have gone through memory testing with no errors. Trying to swap out Sticks at a time to see If I have bad memory. Ive ran MBM to watch fan speeds/CPU+Case Temps. Watching my NVIDIA temperature control settings to see if it over heats (It doesn't even come close to the core slowdown threshold). Ive Installed 4 Sets of NVIDIA drivers (71.84, 71.89, Omega 66.93, and 61.77). Reinstalled GW 2 times and doing the reinstall fix another time. Ive ran every spyware/adaware program I absolutely could think of. Ran scandisk/Defragmented. Reformatted my pc and reinstalled Windows XP Pro with SP2. Swapped power cables from my psu to vid card with direct link (nothing else connected in the chain). And shut down every program possible that I could without interfering with services.

Now what usually will happen is during game (Usually when I get near the end of a mission, I hate it when it does this...) it will primarlly just crash in all. Whole system will shut down and restart. I can usually hear the game sound like its freezing inbetween sounds before it entirely crashes. In pre I still did have problems. The crashes were so random. I did have a strife of luck during pre and actually got to play for 3 hours straight. Currently where it crashes alot is the Ft. Ranik mission. And the very first mission of post. When it crashes near the end of a mission it sounds/looks like the game hangs. Like there was a texture problem. I can normally tell its going to happen soon because characters will start to look like shiny white bricks running around or the context of items will not show when you place your cursor over it. There has been select few times where I can pop off an error report to Arena.net but as soon as it tries to close it it crashes. Only 2 reports have made into my log area. There have been times that I would just open up GW and it would crash. An error came up one time saying that it could possibly be memory/cpu gpu temperature. But obviously not. Also today I have had 2 crashes once restarting my system and another just crashing the game specifically. Any help/ideas would be apreciated.

Just one thing for you to try as you have the BFG 6800 card.

In the BIOS, switch of the AGP Fast Write option. From whatever the setting is, swtich it to disabled and see what happens then.

This has been reported before.

Hope this helps.

Sweet Ill give it a try this evening. Ill post if there are any more issues.

Ive also heard something along the lines of underclocking that BFG OC to NVIDIA standard. I think its 350 core... and i think the mem is ok like you have it.

what resolution do you run the game at? and have you tried a smaller resolution? this will give you a real good idea if it's the video card causing the crash or if it's something else. Might also want to try turning off anti-aliasing. Your card shouldn't be crashing this machine. What sound card are you using? are you only experiencing these issues when playing GW or does your computer crash other times?

As far as I know and from another Thread posted here the other day, the guy had exactly the same problems and he also had a BFG card as above. He had tried everything until he spoke to BFG support who advised him to turn off the option I mentioned above, as they mentioned there is an issue with 6800 cards. Whether it's only BFG cards or the whole batch, that they didn't say.

This resolved all his issues and he hasn't had a problem since, so will be interesting to see if the same thing resolves this guys problem too.

ya I'm interested in that resolution. I've got a BFG 5800GT OC, and love it. I enjoy hearing about the faults of card manufacturers I hold in a pleasant light.

Ok, im giving the fast write option a try right now. Ill reply in about 15.

Edit: And im running it in window mode.

Edit 2 : Ok. So I tried the fast write option and disabled it. I got about halfway through the Ft. Ranik mission and froze... it hung for about 15 seconds then crashed my pc. Im fresh out of ideas.

Im running onboard sound. Resoultion for my desktop is 1024x768. And I run the game in window mode. AA has been turned off, ive tried it with application control also. And yes, only playing GW does this happen.

can I ask why you play in Window Mode? and have you tried playing full screen?

Its kind of a thing that I do. I just like playing in window mode. Always have with D2. And yes for the first parts (Pre) I have played in Full Screen.

Did it freeze on you then?? It sounds like you're having voltage issues with your memory. Try turning the latency up and the voltage down in your BIOS

Yes it did. Ill give it a shot.

I've tested what you have told me to do with the voltage and I got my favorite screen.

*--> Crash <--*
Exception: c0000005
Memory at address 00000001 could not be written
App: Gw.exe
ProgramId: 1
Build: 10899
When: 6/7/2005 14:09:07
Flags: 0x1

Another one for running full screen.

*--> Crash <--*
Assertion:
MdlAnim.cpp(811)
App: Gw.exe
ProgramId: 1
Build: 10899
When: 6/7/2005 14:55:15
Flags: 0x1

Is Guild Wars the only game that crashes the system? can you still play like d2 for instance?

Try uninstalling and reinstalling Guild Wars. Also make sure that you delete everything in program files/guild wars. And try Underclocking your card

yes, I can still play d2.

Ive tried 3 times. Underclocking my card will cause hardware damage as stated by Nvidia. I called them about it.

Basically what Elrey was meaning, the BFG cards are Overclocked out of the factory, so turn the clock down to the official settings that that brand of card would normally be.

Example, the BFG may be clocked at 375, but it's real clock should be 350. You down clock it to 350.

This is just an example, but gives you an idea.

If i can find the basic settings for it, I will give it a try. But there has to be something else that we could possibly do.

Ok, ive called the company again. And they said the same old basic stuff that we have gone over. Opening the side case, cleaning the fans, installing new drivers. Ive now tried beta drivers and the old 66.93 as prescribed by BFG tech. And still with no luck. Ive noticed lately also big pixelations in the textures. Like in a post area it will come shooting out in a big brown pixel then 15 seconds later just crash. This is all so jacked.

[I]THAT[I] sounds like a fried card

If its fried then why does it work with Doom 3 on full settings and runs fine. It has to be something specifically with the game. Ive tried everything I could. And It happens with no other games. Just guild wars. I can push Quake 3 at 400 fps or max out Doom 3 ROE.

Hey, I would just like to thank everyone for their help and support. After a 3 hour long conversation with BFG Tech we finally figured out the problem. It was a bad voltage in the 12V sector of the card. Its going to take forever and a year to RMA but none the less as soon as its back, I can play again. Thanks again.

lol...told you it sounded like it was fried

atleast they'll RMA it for ya. hope you get a better card next time around

It doesnt really get better than a 6800 Ultra OC. Unless they send me 2 As long as it works Ill be good.

One thing I would try before you send it back. Do you have a friend that has a PC that you can use to test the card before you send it back.

Ok, I know it's not something they would like you to do and I know it's a pain, but if it turns out to work on there machine, then you know to look at something else, especially as you say other games are working fine. That just doesn't add up, but hey, what do i know. lol

Good luck with the RMA if you decide to just do that instead.

the other games prolly work fine because they don't push the 12v sector

Nah, it started to happen with Call of Duty United Offensive and Quake 3. Q3 really isnt that demanding.

I would still try and test the card in another machine before you send it off, just in case it's not the card but something else on your machine.

Can't hurt to try and if the RMA is a long process, may be worth it.

Ok, so I borrowed a friends 6800 GT and thew it in. Guild wars worked perfectly. So not only was it the 12v sector, the memory on the card was bad/corrupt. I sent the rma in today so i should have it back in about a week. Thanks again everyone.

Glad to hear it. Might have been a little bit of effort to do, but was worth it to confirm for sure.

Hope you get the new card quickly.