Pretty much since release I have had zero problems with GW2. As a developer I have been impressed with and appreciative of how stable and reliable the client has been for me; I could count the number of crashes I’ve experienced on one hand.
Since the HoT patch I have been experiencing degenerating performance issues and crashing problems. Sometimes they were related to video card problems. Sometimes they were outright crash-to-desktop issues. I even got an occasional blue screen — almost unheard of with Windows 7. Very frustrating!
I stumbled into a very simple fix yesterday evening that has completely turned around my problems and returned GW2 to the most rock-solid, stable video game I have ever played. Here’s the INCREDIBLY simple fix:
1. Rename your Guild Wars 2 folder. Mine was called “Guild Wars 2” so I renamed it “Guild Wars 2.bak”.
2. Create a new folder in the same directory level as the old folder. The name needs to be exactly the same as the old, recently-renamed folder.
3. Copy the client executable file out of the recently-renamed folder into the new folder. JUST THE EXECUTABLE and nothing else.
—The basic 32 client is named “Gw2.exe”.
—The 64-bit client is named “Gw2-64.exe”.
—I strongly recommend using the 64-bit client if you have a 64-bit operating system. It just seems to run more smoothly for me. You can get it by logging into your GW2 account, selecting the “Game Content” tab, and clicking on the link named "Windows 64-bit [BETA].
4. Run the client executable. If you have a desktop or start menu shortcut to launch the game it should still work.
This will re-download ALL FILES like a fresh install without screwing around with any registry settings or shortcuts. The fresh download resolved all of my problems.
Warning: the download is just shy of 25GB! Be wary of your data caps, and expect the download to take several hours.
Of course, I can’t guarantee that this magic bullet will resolve YOUR specific problems, but it worked for me and it worked for two of my co-workers.
Main character: Winter Harvest (Necromancer)
[BICE] Black Ice / Maguuma Server
. I hope everyone can play now!