Guild Wars 2

Hey there;
I came back to GW2 shortly after Heart of Thorns came out being away a few months. I’m just going to skip to the current problem, then go into details on down.
I have Windows XP
Asus M5A87 Motherboard
New OEM Radeon x1950 xt
3.25 GB RAM

Ok, why I can’t play the game and what I’d really like help with if anyone has any advice; I go into a HOT map, then it runs fine for about 10 seconds, no lag, then all of a sudden the screen will turn into a still image, but the game continues running in the background, and I can still move the cursor, and I can still hear my char in combat etc. at this point I alt+f4.

This only happens in HOT zones.

The minimum system requirements clearly state “Radeon x1800” my card is superior, but still an X series. I tried my old old X1300 surprisingly it will run gw2 in Central Tyria, just slower, but when I go to a HOT zone, the same thing happens, screen still, but background keeps going etc.

The last X1000 driver came out in 2010, Surely the dev team takes the lowest end computer that fits their system requirements that they made up, just to test if those requirements are still accurate/valid right?

I tried two different NVIDIA GT 440
cards before that, and when you try to start the game up, you would get an I/O error with both cards 75 percent of the time on startup, then when the game would actually log me in, it would play for a few hours, then on both cards, I would see textures turn yellow on some models, then I/O error. Half the time the I/O erros happen, the BSOD NV4 mini sys error happens.

And lastly, before that, I tried my onboard RADEON 3000 760g onboard video which I used to play GW2 for 2 years without a single problem (well one exception being they came out with a patch in 2014 that caused full screen mode to go bad, and had to start using windowed mode) but other than that, it worked fine for 2 years, now I get I/O errors in the same fasion as the GT 440
cards did.

If this game is no longer compatible with Windows XP 32 bit, then the requirements should reflect that.

The only card that I never get i/o errors with is the two X1000 series cards, They start up the game in like 0.5 seconds… faster than the newer cards! Though hey have that weird still screen bug, and i’d like to get that resolved more than anything else.

The I/O errors have nothing to do with the hard drive btw. I used multiple HDD
error checks came up clean, and I went to a German website and they all came to the conclusion that the HOT update memory leak was the problem.

The Germans came to the conclusion that the HOT update was causing a need for more than 3GB of ram or something like that. You can find their posts with google translade just look up “1450 error nv4 mini sys”

This is the same system I used for 2 years to play GW2 and I used to gloat about what a stable game it was compared to other games, now it seems to be the exact opposite of that, unfortunately, if you’re running xp 32 bit anyway. I’ve spent $85 and two months doing all of the above.

I also have little to no problems with running the peers of GW2 I.e. FFXIV SKYRIM M&B WARBAND etc. that came out in the same 2012ish era.

I do hope to get no troll posts about Windows XP being ancient etc, because that’s hardly relevant.

Thank you for your time, and I hope this post can help improve the game.

Accountzeroone.7291:

The Germans came to the conclusion that the HOT update was causing a need for more than 3GB of ram or something like that. You can find their posts with google translade just look up “1450 error nv4 mini sys”

[..]

I do hope to get no troll posts about Windows XP being ancient etc, because that’s hardly relevant.

Well, I wouldn’t say that Window XP is old and unsupported, despite several companies stopped supporting it, and as far as I can tell GW2 still “works” with Windows XP. However, all my bets would go to the fact about 32 bits. GW2 had been running fine on 32 bits systems for a long time but it seems that HoT maps requires more than 4 GB of RAM to run smoothly and, as you know, 32 bits systems can’t handle more than 3ish GBs.

As you even pointed out, the “cause” lies in HoT maps requiring more memory than 32bits systems can handle, then why they have came out with a 64 bits version recently. This had been an extensive discussion when HoT was launched and it’s still controversial in some aspects though.

A while back (that was months before HoT came out) I had been using a 32 bits system (Window 7 though) and occasionally GW2 would crash “out of nowhere” around 1 hour or so of gameplay. After some testing I noticed that it alone would be using more than 2 GB of RAM, plus then all other stuff in the system were taking around 1 GB what would get my system near the memory limit and GW2 would be the first one to suffer as it couldn’t use more memory. After I switched to a 64 bits system (still Win 7) I haven’t got any of that crashes anymore.

In fact, if you haven’t heard about the 64 bits version before my advice would be that you try it, although you may know that it would require you to reinstall your system from ground up. And if you do so I would also advice you to take the opportunity to upgrade to a most recent version of your OS. My personal choice would be Windows 7 (yup, I hated 8 and 10 :P) but if your machine can handle it you may try even newer versions (however be aware that in Win 10 it may have some issues unique to it).

For more info about the 64 bits client, check the Wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/64_bit_beta_client. Note that it’s still considered “Beta” but in my case I haven’t had any issues specific to it so far.

Could someone who reads this who is a 32 bit user let me know if you can still play the game consistently with few errors? if so what hardware are you using, please.

Anyway…….

The heart of thorns wiki says “windows xp service pack 3” it doesn’t specify bits, they should have went public about it looong before HOT came out. It doesn’t say it on my box either.
I can’t help but wonder when they put this disclaimer at the bottom? probably right when they released HOT:

Note: Due to potential changes, system requirements may change over time and you may be required to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to continue to play the game.

GW2 is the first game I’ve seen where when the first expansion comes out, then suddenly everyone’s 32 bit operating systems ceases to be relevant to the game and in many cases, can’t even log in without I/O errors due to memory issues. Heck, if I remember correctly it was really easy to find the message where the FFXIV devs said they will no longer support windows xp, after XX/XX/XXXX use at your own risk.
What’s more is, 32 bit systems are still relevant to FFXIV despite that official disclaimer. They didn’t just drop 32 bit users like a rock out of hte blue.

It would have been great to avoid blowing money on video cards, and HOT it’s self if it was plainly stated that 32 bit will no longer be supported. Heck windows 7 has a 32 bit version and it’s much younger than windows xp.
I mean, why on earth alienate your playerbase like that? HOT is just an expansion for crissakes with light content… geeez….

I mean, look at the POV of a player that has a 32 bit system, and has stuck with GW2 since the beginning, spending money at the cash shop by and by, you preorder HOT then all of a sudden, right out of the blue, woops, I’m sorry your copy of GW2 is no longer relevant unless you buy WINDOWS XP / 7 64 bit.

It took months of searching on the internet to even glean that. I still haven’t seen an official “No, we no longer support 32 bits” statement anywhere. It makes me wonder if the Devs even knew HOT wouldn’t be compatible with 32 bit systems.
Lol way to look from the POV of the thousands of users of xp/7/vista that are using 32 bit systems. This is the first MMO expansion I’ve seen that just ambushes all 32 bit customers/players with a giant middle finger. I mean i’m sure they could have avoided making hot so demanding. I mean, were all those tentacles at the bottom of VB necessary? all those combined with the map size not being in accord with Central Tyria maps re probably what did it.

Also, the radeon X1000 series cards are the ONLY cards I can play central Tyria with, and they are stable with WINDOWS XP with the 2010 driver, HOWEVER….. I question the accuracy of listing them as a minimum req for HOT. Also in Central Tyria they have this shadow flicker going when you pan the camera, it’s not too big of a deal, but to anyone who would like to play vanilla GW2 minus the expansion, and you only have a 32 bit windows xp copy, then an x1000 series card will work (even in silverwastes) They run the game very smooth, just avoid the really low end once like the x1300. I never get a SINGLE crash with those cards in Central Tyria.

Oh yeah, another thing I forgot to mention, sometimes when I do manage to get in the game, on an Nvidia card, my UI is showing all the colors of the rainbow, and I can’t even read it. I think perhaps if they fixed the new UI maybe the 32 bit systems would be more functional again?

Accountzeroone.7291:

my UI is showing all the colors of the rainbow, and I can’t even read it.

Usually, colored textures mainly if a blue/green checkboard means missing/corrupted textures or some graphic card failure, but the former is usually the cause. Try to repairing the client and see if you get rid of the wonky UI.

Accountzeroone.7291:

I can’t help but wonder when they put this disclaimer at the bottom? probably right when they released HOT:

Note: Due to potential changes, system requirements may change over time and you may be required to upgrade your current system (or obtain a new system) to continue to play the game.

That disclaimer had been there before, possibly since release. I remember seeing it even before HoT was announced when I tried to bring a friend into the game.

Oh I just wanted to point out that I haven’t said that the “cause” for your crashes and stuff is due your system being 32 bits. I just meant it as a “possible cause”. If you still experience issues I would just advice you to contact Customer Support as they can help you through it.

Also, They didn’t drop support for 32 bits system and they haven’t stated that they won’t support it because the core game runs fine in 32 bits system, it just has issues with HoT maps as they seem to be more demanding than core maps.

Issues like that are hard to troubleshoot and I have been just guessing what’s happening. I understand you may be upset and stuff but maybe you better contact Support and see if they can give any help or official response to it. You most likely to get a quick response through Support ticket than on forums actually.