TEMPORARY FIX WORKED GREAT FOR ME! and NO window mode needed (PLEASE NOTE: Full screen mode does not work! Window Fullscreen is the way to go)
Please come back and leave a comment if this worked for you!
First of all run your game in -windowed mode as explained here:
Create a shortcut for your GW2.exe then right click it and go to properties
at the Target: you will see something similar to this “C:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe”
just add -windowed at the end for example,
“C:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” -windowed
this will launch your game in a small windowed box, then go to in game settings and change to window fullscreen
If this does not fix your issue try disabling Skype and FacebookUpdate from your startup as explained here (worked for me):
On windows XP go to Start > Run (Or press windows key + R)
Type in: msconfig
next go to the Startup tab at the top right, it will show all programs to start at system startup.
UN-check Skype as well as FacebookUpdate (I tested all startup programs one by one and these two were the culprits)
Click Apply and then OK, click restart computer when prompted.
Start game normally > Enjoy!
(I have no idea why these two programs are interfering with GW2 launching, it might not fix your problem but it has fixed for me as well as another co-worker. Moderators please convey this problem and fix to someone who can look into it, thanks!)
If above does not work for you, try disabling ALL startup programs as you did with skype in the previous step.
If all else fails try a game archive data repair:
Create a shortcut for your GW2.exe and rename it to GW2 repair then right click it and go to properties
at the Target: you will see something similar to this “C:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe”
just add -repair at the end for example,
“C:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” -repair
Run the exe and this will repair the game data archives, DO NOT USE TO RUN THE GAME, USE ORIGINAL .EXE after the repair
First off, thanks for investigating.
Are you sure that was all you were doing? Because, I don’t have Skype installed nor is FacebookUpdate in my startup programs.
Can you reproduce the bug, if you re-enable these two programs?
I’m essentially using a fresh XP install. Only GW2, mumble and TS3 are installed on my machine, so I doubt that Skype and FacebookWhatever are the reason for this bug.
In the meantime, start GW2 in windowed mode, then change the resolution to Windowed Fullscreen. This is a workaround for now.
I don’t have Skype or FB also on my startup. So that is not my issue. But I can not even get my screen to options to change it to window mode. How are you guys doing that?
First off, thanks for investigating.
Are you sure that was all you were doing? Because, I don’t have Skype installed nor is FacebookUpdate in my startup programs.
Can you reproduce the bug, if you re-enable these two programs?
I’m essentially using a fresh XP install. Only GW2, mumble and TS3 are installed on my machine, so I doubt that Skype and FacebookWhatever are the reason for this bug.
In the meantime, start GW2 in windowed mode, then change the resolution to Windowed Fullscreen. This is a workaround for now.
Hi thanks for the reply,
I reproduced the bug when activating skype at startup, FacebookUpdate seems to vary for some reason only triggering an I/O error not a black screen.
Full screen mode still does not work even with both these disabled though, but prior to disabling, I could not even Window Full screen.
I don’t have Skype or FB also on my startup. So that is not my issue. But I can not even get my screen to options to change it to window mode. How are you guys doing that?
Create a shortcut for your GW2.exe then right click it and go to properties
at the Target: you will see something similar to this “C:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe”
just add -windowed at the end for example,
“C:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe” -windowed
this will launch your game in a small windowed box, then go to settings and change to window fullscreen
Copy your shortcut to GW2 an name it GW2windowed or so. Then right click it, Click Property and in the Target field add -windowed. The target should look like this
“C:\GW2\Gw2.exe” -windowed
Depending on where your Gw2.exe is located.
Now start this shortcut. GW2 will go to windowed mode, after you logged in and started the game. Now you can change the window resolution in the options to Windowed Fullscreen. After that you should be able to start GW2 with your normal shortcut. It should go back to Windowed Fullscreen by default, now.
If one of the steps does not work, I’m really sorry and hope you find another solution that works for you.
Of course disabling startup programs that you don’t need is always a good idea.
Thank you so much Swagmeister for playing around and trying to find solutions! AND THANK YOU for that easy fix for windowed! Hopefully Anet will fix the problem soon. I have been looking at upgrading my computer for a while, but was holding out as long as I can since it works fine with everything else. All my extra income has been paying off Graduate School Loans, I got the computer right before they switched to Windows 7 – I should have just upgraded then, but I was comfortable with XP and just wanted to get through grad school. haha
TEMPORARY FIX WORKED GREAT FOR ME! and NO window mode needed (PLEASE NOTE: Full screen mode does not work! Window Fullscreen is the way to go)
Please come back and leave a comment if this worked for you!
On windows XP go to Start > Run (Or press windows key + R)
Type in: msconfig
next go to the Startup tab at the top right, it will show all programs to start at system startup.
UN-check Skype as well as FacebookUpdate (I tested all startup programs one by one and these two were the culprits)
Click Apply and then OK, click restart computer when prompted.
Start game normally > Enjoy!
(I have no idea why these two programs are interfering with GW2 launching, it might not fix your problem but it has fixed for me as well as another co-worker. Moderators please convey this problem and fix to someone who can look into it, thanks!)
Sadly this is not working for me…I can’t even get to the game…. the windowed mode didn’t worked either….
Gasparik, can you explain in more detail what works and where exactly you get which behaviour.
Maybe you can try to run msconfig and disable ALL Startup programs; then restart and retry windowed mode.
Maybe you have something installed that has the same effect like Skype or FacebookUpdate.
Gasparik, can you explain in more detail what works and where exactly you get which behaviour.
Maybe you can try to run msconfig and disable ALL Startup programs; then restart and retry windowed mode.
Maybe you have something installed that has the same effect like Skype or FacebookUpdate.
Good idea, as this is where I started and got results (at first I thought it was my anti-virus, but that was not the case it seems)
Another thing I forgot to mention I also did a repair of the game prior to disabling my startup programs…! Instead of putting -windowed at the end just put -repair and it will repair your game archives, maybe it’ll give results?
I’ve added some steps I forgot to mention earlier, sorry guys, hope this fixes it for you as well!
(It’s sad how I fixed my game and was literally almost late for work and now I’m still sitting here counting the minutes till I can go home and log on in about an hour!)
If you want to run fullscreen again after running the game with the -windowed shortcut, you need to switch to “Windowed Fullscreen” before switching to the fullscreen resolution.
I had GW2 installed in the default C:\Program Files (X86) directory. Moved it out of there (to C:\Games), fixed the shortcut to use the new location, and stopped having the issue – at least for now.)
