Guild Wars 2

I haven’t played in quite some time, but I just recently decided to start dabbling in pvp again. However, much to my disappointment, it seems I’m still getting the black screen crash I used to get MONTHS ago.

I’ve had many support tickets open about this in the past and they were never able to solve anything. At best, I’d essentially re-DL the entire game and it’d be fine for a day or two, then go back. It’s extremely annoying to be in the middle of a match and have the computer die on me.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, it’s the monitor “losing signal” and essentially crashing the computer – resetting the entire PC is the only way to continue using it. It happens extremely frequently; to the point where I don’t even want to bother playing anymore.

All my drivers are updated.
Happens on both windowed & full screen modes.
Happens even when I run it as an admin.
Happens with minimal background programs running.
It isn’t a heating issue.

I spent over $1,000 building this gaming PC myself and have had absolutely zero problems playing every other game – GW2 is the only one to ever give me a hassle.

I just checked my email and I filed my first support ticket for this issue in June of 2013.

Its been over a year. Why is this still an issue? Not going to bother filling out another support ticket. It’s just a waste of my time. I’m seriously flabbergasted that this has been an issue for so long and still hasn’t been fixed. It’s obviously a problem on your end.

i5 3570K @ 3.4 GHz
8GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7700
Windows 7 64 bit OS

Is this at least being looked at? I searched google and it seems other people are having this issue now, as well.

Edit:

Also, I did this last year. Did nothing. (before someone replies with the link)

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Black-Screen-Issue-AMD-ATI/first#post38195

Edit 2:

Secondly, as for this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Black-Screen-Issues-1/first#post4146816

Not only have I tried directly connecting to my router (to no avail) I have had this problem happen with THREE completely different routers & internet providers.

I’ve tried to play using bare minimum graphic settings and would still crash.

2 & a half days worth of dishonorable. Guess I’m going back to not playing this game.

If all AMD users were getting this, then it’s a problem. If you aren’t willing to work with support to figure out what the problem is, it’s on you.

Have you tried doing a repair of the game client? Maybe you have a corrupted data file? Otherwise, I have no idea what it could be. I hope someone is able to figure it out for you.

Have the same problem here with my ATI Radeon 5700 series. I’ll usually have my screen freeze and after 5 seconds black screen and then return or what you have the monitor lose signal and it says HDMI no input. I found an interesting but annoying fix if the monitor does lose signal just pull the HDMI cable out of the back of ur comp and put it back in again and you’ll get the screen back. This only works though if the whole system hasn’t frozen and you can still hear game sounds if not you have to hardboot it which is a pain in the kitten especially if you have been waiting in wvw queue for over an hour :P
I also find that loading up guild wars 2 as soon as the computer loads up and not tabbing out of the game or starting up any other programs in the background improves stability no end but yup like you i’ve been waiting for a fix for over a year now so I don’t expect anything soon :P

Behellagh.1468:

If all AMD users were getting this, then it’s a problem. If you aren’t willing to work with support to figure out what the problem is, it’s on you.

I worked with them for months last year. Ain’t nobody got time fo dat.

Silverstarre.5247:

Have you tried doing a repair of the game client? Maybe you have a corrupted data file? Otherwise, I have no idea what it could be. I hope someone is able to figure it out for you.

I’ve done -repair quite a few times. It would make it better for maybe a day, sometimes just a few hours.

Leonardo Darnassus.1635:

Have the same problem here with my ATI Radeon 5700 series. I’ll usually have my screen freeze and after 5 seconds black screen and then return or what you have the monitor lose signal and it says HDMI no input. I found an interesting but annoying fix if the monitor does lose signal just pull the HDMI cable out of the back of ur comp and put it back in again and you’ll get the screen back. This only works though if the whole system hasn’t frozen and you can still hear game sounds if not you have to hardboot it which is a pain in the kitten especially if you have been waiting in wvw queue for over an hour :P
I also find that loading up guild wars 2 as soon as the computer loads up and not tabbing out of the game or starting up any other programs in the background improves stability no end but yup like you i’ve been waiting for a fix for over a year now so I don’t expect anything soon :P

I’ve never had my screen return, it’s always perma black. Also, I use a DVI cord, so it’s not quite as easy as pulling out an HDMI. I have tried it before, though, last year sometime – to no avail.

I don’t expect anything soon, either. Pretty unfortunate.

Sounds like your GPU is failing (could be other things such as power supply or motherboard too).

One thing you could try, is pulling it out and re-seating it.

abomally.2694:

Sounds like your GPU is failing (could be other things such as power supply or motherboard too).

One thing you could try, is pulling it out and re-seating it.

I’d buy that if I had this happen with any other game. But I don’t. It’s only GW2.

Shanks R Us.2489:

abomally.2694:

Sounds like your GPU is failing (could be other things such as power supply or motherboard too).

One thing you could try, is pulling it out and re-seating it.

I’d buy that if I had this happen with any other game. But I don’t. It’s only GW2.

Have you tried running furmark or a game that can tax your gpu to the limits?

Izaya.2906:

Shanks R Us.2489:

abomally.2694:

Sounds like your GPU is failing (could be other things such as power supply or motherboard too).

One thing you could try, is pulling it out and re-seating it.

I’d buy that if I had this happen with any other game. But I don’t. It’s only GW2.

Have you tried running furmark or a game that can tax your gpu to the limits?

http://puu.sh/aGmlZ/942783cb93.png

Let’s eliminate the possibility that some other program is interfering (typically those that use overlays) and causing the crash.

Please try the following:

http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_win7.html

abomally.2694:

Let’s eliminate the possibility that some other program is interfering (typically those that use overlays) and causing the crash.

Please try the following:

http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_win7.html

No programs use overlays. I went ahead & disabled a couple, but I doubt they could be causing it. Last year, support thought the problem may have been being caused by my MSI afterburner, which is what I used to record the screen. It had a small overlay, my FPS, in the top corner. However, that didn’t end up being the issue, as I’m currently having the problem without MSI active.

I’ll try again later, with these programs off, but again, I highly doubt they’re what’s causing this.

abomally.2694:

Let’s eliminate the possibility that some other program is interfering (typically those that use overlays) and causing the crash.

Please try the following:

http://netsquirrel.com/msconfig/msconfig_win7.html

Logged into GW2. Got black screened in 30 seconds, standing in HoTM using 1 on the flamethrower.

Have you tried resetting Catalyst Control Center to default settings and disabling Catalyst A.I. ?

Also, you could try deleting the Local.dat file, which is in the following location:

C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2

abomally.2694:

Have you tried resetting Catalyst Control Center to default settings and disabling Catalyst A.I. ?

Also, you could try deleting the Local.dat file, which is in the following location:

C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2

Only setting I’ve changed has been the one recommended for fixing this.

I’ll delete it & give it a try later.

abomally.2694:

Have you tried resetting Catalyst Control Center to default settings and disabling Catalyst A.I. ?

Also, you could try deleting the Local.dat file, which is in the following location:

C:\Users\your user name\AppData\Roaming\Guild Wars 2

Did nothing. Black screened in 30 seconds watching my flamethrower.

Any chance the card is still under warranty?

At this point and with everything you’ve tried – the symptoms still point to a defective card, although you can run other games.

I would say to RMA the card (and get a replacement) or substitute another GPU in the computer. It’s really the only way to find out for sure if your GPU is the issue. I believe that it is the problem.

abomally.2694:

Any chance the card is still under warranty?

At this point and with everything you’ve tried – the symptoms still point to a defective card, although you can run other games.

I would say to RMA the card (and get a replacement) or substitute another GPU in the computer. It’s really the only way to find out for sure if your GPU is the issue. I believe that it is the problem.

Unfortunately no, it’s not.

Omg its the same for me,black screen,monitor lost signal,computer seems to be running as normal inside but gw2 definitely crashed,only gw2

CPU: i7 4790
GPU: HD 7970

Ponzu.4570:

Omg its the same for me,black screen,monitor lost signal,computer seems to be running as normal inside but gw2 definitely crashed,only gw2

CPU: i7 4790
GPU: HD 7970

Yeah, it seems to be happening for quite a few other people as well, which is why I don’t think it’s my card.

you didnt say what drivers you are currently using, nor if you did a DDU from safe mode before installing the latest drivers.

All my system are running AMD GPus and none of them suffer from the black screen of death.

It could be;

The Drivers (Currently running the NEW version of 14.4)
Power Supply – GPU-Z should tell you what Amps and watts your GPU are pulling. You can log this to file – Then make sure your Power supply’s 12v rails are rated for the draw. Make sure the PSU isnt getting hot to the touch either.
GPU itself – maybe the card is over heating and signaling to the Monitor is dying in the process?

sirsquishy.8531:

you didnt say what drivers you are currently using, nor if you did a DDU from safe mode before installing the latest drivers.

All my system are running AMD GPus and none of them suffer from the black screen of death.

It could be;

The Drivers (Currently running the NEW version of 14.4)
Power Supply – GPU-Z should tell you what Amps and watts your GPU are pulling. You can log this to file – Then make sure your Power supply’s 12v rails are rated for the draw. Make sure the PSU isnt getting hot to the touch either.
GPU itself – maybe the card is over heating and signaling to the Monitor is dying in the process?

http://puu.sh/aKbTK/62d6b01c4d.png

That’s my version. The next picture is of GPU-Z. I started it, then opened GW2. You can see the spike from when I actually logged in. However, I HIGHLY doubt these numbers are accurate. For example, in just a few seconds, the “GPU temp” went to over 65 degrees C. That’s almost 150 F. When I minimized GW2, it went from 65+ to 40. There’s absolutely no way it could have dropped 20 C (a ~70 F drop in seconds) so quickly.

http://puu.sh/aKcXu/8f6fab1413.png

Shanks R Us.2489:

sirsquishy.8531:

you didnt say what drivers you are currently using, nor if you did a DDU from safe mode before installing the latest drivers.

All my system are running AMD GPus and none of them suffer from the black screen of death.

It could be;

The Drivers (Currently running the NEW version of 14.4)
Power Supply – GPU-Z should tell you what Amps and watts your GPU are pulling. You can log this to file – Then make sure your Power supply’s 12v rails are rated for the draw. Make sure the PSU isnt getting hot to the touch either.
GPU itself – maybe the card is over heating and signaling to the Monitor is dying in the process?

http://puu.sh/aKbTK/62d6b01c4d.png

That’s my version. The next picture is of GPU-Z. I started it, then opened GW2. You can see the spike from when I actually logged in. However, I HIGHLY doubt these numbers are accurate. For example, in just a few seconds, the “GPU temp” went to over 65 degrees C. That’s almost 150 F. When I minimized GW2, it went from 65+ to 40. There’s absolutely no way it could have dropped 20 C (a ~70 F drop in seconds) so quickly.

http://puu.sh/aKcXu/8f6fab1413.png

Actually it can. Modern day GPUs have whats called power saving stats. when the load on the GPU drops from 100% down to 75% in less then a couple ms, it will go to state 2 or 1, that will drop the temps by 20-25c’s in less then 1 second (happens to my 260x when I disable my litecoin mining, and it happens when I close GW2)

65C+ is normal, 75c would be the top temps I would expect. You really need to run GPU-Z with Loggin and wait till you get the black screen, then reboot and go over the logs looking for the temp changes.

If your GPU is over heating and thats killing the DVi/VGA monitor signal, then you know what to do to fix it (Replace the TIM under the gpus Heatsink+Fan, and Clean out the fans)

Shanks R Us.2489:

sirsquishy.8531:

you didnt say what drivers you are currently using, nor if you did a DDU from safe mode before installing the latest drivers.

All my system are running AMD GPus and none of them suffer from the black screen of death.

It could be;

The Drivers (Currently running the NEW version of 14.4)
Power Supply – GPU-Z should tell you what Amps and watts your GPU are pulling. You can log this to file – Then make sure your Power supply’s 12v rails are rated for the draw. Make sure the PSU isnt getting hot to the touch either.
GPU itself – maybe the card is over heating and signaling to the Monitor is dying in the process?

http://puu.sh/aKbTK/62d6b01c4d.png

That’s my version. The next picture is of GPU-Z. I started it, then opened GW2. You can see the spike from when I actually logged in. However, I HIGHLY doubt these numbers are accurate. For example, in just a few seconds, the “GPU temp” went to over 65 degrees C. That’s almost 150 F. When I minimized GW2, it went from 65+ to 40. There’s absolutely no way it could have dropped 20 C (a ~70 F drop in seconds) so quickly.

http://puu.sh/aKcXu/8f6fab1413.png

Also, there are two 14.4 AMD releases. One was giving users with 7970’s and 280x’s issues with driver installs (some API issue) and they removed it from the newer version of the 14.4, and that seemed to have helped with a ton of driver support issues across the board.

so if you have no installed those 14.4 with in the last 30days you really need to DDU the drivers from safe mode and download the LATEST 14.4 drivers and start from there.

“AMD has received feedback that some users are unable to install the Catalyst 14.4 driver on some motherboards with AMD chipsets. We have investigated the issue and have determined that it was caused by the AHCI driver component that was included with the driver package.

We have therefore removed the AHCI driver component from the driver package and will be providing it as a separate download.

If you were affected by this issue, we recommend you download and install this updated version of the driver."

While the AHCI driver was for the AMD Sata chipset, it seems to have affected some intel chipset users too. SO its worth it to give the newer 14.4’s a try.

sirsquishy.8531:

Shanks R Us.2489:

sirsquishy.8531:

you didnt say what drivers you are currently using, nor if you did a DDU from safe mode before installing the latest drivers.

All my system are running AMD GPus and none of them suffer from the black screen of death.

It could be;

The Drivers (Currently running the NEW version of 14.4)
Power Supply – GPU-Z should tell you what Amps and watts your GPU are pulling. You can log this to file – Then make sure your Power supply’s 12v rails are rated for the draw. Make sure the PSU isnt getting hot to the touch either.
GPU itself – maybe the card is over heating and signaling to the Monitor is dying in the process?

http://puu.sh/aKbTK/62d6b01c4d.png

That’s my version. The next picture is of GPU-Z. I started it, then opened GW2. You can see the spike from when I actually logged in. However, I HIGHLY doubt these numbers are accurate. For example, in just a few seconds, the “GPU temp” went to over 65 degrees C. That’s almost 150 F. When I minimized GW2, it went from 65+ to 40. There’s absolutely no way it could have dropped 20 C (a ~70 F drop in seconds) so quickly.

http://puu.sh/aKcXu/8f6fab1413.png

Actually it can. Modern day GPUs have whats called power saving stats. when the load on the GPU drops from 100% down to 75% in less then a couple ms, it will go to state 2 or 1, that will drop the temps by 20-25c’s in less then 1 second (happens to my 260x when I disable my litecoin mining, and it happens when I close GW2)

65C+ is normal, 75c would be the top temps I would expect. You really need to run GPU-Z with Loggin and wait till you get the black screen, then reboot and go over the logs looking for the temp changes.

If your GPU is over heating and thats killing the DVi/VGA monitor signal, then you know what to do to fix it (Replace the TIM under the gpus Heatsink+Fan, and Clean out the fans)

http://puu.sh/aKmhK/4a2f32b71e.png

Date , GPU Core Clock [MHz] , GPU Memory Clock [MHz] , GPU Temperature [°C] , Fan Speed (%) ] , Fan Speed (RPM) [RPM] , GPU Load [ ,

The last line is the crash. The core clock dropped to zero, as well as the memory clock. Then the card apparently jumped to over 950 degrees F (lol, right) at the exact same time the fan jumped up to 100%.

Because of the sudden jump in temp, I don’t think it’s actually overheating – it was only at 59 C right before the crash.

Shanks R Us.2489:

sirsquishy.8531:

Shanks R Us.2489:

sirsquishy.8531:

you didnt say what drivers you are currently using, nor if you did a DDU from safe mode before installing the latest drivers.

All my system are running AMD GPus and none of them suffer from the black screen of death.

It could be;

The Drivers (Currently running the NEW version of 14.4)
Power Supply – GPU-Z should tell you what Amps and watts your GPU are pulling. You can log this to file – Then make sure your Power supply’s 12v rails are rated for the draw. Make sure the PSU isnt getting hot to the touch either.
GPU itself – maybe the card is over heating and signaling to the Monitor is dying in the process?

http://puu.sh/aKbTK/62d6b01c4d.png

That’s my version. The next picture is of GPU-Z. I started it, then opened GW2. You can see the spike from when I actually logged in. However, I HIGHLY doubt these numbers are accurate. For example, in just a few seconds, the “GPU temp” went to over 65 degrees C. That’s almost 150 F. When I minimized GW2, it went from 65+ to 40. There’s absolutely no way it could have dropped 20 C (a ~70 F drop in seconds) so quickly.

http://puu.sh/aKcXu/8f6fab1413.png

Actually it can. Modern day GPUs have whats called power saving stats. when the load on the GPU drops from 100% down to 75% in less then a couple ms, it will go to state 2 or 1, that will drop the temps by 20-25c’s in less then 1 second (happens to my 260x when I disable my litecoin mining, and it happens when I close GW2)

65C+ is normal, 75c would be the top temps I would expect. You really need to run GPU-Z with Loggin and wait till you get the black screen, then reboot and go over the logs looking for the temp changes.

If your GPU is over heating and thats killing the DVi/VGA monitor signal, then you know what to do to fix it (Replace the TIM under the gpus Heatsink+Fan, and Clean out the fans)

http://puu.sh/aKmhK/4a2f32b71e.png

Date , GPU Core Clock [MHz] , GPU Memory Clock [MHz] , GPU Temperature [°C] , Fan Speed (%) ] , Fan Speed (RPM) [RPM] , GPU Load [ ,

The last line is the crash. The core clock dropped to zero, as well as the memory clock. Then the card apparently jumped to over 950 degrees F (lol, right) at the exact same time the fan jumped up to 100%.

Because of the sudden jump in temp, I don’t think it’s actually overheating – it was only at 59 C right before the crash.

It looks like your driver is shutting down the GPU (much like when your display driver would stop responding). I think you should download DDU, run it in safe mode, then install the NEW 14.4 drivers and see if that helps.

sirsquishy.8531:

Shanks R Us.2489:

sirsquishy.8531:

Shanks R Us.2489:

sirsquishy.8531:

you didnt say what drivers you are currently using, nor if you did a DDU from safe mode before installing the latest drivers.

All my system are running AMD GPus and none of them suffer from the black screen of death.

It could be;

The Drivers (Currently running the NEW version of 14.4)
Power Supply – GPU-Z should tell you what Amps and watts your GPU are pulling. You can log this to file – Then make sure your Power supply’s 12v rails are rated for the draw. Make sure the PSU isnt getting hot to the touch either.
GPU itself – maybe the card is over heating and signaling to the Monitor is dying in the process?

http://puu.sh/aKbTK/62d6b01c4d.png

That’s my version. The next picture is of GPU-Z. I started it, then opened GW2. You can see the spike from when I actually logged in. However, I HIGHLY doubt these numbers are accurate. For example, in just a few seconds, the “GPU temp” went to over 65 degrees C. That’s almost 150 F. When I minimized GW2, it went from 65+ to 40. There’s absolutely no way it could have dropped 20 C (a ~70 F drop in seconds) so quickly.

http://puu.sh/aKcXu/8f6fab1413.png

Actually it can. Modern day GPUs have whats called power saving stats. when the load on the GPU drops from 100% down to 75% in less then a couple ms, it will go to state 2 or 1, that will drop the temps by 20-25c’s in less then 1 second (happens to my 260x when I disable my litecoin mining, and it happens when I close GW2)

65C+ is normal, 75c would be the top temps I would expect. You really need to run GPU-Z with Loggin and wait till you get the black screen, then reboot and go over the logs looking for the temp changes.

If your GPU is over heating and thats killing the DVi/VGA monitor signal, then you know what to do to fix it (Replace the TIM under the gpus Heatsink+Fan, and Clean out the fans)

http://puu.sh/aKmhK/4a2f32b71e.png

Date , GPU Core Clock [MHz] , GPU Memory Clock [MHz] , GPU Temperature [°C] , Fan Speed (%) ] , Fan Speed (RPM) [RPM] , GPU Load [ ,

The last line is the crash. The core clock dropped to zero, as well as the memory clock. Then the card apparently jumped to over 950 degrees F (lol, right) at the exact same time the fan jumped up to 100%.

Because of the sudden jump in temp, I don’t think it’s actually overheating – it was only at 59 C right before the crash.

It looks like your driver is shutting down the GPU (much like when your display driver would stop responding). I think you should download DDU, run it in safe mode, then install the NEW 14.4 drivers and see if that helps.

I opened up my PC and dusted it all out for the first time in a while. Was ridiculously dusty, including the GPU fan. Temps seem to be staying low & I haven’t crashed in a while – my guess is that the GPU fan was blocked, and it thought it was overheating so it shut down. Will report if the problem continues.

So the problem wasn’t ANet’s?

Behellagh.1468:

So the problem wasn’t ANet’s?

Only played for a little while yesterday but didn’t have any problems. However, I can’t be too quick to say that the problem is fixed – I cleaned my PC last year, after this had been happening, and the problem still continued.

Shanks R Us.2489:

Behellagh.1468:

So the problem wasn’t ANet’s?

Only played for a little while yesterday but didn’t have any problems. However, I can’t be too quick to say that the problem is fixed – I cleaned my PC last year, after this had been happening, and the problem still continued.

Well its lasting longer then before you cleaned it out. So at the very least we are headed in the right direction with the issue at hand. Its hardware related, as mentioned countless times above.

Give it a week, if it doesn’t happen again then its solved. But come back and let us know, as there are MANY other users with the same issue and it would be nice to reference this post as a possible fix (cleaning out the PC).

Just as I thought, cleaning out my fans did not fix the problem. Crashed in the middle of a tournament.

The blame is back on Anet’s shoulders in my book.

Edit:

Happened again 10 minutes later at obsidian sanctum.

I told you before, your video card is failing.

Replace it.

abomally.2694:

I told you before, your video card is failing.

Replace it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Random-Black-Screen-Very-Frustrating

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Black-Screen-Issue-Nvidia-Unresolved

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Black-Screen-Issues

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Black-screen-issue-AMD

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Black-screen-counter

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Black-Screen-Issues-merged

Doubt that.

Shanks R Us.2489:

sirsquishy.8531:

you didnt say what drivers you are currently using, nor if you did a DDU from safe mode before installing the latest drivers.

All my system are running AMD GPus and none of them suffer from the black screen of death.

It could be;

The Drivers (Currently running the NEW version of 14.4)
Power Supply – GPU-Z should tell you what Amps and watts your GPU are pulling. You can log this to file – Then make sure your Power supply’s 12v rails are rated for the draw. Make sure the PSU isnt getting hot to the touch either.
GPU itself – maybe the card is over heating and signaling to the Monitor is dying in the process?

http://puu.sh/aKbTK/62d6b01c4d.png

That’s my version. The next picture is of GPU-Z. I started it, then opened GW2. You can see the spike from when I actually logged in. However, I HIGHLY doubt these numbers are accurate. For example, in just a few seconds, the “GPU temp” went to over 65 degrees C. That’s almost 150 F. When I minimized GW2, it went from 65+ to 40. There’s absolutely no way it could have dropped 20 C (a ~70 F drop in seconds) so quickly.

http://puu.sh/aKcXu/8f6fab1413.png

I don’t think you’re using the latest driver version for 14.4(xxx98C, latest is xxx99C).

You should redownload this:
http://support.amd.com/en-us/download/desktop?os=Windows%207%20-%2064#amd-catalyst-packages

Try what sirsquishy said and use DDU to clean everything up after you uninstall your old drivers.

If you have access to another computer, you could also try installing GW2 there and use your GPU and test it out to isolate the problem.

I used to think I have issues with my 280x(BSOD’s, frequent random freezes while playing) but it turned out to be a faulty motherboard, here’s the driver I’m running with my 280x now (no problems since I changed my motherboard updated to this):