Guild Wars 2

When I play GW2, after 30 Minutes (+/- 5 min) everything freezes and I get a blue screen. This problem only occurs while playing GW2.
I already tried the following:

• Fresh installation of Windows 10
• Fresh installation of the GPU driver after using DDU (tool to completely remove the current GPU driver)
• Fresh installation of GW2
• Turning of the Windows 10 Fast Boot option (I read that this might cause problems)
• Tried 32bit and 64bit version of GW2
• Made a RAM Test: MemTest86+ (3 cycles without errors)
• Checked if any other game with similar or higher CPU/GPU performance requirements shows a similar problem. That is not the case.

The problem occured after upgrade my hardware:
CPU upgrade: AMD Phenon II 955 -> AMD FX 8350
RAM upgrade: 8GB DDR3 -> 32GB DDR3
M5A87 BiosVersion update to V1506
(During the hardware upgrade, there was also the GW2 update on 26. January 2016 – So I am not quite sure, but I thought more information might help)

Current System specs:
OS: Windows 10 64bit
CPU: AMD FX8350
GPU: ATI Sapphire R9 270X
Motherboard: M5A87 BIOS Version 1506
RAM: 32GB DDR3

Already Tested and Some Findings Update 2016-02-09

• Problem only occurs if full RAM is installed (32GB) Could not reproduce Blue Screen for 20GB or 16GB of installed RAM I only found that out after Beldin encouraged me twice to switch the RAM sticks
• Command Rate does not affect the stability in this case Thanks to abomally
• Blue Screen is reproducable only when Guild Wars 2 is running and after about 20-50 minutes of playtime
• All driver versions (GPU, Mainboard etc) are up to date as of today
• Other programs interfering can be excluded. I did run GW after a fresh start unchecking all autostart programs – Thank you GW support
• Temperature could not be found to be an issue. Peaks are around 63°C for both CPU and GPU. Using HWiNFO64 v5.20 – Thanks zerocool for that hint.

Any help/hint/idea is much appreciated.

You said you updated the GPU drivers but what about the motherboard chip set drivers?

Bluescreens are always related to hardware or driver problems, so i would first
simply go back to your old RAM and look what happens.

Here’s a question, when you upgraded to 32 gigs of RAM, did you keep the original 8, or get a fresh 32 set?

When you replaced your CPU, did you clean the heatsink/fan and apply new thermal grease?

You might also want to check that the heatsink/fan is tightly mounted. This sounds like a temperature problem to me.

• The 32GB is a full fresh Kit (exchanged 4×2GB to 4×8GB).
• Yes I cleaned the heatsink/fan and applied new thermal grease.
• Thank you for the hint with the MB Chipset driver – Sadly ASUS does not provide any drivers for Windows 10 – I guess because Windows 10 Driver database has the most recent version. Maybe I try some Win7 64bit driver tomorrow – this sounds like something that might be worth a shot.

Note: I totally agree, that it sounds like a hardware problem, but it only occurs with GW2. I can play other hardware demanding games like e.g. City Skylines without running into any problems. What makes me most curious is that GW2 crashes (with blue screen) about 30-40 minutes after starting the game. And although I only tested that once: the 32bit version seemed to crash faster.

IcePhantom.1068:

Note: I totally agree, that it sounds like a hardware problem, but it only occurs with GW2. I can play other hardware demanding games like e.g. City Skylines without running into any problems. What makes me most curious is that GW2 crashes (with blue screen) about 30-40 minutes after starting the game. And although I only tested that once: the 32bit version seemed to crash faster.

Other programs maybe simply don’t use as much memory .. so if your new RAM
is maybe bad in a region that isn’t used by other programs. Thats why i said i
would simply test the old RAM.

Oh and btw. what does the bluescreen message show ? That could also be helpful.

I would check ram thoroughly, all 32gb, with memtest again. Maybe swap it out with some test ram as Beldin.5498 suggested and memtest that. I’ve had memory slots go bad on me before (broken solder joints) and my “fix” was simply ignoring bad slots.
I’d also keep a close eye on all temperature sensors during gaming. GPU, CPU, North/South bridge, ambient, hdd temps, etc. They may shed some light on the situation.
Give http://www.hwinfo.com/ a try.

Ok ok you convinced – I’ll give the old RAM a try tomorrow I just brought up Skylines since my currenty save game there uses MUCH more RAM than GW2 ever did… Also: If the error is on some of the RAM slots, the error would have occured with the 4×2GB setup as well. And I know from bad experience that crashed caused by RAM are always randomly spread over the whole system which is not the case here – but I’ll take any last straw to get the game back running

If it wouldn’t be just so annoying to test, since GW2 only ever crashes after 30-40minutes… Thanks for your suggestions. I will keep this Thread updated.

Oh darn it – I don’t know if I want to be happy about it or not, but it is the RAM – one hour playtime without crash or blue screen after putting back the old RAM. Next step is finding out which one/s is/are the evil bits…
Thank you Beldin.5498 and zerocool.9842 for convincing stubborn me.

It remains unclear to me why only GW2 finds the RAM to be broken, but it sure knows how to hit the broken bits I will post one final update once I found out what was really broken.

Okay after a weekend of weird tests I can post my final finding – which was very surprising to me:

1) Put in all the old RAM (8GB total) – Everything fine
2) Put in two new RAM sticks (2*2GB and 2*8GB) – Everything fine
3) Put in the other two new RAM sticks (2*2GB and 2*8GB) – Everything fine
4) Switching the RAM slots (still 2*2GB and 2*8GB) – Everything fine
5) Back to full new RAM (still 4*8GB) – Blue screen within 30 minutes of testing (3 times)

So it appears that something cannot handle 32GB of RAM and triggers a Blue Screen. And this something only gets triggered while playing Guild Wars 2. That is by far the weirdest thing I have seen so far in terms of bugs…

What memory Command Rate (T1/T2) is your motherboard set to?

Check in your BIOS. If it’s set to T1, change it to T2 and try the new memory again. Sometimes memory (especially in four slots) isn’t stable at a T1 Command Rate.

I checked my BIOS and found no option for the command rate. In CPU-Z the information on command rate is grayed out – do you need special RAM or another Mainboard for that option? (I have M5A87 with BIOS version 1506)

Hmmm…according to this site, your BIOS has that option:

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/432349/Asus-M5a87.html?page=55

Check for a Bios update I had to do this to a friends PC we updated the ram in the board only had 2 ram slots with 2 2gig ram sticks We upped it to 8gigs with 2 4 gig sticks but the system became unstable and would blue screen. I know the ram was good because it came out of a working system. Checked the motherboard web site sure enough there was a Bios update to correct stability issues with some types of ram, solved the problem.

BIOS is freshly updated (newest version is 1506) and Blue Screens only occur with GW2 running while the full 32GB are installed.

Thanks @abnomally. I will check if I can find it.

Update 1: Well that is a perfect RTFM scenario – Sorry. I found the option and it was set to [Auto] T2. I fixed it to T2 as you recommended and run the test now…

Update 2: Almost had hope, but the Blue Screen appeared after 50minutes. T2 setting did not help, sadly. Thanks for the hint anyway.