Guild Wars 2

I just bought the game, and I am getting contact black screens. In any given 30 minute session I can get 15-25 “crashes” where both my monitors go black and my DVI symbol shows, then everything returns.

I contacted tech support; after two days of troubleshooting they claim it’s a driver issue, but they won’t tell me what’s wrong other than “contact nvidia” or get a refund. Since this is an issue that has happened to the majority of players since pre-release, I’m calling BS that it’s nvidia’s problem, and not their coding.

I’ve tried disabling SPI, clearing my drivers and updating to the newest, standing on one foot while playing, and praying to the gods when logging in. None of this has worked.

Does anyone have any other details they can share? I’ve done this: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/Black-Screen-Issue-Nvidia — and I still have the issue.

Tech support is known for reading from a script and following set guidelines, then giving a catch-all statement when they can’t fix the solution: change your graphics card, not our fault, play from a different ISP. I’m hoping someone out there who’s had this issue can help out before I claim my refund.

I have posted elsewhere – I had an Nvidia graphics card that gave me back screens the whole time – the game was unplayable. My nephew had the same graphics card but a different make – he had no problems. I am currently using an AMD XFX card no problems. It seems there is an issue with certain manufacturers’ cards rather than with Nvidia. Sorry can give you the details but look for my old post under Black Screeen issues.

I got that now as well, that build has so many crash issues..

@PigVomit
Did they make sure your game is in C:\\games\guildwars2\ folder (no spaces) and do a repair on it?

Because that solved the issue for me…

It would also be nice if you would give your specs, since it is hard to judge anything if one doesn’t know the details…

Arghore.8340:

@PigVomit
Did they make sure your game is in C:\\games\guildwars2\ folder (no spaces) and do a repair on it?

Because that solved the issue for me…

It would also be nice if you would give your specs, since it is hard to judge anything if one doesn’t know the details…

No, there’s spaces, and they never mentioned it.

Specs:

Microsoft Windows 7 64-bit
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
4.00 GB Dual-Channel DDR2
ASUSTeK Computer INC. P5E Deluxe
512MB GeForce 8800 GT

This is the only game I’ve had issues with. In-game I get 60+ fps, but it’s just the black screens. Good airflow on my card, and no dust.

Do I also read correctly that you have 2 monitors hooked up to this computer?

And i would like to mention that your GFX card 8800GT is a rather oldish card, so you are likely to not be able to run very high settings (not sure what you do use as settings, just mentioning it in case you set everything on high.)

Your system does look a tad like mine though, although i have different hardware, and my gfx-card is the 9800GT … And i too ‘had’ two monitors…

I am not sure if this would work with 2 monitors still hooked up (i removed one of mine) but, in your NVidea Controll panel, there is the 2nd option from the top, called: 3D settings. There are both general and per software program settings lists. In the list you can find the “multi-screen/mixed gpu acceleration” option. I removed one screen and set these to single screen for both general and GW2. That way there is more GPU power available to run GW2, as processing time is no longer used for both screens.

And for all intends and purposes i now only have 1 screen, and yes i do miss this screen in general computer work, so i may well change the general setting to multi screen, and keep GW2 on single and shut off the 2nd monitor while playing GW2, i am just not sure if that would actually ‘work’ or mess things up, so until i feel i should try (or the lack of the 2nd screen really starts to annoy me) i will keep things on single screen settings.

Lastly the folder may not be the biggest thing (like the spaces thing), but they did do a the -repair thing, right ?

In general i would say that the GFX card you have is the most limiting factor, so it may well pay out as well to check the first option on your NVidia Control panel as well, and set it either to ‘let the 3Dapplication decide’ or set the slider to ‘performance’ … Another thing i would recommend, if you didn’t do so already, is seeing you can log on, change the GFX settings to a minimum. And then only set the textures to medium. Again here i can’t see from here what you currently run, but having had a lower end gfx card for quite a while starting at low and slowly move things up a notch (mostly textures) can help a lot with performance…

I just checked to be sure, but indeed the GF 7800 is the minimum req. for the game. So you would be looking at trying to minimize the load on your GFX card as much as you can (so i would remove the 2nd screen entirely for now). And set it up for Performance more then anything…

If the problem persists then i would really like to know if you were advised to do (and did) the repair steps… ?!

! PS. just to be sure, don’t go removing the spaces in the location where the game is installed just because i mentioned this, this may have been a specific thing for my system and the problem I experienced !

Same may well apply to your CPU, as GW2 is rather CPU bound, you may want to read this thread, which i just found and read, and found to be rather useful: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/tech/FAQ-Frequently-Asked-Questions-Compilation/first#post1095890

So, seeing your CPU might also be a problem, you may also want to make sure you run a minimum of processes in the ‘background’, think lean and mean more than ‘my computer is an old pile of scrap metal’ esp. if you don’t have the finances to upgrade … there are actually pieces of software that kill any processes you don’t really need, yet i have no experience with them, and thus won’t recommend them, though seeing they may help you i do want to mention them, use at your own risk and do make sure you don’t just download any piece of crap that says it optimizes your PC, do some research on it and/or make sure you can trust the supplier of the software …

Arghore.8340:

Do I also read correctly that you have 2 monitors hooked up to this computer?

Yes

Arghore.8340:

And i would like to mention that your GFX card 8800GT is a rather oldish card, so you are likely to not be able to run very high settings (not sure what you do use as settings, just mentioning it in case you set everything on high.)

Yes I am aware, but my system still plays most games on medium-high settings. I’m set to performance for testing purposes.

Arghore.8340:

I am not sure if this would work with 2 monitors still hooked up (i removed one of mine) but, in your NVidea Controll panel, there is the 2nd option from the top, called: 3D settings. There are both general and per software program settings lists. In the list you can find the “multi-screen/mixed gpu acceleration” option. I removed one screen and set these to single screen for both general and GW2. That way there is more GPU power available to run GW2, as processing time is no longer used for both screens.

I set it to “Single Display performance mode”, we’ll see what happens.

Arghore.8340:

I just checked to be sure, but indeed the GF 7800 is the minimum req. for the game. So you would be looking at trying to minimize the load on your GFX card as much as you can (so i would remove the 2nd screen entirely for now). And set it up for Performance more then anything…

We removed the second screen and it was the same issue.

Arghore.8340:

If the problem persists then i would really like to know if you were advised to do (and did) the repair steps… ?!

Disable SPI on the firewall, remove the second monitor, change NVIDIA settings, complete removal and reinstall of the drivers.

Now they’re claiming it’s a driver issue.

“Technically speaking, this is an issue Nvidia needs to solve because it’s their TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery) system that is crashing the driver.”

I had a popup come up once out of the 300+ times it’s crashed, and so they are now placing the blame on me. Good going.

Well apparently there is actually a TDR problem with the NVidia Driver, there is actually an official statement by NVidia about it, you can find it somewhere in the top 20 on the forum … so it could indeed be related to this …

ps. send you a PM

Just to recap for myself, and perhaps for yourself:
0. The computer is clean and there is good airflow

1. The computer now only has 1 monitor, so all computing power is used to display gw2 on that one monitor.

2. The GFX-drivers are reinstalled using a ‘clean install’

3. The NVidia settings are set to single screen and performance, all the other recommendations for NVidia settings on the forum are also applied.

4. I take it you also made sure you have the latest drivers/software for your motherboard, network card, sound, mouse, etc … generally speaking you can find the latest software on the websites of your hardware component suppliers, do make sure you have the correct drivers for the hardware you have, installing the wrong drivers may cause more issues obviously…

5. It may also be worth it to do a defragmentation if you do not do this, or it is not sceduled. This process takes a good amount of time, so make sure you have something else to do in the meantime. It is more then likely that it will report it could not defrag GW2, this does not have to do with this issue, it’s just that gw2.dat is so huge that it can’t process it. Don’t worry, the goal is not to defrag GW2 it is to defrag your HD so all other processes will work more smoothly …

6. While i do not think this is the case, it may also be worth it to check your HD for errors or bad-sectors. Again this takes a good amount of time… You could do the same for your RAM. You would have to find the way to do this on the interweb though (it may well be in the topic i linked earlier), as i don’t know Win7 that well…

• This step is usually a last resort, there is nothing wrong with checking these things, but more then often all is well, UNLESS, you are having problems overall in which case a bad HD or RAM can be the cause…

7. Seeing your system is at the lower end of the ‘recommended’ requirements, it may well pay off to get some sort of system vitality software (mainly temperatures and usage-load). Thing is though, you would have to have 2 screens to be able to see the monitoring software while you play :P … And i can’t recommend good software for this, as i don’t use it myself… Do make sure you research the software a bit before you install it, you want to make sure you have decent software, again, there may be some recommended options in the thread i linked. If you decide to try this, then obviously you would have to put the screen back on and switch back the NVidia setting (if it didn’t do so by itself after recognizing the monitor).

You are mainly looking for anything overheating or being at 100% usage when the issue takes place. You may not be able to ‘fix’ this, other than buying a better PC though…

8. In relation to this, you mention being able to play other games at medium/high settings, that may be true for those other games, but truth is, your system is just above the ‘minimum requirements’, meaning it’s more likely you can run the game at all minimum settings, with perhaps textures at medium (it about how i run it, and it still looks better than most other games i played at those settings!).

So make sure you set everything to minimum, and see how it goes, then start putting things ‘up’ by a notch one at a time. It’s better to have the game running at somewhat decent settings, than to be here on the forum trying to fix a problem you can’t fix by anything else but buying a new computer… not to be demeaning or anything, my system is just one step above yours, and i wish i had the money to buy a new computer, thing is i don’t so i am being realistic about it and play and enjoy the game best i can

9. Last thing to recommend would be to do a clean install of the whole computer, but really !!! Don’t do this if everything else on your computer works fine, if the problem persists it’s more then likely the NVidia-TDR thing, and they will patch this…

10. What remains as a choice for yourself is, do you want to wait for this patch and perhaps forgo your money-return while waiting for it. Your computer will always be at the lower end of the scale … and only you can decide if you see funds available to get a new system. You can also ‘always’ re-buy GW2 in the future (at least i think you would be able to :P ), so it’s not that throwing in the towel now means you will never be able to play GW2

Well this is about all i know to tell you in order to help, apart from using ‘Driver Sweapers and CCleaner/Registry cleaners’. As i see these as ways that can potentially do more harm then good, but that is just how i was raised with computers over time. These may well be topnotch now, i still think to much can go wrong if they are not used right, so i prefer not to get near them, and if possible not even mention them :P

Yes, I know my PC is about 5+ years old, but it does me well in most games I play. I haven’t run into a game I haven’t been able to play due to system specs. I’m planning to build a new one later this year, but it isn’t a priority.

However, ever since I changed my driver settings to “Single Display performance mode”, I haven’t received any crashes. I’ve only played for a few hours, but I haven’t received any issues; I’m playing on medium-high settings.

If this fixed it, thanks for your help!

Lets hope it stays that way … and i am glad i could help you out … if you are looking for a good way to repay me: ‘have tons of fun while playing’