Guild Wars 2

So, where to begin…

Well… quite a while back I started experiencing crashing with GW2. The crashes were unusual and not something I have ever experienced before. They would happen randomly, sometimes days or even weeks apart! They never happened in the same locations in game, and sometimes they seemed to happen more frequently when I was in water.

To elaborate… The crash was “unusual” as in it crashes my computer to a “sleep-like” state. It is by far the weirdest thing. When the crash happens I can be on Skype or Teamspeak with a friend, and they can hear me as well as I can hear them. However, the screen goes completely dark, I can’t alt tab, can’t ctrl – alt – del, NOTHING. The only option I have is to completely shut down the computer by holding the power button or pushing reset. I can even still hear the game music running in the background, but only the music or ambiance, nothing else. ( Meaning no attack noises and such )

My conclusion was the graphics driver was crashing, but nothing points to it being the case log wise.

After searching the web for hours as well as the forums here on the site, the only possible fix someone has found was to underclock the GPU by 10% with Afterburner. However, I have found that turning the Shaders in game to Low seems to resolve the issue… Kind of.

I have only experienced 1 Crash-To-Sleep since I have lowered the Shaders, but I would like to enjoy the beauty of GW2 in full. So I am hoping I can yield some type of “magical discovery” to fix the issue all together. (Just to clarify, yes I have tried putting the Shaders back up recently after the latest driver updates and game patches… the crash came almost instantly after.)

Here is my specs to aid the “investigation”.

Specs:
Motherboard: ASRock Fatal1ty 990FX Killer ATX AM3+ Motherboard

Processor: (Bulldozer) AMD FX-8120 Zambezi Processor (8 CPUs), ~4.0GHz (OverClock’d)

Operation System: Windows 8.1 Pro x64

Sound Card: Sound Blaster ZX

Video Card: (XFX) Ati Radeon R7770 Ultra Overclock +95Mhz Faster 1GB GDDR5

Memory: Corsair Vengeance™ 1600MHz DDR3 16GB (4 × 4) RAM (4GB each slot)

BIOS Version: 1.10

(EDIT: I have made this a Q/A Mode post so when the best answer has been discovered, people who struggle with this issue will know EXACTLY what to do! <3 )

Bump.
someone here must know something or be experiencing the same.

Check for over heating when is the last time you had the case open on you system. If it’s been a while, open up your system check for dust build up this is a common problem even in the cleanest of homes PC are dust magnets. Get some canned air take it out side blow it out. With you system overclocked is your cooling system adequate. While your at it and you have the case open reseat all cards and connection. Next you may have an under rated or failing power supply check the rating on the label on the side of the power supply if it’s under 600Watts replace it. What brand is it some cheapo brands claim their PSU deliver the power but that rating may only be peak and not continuos. This game will drive your system harder than any game out there and with it being overclocked you want a PSU that can handle it. Is there any apps or programs running in the background that is trying to access the video card, apps like weatherbug, messenger apps that pop open. I see your are using Skype try disabling it see if that solves your issue Skype is not gamer friendly and is know to cause issues in some games are you running iTunes, the iTunes update pop up has caused this in some games. What antivirus are you using how well is it rated for gaming try disabling it while you play. Try using Avast or Windows Security Essiantials.

Feirlista Xv.1425:

Check for over heating when is the last time you had the case open on you system. If it’s been a while, open up your system check for dust build up this is a common problem even in the cleanest of homes PC are dust magnets. Get some canned air take it out side blow it out. With you system overclocked is your cooling system adequate. While your at it and you have the case open reseat all cards and connection. Next you may have an under rated or failing power supply check the rating on the label on the side of the power supply if it’s under 600Watts replace it. What brand is it some cheapo brands claim their PSU deliver the power but that rating may only be peak and not continuos. This game will drive your system harder than any game out there and with it being overclocked you want a PSU that can handle it. Is there any apps or programs running in the background that is trying to access the video card, apps like weatherbug, messenger apps that pop open. I see your are using Skype try disabling it see if that solves your issue Skype is not gamer friendly and is know to cause issues in some games are you running iTunes, the iTunes update pop up has caused this in some games. What antivirus are you using how well is it rated for gaming try disabling it while you play. Try using Avast or Windows Security Essiantials.

First I would like to say thank you for taking the time to reply. Second, I am sad to say I have looked at every single one of the possible reasons you spoke of. I have years of experience with computers so I am very tech savvy :P

The dust build up is a huge issue where I live so I normally blow my case out once a month with an air compressor. I have considered it being the PSU, my current PSU is 750w Corsair, and has never given me ANY issues at all. I do game development and such so having a high end PC was one of my main things to knock out of the to do list. I’ve also ran benchmark software to push the PC over the edge a bit, and never have I once experienced anything like this. GW2 is the only culprit in this situation.

ps. i’m Thai my main is not English so sorry for gramma (im tech expert here)

4 day ago i just change new mb + cpu and found this random crash

i already read every possible problem on windows event logger and try to fix it on every way (at first i blame new hardware, heat, driver etc and i try to solve this problem each step until i’m sure problem is not cause by this) and following every guide on every forum to fix this for 4 days now

yesterday my last hope i try to fix this issue by spend 2100baht(62usd) buy brand new cosair 650w taught PSU fail (found kernel panic in windows event logger every time after restart)

but it doesnt solve anything at all then i try to load new gw2.dat all over(im mad now cause i spend money to fix nothing)

after try new client play on default graphic setting or whatever i cant remember game is still not crash for 10+ hour long then i try to + shader to medium after that for 10-15 min this crash happen to me again and i found this topic

now i need to test game again on shader low and hope it not crash and make sure this shader setting is a problem

My Specs:

Intel i5 4690
Asrock H97 Pro4 Motherboard
1333MHz DDR3 8GB (4×2)
Asus Xonar DS Soundcard
Windows 8.1 Pro x64
and same VGA CARD as your

Welp, I don’t know if I’ve solved my issue (you posted a link to this post on my issue*) but I don’t think I’ve crashed in a few days with some on off playing. I set my shader stat to the lowest setting in graphics and I ran GW2 as an administrator (I went into settings and configured it to always do this, but you can try with the right click, “run as…” option).
I don’t know if it was or the other or both, but my ranger hasn’t crashed, as mentioned. Give it a try?

*aforementioned post
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/PC-Game-crashing-computer/first#content

Lythari.6458:

Welp, I don’t know if I’ve solved my issue (you posted a link to this post on my issue*) but I don’t think I’ve crashed in a few days with some on off playing. I set my shader stat to the lowest setting in graphics and I ran GW2 as an administrator (I went into settings and configured it to always do this, but you can try with the right click, “run as…” option).
I don’t know if it was or the other or both, but my ranger hasn’t crashed, as mentioned. Give it a try?

*aforementioned post
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/PC-Game-crashing-computer/first#content

try this 2-3 day ago still crash

having similar problem. screen goes black I can still hear friends on skype/teamspeak. It even happens when I’m not running either of those programs though. I can alt=tab but by desktop is locked up too and i end up having to restart. I have an AMD 6870hd

Thank you to everyone who replied.

I still don’t have any crashing with the Shaders set on low settings. I am still looking for a fix however, the game looks like mud without shaders to “pretty up” the environment. Any tech staff want to jump in and toss some input? That would be nice.