Guild Wars 2

Everything else loads fast. It used to start near instantaneously but now takes 20 seconds before the games start after clicking play. This doesn’t happen with any only applications or games.

500gb 850 Samsung Evo with 1/2 space remaining
i7 4770k
16gb (8×2) 1600 ram
gtx 1070
Windows 10 Pro

My 3 other computers all with varying degrees of worse specs start the game instantly after hitting play. There is no noticeable increased load time while in the game.

I have run a file repair, no change, and the issues persists in both the 32 and 64 bit clients.

if you want help, you kinda have to list your hardware. Especially the storage medium.

Same issue over here.

I don’t know what started it, but since 1 week my gw2 needs 10+seconds after hitting start the game (after login in launcher) to get the white screen before character selection.

I’m using windows 10 and it could be because of the anniversary update or because of the latest gw2 patch from last week, started around that time.

I’m just 3 weeks on windows 10 now, but this issue is new, hadn’t had it before under win7 or win10.

Also my Rig is pretty decent with OS+GW2 on Samsung SSD. (16gb ram, gtx970, i7 2600)

Also one friend reported the same issue with his game and he just recently reinstalled gw2 after a year or so.

EDIT: Since OP edit his post.

I got the same SSD and the same windows 10 pro version.
But as I mentioned. It worked till last week or so, fine on my system with win10 pro. And the last 4 years on win 7 on the same system were also fine.

Have either of you updated your windows 10 to the anniversary edition (build 1601 I think)? You said the problem started about a week ago which makes it roughly in the same time frame as my issues.

I was having not just exceptionally long load times but also massive graphical corruption. I fixed my issue by rolling back the update to 1511. I know it’s not optimal for security purposes but the new windows build was very unstable on my machine and was resulting in issues in multiple games, not only GW2.

Lady Lozza.9670:

Have either of you updated your windows 10 to the anniversary edition (build 1601 I think)? You said the problem started about a week ago which makes it roughly in the same time frame as my issues.

I was having not just exceptionally long load times but also massive graphical corruption. I fixed my issue by rolling back the update to 1511. I know it’s not optimal for security purposes but the new windows build was very unstable on my machine and was resulting in issues in multiple games, not only GW2.

Yeah I’ve got the anniversary update (aka break-all-on-your-PC-update-for-this-Early-Access-OS)

How can you backroll a win10 update? Would try it for testing purpose.

Lady Lozza.9670:

Have either of you updated your windows 10 to the anniversary edition (build 1601 I think)? You said the problem started about a week ago which makes it roughly in the same time frame as my issues.

I was having not just exceptionally long load times but also massive graphical corruption. I fixed my issue by rolling back the update to 1511. I know it’s not optimal for security purposes but the new windows build was very unstable on my machine and was resulting in issues in multiple games, not only GW2.

i updated to w10 just before the free upgrade expired, for roughly 2 weeks now my guild wars 2 files have been corrupting over and over.

i have deleted the cache, local dat and repaired multiple times to no avail. i have run memory check and disk checks (ssd, 1/10th full) and both come up with nothing. today i deleted everything and downloaded the whole dat fresh, but just now the textures on npcs went crazy and 2 more corrupt dat files appeared in my appdata
i checked to see which version of windows i have (had to google how) and i have 1511, so it looks like my problems are not to do with the anniversary update.

at my wits end, my computer was so stable on w7… the regret at upgrading right now is huge.

Dimos,
Go to the main windows menu (windows key if you like shortcuts), select settings, select updates & security.

On the right there should be a vertically arranged menu with a number of options – click on recovery. The main window should then show three options: Reset, rollback, advanced start.

Obviously you want rollback. Rollback shouldn’t effect your files however anything important you have worked on in the last week or two (since the update) you should back up just in case. Rollback only works for 30 days after the installation of a new build after that windows purges the files. Something to keep in mind if you need to do this again with a future build.

Ekkue,
The new build wasn’t corrupting files so much as not executing things correctly. Honestly on the surface of it if your dat files are actually being corrupted that sounds more like a bad HD than anything else. Having said that I run a very, very clean version of windows 10. I’ve nuked all the weird apps microsoft automatically includes in windows and I’ve had very few problems with it.

A few things you may want to look at:
1a) Bing includes something calls lavasoft which apparently doesn’t play well with GW2.
1b) Xbox software can be a problem for some people though normally it manifests as network latency rather than graphical issues.
2) Your gpu drivers may be causing the problem. (I run AMD gpus so I know all about problem drivers.)
3) I get the impression from what you have written that you did the in-place upgrade and not a fresh installation. I ran with the in-place upgrade for about a month before little niggles forced me to do a fresh installation of windows 10.
4) The other issue that is possible is that the GPU itself is the problem. Electronics typically start falling apart the warranty ends. They are designed that way. The longer you have a part after the warranty has ended the more likely it is to be causing issues. So if say you’ve had that card for 5 years it may be the card itself is an issue.

thanks Lady Lozza

i installed the newest nvidea driver last night, (i always wait a week to keep on eye on any reported problems before installing new ones) so will see if that helps.
After the first couple of times of repairing, i also had the horrible creeping feeling it could be my ssd. but as the disk check comes up with nothing, i don’t know how i am supposed to attempt to fix it if it says there are no problems to fix

i actually have 2 ssds. W10 is on the smaller one and my games/programs are on the larger one, which is fairly new ( i think 2 years old -my memory is terrible). so if i’m still getting corruptions after the graphics driver update, i will try moving GW2 to my main disk and see if it does the same thing.

but yes i did the upgrade, not a clean install. i dont even recall seeing it giving me the option to clean install. I built the computer myself in august 2012 (specially to be ready for gw2!) so there is very little on it, the only unknown additions would be whatever W10 decided to add when i upgraded. i have never heard of lavasoft, though i had a look in my add/remove programs and i don’t have anything listed as bing/lavasoft, is that something that would have been automatically installed as part of the upgrade?

my gpu is also fairly new, 770GTX, i think i got it in nov 2013.

i guess if i resort to moving GW2 to my main drive and it still corrupts then a reset/clean install is the only option, but the thought of having to find and reinstall all the correct drivers has me wanting to hide in a corner. i get very nervous about that stuff. when it comes to computers i’m like exams at school. i learn absolutely everything, then the act of doing it is like a brain vomit and theres nothing left in my head afterwards, i cant remember anything i learnt, i find it hard to believe i actually managed to build a working computer 4 years ago!

I thought it was just me! I’m just ignoring it though since it plays fine after loading still.

Upgrading is not the prettiest way to get updated to the most current OS. I’d recommend fresh installs. I’ve taken a quite a long brake and changed os in the meanwhile but when i came back to playing the game it was just not working as it should have. So i downloaded a fresh copy of Gw2 things are working better now. Getting a fresh windows and fresh copy of gw2 might help you a little bit.

muslumgurseks.4951:

Upgrading is not the prettiest way to get updated to the most current OS. I’d recommend fresh installs. I’ve taken a quite a long brake and changed os in the meanwhile but when i came back to playing the game it was just not working as it should have. So i downloaded a fresh copy of Gw2 things are working better now. Getting a fresh windows and fresh copy of gw2 might help you a little bit.

Funny thing is, I exactly with u on this.

I installed win7 pro (complete fresh, got even a new unused key) on the day before they stopped win10 for free (28 July or so).

So I only installed the win7 updates which had to be installed for the free win10 upgrade (service-packs etc) and installed win10 after that with the inbuilt installer.

And 2 weeks later I got the Anniversary update. That’s it basically. No big regedit changes (apart from some color changes for my windows-explorer)

BTT: I rerolled today the win10 build to 1511. (Pre Anniversary) Still long inital loading time.

I noticed after a bit of trying around, that my GW2 game wasn’t any longer found in “Installed program’s” (or the new win10 name “Apps & Features”).

So atm I’m completely removing any GW2 files from my PC and trying to reinstall it.

Dimos & Ekkue,

For the free upgrade, you pretty much had to go via the in-place upgrade. I tried it the other way and microsoft didn’t like it. On the plus side your windows 7 key is now registered with microsoft as windows 10, on the downside a fresh install will take an hour or two.

If you wish to do a fresh installation the very first thing I would recommend is getting an external drive and coping over files for games that you plan on installing or re-installing. This will limit download sizes and times. In the case of GW and GW2 the important file is the *.dat file. (Also save screenshots and for GW any build profiles.)
For other games you won’t find a nice neat data file that you can just throw on a disk, so you will want pretty much everything. If you have steam games steam has a library export function which works pretty well.

Ensure all personal files are backed up. I recommend multiple copies.

Download the basics that you like to work with and put them on this external disk, as an example I like chrome as a web browser. If you use dropbox or a password program I would be grabbing a copy of the installation file for that as well. Grab all driver files from the manufacturer’s websites and make sure to download the latest stable driver for your GPU. If you are running an AMD card this is not necessarily the latest driver.

After you have everything you want backed up you will want to head to microsoft’s site to grab a file that you can place on a DVD or a flash drive to use for the clean install. Microsoft’s site actually has very good instructions on how to do this. Do not go to another site for this even though it might be the first thing to show up in a google search.

Once you have your DVD or USB boot disk readied do a second, third and forth check of your files. Take another back up if you are paranoid.

(Now because I am paranoid, I usually unplug all my other HD while doing a fresh OS install, just so I don’t accidentally overwrite the wrong disk but it isn’t necessary.)

Now depending on your PC you may need to go into setup (usually F2 or ESC just after boot) to get it to boot from a DVD or USB. After doing this your BIOS will prompt you to save the settings and reboot and then windows will do its thing and install.

Depending on what version of windows you are running the first thing it will want to do after the fresh install is update. This can be fixed by pulling the network cable. If you are running Home and you want automatic updates off you will need to do some work with the group policy editor. I believe this work around works in Home only prior to the anniversary update.

If you run and AMD GPU you may want to think about turning device update off. What this means is that none of your drivers will update via windows you will need to go to the manufacturer’s website for new drivers. If you are used to Windows 7 you will be used to this process already.

Plug in the drive you put driver files on and install your drivers. The drivers will want to reboot a few times during this process. Once that is done, put on the programs like Chrome, drop box etc.

An optional step now is to purge extra applications you don’t like that windows 10 installed. Xbox, Groove, etc. You cannot do this by the programs menu, it has to be done by the powershell. Do not download programs that promise to remove these items. If you don’t know how to use powershell and still want to remove these programs PM me and I’ll give you a hand.

Now is the point to plug your network cable back in. Watch windows update like a hawk if you don’t want to get the anniversary update.

Now is time for the games. You will need to download various launchers fresh. Why? Because these things actually handle the windows registration of the installation. Some games will let you just copy the files over and be fine – however most will not. Use the launchers to start the game download then stop/pause/close. Now you can copy your game files over from your external disk to the folders on your PC (whether it’s the windows HD or not). Once that is done you will need to run the game launcher again to make sure it recognises the files. I would then personally run a repair to make sure all the files are in working order.

You now have a fresh install of windows 10. If you have any questions feel free to PM me. As an aside many SSDs start to show performance issues when less than 15%* of disk space is free. * The exact value depends on many things, but if you aim for 10-15% you should be fine. This applies to more than just the OS disk, it applies to any other SSDs in your machine.

Lady Lozza.9670:

Dimos & Ekkue,

For the free upgrade, you pretty much had to go via the in-place upgrade. I tried it the other way and microsoft didn’t like it. On the plus side your windows 7 key is now registered with microsoft as windows 10, on the downside a fresh install will take an hour or two.

If you wish to do a fresh installation the very first thing I would recommend is getting an external drive and coping over files for games that you plan on installing or re-installing. This will limit download sizes and times. In the case of GW and GW2 the important file is the *.dat file. (Also save screenshots and for GW any build profiles.)
For other games you won’t find a nice neat data file that you can just throw on a disk, so you will want pretty much everything. If you have steam games steam has a library export function which works pretty well.

Ensure all personal files are backed up. I recommend multiple copies.

Download the basics that you like to work with and put them on this external disk, as an example I like chrome as a web browser. If you use dropbox or a password program I would be grabbing a copy of the installation file for that as well. Grab all driver files from the manufacturer’s websites and make sure to download the latest stable driver for your GPU. If you are running an AMD card this is not necessarily the latest driver.

After you have everything you want backed up you will want to head to microsoft’s site to grab a file that you can place on a DVD or a flash drive to use for the clean install. Microsoft’s site actually has very good instructions on how to do this. Do not go to another site for this even though it might be the first thing to show up in a google search.

Once you have your DVD or USB boot disk readied do a second, third and forth check of your files. Take another back up if you are paranoid.

(Now because I am paranoid, I usually unplug all my other HD while doing a fresh OS install, just so I don’t accidentally overwrite the wrong disk but it isn’t necessary.)

Now depending on your PC you may need to go into setup (usually F2 or ESC just after boot) to get it to boot from a DVD or USB. After doing this your BIOS will prompt you to save the settings and reboot and then windows will do its thing and install.

Depending on what version of windows you are running the first thing it will want to do after the fresh install is update. This can be fixed by pulling the network cable. If you are running Home and you want automatic updates off you will need to do some work with the group policy editor. I believe this work around works in Home only prior to the anniversary update.

If you run and AMD GPU you may want to think about turning device update off. What this means is that none of your drivers will update via windows you will need to go to the manufacturer’s website for new drivers. If you are used to Windows 7 you will be used to this process already.

Plug in the drive you put driver files on and install your drivers. The drivers will want to reboot a few times during this process. Once that is done, put on the programs like Chrome, drop box etc.

An optional step now is to purge extra applications you don’t like that windows 10 installed. Xbox, Groove, etc. You cannot do this by the programs menu, it has to be done by the powershell. Do not download programs that promise to remove these items. If you don’t know how to use powershell and still want to remove these programs PM me and I’ll give you a hand.

Now is the point to plug your network cable back in. Watch windows update like a hawk if you don’t want to get the anniversary update.

Now is time for the games. You will need to download various launchers fresh. Why? Because these things actually handle the windows registration of the installation. Some games will let you just copy the files over and be fine – however most will not. Use the launchers to start the game download then stop/pause/close. Now you can copy your game files over from your external disk to the folders on your PC (whether it’s the windows HD or not). Once that is done you will need to run the game launcher again to make sure it recognises the files. I would then personally run a repair to make sure all the files are in working order.

You now have a fresh install of windows 10. If you have any questions feel free to PM me. As an aside many SSDs start to show performance issues when less than 15%* of disk space is free. * The exact value depends on many things, but if you aim for 10-15% you should be fine. This applies to more than just the OS disk, it applies to any other SSDs in your machine.

I could do all that, but I hardly doubt it will help, since GW2 is the ONLY game from several I’m playing (even some indie games) which isn’t starting instantly.

And because of at least 1 friend who has the exact same problem but also only with gw2. So I don’t think it is “my fault”.

I allready de-installed all of gw2 (also the hidden appdatafiles and some registry key) and run a -repair, nothing helped so far.

Maybe I will try that out somewhere in the future (a complete clean install with usb-installtion)