Guild Wars 2

Hey All,

I currently have an issue where when I play GW2 my machine completely freezes up, I cannot Ctrl+Alt+Delete and the mouse does not respond either. I have to hard reset my machine to get it working again.

This can happen anytime between just after login and a few hours of game play.

I re-installed Windows yesterday as i thought that might have been the issue but it crashed again today.

My PC spec are below:
Operating System
Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit SP1

CPU
Intel Core i5 2500K @ 3.30GHz
Sandy Bridge 32nm Technology

RAM
16.0 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 667MHz (9-9-9-24)

Motherboard
Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. Z77M-D3H (Intel Core i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz)

Graphics
SMB2230H (1920×1080@60Hz)
ATI Radeon HD 5700 Series (XFX Pine Group)

Hard Drives
466GB Seagate ST95005620AS ATA Device (SATA)

Audio
SB 5.1 VX

I know it is not an overheating issue as I do use a temperature monitor and my temps are cool.

This is ONLY when GW2 is loaded.

i’m having the same problem, it just started for the first time yesterday after i had been playing for a couple hours and now it happens everytime i boot up the game.
i completely deleted the folder because even with the uninstall tool, my pc would freeze up. im redownloading now and seeing if that will help

Why is completely reinstalling the OS almost always the default reaction to these problems? It takes considerably longer than ensuring your video card drivers are up-to-date or coming to these forums to see if others have the same problem with a working solution.

Is this issue exclusive to GW2? You noted GW2 in your title but not whether other 3D games give you similar problems.

As it stands, it seems that something ANet did recently introduced an issue for many players. I am hoping it is “magically” fixed like other recent solutions which have cropped up without declaration.

Any chance it might be your CPU ?
In your bios is it runnign the CPU at any default OC at all ?

Just to make sure it isnt a CPU issue you could run Prime95 on a custom blend test(change 4gb ram to 14gb ram in your case) for 12hours to make sure your CPU isnt causing errors.

i only bring it up since its a 2500K and on a gigabyte mothebroard which tends to have inbuilt OC profiles. Also a full OS reinstall tends ot rule out software issues ..usualy.

This bothers me
RAM
16.0 GB Dual-Channel DDR3 @ 667MHz (9-9-9-24)
So your running 2 sticks of 1333MHz ram or 4? If it’s 4 was it bought as a quad channel kit or 2 seprate dual channel kits? Is the ram voltage 1.5 or 1.65 V? Does it read the correct timings in BIOS?

SolarNova.1052:

Any chance it might be your CPU ?
In your bios is it runnign the CPU at any default OC at all ?

Just to make sure it isnt a CPU issue you could run Prime95 on a custom blend test(change 4gb ram to 14gb ram in your case) for 12hours to make sure your CPU isnt causing errors.

i only bring it up since its a 2500K and on a gigabyte mothebroard which tends to have inbuilt OC profiles. Also a full OS reinstall tends ot rule out software issues ..usualy.

GB motherboards only OC when you tell them 2

I am having the same problem, crashed 4 times so far and it seems to happen only when the inventory is open (bank, traits, skills, etc.)

Can’t alt+tab or ctrl+alt+del out of it. Have to manually restart the computer.

Not sure what’s wrong, cause I haven’t downloaded/installed/changed anything since I played the game last night where everything was working fine.

My ATI drivers are up to date.

Grim:
Yes this in only with GW2, that is why I had put This is ONLY when GW2 is loaded at the end of my post. Yes other games work fine. I re-installed OS as I hadn’t done so for a while anyway and thought I might aswell.

SolarNova:
My CPU is not OC. Yes Gigabyte boards do have options for OC but there are just options, they are not automatically done.

Zerk:
I am running 4×4GB sticks of Corsair LP Vengeance. All timing and voltage are correct.

I’ve had the occasional crash here and there since the game went live (compared to a stress test where running the game at all would crash near instantly upon entering the game world) but it was so rare I paid it little mind and expected the problem to be eventually ironed out.

So imagine my displeasure when the launcher patches my client with the new build and the game proves highly volatile once again. Often I can’t stay in the game world for even a minute before the screen turns to lines and the speakers buzz repetitively (very rarely I’ll get a blue screen).

I’ve checked drivers old and new, I’ve stress tested my hardware in stock and custom configurations, temperatures are normal, other 3D applications don’t cause issues, it’s only GW2 that’s incredibly volatile and only since the latest build implementation.

Not that hardware ought to be relevant (given that it’s otherwise been mostly running fine till now) but:
i5-2500k
Sapphire Radeon 6950 Toxic x2 (yes I’ve tried multiple things with the cards too)
Geil Black Dragon DDR3 16GB
Samsung 830 256GB SSD
Gigabyte P67X-UD3 mobo
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit

a full system freeze, i would usually attribute to a VCCIO voltage being to low
For the record, VCCIO is the equivalent of the x58’s QPI/DRAM or QPI/VTT (The voltage of the IMC itself, not the dram driving voltage, which is 1.35 or 1.5v on the Vengeance)

If you had filled all sata and usb slots, it could be PCH/IOH needing a slight boost. But i don’t see this from your specs to be the case.

Since you are using all 4 slots, my first step would be to give the VCCIO some more juice. Increase it to 1.1v (default 1.05v)

Well, i get this issue and its always when i log into the guildwars 2 launcher, it randomly hangs the machine, its like a 50/50 chance of it working fine or hanging the machine and it always requires are hard reset.

It is not my machine, no other game causes this and i play ALOT of them, sure games do crash, but they never, cause my machine to lockup at all and most of those crashes are caused by my modding (i love to mod single player games).

Anyway, i have the following hardware config:

Intel Core i7-3820 @ stock 3.60Ghz
8GB DDR3 Dual channel @ 1600Mhz
64-Bit Windows 7 Home Edition
Nvidia Geforce 480GTX – Latest Drivers, so you know.

I never overclock, the risk is never worth the gain and so far, no other game causes this lockup and its yet to lockup while ingame, but then i haven’t played for a few hours straight yet.

Right now, the 50/50 lockup chance is putting me off of playing this game, free or not, i prefer to play a game that doesn’t lockup my machine.

JamieK, don’t hijack this thread, start your own.

I have a new pc, I don’t have the freeze, but with all the games I’ve thrown at it, GW’s 2 makes the pc run the hottest of all. It could be over-heating your cpu, thus freezing. Can you download a cpu monitoring app w/overlay so you can see the temp of the pc as you play and when it crashes?

whats with the attitude?

I get roughly the same issues, its just mine mostly happens at the launcher, i haven’t got the chance to play much due to it, but ok, any solutuon i find will not be shared here, since i don’t want to hijack a thread.

good bye and good luck getting it to not lockup your machine topic starter.

JamieK, i did say start your own.

If you find a solution, by all means post it. But the point is, all issues should be treated as individually as possible because they don’t all have the same cause. Cluttering a thread with a bunch of me too’s does not do anything towards resolving the issue.

Squall Leonhart.2075 – I have tried to change the VCCIO voltage but my BIOS does not allow this, the option is greyed out.

Just remove the RAM sticks and leave it only one inserted. It will be no difference in performance, but will sport a huge advantage in on-line time. Somehow this game provokes a RAM errors in dual- and quad-channel modes. I have spent a month to solve my issues on this.

Feel free to run a Memtest86 diagnostic; it was this to show me the way.

Luck!

provokes a RAM errors in dual- and quad-channel modes. I have spent a month to solve my issues on this.

No.

Spookz.1753:

Squall Leonhart.2075 – I have tried to change the VCCIO voltage but my BIOS does not allow this, the option is greyed out.

you would have to enable manual tuning in the bios.

Spookz.1753:

Squall Leonhart.2075 – I have tried to change the VCCIO voltage but my BIOS does not allow this, the option is greyed out.

don’t ever do that, and certainly not for one game that is a problem and no others are.

only ever change your voltage settings after you have checked what the thresholds are for your ram modules.

a .5v increase on one ram type might not cause any issues while on another could kill it, rare given the quality of ram these days but why take a risk without checking with proper sources and not a forum poster here.

never perform an oc without getting good advice from a reliable source, there are websites and forums devoted to overclocking with lists of stable overclock changes to make that will work, always check before doing any type of oc.

any voltage change as suggested by squal is an overclock, if you have a problem it could make that problem a lot worse very quickly.

op, what software do you use with your machine? are there any additional graphic related software that is in use? fraps and such, are you using catalyst ai to overclock the gpu? any and all info would be helpful.

and never rely on any post saying to change a voltage or overclock on a games forum, use a more reliable site for that kind of thing.

Squall Leonhart.2075:

Spookz.1753:

Squall Leonhart.2075 – I have tried to change the VCCIO voltage but my BIOS does not allow this, the option is greyed out.

you would have to enable manual tuning in the bios.

you are suggesting an overclock on an unstable system….i can’t even begin to imagine how many levels of stupid you went through to come to this solution.

how about a ram test first? or did that skip your brilliant mind?
or even a hdd test, who knows maybe he has a faulty sector?
maybe it was just a corruption in the os..
maybe it is being caused by a virus/trojan/malware they can cause major instability in a system as that is what they are meant to do when not jacking your info.

and as to overclocking…stop suggesting voltage changes that could cause him massive instability, it’s not you’re pc, best advice for a voltage change is to send him to a website that deals strictly with overclocking where posters have ample experience in this field.

Increasing voltage rarely causes instability unless it overheats.

Secondly OverClocking refers to the Clock rate hence ‘clocking’ ..leaving clocks at stock and fidling with votlages to try and gain stability ..is not OC’ing.

Therefor if someone says they have an unstable system and they have done eveyrthing possible software wise ..and someone sugest voltage tweeks to hardware as a possible fix…it is not a stretch ..nor is it stupid.

SolarNova.1052:

Increasing voltage rarely causes instability unless it overheats.

Secondly OverClocking refers to the Clock rate hence ‘clocking’ ..leaving clocks at stock and fidling with votlages to try and gain stability ..is not OC’ing.

Therefor if someone says they have an unstable system and they have done eveyrthing possible software wise ..and someone sugest voltage tweeks to hardware as a possible fix…it is not a stretch ..nor is it stupid.

^^^^^ This
If you monitor your temps it’s all good. Although in the case of the OP I would remove 2 sticks of ram and try it again then if I still had problems swap them out with the 2 I removed.
This game seems to be very pickey when it comes to ram and no I can not answer why but simple things like timings will give you fits, It will make good ram read bad.

Locomoto.7918:

Just remove the RAM sticks and leave it only one inserted. It will be no difference in performance, but will sport a huge advantage in on-line time. Somehow this game provokes a RAM errors in dual- and quad-channel modes. I have spent a month to solve my issues on this.

Feel free to run a Memtest86 diagnostic; it was this to show me the way.

Luck!

This is not true I run 4 sticks of 4gb 2133 ram with no problems.
Their actually a reason why you can buy 16GB of 2133 ram for $90 or pay $250

Thanks for all your help guys but the one thing i don’t get is why i should change my PC setup just for this one game.

I can play every other game just fine, RIFT, Crysis 2, BF3, CS:GO, Saints Row 3rd, Skyrim, its just this one failing.

My machine ONLY fails on this game.

I have run Intel Burn and Prime95 with no errors or issues with overheating. Running Intel Burn on maximum only takes my temps to 53 max.

Once again thanks for all your help but i refuse to change my system for 1 game. Would rather just find something else to play.

OK so just gone to play the game and it has crashed again. As i have not seen any sign that Arena Net actually care i am writing to them for a refund. This game is unplayable and unfit for purpose. Hate to do this as the game(when it works) is awesome, but i’m fed up of crashing.

If you’re running an nVidia card and have an issue with a full system freeze with randomly colored screen(s) and ‘stuck’ sound, the solution is to downclock your card by 10-20%. This will have a fairly minimal effect on gameplay and will solve that particular crash issue.

Swag my original post explains that I have an ATI card, it also explains that I get full system lock up, not weird colours, when this happens I have no sound.

Swag.4923:

If you’re running an nVidia card and have an issue with a full system freeze with randomly colored screen(s) and ‘stuck’ sound, the solution is to downclock your card by 10-20%. This will have a fairly minimal effect on gameplay and will solve that particular crash issue.

This doesn’t work for me. Downclocked both core and memory frequencies by more than 20% and still no go.