Guild Wars 2

Currently the game sometimes crashes and causes a BSOD while on fullscreen mode with latest nvidia drivers 353.62.

temporary workaround: switch to borderless windowed mode

Still happens in Borderless Windowed mode.

I’ve also been having this problem. Re-installing drivers didn’t help and it does the same thing when I disable my Nvida GeForce 840m graphics and just use Intel HD4600. If I try to disable Intel HD4600 then the game takes forever to load and then once it does load it shows a half loaded map and then crashes, seems like it isn’t using the Nvida graphics even though it’s the only one enabled. I’ll update if I figure out a workaround/fix.

After I upgraded from Win 8.1×64 to Win10x64, I first had to run a repair on my GW2 installation as it would not load and locked up my graphics. After the repair it loaded OK, but now I notice that if I try to alt-TAB to the Win10 desktop out of GW2 in fullscreen mode, it will just go back to the GW2 screen unless two things happen first: 1. have another program running on the desktop, ie. a web browser; 2. I call up the GW2 map before I alt-TAB. If I do those two things, I can alt-TAB out of GW2 and come back, otherwise the screen will just flash and cycle back to the GW2 screen

My graphics card: nVidia GTX660 using the latest nVidia Win10 driver, not the one installed by Windows during the upgrade. GW2 graphics settings all maxed, SMAA-high antialiasing. nVidia non-default profile settings for GW2: Power: prefer maximum performance, Ambient Occlusion: ON

I get an actual blue-screen that says VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (igdkmd64.sys) when it happens and it doesn’t always happen. I plugged in my headphones and it minimized GW2 without breaking anything and now I can alt-tab just fine. Really weird. I did close an Asus program that adjust screen color to make it more orange or blue. I’ll restart and see if that might be the source of the problem.

i treated the upgrade like a fresh install, set compatablity to win 7- reinstall all drivers frm the oem website.

not had any issues yet.

Jon Olson.8439:

Are these crashes accompanied by the game’s crash reporting dialog? If so, please post the crash text found after clicking on “show details”. Please post them as attachments.

get blue screen so no way of knowing if a dialog appears, unless there is an error log for gw2 somewhere.
the blue screen error is as posted before, VIDEO_TDR_FAILURE (igdkmd64.sys)
Windowed mode still works no problem

Intel did release newer Win 10 drivers in the last day or two. See if they will help.

I’m having this problem too. newest intel drivers didnt help.

i am having a similar issue my screen just freezes and/or program completely closes no error message.. running windows 10 x64 dual gtx 660ti g cards 12gbs of ram, and intel i5-2500cpu

I had the same TDR video failure error with an Intel driver… Graphics were updated via the HP website, did everything right, but the game is still unplayable.mi did think for a few minutes it was ok, but the character select screen jumps and freezes, graphic blocks and missing faces/ body parts….

You need to submit a ticket to support unfortunately.

Oh and when I was able to play I had the lowest settings possible in game, and windowed mode, but it would still freeze and become unresponsive.

I’m currently installing the game as a fresh install on a fresh Win 10 install!

Same problem here, upgraded to win10, and i get crash after 3rd or 4th alt+tab. Blue win10 screen. Nvidia750M , drivers up to date.

Yep exactly the same problem. Computers hardlocking after installing windows 10. It has worked perfectly for many months.

I will pop another repair and see. But I doubt it.

Running a i7-4790 and ASUS GTX970.

So far it’s crashed twice since I installed windows 10, both in the same region.

Never had any problems with GW2 before

Same issue for me. It initially caused a hardlock, in which I would have to force reboot via power button. After re-installing GPU drivers and updating OS as much as possible, the game just minimizes randomly and I can’t maximize it.

There is no error code with the game. Are there logs I can check for an error?

Specs:
Windows 10 Pro
GTX 970 SC ACX 2.0 (slightly OC) [353.62 version drivers]
FX 6300 @ 4.1 GHz
16 GB of RAM
Game installed on HDD, OS on SSD

I have the Kernel driver has stopped working error message when I alt-tab, which I finally managed to fix by playing the game in fullscreen windows mode.

New PC, upgraded to W10. Tried both latest and previous drivers, Geforce GTX 745

The belief is an issue with Nvidia drivers atm, but if there’s any direct connection to GW2 that re-assures me the issue is more isolated

Some ALT+Tab issues are Windows 10 based…ie: ALT+Tab = screen flicker then returning to GW2. From my understanding these are being worked on and should have an update to correct them.

moonstarmac.4603:

Some ALT+Tab issues are Windows 10 based…ie: ALT+Tab = screen flicker then returning to GW2. From my understanding these are being worked on and should have an update to correct them.

Good to know. Something to keep an eye on

For anyone with this issue, try playing the game without Precision X. That’s what was causing it for me. I’ve since switched to Afterburner and the game is running just fine.

I’m still having this problem, except I get one alt tab. A single one. After that, my screen blacks out and alternates between being lit up but black screen, and off. Waiting does nothing. I have to restart my computer every time.

Are u in fullscreen? Mine fixed itself in windowed fullscreen in every single game this happened to.

I haven’t been able to play – this bug with crashing, originally started yesterday (9/3). When closing the client, my computer would crash, going blank screen, with no dialog boxes.

Today it would crash consistently – at close of client only – until the Beta weekend started. At that point, the game is now (at least for me) only able to run around 2-5 minutes.

Since then, I have tested other games, just running in the back ground (D3, Witcher 3) to see if my computer would crash, it has not, games have been running (open – borderless window) for over an hour now.

Some of the things I have done:
1) Started playing with all the old drivers for nvidia to see if it was a driver issue
2) Did a complete format and re-installation of Windows 10 thinking it was an MS/Nvidia issue
3) Accidentally installed 32 bit Win 10 client, which I will test and update today, the game did not crash during the short time I left 32 bit Win 10 on, but I cannot give a time GW2 was running.

There is some issue with Guild Wars 2 and nvidia graphics cards.

Computer specifications:
i7-4770k – standard 3.5 ghz
16 gb ram
Nvidia 780-Ti
Windows 10, x64

Same issue here… same spec… i think the problem is the intel driver for windows 10…

I have two pcs , one NVID and one ATI. Both have same issue, and it just started this week. Press window key our alt tab, and you get blue screen on Windows 10. Latest drivers across the board. Wondering if it’s client update with all the patches being pushed right now.

There seems to be a problem with switching between full screen contexts and windowed contexts when the computer has an Intel low power and some other high power GPU like on many laptops. I get this at random between GW2 and win 10, but I’ve seen it with other games like Sims4. This is definitely a driver issue, probably with Intel since the crash is with their driver for me. Latest Intel drivers lowered the frequency of crashes but didn’t eliminate them.

A workaround would be to disable one or the other GPUs. I’ve read deleting the driver does this… But then you don’t have dual GPU.

I get this exact problem too. Windows 10 with 2 gpus. Alt + tab = BSOD TDR crash.

Think its a driver issue

I had this same problem/crash yesterday and a few times in the days before. I decided to try and update my graphics drivers and found there was an update for the Intel one. I haven’t had a crash/BSOD all day yesterday and so far today since I did that. It also seems to have fixed the news feed not loading in the startup screen.
Hope this helps.

I updated my all drivers and still get it

Don’t know if this is related to the nVidia driver crash, which is also typically caused by a TDR timeout. My recommendation, as a test, is to try downclocking your video card. You will never hurt your card by downclocking. I’ve seen this error on my machine and could reproduce it depending on the settings I chose in GW2. A video driver crash can cause an automatic reboot, a system freeze or it can actually recover after sitting for 10-15 seconds with the sound going in the background

No guarantees it will work, but it can’t hurt to try it…read this thread post.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Crash-to-blank-screen-with-sound-SOLVED/5755714

Here is a good article in the nVidia site about TDR issues. TDR is “supposed” to reset an unresponsive video driver to, in theory, prevent BSODs and hard crashes. In practice, it doesn’t work terribly great.

https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/389688/geforce-drivers/nvidia-statement-on-tdr-errors-display-driver-nvlddmkm-stopped-/

Actually, the display adapter reset is working great. If this mechanism doesn’t exist, a bluescreen or simply a hung system would happen every time a TDR happens. With it, we “only” have a pause of 10 seconds and can continue working.

However, it is only a workaround against faulty hardware. On a system with ok hardware, a TDR never happens.
So the message is: “fix your hardware” and not “search for a driver where TDR will happen less often”.

In the linked thread, the solution was to underclock the GPU (or reset an overclocked GPU to standard clock), which is the easiest fix for the hardware. If that isn’t working, a real hardware issue may be the case: GPU may be defective or incompatible with the mainboard or the power supply may be defective.

Silmar Alech.4305:

Actually, the display adapter reset is working great. If this mechanism doesn’t exist, a bluescreen or simply a hung system would happen every time a TDR happens. With it, we “only” have a pause of 10 seconds and can continue working.

However, it is only a workaround against faulty hardware. On a system with ok hardware, a TDR never happens.
So the message is: “fix your hardware” and not “search for a driver where TDR will happen less often”.

In the linked thread, the solution was to underclock the GPU (or reset an overclocked GPU to standard clock), which is the easiest fix for the hardware. If that isn’t working, a real hardware issue may be the case: GPU may be defective or incompatible with the mainboard or the power supply may be defective.

Yes, the TDR works fine, depending on the settings in GW2. The higher the settings, meaning the more load you put on the GPU, the more likely the TDR is to fail and still either cause a hard crash or spontaneous reboot. Keeping the settings low the TDR usually functions as designed and recovers after 10-15 seconds while a hard crash would happen only about 1 out of every 4 crashes…at least for me. Lowering the clock allows me to run GW2 with settings fully maxed and no crashes at all. This is on my 3 year old 670, so some of the cards people are having problems with, such as the 970 and 980ti, GW2 shouldn’t even make sweat…but it does….why? Poor optimization maybe? Who knows, but it has been a problem with GW2 for years, so is not likely going away any time soon.

Let’s be clear though. Lowering the clock speed was not a fix for the hardware, it was a fix for GW2. I only lower the clock for GW2, nothing else. The fully clocked hardware works fine for everything else I’ve thrown at it. Dishonored, Watch Dogs (Horribly overrated game), Darksiders 2, Bioshock Infinite, Wolfenstein: New Order, Alien: Isolation, Skyrim (Full HD with over 40 graphical mods), Batman Arkham games, L4D2, etc., etc. etc. Mostly A-list games, released in the last three years. Not many graphical slouches there except for perhaps L4D2.

It may ultimately not be faulty hardware, at least not entirely since it doesn’t affect every overclocked card, but it must also be something specific to how GW2 uses the GPU that causes the crashes. Keep in mind that most people who experience this issue only experience it in GW2 and everything else works fine. Even ANet openly admits that GW2 is sensitive to overclocked hardware and recommends against it.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Crashing-Issues-1/first#post4146866

“You may also want to check to see if any of your hardware is overclocked or is utilizing a Turbo Boost feature. If so, consider returning to stock settings, because Guild Wars 2 is sensitive to overclocking.”

Also, if you were to ask nVidia directly (Not eVGA, MSI, etc.), they will tell you many of the “factory overclocked” cards are overclocked too aggressively and would be considered borderline unstable.

The problem Spambot.3625 is having may be unrelated, but lowering the clock is worth a go and is a safe and easy test to see if it clears up the crashing.

I just had my first BSOD crash again since my last post in this topic and it was triggered when I tried to /wiki something from chat in the game.
That is actually what triggered my last BSOD as well. I have been alt/tabbing all day for days without any crashes until this.
Computer specs:
i7-4710HQ – 2.5GHz
12 gb ram
Nvidia GTX 860M
Windows 10, x64

“Even ANet openly admits that GW2 is sensitive to overclocked hardware and recommends against it.”

I just wanted to point out that there is no such thing as software being sensitive to overclocked hardware. The hardware is either 100% stable under all conditions or it isn’t completely stable.

Some programs may trigger the unstable overclock to fail, while others won’t. This has to do with how the code is utilizing the hardware.

This is also why programs such as Memtest often won’t detect RAM that fails under very heavy read/write cycles.

abomally.2694:

“Even ANet openly admits that GW2 is sensitive to overclocked hardware and recommends against it.”

I just wanted to point out that there is no such thing as software being sensitive to overclocked hardware. The hardware is either 100% stable under all conditions or it isn’t completely stable.

Yes, and I said that…“It may ultimately not be faulty hardware, at least not entirely since it doesn’t affect every overclocked card, but it must also be something specific to how GW2 uses the GPU that causes the crashes.” I refer to the GPU/TDR timeout crashes here.

But now you’re splitting hairs. Of course you’re right, but it doesn’t change the situation. If it’s only unstable in GW2, then it’s 99.9% stable and a solution that fixes GW2 may be rather more optimal than spending a pile of time and money replacing hardware and trying to track down the “real” issue.

Again, I was just reiterating what ANet said in their sticky about possible causes of crashes.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/support/Crashing-Issues-1/first#post4146866

“You may also want to check to see if any of your hardware is overclocked or is utilizing a Turbo Boost feature. If so, consider returning to stock settings, because Guild Wars 2 is sensitive to overclocking.”

It’s obviously a problem with flaky overclocking and/or hardware compatibility issues and how GW2 uses the hardware to trigger it. The point of the post in the crashing sticky is that ANet admits there’s a problem with their software. The problem has existed for the better part of 3 years and they’re obviously in no hurry to resolve it. They introduced a patch, I want to say somewhere early January of 2013 and this is when the issues started. It was fine Mid-December 2012 (When I bought the machine) up to that point.

Some people have had success RMAing their cards to resolve the issue, while the more common theme on the nVidia forum is for people to RMA or otherwise replace their cards only to have the exact same issue. Which points more to a build compatibility issue that only GW2 triggers. While downclocking is obviously not ideal, if the problem only exists in GW2, as it does for many people, it could resolve a lot of frustration without without spending a pile of money (With a likely potential that the problem still not be resolved).

Keep in mind the cause of this problem is incredibly elusive, it’s affected nVidia cards for over 10 years, people still see it on the Titan-X and no one seems to be able to pin it down. Is it a hardware issue? Windows? Drivers? The behavior points to issues with the hardware…except that it tends to only happen under very specific, unknown, circumstances. Over the last 3 years, I’ve dealt extensively with nVidia/eVGA and the shop where I purchased the computer. After multiple stress tests by the shop on the machine, they refused to replace the card saying they could find nothing wrong. They did replace some bad memory (With the wrong timing…idiots), but it didn’t help. nVidia/eVGA flatly told me it would not qualify for RMA because the situation was software related and could not be reproduced. I think their stance may have changed on this because I do see people RMAing due to this, with varied results. Quite often the new card does not fix the problem.

I am not overclocked and get it. I have to exit the game rather than alt&tab to avoid getting a BSOD