Guild Wars 2

I’m not sure where to start with getting help with this problem, so I’m starting here.

Since Nov. 10, my computer occasionally crashes to a BSOD when I play Guild Wars. It never crashes any other time. I also have problems where the game crashes without crashing the computer as well. The first memory dump is from Nov. 10, 2012 when this problem started.

Even if I don’t have any other programs open, my computer crashes when I run GW2. It does not crash every time I play, and often I can play for hours without a problem before it crashes.

I updated my audio, video and mouse drivers. I don’t remember the dates when I updated them, but I updated the video driver shortly after the computer started crashing. I updated the audio drivers a couple days ago, and I updated my Razer mouse drivers today.

Dxdiag gives more information about my computer than you probably want (19 pages of it), and I don’t know what is relevant. Here is a sample of it. I can send the complete file if needed. My questions are at the bottom of this post.

System Information
—————————
Time of this report: 11/23/2012, 17:31:14
Machine name: USER-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_gdr.120830-0333)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: EX58-UD3R
BIOS: Award Modular BIOS v6.00PG
Processor: Intel® Core™ i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.8GHz
Memory: 6142MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 6142MB RAM
Page File: 2348MB used, 9935MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

Display Devices
———————-
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce 9600 GT

Driver Version: 9.18.13.697
DDI Version: 10
Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 10/2/2012 15:21:00, 18252136 bytes
WHQL Logo’d: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:

The GeForce 9600 GT in my computer does not support DirectX 11 according to http://www.geforce.com/drivers/results/49948

Does GW2 require DirectX 11?

Is this likely to be causing my computer to crash while running GW2?

If this is the likely cause of the crashes and if GW2 does not require DirectX 11, can somebody point me in the right direction to go back to an older version of DirectX?

The GeForce 9600 GT in my computer does not support DirectX 11

Its a Direct3D 10 device, which has support for Direct3D11 via Feature Level 10. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff476872%28v=vs.85%29.aspx)

Does GW2 require DirectX 11?

No – We wish.

Is this likely to be causing my computer to crash while running GW2?

No, Bsods are the result of an unstable computer either because of the software(kerne\device drivers), but more frequently because of the hardware state (Faulty or misconfigured hardware)

If this is the likely cause of the crashes and if GW2 does not require DirectX 11, can somebody point me in the right direction to go back to an older version of DirectX?

DirectX upgrades are one way, and 7 included Dx11 from day 1.

Newer gpu drivers in some cases causes ur gpu to produce more heat, u could try to downgrade ur gpu drivers to see if its actually a overheat issue or a driver issue.

newer gpu drivers in some cases causes ur gpu to produce more heat

To the extent of crashing, would still imply fault somewhere in the card.

The exact BSOD code would help.

Hi Jemmali,

Microsoft recently pushed out an “important” Windows Update that has been causing BSOD for people with Nvidia cards, and I have a feeling that might be your problem. There’s a little bit more information about it here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-hardware/nvidia-graphics-adapter-wddm-11-graphics-adapter/8a4be740-7848-40ca-b799-1427bc053aa3

I ran into this too, which got so bad that once I got a BSOD in GW2 (which never happened EVER prior to this update), rebooting my PC would cause a BSOD immediately upon starting up Windows, which was quite scary and something that made me think my video card was going bad. However, I was able to do a System Restore to just prior to when I got the update. I had to do this a few times, trying different versions of the official Nvidia drivers for my GeForce 560 Ti card, still eventually getting this BSOD problem, until I finally noticed that a Windows update was labeled as something like “Graphics Adapter WDDM1.1, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.2” was being pushed out to my PC after I restored it back to a state a few days earlier.

Researching this update, I came across the above forum posting and then hid that update so that it wouldn’t be installed. So far, it’s fixed my recurring BSOD. It’s always made me incredibly paranoid about Microsoft’s updates, since I’ve never had reason to distrust them before.

Not sure if this is the best way to do this or not, but the attached file has the information from the minidumps when my computer crashed. I added notes about what I did after the crashes and information from Windows Error Reporting. There is a lot more in the minidumps and some of them reference Gw2.exe.

Short version:
Nov. 10:
BugCheck 50, {fffff8a04150bf80, 0, fffff800031ae0e7, 5}
Could not read faulting driver name
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!AlpcAddHandleTableEntry+3b )
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (50)

Nov. 11:
BugCheck 50, {fffffa80458d5620, 0, fffff88004020ce5, 5}
Could not read faulting driver name
Probably caused by : dxgmms1.sys ( dxgmms1!VIDMM_GLOBAL::ReferenceAllocationForPreparation+19 )
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (50)

Nov. 13:
BugCheck D1, {fffff80042edee7a, 2, 8, fffff80042edee7a}
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KiPageFault+260 )
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (d1)

I don’t remember exactly when, but somewhere around this time I updated my video drivers as a first stab at trying to fix the problem. I downloaded the new drivers from nVidia’s web site, uninstalled the existing nVidia drivers, rebooted, installed the new nVidia drivers and rebooted again.

Nov 18:
BugCheck 50, {fffff8a0443823d0, 1, fffff8800443a983, 5}

• WARNING: Unable to verify timestamp for win32k.sys
• ERROR: Module load completed but symbols could not be loaded for win32k.sys

Could not read faulting driver name
Probably caused by : dxgmms1.sys ( dxgmms1!VidMmDestroyAllocation+43 )

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (50)

Could not read faulting driver name

Nov. 21, 6:11 p.m.:
BugCheck D1, {fffff80042e99e7a, 2, 8, fffff80042e99e7a}

Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KiPageFault+260 )
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (d1)

PROCESS_NAME: avp.exe

Nov. 21, 8:44 p.m.:
BugCheck D1, {fffff80042ed7e7a, 2, 8, fffff80042ed7e7a}

Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KiPageFault+260 )
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (d1)

At this point I updated my audio drivers, and I thought that fixed the problem, but the problem came back.

Nov. 23, 12:20 p.m.:
BugCheck 50, {fffff8004319007a, 8, fffff8004319007a, 5}

Could not read faulting driver name
Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt! ?? ::FNODOBFM::`string’+437c1 )

Nov. 23, 12:29 p.m.:
BugCheck A, {fffffa804588bc28, 2, 0, fffff80002eea8d9}

Probably caused by : ntkrnlmp.exe ( nt!KiTimerExpiration+d9 )
IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (a)

At this point I updated my mouse drivers, and I thought that fixed the problem, but the problem came back.

Nov. 23, 3:55 p.m.:
BugCheck D1, {fffffa8046b88fd0, 2, 0, fffff8800455cf0c}

Probably caused by : usbuhci.sys ( usbuhci!UhciProcessDoneAsyncTd+24 )
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (d1)

Nov. 23, 11:12 p.m.:
BugCheck 50, {fffff8a055ae54b0, 0, fffff8800456305b, 5}

Could not read faulting driver name
Probably caused by : dxgmms1.sys ( dxgmms1!VIDMM_GLOBAL::ReferenceAllocationForSubmission+10b )
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA (50)*

Also the minidump files do not show the extent of the problem. There is not a minidump file for every crash, unless there is some sort of discrepancy between the minidump file dates and what shows up in Windows Error Reporting. The attached file has the full text of the minidumps and the Windows Error Reporting.

I looked up usbuhci.sys and avp.exe problems that cause computer crashes, and that lead me to look at my anti-virus software. I was using Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 and I found some information that linked it to BSOD problems. I updated it to Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2013. I played for hours yesterday without a crash. That is a good sign, but that does not mean that the problem is fixed. It tends to be intermittent as you can see by the dates of the minidump files.

Well, I had hoped that upgrading Kaspersky had fixed it, but no such luck. It crashed again. All I was doing was standing around in Lion’s Arch looking at gear on the Trading Post when it crashed.

The error message gives the impression that it is a driver problem, but I am at a loss to know which driver it could be.

DareWreck.4107:

Hi Jemmali,

Microsoft recently pushed out an “important” Windows Update that has been causing BSOD for people with Nvidia cards, and I have a feeling that might be your problem. There’s a little bit more information about it here:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-hardware/nvidia-graphics-adapter-wddm-11-graphics-adapter/8a4be740-7848-40ca-b799-1427bc053aa3

I ran into this too, which got so bad that once I got a BSOD in GW2 (which never happened EVER prior to this update), rebooting my PC would cause a BSOD immediately upon starting up Windows, which was quite scary and something that made me think my video card was going bad. However, I was able to do a System Restore to just prior to when I got the update. I had to do this a few times, trying different versions of the official Nvidia drivers for my GeForce 560 Ti card, still eventually getting this BSOD problem, until I finally noticed that a Windows update was labeled as something like “Graphics Adapter WDDM1.1, Graphics Adapter WDDM1.2” was being pushed out to my PC after I restored it back to a state a few days earlier.

Researching this update, I came across the above forum posting and then hid that update so that it wouldn’t be installed. So far, it’s fixed my recurring BSOD. It’s always made me incredibly paranoid about Microsoft’s updates, since I’ve never had reason to distrust them before.

I’m not sure if my problem is the same or not. My computer does not seem to have the BSOD problem as often as the people that are experiencing this particular problem. I’ll look into this some more since it does seem to be related to drivers and I have updated everything I know how to update.

In looking at http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-hardware/nvidia-graphics-adapter-wddm-11-graphics-adapter/8a4be740-7848-40ca-b799-1427bc053aa3 and doing a few searches on Google, there are posts on other forums that suggest that there might be a problem with nVidia’s 306.97 driver. That is the one I upgraded to when the problems first started. I updated to 310.61 beta to see if it will help.

I found a dmp file from Nov. 21 in the Guild Wars 2 directory. For what it’s worth, this is what it had in it:

Microsoft® Windows Debugger Version 6.2.9200.20512 AMD64
Copyright © Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Loading Dump File [C:\Program Files (x86)\Guild Wars 2\Crash.dmp]
User Mini Dump File: Only registers, stack and portions of memory are available

Symbol search path is: SRV*C:\Symbols*http://msdl.microsoft.com/download/symbols
Executable search path is:
Windows 7 Version 7601 (Service Pack 1) MP (8 procs) Free x86 compatible
Product: WinNt, suite: SingleUserTS Personal
Machine Name:
Debug session time: Wed Nov 21 21:00:54.000 2012 (UTC – 7:00)
System Uptime: not available
Process Uptime: 0 days 0:10:11.000
……………………………………………………….
……………………….
This dump file has an exception of interest stored in it.
The stored exception information can be accessed via .ecxr.
(910.1198): Access violation – code c0000005 (first/second chance not available)
eax=00000000 ebx=3a1d9e18 ecx=00000000 edx=00000000 esi=3a1d9dd8 edi=3861e8e4
eip=77140c22 esp=3861e5a4 ebp=3861e5b4 iopl=0 nv up ei pl zr na pe nc
cs=0023 ss=002b ds=002b es=002b fs=0053 gs=002b efl=00200246
ntdll!ZwGetContextThread+0x12:
77140c22 83c404 add esp,4

Jemmali, the changing faulting drivers (particularly the drivers mentioned) all suggest a fault caused either by degrading hardware, faulty system memory or memory controller or lack of clean power.

You could try running memtest (does Home Premium include it in F8 options? If not – http://www.memtest.org/ )

I had many crashes during Beta, and all repots suggested GPU issues. In fact it was a failing South Bridge on MB. Not saying that this is your problem, just that dumps BSOD codes (http://pcsupport.about.com/od/findbyerrormessage/tp/stop_error_list.htm) and crash reports dont always tell the whole truth.

I haven’t crashed since I updated to the beta video drivers, but that is no guarantee that the problem is fixed given that it is so intermittent.

Last night I downloaded memtest86 from http://www.memtest.org/. It has several different tests and I tried 3 of them over the course of 24 hours. There were no errors.

Only time will tell if the drivers fixed anything or not.

Nope, not fixed. Here is the latest minidump file.

Ideas?

let me know if you find anything out….I have recently(it was running fine before) been having the bsod too….sometimes a couple times a night but only when playing gw2. My computer runs all day wile I’m at work without a problem but when I’m running gw2 is when it starts having a problem. I also have an nvidia card.

Not sure what got me to think about checking, but I looked at my fans and heat sinks on my CPU. Filthy! I don’t have any compressed air on hand to to clean them with, and I was curious how hot it was getting, so I downloaded RealTemp 3.70. The CPU was getting up to 98°C when my character was just standing around in Lion’s Arch. It is running around 54°C at less than 1% load with Firefox open. If I remember right, the CPU is only rated to operate from 0-100°C, and from what I can tell, 98 is too hot for a CPU that is at less than 50% load. I’m going to clean out the fans and heat sinks tomorrow and see how things go after that.

Squall Leonhart.2075:

Jemmali, the changing faulting drivers (particularly the drivers mentioned) all suggest a fault caused either by degrading hardware, faulty system memory or memory controller or lack of clean power.

^ might be the problem in the form of too much dirt clogging up the heat sinks on the CPU and clogging up the fans on the CPU, graphics card, and computer case.