Guild Wars 2

Jerow.9568:

Cause after the format obviously even if the game works threw the .exe it will not appear on the installed programs etc.

If you want the game to still show as installed in the program list then simply download the client again from the website and once everything is installed andsetup and starts to download the game files, simply close the program down and replace partially downloaded GW2.dat with your full backed up copy of GW2.dat

Try csgo.exe instead its DX9 API were witcher 3 is DX11.

curious to see if this affects profiles. Also you can adjust the max FPS in the profile under Chill section. Default seems to be 144fps.

Matthewiag.8543:

Well I thought I would give DSR ago on my 980ti and it was very playable still was still hitting 60+ and looked Great

Just another quick question about temps
I am running a 6700K at boost clock to 4.2Gh with a H100I water-cooler
is around 50-55C while playing Guild Wars 2

Idle is 23C

I have an intel 6600K @ 4.8GHz it runs at 36 – 42c whilst play GW2 using a Corsair H80i GT. your temps range is nothing to worry about however I would expect better cooling from a 240mm cooler compare to 120mm cooler especially if your not pushing your CPU that hard.

Perhaps check your BIOS and make sure things like Core Voltage are not on AUTO, many motherboards seem to like to max out voltage when the cpu is under load.

specifically this would happen to my cpu under stock settings at 3.9GHz the voltage would hit 1.452v which is crazy considering @ 4.8GHz the cpu I use now only needs around 1.38v

Hi Luness Sinciato,

The launchers progress bar represents the percentage of remaining files downloaded, therefore it will always show as 1% when re-opening however the number of files left to download should be lower each time.

~Nitro

Hi Kadsik,

With an intel i7-2600k and AMD R9 390X you should be able to achieve very decent results for this game. Perhaps your graphics settings in game just require tweaking. and One thing to know is that this game will benefit hugely when you lower graphics settings related to your CPU.

Here are a few tips for different in game settings:

Character Model Limit: The further this setting is lowered the bigger the FPS boost you will see as characters in the game are processed by your CPU. I would suggest testing with the “Lowest” option as not only does it still leave a fair amount of players on your screen it will make world events less Clustered looking and run smoother.

Character Model Quality: This option affects the number of characters remaining on the screen’s visual quality, either you can have them all wearing the same basic costume/colour or let them have their on uniques armour/weapons etc. Medium/High should be fine.

Postprocessing: This option will utilise your CPU. Using “Low” instead will retain mostly the same effect however this can be turned of without must visual difference and free up more CPU resources for elsewhere. Turning this off will result in an overall darker looking game so you may wish to increase the “Gamma” setting to compensate.

Shaders: This is purely preferential hower the step up from Medium to High is a quite a big step up so perhaps try running the medium setting first and see how things go, you can always change to high after testing to gauge the FPS difference as see which you prefer.

Shadows: Shadows in Guild Wars 2 aren’t exactly “wow” factors personally I prefer just turning these off completely for a smoother game however testing each level is worthwhile to measure your visual preference versus FPS.

Reflections: This was for a long time one of the biggest FPS hits in the game due to a bug. I am not sure if this was ever fully resolved but it is suggested choosing the lowest option here for FPS gains.

As for your Loud fan as FPS increases issue, this is merely just a sign that the graphics card is currently no longer being “bottlenecked” by the CPU due to the map being empty. So now your GPU is able to ramp up and start drawing all the visuals at its maximum speed it can in order to achieve the highest FPS is can, most likely because you are using the “unlimited” option for the Frame Limiter setting. Simply set a limit that your graphics card can easily achieve consistently and it once reaches that limit is won’t try to push itself harder and faster to gain any more. The lower the limit the less work your GPU will do which will result in lower temperatures.

Since this game benefits a lot from “V-Sync” perhaps try running the game with this enabled. This will match your FPS with your Monitors Refresh Rate (Typically 60Hz) resulting in 60FPS limit.

Finally you could also try using the 64 bit version of Gw2.exe in order to put good use of your 16GB Ram. you’ll find the download link Here

Hi Evosyn,

Guild Wars 2, is a very CPU intensive game and therefor although your PC is capable of running many other games at high settings, you’ll be surprised to find even High end computers can easily get bogged down when it comes to running this game.

Firstly I would advise that any setting you have that says “Ultra” I would turn down a notch to “High”. Ultra uses no optimisations and will cost the most FPS to be traded off for little in return.

Secondly Reflections on High was known to be bugged when set to ALL however I am not sure if this ever got resolved so, I personally turn this down or off completely as it uses far too much resources for the minimum bump in eye candy it offers.

Additionally you can lower the Character Limit settings which will cause less players on screen to be drawn when there are lots. drawing characters on screen is quite cpu intensive, therefor a few less players on screen won’t be missed for the advantage gained in FPS.

other settings, such as “Post Processing”, “Light Adaptation”, and “Ambient Occulusion” are normally good to disable in favour of FPS.

Finally, if you visit your account page on this website you can download the 64-bit beta executable for launching Guild Wars. It will allow you to use the full 8 GB of memory and may also help with performance and stability of the game.

Kind regards,

~Nitro

Out of curiosity, has any Mac OS X user tried Parallels Desktop for Mac?

It supports 64 bit windows, allows you to boot into your mac operating system and you would be able to install 64 bit Guild Wars.

Its been a long time since I used Parallels, however just thinking, it could run Gw2 just as good as w.i.n.e. with the added bonus of accessing more memory due to 64bit support.

Unfortunately it is an additional cost so I am unwilling to purchase it just to test a theory as I do not play games on OSX. However if someone already uses parallels desktop or has access to it, I would be intrigued to find out how Gw2 performs with it.

Hi xAndreViTor,

Using the Support link at the top of this website, you can contact the Arena Net support team with the required information and they will reset your account security.

Kind regards,

~Nitro

Light Adaptation is a CPU Post-processing effect. There for disabling it would have freed up some CPU resources. This may have allowed the CPU to send more resources to the GPU for processing.

Beldin.5498:

It has nothing to do with GW2 .. if the GPU does or does not use all 16 lanes its
already visible in GPU-z if you are only on your Windows desktop. So in the end
this is more a problem of bad mainboard or case design or whatever.
I remember i once had a case, where the back was not really in 90 degree angle to
the slot, so if you fixed the card with a screw they started to lift out of the slot
at the end.

Not necessarily I remember back in the early days of GW2 the game had a bug that would prevent Nvidia graphics cards from detecting it as a full screen application and they would remain on 1-4x to save power. Most graphics cards nowadays will sit in low power mode whilst doing nothing or light duty work. This is why we ask to run the game whilst checking with GPU-Z, although the application has its own checker by running GW2 in the background we also check the game is successfully being recognised by the graphics card.

Also it can be due to numerous other reason like you have stated, due to bad design, poor installation or excess debris build up. Even Just the weight of larger cards or power cables tugging at the card. Either way there are many reasons why this is not just a simple faulty hardware issue.

Most Likely Bloodwort has two x16 slots and by moving the card he simply “re-seated” it also.

NilSatis.6720:

Nitro.4732:

Also as far as I can tell the latest version is 15.12 (actually 15.12 is newer than 15.3 which suggests AMD doesn’t understand decimal positions).

There is also “AMD Software Crimson Edition 16.1” Listed under drivers on their website which I am not too sure about, I believe this installs a bunch of other applications along with version 15.12 of the driver.

The driver numbers are dates. i.e. 16 being 2016 and 1 denoting January

All of AMD drivers like Nvidias install “a bunch of stuff” and both manufacturers driver installs need to be switched to a custom install and geforce experience and raptr deselected. . They both are useless in terms of pc performance and do more harm than good. The rest of the installation options are fine, install all of those. Geforce experience and RAPTR are good for streaming functions and that is it. The rest is bloatware.

That explains it then! However I still think march should be represented as 15.03 for sanity haha.

~Nitro

I would think that the GPU Load % hitting 100% at times would be the issue here – especially if the link speed has been reduced to 2x or 4x instead of the normal 16x speed.

I would need to see a screenshot of the GPU-Z app whilst Guild Wars is running in order to tell if the Link speed is being increased when required by games.

Also as far as I can tell the latest version is 15.12 (actually 15.12 is newer than 15.3 which suggests AMD doesn’t understand decimal positions).

There is also “AMD Software Crimson Edition 16.1” Listed under drivers on their website which I am not too sure about, I believe this installs a bunch of other applications along with version 15.12 of the driver.

Hi Sandrox,

This could be caused by a few different reasons. It can as stated above and most commonly be caused by overheating of the graphics card. It can also be caused by insufficient power provided to the graphics card or a graphics card that has been overclocked out with its thermal or power requirements.

The first step I would take however is to monitor the graphics temperatures as overheating can leave permanent damage to the graphics hardware.

Kind regards,

~Nitro

Hi Bloodwort MacFangho,

Can you take a screenshot of GPU-Z whilst Guild Wars 2 is running, there seems to be a common occurrence in the forums lately of graphics cards running at low link speeds typical of “power saving” mode. If you share the screenshot we can rule this out first.

It also looks like you are running an old driver for your graphics card (or perhaps its the latest on the microsoft update program). Either way it is advisable to update to the latest version for your graphics card.

Kind regards,

~Nitro

Ok Metallus,

I believe you should try the 64 bit launcher for Guild Wars 2.

The expansion was acknowledge by developers to be restricted by 32bit and pushing its limitation where memory was concerned. The 64bit launcher will be able to access more of your system memory and hopefully allow the game to run without crashing due not being able to commit memory.

The 64bit Launcher is available from your game content page in your “My Account”.

simply download the Gw2-64.exe to your Guildwars2 folder and use that to launch your game instead.

~Nitro

Hi Metallus,

Could you please copy and paste the crash/error logs here (or to pastebin.com).

Also are you using the 32bit application (Gw2.exe) or 64bit (Gw2-64.exe)?

Kind regards,

~Nitro

Hi Coco,

The trading post will be available after 4 days from the time of purchase of your upgrade and not from the time of install.

for example if you played the free account for 3 days and upgraded on day 4 to a full account then you would have to wait 3 more days after day 4.

~Nitro

Hi WintrWar,

You must travel to the Maguuma Jungle and start the personal story there to fully unlock your Mastery Rank. Only then will you be able to spend your first Mastery point and continue to Level.

Qerat.3641:

I tried the following:

Locate your Gw2.exe file.
Right-click on the file and select Create shortcut.
Rename this new shortcut to Guild Wars 2 Repair.
Right-click on Guild Wars 2 Repair and select Properties.
Locate the Target line and add –repair to the end. (Example: “C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\gw2.exe” -repair)
Click OK.

did not work

Hi Qerat,

What do you mean, when you say “did not work”? what happened? did you get an error message or did the repair fail somehow?

Lews.8146:

Tried Elder scrolls out just because they have a native client, the client works so bloody well, but sadly i don’t care for their game. So it is very possible to have a very good “native” mac client for gw2, i know it is not gonna happen or even get a response, but just throwing that info out there.

The engine For Elder Scrolls supports OpenGL and so does Mac OSX.

Guild Wars 2 only supports Direct X. Unless the engine is re-written to support OpenGL there won’t be a “Native” Client. Considering the years of development and testing that went in producing this game on an engine that only supports Direct X, I do not see any point in wishful thinking that there will ever be Native Mac support. Especially since people are still holding out for DX10/11 update 3 years later.

The best and only foreseeable option for Mac users is to get a copy of windows and bootcamp.

Nikaido,

Perhaps you could look at the HP Envy Phoenix Range, I believe for the same price as the ASUS one listed above you can have similar spec with a Nvidia Geforce 960.

That should run the game with no problems. I recently just bought the Lower priced version which is listed in my signature, it comes with the R9 370 and it runs the game very smoothly at high settings.

Also just to mention about the “defective brand” Idea. Any PC you buy that is pre-built and shipped to you or collected from a store has a slight risk of having a defective part as logistics for these generally involve the computers being shipped great distances. The fact that it happened to you with a particular brand I would just put down to bad luck. That of course is why we have manufacturers warranties in the first place.

Loli Ruri.8307:

Low to medium settings? You gotta be kidding me. I know that it will do better than low to medium.

I have a HP Envy laptop with an Intel Core i7 4510U. That’s basically a dual core hyperthreading CPU that will play GW2 at 2.8 GHz. It has an 840M Nvidia graphics processor. It plays Guild Wars 2 at max settings at a resolution of 1366 × 768.

Yes max settings. Your computer will do just fine, because it’s not far from what I already play on my laptop, and that’s with max.

I am perhaps being conservative with my judgement in that case then.

Hi Wizeled,

I believe this setup should be fine to run the game however probably at Low-Medium settings?

Here is an idea, Download the game onto a memory stick and take it to your local shop/high street and ask if you can play the game on the laptop (or one with similar spec) to determine if the laptop is suitable for your needs.

My friends Laptop is:

Intel Core i5-4200U 2.3GHz
4GB Ram
Nvidia 740M 2GB
1366 × 768

This runs Guild Wars 2 smoothly enough for him with average of ~40FPS on LOW settings.

I hope this is helpful to your decision making.

~Nitro

Hi Dynath,

Its worth checking a couple of things here. First check the temperatures of both your CPU and GPU. These will have protection measures were they scale back their performance if a temperature threshold is reached in order to protect the hardware.

If this is the cause then cleaning out the dust/debris from inside the PC and re-applying new thermal solutions to both the CPU/GPU could help. There should be plenty of online guides already for this task.

Secondly, Nvidia graphics cards have been known to not detect GW2 as a “fullscreen application” and remain to increase their performance to match. Other GW2 players have mentioned that forcing the graphics card into “performance mode” in the Nvidia 3D game settings might resolve this.

Hope this helps.

~Nitro

Hi Seraphitan,

I haven’t played this game in a long time either, however as far as remember GEMS are not stored on your character but in your wallet which is shared across your entire account.

~Nitro

Hi,

In game settings have the option to Limit your Frame Rate. This setting should be set to Unlimited to have no resctrictions.

Also if you have a 30Hz monitor (early 4K monitors?) and have the option “Vertical Sync” enabled then this could cause the same issue.

Hope this Helps.

~Nitro

To answer those questions you would need to know specifically what model of CPU and GPU you have. This is because different models have different thermal characteristics and thresholds.

Linuxfish,

There are a few key areas that can be stressed separately on a graphics card, not just the GPU. Its totally plausible that a less graphically intense game can work graphics hardware harder in other areas.

Regardless the same rule applies. You hardware is designed to operate at 100% power without overheating. I have a similar issue with GW2 on my Nvidia GTX480 where if I use the recommended fan settings built into the graphics card firmware, my hardware will crash due to being stressed at high temperatures (I flashed my firmware to overclock my card so the default fan settings are no longer in line with the power usage) . However simply increasing the fan settings to run at 40% speed rather than 30% speed and increase exponentially, my graphics card no longer overheats running GW2.

I Hope this helps.

~Nitro.

Hi,

Has anyone tried to repair their game since getting this area in case the new patch introduced a corrupted file?

~Nitro

Hi Linuxfish,

Your problem is not the same as Cheese Lord’s and it is not a bug. You seem to have the opposite issue where your graphics card is overheating and not your CPU. For this I would recommend that you try software such as MSI Afterburner (or similar) to adjust your Fan Settings profile to be more aggressive at higher temperatures. This will help keep your graphics card cooler and hopefully resolve the “Driver resetting” issue you describe.

~Nitro

Hi Cheese Lord,

Comparing two completely different games is not going to provide proof of anything. Although it “The Witcher 3” may be technically more intense graphically, this would only put more strain on the graphics card not the CPU.

Since your computer is going straight to powering down, this certainly does point to the CPU Thermal Control activating to protect your hardware. Regardless of what you think Software (Including GW2) cannot force your CPU to overheat, they can only simply ask it to perform at 100%. If your CPU is overheating when it reaches its maximum power output then the problem lies with the lack of thermal dissipation with in your computer.

This could be numerous things such as a lack of airflow in the case or a weak heatsink that is not capable of handling the CPU at full power. However the most likely cause (and biggest factor in heat dissipation) will be the thermal paste that aids in the transfer of heat from the CPU to the heatsink.

Thermal paste doesn’t last forever and over time it tends to dry out and harden. This lowers the thermal dissipation properties of the thermal past as it dries out. Typically you would want to maintain this paste for optimal performance. If your PC has a warranty you could send your PC back to the manufacturer stating the overheating issue.

If you are out of warranty or built the PC yourself you could take the PC to a computer repair store or attempt to renew the thermal paste yourself.

~Nitro

Hi Trassr Justin,

This is spam mail and should be reported then ignored. clicking the link will take you to a website that looks like guild wars but will be in control of a third party who will no doubt ask you to log in so they can receive your login details.

ArenaNet would never ask you to click on a link to verify yourself.

It’s also likely that due to age of your processor, your motherboard will probably only support PCI-e 2.0 there by reducing the max bandwidth your PCI-e 3.0 card can send.

Hi ilginsara,

Do you have your friend added to your friends list in game? If you you should be able to see one of their characters name. Other than that it would require contacting the guild wars support team.

~Nitro

Hi Nybras,

You can get the latest version of Direct X 9.0 here:

http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=34429

this should reinstall the missing file.

Hope this helps

~Nitro

To measure temperature whilst gaming you’ll need a program that logs the Max temperature reached whilst running. When you minimise guild wars 2 to check the current temperature it will be reported less as your CPU will not be processing Guild Wars 2 any more since its minimised.

Hi Malliotis.6431,

Did you remember to create the shortcut link in step 2 first? make sure its the shortcut that you are editing and not the GW2.exe. You cannot change the target of the executable

~Nitro

Yes the problem is certainly related to hardware, and most likely the hard drive or the memory is at fault. If the hard drive is passing diagnostic tests then I would check the memory like Lil Puppy advised.

It could perhaps also just be wrongly configured memory but a diagnostic should pick up a fault if this is true also.

Hi EdwinPham,

From the looks of your crash log its seems like there could be a possible problem with your hard drive.

“Fatal Error: Fatal disk-error (997: Overlapped I/O operation is in progress.) on read"

I would suggest that you scan you hard drive with a maintenance utility such as SpinRite. There is also a free utility built in to windows that you could use also.

Also from these following errors in your logs it looks like the guild wars 2 files could be corrupted also.

Disk read failed with error 997 (incomplete): file ‘C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.dat’
Disk read failed (997: Overlapped I/O operation is in progress.): file ‘C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.dat’

After resolving any issues found with your physical hard drive you will also want to repair your game files using the -repair parameter whilst starting the game. Instructions below:

Repairing the game client

Guild Wars 2 uses Microsoft DirectX 9 which restricts the game to windows operating systems. Both Mac OSX and Linux are able to run the game using a technology called WINE.

The Mac OSX client that Arenanet released is just a fancy wrapper that runs the game in wine, making the client look native when its actually not.

Linux is a bit more tricky to do the same effect as unlike Mac OSX there are many derivitives of Linux each with their own variations. This doesn’t mean that you can’t have the same effect on your Linux installation, only that you’ll need to do a bit more leg work to set up wine first for Linux.

Hi salviq,

Have you checked with the logitech support website to see if there is a new driver/software available for your keyboard?

http://support.logitech.com/en_gb/category/keyboards

The above link should take you to the logitech support site, just choose your model of keyboard and selectyour operating system and it will tell you what software/drivers are available for you to download.

hope this helps,

~Nitro

Hi bktdm,

A quick look into the problem revealed a nice step by step youtube video with handy tips that you can follow regarding this situation.

Hope this helps.

~Nitro

Hi mahri,

A look at the microsoft website for information regarding the stop error / blue screen had the following information:

This issue occurs if the graphics adapter is caught in an infinite loop while it waits for the video hardware to become idle. This can indicate that there is a problem with the video hardware, or that the graphics adapter cannot program the hardware correctly.

The Stop error message may also occur in video adapter drivers that do not represent a physical device. For example, this Stop error message may occur in the virtual video adapter driver that is used by Symantec PCAnywhere. If PCAnywhere is installed on a computer where this error message occurs, visit the Symantec Web site to determine whether there are any available fixes for your version of PCAnywhere.
Source

From reading this I would suggest checking the following areas.

• Firstly check to see if you have Symantec PCAnywhere software installed. If this software is installed on your computer then visit symantec’s support site to troubleshoot this issue further.
• Check that your video card drivers are up to date. youcan get the recommended driver directly from nvidia’s website for your geforce 8600GT graphics card.
• Make sure windows is up to date by running the windows updater to ensure all relevant patches and updates are applied.
• The hardware is quite old so it would be a good idea to do some maintenance cleaning. If you are confident enough you could remove the graphics card and gently clean it free from any dust or debris. There are special tools available to clean electrical components without causing static build up on the hardware (which could potentially harm the hardware).
  Here is a link to an Anti-static cleaning brush

If after attempting the following steps did not resolve your problem then it may be a sign that the graphics hardware is reaching the end of its life cycle. At this stage if you have a spare graphics card (even and older one) or can borrow one from another friend or computer you could test guild wars 2 with and if there is no crash then the test will have pointed to hardware failure of the graphics card.

Hope this helps

~Nitro

Hi UndeadCrisis,

Laptops in general (especially ones designed for gaming) will reach higher temperatures due to their design. Unlike desktops where airflow and heat dissipation can be maximised laptops are restricted due to their size. Higher temperatures are to be expected.

In my opinion around 80c seems normal for your current CPU although I wouldn’t like to see it go much higher personally. Graphics processors generally can handle higher temperatures although i would personally try to keep below 90c on the nvidia 870M.

Some people also look at it differently of course. Some believe that the design of the cooler should be able to handle the maximum heat production of the hardware it was intended for, such as a CPU or GPU running at 100% or both. However the choice is up to you, I personally like to look after my hardware with the intention of it lasting a long time.

Hi TerminalMontage,

The reason why the repair system tries to re-download the entire game is probably because the Gw2.dat file is corrupt due to the crash whilst repairing and can no longer be repaired.

The simplest solution to this problem and to prevent constantly re-downloading the game over and over each time the file gets corrupted would be to make a duplicate copy of the new Gw2.dat file after it has downloaded. save this copy in another directory or on an external hard disk or memory stick.

The next time something goes wrong and you are forced to re-download the game, simply close the downloader and delete the corrupt gw2.dat file and copy over the duplicate you made previously. this way rather than downloading a copy from Anet each time your simply getting a new copy from a backup you made. This will be much faster until you find a solution to the cause of the crashes.

Also its worth noting I regularly make a back up of the gw2.dat file each month (keeping atlas 2-3 monthly copies available) that way you won’t be required to download patch files for the months between the backup you make. Having 2-3 separate copies also helps prevent any one back up copy from being corrupted and causing problems too.

Seeseafly,

I cannot see your ISP blocking port 80, simply because its not practical. If they did block port 80 then you would not be able to visit the guild wars 2 website or post the problem on the forums (since the website uses port 80).

If your ISP have announced that they have blocked port 80 then they probably mean outbound (meaning you cannot host a website and or other possible services from your home computer) which is totally fine as you do not require port 80 outbound for guild wars 2 to function.

looking at your networkdiag.log it looks like you could be experiencing a Double NAT problem with the way your network is configure thus preventing traffic from Anet servers reaching the GW2 client.

Ricky.4706:

another thing that can make a card not function properly is having it in the wrong pci slot.

This would cause peformance to drop but I don’t believe it would cause artifacts to happen.

The latest wikia software used to host the guild wars 2 wiki page (wiki.guildwars2.com) seems to have a bug that on numerous pages causes the tab it is open on safari to crashes and reload indefinitely. Usually 9 out of 10 tries crash the browser, every now and then a direct link to a specific page may load without crashing but I cannot browser the wiki site at all.

Any other browser seems to work fine (IE9/Chrome seemed fine to me). However it would be nice to be able to use my default browser to access the wiki pages.

note: I am using safari 5.1.7 for windows 7 SP1

Artifacts can be caused by numerous reasons like:

• Drivers
• Temperature of graphics hardware
• Faulty graphics hardware
• Underpowered graphics hardware
• Overclocked graphics hardware

I would try to rule out as many of the hardware related problems first to make sure its not the graphics card itself causing the problem. Also some dedicated graphics cards require power directly from the power supply and will have a minimum requirement on the amount of Power(wattage) and Current (Amperage) needed for the hardware to operate properly.