Guild Wars 2

kirito.4138:

1.72 volts for vcore is way too high, wouldn’t be surprised it BSOD. Could even damage the CPU if left like that.

In [auto] mode the mobo will supply voltage based on the VID of the CPU. Voltage changes dynamically depending on the speed from .8v – 1.35v

If you set a specific number, then the voltage will be static at idle or load. If it is too low or too high, BSOD will occur. Since each CPU is manufactured differently, it’s stable voltage will vary.

http://www.evga.com/forumsarchive/tm.asp?m=100494809&mpage=1&key if you want to learn more.

I typed that in wrong, it was actually set at 1.072, not 1.72. Sorry about that. Yea there was no way I was going to try and set the voltage higher than what it already was lol.

Majestic, thanks for the reply, I guess we can look into that next. I keep thinking it must be an issue with the BIOS settings I guess since the problem is primarily limited to Guild Wars 2. We did get that one BSOD during COD:BO2, but it may have been a result of us tampering with some things.

Hey guys, I’ve got some recent developments. I was doing some research on his PSU and looking at possible other PSUs he might use, and I noticed something was off. First of all, I had to do a lot of research because I’m not too familiar with PSUs to begin with. Once I understood more about the different rails and amp settings required for his card, the earlier comments you guys made began to make more sense.

What I noticed (by looking at one of my own pictures posted above) was that only one PCI-E connector was inserted into the video card. I instantly "wtf"d, and had him verify what card he had again. I’m not sure which one of us misread the card (probably me actually, lol) but it’s actually a GeForce GTS 450. Which meant there was no way to connect two PCI-E 6 pin connectors to it. However, this card supposedly only requires 22A instead of the 24A we previously thought it would need, according to EVGA’s site. Since there are two +12v rails on the PSU, one of them at 21A and the other at 22A, I thought maybe we just had the wrong PCI-E connector plugged in. I had him swap those out and give GW2 another shot.

About 15 minutes in he got a BSOD. It was another 9c. So I’m not sure if the PCI-E connector swapping fixed the restarts, or if they caused the new 9c error (I doubt it though, since we’ve received 9c errors before).

So from there I did some more research on 9c errors, and QPI/VTT settings kept coming up. I thought we were out of luck at this point, but I had him try editing the voltage settings in the BIOS again (using + and – keys on the numpad) to see if the updated version allowed for alterations. It did!

I first had him look into the CPU voltage setting which was set to [auto]. He said that it increases or decreases in small increments, with a + or – sign next to it, and that he was NOT able to edit the more specific vcore setting below it. I assumed this likely meant the vcore number below would be altered by whatever we put in for the CPU voltage setting, adding or subtracting to it. I told him to set it for -.2, aiming for an overall setting of 1.72v, based on numbers I could find online for people with the same processor who overclocked it to a low setting (3.06 up to like 3.4ghz) and went with 1.1v. We saved it and started up the comp to an instant BSOD.

So we set it back to [auto] and I decided we won’t make any more changes to those settings until I know more. I’m not sure if that was just a bad number for the vcore (since it wasn’t nice and round, at 1.1) or if it was too low/too high. I think the auto setting must be subtracting or adding based on the processor’s current load, and since we’ve seen it at .9v or so before, it might be doing it’s job just fine and I probably did set it too high. If I was to try it again I would shoot for a .9v setting, but I’d like to hear your guys’ input on this first.

Besides, it might not even be the vcore setting. Supposedly 9c often relates to the QPI/VTT voltage. I don’t even know what this is though. Most of my searching just turns of forum posts from OCers theory crafting different settings for it. I think I’ve determined that QPI is for Intel and VTT is for AMD cards (which would explain why there is no “VTT” mentioned in his BIOS settings) but I still have no idea what to set it to for normal clock speeds other than [auto]. I even read a post by someone who said that his motherboard was known for overdoing the QPI voltage with the [auto] setting which could be the cause of the issue. I haven’t verified this, but it did seem unusually difficult to find stock voltage settings for his CPU for some reason. I think this is the next step to try, since we are still likely dealing with power issues, and [auto] settings can be so vague.

I know his PSU is still pretty much crap though. It’s got bad reviews around the internet, and barely meets the recommended amp settings for his GPU. It’s got to go eventually, but I wouldn’t think that it would cause these BSODs, would it? Random restarts make more sense with a faulty PSU since suddenly losing power would essentially just shut off the computer without allowing for a BSOD wouldn’t it?

Anyway, sorry for another long post, but you guys have been a huge help so far. I feel like we’re getting to the crux of the issue, so I have no intention of stopping now. :P

Does sound like a PSU issue tbh.
If after getting a new PSU, I Sugest a Corsair model like the TX 600W (this would also be fine for his new computer if/when he decides to build it), the system restarts stop but the game crashes continue ..i sugest reinstalling GW and/or the OS ..since all these crashes and BSOD’s could easily have caused damage to the game and/or OS.
If after getting a new PSU the problems continue ..then im pritty much at a loss as to what else it coud be other than faulty CPU and/or motherboard and/or GPU. In which case u might aswell build a enitirly new computer ..take a sledge hammer to the old one which will thus make u feel sooo much better

As satisfying as that would be, I’d rather take the sledge hammer to the fools who built this computer with an inadequate PSU, a kink in the cooling hose, and whatever the hell is causing the potential heating issue in Prime95 is probably negligence on their part as well.

kirito.4138:

That sure is a dusty case on the inside, or maybe i’m just a neat freak and airblast at any sign of dust.

Already taken care of, those pictures were taken before we cleaned out the inside. :P Unfortunately, this did not solve the issue.

I also thought I’d post a brief recap of what’s happened so far, just to compile everything for simplicity sake.

Relevant Computer Specs:
-GeForce GTX 460
-6GB RAM
-Intel Core i7 950, 3.07ghz (water cooled, not overclocked)
-MSI X58 Pro-E Motherboard, (BIOS version now at latest, 8F)
-Xion XON-700P12N, 700w PSU

Symptoms:
After a few minutes of playing GW2 the computer receives either a BSOD (now possible fixed), random restart, or the game freezes (requiring ctrl+alt+delete to be closed).

Steps taken so far:
-newest video card drivers updated (v370.10)
-application controlled AA in nvidia settings as suggested by forum sticky
-power saver setting turned off in control panel
-different zones/characters tried
-registry cleaned with ccleaner
-applied lowest setting graphics
-did a repair of local.dat file
-newest chipset drivers applied
-DirectX 9 updated
-Intel Turbo Boost turned on/off
-BIOS flashed
-kink tied off/fixed on water coolant hose
-cleaned dust out of inside of PC and fans
-(we have not seen a BSOD since this point)
-enabled SMART fan setting, set to 50C, min fan speed at 37%
-Prime95 run for up to 30 minutes. Temperatures climb into the 90’s Celsius after ten minutes, even after coolant kink fixed. However, temperatures remain steady at 60C while playing GW2.
-repaired local.dat a second time

Other pertinent information:
-Vcore setting in BIOS is unable to be modified.
-Vcore overall setting is set to [auto] and shows to be running at 1.2v. According to Cpu-z it does drop down to .9v as per the auto-setting.
-pictures of inside of PC and BIOS settings (before flashing, version is 8C, but settings are still pretty much the same): http://imgur.com/a/JjnaG#0

So it looks like the problem still persists. He hasn’t had a BSOD, but now he’s tried playing three times and received two freezes and a restart. The first freeze (mentioned above) happened after he was able to play for a little over an hour. Second freeze happened today after he played for three minutes. Both times he said his computer was fine, but he had to ctrl + alt + delete to get out of the game.

I had him repair his local.dat file again, thinking maybe all the previous BSOD’s caused some form of corruption. He was then able to play for about ten minutes before the computer restarted itself. He didn’t get a BSOD, and there was no new dump file created, it was just a random restart.

My current theory is that we’ve been dealing with separate issues. I believe the BSOD’s are likely fixed now, as he hasn’t had one since I updated the BIOS and fixed the kink in the cooling tube. The BIOS update said it fixed some memory compatibility issues and such, so I’m thinking that’s what did it. The restarts (without BSOD) are probably due to an underachieving power supply, as most of what I’ve read about such issues points to that. (Other hardware failures tend to be accompanied by a BSOD, correct?) The game freezes are a new one, I’m hoping that it was just due to corrupted local.dat file, but I probably won’t know until later.

Overheating while playing GW2 doesn’t appear to be a problem, however, since I have had him monitor his temps. They’re a little warm, but nothing high enough to cause issues. I’d still like to be able to run a decent Prime95 test on it though, just to be safe. Nitro, you mentioned I wouldn’t have to strip down the water cooling system. I wasn’t thinking I would have to, but doesn’t water leak out when you unhook it from the processor? I’ve never worked with these before so I’m not really sure what is between the processor and the tubes, is it a completely separate and sealed unit? I guess that would make the most sense since I doubt the four screws holding it on would provide a water tight seal lol. I have applied thermal paste, heat sinks, and fans before though, so if that’s the case I don’t imagine it would be too difficult.

I think it is safe to say that he needs a new PSU at this point, so I’m going to let him know that. He’d like to upgrade this PC at some point in the not-too-distant future anyway, so I think that’s going to be mandatory at that point even if it’s not the cause of the random restarts.

majestic.8129:

SwiftWrath.9013:

It doesn’t let you change the auto setting for the vcore either.

So you cannot adjust the voltages by using +/- on the keypad?

Seems you have bios 8c but probably not necessary to update.

I updated it to 8F last night, everything was still grayed out in the voltage settings. I didn’t try the + or – keys though, I guess I just assumed that still wasn’t working because it didn’t work with the older BIOS version either. Is that a known change in the latest update or something? I only read things about memory compatibility and stuff.

Anyway, I’ve got some good news. He took the computer home and fired up GW2. He was able to play for a little over an hour without issue. I had him alt+tab from time to time to check the temperatures in core temp which he said remained steady around 60 degrees Celsius. I realize this is still a bit too high for a water cooled processor though, so we’ll have to continue looking into this problem.

So after playing for a little more than an hour, apparently his game froze and had to be closed via ctrl+alt+delete method. I’m not sure what caused this, but I’m hoping it’s some kind of software fluke that happens from time to time. Either way, it’s a huge improvement from BSOD. He’s got work in the morning so he’s off for the night, but he’ll be playing GW2 some more soon and we’ll see if anything happens.

Between the BIOS update and unkinking the water cooling hose, I think one of these is likely responsible for the improvement, but I think it’s still too early to call it until we’ve tested it more.

The heating issue is likely going to need us to take things apart on the inside to determine what the problem is. Neither of us have ever worked with water cooling hardware before (the computer was pre-built and shipped to him) so he may end up needing to take it to professional who can take things apart without dumping water all over the motherboard. I’ll look into it though, and see what we can do.

That’s it for now, I’ll be back though with updates when I have them.

It doesn’t let you change the auto setting for the vcore either.

The cpu fan is at 100% ‘control’ in the bios, but the smart fan setting was completely disabled, which supposedly is some setting designed to ramp up the fan speed in order to maintain a certain temperature. So I just enabled that and set the min to 37% which is just the minimum speed it can lower itself down to when the temperature is cool.

I fixed the kink with a twist-tie, but it made no difference in the temperature climb. I also enabled the Smart Fan Target setting in the BIOS, set it to 50 degrees and min speed at 37%, still no luck.

I don’t see any fans on the inside that aren’t spinning, but I’m still a bit curious about the Sys Fan 2 being at 0 rpm.

He’s taking the computer back tonight, so I’m going to have him try guild wars for a bit, and alt+tab from time to time to check the temperatures in core temp.

The vcore setting is on auto, and then it shows the 1.272v underneath that. It doesn’t allow me to change these settings in the BIOS as far as I can tell, so I don’t know how I could get it down to .8 or .9v, is there another way to do this? I assumed the auto setting was meant to lower it or increase it as needed, and I think we saw it down to .9v when we looked in CPU-Z awhile ago.

Anyway, that’s it for now, I’ll check back in a bit later tonight.

Thanks Solar, I just ran Prime95 again after clearing some of the dust out. The temps started getting too high again after about ten minutes in. I’m going to look into unkinking the tube somehow.

Ok so I finally got the BIOS flashed, no issues to report there, everything went smooth. Afterwards I downloaded Prime95 and started running it. After a few minutes the core temperatures, according to ‘Core Temp’ were all in the high 80’s, low 90’s degrees Celsius. I looked around the internet a bit, apparently even under a blend stress test, they should not be getting that high.

I let the test run for a little over 30 minutes, and decided to stop since one of the cores had reached 98C degrees. Upon ending the test, the temperatures dropped almost immediately down into the 60’s, which must be why we couldn’t detect any heating problems before since by the time we went into the BIOS after a BSOD all the temps would be back down to 60, whether or not they had climbed too high during the game. Other than the high temperatures, I received no warnings or issues from Prime95, and it also said it had passed a test of some sort.

Afterwards I opened the case back up and used one of those compressed air canisters to clean out the majority of the dust. While I was in there I noticed one of the supposed water cooling hoses was a bit kinked. Due to the angle in which it was installed, I was unable to correct this kink, (which can kind of be seen in the pictures I posted last night) so I’m wondering if this has something to do (or everything to do) with it as well.

I’m going to try running Prime95 again to see if dusting it did any good. I just turned the computer on and the idle temps are in the mid 30’s right now, so I’ll let you guys know what happens.

majestic.8129:

I think solar just meant with regard to the dust can adversely effect temps but if they are fine there should be no issues. Wouldn’t vac though due to static, compressed air would do the trick

Would probably be worth testing your psu if it’s not too much hassle if only to eliminate it (depending on wattage and such). As far as a new PSU goes it would depend on how high you want to go but for the current system a good 600w will do. Some good oems are seasonic, delta, zippy, enermax. The list here gives some good basic information: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

I would recommend something like the seasonic s12II-620 but it really would depend how much future proofing you want with capacity and if modular is important.

I’ve never exactly tested a PSU before, any suggestions on how to do this?

Nitro, I’m not quite sure how to try different methods on the PSU. I could swap out his PSU for mine, but since my PC is older, I have my doubts that that will fix it. Just in case though, I probably should check inside to see what PSU I have, since I can’t remember what I got (bought my PC back in 2009).

I did talk to my friend tonight, he said he wouldn’t really be opposed to upgrading/buying a new PSU, since he was planning to upgrade his PC soon anyway. It won’t be until sometime in January or February, but I’d still like to make sure the PSU is the culprit before he spends money on it. Are there any particular PSU’s you can recommend for him if it comes to that?

As for SolarNova’s reply, I have my own doubts that the amount of dust inside the PC can cause these problems. I should be able to vacuum it out tomorrow, just in case, but my PC is older, has more dust, and never gets a BSOD. I have heard that dust can cause issues, but in my own experience, most gamers don’t dust the inside of their PC’s very often, and doing so usually doesn’t fix any problems they may be experiencing.

One thing I did learn about the STOP 101 error though, is that it only began after I had him download a utility from the MSI website. It was a program that can run in windows that makes it easier to install drivers for his motherboard, including the BIOS. He tried to update the BIOS through it, and it gave him an error and restarted his computer. So rather than trying that again, I opened up the utility and updated any other drivers it recommended. After running the computer for the past several hours, we haven’t had any 101 errors from other games, but gw2 still made his computer restart (with no BSOD, but this has happened before).

I’m going to look into running prime95 or any other benchmarks that I can overnight while I still have access to his computer. I’ll check back in when I have more information. Thanks again guys!

I’m guessing that likely means he needs a new PSU?

I’ve got access to the computer tonight, I have not yet run Prime 95, or flashed the BIOS, but I did take some pictures that might help. There are a lot of BIOS settings I don’t quite understand so let me know if anything looks amiss. The inside of the computer pictures were more for my reference, but if you see anything off in those, feel free to let me know as well.

Some things I noticed, and am not sure if they are normal or not:
-SYS FAN 2 shows 100% control, but is at 0 rpm. When I looked inside, I didn’t see any fans that were not connected or not working, so I’m thinking it’s probably a non-issue.
-I turned off the Intel Turbo Boost for now to see if that was causing any problems
-The BIOS is v8.12, which doesn’t seem to exist on their website. I see versions 8A, 8B, 8C, etc. but no 8.12. I wasn’t sure exactly what this means, and I don’t think his BIOS is as out-of-date as I thought it was, so I haven’t done anything with that yet.

I’ll be checking in and will post back when I know more.

EDIT: forgot to post link to the pictures: http://imgur.com/a/JjnaG#0

Ok I’ve got some recent developments. We haven’t tried any new troubleshooting steps, but it is good to know we’re starting to eliminate things. The PSU we’re working with is a Xion brand, 700w, model number XON-700P12N.

Also, he said he got a blue screen error during a DIFFERENT game for a change yesterday. While he was playing CoD: BO2 it gave him a STOP error 101 message, which he hasn’t received yet to this date. The primary BSOD error we’re dealing with for GW2 is still 124, which happens consistently (almost like clockwork) in gw2, but now his computer has been known to get two others, the 9c (mentioned before, during gw2) and now the 101. I’m hoping with more of these errors, the problem gets easier to narrow down.

After some brief research on the 101 errors, it may point to unknown hardware problems (again) or a bios bug. I should have access to the computer tomorrow, so I’m planning to flash the BIOS and see if that fixes it. If not, I guess we’ll start looking into memtest and reseats, etc.

Thanks for the ideas guys, if you’ve got anymore, let me know. I’ll post back again when I know more.

Thank you for the reply SolarNova, and I’m sorry I’m a bit late getting back to everyone with updates, but with the holidays and all… you know.

Anyway, it is quite strange, but I’ve had him check multiple sources (lastly his bios) to see if his processor was overclocked and it doesn’t appear to be. He’s got an Intel Core i7 950, the default clock speed for it according to Intel’s website is 3.06ghz, his is only slightly higher at 3.07ghz. So it doesn’t appear to be overclocked despite the cooling system. It appears they manufactured it so that he COULD overclock it but didn’t bother to do so, who knows.

Now, about the vcore. His motherboard is an MSI X58 Pro-E. The CPU voltage is set to [AUTO] and underneath is the CPU Vcore which is set to 1.2V. I’ve checked around a bit, and according to various OC guides for his processor, the vcore does not need to be that high. The guides were saying that vcore is the setting they use when it is overclocked to around 3.7ghz. However, when he checks CPU-Z in Windows, the vcore tends to be lower (around .9ish) and fluctuates, which I imagine is due to the [auto] setting in the BIOS. I was thinking we could play around with different settings on it though to find out if it was the culprit or not (I’ve seen other posts online about the [auto] setting not being the most reliable) but the BIOS will not allow adjustments to be made to it. All of the voltage settings are grayed out, and won’t even let him scroll over them.

We also gave Faden Pain’s method a try. I would have been completely amazed if it had fixed the problem (since the solution was so simple) but it didn’t. Getting a new local.dat file from the client did not prevent another STOP 0.0124 BSOD.

So right now I’m thinking, if it is indeed the vcore settings (which most signs seem to point to) ramping up to 1.2V during Guild Wars 2 for some reason, causing the computer to BSOD, I can think of two more possible steps to try.

The first (and this might make some computer gurus laugh) would be to overclock his CPU to a speed that will utilize more of that power. I would definitely be doing more research on this though before attempting it since something about it doesn’t seem right. I’ve always read not to OC a computer with stability issues (even if it’s just in one game) and I don’t even know if things work this way or not. I’ve also never heard of it being done, so any information on this would be appreciated (even if it’s "rofl noob thats the worst idea ever).

My second option is to flash the bios. I know he has an out-of-date version of it, but in order to flash it I’m going to have to wait until I have access to the computer later on this week. I’m expecting it to be a little more involved than I care to walk him through over the phone. My hope with this would be that it would either update the bios’s [auto] setting for cpu voltage to prevent this error, or allow us to edit the vcore setting manually to get it running.

So that’s all I’ve got for now. I don’t know what it is about gw2 that would cause these settings to fluctuate so strangely (while other games and programs do not) but I hope we can find some way to work around it. Thanks for all the help and replies so far, I’ve learned a lot. Any further advice will be much appreciated.

Hey guys, thanks for the replies.

Kirito, are there any specific bios settings you’d recommend that we take a look at?

Faden Pain, we’ll give that a try. I’ll check back in with the results when I have them.

So my buddy bought a copy of GW2 for himself and my broke kitten only to find out that it doesn’t really work on his computer. Since he’s busier these days and not quite as tech savvy, I’ve been trying to figure out how to fix the issue myself so that he can play it.

I’ll describe the symptoms, his computer, what we’ve tried so far, and go from there. Updates from me might be a bit slow just because I don’t really have access to the computer from home, so troubleshooting will kind of have to go through him first before I can update.

Anyway, here we go. His computer is actually newer and better than mine, so it’s definitely not something to do with it being under-equipped for GW2. He bought it pre-built last year online (newegg I believe). I can’t remember all the exact specs (I’ll get them from him and post here) but I’ll post what I know.

GeForce GTX 460, at least 4GB of RAM (I think it might be all the way up to eight), I can’t remember his CPU but it had at least four cores, plenty of disk space (hundreds of GB free), Windows 7 – 64 bit, and a water cooling system came built into it. According to him, the CPU is NOT overclocked.

The problem he’s getting is that whenever he gets into the game (he gets past the character screen and everything just find) the computer usually gives him about two minutes or so of beautiful, smooth gameplay only to (without warning) restart itself. Sometimes he is given a BSOD when this occurs, other times it just inexplicably restarts.

I’ve had him check his .dmp files on the BSODs, and he’s gotten a few STOP 0.0124 and one 0.09c error. The 9c error actually didn’t occur until he had played for around 20 minutes (we thought it was fixed for a bit there, quite the disappointment) He’s attempted to play it one other time after we ran CCleaner and updated his chipset drivers, and just got the non-BSOD restart after two minutes again. I don’t know if the error changing is significant or not, but it was definitely the only 9C error in the list of 124’s he’s been getting from this game only.

All of my research so far has pointed to various hardware issues, but this seems odd to me since GW2 is the only game that causes this problem for him. He’s been playing CoD: BO2 on it quite a bit, as well as Planetside 2, which I would think would be more hardware taxing than GW2, but has never had this issue with either one of them, even after hours of play. I’ve also heard that it might be a power issue and that we should check to see if his vcore is too high. However, he’s played lower-end games on it without issue as well (Diablo III, League of Legends) so I would think a high vcore problem would trigger there as well.

Breakdown of what we’ve tried so far:
-updated Nvidia drivers to the newest 370.10 which came out a few days ago.
-cleaned up registry with CCleaner
-updated mobo chipset drivers
-checked his CPU temperature with Core Temp, no issues (and it’s water cooled)
-lowered all in-game graphics settings to their absolute lowest. It was ugly, and it still restarted his computer after a couple minutes play.
-tried different characters (thinking maybe there was something in his current starting zone that his rig didn’t like for some reason) and still had the problem.
-did the suggested ‘application-controlled’ fix in the forum sticky for Nvidia cards (even though this was supposed to fix a different problem, we thought it couldn’t hurt)
-turned off some power saver setting in his control panel that another user had said fixed the problem.

None of these fixed the problem (obviously) and failed to show any improvement.

Now, I know there are more hardware checks we can do, but thus-far I’ve held off on that because of what I said above. This is the ONLY game or application that causes this. Am I wrong in thinking that an actual hardware issue would occur in other games as well?

Anyway, if anybody out there reads this who knows more than I do about BSOD errors and such can offer some advice, let me know. I know it’s long, but I know it’s usually important to be as detailed as possible with these things. I’ve tried to put the most important parts in bold to help out. If/when I find the solution I’ll be sure to update this for anyone else out there with similar issues.

Thanks a TON guys, I’ll check back in a bit later on today.

Your RAM and CPU are a bit low as well. I’m commenting because I have a similar (older) rig that generally gets a steady 30+ fps in most areas on (mostly) medium settings. I’ve got 4GB of RAM though. My card and CPU are a bit better as well (9800 GTX+ and a Core 2 duo E7400 which I’ve overclocked a bit) but I wouldn’t think your rig should be doing THAT much worse than mine.

Contrary to what the kirito said, I believe your graphics card exceeds the minimum requirements. I’m looking at the box right now and it says 7800 or better, which is an older card. Guild Wars 2 is also said to be more CPU intensive than GPU intensive, so with these things in mind I highly doubt the culprit is your graphics card.

Your processor and RAM are right at the bare minimum requirements for the game, however. So I imagine those are the culprits, especially if there are a lot of background applications draining them down.

The first thing I’d do is look into simplifying things as much as possible as far as what you’ve got running in the background. Next I’d lower in-game graphics settings (which I assume you’ve already tried) but especially things like shadows and draw distance which tend to be the most CPU intensive.

If the game is still virtually unplayable, the next cheapest thing to do would be to try adding more RAM. You’ll definitely want to make sure you’ve got at least one more open slot for RAM on your motherboard, and make sure you’re getting the right kind and everything. If you’ve got a friend with the same type of RAM, you might try and borrow one of his sticks before you buy some.

After that, if it still doesn’t work well enough to play, or you’re lacking RAM slots on your motherboard, it’s probably time to get a new computer. I mean, a CPU upgrade is likely going to require a new motherboard, and a new motherboard might require a new graphics card, and all of that might require a new case and power supply… it all kind of chains together into a several hundred dollar lump at that point.

You MIGHT see if you can overclock your CPU to get more out of it, which usually is easier to do now-a-days than it used to be. However, it depends on your CPU and heating conditions, and can be risky to attempt (some CPU’s, especially older ones, don’t automatically shut off when they overheat, so the potential is there that it can completely burn itself up and be unusable), so I can’t recommend it if you’re not very tech savvy.

Amarinth.8534:

Computers turning themselves off or rebooting like this are usually a sign of either a heat-problem or a power-problem.

Since you say it’s happening within only a few seconds of getting ingame, I think it’s less likely to be overheating – it’s still possible, but then the graphics card must have a serious cooling problem or else it wouldn’t get to the critical temperature (the point at which the PC will shut down to prevent damage to the hardware) so quickly. It’s a good idea regardless to install some temperature monitoring software (like HWmonitor) to check the temps of all your components and make sure none of them are approaching the failsafe limits when you run GW2. If you don’t have 2 monitors, you should run GW2 in windowed mode so it continues to run at full speed while you alt-tab out to check the temperatures in HWmonitor.

The other possibility is that you’ve got a power problem, more specifically that your power supply either doesn’t have enough juice or isn’t stable enough to properly power the entire system at the higher CPU/GPU loads you get when you run GW2. Since this started happening after you upgraded the GPU (which is a component with a high power draw) your existing power supply might be insufficient to support the new card, especially if the graphics card you upgraded from was significantly less powerful and your system was originally a prebuilt setup.

To really determine if power could be an issue I’d need to know what power supply you have, both the wattage and the brand + model. If you look inside the case most of the time these things should be listed on the side of the power supply. If that’s not the case then you might be dealing with a cheap PSU. If your computer is a prebuilt system from Dell or HP or someone else, does the computer itself have a model number that I could look up?

For a GTX 660 ti the minimum requirement for the PSU is 450W and 24 amps on the +12V rail and the PSU should be at least halfway decent quality (because the cheaper PSU’s often list specs they can’t actually meet).

If your PSU fails those specs, that is most likely the source of your problem. Even if it seem to meet the specs though, the PSU might still be the source of your problem (it could be wear and tear, it could be a cheaper unit that’s highly unstable). The best way to completely rule the PSU out is to run a stresstest on your hardware (google OCCT – install that and run it).

What to do next hinges on whether the stresstest fails or passes. If it fails and you get the same reboot you get in GW2, it’s almost certainly a hardware-related issue – if it passes it’s probably a software issue, though outside of an auto-restart BSOD I can’t think of many situations where the PC would reboot.

I’m not sure if you’ll see this since the thread is ten days old now, but that was a very informative post, thank you for the information. My friend has been having a similar issue with the game, and we may have to try some more thorough checks. However, the strangest part about his problem is that his PC runs somewhat higher-end games without issue (such as Planetside 2 and CoD: BO2) so I’d imagine the same problems would happen while playing those games if it was due to a heat or power issue. GW2 is the ONLY game that causes this on his PC, and so far he hasn’t really been able to play because of it.

I don’t know if this will help diagnose the problem or not, but every now and then he will get the game to play for twenty minutes or so only to get a BSOD (instead of a straight computer reboot without a BSOD like in this thread). I’ve had him check his dump files and he’s received stop errors 09c and 0124, caused by ‘hal.dll.’ According to my own research this is pointing to the likelihood of hardware issues as well, but again, the weirdest thing is that these only occur when he plays GW2. His PC is only about a year old, he bought it pre-built from newegg, and has been pretty consistently stable since he’s owned it.

Any fix for this yet?

bumping for OP, problem is common