Guild Wars issues; Please help!

[zinfamous]

I've been playing Guild Wars off-and-on for the last few months, and while I've had issues before, They seem to be constant now. Oftentimes the program will initiate a hard reset of my system, or just shut itself down with a prompt to report the error to Arena Net, or wherever it goes...

My system:
ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe (I forget the bios...3.1?)
Athlon64 3500+ (Winchester)
Radeon X800 XL (Catalyst 6.3)
Audigy 4 (updated drivers with jan 2006 release)
1 gig OCZ3200 Platinum (not revision 2)

and I'm not overclocking....
Once I reload, some characters in the game are replaced by yellow boxes; so I'm thinking this is mainly an issue with my video card.

I recently replaced a crappy d-link wireless router with a linksys WRT54GS. I still use my ~3 year-old d-link USB wireless adapter though.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. When it happens again, I'll cut and paste the details (some corrupted files) when I get them.

 

[Maxspeed996]

I don't think this problem is your vid card , and that version of the Catalyst works with Guildwars.
You may try to uninstall the game , and reinstall to see if you've gotten a corrupted file or something. That's the only advice that I have.

The only problem I've ever had with this game is when I log off , to quit , the game is at the full screen window , and if I try to click the "x" to close the window. The pane freezes up requiring a Ctrl - Alt - Del. to shut it off.
but if I minimize the window , or have it less than full screen , I click the "x" it closes. And no problems. Good luck getting it going. If you get everything going , and are looking for help , PM my character " Max the Wise "

 

[zinfamous]

Thanks, I saw your post in the Anandtech Guild thread. Actually, the last reset caused the system to reinstall everything on my next login. After the long--and unfortunately familiar--"Repairing Data" screen, it re-downloaded all GW files. I sitll had my Character, but only with levels. After It had to reload and install the next batch of files for whichever city I was in, I did have all of my items (thought I would lose them somehow).

Should I still try to uninstall and reinstall with the disc? I've had a few problems with other games...but I used to attribute it to my now-replaced MSI/NF4 board. There are other hardware issues. My NEC DVD drive/burner never played well with my Toshiba DVD drive (Toshiba master/NEC slave) so I just unhooked the Toshiba (nothing would install properly with it, or it would just freeze).

The system will reset itself b/c of "unknown driver" issues, but I haven't been able to pinpoint it. In the long run, I think it's a problem beyond GW...

 

[zinfamous]

This is what I keep getting. Don't know what this stuff means...any clues? ...anyone?

(2) File 0x3eb1 stream 0x2 is corrupt
(2) MdlBloat: unable to lock file 3eb1
(2) MdlBloat: Parse error
(2) failed to combine skeleton 0x003eb1

 

[JohnAn2112]

Do you have any problems with any other games that you play?

Also, check your RAM with memtest for any errors.

 

[zinfamous]

Funny, i just posted a long topic about my failed mem test in the general harware forum. (You guys really know your stuff)

It failed every test on the first pass

And I have had problems with other games. Biggest culprit besides GW is Sim City 4 (Haven't installed since I replaced the MB though). Program would shut down, occasional hard reset.

 

[JohnAn2112]

PM SteveOCZ or RyderOCZ on these forums and they'll take care of your memory RMA for you.

 

[zinfamous]

Thanks, I rememeber when he set up shop. Wasn't sure if he was still hanging around. So you're saying I definately have some bad memory? I'm 99.65% sure they are installed properly in the correct DIMMS. I would think that if I had bad memory my BIOS wouldn't report the full 1024mb of RAM; much less be able to run for over a year...

 

[zinfamous]

I also noticed that my cpu is at 100% when running GW. This can't be right...

 

[JohnAn2112]

Originally posted by: zinfamous
Thanks, I rememeber when he set up shop. Wasn't sure if he was still hanging around. So you're saying I definately have some bad memory? I'm 99.65% sure they are installed properly in the correct DIMMS. I would think that if I had bad memory my BIOS wouldn't report the full 1024mb of RAM; much less be able to run for over a year...

Well, memory can go bad after time. Also, it usually still reports the correct amount of RAM. I saw in your other thread that the memory failed memtest so I would get the memory RMA'd anyways to rule out any other future problems.

 

[duragezic]

Perhaps try swapping the DIMMs to different banks and/or raising DIMM voltage by .1 V or so (I think its default 2.5V, so try 2.6V). Then rerun memtest.

Errors in memtest dont necessarily indicate the memory is bad but somewhere in the memory system there is a problem.

 

[zinfamous]

I've found the culprit in my memory: one of the DIMMS was failing the LRAND (3rd) test. All tests would fail on the first pass with both DIMMS installed in the banks for dual channel. I was hoping to test each bank to see if it was a MB issue, but it won't boot unless a DIMM is installed in the 3rd bank in single DIMM use. When I install both DIMMS in the 3rd and 4th banks, memtest fails the 2nd test--not all of them. I don't know if this means anything more than one of my sticks is FUBAR.

Increasing the voltage didn't help either; I went up to 2.65. Hopefully, I won't get the "overclock failed" message when I boot from now on (sporadic before, everytime the bad DIMM was installed alone when running tests)

Is it possible that bad memory was causing Windows to report faulty/unknown drivers on crashing? Or is this an altogether separate problem that I will have to battle?