computer flat out shutting down

[xephrey.4987]

@Qristus.9421 said:I have the exact same problem as you have @xephrey.4987And one thing i saw that i found interesting is that you have a MSI laptop.. Same as my self.I have uppdated BIOS, GPUBios, done a clean install of windows and only have GW2 installed and temps are all in the green.I only get this problem in Lions Arch, Crystal Oasis and Lions arch aerodrome so far.

I found something interesting for us MSI laptop people:

http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/1070-laptop-gt73vr-gt62vr-gt72vr-reboot-crash-problem.804978/

The problem with this is that I can't just recreate the issue whenever. It's fairly random for me and so far, only happens in one game. So if I try an RMA, they'll probably just stress test it, not find anything, charge me for wasting their time, and send it back.

[DeWolfe.2174]

@abomally.2694 said:DeWolfe.2174 -

I would start by trying a different video cable. I do, in fact, have a video cable with an intermittent internal short that does that exact thing (with the exception of restarting the system - it just randomly makes the monitor go blank).

If that doesn't solve the problem, your GPU is very likely dying. There are other possibilities such as power supply or motherboard (bad RAM can even cause it), but it's best to start with the most likely suspect. Unfortunately, you'll have to substitute components to pinpoint the problem.

"...So, if it's hardware, even after 3-4 months, it certainly should have broken fully by now."

Not necessarily. Electronic failures can be completely unpredictable in how they behave.

Thank you for the suggestion. Already tried that month or so ago and swapped from one of the HDMI ports on the card to the Display port. Could always try a 3rd cable. Though again, I just stress tested the card at 100% load for over 4 hours a couple days ago. The game itself never stresses the card near that level, not even 50%.

Out of everyone having issues, are we all running Nvidia cards?

One other thing I noticed on one of the crashes was that the CPU load suddenly started increasing for maybe a second or two before crashing the system. It's why I'm still thinking its software issue. Especially when the game resource requirements have increased substantially the past 3-4 months. That much added is more chances for errors.

[Qristus.9421]

Sitting on a Nvidia card yes DeWolfe. I have contacted my retailer and given them my findings and awaiting there response.

[dagrdagaz.4913]

It has been mentioned that GW2 is much more CPU intensive then GPU.So with overheating its more likely the CPU.

As for MSI laptops. I recently bought one.Mine has (by default) a program installed (Dragon Center) in wich u can set if u wanna overclock the CPU, GPU, both or none.Check in that program if overclocking is enabled, especially for the CPU(if so, disable overclocking then)

[abomally.2694]

@DeWolfe.2174 said:

@abomally.2694 said:DeWolfe.2174 -

I would start by trying a different video cable. I do, in fact, have a video cable with an intermittent internal short that does that exact thing (with the exception of restarting the system - it just randomly makes the monitor go blank).

If that doesn't solve the problem, your GPU is very likely dying. There are other possibilities such as power supply or motherboard (bad RAM can even cause it), but it's best to start with the most likely suspect. Unfortunately, you'll have to substitute components to pinpoint the problem.

"...So, if it's hardware, even after 3-4 months, it certainly should have broken fully by now."

Not necessarily. Electronic failures can be completely unpredictable in how they behave.

Thank you for the suggestion. Already tried that month or so ago and swapped from one of the HDMI ports on the card to the Display port. Could always try a 3rd cable. Though again, I just stress tested the card at 100% load for over 4 hours a couple days ago. The game itself never stresses the card near that level, not even 50%.

Out of everyone having issues, are we all running Nvidia cards?

One other thing I noticed on one of the crashes was that the CPU load suddenly started increasing for maybe a second or two before crashing the system. It's why I'm still thinking its software issue. Especially when the game resource requirements have increased substantially the past 3-4 months. That much added is more chances for errors.

Since you are seeing "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered" in the Event Viewer (taken from the other thread) - it means that your graphics card is failing.

It isn't the driver crashing the card; it's the card crashing the driver.

[DeWolfe.2174]

@abomally.2694 said:

Since you are seeing "Display driver nvlddmkm stopped responding and has successfully recovered" in the Event Viewer (taken from the other thread) - it means that your graphics card is failing.

It isn't the driver crashing the card; it's the card crashing the driver.

And yet, I just ran the Superposition benchmark on 1080p High for 1.5 hours with no Problems at all. Not only that, I simultaneously ran the Intel Extreme Tuning utility Memory stress test. Which means for the past 1.5 hours I had the CPU, GPU, and Ram running at 100% load with not a single hiccup!!! This is why I refuse to buy a new card or any other component when this is likely a software issue. It wouldn't be the first time GW2 and Nvidia drivers didn't get along well.

[abomally.2694]

The card MAY still be defective - despite what your testing shows. I do understand the doubt though.

For one thing, GW2 uses DX9 and that benchmark will be using DX11. It's similar in the way that RAM can be defective and Memtest will show it as passing all tests. For example, a DX9 function that GW2 uses could be broken at a hardware level, which causes the hardware to hang, the screen to go blank and result in the error in the Event Viewer. Things like this DO happen in electronics.

Provided that you have already tried different drivers, removed game injection software (SweetFX, etc.) and checked for incompatible software running in the background - the ONLY way you are going to find the answer is by substituting components. You can do every software test under the sun and I will still tell you that you need to test with different hardware to find the answer.

If you have (or can even borrow) another video card - try it. That's what I would do; but I may have a bit of an advantage because I have a few older video cards laying around that I know are good.

A close second for substitution is power supply. Next in line is RAM; then the last component would be motherboard - but a mobo failure like that is pretty rare.

Good luck.

[Morfedel.4165]

argh!

So, it worked for a couple days, then it started doing it again.So frustrating. I took it to geek squad for them to analyze but they couldnt find anything wrong; they apologized and said they cant fix it.

And my support ticket i submitted a week ago has only had an automated reply and nothing else. That is equally frustrating.

[Morfedel.4165]

@abomally.2694 said:

@Morfedel.4165 said:

@abomally.2694 said:

@Morfedel.4165 said:yup, and thats what I mean, people keep saying this is a hardware issue, and I keep saying I'm not convinced. Not when gw2 is the only piece of software thats doing this, and the last time it did, a patch ended up fixing the problem.

I've been doing electronics and computer repair for 35 years. Trust me - it's a hardware issue.

And yet it only happens in one map, in one game. That seems oddly specific for it to be a hardware issue.

Regardless, it's apparently stopped again after the latest patch, so....

You are, of course, free to believe whatever you want.

wasnt intended to be rude, but really, its the ONLY thing causing the problem, and geek squad ran all kinds of stress tests that failed to cause it to crash.

[Morfedel.4165]

Provided that you have already tried different drivers, removed game injection software (SweetFX, etc.) and checked for incompatible software running in the background - the ONLY way you are going to find the answer is by substituting components. You can do every software test under the sun and I will still tell you that you need to test with different hardware to find the answer.

I started to say I never use that stuff, then I remembered watching video from woodenpotatoes talking about some piece of software that makes the level of graphics much sweeter.... and I cant recall what that was or if I installed it. I could either try to hunt down the video that he talks about it and then reinstall it, or reinstall the game itself maybe?

[DeWolfe.2174]

Not to jinx the game running but, GW2 hasn't crashed for me since the Friday update. WOOT! Only change on my end since my earlier post was deleting the audio drivers and using the windows drivers. Since I recalled there being a conflict with Nvidia and Realtek in the past. Then uninstalling/reinstalling the Razer Synapse too. One of them has fixed the issue that I've been having for 6 months!

Morfedel, have you tried uninstalling the video drivers in safe mode with DDU? Download the new drivers and have them ready, then use DDU to uninstall Nvidia Drivers. You can google how to use DDU and where to download it.After the video drivers are done, delete the audio drivers. Try out the windows drivers to run the audio.Then clear the GW2 cache by deleting the GW2cache folder in (C:>Users>your windows account name>AppData>Local>Temp>gw2cache)Next is the local.dat file by going to (C:>Users>your windows account name>AppData>Roaming>Guild Wars 2>local.dat)Note: You will have to type in your user name and password in the GW2 launcher again. Also, reset some user preferences in GW2. Most are saved in the cloud.

Keeping fingers crossed this fixes your issues!

[Ben K.6238]

@Morfedel.4165 said:wasnt intended to be rude, but really, its the ONLY thing causing the problem, and geek squad ran all kinds of stress tests that failed to cause it to crash.

It may be the only application you run that has a chance of triggering the problem. If it was an issue with GW2's code, Windows would deal with the exception and kill the process. You'd get an error message, not a restart.

[Morfedel.4165]

@Ben K.6238 said:

@Morfedel.4165 said:wasnt intended to be rude, but really, its the ONLY thing causing the problem, and geek squad ran all kinds of stress tests that failed to cause it to crash.

It may be the only application you run that has a chance of triggering the problem. If it was an issue with GW2's code, Windows would deal with the exception and kill the process. You'd get an error message, not a restart.

fair enough

[Morfedel.4165]

I thought I'd uninstall and reinstall the software. That did fix the issue once before. And Trying it to uninstall Generating an error message saying it couldn't download something. I was going to insert the image I snapped a picture of but for some reason it won't let me do so.

I'm not sure why it has to download anything it to uninstall it, but whatever it is it's not letting me do it and therefore won't let me uninstall it. This is incredibly frustrating.

[Morfedel.4165]

@DeWolfe.2174 said:Not to jinx the game running but, GW2 hasn't crashed for me since the Friday update. WOOT! Only change on my end since my earlier post was deleting the audio drivers and using the windows drivers. Since I recalled there being a conflict with Nvidia and Realtek in the past. Then uninstalling/reinstalling the Razer Synapse too. One of them has fixed the issue that I've been having for 6 months!

Morfedel, have you tried uninstalling the video drivers in safe mode with DDU? Download the new drivers and have them ready, then use DDU to uninstall Nvidia Drivers. You can google how to use DDU and where to download it.After the video drivers are done, delete the audio drivers. Try out the windows drivers to run the audio.Then clear the GW2 cache by deleting the GW2cache folder in (C:>Users>your windows account name>AppData>Local>Temp>gw2cache)Next is the local.dat file by going to (C:>Users>your windows account name>AppData>Roaming>Guild Wars 2>local.dat)Note: You will have to type in your user name and password in the GW2 launcher again. Also, reset some user preferences in GW2. Most are saved in the cloud.

Keeping fingers crossed this fixes your issues!

some lengthy steps there, but I'll try it if this uninstall and reinstall doesnt work. had to download advanced uninstaller pro to uninstall the damned thing. about to retry gw2 now.

[DeWolfe.2174]

I was able to push the game and get it to pop still. Though it runs pretty stable on lower settings. Hopefully the Dev's will put some effort into streamlining and increasing efficiency. Until then, you'll have to come up with something to get your rig to run it. Wondering if your video card is factory over clocked? Might try EVGA Precision, MSI Afterburner, or other tuning programs and tone down the speed a bit. Say lowering it by 50mhz or so and see if it runs stable? Can even increase voltage ever so slightly too.

For the game itself, it pretty much runs as a portable app. You can simply download a fresh exe from https://account.arena.net/welcome , plunk it in any folder, run it, and it'll download a fresh copy of the game. The cache and the local.dat are the two items ever really needing to be cleaned/deleted. When you start the game it recreates these folders and files automatically. So it's just delete, delete, and run the game.

[Morfedel.4165]

@DeWolfe.2174 said:I was able to push the game and get it to pop still. Though it runs pretty stable on lower settings. Hopefully the Dev's will put some effort into streamlining and increasing efficiency. Until then, you'll have to come up with something to get your rig to run it. Wondering if your video card is factory over clocked? Might try EVGA Precision, MSI Afterburner, or other tuning programs and tone down the speed a bit. Say lowering it by 50mhz or so and see if it runs stable? Can even increase voltage ever so slightly too.

For the game itself, it pretty much runs as a portable app. You can simply download a fresh exe from https://account.arena.net/welcome , plunk it in any folder, run it, and it'll download a fresh copy of the game. The cache and the local.dat are the two items ever really needing to be cleaned/deleted. When you start the game it recreates these folders and files automatically. So it's just delete, delete, and run the game.

I ran advanced uninstaller pro; it got everything. Then I reinstalled. Didn't help.

I'm going to try the DDU thing suggested above next, but I'm running out of options. I'm very distraught over this. Been playing the game since beta, and now, suddenly, the game is unplayable.

What's weird was there was a two day gap in all this that it DID, suddenly, work again. Then after two days went right back to doing this all over again.

[DeWolfe.2174]

New Nvidia drivers are out, wondering if it's helping you?

[Nyth.6714]

I am not sure if this will help you or not, but I had the same issue. My computer would completely restart after a few minutes of playing the game, and it was the only game that it would happen with. Now I know in fact that my PSU needs to be upgraded (it is getting on a bit) I am in the process of looking at buying another. My short term fix was to drop my graphics down to medium. This has stopped it making my computer restart completely so far.All other checks were made bla bla - Wondered if it was indeed the game itself, but it plays fine on my partners computer which he built new about 6 months ago.I know people are having this issue, along with countless other problems since the xpac has come out. And I really feel for those that have bought the game and can't even play it :(So idk, just letting you know that dropping my graphics down has stopped the issue (for me at least)

[Llethander.3972]

This is a suggestion nobody ever wants to hear because it's unbelievably inconvenient, but try doing a full system recovery/fresh install of your OS. If you are adamant in your belief that the issue is not hardware related and is, instead, software related running recovery is a very good way of ruling out possible causes such as corrupted system files, software conflicts, etc. It does help in attempting to narrow down the culprit even if it's something that most are loathe to do because of the time required to recustomize the system to their preferences.

[Leamas.5803]

Crashing like this has been a problem with GW2 since at least the December after launch (2012), when I first started experiencing it. Downclocking my video card fixed it for me. Arenanet has stated that GW2 is sensitive to overclocked hardware. If I forget to reduce the clock speed on that machine (My kids use it now) before playing, it WILL crash within minutes. I have NEVER had a crash while the video card was downclocked...not once. No one wants to downclock a fancy video card, but give it a try. Reduce it by maybe 10% and see how it goes.

[DeWolfe.2174]

@Leamas.5803 said:Crashing like this has been a problem with GW2 since at least the December after launch (2012), when I first started experiencing it. Downclocking my video card fixed it for me. Arenanet has stated that GW2 is sensitive to overclocked hardware. If I forget to reduce the clock speed on that machine (My kids use it now) before playing, it WILL crash within minutes. I have NEVER had a crash while the video card was downclocked...not once. No one wants to downclock a fancy video card, but give it a try. Reduce it by maybe 10% and see how it goes.

Yup, I've been researching this issue and it's been around for a decade. I just dropped my OC by less than 5% and it's been running solid. What's hilarious is that I run the frame limiter and GW2 never maxes out my card anyway. If people are having issues, set the limiter too. It's error protection more than anything.

[Leamas.5803]

@DeWolfe.2174 said:

@Leamas.5803 said:Crashing like this has been a problem with GW2 since at least the December after launch (2012), when I first started experiencing it. Downclocking my video card fixed it for me. Arenanet has stated that GW2 is sensitive to overclocked hardware. If I forget to reduce the clock speed on that machine (My kids use it now) before playing, it WILL crash within minutes. I have NEVER had a crash while the video card was downclocked...not once. No one wants to downclock a fancy video card, but give it a try. Reduce it by maybe 10% and see how it goes.

Yup, I've been researching this issue and it's been around for a decade. I just dropped my OC by less than 5% and it's been running solid. What's hilarious is that I run the frame limiter and GW2 never maxes out my card anyway. If people are having issues, set the limiter too. It's error protection more than anything.

Frame limiter reduced the amount of crashes, but never fully fixed it for me. Down clocked, I have the frame limiter set to unlimited and my graphics options set much higher than it was before down clocking, when I was reducing graphic setting just trying to stabilize it. Back when I first started having issues, certain versions of the video driver were also more stable than others. For instance, 306.97 was vastly more stable with GW2 than 310.90.

[abomally.2694]

"Arenanet has stated that GW2 is sensitive to overclocked hardware. "

There's no such thing. In this case, Anet is wrong. An overclock is either 100% stable or it isn't.

[Leamas.5803]

@abomally.2694 said:"Arenanet has stated that GW2 is sensitive to overclocked hardware. "

There's no such thing. In this case, Anet is wrong. An overclock is either 100% stable or it isn't.

Well, I keep hearing this and in theory it should be true. In practice that may or may not be the case and may be more a matter of opinion than anything. SLi, for instance, again, should be completely transparent to the application/game layer, but back when I bought GW2 in Sept 2012, I had a machine with two gtx275 cards running SLi, it did not work at all for GW2 and would get abysmal frame rates until you switched it to single card mode, or maybe I had to take a card out...I don't remember (And, again, it was ONLY GW2 that disliked the configuration, everything else worked fine). That may be better now, with newer hardware/drivers, but I don't run SLi anymore. That machine ultimately received a 560 and worked fine after that, but has since been retired (Still not a bad machine with an i7-2600k CPU). The machine that followed, the one that has issues with GW2 has a 670 running on a 3930k CPU. It's now the kids' machine and does everything they want it to do...primarily Minecraft, Terraria and Garry's Mod. It never has any issues, ever...unless we try to play GW2 together, which WILL crash the computer within minutes unless the video card is down clocked. My current machine has a 1080 running on a 7700k CPU and does everything I need at the moment and requires no special treatment.

What I can tell you for 100% sure, in the ~5 years I've had that machine (Bought December 2012), ONLY GW2 has had consistent issues and I've played many games far more graphically intensive games such as Bioshock Infinite, HD Skyrim (Modded to death), ESO, Wolffenstein: The New Order, Alien: Isolation, among many others, as well as bench marked and stress tested every part that one can get software to test (Furmark, eVGA stress test, Nexuiz Benchmark test, Intel CPU stability test, Memtest86 memory test, etc, etc, etc.). I have also had the PSU (1200W) load tested 3 times by the shop where I bought the computer (Since you need special shop hardware for that).

Again, ONLY GW2 has issues with that machine and dropping the clock speed on the video card fixes it. You're right of course, it could be a flaky overclock straight from eVGA or slightly faulty card, or some combination of hardware GW2 does not like but, again, as I said, in my case, no other game or application has issues with the factory clock...so where does the big finger point? Of course, it points at GW2 as being the source of the problem, which is what the hardware manufacturer will say. Now the problem with this is that if the issue cannot be reproduced in a controlled environment no one will warranty or RMA it. This I discovered after 3 years of fighting with the shop and eVGA (Since I had an extended warranty). The short of it is that they need to be able to reproduce the fault before they'll replace the hardware.