WoW Locking Up

[Shizzy]

My Friend recently began playing WoW again and every time he attempts to play about 5 minutes in the game locks up as well as the windows task bar at the bottom from what I can see (We cant right click and close running application / processes). I read up that it might be Windows 7 causing that but I myself run W7 and haven't had this issue, I even know several people that do play with W7.

I was wondering if there are any suggestions as to what might be causing this. I myself think it might be the video card jamming up or going crazy which he is thinking of replacing. Does anyone have a similar issue?

P.S. I know this is probably not the place to ask but meh.

[Mr_Bojangles]

How old is the computer? Do other games freeze?

[Quizen]

Can you still do anything on the computer? For instant move the mouse, does it do any strange sound?

[Shizzy]

from what I know, Just mmorpg's. he told me that he as tried to play Starcraft and age of empires and they seem to work perfectly. As for the computers age he has no idea. The computer is a HP xw9300 Workstation if that helps at all, It was slightly customized from the previous owner but I cannot tell you as to how he customized it.

[Deleted]

My old Computer used to do that maybe 2-3 days before it crashes. wich it did alot.
it was allways the video card.

can also be that he/she has the settings to high

[Shizzy]

Can you still do anything on the computer? For instant move the mouse, does it do any strange sound?

yes he can move the mouse and exit out fine.

[hobes]

My Friend recently began playing WoW again and every time he attempts to play about 5 minutes in the game locks up as well as the windows task bar at the bottom from what I can see (We cant right click and close running application / processes). I read up that it might be Windows 7 causing that but I myself run W7 and haven't had this issue, I even know several people that do play with W7.

I was wondering if there are any suggestions as to what might be causing this. I myself think it might be the video card jamming up or going crazy which he is thinking of replacing. Does anyone have a similar issue?

P.S. I know this is probably not the place to ask but meh.

I was having a similar issue, but my PC froze randomly while playing WoW, and only WoW. I mean froze completely, had to hold power button in and restart the whole thing that way. Used to happen so randomly too, 5mins, 10mins, 2hrs or even 1min.

It ended up being a power supply problem but from the way your situation is acting, I think you'd be right in saying the gphx card.

I'm not an expert tough

[swipe]

I have the same issue, but it doesn't happen as often as you mentioned. About 2-3 times a day.
It happened since I started to use Windows 7, and I suspect bad Ati graphics card drivers. I never had any issues on my Windows XP installation.

My screen turns blank for upto 10 seconds (which during that time the graphics card automatically resets) and then continues like nothing happened. I tried using multiple graphic card drivers (old and new versions) but the problem still excists.

Oh, I am using a Radeon HD3780, if that helps any.

[Mr_Bojangles]

@shizzy: I should have been more clear, and asked if this happens with any recent games. Sounds like your gpu is overheating, clean the dust out

@darkshroud: Don't use pirated copies of windows then complain when things go wrong.

[Sýf]

Things you might want to do:

1. Give us more info about the computer, what drivers does he use for his graphic card? Which graphic card is it? How much ram does he use?
2. Check the heat on the video card during the game startup, along with how warm the rest of the computer is too during play.
3. Update drivers for the video card
4. Try the video card and RAM bricks in another computer (keep in note that the RAM bricks need to be supported by the motherboard youre testing it on)
5. Reinstall W7 (Even if its rare, it might be that its just a bug that happened during the installation causing some corrupt files etc., if all else fails try this, but remember to take backups)

[swipe]

@darkshroud: Don't use pirated copies of windows then complain when things go wrong.

Afraid that's not the case. So the issue still stands.

edit:
And thinking about it, I find it funny how you associate a graphics card driver issue with the use of a pirated version of Windows.

[Shizzy]

Things you might want to do:

1. Give us more info about the computer, what drivers does he use for his graphic card? Which graphic card is it? How much ram does he use?
2. Check the heat on the video card during the game startup, along with how warm the rest of the computer is too during play.
3. Update drivers for the video card
4. Try the video card and RAM bricks in another computer (keep in note that the RAM bricks need to be supported by the motherboard youre testing it on)
5. Reinstall W7 (Even if its rare, it might be that its just a bug that happened during the installation causing some corrupt files etc., if all else fails try this, but remember to take backups)

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 1/22/2010, 14:45:23
Machine name: PANKO-PC
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_rtm.090713-1255)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Hewlett-Packard
System Model: HP xw9300 Workstation
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 252, ~2.6GHz
Memory: 2048MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 2048MB RAM
Page File: 908MB used, 3186MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 32bit Unicode
DxDiag Previously: Crashed in system information (stage 4). Re-running DxDiag with "dontskip" command line parameter or choosing not to bypass information gathering when prompted might result in DxDiag successfully obtaining this information

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
Display Tab 1: No problems found.
Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D: 0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw: 0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay: 0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow: 0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA Quadro FX 1400
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: Quadro FX 1400
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_00CE&SUBSYS_024310DE&REV_A2
Display Memory: 878 MB
Dedicated Memory: 110 MB
Shared Memory: 767 MB
Current Mode: 1366 x 768 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
Monitor Model: DELL IN1910N
Monitor Id: DELA04C
Native Mode: 1366 x 768(p) (59.790Hz)
Output Type: HD15
Driver Name: nvd3dum.dll
Driver File Version: 8.16.0011.9178 (English)
Driver Version: 8.16.11.9178
DDI Version: 9Ex
Driver Model: WDDM 1.0
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 12/17/2009 15:31:25, 7626344 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
WHQL Date Stamp:
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-438E-11CF-B450-48221DC2C535}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x00CE
SubSys ID: 0x024310DE
Revision ID: 0x00A2
Driver Strong Name: oem4.inf:NVIDIA_SetB_Devices.NTx86.6.0:Section002:8.16.11.9178ci\ven_10de&dev_00ce
Rank Of Driver: 00F62001
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D3D9 Overlay: Not Supported
DXVA-HD: Not Supported
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled

[Sýf]

By the looks of it your friend is using an old driver and running a graphic card with roughly 128mb to work with and the level range of an old nVidia 6800 card, which is rather bad for a computer running W7 with WoW, or anything with WoW, or anything thats Vista+ range.

I'd suggest you:

A. Update drivers (Probably won't make a difference)
B. Buy a new graphic card

[Mr_Bojangles]

Afraid that's not the case. So the issue still stands.

edit:
And thinking about it, I find it funny how you associate a graphics card driver issue with the use of a pirated version of Windows.

You showed at the very least an understanding of how computers work, identified it to have something to do with upgrading to windows 7, and taken basic steps to resolve the issue. With windows 7 being so peachy, of course I jumped straight to the most likely candidate; pirated software.

[swipe]

You showed at the very least an understanding of how computers work, identified it to have something to do with upgrading to windows 7, and taken basic steps to resolve the issue. With windows 7 being so peachy, of course I jumped straight to the most likely candidate; pirated software.

Well, as a student I have access to free (legal) software of Microsoft products as I need it for my study.
So as I said earlier, pirated software is not being the issue here.

[lilbandit]

Have you done a benchmarking test on the computer? Or something to really stress the computer?

It could be any of the components failing, or indeed be a software issue. WoW may be stressing certain components that other games are not. Running some basic stress tests might reproduce the problem.