Re: Repair Utility / Full Reinstall


"w_tom" <w_tom1@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:9dab9802-d93a-47e1-8567-e814779f7115@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Why suspect a disk drive for a WoW execution problem? Your strategy
is to randomly suspect things because you have a problem. Instead,
follow the evidence. Also establish what critical parts are working
'defintively'.

I have no idea how to diagnose this problem, I feel like I've tried
everything short of replacing hardware and praying. I have been testing WoW
to try to get screen captures or some different behavior, hoping for an
error message or some sign of what is going wrong.
Tonight I logged in a character and it kept freezing, though I could
still move my cursor, and after 20 seconds or so it would start working
again. Then I walked to the ocean in Grom'Gol and every step I took the
entire ocean would flash from blue to white and light blue stripes. I tried
but could not get a screen capture. Otherwise I didn't get any of the crazy
graphics gaps I've been having, just the freezes and the ocean thing.
So I logged on another character in Orgrimmar to see what would happen
in a crowded place. It loaded and I may have taken a single step forward
before the graphics above the character stretched out and got distorted.
This time I lost my cursor when it froze which usually doesn't happen. I
decided to wait and see what would happen so I didn't hit any keys or enter
any commands. It sat there, frozen, for several minutes and then my system
rebooted without any prompting from me!
Here are the kinds of graphics issues that have been coming up along
with the freezes, the third one I just took tonight in my testing.
http://www.badspatula.com/images/buggy01.jpg
http://www.badspatula.com/images/buggy02.jpg
http://www.badspatula.com/images/buggy03.jpg

Here's the full history of my problems with WoW leading up to now:
First I was playing as usual and I froze for quite some time, then the
game caught up again and I was able to move. I was able to move my cursor
during the freeze but I couldn't get the game to react. I quit for the day,
tried again the next day, and shortly after logging in the exact same thing
happened. I discovered that if I brought up Task Manager (I am running
Windows XP) via CTRL+ALT+DEL the game would suddenly start working again and
unfreeze as soon as Task Manager opened. However, the game would freeze
again very shortly after and most of the time I couldn't get it to work
again by reopening Task Manager.
Every time I logged in it would freeze in the same way, allowing me to
use my mouse but not to enter any commands or interact with the game in any
way. I took a long break to do some research and find time to bring another
relative over to look at things. I tested things again and now in addition
to freezing the graphics would act up; big trapezoidal parts of the world
would break off and spin around, changing colors or just showing up as
black. Sometimes they would move, sometimes they would just sit there.
Every time the graphics broke up I would freeze, though I could still move
my cursor and usually Task Manager would run.
I followed all the WoW tech support suggestions; cleaning out folders,
resetting all the settings, etc. I was able to log in for a few more
seconds before the freeze after these changes, but it didn't fix them.
Tonight was the second time that it has frozen without a cursor and then
rebooted without prompting.
Yesterday I had the same freezing / graphics problems happening but
between freezes I was able to get the options window open and I told it to
log out. It sat there for a long time and then the screen went, well,
crazy. It looked like the very bottom of my WoW screen, but pixilated and
distorted, and it repeated in horizontal rows covering the entire screen. I
had to reboot manually after that.

I ran Memtest, all the diagnostic and manufacturer tests on my video
card, checked drivers for everything, ran virus scans, defragged things, I
have done every diagnostic test I can think of. I come from a family of
computer people; my father runs a software company and is a programmer /
game designer, and my uncle has done tech support for many companies for
years. I've shown them the problems and they've helped run diagnostic tests
but we're all at a loss. Right now our best guess is to try a new video
card because the graphics issues are recurring.
My power supply sometimes sounds like it turns off, the fan whines and
dies and then comes back on, so I already know there is something odd about
it. That's why I am replacing it, just to be safe. I picked up a new one
for cheap so, while I don't know how the power supply could be related to
these problems, at least that's one thing I can take off the list and know
is not a problem.
Nothing else is crashing, though I don't run anything else as graphics
or resource intensive on this machine. I tried a few older games and they
ran just fine, but they have pretty basic requirements.
Right now the best thing I can think of is to replace the video card, or
at least test it in another machine, and hope that it's as simple as an old
card going bad. What do you think?
Thanks so much, to everyone, for the suggestions and support. This is
well beyond frustrating to the point where I'm starting to think it's just
time to find a new hobby.
-Jonathan (Heatvision on Frostwolf)


.

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