Odd memory issue? HD space issue? Also, can't update GPU driver (GW2 crashing)

I posted the same on their tech support forum but I'm beginning to think the issue, while it may have been exacerbated by the game Guildwars 2, is likely on my end, but I have a number of suggestions, none of which has worked. Also tried my own stuff.

 

Anyway, here is what I posted on their own tech forum:

------

 

Having a lot of issues getting into gw2…I have bits and pieces of problems others have had in the past, but nothing seems to work, so I’m re-downloading the game, basically. All I want to do is play the freaking game, why does it have to be so much trouble?

 

 

Once in awhile I will get that blue and yellow graphical glitch on something. Just more info for diagnosis. If and when this happens, it’s always immediately apparent at character select. However…The biggest problem I have with GW2 is also on login – it either crashes or bluescreens my computer right after clicking play and the client tries to load for 5-10 seconds. For the past few days, 90% of the time it just crashes. If I try to patch after that point, the patcher stops at Downloading 0KB and will not budge from it. Not even to log in. I have to reboot my computer to get it past “Downloading 0KB”.

 

 

One post I found said that they started having all these problems after downloading a number of games on Steam (which I have done off and on due to a friend getting me a few gifts) , until their HD shrank down to 30 gigs. Same here, and the problem got worse around that same time frame. Since downloading Chivalry last week, which put me down to 29.5gigs, I’ve been crashing 4/5 times. However, after deleting Tera and Aion, then having around 80 gigs of space, I’m still having the same issue.

 

I tried updating my video card (nVidia’s 9800 GTX) driver, but for some reason it just continuously failed. So I tried a slightly older version. Failed. So I tried the oldest video card driver installer I could find in my folders – still failed. So I went and dug up the freaking basic driver CD installer that came with it. That worked. Tried updating drivers again – failed. again. So I had to run the CD, again.

 

 

I also tried restoring my computer to last week, prior to downloading Chivalry, prior to updating any drivers. That, too, failed. “Your system cannot be restored to this date and changes were reverted”, or something to that effect. Yes, I picked one of the ones it told me to pick.

 

 

Since running the CD for my oldest driver, my screen also flashes black initially after my desktop appears when booting my computer.

As an additional note – for the past few weeks whenever I want to get on GW2, it seems like it ABSOLUTELY HAS TO BE THE FIRST THING I DO PERIOD OR IT WILL CRASH.

 

However, if it’s the first thing, I can use my computer just fine as normal. But if I say, load up Google Chrome and surf for a minute at all…GW2 was guaranteed to crash. However, if I loaded GW2 first before absolutely anything else, it would ‘usually’ load (not always), and with the game still open, I could browse/do whatever with absolutely no issue at all.

 

 

I just want to play the game; anyone have any insight?

----------

 

In addition, here is the information from the error/crash log of the game itself that may help with some insight.

 

 

• Crash <—*
  Fatal Error: Fatal disk-error (1450) on read, 
  App: Gw2.exe 
  Pid: 3576
  Cmdline: 
  BaseAddr: 00400000
  ProgramId: 101
  Build: 16817
  When: 2013-02-27T21:16:41Z 2013-02-27T13:16:41-08:00
  Uptime: 0 days 0:00:41
  Flags: 0

• System <—*
  Name: ZEKE-QECX4F21PA
  IpAddr: 192.168.0.100
  Processors: 2 [GenuineIntel:6:7:10]
  OSVersion: Windows 5.1 (32 bit)

• System Memory <—*
  Physical: 916MB/ 2047MB 44%
  Paged: 2332MB/ 3939MB 59%
  Virtual: 823MB/ 2047MB 40%
  Load: 55%
  CommitTotal: 1607MB
  CommitLimit: 3939MB
  CommitPeak: 1607MB
  SystemCache: 767MB
  HandleCount: 10929
  ProcessCount: 34
  ThreadCount: 604

• Process Memory <—*
  Private: 874MB
  WorkingSet: 231MB
  PeakWorkingSet: 231MB
  PageFaults: 185265

[DbgHelp.dll is C:\WINDOWS\system32\dbghelp.dll]
[DbgHelp.dll version 5.1.2600.5512 (64/32-bit compatible)]

• ThreadPoolFile01 Thread 0xe18 <—*

• Trace <—*
  Pc:00c98f37 Fr:0283fcc0 Rt:0067e965 Arg:012ea560 0000020e 012ea5b4 000005aa 
  Pc:0067e965 Fr:0283fcf8 Rt:0067f172 Arg:0649feb0 000005aa 0db33fa0 0649fe30 
  Pc:0067f172 Fr:0283fe44 Rt:0067f3f2 Arg:0db33fa0 0649fe30 0db33fa0 0620fac0 
  Pc:0067f3f2 Fr:0283fe5c Rt:0067fe39 Arg:0db33fa0 0283fe84 00682a30 0db33fa0 
  Pc:0067fe39 Fr:0283fe68 Rt:00682a30 Arg:0db33fa0 00000000 0620fac0 00000000 
  Pc:00682a30 Fr:0283fe84 Rt:006812a6 Arg:0db33fa0 00000000 0620fac0 0620fb00 
  Pc:006812a6 Fr:0283ff2c Rt:00681391 Arg:0649fe30 000003e8 0283ff54 0620fb00 
  Pc:00681391 Fr:0283ff4c Rt:006813f5 Arg:00000000 7c80e6bb 06210b50 006809ef 
  Pc:006813f5 Fr:0283ff70 Rt:008d522d Arg:06210b50 062a4051 7c80e6bb 02194788 
  Pc:008d522d Fr:0283ffa8 Rt:008d52d5 Arg:0620d5e4 0283ffec 7c80b713 02194788 
  Pc:008d52d5 Fr:0283ffb4 Rt:7c80b713 Arg:02194788 7c80e6bb 0620d5e4 02194788 
  Pc:7c80b713 Fr:0283ffec Rt:00000000 Arg:008d5253 02194788 00000000 00000000

• Thread registers <—*
  eax=0283f790 ebx=00000000 ecx=00000000 edx=00000044 esi=00000000 edi=00000003
  eip=00c98f37 esp=0283fba4 ebp=0283fcc0
  cs=001b ss=0023 ds=0023 es=0023 fs=003b gs=0000 efl=00000246

eax-32 0283F770 7c97b178 7c917de9 0145e4f4 02194788 
eax-16 0283F780 0000ffff 7ffdf000 00263358 00686505 
eax 0 0283F790 80000003 00000000 00000000 7c812aeb 
eax16 0283F7A0 00000002 00000002 0e382bc0 00000280 
eax+32 0283F7B0 00000000 00000044 0283fb10 0283f890 
eax+48 0283F7C0 0283f7e4 008d8e2f 0283f890 00000000

 

—> Code <—
00C98F17 55619dff 8b450c6a 0050568d 95fcfeff Ua…E.j.PV…..
00C98F27 ffb90300 0000c785 f8feffff 00000000 …………….
00C98F37 e8e4d79e ff8b4dfc 33cd5ee8 2297c3ff ……M.3.^."…
00C98F47 8be55dc3 cccccccc cc535657 b9700871 ..]……SVW.p.q
00C98F57 01e87343 9eff8b1d 2c496101 8b3d2449 ..sC….,Ia..=$I
00C98F67 610133c0 b9700871 01a32449 6101a328 a.3..p.q..$Ia..(

—> Stack <—
0283FBA4 00c98f3c 012ea560 0000020e 00000000 <…`………..
0283FBB4 012ea604 00000000 61746146 6964206c ……..Fatal di
0283FBC4 652d6b73 726f7272 34312820 20293035 sk-error (1450) 
0283FBD4 72206e6f 00646165 00000009 00000001 on read………
0283FBE4 00400130 7ffdc000 0283fc38 7c928575 0......8...u..| 0283FBF4 00400000 00000001 00000009 7c9285a7 ..…………|
0283FC04 0283fc7c 00000001 7ffdc000 00000018 |……………
0283FC14 7c90118a 0124c034 00000002 0283fc04 …|4.$………
0283FC24 7ffdc000 0283fc94 7c90e900 7c9285b0 ………..|…|
0283FC34 7ffd9000 0283fca4 7c935df4 0283fc68 ………].|h…
0283FC44 7c91b197 7ffd9000 7ffdc000 00000000 …|…………
0283FC54 00000103 0db33fa0 000011c4 0283fc90 …..?……….
0283FC64 7c90f63c 7c90f641 000011c4 0db33fa0 <..|A..|…..?..
0283FC74 00000103 0283fc6c 7ffd9000 0283fcd8 ….l………..
0283FC84 7c90e900 000011c4 000005aa 0283fca0 …|…………
0283FC94 7c809414 000005aa 0db33fa0 0283fce8 …|…..?……
0283FCA4 7c801a1c 7c80189c 0db33fa0 0db33fa0 …|…|.?…?..
0283FCB4 00000000 64c59800 062a4339 0283fcf8 …….d9C*…..
0283FCC4 0067e965 012ea560 0000020e 012ea5b4 e.g.`………..
0283FCD4 000005aa 012ea604 00000002 012ea4f8 …………….
0283FCE4 012ea604 000005aa 0649feb0 00000000 ……….I…..
0283FCF4 0db33fa0 0283fe44 0067f172 0649feb0 .?..D…r.g…I.
0283FD04 000005aa 0db33fa0 0649fe30 00678126 …..?..0.I.&.g.
0283FD14 00000058 7c90dccc 7c81279f 00001120 X……|.‘.| …
0283FD24 06211440 08e0cd10 00000000 00000000 .!............. 0283FD34 08e0cd10 0283fd50 006802c9 00001120 ....P.....h. ... 0283FD44 00000000 06211440 08e0cd10 0283fd74 .....!…..t…
0283FD54 0067f7dd 06211440 08e0cd10 00000000 ..g.@.!………
0283FD64 00000010 0649fdf0 7c90df3c 7c91b22b ……I.<..|+..|
0283FD74 0000153c 00000000 00000000 05f31410 <……………
0283FD84 09c2ab30 000003c6 0649fdf0 0283fdb4 0………I…..
0283FD94 0649fdf0 062116f0 0283fdc4 00000103 ..I…!………
0283FDA4 0db33fa0 000011c4 0283fddc 7c90f63c .?……….<..|
0283FDB4 7c90f641 000011c4 0db33fa0 00000103 A..|…..?……
0283FDC4 0283fdb8 0649fde8 0283fe24 7c90e900 ……I.$……|
0283FDD4 000011c4 000005aa 0283fdec 7c809414 ……………|
0283FDE4 000005aa 0db33fa0 0283fe34 7c801a1c …..?..4……|
0283FDF4 7c80189c 00000000 0db33fa0 0649fe30 …|…..?..0.I.
0283FE04 64c59800 00000002 062a41e9 0283fe24 …d…..A*.$…
0283FE14 0067a5ef 0283fe20 0db33fa0 0283fe34 ..g. ….?..4…
0283FE24 00000014 0283fe28 0283fe15 00000005 ….(………..
0283FE34 0000ab04 000005aa 0649fe30 00000000 ……..0.I…..
0283FE44 0283fe5c 0067f3f2 0db33fa0 0649fe30 \…..g..?..0.I.
0283FE54 0db33fa0 0620fac0 0283fe68 0067fe39 .?…. .h…9.g.
0283FE64 0db33fa0 0283fe84 00682a30 0db33fa0 .?……0*h..?..
0283FE74 00000000 0620fac0 00000000 06210b50 …… …..P.!.
0283FE84 0283ff2c 006812a6 0db33fa0 00000000 ,…..h..?……
0283FE94 0620fac0 0620fb00 06210b50 00263358 .. … .P.!.X3&.
0283FEA4 0145e4d8 7c80262c 7ffd9000 00263368 ..E.,&.|….h3&.
0283FEB4 0283ff84 7c800000 00000000 0283fed8 …….|……..
0283FEC4 0283fed8 00000000 00006cfd 00261fc0 ………l….&.
0283FED4 7c913405 65440000 65646f63 6e696f50 .4.|..DecodePoin
0283FEE4 00726574 65440000 65646f63 6e696f50 ter…DecodePoin
0283FEF4 00726574 00000000 806e6410 89105ccc ter……dn..\..
0283FF04 b25adc28 00000000 806e6427 00000008 (.Z…..’dn…..
0283FF14 00000246 00007fb9 0283fe90 00000000 F……………
0283FF24 0db33fa0 00000000 0283ff4c 00681391 .?……L…..h.
0283FF34 0649fe30 000003e8 0283ff54 0620fb00 0.I…..T….. .
0283FF44 0620fac0 02194788 0283ff70 006813f5 .. ..G..p…..h.
0283FF54 00000000 7c80e6bb 06210b50 006809ef …….|P.!…h.
0283FF64 7c80e6bb 02194788 00000000 0283ffa8 …|.G……….
0283FF74 008d522d 06210b50 062a4051 7c80e6bb -R..P.!.Q@*….|
0283FF84 02194788 02194788 80000003 0283ff7c .G…G……|…
0283FF94 0283f3a0 0283ffdc 008d5390 05f2cc99 ………S……

—> Error Logs <—
Disk read failed (1450); retrying: file ‘F:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.dat’
Disk read failed (1450): file ‘F:\Program Files\Guild Wars 2\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.dat’

—> DirectX Device Info <—
VendorId = 0×10de
DeviceId = 0×0612
Version = 6.14.0013.1407
Description = NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX/9800 GTX+
Compat = 0×00100000
VidMem = 512 MB

 

As an additional note, until recently (I honestly don't know what could have changed this, but starting a few days ago), it used to, about 1/3rd of the time, cause a BSOD. But I could never get the error code because it would be gone from the screen more quickly than I could react for a cellphone picture, and I couldn't seem to find a log of the error code.

Further note, as it was mentioned that HD space may be relevant - my primary drive (which I don't really use for gaming at all anymore) was down to about 1.9 gigs of space, and this morning I freed up space and it's up to 7.91GB. As of last night my secondary (gaming) drive had 29GB, and I have since freed it up to around 72GB, then re-downloaded a second copy of the game and it's currently at 41.3GB.

 

In terms of history: this problem started in maybe early December, but was spotty, and got progressively more frequent over time. Each and every time it happened it was always immediately after clicking "play" on the launcher, and the game itself launched. It would render the frame of the window, with nothing in the window, process for anywhere between 10-20 seconds or so, then I would get the Arenanet crash prompt.

 

This would also occasionally cause a blue-screen, as opposed to receiving the Arenanet crash prompt. It started by only happening when I would need to re-log onto the game after long play sessions. But then it started to happen on the first launch of the game after turning on my computer.

 

In January it got steadily worse, and eventually my "makeshift" fix was basically that I had to launch Guildwars 2 before doing ANYTHING ELSE AT ALL on my PC. Period. No internet browsers, no music players, nothing. If I did this...about 2/3rds of the time, I would be able to get on without a crash and a need to subsequently reboot. If I did ANYTHING ELSE AT ALL, however, before launching the game, it would inevitably crash and I would have to reboot.

Now, the reason I would have to reboot is because that if I didn't, the patcher would simply get stuck at "Downloading 0KB at 0KB/S" and wouldn't budge, period. Didn't matter if I closed it and tried again. I also notice that once this error (with the patcher not processing) occurred, some odd behavior would occur. First, if I attempted to launch Google Chrome and google something - the browser page would "blue out" after typing in a search, rendering it useless. However, I could still use Google on other browsers - both Firefox and Internet Explorer.

Another odd behavior I noticed is that upon restarting, the UI behind the "Stand By", "Shut Down", and "Restart" buttons would not render. It would be a clear pane with a black border, the buttons to click, and the cancel button. No typical blue background behind any of it.

 

In February it got increasingly worse. My "fix" of making GW2 the first thing I launch was met with less success. IT would only work about 1/3rd of the time, meaning I had to reboot a few times to get the dang thing working. All the same problems, just more frequent.

 

In late February (a few days ago) a major patch hit and that very first day after the first patch...I thought everything was fixed. I didn't have to reboot all day, I didn't have a single crash, and was able to relog a grand total of five times with ZERO issue. 

However, the following day, my first attempt to launch the game was a crash, and I had to reboot about five times before managing to get into the game. Didn't log off for most of the day - logged off once about 6PM PST, tried to log back on, got the same client crash, and had to reboot my computer. It took three reboots to get back on. But then it seemed normal again - was able to relog twice without issue. Then late that night I needed to relog again, and of course another client crash when I closed the application and tried to log back in. After about ten reboots, I was able to log back in, but had graphical errors - as described from my post on their forum above (yellow and cyan glitches). After that, to clear the issue, I tried to relog again, and after 20+ reboots, was unsuccessful in logging back on.

 

I then thought to update my graphics driver. I downloaded the most recent driver for my graphics card (nVidia 9800GTX+), 314.07. It failed, however, after seemingly having gone through the entire process. It would simply say that it failed to install. I then attempted to do a "clean install" - I uninstalled my previous driver using add/remove programs, then removing the one labeled "nVidia Graphics Driver" (might have been plural), and running the install again. Same thing happened - it failed.

 

I then tried to install the most recent one I had the installer for prior to driver 314.07, 310.90.

Failed again. I then tried the one that I was using before these issues started getting worse - 296.10. Also failed.

At this point it seemed NO INSTALLERS were going to work, so I went and dug up the CD that came with my video card and installed it. It told me more recent one had been installed (which struck me as extremely odd, as the installation had allegedly failed every time). I told it to overwrite whatever was present.

 

Attempted to launch the game again - crashed again at the same spot. Rendered the blue pane, processed, then met by the Arenanet crash prompt.

 

I then reseated all my memory sticks, cleared dust from my GPU's fan and tried again. Same thing, same place, met by the Arenanet crash prompt.

 

I rebooted, tried again, elevated the priority of the gw2.exe process to "realtime" and managed to log in. It was 4:30am, I thought I had found a solution, and went to bed.

 

I got up, did the same thing, and this time after elevating the priority to "realtime" - my PC froze where it normally would have been prompted by the Arenanet crash. My PC has not frozen in likely upwards of six months. Talking a hard freeze - no mouse movement, no activity - had to hold the power button to shut it off.

 

It was then suggested to me that my PC was attempting to page more memory on my primary drive than it had - so I disabled paging on my primary drive, and enabled it on my secondary drive, which has much more space.

Nothing - exact same issue.

 

I then decided to try and re-download the game, but to no avail. The exact same problem persisted.

 

At this point, I'm honestly not really sure what to make of this issue or what steps to take. I will see if I can make another post with some attached images of some of the relevant info.

 

Unfortunately, though I thought I did, I have no images of the odd cyan/yellow graphics glitch, and I have no way of getting one (google didn't turn up any that looked the same as mine, granted some were similar).

 

Edit - I also noticed after re-enabling page memory on my primary drive after freeing up some space, that in the error logs, the amount of paged memory in use is for some reason higher. I can't imagine why this is, but maybe I don't understand the process.

 

 

Also probably of note - some none-game-related issues: I frequently see pinkish/reddish streaks across my screen for awhile after booting. This has been especially frequent since January. I've seen this issue before - before I upgraded my PC (I kept the same primary hard drive, but updated and installed all new hardware. Only kept the HDD and sound card).

 

Also after startup, my screen flashes black for a moment, but is then fine aside from the streaks thereafter.

 

Since mid-January or so, I've also noticed sometimes before going to bed after shutting the GW2 process down, I will have the streaks across my screen again. As long as it's open, however, they were not present. it also depends on what exactly is on the screen - generally it needs to be a blank white background, and the streaks will extend from black pixels. I have a feeling this is a monitor issue (the monitor is incredibly old - it's CRT, to give you an idea). If it is a monitor issue, then I'm not worried about it. Will replace my monitor when I can, heh.

Please download MiniToolBox  , save it to your desktop and run it.

 

Checkmark the following checkboxes:
  List last 10 Event Viewer log
  List Installed Programs
  List Users, Partitions and Memory size.

 

Click Go and paste the content into your next post.

 

Also...please Publish a Snapshot using Speccy - http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic323892.html/page__p__1797792#entry1797792 .

 

Louis

Sorry for the delayed response. I somewhat began to neglect other errors as I found a makeshift-fix with disabling a number of active processes from starting on startup. I'd already done a clean boot, but dug into the "services" tab of msconfig to disable some other stuff. Should have known it'd only have been a temporary fix, but that's what I don't get. I don't get why I was running the application "Guildwars 2" without issue to December, then it got worse, and worse and worse through the progressive months to the point that it simply won't launch without a crash.

 

Anyway, here is the requested text from the log.

 

 

Your percentage of free space on the Windows partition is about 10%.  Windows normally has an estimated 15% projected for free space...or quirky things are likely to happen.

 

As the first step...please move some large files from C: to another partition or storage media...as you try to get between 15-20% free space on C:.

 

After that....run the chkdsk /r command.

 

Start/Run...type chkdsk /r and hit Enter.  Type Y in new screen and hit Enter.  Reboot...the chkdsk /r command will execute and attempt to boot into Windows on completion.

 

Louis

It took awhile, but finished with that. On the plus, it said the volume was clean, and I managed to free 25.9% of the drive up. Unfortunately, however, this problem along with the above mentioned anomalies continue to persist.

 

As a note, I had been running with my C: volume that low for quite some time, making sure to keep it between 3-5 gigs free, though it did once (around last august, long before these issues started) drop to 600MB, but that's when I started keeping an eye on it.

 

But yes, the issues persist. I get the same error (1450) mentioned above, the same anomalies...Between the background UI of the shutdown menu being missing, Google Chrome bluing out nearly all webpages, and if the patcher happens to be open when I go to restart, it is invisible until the dialogue box is closed.

 

Edit - as a note, however, the crash box on the application now appears faster than it used to. But it's still the same error.

Thanks .

 

I would go to Device Manager...uninstall the video drivers...reboot...reinstall the ones which came with the card.

 

Your title mentions "odd memory issue" yet I fail to see any data re such.

 

Download/install BlueScreenView, http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html .

 

Double-click BlueScreenView.exe file.

 

When autoscan is done (screen comes up), click Edit/Select All...then File/Save Selected Items.

 

Save the report as BSOD.txt.

 

Open BSOD.txt, copy all content and paste it into your next reply.

 

Louis

I haven't tinkered with the drivers again yet (I did that as mentioned already - and tried running the application with simply the drivers on the install disc, and had the same problem)

 

Anyway, here is the BSOD report. As it happens, the last time this issue resulted in one of the BSOD's mentioned above was prior to my temp-fix mentioned when I started posting again a few days ago.

 

 

You know what, also of note...On that day, I also cleared up some HD space (not as much as I cleared up at your advisory, but I went from about 3.8 gigs to about 6 gigs). And yeah, no blue screens.

 

Also, I was able to get into the game a single time today without issue, on my first attempt. No reboots necessary, nothing. Blindsided me.

 

When I needed to re-log to clear my cache, however, I got the "yellow and cyan" effect (described in first post, and apparently not uncommon among GW2 players). Since that's a no-go, I rebooted, tried to log in, and the problem returned. Rebooted 3-4 times, each time met with the same crash.

 

Also maybe noteworthy, I notice that I am inexplicably down about two gigabytes from where I was yesterday - now at 16.4 gigs (22.9%), as opposed to last night's 25.9% and 18.4 gigs of free space. I did not actually check the volume, however, until after I had successfully launched the game today, went to relog, had a glitchy launch, then ran into crash errors again. Not sure if that would affect the space.

Anything new that can be gleaned from this info?

Your errors point to a problem with the nVidia drivers currently installed.  Uninstall those drivers, replace with either drivers from original drivers CD or downloaded.

 

Your report reflects 3 versions of AVG installed...please remove all save one....update it...and run full scan.

 

Your java is outdated.

 

You seem to have hardware problems...if none of the above prove beneficial, I will move your topic to the Internal Hardware forum here at BC.

 

Louis

 

 

Okay, I updated Java (though that doesn't really relate to this application), I uninstalled all versions of AVG (currently not using any anti-virus, but that's fine, I want to resolve this problem before I go adding another potential problem in to the mix), and I went back to my video card's original driver from the CD that came with it.

 

I personally consider this good news, because the problem is now manifesting in a different way, potentially narrowing down the cause. Anyway, I no longer get an application crash/hang/etc as has been common for the past month, but I consistently get blue screens. Here are the two I just got, immediately after installing the old drivers and attempting to launch the application.

 

 

Found the source of the problem at last.

 

While googling other potential solutions involving the latest bluescreen data (as well as throwing "gw2" to look for more focused stuff), I came across a thread suggesting the game's settings file, local.dat. It is also mentioned in the thread that there are significant compatibility issues between XP 32-bit and some nVidia cards, but it is not mentioned which cards (nor can I find a list). 

 

I did so, and the game has run just fine so far. I am able to do things I haven't been able to do in months. I can re-log without rebooting - that's huge for me, as I'm an immersion freak and swap playlists when swapping characters.

 

FOR FUTURE REFERENCE, should anybody stumble on this thread, I believe I found the source of my problems. I had enabled an option in the options menu, "Enable best texture filtering", and on further inspection I found out that it overrode my GPU's settings to turn on anisostropic filtering. This appears to cause massive issues with my hardware setup, and given some of the symptoms (my CPU cache being horribly mucked up after the game would close).The game uses a modified version of its predecessor's engine, meaning it uses CPU more than it truly should, just exacerbating problems.

 

Anyway, I have never used anti-aliasing or anisostropic filtering because I've always noticed it causes these issues, with the one exception being Age of Conan. I was able to get it to work there, but every other application seemed to run into issues.

 

Thank you for your patience and helping me - I wouldn't have been able to get this far without some of the tools you've advised me to use

 

I am curious though, if anybody knows what the deal is with XP 32-bit and nVidia cards? It won't matter for me much longer - this whole fiasco has made me decide I want to go ahead and get a new PC (I need a new processor, motherboard, more memory sticks, and want to upgrade my OS, so I might as well just get a whole new rig). But I'm just curious as to what this problem is, for future reference, in case I might run into issues on my new rig.

Nice work on your part .

 

<<I am curious though, if anybody knows what the deal is with XP 32-bit and nVidia cards?>>

 

I think that you are generalizing a bit...and too narrow in your field of where the problems lie.

 

ATI/AMD and nVidia....historically have produced decent products...and each has, historically, had criticisms of their drivers for these products since I've had a computer (1996).  My experience with nVidia is pretty limited, since I've always favored ATI graphics and AMD processors.  Before the marriage of the two, ATI received terrific, routine criticism of the drivers for its capture cards...since then, I suppose that criticism still occurs...but I haven't found much to wail about.

 

When an entity produces the vast amount of products...and drivers...that these two produce...there are bound to be instances where things go wrong, IMO.

 

If A doesn't work for you...there is always the option to try B .

 

You might initiate a new post in Internal Hardware that might seek answers to your question, the personnel frequentlng that forum have much more exposure, experience, and knowledge with questions re hardware.   While drivers are a fundamental part of a operating system...they often relate to hardware (not all do, since video editors, firewalls, AV programs, and so on all employ drivers) and questions about hardware drivers will probably find better answers/opinions in the Internal Hardware forum.

 

Louis