BleepingComputer.com: World Of Warcraft Kills My Pc

Ok, My problem is that whenever I try to start WoW on my computer it gets me as far as the log in screen and then my computer just restarts. I turned off the option in windows that restarts it when there is serious error hoping that i would at least get the blue screen of death with an error message, but no luck there. All my drivers are up to date. I am at a complete loss here, i've run my virus scanner (avast) many times and nothing seems to help. I uninstalled the game and then reinstalled it and it ran for about 2 hours then shut down again. I have no idea what is going on. Any help would be appriciated....

It sounds to me like you are running out of RAM while you are playing it. Are you sure you have enough power for WoW? Here is A list of requirements: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/faq/te...81955D.08_app02

If your computer does infact meet all of those requirments then it might be that you have bad ram, an Overheating processor, or A few other things.

First though start out checking the requirments. Then we will get into the details.

My computer meets all the requirements for the game. I have been playing it for over a year now without any problems until this last week. I only have 512mb of ram which meets the minimum requirements but the reccomended is 1gb of ram. Could that be the problem?

Unless you are having crashing problems running other applications or games, I would rule out any hardware or over-heating problem. I play WOW with 512mb RAM, but with a 128MB video card.

Can you get past the "play" screen to the log-in screen? If so, does it usually crash your computer immediately when you load the screen, or does it happen when you enter something in the box? Either of these might suggest a corrupt file. As I remember, there is a "repair game" utility---you might want to check the WOW forums for information about it (maybe it is there when you load the first disk?????).

Even with the addition of new servers, which are now apparently full enough that you have to "wait in line" to get on your server, some in-game crashes (especially when in a group) seem to be almost normal, from the gossip I hear on the chat channel.

Regards,
John

I just tried the repair utility offered by Blizzard and after it ran it said WoW was succefully verified, meaning I have no corrupt files. Could my RAM be going bad? And if so, is there a way to check it? A friend of mine said I should probably check my power supply since I recently upgraded to a new and better graphics card. Does anyone think that that could be the problem? Any help in troubleshooting this problem is much appriciated.


Werrr

It very much could be. It might also be that your pc is over heating. Windows automatically shuts it-self down when your pc gets to A certain temperature. You could upgrade your cooling system to solve that. If it is your power supply then you could upgrade that as well.

Here is A couple of links to my two favorite sites to get pc parts from: Tiger Direct and New Egg.

As for testing for bad ram try: Microsoft's Ram Diagnostic tool.

This post has been edited by WlkingMan: 03 February 2006 - 01:58 PM

I just tried using the windows ram diagnostic tool, which requires using a boot disk but when i reboot with the disk it just says disk I/O error and stops. I dont' think the problem is with my RAM. Because I am having no other problems with any other games or applications. Could the problem be caused by too many errors in my registry? A friend told me to check that out. I used to have some software that went through and would clean up my registry and check for problems but i don't have it anymore. Does anybody know of a good program to clean up my registry? Any help or advice is much apprieciated.

-Werrr

Do a google of "Abexo Free Registry Cleaner" - Its pretty good.
512 Ram, while not the best for WoW will run it fine. To get a view of how leniate WoW is on performance with Dif comps:

Along with my uber pc ^_^ I have an Apple IbookG4. I play WoW on it along with my comp. Its specs are horid to a normal pc user. 32mb Gfx, 512 ram, 1.2 proccessor speed. Guess what? It runs like a charm (exept when in orgrimar and the like) This is most likely because of how clean the MAC OS X is, but it is still a good example.

I doubt your problem is due to lack of RAM, since you can play other games just fine (list a couple of the games your playing if you will).

A power supply Unit may very well be the problem as said. When switching different types of hardware (Especially gfx cards) the required power intake for a computer can skyrocket. What are the specs on your current PSU? I would recomend no less than a 350 for WoW.

Btw, wow is installed with a repair tool, you can find it in the program files. Attempt running WoW in safe mode (w/networking)

Thanks for the registry cleanup suggestion. As far as my PSU it is 300W max output and I'm running a 128mb ATI Radeon 9800. Other than that i'm only running 1 hdd, 1 cdrw, 1 dvd drive, and a wireless network adaptor. Those are the components drawing the most power. Do you think i should go with a bigger PSU?

Also i have 512mb of RAM but WoW has worked for over a year now and it just started doing this recently. I tried running WoW in safe mode w/ networking and it gave me an error message #132 (i think). I'm going to run it again and copy down the exact error message b/c if i try in normal mode it just turns off.

Another thing that caught my eye is that when i run DxDiag it shows me that i only have 210mb of RAM is this normal?

I ran the repair utility that is available from Blizzards website and after it ran completely is said that WoW was verified and that there were no problems. So I am definately thinking that the problem here is hardware based. I've cleaned up my computer very well and have no viruses or ad/spyware running at all.... at least i hope so :-/

Thanks again for all the help.

-Werrr

Yeah, thats not good. If you have an Ea game, run the EasyInfo program that comes with most games, cuz its pretty reliable (to check what it thinks your ram ammount is) Check what windows sees as your RAM ammount to by right clicking "My Computer" and selecting properties. The info should be in the General tab near the bottom. If it all finds you to only have "210 Ram", open up your tower, and check all the sticks you have in there...chances are one of them came loose (happens all the time) or one is just dying on you. If one is loose, place it back in properly, and test WoW again. Tell us results.

Sorry that was a typo... It says i have 510mb of RAM in DxDiag, 512mb in my computer, and 511mb from my norton WinDoctor program. Shouldn't it say 512 all across the board?

I really think my power supply is the problem. I'm going to buy a 550W PSU and try it out. Hopefully this works.....

Yeah, do that, I wish you luck ^_^

(I bought a 550 PSU to hopefully fix a prob before, and it did nothing...kept it anyway)

When I was playing wow I had a problem when if I did not log in quick enough the entire game would freeze. So once I got to the part where you have to accept the copyright and agreement after an update...it would freeze unless I was very very quick. I updated the audio drivers and that seemed to fix the problem for me.

Yeah so i got lucky enough to find a 500W PSU that a friend got for 5 bucks b/c of some rebate w/ Radio Shack's website and i bought it off him for 20, installed it and now WoW works like a charm. I just want to thank everyone for taking time to try and help me with this problem. Your help was very appriciated.

Best Regards,
Werrr

You're very welcome!

I'm glad you got the problem fixed.

Happy gaming,
WlkingMan