[Pinedragon]

I play World of Warcraft and recently I have been having issues with it locking up during gameplay. I've changed the mem sticks as for some reason i am unable to run the mem test from microsoft since i do not have a 3.5 and the image didnt take to my CD for some reason so i went and got some more memory. I thought with that issue the prob might be fixed however it persisted so I got a new vid card and that also did not alleviate the problem. I have all the latest drivers for my equipment i think. I am not sure if maybe it is the PCIE card slot or a bad Memory slot so any advice on how to test those would be appreciated. The lockup itself is a hard lock where i have to hold the power button in to get response from the computer. If anyone out there has had this issue or had any advice about it please gimme a hand its very frustrating. Also I dont have any probs outside of the 3D game world as I play other games and do applications just fine on my computer.

Thanks

[iwassnow]

When it locks up, do you receive an error message, or does the whole computer or even the game just freeze? If you are receiving an error message, please post the exact error message.

[Pinedragon]

There is no error msg the actual game screen is intact with a continuous sound loop Ctrl Alt Delete is not functional nor is alt tab, have to use power button to restart also not sure if its related but when it happens i am unable to log BACK into whatever server I was on for a period of about 30 min can reload wow and play on a diff server but that may be something else entirely

[Stykyz]

Could you give us some PC specs to look at? Does it just lock up your entire system?

Try updating your DirecX version as well as your Video Card Drivers. If that doesn't work, try rolling your Video Card drivers back a version. I know this sounds odd, but it fixed a problem with mine since I'm running an NVidia, an older model anyways.

[Pinedragon]

The system specs are in my profile but I will list them here also for ease

AMD AthlonXP 64 3200
1G RAM
Nvidia 6600GT 128MB with turbo Cache (still dont understand if thats working or not)
Soundblaster Audigy sound card
The machine itself is an Emachine T6410

The crash is a complete one though the Blue screen of death does not appear the game itself locks up like a still photo and the sound is consistent stuttering sound, as a note I went to play diablo 2 and the exact same thing happened requiring me to hold in the power button till the computer shut itself off I already DL'd the latest DirectX from MS. But will try to roll back driver and see if that helps i had an older one when i started having the problem thats why I updated to newest version. If you have any more questions or advice id love to hear from ya.

[Pinedragon]

KK tried a roll back of the driver that didnt help, so still stumped havent tested yet in Diablo to see if theres an issue however did a DXDIAG video test and it hung up a bit on the DirectX7 test monitor acted like it had no signal for a sec till i moved mouse then went back to a regular view dont know if this indicates anything but thought i would throw it out there since this was an oddity

[Pinedragon]

kk tried a rooback of driver that didnt help though i did notice when i ran a DXDIAG video test it hung up on the DIrectX7 test. The monitor acted like it had no signal for a moment till i moved the mouse not sure if this indicates anything but thought id share it.

[iwassnow]

If you're getting a lockup with a sound loop then some peice of hardware probably overheated or just failed to do something correctly. Based on what you're saying, I'm gonna bet on the graphics card. It's a VERY common problem.

[Pinedragon]

KK so ive managed to get 2 bad sound cards in a row, difficult to believe but possible, the temps on the sys stay around 45C and even the GPU only hits 50 on occasion is there anyway to test them that you know of?

[Liltman]

Hey, I used to have a problem with wow on my old machine, and it was the graphics card. It was so long ago can't remember if the same thing happened to me but what did happen to me was it locked up like that, but then it came back and I could play again but the whole screen was like fireworks, lots of different colours everywhere moving all over, like the screen/game had ripped apart. Then it would eventually crash and I would have to turn the computer off and wait for ages because the computer would not come back on.

I researched for months and found out it was my graphics card, it was a dodgy card, and nothing seemed to fix it but then I found some patch thing and the computer was ok ever since

Have you ever experienced graphics breaking up?

[iwassnow]

Your sound looping like that does not mean your sound card failed. It means your system crashed. If you're still experiencing the problem after changing the sound card, I suggest changing the graphics card. That's the most likely issue.

[Gulo Luseus]

From the symptoms, I would say graphics card is the most likely culprit. I would guess it is overheating- if its old, or had a bit of a bash recently, that could cause it, or just thats its long in the tooth. If you can, open th eside ppanel, get a big fan and direct it on the GPU, give it a lot of cooling. If it locks up much later, or even not at all, thern we founf the culprit

[Larry Johnson]

well do u have any addons for wow because i do know that if you have outdated ones they can cause issues?

[iwassnow]

If you suspect your 3rd party programs to be causing the issue, run the repair program located in the World of Warcraft directory in Program Files on the hard disc.

[jsparky77]

Originally Posted by Pinedragon

The system specs are in my profile but I will list them here also for ease

AMD AthlonXP 64 3200
1G RAM
Nvidia 6600GT 128MB with turbo Cache (still dont understand if thats working or not)
Soundblaster Audigy sound card
The machine itself is an Emachine T6410

It may be the ram, 1g is not much.

What OS?? Many users have had trouble with WoW on Vista.

Also the hdd can overheat at less temperatures than the gpu and cpu. I would try that, download and run the freeware program HD Tune and see if that comes up with anything.