MMORPGs seem to freeze the machine

[Silvermistshadow]

Only a few, though, and each has a different 'time'. WoW freezes my machine if I try to get in-game. I tried reporting this to their tech support, but all of their responses are canned 'update your drivers' responses, and I am starting to doubt if they actually have any professionals. More recently, I was sending a full dump from a frozen STO process. While it was still sending, I started a new process. This froze my machine. POTBS freezes my machine after a couple of hours of gameplay, at most.

Since they all have the same symptom but not the same timing, I'm starting to wonder what the real problem here is. I don't have a dump for anyone to look over, as I had to restart my machine to get any response out of it. STO had never frozen my machine before, and WoW worked before I upgraded to W7 (specifically, 64-bit). As such, I'm thinking it is a serious software error than a hardware error.

Any thoughts?

 

[sdmnysimon]

Im a WoW player as well. I am running Win 7 64bit with no problems

 

[TrainableMan]

Make sure your patches are up-to-date.

Try it on the lowest resolution, if it works fine there then I would definitely suspect your video driver. Truth is, I suspect that anyway; what they told you is true. I would also check the sound driver and your BIOS.

 

[Silvermistshadow]

I updated the sound driver to its latest version a couple months ago, and it hasn't changed since (Latest version was around 2007-ish). Also, I can't check the lowest resolution, since it doesn't let me in game long enough to try. Perhaps I'll update, though my reasoning was that all my drivers should be up to date enough, relative to the game.

 

[TrainableMan]

2007 is pre-Windows 7, drivers should be June 2009 or later if at all possible. Do you have a separate sound card or is it part of the motherboard? Same question for your video card? Please specify motherboard make/model as well as A/V cards if separate.

 

[sdmnysimon]

WoW does in game hot fixes no more patches (unless otherwise told) make sure you have this driver
Version:

266.58 WHQL

Release Date:

2011.01.18

Operating System:

Windows Vista, Windows 7

Language:

English (U.S.)

File Size:

72.7 MB

 

[Silvermistshadow]

I'm installing that driver now.

Sound card is built in on an Asus motherboard, model P5K.

EDIT: Weird, after installing the driver, WoW decided to re-install most of itself.

And then, after attempting to get in-game on one of my characters.. it froze my machine.

 

[sdmnysimon]

have you done a repair for the game

 

[Silvermistshadow]

No, but this is the second time I've installed it, if that counts.

 

[sdmnysimon]

Are you at the playable part can you play

 

[Silvermistshadow]

No, it currently freezes right when it gets done loading the playable part. The loading bar gets to full, and then it freezes the machine.

All I can do is character creation and junk.

 

[sdmnysimon]

I am puzzled ? what version of window 7 do you have installed also I would try running memtest

 

[Silvermistshadow]

Windows 7 64-bit, Ultimate.

Memtest was already done a while ago, we had some faulty memory come in last year, so we tested these as well. I doubt they've suddenly become corrupt.

 

[sdmnysimon]

have u tried the launcher in world of warcraft folder ?

 

[Silvermistshadow]

That's where I'm launching from, yes.

 

[sdmnysimon]

from the world of warcraft folder

 

[Core]

When you say you upgraded to Windows 7, was it a clean install or an "upgrade"?

 

[Silvermistshadow]

Clean install, as Vista was not 64-bit. Though it only formatted my C: drive, I deleted all of the leftover programs on other disks, since they wouldn't work anymore.