Gw2

[woodchip]

Anyone have a problem installing Guild wars 2? I've been communicating with the tech people there and after 2 weeks the game still won't install on my win xp comp. Never had this problem before and just installed Skyrim with no problems. Be interested if any of you here might have some suggestions: Enclosed is screen shot of what I get

[Krom]

List the stuff you (and the tech people) have tried in the last couple weeks, so we know what doesn't work.

Also system configuration, where are you installing it from (online download? optical drive?).

[woodchip]

First tried off the packaged disks I bought. Then tried download from their website, so far tried suggestions as listed:

1) "Also I would like you to try deleting everything from your temp folder and try running the gw2.exe again." Failed
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2) "I'd like you to try something odd for me. Please create another Windows user with Administrator privileges and log off your account and log into the new one. Run Gw2.exe that is in C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\ by right-clicking on it and selecting Run as Administrator." Failed
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3) Please try the following steps:

1. Navigate to your Guild Wars 2 folder.

2. Right-click on "GW2.exe" and select "Properties."

3. Select the "Compatibility tab."

4. Checkmark "Run this program as an Administrator."

5. Click "Ok." Failed
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4) "We apologize, there has been some confusion that there was administrative priveledges involved which is not the case as you are on Windows XP. Which is why there were features for running with admin rights that just does not exist in Windows XP. To get back on track, please move all Guild Wars 2 files from your temp folder to the following folder that you will need to create at:

C:\guildwars2 (move files, "gw2.tmp, gw2.exe, gw2.dat, and local.dat" to this folder)

Afterwards please run GW2.exe again and please contact us back with the results." Failed
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5)" I would like you to try an alternative method of downloading Guild Wars 2. What this will do is bypass the installation of Guild Wars 2 and just force the download. The downside to this is that Guild Wars 2 isn't technically "installed" to your computer. That means to remove it, you just delete the folder instead of using "Add/remove" or "Programs" in control panel. For now go to Add/Remove Programs in your control panel and uninstall Guild Wars 2 if it's there. Empty out your temp folder and delete the C:\guildwars2 folder and the C:\Games\Guild Wars 2 folder then reboot again.

Once the above is done, follow these steps:

1. Locate the file "Gw2Setup.exe" and copy it.

2. Navigate to a new folder like C:\Guild Wars 2 and place "Gw2Setup.exe" in this folder.

3. Rename "Gw2Setup.exe" to "Gw2.exe"

4. Right-click on "Gw2.exe" and select "Create Shortcut."

5. Rename this shortcut to "Guild Wars 2 Port Test."

6. Right-click on this shortcut and select "Properties."

7. Edit the "Target" line to include /clientport 80 at the end.

Note: Please make sure /clientport 80 is outside of the quotes

Correctly Formatted Example: "C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe" /clientport 80
Incorrectly Formatted Example: "C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe /clientport 80"" Failed
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6)"Please provide an updated Game Advisor report so we can verify the drivers are current." Did so, drivers current
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7)" If you wouldn't mind, could you please provide us with an updated crash log (arenanet.log) at this time?" Did so
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"The crash log provided was a big help! Could you now provide us with a screen shot of your Temp folder?" Did so
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9)" In looking at your crash log, you have an odd line:
Assertion: Unable to execute patch file 'C:\Guild Wars 2\Gw2.exe.tmp'

Somehow this file has two extensions. I assume you have known extensions hidden in Windows XP, which can cause confusion when we ask you to rename a file. Please delete the entire Guild Wars 2 folder on the C drive. I do not trust what's in it anymore after all this. Also delete the guildwars2 folder.

Now please follow these instructions carefully.

1. Create the folder path C:\Games\Guild Wars 2\ (it doesn't have to be the C drive but it does have to be on an NTFS formatted drive with at least 25 GBs of free space)

2. Move Gw2Setup.exe to this Guild Wars 2 folder.

3. Rename Gw2Setup.exe to Gw2.exe. Due to your settings, it may only show as Gw2Setup. If so, just rename it to Gw2.

4. Open Gw2.exe (or Gw2) and Guild Wars 2 should start patching." Failed
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10)" I'm still seeing double extensions. I had asked you previously to rename Gw2Setup to Gw2 if it didn't show as Gw2Setup.exe. Delete all files except Gw2.exe and rename Gw2.exe to Gw2 and try again. Windows XP is hiding the extensions. This is what's causing your issue." Failed

[Krom]

In windows explorer, click tools and select folder options. Select the "view" tab, in the advanced settings box scroll down till you see a checkbox labeled: "Hide extensions for known file types", Uncheck this box and hit ok.

After that is done, try doing that step 10 again.

[woodchip]

Got a box asking what program to use to open it

[Krom]

The full file name should be gw2.exe

[woodchip]

Actually name is Gw2Setup.exe

[Krom]

So try renaming it to gw2.exe then delete everything else in the folder and try running it. (Might not hurt at this point to delete everything related to guild wars and start over from the beginning installer.)

[woodchip]

Tried renaming it and same error message. What I don't understand is why the extension should be a problem. I installed Skyrim a week before I tried installing Gw2 and there was no hitch. I installed Starwars 2 a year or so ago and no problems. So the question is why does Gw2 seem to have a problem. Early release bug? So far Gw2 techy's don't seem to have a handle on it and I have to wonder how many more people are having a similar problem (at least those with a win xp os).

[Krom]

Other people were getting crashes from what I saw on a quick google search, usually during gameplay though. Most of them were running Windows 7 x64.

There are some reports of people having trouble installing it though, occasionally they have to rename gw2.exe.tmp to gw2.exe in order to get it to work or some other stuff like that. Suffice to say the outfit writing this didn't put enough testing / validation into their installer.

[woodchip]

I half ass remember something similar with The Witcher. If memory serves, you needed a certain patch first then you could install. Of course I bought it way beyond the release date so when I got it the problems had been figured out.

[Sirius]

Yeah I can't say I ran into these headaches, but again, Windows 7. Obviously it's supposed to support XP though.

I'm kind of wondering if there's some problem with APIs... looking at my installation I don't see any runtime libraries installed with the program but don't know if it's large enough to have them statically linked in. Couldn't potentially be a service pack issue, by any chance...? I kind of doubt it, but who knows.

Pretty sure GW2 doesn't use .NET in the game client at least, so that should rule that out.

P.S. I would always advise showing file extensions for everything though - prevents many a headache.

P.P.S. Installation logs would be way way more helpful than just generic crash screens for diagnosing issues as well - I've often had to use them to diagnose problems with e.g. the Windows Home Server connector. Luckily, it was fixable, but caused by an environment issue that only a handful of other people experienced. Most things seem to be that way...

[woodchip]

There is a crash log and was submitted to Gw2 techs.

[fliptw]

when was the last time you ran chkdsk on that drive?

[woodchip]

Years ago

[woodchip]

Ran chkdsk and chkdsk/f. Found some problems but didn't get Gw2 to work. I did notice a fan speed noise improvement. I don't know if it was the zalmans fan on the cpu, the hd or the fan in the vid card but now noise is vastly improved. Most noticeable when playing Eve in window mode and dragged the window around. So good suggestion fliptw

[woodchip]

Decided to upgrade. how big a difference in the radeon 7850 series will the 1 gb model and the 2 gb cards have in game playing? there's about a 70.00 difference in cost.

[Krom]

It should perform appreciably better in some newer game titles, since newer games are starting to push more than 1 GB of video memory usage. If you are only playing older games though (anything older than about 12-18 months) then it probably wouldn't make much difference. So if you plan on trying out newer games going forward, definitely go for the 2 GB, but if you have no plans on playing any new titles then 1 GB will do.

[woodchip]

Oddly enough as I got done surfing for a cpu fan, the 2gb version at tiger direct was listed only about 10.00 difference after a rebate...so got the 2bg version

[Sirius]

I guess if you have plenty of time and nothing to lose, an OS reinstall ought to fix it... if not well I'll be damned...

[fliptw]

Did you try re-installing GW2 from disk? Is your computer sharing the power circuit with any major appliances?

[woodchip]

Well the latest reply back after submitting a speccy report. They seem to imply the problem is either with a outdated bios or my ram is operating faster than norm. They seem to think the norm is 800 mhz even tho the packaging states 1066 mhz. Either way I'm not sure just what the ram speed has to do with installing a game. No problems with Skyrim, Starcraft 2 or Eve Online. Any idea what they may be driving at?

Oh and flip, no to connected to appliances

[Sirius]

I find it unlikely the BIOS or RAM speed have anything to do with it.

[woodchip]

Latest reply from tech:

"Thank you for your additional questions, I will attempt to clarify a bit for you. What Brian was saying is that we believed the over-clocked RAM may be causing the issue with not allowing the game to install. In it's current state Guild Wars 2 is still somewhat sensative to overclocked systems which is why it would differ from the other games listed. We are hesitant to offer such suggestions as it is not always the case but since we have exhausted nearly all other possibilities we wanted to address the issue to see if it had any effect on your current predicament."

With the amount of OC'd gaming systems out there, why would you develop a game that would be sensitive to OC'ing?

[woodchip]

To which I replied:

"Well this is kinda surprising to me as gamers are big on OC'ing their systems . So by what you are saying Gw2, during the validation process, ignored OC'd system and wound up making them vulnerable to either install problems and/or game play problems? I guess I can't fathom the logic. Now the question is twofold:

1) Are you posting on your website so gamers like me are made aware of the OC'ing issue and thus hold off on buying it?

2) When will you have a stand alone patch to correct this problem?"

[Jeff250]

If the crash log is any good, by now they should know the exact line of code that's crashing. If they do, ask to speak to a developer. Otherwise, ask them if there's anything you can do to give them a proper backtrace.

[woodchip]

I gave them the crash logs, GPUZ log, Speccy log and HijackThis log

[Sirius]

Yeah, if it were me this is the point where I'd be referring the case to an actual developer, because I'm extremely sceptical about these claims. I've never heard of overclocking causing problems for specific programs - it generally causes the whole system to destabilize if there's a problem. I mean, you could just stress test it and see if it crashes, in the case of memory - and it's very likely that's going to be a bluescreen.

But then, you're probably going through NCsoft support, who keep earning the reputation they've got... and probably are in "avoid contacting devs at all cost because they're too busy fixing other bugs" mode. (Or management just doesn't trust them enough not to constantly bug ArenaNet devs so just says not to contact them at all.) I don't believe most of those other bugs are actually preventing people from playing the game though. Unless you have another machine that meets minimum specs, that seems to be the case for you.

One bright side: from what I recall the devs do actually get these crash dumps anyway, and a good programmer can usually diagnose them pretty quickly (although it varies from case to case, certainly). If it's fixable, they might actually have plans to fix it; if not though, you really should be told what's wrong. Actually, you should probably be told anyway.

[woodchip]

Heh, how right you are Sirius. Last reply from tech:

"Thanks for the update. We are the publishers, not the developers of Guild Wars 2. I recommend contacting ArenaNet on this. It should be noted that no game manufacturer or PC manufacturer that I know of support over-clocking. It's always been something that is at the player's risk and any makers of hardware or software are not held liable for it."

I guess if you can't find the real problem...invent one.

[Krom]

Yeah, the overclocking line sounds like bull to me, their installer is broken (or just hates your particular system config for whatever reason).

[woodchip]

Well I upgraded my comp, pretty much the same as I did with my daughters comp:

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=19177

Don't seem to be having any issues with Gw2....yet.