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Quote from: Morgeth on July 28, 2011, 03:29:23 PM
Happy birthday! <3 And have fun at the LARP! What are you playing?
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Quote from: Kergash on February 01, 2011, 01:01:11 PMQuote from: Thanuk on January 27, 2011, 11:28:21 PM
I'm having this really annoying game-crash problem that keeps forcing me to reboot. This greatly interrupts especially RP events for me, and my patience is really running out. I've explained the problem here, with no answer though: http://eu.battle.net/wow/en/forum/topic/1622902706
I've also mailed Tech Support directly, but you know they take their time :/
Anyone got a clue on this? I would hate to crash during the event this friday :-(
Well, I'm not really an expert anymore (I used to work in a computer store when I was a kid and studied computer science and communication technology for a few years, but haven't really touched this line of work for the last 10 years so I'm "a little" out of date), but maybe I can give you a few pointers. take it with a grain of salt though, like I said, I'm not an expert, this may very well be complete and utter rubbish.
When I was working in the computer store and we got in PCs/laptops that had sudden freezes/system lockups like you described (screen distortions, nothing works anymore, you can just reboot the system), it was in almost all of the cases one of two things:
1. A temperature spike in the GPU (graphic card's main processor) or the CPU (computers main processor). The greenish screen distortions do indicate that the problem would more likely to be with the GPU. Temperature spikes are usually caused by overheating of said processing units. Overheating can be caused by a too high system temperature (the whole PC/laptop is getting too warm inside), insufficient cooling of the graphic card/main processor (sometimes the fan may be too weak, malfunctioning or not installed properly) or by "overclocking" (setting the GPU/CUP to work faster than it was intended by the manufacturer).
My advice would be to monitor your system, CPU and GPU temperatures. Almost all PCs/laptops nowadays have sensors for internal temperatures of core modules so all you need is some random freeware programm to display those temperatures and maybe issue a warning when the temperature is getting too high. I'm afraid you'll have to google that up to find such a problem, because as I said, I'm 10 years out of touch
You can also just "feel" if your laptop is getting really hot while you play. If it feels hot to you, I definatly would look at cooling it down. There are certain "mounts" for laptops, that look a bit like a mixture of a small platform that is shaped like a clamp the size of a laptop. The reason is that having a laptop plainly on the table can lead to overheating since the air vents on the backside get blocked because the table does not allow the hot air to escape. With these cooler platforms you create a space between laptop and table so the hot air can escape better.
You can also try to do the opposite of "overclocking", to force your graphic card/CPU to work slower than intended. again, you'll need to google up some freeware programm that allows you to do that, or there may already be one with your laptop. Gaming laptops usually come with overclocking software, which can in turn be used to slow down your system.
2. the second possible reason for lockups like you described them is a messup in the computer's memory banks, usually caused by faulty memory chips. In this cache unfortunatly the only thing to do is to replace your memory chips, which can be complicated to do with a laptop.
All in all, from my experience lockups like you described were always caused by a hardware problem, in all the time I worked in the computer shop, not once did I see a computer that was given for repair do this because of a software issue, or a malfunctioning game. Again... take it with a grain of salt, since this experience is 10 years old, things may look different nowadays.
If you suspect it may be overheating or a memory problem, the best test would be to get a random graphic-heavy game, like an ego shooter and play it straight at highest settings for 5+ hours. If you experience the same lockups, then there's most likely something wrong with your hardware and you could think about invoking your warranty. If other games run flawlessly, it may still be a hardware issue, since different games stress different parts of your GPU/CPU but then things would be a little more delicate because it's possible if you send in your laptop and they can't reproduce the error. In this case they may send you the laptop back without fixing it.
There are also "stress test" programmes for computers that put all parts of a PC/laptop under heavy stress to try and trigger problems as you have them and isolate them. They are however not guaranteed to work, since sometimes the problem only appears after hours of using your computer, while these programmes usually only run 5-15 minutes. It may be worth a shot though.
Again, please bear in mind that my advice is most likely utterly outdated and amateurish, but maybe I could give you a few pointers so you can try a few things and if you have a suspicion google up for more recent and professional information.