Crashing before log in need help

[Rusty]

Anyone have a similar problem that my character is logged off in Ogrimmar and when I try to log in my computer makes lound popping and cracking noises then either locks up, restarts itself or goes to a blank blue screen. I cant figure it out tech support keeps telling me its a problem with the sound they say they have had similar issues with Creative Lab sound cards but everything they are telling me to do still isnt getting me logged into the game. If anyone can offer some help id appreciate it as this has kept me from playing for about a month now.

[Grimgor]

I have no specifics for you but that doesn't sound like a software problem to me... I'd be dead scared there was a fairly serious power supply or motherboard issue going on.

[Ghules]

Process of elimination

Do you have any other kinds of strange lockups, crashes, etc outside of wow or when playing other games.

Open a few browser windows, watch a movie on a website, etc.

If not, try any other seemingly resource intensive game you have outside of WoW.

First person shooter, flight sim, etc.

If you're fine until you hit another resouce hogging game...might be a directx issue, drivers, or still maybe hardware, something over heating or what not.

If it only happens when you're running WoW. It moves it down to a much shorter list of things that it could be.

Does it only happen when you login to that specific character or does it happen just after you've logged into the main WoW login prompt?

Might be Wow itself, conflict with WoW and a new device driver, or a few other things.

I know you've probably done a million and one things with Blizz support trying to get it fixed, but any information you can provide us might help steer you in the right direction as well.

Any information you can provide about the computer as well would be helpful, Windows or Mac, Operating system, etc.

-Ghules

Edited July 28, 2006 by Ghules

[Maube]

Might wanna check your video card fan and make sure there isnt dust clogging up the blades. That was a big problem I had when my WoW was giving me grief.

[Martok]

When he talked to me about it it was only on that one character.

[Rusty]

Heres some info

System - CPU MODEL: PC Pentium IV

System - CPU SPEED: 2800+

System - MEMORY: 2048+MB

System - OS: Windows XP Service Pack 2

System - SOUNDCARD: SB Audigy 2

System - VIDEOCARD: ATI Radeon 9800

I can play any other game with no problems Counterstrike is ok, Doom 3 runs perfectly, Star Wars: Empires at War flawless.

I can log into WoW with a new character that starts in the little village in durotar but the other day i tested my theory because of my main crashing the computer and being in Ogrimmar. I took the new level 1 character and ran him to Ogrimmar and as I got through the front doors and started making the turn into the city BAM computer went into freakout mode. So there is obviously something in Org that is crashing my system be it too much video info or sound info I dont know but it seems ridiculous to me that I can run around with a new character anywhere but as soon as I walk into org im done. So im not sure what it is but I dont think its any hardware issues on my part.

The other thing I noticed was I took a break for a bit maybe a month or two and when my roommate bought the game I reactivated and started up and started to download all the patches and as soon as my game was current with all new patches I couldnt log into my main. Hope this gives you guys a little more to work with because so far ive gotten nothing to work from the guru's at blizzard.

[Huato]

Have you cleaned it out recently?

Reason I ask is that even though you can play other games fine, WoW puts serious demands on the CPU, Video Card, RAM, and hard drive when you enter a capital city. I set my motherboard's temp alarm to go off when I was having similar problems, and the alarm would go off in major cities and in 40 man raids. Anywhere else it was fine.

I ended up having two problems though. One was the power supply was going bad, and the other was inadequate cooling. I had to replace the heatsink/fan on my cpu after thoroughly cleaning out the case didn't completely fix the problem.

Before I took the above steps I could play UT2k4 all night and have 0 problems with the computer. Load WoW and go to Org/TB/UC/Ony/MC and crash time.

[Relikk]

Do some cleaning first:

Turn off comp, unplug it, then open the case. Gentle vacuum or use a can of air to blow the dust out and then vacuum. Pop the heat sink fan off and check the CPU's heat sink fins, make sure they aren't clogged. Clean the power supply fan (best to use a can of air here) and the CPU fan.

Check system resources, CNTRL-ALT-DEL, task manager and check how many processes are running. I only have 21 running. Next step is the three R's. You don't need MSN and many other programs running, shut them down. 1st R is to retry. If it's still not working, wipe WoW and reload it.

Rel

[Odenn]

Does your roomate have another computer there? If so try to log into his. if it crashes there too it's something that needs to be sent to Blizzard. Have you tried to completely uninstall the game and reinstall it from scratch? I'm just bouncing ideas out there.

[Rusty]

Since Ive had this problem ive reloaded WoW, Ive reformatted my entire hard drive and put nothing but my drivers, firefox, and some other games on the computer I havent downloaded anything since Ive reformatted. Ive opened the case and completely cleaned my power supply witch is a horrible job on my Dell XPS because the power supply runs under the case and you cant access it except through the vents ive dusted the entire interior. Ive tried logging on from my roommates computer which is state of the art top of the line everything and I had no problems on his its just mine im having the trouble with. Blizzard seems quite confused with the whole thing also especially the fact that my auto restart is turned off but sometimes it restarts anyway and when I do get a blue screen I get no error message just a blank blue screen. I swear it can never be easy with me weeee

[katakorinthia]

.. yeah something is definitly going wrong with your computer then.. I wouldnt think that its any of the drivers if yours are all updated.. I have the >SAME< exact computer with more memory across the room from me.. its an XPS also, though maube has had some problems with FPS slowdown nothing strange like this has every happend.. After installing, uninstalling everything like that it has to be some kinda hardware conflict or problem. If they thought it was the sound I suggest trying to take out your sound card an restarting it with that not in the computer. If that doesnt work then I would wait till my roomate was gone steal his video card an swap it with yours an see if that fixes it. If that doesnt work then its either your CPU (which should be able to handle the game no problem) or as stated some kinda power problem... Because it cant be software based after all you have done to replace/update etc.. hmm.. if you can try any of that see if it helps, hell if you can try to juryrig the two computers together an steal his power source.. =P see if that helps.. Might also want to ninja out his memory sticks one at a time or even remove one of yours an switch them out to knock that out also..