Windows freezing during specific times [fixed]

BIG WARNING: LONG, LONG POST

I did a Windows update a few days ago, which included an update for my Linksys Wireless Desktop B/G card.

After I did those updates that night, nothing has been working correctly.

Here is the post I made on the WoW Forums: *"WoW now freezes after I choose which character to login with. It happens to all the characters. I choose one of them, then the loading screen freezes my whole computer as soon as the loading bar is full. I can't minimize it, or CTRL + ALT + Delete it. It doesn't let me do a thing. I have to manually hold my power button on my computer to shut it all down.

I've tried disabling all addons, deleting my WTF, Cache and Interface files, running it as admin, running the Blizzard debug/fixer tool that's in the WoW directory, updating my video driver, letting the screen sit there for about 30 minutes… and absolutely nothing helped.

Useful information: I am running Vista x64 bit I DID do a Windows Update the night before, which included an update for my Wireless-G PCI card, and I didn't check WoW after that update either

But, if it WAS the update, then why am I the only one being affected? Wouldn't other people that received the x64 bit Windows update be having this same problem?"*

I contacted Blizzard by phone after I got no real help from the forums. Everything he suggested [running it in OpenGL, with no sound, as well as other stuff].

He sent me an email that said this:

"1. With the game closed please try moving or deleting your WTF, CACHE, and INTERFACE folders out of your World of Warcraft directory. These are temporary cache files that will be recreated by the game the next time you launch. Moving them to the desktop makes it easy to replace them if necessary. For a step by step guide for removing these folders for your operating system, please visit: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=25390 Once these folders have been removed, try the game once again to see if this has helped.

2. Be sure you have the latest video, sound, network card and motherboard drivers. More information on identifying your video and sound driver versions can be found at: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21137

Drivers should be available from the manufacturer's website for each individual component. Motherboard drivers will be available on your motherboard or system manufacturer's site. It is important that you follow all precautions given by your motherboard manufacturer when updating drivers or firmware. Links to manufacturers' web sites can be found at: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21124

3. Be sure you have all the available updates from: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

4. Try running the game in openGL mode and without sound. Command line options appended to the desktop shortcut will not take effect unless "Show Launcher" is enabled at the login screen.

• Click Start
• Highlight Programs
• Highlight World of Warcraft without clicking on it.
• Right click on the World of Warcraft icon
• Click Properties
• In the Target field, add '-opengl' and '-nosound' after the last quotation mark Example: "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft.exe" -opengl -nosound
• Click OK
• Try the game now with the icon you just modified.

You can also try running the game in a window by adding -windowed to the line as explained above. You can also enter all three options at the same time, but make sure that there is a space between each of them.

NOTE: The OpenGL and No Sound options are only for troubleshooting purposes. Please continue with the following troubleshooting steps in order to help isolate the problem.

5. A program running on your machine could be causing issues. Please try closing all background applications as explained on our support site: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21052

6. Check your hard disk for errors by following the instructions on our ScanDisk/Defrag page: http://us.blizzard.com/support/article/21144

Also, note that some customers have reported that hard drives larger than 127 gigabytes in size can have issues if you do not have the latest Windows Updates from the Microsoft site: http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com/

We recommend that you read all the documentation that came with your hard drive and/or system. Many manufacturers have special instructions necessary for proper use of 48-bit Logical Block Addressing on hard drives larger than 127 gigabytes.

7. World of Warcraft attempts to use your hardware to its fullest. If you overclock your hardware in any way, even if other applications on your computer are stable, it may cause problems with World of Warcraft. Please set all your components to their factory default speeds while playing World of Warcraft.

8. If your system is becoming too hot, it may cause the game to freeze or crash. You can test this by removing the side of your case from the computer for troubleshooting purposes. If the issue goes away or prolongs it, then we suggest making sure there isn't a lot of dust in your computer case and adding a fan to your system to help distribute heat.

Please consult your CPU and Motherboard documentation regarding proper heat ranges and monitoring or contact the manufacturers for further questions regarding heat.

9. Try uninstalling the game, and then deleting the entire install folder from the hard drive. Then, reinstall the game and try it again. Sometimes fully and simply re-establishing the data files this way can resolve general game issues.

10. Doing a scan of the computer's physical memory can help you identify RAM problems which could cause this issue. We are tentatively recommending users try memory scan utilities such as the Windows Memory Diagnostic, available directly from Microsoft: http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

We recommend the extended test suite, which takes the longest time to run but is the most thorough test suite available with this tool.

If you have Windows Vista, this already has a Memory (RAM) Diagnostic Tool that you can use. Using this tool will require a reboot so please save any documents you have open.

If the memory test comes back with no errors, In order to troubleshoot this issue further for you, we will need to collect some diagnostic information about your computer and your game error and log files.

11. If your issue continues, please email me back with a detailed description of which steps above you tried and your results. Please attach any text files in the "World of Warcraft/Logs" and "World of Warcraft/Errors" folder to your email along with two files, your dxdiag.txt and msinfo.txt for further analysis"

I tried every single thing in this email except for reinstalling WoW, because anybody who's ever played knows it takes HOURS to install/patch.

Nothing helped. I was sending him the email with the DxDiag/MSINFO today when uploading the MSINFO txt into the Gmail attachments froze my computer exactly like WoW was doing.

I tried to contact Microsoft for technical support, except EVERY SINGLE WAY COSTS MONEY! Around $59 to be exact, by both phone/live chat/and even friggin email!

Any suggestions? I am willing to post/email my DxDiag info and send a copy and pasted version of my MSINFO.

Oh alright. In the post I had mentioned that I used Vista x64 bit.

But if you want I can post my DxDiag and etc. Want me to post it was a reply, or would that be too big?

Alright, I will post the hardware from my own tellings since MSINFO and DxDiag jumble all that crap with other crap.

cNet Hardware Review: http://reviews.cnet.com/desktops/gateway-fx7026/4507-3118_7-32976302.html

That is my exact computer, except that I have personally installed a Linksys Wireless G card: http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/products/WMP54G

More in-detail hardware information not listed: CD -ROM Drive: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7203S Sound: SigmaTel High Definition Audio [CODEC]

I am using a Microsoft/Razor Reclusa Gaming keyboard but am still using their default mouse since it works nicer than my other Razor mouse.

Edit: Made the URLs into click-able links.

Download speedfan, turn on logging and boot WoW.

Keep checking temperatures.

Well the power supply seems kinda low, but thats probably not the issue at all. You could try a registry cleaner like winASO or crapcleaner has one build into it aswell. Worst case senario rollback the driver update to see if that helps.

@spyware: I have RivaTuner and I never noticed an excessive amount of heat in the fan. I did at times turn the fan speed up by at least %50 and it cooled it down and the power-supply didn't seem to be affected. It didn't start doing all this until after the Windows updates.

@p4plus2: I have CCleaner, can I run both CCleaner and those suggested by you? Will running both be somewhat hazardous?

Edit: Is CCleaner another name for CrapCleaner?

I have run both before winASO catches what CCleaner doesn't and vice versa. (CCleaner is crap cleaner renamed to be "more friendly".) Sadly winASO isn't free…But, it works great and doesn't have any issues with CCleaner.

The updates boxed in red are the ones that I did, the night before this huge computer problem started to happen. I did the updates before I went to bed, when they were done downloading/installing, I went to bed.

Note: They needed to have a restart like usual so it can install the updates on the Windows start up, but I didn't start it up until the next day.

Download D-ban, burn the ISO to disk. Burn any necessary software for your hardware as well. Move all files you'd like to keep to an external hard drive or burn to disk as well. Make sure you have the vista disk, if not then download it and burn the ISO to disk. Restart vista with D-ban, boot from disk, follow the instructions. Once that's done, boot from windows vista disk. After a few hours of BS you can put all your files back onto your hard drive. (A nice trick is to attach files to emails and email them to separate accounts -owned by you of course- then download them back when your done). This will take roughly 4-5 hours, depending on how much you need to transfer back onto your hard drive. This is a pain in the ass, but its better then hassling with your computer for weeks. That and if its a hardware problem then I get to giggle at you.

If something "works" in Windows without the need of any new installations, I generally leave it alone. You should uninstall that optional Linksys update if it was working fine previously. Also check for hardware conflicts in Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management

hellboundhackersok wrote: If something "works" in Windows without the need of any new installations, I generally leave it alone. You should uninstall that optional Linksys update if it was working fine previously. Also check for hardware conflicts in Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Computer Management

I did a driver roll-back on the Linksys, restarted my computer, and it works perfectly! Thank you very much. I am able to get on WoW and upload attachments. I appreciate all the support.:)