World of Warcraft: Once and for all. HELP!

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World of Warcraft: Once and for all. HELP!

I have been having the issue below since the first expansion (Burning Crusade). I have been back and forth between these forums, Blizzard forums, telephone support and email support to no avail.

The issue is as follows: During the game for no apparent reason the entire computer locks up. Sometimes I can still hear sound, sometimes not at all. The only way to do anything is to hold the power button down until it shuts off. Many times after powering down and back up, the game lock up right at the login, sometimes at the character selection or right when I enter the world.

The only temporary resolution (albeit unacceptable) was to delete the Cache and *** folders from the WoW folder. This seemed to work as an immediate fix until the problem happened again. Now it seems with the latest patches and the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, this temporary fix doesn't even work. I even went so far as reinstaling my entire operating system.

Every time I have removed the folders indicated above I have also repaired disk permissions in Disk Utilities and even removed any instance of "blizzard" or "warcraft" from the ~/library/preferences folder as instructed by blizzard.

This is just speculation but I've noticed that the computer locks up when I swing the character's view around too quickly (holding the right mouse button and turning fast). Also, this last time the problem showed itself after adjusting the graphics in the game and being asked to restart it for the changes to take effect. Note that this the ONLY time I have ever set the graphics in settings so all of my previous encounters with the problem have nothing to do with that.

The problem only happens when playing The World of Warcraft. There have been many threads in blizzard with people complaining about the same problem. I'm at my wits end. Currently the came is vanilla (no mods or adjustments to any of the settings) and the game locks up as soon as I enter the world.

System Specs
MBP 17" 2.15 Ghz Intel Core Duo (~2005)
Mac OS X v10.4.11
2 GB 667 Mhz DDR2 SDRAM
ATY, RadeonX1600, VRAM 256 MB, EFI Driver 01.00.086

If someone can help me resolve this I will make your bed for a week. Not good enough? I'm open to negotiations. =) Thanks in advance guys.

MBP 17", Mac OS X (10.4.11)

Posted on Dec 27, 2008 1:55 PM

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Answer 1

Dec 30, 2008 1:31 AM in response to My Last Confession

bump

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Answer 2

Allan Jones

Level 9

78,266 points

Dec 30, 2008 6:50 AM in response to My Last Confession

I'll give it a try.

Other reports in these forums indicate that WOW makes the MBP run very hot--almost any graphics intensive app can do so to any Intel notebook, Mac or otherwise. Therefore the first thing to try is helping the heat dissipation system work efficiently. When a Mac approaches the temps that could fry its brains, it shuts down to save its life. Sometimes you get a crash instead.

1) Don't run the MBP in your lap or on a blanket or pillow. The bottom of the Aluminum case is an important component of the heat dissipation equipment. You need air underneath. If you must use the computer in your lap, get a lapboard and something to put about 1/2 inch (13mm) space between the board and the case.

2) Make sure no other user processes are running. Don't have your browser or iTunes running in the background. More processor cycles used = more heat.

3) See how much free space you have on your boot drive. Too little and you get crashes. You want 15-20 percent free for OSX to properly manage Virtual Memory. More is better.

4) Anyone on the WOW forums think 2GB RAM was not enough? I don't know but can't help wonder if that game is a RAM hog.

Again, I don't know jack about WOW; the last time I played Warcraft, a "hot" Mac had an 80mHz processor However, I have use other graphics-intensive sims and games on various Macs. The above suggestions are general based on those experiences, not WOW.

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Answer 3

buz

Level 4

1,205 points

Dec 30, 2008 10:36 AM in response to My Last Confession

Not sure what I can pitch in here, but WoW is played a lot in this household. It is played on a MBP 2.4Ghz, 4GB ram and NVIDIA 8600M GT graphics card. It is also played on an older MDD 1Ghz, 2GB ram and an ATI 9800 Pro graphics card.

The MBP experiences what you describe but only very occasionally. As you stated, it seems to occur when the display is LOADED with graphic intensity and a quick character move will freeze the computer. Patience usually fixes the problem - a few minutes and everything returns to normal.

This does not happen on the older and lesser equipped MDD.

Your RAM shouldn't be a problem UNLESS it is low quality Ram - you need high quality ram. 2GB is sufficient.

So .........

- The earlier reply regarding heat is important to pay attention to.
- You may want to investigate the video card's adequacy.
- Be aware of 'latency' and when the problem occurs.
- What do you have for an internet connection?

One last thing - your Mods (addons) - does it happen even when you move the Interface folder to the desktop? If it does then it would suggest to me either the graphics card, heat or latency/internet connection as the potential issues.

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Answer 4

Dec 31, 2008 11:26 PM in response to buz

In regards to your comments first:

1) I've taken care of the heat issues years ago when I first realized how hot the machine was getting. I purchased a Rain iLAP aluminum pad. Right now the machine is encoding some video recorded off TV and smcFanControl reads that the temp is 90 deg C. The addition of smc is very recent. When I first got it, I set it to 4000 RPM when running WoW. The crash still happened. After that, however, I lowered all of the graphic settings to minimum in WoW and that seems to have cleared the problem up. I recently raised it to a step above the lowest quality and it is still OK.

2) You say investigate the video cards adequacy? How? I'm running on an ATI Radeonx1600 w/ 256 MB of VRAM.

3) What kind of latency? You mean in-game latency?

4) I have 2GB of RAM. How do I know if it is high quality or not. In the System Profiler it shows two 1GB slots both reading Type: DDR2 SDRAM / Speed: 667 Mhz / Status: OK

5) My internet connection is cable using Optimum Online (Cablevision). Normally I'm running on a Linksys wi-fi router, but the problem occured even when I connected and the machine to an RJ-45 cable.

6) I removed all mods and moved all the appropriate folders and the problem was still happening before lowering the graphic settings.

Some new questions:

1) If I had no heat dissipation techniques what would Apple tell me is the optimal temperature that the machine should be running at to avoid damaging it?

2) At what RPM does lowering temp with higher RPMs in smcFanControl become a risk to the integrity of the physical fans?

3) In the past, putting WoW in windowed mode would oftentimes cause the problem to occur immediately. I can't recall if this was after the game was running and the temp would have been higher, but does putting the game into windowed mode cause the comp to crash due to high temps?

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Answer 5

buz

Level 4

1,205 points

Jan 1, 2009 1:06 AM in response to My Last Confession

Wish I had better answers for you. Sounds like the heat, GC and RAM questions are moot.

Yes, I was referring to in game latency. The typical range of operating temperatures is 30-85º C depending upon load. Thermal shutdown occurs at 125º C.

I recall reading about others having the freezing/lock up problem and there were comments regarding windowed and full screen modes. I recall a few of those saying that at a freeze in windowed mode, comm m to full screen would unlock things.

IDK. I have a 1.5MB DSL connection and was having problems with my wireless router (supplied by dsl provider), they sent me a replacement and all was better. Both computers playing wow (MBP and MDD) play wow wirelessly and the connection kept dropping, more frequently for the MBP, turned out the transmitter in the router was bad. Also, the MBP plays almost exclusively in windowed mode.

Just a thought, rereading your No. 1 - if the computer did run hot on occasion, wondering what a Hardware test would tell you about drive condition, is it possible they are 'degraded'? Just making guesses at this point.

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Answer 6

Jan 1, 2009 1:13 AM in response to buz

ok.. but what about the fact that lowering all my graphic settings seems to have solved the problem?

In addition whenever the game would lock up, it would take two to four attempts of launching the game, powering down, powering back up and trying again before I could actually get in without it locking up. Ample time for the computer to have cooled down? Sometimes I just give up as I can't even get past the login screen anymore. if I come back an hour later though, all is well again.

So bottom line to test the heat theory I should see if the temp in smcFanControl gets gradually higher as I increase the graphic settings in game? And if when I get to a setting where it DOES crash, the temp should be above 125º C; if it is not then we can probably rule out the heat issue. But if it does, then I've found the answer to this riddle. What do you think?

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Answer 7

Jan 1, 2009 1:31 AM in response to My Last Confession

I'm going to post a step by step experience of my experiment.

*_Attempt #1_*: Graphics Setting: 2nd from lowest, Temp: 77C
-Ran WoW
-Switched to windowed mode
-logged in
-the very second the loading screen finished and I entered the world, the entire screen turned into vertical white and black lines. All Sound cut out and I had to shut down. I have never experienced this before.

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Answer 8

Rod Hagen

Level 7

32,000 points

Jan 1, 2009 2:31 AM in response to My Last Confession

Looks to me like a problem that the WoW developers need to find a way of resolving if they want to keep a share of the Mac market. All too often we see sloppy code from software manufacturers who want their share of the Mac $$, but aren't prepared to put in the effort to do it properly.

Mac versions of WoW all too often seem to produce problems. If the company wants a future maybe it is time they bit the bullet and employed some competent programmers for this platform, or, perhaps, simply provided enough support resources to allow their current ones to do a decent job! Let's face it. If they still can't even produce a decent Mac version of such popular software then you have to wonder how long they are likely to last, despite their current PC market share. Anyone else remember when Wordstar had a monopoly on the word processor world? 😉

If I were you, MLC, I'd be asking WoW when they plan on getting their Mac act into gear!

Cheers

Rod

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Answer 9

buz

Level 4

1,205 points

Jan 1, 2009 12:40 PM in response to My Last Confession

I'm sorry to say - it sounds like a hardware issue to me.

Too many Mac users (Rod) are playing WoW with few if any problems. Whether Blizzard's code is up to snuff or not, I wouldn't know. I spend considerable time in the WoW forums as well and the issues being posted are a minor sampling, of the customer base without issues. This applies across the platforms.

Back to u MLC, hardrive, memory and graphics card - I'm no whiz, but your problems don't appear to be WoW related other than it is WoW that produces the load that shows the problem. There is a site, I can't remember at the moment, that is meant to test your computer under intense loads. If I come up with it I'll post back.

If I come up with any other thoughts I'll post back as well.

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Answer 10

Jan 2, 2009 6:22 PM in response to buz

*_Attempt #2_*
I've been playing in windowed mode for the past couple days with no issues. I've been monitoring system load in Activity Monitor as well system temperature with smc FanControl.

Today, however, I received an instant message in Adium and when I apple+tab'd to switch to Adium, the system locked up (after Adium was displayed). My music was still playing in the background and the cursor was still blinking in the Adium message field, but the mouse wouldn't move and I couldn't do anything. In addition, the system temperature was only 59C so this is clearly not heat related (at least not this time). Also, system load was negligible; nothing was sapping too much of the systems resources.

Thoughts? I have run hardware tests in the past, but I wouldn't mind running them again just in case. What suggestions do you have to see if any of my parts are faulty?

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Answer 11

Jan 2, 2009 7:25 PM in response to My Last Confession

*_Attempt #3_*
Still in windowed mode and on graphic setting 2 from lowest.

I notice that though the game locked the system up again, EVERYTHING is still running. So much so that even when I get IM's, the icon for iChat bounces in the dock and the alert sound is made. This to me indicates that it's not a hardware issue is it? Everything is still running. I just cant do anything; the mouse won't respond and the keyboard won't respond. Though all the other animations are running (dock icons, cursors flashing in text fields etc) WoW itself has frozen.

Thoughts?

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Answer 12

buz

Level 4

1,205 points

Jan 2, 2009 8:38 PM in response to My Last Confession

Hello MLC,

I'm really kind of stumped. My son is sitting over there playing on our 'old' MDD - even get a Blizzard warning that the system doesn't have the resources to play WoW and yet ... there he sits - content.

Pretty much my last idea - may not be realistic, but ..... do you have a friend or access to another computer to play from your 'seat' / actual connection to the internet? If another computer works plugged in to where the problem computer is plugged - it would say something (not what you would want to hear though). I know it would be a PITA loading your account on a different computer, not sure what else to suggest.

My Last Confession wrote:
........... WoW itself has frozen.

Thoughts?

I just don't think WoW itself freezes - it's your computers rendering of/access to the game that quits - whether hardware or software ....... idk!

I'll keep mulling it over though.

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Answer 13

Jan 3, 2009 4:31 AM in response to buz

i actually have a PC right next to me which I used to play WoW on before I got my MPB. It runs the game just fine. I am convinced that this id completely WoW/Mac related. I'm just surprised that after al this time, nobody at Apple or Blizzard has a resolution to this.

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Answer 14

buz

Level 4

1,205 points

Jan 3, 2009 10:03 AM in response to My Last Confession

Well - I'm convinced it's either your Mac or your internet connection (somewhere between the router and computer).

As I've said, WoW plays fine even on an antique here. Sorry couldn't be more help.

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Answer 15

Jan 3, 2009 2:49 PM in response to buz

buz:

As an update, you may be correct in saying that it's a Mac issue. When I ran Verify Disk in the Disk utility it came up with a Node error. I ran Repair disk from the install disk and it was unable to repair it. So I am reinstalling the OS now.

When you suggest it may be internet connection related, do you mean internally on the router, or form the cable company itself? I do not suspect this to be the case because when my roommate plays WoW downstairs he is connected to the same Router and has no issues. I wouldn't mind testing this out though. Other than connecting the computer directly to the modem what suggestions do you have?

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