World of Warcraft Graphics Problem

For starters I'm Computer illiterate. So my problem is this I got a desktop computer and I wanted to start playing WOW on it but keep having the problem of the computer crashing after a few minutes of playing my 2 main toons. The Screen goes black and its says " Display Driver stopped Responding and has Recovered. Display Driver igfy Stopped and has succesfully Recovered. I tryed everything the computer says to do to fix the problem but to no avail. The Graphics driver is :

Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family

Intel 82945g, 945, G965, and G33/G31 Express Chipset Family Graphics Solutions.

My Question is do I need to get a diferent Graphics or Video card to fix the problem or what can I do all the drivers are up to date. Please help and if I need to provide more info please let me know what you need and where I can find it on the computer.

 

It certainly sounds as though your graphics card is not powerful enough.

Do you know what card is in the PC ???

If not download this free application from us run it and let us know the result.

http://majorgeeks.com/Speccy_d6358.html

 

the Graphics :

HP2159 (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family

Thats what it tells me for the graphics.

 

The HP2159 is the monitor that you are looking at not the graphics card and the chipset is not what we need.

As i suggested download and run speccy then let us know what it finds.

 

I ran Speccy and under graphics all i get is the Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family

Memory 320 MB
Memory Type 2
Driver Version 7.15.10.1666

So does that mean it has no video Card ?

 

My apologies, I did not think about it before i answered.
The Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family is onboard graphics (it is built into the motherboard) and is good for everyday use such as surfing and E-Mails but it does not have enough power for most modern games that are very graphic intensive.

The only option you have is to have a separate graphics card inserted into the PC but depending on how much you want to spend and how much power is available it may not be worth it to you.

If you need any more help please copy and past the details from Speccy so that we can see the whole system and advise if a graphics card is a good option.

 

Operating System
MS Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit SP2
CPU
Intel Pentium E2180 @ 2.00GHz 31 °C
Conroe 65nm Technology
RAM
3.0GB Dual-Channel DDR2 @ 399MHz (6-6-6-18)
Motherboard
PEGATRON CORPORATION Benicia (CPU 1)
Graphics
HP 2159 (1920x1080@60Hz)
Intel(R) G33/G31 Express Chipset Family
Hard Drives
488GB Seagate ST3500418AS (RAID) 31 °C
Optical Drives
TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H653L
Audio
Realtek High Definition Audio

Right now the game runs fine with a few of my toons but my main and new toon wont play they crash the system so just wondering if it would be just add a graphics card.

Thanks so far for all your replies.

 

This is a photo of the motherboard in your PC

http://img641.imageshack.us/img641/5969/c013242143747522.jpg

On the right side are 4 long slots (2 blue and 2 black) these are the expasion ports that allow you to put in another graphics card, they are called "PCI express" and support most of the modern cards.

Then we come to how much you want to pay as cards start from $55 and up to $2000 so it is dependent on how deep your pockets are.
You will also need to consider the "power supply unit" that is installed in the PC which on most pre-built machines is 300 or 350watt so usually do not have enough power to run separate graphics cards, these run anything from $40 to $150 and normally speaking the more power the better but watts cost $$$.

This is where you have to decide how much you want to invest in your PC.

 

Ok well I found out that I guess my power suply is 250w is there a graphics card you could recomend for that amount of watts or do I need to upgrade that too. If so can you give me a few sugestions from low end and up. As long as I can play and possibly raid on lowest settings for graphics its fine but would like to be able to play on the desk top.

 

You definitely need to upgrade the power supply.

Here are my suggestions for the minimum you need to run the game easily, hope it is not too expensive.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133340&Tpk=gtx260

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371035

 

The blue and black slots are the memory slots. The white and black in the lower left are the expansion slots for video cards and other cards, you can put an AGP, or PCI card there.

Ragnirok, before buying more hardware, make sure that you have ruled out all possible software causes for the problem. I know you said that all your drivers are up to date, have you tried to simply reinstall the display driver? If it stops responding after running the game for a while, your first stop is the driver. Rule it out before looking at other factors.

 

OOOH did i mess up :-o

I stand corrected i know memory slots from PCI slots maybe the meds are too strong in the morning (it was early for me)

But as for the hardware the PSU is OK but for WOW you do need more graphics power than just the onboard.

Having said all that i bow to your superior gaming knowledge Mimsy

 

The Intel integrated graphics is not a gaming video card by any means, you're right. I've seen WoW run on hardware it shouldn't be able to run on though (including a netbook!) so turning off all special effects and reinstall the driver might well make the crashing stop.

 

Thanks mismy that didn't work it's still the same crashing on some toons and not on others so I'm hoping to purchase a graphics card this weekend can you make a suggestion on a card

 

I'll see what I can do. Download Speccy that Bill linked to in post 2 and after installing it, run the program and click on File, and then on Save snapshot. That saves a report of the hardware in your computer. Attach that report to your next post so I can take a look at it and see your motherboard and other specs, and I'll look around for a couple of video card suggestions.

How to attach items to your post

 

Crashing on some toons not others indicate either addon problems or corrupted textures, if you check your wow program list in the start all programs - world of warcraft should see a repair wow program, id run that, and then also would try disableing all addons you have installed.

 

Definitely do this before you spend money on a video card.

Unlike me, Colemanguy actually plays the game and he knows way more about it than I do.