[ Copied from http://forums.battle.net/war3-genera...s/te/799.shtml ]
WARCRAFT III TROUBLESHOOTING GUIDE
Here is some information to help you get Warcraft III up and running if you are experiencing problems with the game. If this information does not help please follow the instructions at the bottom to gather system information to send to us in an mail.
For the latest information regarding errors and steps to fix them, read
http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=awr000p. Please check back frequently as we will make updates as they become available.
First, uninstall Warcraft III.
Now, run a thorough scandisk and defrag of your hard drive(s). You will probably find it helpful to disable your screen saver and power management features before you scandisk or defrag. Sometimes Windows will restart the defragmentation and/or scandisk if your screen saver or power management kicks in.
(Windows 98/Me)
- Click on the Start button and go to Run.
- Type in "scandisk" (without quotes) and click the OK button.
- Follow the prompts and select "Thorough" scandisk and let it run.
- This will tell you if there are any problems on the hard disk.
- Click on the Start button and go to Run
- Type in "defrag" (without quotes) and click the OK button.
- Follow the prompts to defrag your hard drive.
- This will make the available space more usable by your programs.
(Windows 2000/XP)
- Open My Computer, and select the local disk you want to check.
- On the File menu, click Properties.
- Click the Tools tab.
- Under Error-checking, click Check Now.
- Under Check disk options, select the Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors check box and the automatically fix file system errors box.
- Select yes to schedule after restart if a dialog box comes up prompting you to do so.
- Restart your computer
- Open My Computer, and select the local disk you want to check.
- On the File menu, click Properties.
- Click the Tools tab.
- Under Defragmentation, click Defragment now.
- Select volume to Defragment.
- Click Defragment.
Now reinstall Warcraft III and download and install the latest patch automatically by connecting to Battle.net.
If you are still encountering problems please try the following the steps:
1. Make sure the latest video drivers you are using are compatible with the latest version of DirectX or you could experience video problems. Contact your video card manufacturer to ensure compatibility if you cannot find the information on the page you downloaded your video drivers from. Make sure you have the latest version of DirectX from
http://www.microsoft.com/directx/hom...ds/default.asp.
2. Make sure you have the latest drivers for your Video and Sound cards. You'll want to check with your computer manufacturer or the Video/Sound card manufacturer's website for the current drivers that match the model of card you have in your system. A list of manufacturers with contact information can be found at
http://www.blizzard.com/support/?id=msi0369p.
3. Download and install the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard. Check the motherboard manufacturer's website for updated chipset drivers, first. If you can't find updated drivers at the manufacturer's website, the next two most common locations for chipset drivers are
http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=2 and
http://www.intel.com/support/chipsets/
4. Before starting the game, make sure there are no other programs running in the background except for Explorer & Systray. Press CTRL+ALT+DEL to see a list of programs running in the background.
5. Delete the bncache.dat file(s) if one or more exist on your hard drive.
6. Make sure all Power Management settings are disabled or turned off. If you have a screensaver, set it to "None" before
playing the game.
7. Run the System File Checker to scan for damaged or missing files in Windows by clicking on Start, go to Run and type "sfc" without the quotes. Follow the prompts to check the integrity of your files.
8. Make sure your version of Windows has all the latest updates by checking
http://windowsupdate.microsoft.com.
If your system is overclocked it may be producing too much heat, which will adversely affect program performance. If the system is producing high amounts of heat but is not overclocked, we would suggest you add a fan to your system to help distribute heat in the case.
If you continue to have problems, we would appreciate more information about your computer hardware and drivers.
Please attach any text files in the "Warcraft III\Errors" and "Warcraft III\Logs" folder to your reply along with two files, your dxdiag.txt and msinfo.txt, for further diagnosis.
To obtain the systems diagnostic files, follow the instructions below:
1. Click on Start.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type in DXDIAG and press Enter or click OK, this will open the DirectX diagnostic tool. Run the DirectDraw, Direct3D and DirectSound tests found under the Display and Sound tabs before creating the dxdiag.txt file.
4. Click on the Save All Information Button (save this file to your windows desktop and name it dxdiag).
5. Click on the More Help tab and open the Microsoft system information tool (MSInfo).
6. Click on File and choose Export (save this file to your windows desktop and name it MSInfo).
7. Attach the dxdiag.txt and msinfo.nfo files to an email to
support@blizzard.com.
Also, it is VERY important that you include the brand and model number of your Motherboard and Video Card.
-- Edward H.
