Wednesday (7 Nov) - WoW's Patch 5.0.4 Debacle

Wednesday (7 Nov) - WoW's Patch 5.0.4 Debacle

I have been reporting an intermittent computer freeze problem while playing World of Warcraft. It has started to get worse.

Patch 5.0.4 was released on 28 August. Many players believe this patch is causing the problem.

I don't recall this problem cropping up before Patch 5.0.4. I did upgrade my video card on 3 September. The computer freezes I've been experiencing started on 20 October. Hard to know if there was any correlation or not.

Reading through the complaints on the Blizzard site, there does not seem to be any common cause and Blizzard has been completely silent, offering nothing but the usual checks (delete folders, update video card software, check for overheating, lowering the video settings, etc) that have already been tried and checked. Lots of folks have tried a lot of things, but not one person has reported a fix of any kind. If you are affected by it, there is no solution. Upgrading to Win8 didn't fix it, either, according to those who tried that.

These freezes only happen while in WoW. I tried swapping screens to see if the problem was in the monitor. The screen froze twice inside ten minutes of play. It's not the monitor.

I have not spent a lot of time in WoW using the older backup computer, but the time I have spent there, there have been no freezes. This computer still runs Win XP. Using the XP computer for WoW poses it's own issues. Everything else I do (the WoW blog, the novel, video stuff, etc) are all done on the Win7 machine. I have to switch the mouse and keyboard to use the XP machine for WoW (both are miniature versions because I just don't have the desk space for full sized for both computers). Yes, it's all doable, but very inconvenient.

Fist has been doing what she can, but is not getting a lot of game time. She did have a "how could I have done this?" moment, though. She has been complaining about not being able to use a flying mount. So she has been on foot all this time. Now, that should cause some head scratching. Unfortunately, Fist hasn't been one of those scratching her head. Fist's ground mount of preference is the Dark Phoenix. It is one of the few mounts that always appears to be flying, but when near the ground it "flies" at ground speed. It also has the odd restriction that it can't be used at all when flying is restricted. In other words, the Dark Phoenix can be used as a ground mount and a flying mount, but only if flying is allowed. Fist is not allowed to use a flying mount, yet, so her Dark Phoenix can't be used at all. Fist has her choice of dozens of other ground mounts, who don't have that restriction. It just never occurred to her. Fist pulled her Raven Lord mount out of the stable and is now traveling at mounted 220% speed, instead of the 108% speed she had artificially limited herself to before now. One really can't be any dumber than that.

On the positive side, Fist has settled into Grookin Village, a Hozen town of almost acceptable size for Fist to hang out in permanently. It has an inn, a mailbox, and a flight master that connects to Honeydew Village, which has a portal to Org. Now, if only she is given time to make further progress.