WoW freezes at startup

Kaeton,

What security programs do you have installed?

Can you post some information about your computer? You can find this information in the Direct X Diagnostic Tool:

Click on Start
Click on Run
Type in: dxdiag (In Vista, type dxdiag in the search field)
Hit Enter or OK

Click on the Save All Information button at the bottom, and create a dxdiag text file, and copy and paste the dxdiag file (down to the "DirectX Components" section for XP, down to the "DirectShow Filters" section for Vista) into your reply.

Kaeton,

Lets try running the game in windowed mode to see if that helps.

- 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 '-windowedl' after the last quotation mark
Example: "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Launcher.exe" -windowed
- Click OK
- Try the game now with the icon you just modified.

Kaeton,

Another program may be interfering. Try selective startup to get around this. Please be aware this mode will disable any security programs you may have running so refrain from doing other things while in this mode.

Hold the Windows key on your keyboard and press the letter 'R'. In the Run field type "msconfig" and hit Enter.
In the General tab:

1. Choose Selective Startup
2. Disable (uncheck) Load startup items
3. Click OK and Reboot

To undo selective startup, just recheck Load startup items.

Kaeton,

Try to set WoW to run in OpenGL mode. This mode uses a different method to display graphics which tests the Direct3D on the system. Command line options appended to the desktop shortcut will not take effect unless "Show Launcher" is enabled at the login screen. This will put WoW in an unsupported state as WoW does require Direct3D; however for testing purposes it is a valuable step.

- 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' after the last quotation mark
Example: "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft\Launcher.exe" -opengl
- Click OK
- Try the game now with the icon you just modified.

Kaeton,

Viruses have been known to cause this in the past.

Update your security software and scan your computer. If you don't have an antivirus program, you can use the following:

Malwarebytes to scan the computer:

http://www.malwarebytes.org/

Avast Free as an antivirus:

http://www.avast.com/free-antivirus-download

ComboFix also removes malware and spyware (Not for Vista or Windows 7):

http://download.bleepingcomputer.com/sUBs/ComboFix.exe

When running the scans make sure to have the WoW login screen up, and type some gibberish in the username and password fields.

Also, make sure your system is up to date and that you have the latest operating system updates and service packs.

Kaeton,

The sound driver that you have installed is about 7 years old.

Try running the game without sound to see if that has anything to do with the freezing. 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 '-nosound' after the last quotation mark
Example: "C:\Program Files\World of Warcraft.exe" -nosound
- Click OK
- Try the game now with the icon you just modified.