Sometimes (but rarely) reading this website can be useful.
Now, through the Technical Support forums, I found a few useful tools to keep care of your beloved World of Warcraft client. If you want to check its health or if you keep crashing every five minutes you should investigate to find out if the files are currupted and need a fix.
The Step #1 can be bypassed but it provides more information. If you aren’t a geek or not directly interested in the process you can bypass this and go directly to Step #2.
Step #1
You need to download this program and install it. Then click on Start > Run and type in CMD then click Ok. When the command prompt opens you have to navigate right into the directory where you installed the client and into the “/data” one, where there are all the big .mpq files.
Here you type -> fsum file.mpq
Replacing “file” with the name of the file you want to check. After a few seconds the program will show a long string that corresponds to the MD5 of that file. Below you can see the correct MD5. If you obtain a different value you probably have a corrupted archive.
83EF5759BA2B610FB1E484BFFA563C8D *base.MPQ
6573BBD7F29C68724CC00AEEFD1DAA0D *dbc.MPQ
3E0390C70EC88EF961562CBB4D33046B *fonts.MPQ
6054AF22A2314D0FCA8DD0A3CC087F89 *interface.MPQ
144638046316A506160485F562D5240A *misc.MPQ
81DFD7FF9AD6D1CA7BF9A065480FD6B7 *model.MPQ
4405E85224816854DD4171F8D98E82C8 *sound.MPQ
043CA457DD4EF4194E04678E5F448A8F *speech.MPQ
CA2064C4272A726CECDB75B426F437A5 *terrain.MPQ
BC92D7E0E3258DA459F3310782B9D1B1 *texture.MPQ
118FD5BF991C01E147564CD7DF31FA07 *wmo.MPQ
Important note (updated 21-Jun-2006): The “patch.mpq” file is also extremely important but the MD5 value varies depending on the order of the patches you applied. To be completely sure of your installation you can use the patches that I mirrored on this website and that you can download from here (you have to log-in to download the files).
First you install the game directly from the CD or DVD. Then, before applying any patch, you check the MD5 of all the files in the “data” directory as explained above (and the installer). This will make sure that you have a default installation without glitches. Then you apply the patches that I linked here above, one by one in progression. Following the istructions.
If you follow the same precise order you can check directly if even the patch.mpq is built properly. The correct MD5 will be (for each step):
107F0940436D60620CB4BE80FE368B3B *patch.MPQ for 1.3.0 (4284)
57C95DD7FA4598E066E4E93A99EBC93C *patch.MPQ for 1.3.1 (4297)
AE1855400C6CA896583084BFDAE72CC4 *patch.MPQ for 1.4.0 (4341)
F00B3BEE162FC08CB19F0F95BABBECB5 *patch.MPQ for 1.4.1 (4364)
73590215A367FC323CB46694DF9B2B63 *patch.MPQ for 1.4.2 (4375)
26EC389F878B2B1CC66097B549397A6B *patch.MPQ for 1.5.0 (4442)
8B037930D04F5BD893D25E84DDA21B03 *patch.MPQ for 1.6.0 (4500)
6A270335F697F60BD67727C358E97E87 *patch.MPQ for 1.7.0 (4671)
DB77DC80B24DABAEB473B71BBF23388E *patch.MPQ for 1.8.0 (4735)
432F7CABC15E6E5A36DB14C22C8A5346 *patch.MPQ for 1.8.3 (4807)
39EA2AC284616B06F5B0CA4CDEB7127A *patch.MPQ for 1.9.0 (4937)
(from this point the file to check isn’t anymore “patch.MPQ” but “patch-2.MPQ”)
604455FCDA91DFA332E505E3B7346051 *patch-2.MPQ for 1.9.3 (5059)
5117ACEAB1D26E822468741B6CD832C7 *patch-2.MPQ for 1.9.4 (5086)
(back to only “patch.MPQ”)
E50107CB0FD1E83C48C94647294D7D33 *patch.MPQ for 1.10.0 (5195)
(back to “patch-2.MPQ”)
520AD02DC7A432B25907B72D095B341B *patch-2.MPQ for 1.10.1 (5230)
2E2DB66128B245EA7D3D1B52E8E6690F *patch-2.MPQ for 1.10.2 (5302)
Remember that if you do not follow the exact same patch order the MD5 may be different.
Correct order: Release CD -> 1.3.0 (4284) -> 1.3.1 (4297) -> 1.4.0 (4341) -> 1.4.1 (4364) -> 1.4.2 (4375) -> 1.5.0 (4442) -> 1.5.1 (4449) -> 1.6.0 (4500) -> 1.6.1 (4544) -> 1.7.0 (4671) -> 1.7.1 (4695) -> 1.8.0 (4735) -> 1.8.1 (4769) -> 1.8.3 (4807) -> 1.8.4 (4878) -> 1.9.0 (4937) -> 1.9.1 (4983) -> 1.9.2 (4996) -> 1.9.3 (5059) -> 1.9.4 (5086) -> 1.10.0 (5195) -> 1.10.1 (5230) -> 1.10.2 (5302)
Step #2
This step is the most important one and probably the only you want to follow even if you believe the client is alright. An health check is always useful. This time the program you need can be found directly from Blizzard, here (the program is replaced with a new version shortly after each patch and will warn you if you are using it on a wrong version anyway).
Remember to close the client of the game, then launch the .exe that is contained in the archive. The program will check throughout all the files of the game to see if everything is at the right place, in a similar way to the manual process I explained above. The nifty feature is that it will also auto repair the files if something isn’t correct, downloading the small part that went corrupt directly from Blizzard and WITHOUT BITTORRENT!
Again I recommend everyone playing the game to download this small program and check if the client is in an optimal shape. If you keep crashing after this it means that the problem is somewhere else (unstable hardware, obsolete drivers and so on…).
That said, I go back at exterminating centaurs in order to gain a faction level and enable a quest…
(this message will be linked on the World of Warcraft repository page that is easily accessible from the sidebar)