bluescreen on start since this week - please help

[kuertee]

Am wondering if someone can inspect my DXDIAG and crash dump file.
https://gofile.io/?c=BV1Ox7

I've been playing X4 since release with no problems - until this week.

The game used to work from both the Steam and Nvidia Geforce Experience launchers - with Steam's in-game overlays and Nvidia's FPS counter overlay.
Since the start of this week, I've only managed to launch the game once or twice - during my troubleshooting process.

I've tried most (if not all) of the appropriate troubleshooting tips: e.g. deleting user files: config.xml, pipelinecahce.bin; turning the in-game overlays on/off; disabling secondary audio drivers, updating geforce drivers; reverting back geforce drivers; checking vulkaninfo; launching from Steam; launching from Gefroce Experience; launching from the file system; etc.
None of them have worked.

The game now crashes Windows to the blue screen.

I've exported DXDiag and attached it along with the most recent crash dump in the link above.
Some help would be appreciated.

Thanks.

EDIT: Some more info:
There was a Windows updated this week. But that occurs as per normal. And I have since rolled that back.
All my drivers are also up to date.

[Alan Phipps]

BSODs are almost always system hardware, OS or device driver issues. The game code itself cannot cause them unless corrupted - which should be detected and remedied by a gamefiles cache verification. BSODs also have a message on the blue screen itself which could be useful in detecting the problem, did you see what it was? (There is more advice on this here.)

Unfortunately, my virus checker lists gofile.io as a dangerous site and blocks it so I cannot check your DxDiag. Do you have any other more common upload locations?

[alexalsp]

Unfortunately, my virus checker lists gofile.io as a dangerous site and blocks it so I cannot check your DxDiag. Do you have any other more common upload locations?

https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1aeEp6Dz ... t=download

[Alan Phipps]

Thanks. You have had two different types of bluescreen issues repeated over different periods according to your DxDiag Windows Error Reports.

Recently - BlueScreen P1: 9f P2: 3 - Possibly associated with a Nvidia driver issue but not for certain.
Earlier - BlueScreen P1: 133 P2: 1 - DPC_Watchdog_Violation, usually encountered randomly after a Windows 10 update that did not clean up properly.

I cannot know if the second type disappeared and the first only appeared after you rolled back the OS update, sorry. It may be worth trying the latest Win10 update again.
I would also recommend running sfc /scannow after any further changes.
If nothing above helps then try a clean uninstall and reinstall of your graphics driver.

[kuertee]

https://drive.google.com/uc?id=1aeEp6Dz ... t=download

Thank you so much.

...
Recently - BlueScreen P1: 9f P2: 3 - Possibly associated with a Nvidia driver issue but not for certain.
Earlier - BlueScreen P1: 133 P2: 1 - DPC_Watchdog_Violation, usually encountered randomly after a Windows 10 update that did not clean up properly.
...

Yes, my game files passed verification.
And I did perform the SATA AHCI fix for the DPC_Watchdog_Violation: https://www.drivereasy.com/knowledge/dp ... -10-fixed/
My drivers for my video cards and audio cards are current (as far as I can tell) - even after I rolled back that Windows update I described above.

I'll try the Windows Update again and re-do the "IDE ATA/ATAPI" fix for the DPC_Watchdog_Violation problem.

Funny thing is that I've managed to "play" other games to test the system since the problems with X4 Foundations started. E.g. Prey, Subnautica, Doom 2016, City Skylines, Endless Space 2, etc.

Thanks again for looking at the DXDiag.

Does the crash dump identify at which point (e.g. maybe trying to initialise a driver) the game crashes? I've noticed that the "pipelinecache.bin" has not been created - but the "config.xml" has.
Note that when the two times the game started, the "pipelinecache.bin" file did get created.

[Imperial Good]

The game code itself cannot cause them unless corrupted - which should be detected and remedied by a gamefiles cache verification.

The game code should be unable to cause them at all. That is the point of running something as an application inside the OS. If the application does something stupid only the application should crash. A blue screen crash is when the OS crashes which should not be possible for an application to do. Of course assuming no driver or kernel bugs which an application can exploit to induce an OS crash.

@kuertee
Start by clean installing your graphic drivers. This involves uninstalling them and then using a third party graphic driver removal tool to remove all traces of the graphic driver from the OS. Then clean install the latest supported stable driver version.

If X4 still causes a BSoD then you will want to run hardware stress tests to make sure your hardware is still functioning correctly. For GPUs you want to use Furmark and for CPUs something like Prime95 (both with and without AVX if supported). Correctly functioning hardware should be able to run both tests for 5-15 minutes without crashing or showing errors. Each test must be run separately, since a CPU stress test bottlenecks the CPU and so will prevent the GPU stress test from fully stressing the GPU hardware. Be aware that these tests will make your GPU and CPU run extremely hot, much hotter than in normal operation, but this is completely safe on correctly installed modern hardware thanks to tJuncction, power and current limits.

[kuertee]

i reinstalled the new windows update. My previous version was only one version behind.
Reinstalled the nvidia drivers via geforce experience and their "clean install" flag.
Performed a "dsim" then "sfc /scannow" twice. first time it fixed a couple of things (nothing specific to any the video or sound cards). the second time found no errors.
Played Prey for about an hour or two. Played Doom 2016 for about half an hour.
Started X4.
Blue screen but this time with Power State Failure. But I think its caused by whatever is happening with X4 preventing Windows from going into sleep mode.

...Start by clean installing your graphic drivers. This involves uninstalling them and then using a third party graphic driver removal tool to remove all traces of the graphic driver from the OS. Then clean install the latest supported stable driver version...If X4 still causes a BSoD then you will want to run hardware stress tests to make sure your hardware is still functioning correctly...

I'll do a 3rd-party clean uninstall of my video drivers. Then I'll reinstall the current drivers.
Then I'll run Furmark.
Then I'll run the Prime tests. The Prime tests seems excessive, but It may find something.
Will let you know how it goes.
Thanks, Imperial Good.

Just to re-iterate, I think something did get installed in my system that X4 doesn't like. All the other games I've used for play-testing works.
And X4 was working fine before this week - via Geforce Experience and Steam, and with both their overlays active.

EDIT: Just completed now, a "dism" and "sfc" found now corrupted system files.

[kuertee]

I've let Furmark run for 30min. Max temp was 84 deg.
It was high, but not abnormal - considering this is gaming laptop.
No unusual artefacts on screen. And no crashes.

Prime95 stress test ran for 20min. No errors.
Log here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/14at ... sp=sharing

I'm just waiting for my Nvidia installation drivers to re-download.
Previous installation was via GeForce Experience.
And I want to install it from Safe Mode - after using Display Driver Uninstaller.

I'll re-run the tests after that and update this thread.

[timon37]

It's not entirely certain but looking at the .dmp the crash seems to be inside the nvidia driver/software (NvCamera64.dll).
My main guesstimate is that it's related to Ansel/Highlight or some other similar feature, and/or their interaction with the steam-overlay.

Can you try again disabling all of these/such features all at once? It might be that there are multiple overlapping issues.

Also you mentioned that you did get it to run a few times? Sounds like a heisenbug, so when you change stuff maybe try launching the game a few times to see if the odds change.

[kuertee]

An update of things:
1. Reinstalled video drives cleanly: i.e. uninstall with DDU then re-install - both from Safe Mode.
2. Furmark passed again: http://www.ozone3d.net/gpudb/score.php?which=778216
3. Prime 95 passed again, but this time I let it run for another 10 minutes for a running total of 30 minutes: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jDb ... sp=sharing
4. Played Witcher 3 for about an hour with no problems.
5. Tried X4 again. BSOD.
6. Played Pillars of Eternity for about an hour with no problems.
7. Tried X4 again. BSOD.
8. On a hunch, disconnected my Wifi. X4 worked! Played for about an hour. Exited and saved successfully.
9. Tried with Wifi. BSOD.
10. Tried without Wifi. It worked. Played for about an hour. Tried to save. BSOD.
11. Tried different combinations of Wifi, DDU, re-install, GeForce Experience, Ansel on/off (after reading your post, timon37. thanks.), in-game overlays on/off, enable/disable sleep on HD, Steam cloud enabled/disabled, etc: It worked once. Played for about an hour. Tried a quick save. BSOD.
12. Got it working again. Tried using uncompressed saves. BSOD on save.
13. Several failed starts again. Deleted last save files. Then it worked. Re-enabled compressed saved files. Played for an hour. Quick save. BSOD.
14. Weird that crash dumps have not been created. The last crash dump was at 8pm and I've had several crashes, especially those during a save, after that time.


Something's definitely not right somewhere.
The other games I've played since this happened with X4 seem to work. Some I've played properly, some I've started then quit, some I've started, played for a bit then quit.
Heisenbug in X4, definitely.

I might as well try this now: uninstalling re-downloading/re-installing the whole game - even if my local files are verified.

A note, in case it matters, my Steam apps is in my 2ndary drive - a HD. Of course, my data files are in Documents, which is in my primary drive - an SSD.

[Imperial Good]

What is the TBW (Terabytes Written) of your SSD? One can see this under S.M.A.R.T. status. Your symptoms could represent a failing SSD. After a SSD reaches a high TBW it starts to lose the ability to persistently hold data. This is why all SSDs come (should come...) with a reliable TBW measurement, which is covered by the manufacturer warrantee.

For example your WDC WDS240G2G0B-00EPW0 holding your C drive is a Western Digital Green M.2 SATA SSD and it has an undisclosed TBW. This means it is a very cheap drive that is likely to fail under high TBW as the manufacturer does not offer any guaranteed TBW coverage.

Since WD was kind enough to not throw around any ballpark number for a safe TBW for the drive I am going to guess based on a fraction of a similar Samsung SSD. A 256 GB Samsung SATA SSD has a TBW of 150. Since the WD drive has a MTBF (mean time between failure) of 2/3 of the Samsung I would say that it is rated at about 100 TBW, after which the drive should be replaced ASAP as it will no longer be reliable. That said it could use some really cheap flash modules and start to fail after 50 TBW for all one can guess.

For normal loads one should go through around 5TBW or so per year, but write amplification will increase this as a drive ages.

[kuertee]

Thanks for the info, Imperial Good. I didn't know anything about SMART.
And my drives look good: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uH46wz ... sp=sharing
And windows report "ok" to both my drives with "wmic diskdrive get status".

[kuertee]

I managed to play X4 twice (without the saves operations crashing) for about an hour each after a complete reinstallation of the game.
And that's after a Witcher 3 and a Stellaris game session of about an hour each.

After dinner, X4 refused to start with/without GeForce Experience, Ansell on/off, in-game overlays on/off, etc.
And no crash files were created.


X4 is basically the only game I cannot play.
It's baffling because I never had this problem before this week. It was quite reliable.
Have sunk in 80hrs into it.

Anyway, thanks all for your help.
I'll put this one into the "too-random/hard" basket.

[Alan Phipps]

If my memory serves me right, a refusal to start the game usually comes back to one or more of the .dll files (the version(s) expected by the game not found) in the graphics driver and/or its Vulkan components. This wiki entry might have some further helpful information.

[kuertee]

I managed to play again. But it cashed to Blue Screen on auto-save. Fortunately, the save file isn't corrupt. I checked it's archive.

If my memory serves me right, a refusal to start the game usually comes back to one or more of the .dll files (the version(s) expected by the game not found) in the graphics driver and/or its Vulkan components. This wiki entry might have some further helpful information.

Thanks, Alan.
I just had a quick look at those troubleshooting tips.
I don't get the pop-ups nor crash re-directs. The game simply crashes to blue screen after a time of inactivity by the game.

The video drivers are up-to-date as far as I can tell. DDU then re-install of drivers both while on safe mode.
And the problems are inconsistent.
Sometimes the game starts and I can play. Sometimes I can save a game. Sometimes it exits cleanly.
And Sometimes none of those.

[Vertigo 7]

have you run a memtest on your machine lately? https://www.memtest86.com/download.htm

if you're not familiar, this nifty little jobbie helps suss out hardware problems. it'll guide you through creating a bootable flash drive and it'll beat your RAM up to detect problems with it. In my experiences, random things like what you're experiencing could be a symptom of some failing RAM or possibly even a PSU problem, though memtest won't show you issues with the PSU, you'll need to buy a PSU testing kit for that. Anywho, may be worth checking out. boot off the flash drive, start the test and go to bed. it will take quite some time to fully run.

[kuertee]

Thanks, Vertigo.

I performed the Windows Memory Diganostic instead - even if I have read that memtest is better, as you suggested.
Windows Memory Diagnostic didn't find anything wrong with my memory - which is as I expected because I've had no problems with other games.
But memtest may find a problem - but I'll leave using memtest until X4 crashes again.

Yes, I got X4 to work again today.
Have played it without it crashing to BSOD.
I got it to work by reverting back my video card drivers to their OEM versions - about 6 months old.

Using bluescreenview (https://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html), I found that the problem was indeed the most recent video card drivers.
For some reason, my laptop has some incompatibility with Nvidia's most recent drivers. It could be the card, the motherboard, the RAM, etc.

Anyway, I'll try newer versions (but not the most recent version) of the driver in the coming days.
I do keep my laptop clean and up-to-date.
It's unfortunate that I can't use the most recent drivers.

[Alan Phipps]

The fact that it *needs* OEM drivers might lead one to suspect that the laptop makers have made some changes to the stock video card to make it work with their case, motherboard, interfaces, power supply and/or display. Hence the card itself has probably become OEM.

[kuertee]

Yeah, likely.

But I keep my laptop system clean and up-to-date.
It's only ever, at most, a month behind the most recent versions of the drivers.
And I only experienced BSOD and only with X4 after I updated to the most recent version of the Nvidia driver.

I have a feeling the new Nvidia drivers have a problem "waking up" my video card.
Crashes occurred after the video card goes black at initialisation of the game - but not immediately.
I can hear the game loading the files.
If the Egosoft logo doesn't play, I'll let the game hang. After about 5 minutes, I'll get the BSOD.
When I did get the game to play, the BSOD occurred during game save or load operations.

Remember: I threw most of my current games at the laptop: Prey, Witcher 3, Doom 2016, Stellaris, Endless Space 2, etc.
It's only X4 that BSOD.
I'm not saying that X4 is built poorly. I'm just stating that in my system, only X4 caused BSOD.