[v6.00 BETA 6] Out of memory error then crash to desktop - Firefox issue

[waadaa85]

Hi,

Here is a fresh dmp file of a bug that occurred rather randomly (at the beginning or after 2h to several hours of play, but the issue comes on a daily basis. March 15th has been the worst day with 3 crashes.

The game simply crash to desktop, with a popup saying "out of memory error". (no screenshot of that... sorry. I'll take it next time).

Windows 10 Enterprise edition, Intel i7 i7-6800K, 3.4Ghz, 32 Gb of RAM, AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT. X4 is on its own dedicated 1Tb SSD drive. see dxdiag for details.

dmp file link to dropbox: https://www.dropbox.com/s/k3ayx6ron8scw ... 3.dmp?dl=0
latest game save :https://www.dropbox.com/s/v1qv2vlbouah1 ... ml.gz?dl=0
dxdiag report: https://www.dropbox.com/s/1ghbnrvwylesr ... 0.txt?dl=0

I'm playing with Windows defender disabled, along with WUS and couple of other "game-averse" Windows services that are also disabled.

Thanks again for your work and dedication!

[CBJ]

I'm not sure what Enterprise Edition versions of Windows do in terms of limiting resources, but I wouldn't generally recommend it for gaming.

The Windows version notwithstanding, your sound drivers are from 2016, and your DXDiag suggests there have been several crashes in AUDIODG.EXE and Microsoft Corporation.AudioPlaybackDiagnostic.4.5. I'm not sure how those could be consuming memory, but it does suggest that your sound setup needs a bit of cleaning up. Some of the other crashes in there also suggest system issues that could be contributing factors.

I know you said you've disabled Windows Defender, but please also check that to make sure it's still the case, and that the game folders are excluded from any live scanning. The last OOM error I diagnosed here turned out to be a Windows service related to this gradually eating all the available memory!

And finally, you didn't state whether or not your game is modified. If it's modified then a mod that is not yet compatible with 6.00 could easily result in the game itself eating up that memory.

[Scoob]

There was a bug in Windows 10 that manifested its self last year for myself and others. Basically, for whatever reason, Windows started failing to free up Standby RAM. This has two side effects. The first was greater page file usage, causing performance to tank. The second was "Out of Memory" errors if the page file got full. For the Windows 10 Pro version I use, this issues was later fixed in a Windows update.

Until Microsoft fixed the issue with an update, I used a tool called "RAM Map" which had an option to free up Standby memory.

To break down what what happening, here's what I could clearly observe while testing to identify the route cause of my issues:

I might launch a game like Skyrim for example, which is heavily modified so can potentially use a lot of RAM. During play, I'd see Skyrim game assets kept in Standby RAM in case they were needed again. This is GOOD as it keeps performance high. After I'd finished playing, previously (and now, as the bug appears fixed) you'd see any Skyrim assets quickly be purged from Standby RAM as other tasks needed memory - say I was playing X4 after a Skyrim session for example.

What was happening when this Windows bug was present though was that the Skyrim data in Standby RAM wasn't being cleared out at all. It stuck around, leaving little free RAM available for whatever I was running next. This led to poor performance and out of memory errors - the latter more often as I run a minimal page file.

To work around this, once I'd identified the issue, I'd boot up the PC and play a game as normal. However, once I was done, and before I did anything else (usually another game) I'd launch RAM Map and ask it to PURGE Standby RAM. Once done, the next title I ran would have full access to the available memory, without it incorrectly still being allocated to the prior title.

Note: various tools show exactly what's being held in Standby Memory, so it was clear to see that the data held there should have been automatically purged before the page file was hit and certain before windows "ran out" of RAM.

This may not be the case in your specific example, but there is a chance that you're suffering from this bug. I experienced it in X4, Skyrim, Fallout 4 and other titles but only when I played two or more games during a gaming session, with the second game played being the one manifesting the issues. Initially, for me, a restart "fixed" things, but that simply cleared the RAM of course.

Not had this issue since.

[Kackstift]

The same thing has happened to me twice since beta 6. I have my paging file at the recommended setting, but the crash happened again. Last time I had Chrome on at the same time and it showed me a similar error description and solution as egosoft. Something has changed with beta6 that it occurs.

If you need a savegame or a screenshot of my windows settings say so. Btw.. win 11, version 22H2

[Kackstift]

/edit:
dumbfile 1
dumbfile 2
dxdiag

[waadaa85]

Hi CBJ,
thanks for your follow-up.

I confirm:

• The game is not modified. I'm a vanilla-type of player.

• Just double-checked and Windows defender ("virus & threats protection") and it is still definitely "off" along with all its sub-options (ie. cloud delivery, auto sample submission & tamper-protection)

• Also I double-checked for the exclusion list, and the whole Egosoft tree in "my Documents" is indeed excluded, same as for the whole dedicated "SteamLibrary" that holds X4 installation

• regarding the sound drivers, yeah I agree it may looks a bit messy... but I plays X4 with a simple pair of small speakers that use the basic realtek drivers that came with the motherboard that would explain the "2016" (thanks for the tip though, I'll do some housekeping but I doubt it have anything to do with the crash

For the Enterprise Edition, imho it is much better than pro edition, as it gives you definitely more control over the OS. I'm able to tune down/turn off many services, and even uninstall stuff that otherwise would be sticking in the background and eating up resources.

I forgot to mention that those crashes usually happen when I'm giving a long series of repetitive tasks to trader ships. The threshold seems to be between 12-15+ "ware exchanges" in the right-handed drop menu (labelled with an " i "). By giving many time the same order to a ship, like: Take a full load of "refined metals" from Station XYZ and deliver it to my HQ (currently in Scale Plate 1 in my saved game). If I give over 15 orders, I'm almost certain to have a crash soon IF I don't save my game right away! Saving seems to flush some variables and arrays, and you're in the clear for a while. You can peruse the saved game provided and have a look to those Okinawas and Incarcatuas inbound for my HQ.

It works with 10 entries on the list (no crash). I checked if the threshold was such a defined number, but no. And I took the habit to "full save" each 15-20 minutes (not autosave, not quick save)

I have a series of 3 dmp files taken on March 15th where I experienced 3 crashes between around 17:30 to 21:00 while I was experimenting with such long tasking orders to several ships. If interested I'll upload them to my dropbox.

Cheers,

PS: Thanks Scoop and Kackstift for the reply. I'll have a look over the memory management side of it.

[waadaa85]

Continuing troubleshooting that crash phenomenon with WPA active in background recording while playing. Will see what will get out of it.

[Halpog]

I'm not sure what Enterprise Edition versions of Windows do in terms of limiting resources, but I wouldn't generally recommend it for gaming.

The Windows version notwithstanding, your sound drivers are from 2016, and your DXDiag suggests there have been several crashes in AUDIODG.EXE and Microsoft Corporation.AudioPlaybackDiagnostic.4.5. I'm not sure how those could be consuming memory, but it does suggest that your sound setup needs a bit of cleaning up. Some of the other crashes in there also suggest system issues that could be contributing factors.

I know you said you've disabled Windows Defender, but please also check that to make sure it's still the case, and that the game folders are excluded from any live scanning. The last OOM error I diagnosed here turned out to be a Windows service related to this gradually eating all the available memory!

And finally, you didn't state whether or not your game is modified. If it's modified then a mod that is not yet compatible with 6.00 could easily result in the game itself eating up that memory.

there is a massive problem with sound drivers and win10

u can try for yourself.
windows 10 is using a standard driver from microsoft that puts the sound in an awefull position.the sound is like u put your hands and a blanket on your ears and than listen to musik.
it also for 90% dosent activate any kind of sound improvements like, subwoofer, equalizer and stuff like that ...
this is based on the onboard sound drivers for the AC97 chip wich is actually a damn old chip from realtek. it also dont load the realtek audio manager anymore

everyone who has a realtek on board sound chip needs to use an old driver from 2016 to be able to load and use the hd audio manager.
drivers after 2016 exclude the audio manager and it is only availible as an APP for windows after that time.but the APP is still not compatible with the propper chip on board.
i had for months trouble till i found the correct sound driver that actually let me use the audio manager and activate all sound improvements in the sound settings for my onboard chip.
so i can actually have a propper sound that dosend sound like u have hands and a blanket on your ears.
thats a common problem that also get messed up with the fact that gforce cards uses an HD audio driver .

when u can get me a freeware tool to record sounds i can send u an example so u better understand what i mean .

the only thing i can tell u is that when ppl have an AC 97 chip on board they all use an old driver that includes the hd audio manager.

[Halpog]

• regarding the sound drivers, yeah I agree it may looks a bit messy... but I plays X4 with a simple pair of small speakers that use the basic realtek drivers that came with the motherboard that would explain the "2016" (thanks for the tip though, I'll do some housekeping but I doubt it have anything to do with the crash

plz, before u mess up your sound drivers for the realtek on board chip. check if your HD audio manager is running. IF NOT . u need to find first the propper driver for your chip that includes the HD audio manager. and need to try to run it . it dosent matter if the driver is from 2016 or 2008 or 1990 ....u need to find a driver with the hd audio manager !!!
if u found him try to run this driver and check if your sound is damened, or if it sounds like u have cotton in your ears....
IF your onboard driver already has the HD audio manager in it, it gets installed and is ruinning with that driver, u can freely try arround with other drivers , never ones, but be advised the newer ones dosent have the hd audio manager included anymore, its an APP u can get only through the APP store of win and this version is not propperly running or get loaded. also your win will always overite your sound drivers on any update ( u need to disable driver installations for your win version at updates )

if u got mem trouble or crashes try using a programm called intelligent standby list cleaner. and just run it in the background and check if it helps.
what was helping me with the mem crashes was to set the ram prfile in my BIOS from automatic to an XMP profile ...depending wich one u have 1 or 2 should be ok .

and one question for u , did this mem crash appear while u used firefox ?

[Alan Phipps]

@ Halpog: I don't know why you would think that. I use this Realtek driver with my Win10 Home x64 and it is fine, and it has the Realtek Control Panel and Manager:

Driver Version: 6.3.9600.2307 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 10/11/2021 00:00:00, 473696 bytes
Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

[waadaa85]

Hi guys,

I looked more closely at the sound drivers from a dxdiag perspective and from the "Computer Management" under "Administrative tools" in Control Panel. see screenshots below

dxdiag sound dialog screenshot

Computer Mnmgt dialog screenshot

snd-driver2.png (14.15 KiB) Viewed 291 times

I'm not using any app from Microsoft Store. Which is btw disabled by default though an enterprise GPO, (like Windows Defender and Security Centre discussed earlier in this thread). So I'm pretty sure its the realtek driver that is active and used by X4. I checked in X4 Sounds settings and it shows only two (2) options for "sound device" : "default" and "realtek HD sound driver".

@Halpog: I confirm I'm using the "good ol' " Realtek HD Audio Manager (see screenshot below). Albeit its age, It is loading flawlessly at startup and working as intended. No need to get through the App store and have another "memory hugger" parked and idling like they are doing with phone Apps ... Awful commercial habit ...

Realtek HD audio Manager

snd-driver3.png (23.88 KiB) Viewed 291 times

@CBJ: I definitely understand your point. When I need total immersive surround sound (like with Arma3 and Arma Reforger), I use my steelseries Artis 7X headset and enable the whole shebang. Although, for X4, I turned down most of the volumes settings and ambient effects, so it is less of a concern to me the benefit gained from using a HD sound driver (realtek or AMD) and the enhancements features that are coming with it.

For good measure, last evening, I ran both ccleaner and Ace Utilities to get rid of potential old sound drivers. Although, when I installed my new RX 6900 XT graphic card (my XMas gift) I had to run the DDU utility to clean my previous NVidia card driver and switch to my new AMD one. With DDU, you have the option to clean sound drivers as well, which I did.

As such, nothing seems to be wrong with the config. Though, it is indeed an annoying fact that AMD Adrenaline software tried to supersede the realtek HD driver during its installation but, unfortunately, from what I can see in the Adrenaline installation menu, there is no visible way to block the AMD audio driver to install itself along the graphic drivers.

(FYI: Adrenaline is currently installed with "Minimal installation" profile).
In December while installing my new AMD Card, I tried the "graphic drivers only" installation profile, to specifically get rid of the AMD sound drivers, but later I had to revert to the minimal installation, in order to get access to some AMD graphic options through Adrenaline app... While taking the previous snapshots, I remember very well to have disabled AMD HD Driver in component management menu, and from what I can see, it re-enabled itself, God knows how...

I will run a play session (while running WPA) to see if the AMD HD Driver is getting loaded in memory along with the Realtek one and if they are interfering with each other's in such a way they could cause a CTD. It could be a probable cause for it. We'll see.

Cheers and thanks again for your help and support, it is really appreciated.

[waadaa85]

@Halpog,
Sorry I missed your very last question regarding Firefox, and yes it is usually running in background while I'm playing X4. I'll add that process too along with AMD HD Driver and realtek, to WPA watch list

Cheers,

[Halpog]

@ Halpog: I don't know why you would think that. I use this Realtek driver with my Win10 Home x64 and it is fine, and it has the Realtek Control Panel and Manager:

Driver Version: 6.3.9600.2307 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 10/11/2021 00:00:00, 473696 bytes
Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

i dont think that, i know that, i had the trouble for months.. untill i figured it out ....
ac97 is not ac97 belive me
my board : https://www.gigabyte.com/de/Motherboard ... v-1x/sp#sp

here https://www.realtek.com/en/component/zo ... s-software
here i found the only working driver for my onboard sound chip .... all other drivers i tryed did not work

this is running atm and works absolutly fine :
Driver Name: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.0.1.7512 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
Date and Size: 15.05.2015 01:00:00, 4464344 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.

everytime i install another driver or an updatet driver. the sound enchantments are disabled.. no subwoofer, no equilizer, sound is dampened and like u got tons of cotton in your ears ....
i tryed it for months wich driver is working and fine including hd audio manager ....the APP hd audio manager from the APP store , btw is NOT 100% the same realtek was providing with there drivers till 2016
just google it ^^ its full of this stuff

[Halpog]

@Halpog,
Sorry I missed your very last question regarding Firefox, and yes it is usually running in background while I'm playing X4. I'll add that process too along with AMD HD Driver and realtek, to WPA watch list

Cheers,

i got the crashes too when running firefox while playing X4.. mostly after i was watching a series on netflix or just surfed arround ....
then all of a sudden x4 crashes with the missing memory and space error, firefox is crashed, and adblockers in firefox arent working anymore too than ( waht is kinda extremly strange ) .....
without firefox the game is fine. so i cant say for sure if the problem is definatly at the side of firefox or x4 .. because at every other game i can run firefox for days without a problem.

[CBJ]

This is the public beta feedback forum, not a place for discussing driver versions and features. Please stay on topic, as per the forum rules.

[waadaa85]

Hi, a quick update on this issue.

It seems Halpog was right, the source was most likely Firefox running in the background. For those who are playing while keeping the browser open, latest update from Firefox (v111.0.1 (64-bit) ) appears to resolve this issue.

thanks all for your collaboration
Cheers,

[CBJ]

Thanks for getting back to us with the solution so that we can pass it on to others.