1.21 FREEZE with black screen after 1.21 update - Appears resolved in 1.31/1.32

[wizaerd]

I was playing just fine until the 1.21 patch, and now after doing nothing in the game (new Game, the first one, don't remember the exact name...), but standing there for 5 minutes, it crashes. It doesn't quite crash to desktop, it kills my video so I can't see anything. Ctrl+Alt+Del doesn't seem to do anything, I have to actually kill the power. I looked for a dump file, but couldn't find anything.

I have tried verifying the files (via Steam), I have uninstalled and re-installed 3 times. Nothing seems to work.

Windows 10 Home Edition
32 GIGS RAM
NVidia GeoForce RTX 2080

Since the full DxDiag it too much to include as a message, here is a link to it.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5zgjmnztgda7a ... g.txt?dl=0

For the time, I am completely unable to play. I hope this can be rectified soon, as I was enjoying myself until now.

[Alan Phipps]

Almost all your reported Windows Errors are Desktop Windows Manager (dwm.exe) failures. That may suggest that your system is struggling to maintain the cascade of windows needed. Without dump files, the devs would be hard-pressed to look into this. You could try changing your game display mode between fullscreen and fullscreen windowed (in whichever direction) to see if that helps at all.

I know this is not your exact situation, but give this workaround from the Known Issues sticky a try too:
Black screen when not in Cockpit
When your screen turns black as soon as you leave the cockpit of your ship, and you cannot move but still hear noises, try the following: Open the main menu, and go to Settings > Controls > Controller/Joystick and change your sensitivity value to be above 0 on both. If that doesn't work go back to the controls and select load profile, then click controller.

Good luck.

[wizaerd]

Almost all your reported Windows Errors are Desktop Windows Manager (dwm.exe) failures. That may suggest that your system is struggling to maintain the cascade of windows needed. Without dump files, the devs would be hard-pressed to look into this. You could try changing your game display mode between fullscreen and fullscreen windowed (in whichever direction) to see if that helps at all.

I know this is not your exact situation, but give this workaround from the Known Issues sticky a try too:
Black screen when not in Cockpit
When your screen turns black as soon as you leave the cockpit of your ship, and you cannot move but still hear noises, try the following: Open the main menu, and go to Settings > Controls > Controller/Joystick and change your sensitivity value to be above 0 on both. If that doesn't work go back to the controls and select load profile, then click controller.

Good luck.

Where do the dump files get created? I didn't have any other windows other than Steam open, and my system doesn't struggle with anything else unless I load this specific game. I've tried a whole slew of games since the crashes, and everything else is working just great. As I said, it was fine before 1.21, and my system hasn't undergone any other changes. What was the only new and changed thing? X4 patch 1.21.

I can't try your suggestion as the graphics adapter shuts off, and I cannot only not see the game, I cannot interact with my system in any other way. I must completely power down via the power button.

[EDIT]
I disabled the Delivery Content Optimization service, and it seems to be better. I haven't played for an extended amount of time yet, but it didn't crash 5 minutes in, made it for 20 minutes before I had to shutdown for different reasons. I will try again later. BTW, it did crash one more time after the service. After saving, if I exited straight to desktop it crashed. But if I exited to the menu, then exited the game, it appeared to be fine.

[EDIT #2]
Spoke too soon, still dies. Hard. Cannot play at all. Tried reducing graphics quality (which kinda sucks since my system exceeds the requirements), same thing.

[wizaerd]

Oddly enough, I was able to play for about an hour, and when I went to shut down the game, the same freeze happened. Black screen, monitor not getting any video signal, computer not responding to keyboard or mouse input, requires a hard boot to get it to shut down. I left it off for about an hour, started it back up and started a new game, and it did the black screen freeze after about 5 minutes in game.

I suppose I'll just not be abler to play this game anymore?

[snowman001]

Hi Wizaerd,

this is very similar to the symptoms i have been experiancing, although i was told others were not having this issue.... and that X4 puts very different stresses on your system than other games

Do you run corsair link ? Alan suggested removing it - which i did . this seems to have stopped the black screen and lockup but the gamee still crashes for me .

I know i this post probably wont resolve your issue - but i supposee its nice to know your not alone

[wizaerd]

Hi Wizaerd,

this is very similar to the symptoms i have been experiancing, although i was told others were not having this issue.... and that X4 puts very different stresses on your system than other games

Do you run corsair link ? Alan suggested removing it - which i did . this seems to have stopped the black screen and lockup but the gamee still crashes for me .

I know i this post probably wont resolve your issue - but i supposee its nice to know your not alone

I don't even know what Corsair Link is... It is good to know there's someone else experiencing this same issue... solidarity

[snowman001]

its monitoring software for corsair liquid coolers /ram ect . but if you dont run it im sorry im out of suggestions.

but +1 on solidarity

1.3 patch notes states it has fixed several rare freezes - ima off to test if this one has been fixed

[wizaerd]

its monitoring software for corsair liquid coolers /ram ect . but if you dont run it im sorry im out of suggestions.

but +1 on solidarity

1.3 patch notes states it has fixed several rare freezes - ima off to test if this one has been fixed

Please let me know how it goes for you...

[snowman001]

Hi

I got around 2 hours of solid play before CTD on this latest patch

My pc did not fully lock up this time though.

[CBJ]

Do you have a crashdump (*.dmp) file in your game folder that you can upload and link for us?

[snowman001]

There are two at the same timestamp so iv added both.

https://1drv.ms/f/s!AjAt9NXQqOPAkGzjGtApohVZGL3g

[wizaerd]

Unfortunately it still crashes for me. The real irritating aspect is I never get a dump file (assuming I'm looking in the right place), and without it I can't really do much of anything support wise.

[CBJ]

assuming I'm looking in the right place

The right place would be the folder where the game is installed, so alongside the X4.exe file that is used to launch the game.

[Alan Phipps]

wizaerd wrote "(assuming I'm looking in the right place)" - Look in (for Steam) : Drive:\Steam\steamapps\common\X4 Foundations The two .dmp files would be right at the bottom of the list in that main folder.

Ninja'd by CBJ (again!)

[wizaerd]

Looked there, no dump files.

[EDIT]
I have a suspicion... For the last couple of days I've been noticing something on my system... From time to time my RealTek HD Audio Manager will "unplug", but then a second or two later will "plugin". During that 1-2 second gap, my video stops and the screen may black out, but then comes right back on. It doesn't black out 100% of the time, for example in X3AP, the screen stutters then looks like it stops or freezes, the audio goes out then comes back on and the video picks back up again. I am not a hardware nut, I don't know anything normally about PCs, I don't build them I buy them. Half of this crap in this machine I have no idea what it is, what it's for, or why it's there. Al I know is this has only recently started, after attempting to play X4. In the first initial release, X4 was fine. Everything else on my system was fine (as I said, it's pretty much brand new, maybe a month and a half to 2 months old). Path 1.21 killed X4 for me, and now I seem to be experiencing other mishaps and issues.

I've ordered a new monitor, one that has speakers so I can just use the HDMI cable from my graphics card to the monitor, and disable the RealTek HD Audio Manager. I'm hoping this will help me figure out why X4 doesn't run anymore on my machine.

[Alan Phipps]

You can disable the Realtek sound device and driver as a test any time you want. Open Device Manager, Sound/Audio Devices and right-click on a device for a pop up menu that lets you enable/disable device and driver at will. Of course you will lose Realtek sound but you can use USB headphones, HDMI sound or just subtitles for the trial period.

[wizaerd]

Unfortunately, it made no difference. And still no dump file.

[snowman001]

I would just like to provide an update and confirm my CTD's have been resolved as of 1.3. got a solid 6 hours in last night without issue

Thanks to all at egosoft for the quick patches

[CBJ]

That's great to hear, snowman001. We are still fixing rare crash issues, with one such fix in the 1.31 update that has just been released, and another in another patch that will be available for beta shortly.

The biggest issue we have with Wizaerd's problem is not having any crashdumps to work with to find out what's happening in his case. Nevertheless we'd ask him to keep trying each patch as it's made available, to see whether we've found that particular issue.

[wizaerd]

That's great to hear, snowman001. We are still fixing rare crash issues, with one such fix in the 1.31 update that has just been released, and another in another patch that will be available for beta shortly.

The biggest issue we have with Wizaerd's problem is not having any crashdumps to work with to find out what's happening in his case. Nevertheless we'd ask him to keep trying each patch as it's made available, to see whether we've found that particular issue.

I plan on trying the new 1.31 tonite... 1.3 didn't do anything to fix anything for me. All weekend long, playing X3AP, Stellaris, Kenshi, and Cities Unlimited with no problems at all. We'll see tonite how X4 is behaving, or mis-behaving as the case may be.