7.10 CTD: Game keeps crashing after minutes, hardware is fine, other games work fine - Workaround found.

[LiKally]

My game keeps crashing, especially most times when it tries to save.

Game Version: 7.10 (538965) over Steam
Modded: No



I tried playing an old save game prior to the last two DLCs. I just bought the DLCs and wanted continue on it.
Game always crashes randomly, from 2 min play time to 3 hours I had everything... always ends up crashing.
When its just every 3 hours I would be fine.. but that is very rare, it more crashes after 2 minutes... 10 minuts.. 5 minutes...

I also tried a complete new game to see if its related to my savegame.... nope same here, even just 10 minutes in a new fresh game it starts crashing.

There is no explicit step at which it occurs, it's just randomly
- Sometimes when saving the game
- Sometimes already when loading the game
- Sometimes just setting up some ship "goto" commands
- Sometimes in trading menu
- Sometimes even when just doing nothing and letting just the game run for a while.


I also tried already lowering graphics settings like suggested, limiting FPS, using differnt AA modes, differentresolutions, trying various command line switches, disabling all overlays, cloud savegames and other things. Disabling audio devices and so on. Nothing helps.

My hardware is definitely fine, all benchmarks, stress tests, verifications and so on all the tools out there have no issues. also I can play hours or days in other games without issues, it's just X4 having that huge problems.

My System:

Code: Select all

------------------
System Information
------------------
      Time of this report: 11/1/2024, 22:59:14
         Operating System: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 22631) (22621.ni_release.220506-1250)
                 Language: German (Regional Setting: German)
      System Manufacturer: ASUS
             System Model: System Product Name
                     BIOS: 2503 (type: UEFI)
                Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-14900K (32 CPUs), ~3.2GHz
                   Memory: 65536MB RAM
      Available OS Memory: 65276MB RAM
                Page File: 25863MB used, 43509MB available
              Windows Dir: C:\Windows
          DirectX Version: DirectX 12
      DX Setup Parameters: Not found
         User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
       System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
          DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
                 Miracast: Available, no HDCP
Microsoft Graphics Hybrid: Not Supported
 DirectX Database Version: 1.5.4
           DxDiag Version: 10.00.22621.3527 64bit Unicode
           
           
 ---------------
Display Devices
---------------
           Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
        Manufacturer: NVIDIA
           Chip type: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
            DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
         Device Type: Full Device (POST)
          Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_2684&SUBSYS_89321043&REV_A1
       Device Status: 0180200A [DN_DRIVER_LOADED|DN_STARTED|DN_DISABLEABLE|DN_NT_ENUMERATOR|DN_NT_DRIVER] 
 Device Problem Code: No Problem
 Driver Problem Code: Unknown
      Display Memory: 56780 MB
    Dedicated Memory: 24142 MB
       Shared Memory: 32638 MB
        Current Mode: 5120 x 1440 (32 bit) (240Hz)
         HDR Support: Supported

Full DX Diag: https://pastebin.com/JXjyEunf
Full Vulkaninfo: https://pastebin.com/DxghCKBt
Password for both Paste Bins: LiKallyX4Error

Some Crash Dumps and one of the save games:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

I tried figuring out myself whats going on with opening the dumps or trying to get debug log and script log but nothing that helps me find out whats wrong.

Definitely I can tell you the hardware is fine. I tried playing many other games between the first crashes when I started playing X4 again a week ago.

For testing, I tried the following games for each at least 4 hour play time in a row without any issues:
- Star Citizen
- Hogwarts Legacy
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Civilization 5
- Tropico 6
- Baldurs Gate 3
- Rimworld
- Going Medieval
- GTA V

All the games work at maximum graphics settings without problems. I also run various benchmarks, stress tests, memory tests and other things. All run without a single problem over night for at least 6 hours.
I was playing X4 already about maybe half year ago without the latest two DLCs. And it ran perfectly fine back then.

Dear developers, what can I do to resolve this? Can you provide a fixing patch for the game to prevent such crash issues?

Thanks in advance.

[Alan Phipps]

It *could* be a known instability issue of Intel 13th/14th gen cpus with powerful graphics such as RTX 40xx when playing X4. See this thread and its links for ideas.

[LiKally]

Thanks for your quick reply.

I know of the issues with 13/14th gen, I already have all the latest microcode, windows and bios updates available for it. I even tried limiting the power of my CPU to much less than it usually uses, also does not help with the X4 crashes.
Also like mentioned I already executed all the stress tests and stuff I could find for my CPU and also GPU, and let them run over night, not a single issue, freeze or anything.
If there is still an issue with it, Is it then a issue exlusive to X4 and will there be a patch for this?

It seems other software (also Desktop Software like Unity Engine, Unreal, Blender, Photoshop, and the listed other games and so on...) I am using has not a single problem with it anymore.
Also I noticed problems in Unity Engine and Guild Wars 2 with Asus multi core enthancement in the past, causing crashes there. But this feature is since then disabled and also no more problems with this.
So when its a problem with the Intel issue exclusively remaining for X4 I guess it can be worked around using software and there should be a patch in my opinion.

Also I spent a lot of money on the game now, and have struggled myself through more than 2 hours of play time, so I can't refund the newly bought DLCs anymore. Neither can I enjoy playing the game with these frequent crashes :/
I hope there is another problem I can solve... or when its related to Intel issues then I hope there will be a patch very soon...

EDIT: I just saw there is a new BIOS update available for my Motherboard, which just came out a week or two ago. I will install it now and test again just to be sure.

[CBJ]

Unfortunately a hardware problem like this is not something we're going to be able to "work around". Every application will stress the hardware in different ways, and if those stresses happen to expose an underlying fault then it is usually only the hardware manufacturer who can provide solutions.

Note that some players who have run into this particular issue have been able to solve it with driver or BIOS updates, while others have had to RMA the hardware and get replacement parts.

[Daemonjax]

Run the game as administrator.

If that doesn't work, also disable autosave.

If that doesn't work, try seeing if you can run prime95 for atleast 15 minutes (torture test, small, disable all avx) without any worker threads failing.

EDIT: I see you're using a 13th+ gen intel. Try disabling ecores in bios.

[xrogaan]

It *could* be a known instability issue of Intel 13th/14th gen cpus with powerful graphics such as RTX 40xx when playing X4. See this thread and its links for ideas.

Note that the nature of the 13th/14th gen issue literally cooks your CPU, which is what creates the instability. If the problem ever triggered for you, your hardware has been physically and irreversibly damaged. No degree of firmware updates will solve whatever problem arise from such damage.

[LiKally]

Little update from my side, maybe this helps some other people having crashes as well.

In my case it was not a 13/14th gen intel CPU issue thing. I figured out the cause / situation now.

As I stated multiple times in my previous posts, all Burn Tests, Stability Tests, Performance Tests, Benchmarks and what not else, also all other programs, everything is working totally fine. even when the CPU is forced to run on 100% all the time when I run a game + CPU benchmarks at the same time for hours.
The official BIOS updates from MOBO manufacturers / intel helps with the 13/14 gen thing a lot (of course - if the CPU is not damaged already before you install the microcode updates and stuff). My CPU seems definitely to be fine, because really only X4 has issues running stable.

As stated before, disabling "Asus Multicore Enhancements" (if you have an asus board) helps already with many instability issues in various games and applications.
X4 still kept crashing... so I tinkered more and played around.

Finally I found out, that somehow X4 has problems with the XMP2 RAM profiles for 6000 mhz frequency on RAM. At least in my case this is the issue.
Everything else like stated before runs fine with my XMP 2 6000 mhz preset from the motherboard, except X4 (my memory and everything is rated for that speed also)
I have a second option there, XMP 2 5600 mhz, if I select this preset, then also X4 is running perfectly stable.

Both 6000 and 5600 presets run totally fine through 6 hours of memtest86. Also both are running 100% fine in all previously mentioned tests I executed.

Since I'm fine with 5600 also, I just leave this setting now in my case. Maybe if someone else has similar problems and can't see any hardware issue - maybe this tip can also help you.

Finally I can enjoy playing X4 without problems. I have now played in total like 50 - 60 hours with these new settings without a single crash or fps drop or anything.
Thanks for all the tries to help me with the issue here!

[CBJ]

Glad you can play now. Thanks for reporting back.

[xrogaan]

Finally I found out, that somehow X4 has problems with the XMP2 RAM profiles for 6000 mhz frequency on RAM. At least in my case this is the issue.
Everything else like stated before runs fine with my XMP 2 6000 mhz preset from the motherboard, except X4 (my memory and everything is rated for that speed also)
I have a second option there, XMP 2 5600 mhz, if I select this preset, then also X4 is running perfectly stable.

Both 6000 and 5600 presets run totally fine through 6 hours of memtest86. Also both are running 100% fine in all previously mentioned tests I executed.

Since I'm fine with 5600 also, I just leave this setting now in my case. Maybe if someone else has similar problems and can't see any hardware issue - maybe this tip can also help you.

Being curious. Do you have installed the same brand and model of ram sticks?

See, years ago I had 2 sets of ram sticks that ought to be compatible. Same brand, different model. Even though they ought to be compatible with the same profiles, some applications would start to crash if I used a greater XMP setting. Each set would work fine on that profile if installed alone, but together would create problems. The issue wasn't with the profile or whatever, but a question of timing, voltage and frequency at that XMP.

[LiKally]

Being curious. Do you have installed the same brand and model of ram sticks?

See, years ago I had 2 sets of ram sticks that ought to be compatible. Same brand, different model. Even though they ought to be compatible with the same profiles, some applications would start to crash if I used a greater XMP setting. Each set would work fine on that profile if installed alone, but together would create problems. The issue wasn't with the profile or whatever, but a question of timing, voltage and frequency at that XMP.

Yes, I use the same brand and model across all 4 sticks I have. All have the same timings and everything.