Random CTD

[Protectron3000]

Hello, I have been having some random crashes since I started playing again after the 7.10 update. At first I thought it was due to the vast amount of unsupported mods, so I deleted them. I started a new game, but the game still crashes. I started a new game with only the split DLC installed just for fun, but it crashes anyway. In fact it seems to be getting worse. Now it crashes even in the main menu as soon as I start up the game. I believe my drivers to be up to date, in fact I installed them not long ago after deleting the previous ones with DDU. I am using the GOG version of X4. I tried the usual "run as admin", "repair files", antivirus scanning except the game folder, I even lowered the resolution because why not...anyway, no luck.

Here is the latest dump (CTD in the main menu as soon as I started the game) and dxdiag. Hope someone can help.

https://drive.proton.me/urls/3WFKS0K3GG#4HAkgXJJAmyJ
https://drive.proton.me/urls/MH5J9TVDEM#rg4Q7CJTAnoa

[Alan Phipps]

Hi, the DxDiag drivers etc look OK on first inspection but it doesn't have Windows Error Reporting enabled and so no CTD info there. (Sorry I can't help with dump files; you need a dev to look at them.)

Perhaps try using the Oculus virtual, Yeti USB and onboard Realtek audio devices and drivers just one at a time to see if a potential issue source can be confirmed or eliminated. Good luck.

[CBJ]

Unfortunately there is very little information in the crashdump either. All I can see is that the crash occurred in vulkan-1.dll, which is part of your driver/vulkan setup. That means that, despite your best efforts so far, the most likely source of the problem is your graphics drivers or hardware.

[Protectron3000]

Thanks for the prompt reply! I didn't even know about a Windows Error Reporting utility. I'll check out how to enable it. In the meantime could you clarify what you mean by "using" the drivers one at a time? The realtek driver is onboard audio (my primary audio output), yeti is for the external microphone and oculus is well, for the oculus quest 2. How could I use them with x4?

About vulkan-1.dll crash, can I troubleshoot that further? Would a vulkaninfo report help?

[Alan Phipps]

Your DxDiag says that the Yeti driver is also acting as a Speakers output device. Any USB sound device and driver can be disabled just by unplugging it before playing. Any integrated sound device and driver can be disabled (permanently or temporarily as it's easy to reverse) in Control Panel, Device Manager, Sound/Audio Devices (right-click on a device in the listing for a disable/enable pop-up). Unplugging/disabling two of the three devices whilst testing with just the remaining one is what I meant for testing a sound device and its driver individually.

Leaving all three sound devices plugged in and enabled means that all three drivers are running continuously whether you intended to use them in X4 or not. I hope this helps to explain.

[Protectron3000]

Hello all! So after a few days of tries here I am again!

So first of all I disabled every other audio output device except Realtek audio, but the game still crashes, so I enabled them again since I kinda need them for my daily PC usage.

I turned Windows error reporting on using this link:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power ... ver2022-ps
In fact, running the command Get-WindowsErrorReporting in powershell, returns "Enabled". I updated my motherboard's BIOS, I then removed my GPU drivers with DDU and downloaded and installed them from the vendor's site (not from NVidia this time).

I then created the following dxdiag report:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/RV70QJS8N8#bm5oJFhw476w

I then ran the game and as expected, it still crashes after a few minutes. I was more or less idle in a ZYA sector. I doubt the details matter a lot but I'm willing to expand on this if you think it matters.
After the game CTD I am now getting multiple nvlddmkm related errors in the Event Viewer (FML) So I created another dxdiag report:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/4J5GMZ24S4#210PCtD7DnPH
Crash dump:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/QB8P0A6ZJ8#bUDs3ptjNM0p

And here are events in Event Viewer, immediately after the game's crash:

Event Viewer:
Warning:

Nvidia OpenGL Driver

Show

Ran out of memory

Code: Select all

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="NVIDIA OpenGL Driver" /> 
  <EventID Qualifiers="32768">2</EventID> 
  <Version>0</Version> 
  <Level>3</Level> 
  <Task>0</Task> 
  <Opcode>0</Opcode> 
  <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2024-12-14T12:29:48.6348753Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>174251</EventRecordID> 
  <Correlation /> 
  <Execution ProcessID="0" ThreadID="0" /> 
  <Channel>Application</Channel> 
  <Computer>DESKTOP-GREGOR</Computer> 
  <Security /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data>The NVIDIA OpenGL driver has not been able to initialize a connection with the GPU. This might be due to out of memory error, an exhaustion of system resources or too many graphical applications running. The application will not render correctly. (pid=12$</Data> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>

First error:

nvlddmkm

Show

The description for Event ID 0 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

If the event originated on another computer, the display information had to be saved with the event.

The following information was included with the event:

\Device\000000ae
Error occurred on GPUID: 100

The message resource is present but the message was not found in the message table

details:

Code: Select all

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="nvlddmkm" /> 
  <EventID Qualifiers="0">0</EventID> 
  <Version>0</Version> 
  <Level>2</Level> 
  <Task>0</Task> 
  <Opcode>0</Opcode> 
  <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2024-12-14T12:34:58.3271687Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>128647</EventRecordID> 
  <Correlation /> 
  <Execution ProcessID="4" ThreadID="11416" /> 
  <Channel>System</Channel> 
  <Computer>DESKTOP-GREGOR</Computer> 
  <Security /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data>\Device\000000ae</Data> 
  <Data>Error occurred on GPUID: 100</Data> 
  <Binary>00000000020030000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000</Binary> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>

Second error:

Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM

Show

The server Windows.Gaming.GameBar.PresenceServer.Internal.PresenceWriter did not register with DCOM within the required timeout.

Code: Select all

- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
  <Provider Name="Microsoft-Windows-DistributedCOM" Guid="{1B562E86-B7AA-4131-BADC-B6F3A001407E}" EventSourceName="DCOM" /> 
  <EventID Qualifiers="0">10010</EventID> 
  <Version>0</Version> 
  <Level>2</Level> 
  <Task>0</Task> 
  <Opcode>0</Opcode> 
  <Keywords>0x8080000000000000</Keywords> 
  <TimeCreated SystemTime="2024-12-14T12:28:08.5271204Z" /> 
  <EventRecordID>128645</EventRecordID> 
  <Correlation ActivityID="{f77dbbd0-4352-46cd-a0b8-c574a6ce3fcf}" /> 
  <Execution ProcessID="1128" ThreadID="1412" /> 
  <Channel>System</Channel> 
  <Computer>DESKTOP-GREGOR</Computer> 
  <Security UserID="S-1-5-21-2389245639-3117019500-3064522441-1001" /> 
  </System>
- <EventData>
  <Data Name="param1">Windows.Gaming.GameBar.PresenceServer.Internal.PresenceWriter</Data> 
  </EventData>
  </Event>

Have I messed up my PC? lol
edit:
vulkaninfo:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/RWJ1DB7SGG#uYbcnTNAkYaJ

[CBJ]

I'm not sure you've messed up your PC, but there's definitely something not right with it. Your DXDiag lists several errors with involving Update, FanControl and various other things, but nothing about X4. And the crashdump is again coming from vulkan-1.dll rather than the game itself.

As previously mentioned by Alan, one thing that would be interesting would be if you could try removing your Oculus device temporarily and see if that makes any difference. Even though you're not using it with X4, it could be interfering with something.

Other than that I'm afraid we might well looking at a hardware issue. Possible causes might include power supply issues, a memory fault (either main memory, or on the graphics card), or some other graphics hardware fault. If you have an older, but still compatible, graphics card lying around then you could try switching to that to eliminate a number of possible sources of the problem.

[Protectron3000]

after disabling all other audio devices in device manager:

dxdiag:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/RHKZMVCE5G#tZkLWeqPfFXp
latest crash dump:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/Q6H56449HC#ya0vmTWwDUa7

edit: (pressed submit instead of preview lol)
what does it mean my error comes from vulkan-1.dll?

[CBJ]

Your drivers for the Realtek device are still from 2017. Update them from the Realtek site; don't rely on Windows Update.

what does it mean my error comes from vulkan-1.dll?

It means that the crash is not coming from the game. It's coming from a file that provides the interface to your graphics hardware, which is normally installed alongside your graphics drivers. It's not all that common for it to crash, and it suggests that either you still have issues with your driver setup or, as I mentioned before, there is a problem with your hardware.

That said, your most recent crashdump is slightly different. This time it's caused by an error trying to allocate some memory for shaders. That could, again, indicate a driver or graphics card memory issue. One more thing to try, though: go to the Egosoft\X4 folder in Documents and delete pipelinecache.bin before starting the game again.

[Protectron3000]

So, update after the new year's. I finally had the time to update the realtek audio drivers (now they are from 2023 - yay!) and delete the pipelinecache.bin and play test a bit. The error still occurs.

The only thing I notice is that in the event viewer instead of getting the following 3 errors related to the cursed nvlddmkm.sys in rapid successions:
Resetting TDR occurred on GPUID:100
Reset TDR occurred on GPUID:100
Restarting TDR occurred on GPUID:100

I now only get a more generic (imho):
Error occurred on GPUID: 100

Latest dxdiag with all other audio devices disabled:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/64GTMSN3KM#RBgeg98qmSFA

Latest crash dump:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/64GTMSN3KM#RBgeg98qmSFA

Btw how do you guys even open the dump file? The default app for me is visual studio, which I definitely don't know how to use and it doesn't tell me much.

[CBJ]

Unfortunately you linked the DXDiag twice and not the crashdump.

Yes, the crashdumps open in Visual Studio, but they're only really useful to us as you won't have the symbols and things to be able to see what's going on.

[Protectron3000]

Damn. Sorry, here is the dump:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/BE7XQ9KRQM#gQg18ZR5QOAw

[CBJ]

OK, what I'm seeing now in the latest crashdump is the standard "Lost Device" error, which means Vulkan lost contact with your graphics device for long enough for it to think that something had gone wrong. Unfortunately this is a fairly common issue with quite a wide range of different possible causes, ranging from graphics driver or hardware issues through to system timing problems, particularly with hardware that is overclocked or otherwise too tightly tuned for the task in hand.

If you have any kind of overclocking, overvolting or over-anything-else on your system at the moment, then try setting it back to the manufacturer's recommended default. Meanwhile I will pass this report on to the specialists in this area, who may contact you for more information and/or to provide suggestions.

[Protectron3000]

Hello! I don't have any kind of overclocking, at least not something that was done by me. I am aware some cards are overclocked by the manufacturer, but I don't think mine is, and I'm not interested in doing it on my own.

Here is the latest crash dump:
https://drive.proton.me/urls/JQK9MGX9Z4#kN5sWttBYVyY

This one happened after a long play time. But I noticed something this time:
I started a new game with the scientist start (the one where you already have the PHQ) and just the split vendetta DLC enabled. I have been flying all over the galaxy using the superhighways for around 1h20 and the game crashed just as I approached and begun scanning a newly discovered ZYA station in Zyarth's Dominion X. Prior to this I have not encountered any other ZYA / Split stations.

If anyone wants to check, this is the autosave that happened a few sectors before. To reproduce my steps just fly to Eleventh Hour, then Zyarth's Dominion and approach the VGZ-656 Defence station (kinda in the middle of the sector)
https://drive.proton.me/urls/DAZTC70EN4#aO5xxJ1QMfSP

Since most of my previous crashes happened in Split territory (since I tend to start games there) could it be that the Split DLC is somehow broken for me? Is there a way to recheck only that one? Repairing the game from the GOG Galaxy did nothing. Should I just try and reinstall the game at this point?

[CBJ]

As I said above, this particular error is related to graphics drivers and hardware. It's not specific to a DLC and is unlikely to be affected by reinstalling the game. I've passed this on to the specialists in this area and they'll hopefully be able to take you through some more steps to try and isolate the exact cause in your case, but you may need to be a little patient for their response.

[timon37]

Hi, unfortunately this'll be tricky:(

First I need a bit more background info:
1. were you playing earlier versions e.g. 6.00, 6.20, 7.00 on the same PC without any such issues?
2. how often do these crashes happen in general? every 5, 15 min, or every few hours?
3. when it happens does the game typically freeze for ~2 seconds and then weird things start happening (e.g. monitor flashes)?
or is it the other way, e.g. first monitor flashes then you see the game frozen?
4. do you play or have any other reasonably demanding games?

[Alan Phipps]

" I finally had the time to update the realtek audio drivers (now they are from 2023 - yay!)"

Unfortunately you have gone back to the Microsoft default generic driver and not the latest WHQL Realtek one (which for HDAudio Codec drivers may well be R2.83 which still revolves around the 2017 RTKVHD64.sys main driver). That is probably not a main suspect for causing your issue though now that you just have the one sound device and driver.

[Protectron3000]

Hi, unfortunately this'll be tricky:(

First I need a bit more background info:
1. were you playing earlier versions e.g. 6.00, 6.20, 7.00 on the same PC without any such issues?
2. how often do these crashes happen in general? every 5, 15 min, or every few hours?
3. when it happens does the game typically freeze for ~2 seconds and then weird things start happening (e.g. monitor flashes)?
or is it the other way, e.g. first monitor flashes then you see the game frozen?
4. do you play or have any other reasonably demanding games?

Hi! I imagined it would be tricky. No matter, if all fails I am still in time to RMA the video card (if it's the culprit).
1. Yes. I have been playing for quite a while, since before 6.00 without any issues on the same PC. Maybe I should add that I haven't been playing for quite a while, probably half a year or more.
2. I'd say that the crashes usually occur in 5 - 15 minutes of gameplay, but if I want to start the game "soon" (let's say immediately? Let's say without restarting? I have not tested this so thoroughly as to be able to quantify what "soon" is) after the first crash happens, the game can crash even before that, for example when the main menu loads after the credits.
3. Let me describe what happens: suddenly the audio glitches for a few seconds and the video freezes. After that the video remains frozen and unresponsive and the audio continues to play as normal. I am 100% sure that the game is still running because the sound being played is dynamic - meaning that I still hear the station announcements, also if I accelerate I hear the ships' engines accelerating, if I press the ESC key and move the mouse around I hear the typical sound of the mouse pointer rolling over the menu options, and so on. It's just the video that's completely frozen. After a seemingly random time of stillness, the minidump crash window will open with its progress bar, and the game will finally CTD and shutdown for good. There is no blue screen or monitor flashing.
4. I have Ghost of Tsushima, The Witcher 3 and Helldivers 2, but unfortunately I am not playing any of them at the moment due to lack of time. Although they worked reasonably well last I tried. Would they count as demanding?

" I finally had the time to update the realtek audio drivers (now they are from 2023 - yay!)"

Unfortunately you have gone back to the Microsoft default generic driver and not the latest WHQL Realtek one (which for HDAudio Codec drivers may well be R2.83 which still revolves around the 2017 RTKVHD64.sys main driver). That is probably not a main suspect for causing your issue though now that you just have the one sound device and driver.

Ah, damn. Thank you for pointing it out, I'll try to sort things out during this week or the next.

[timon37]

Interesting, this is fairly unusual behaviour, at least as far as I know.
The realtek driver shenanigans might even be worthwhile, so please try more stuff there!

Next I'm sorry but I'd really like you to retest 6.00:
1. Make a backup of your saves they should be in: My Documents\Egosoft\X4\<steamid>\save
2. Make another backup of your saves, preferably onto another partition or even disk
3. If possible try to "rollback" the game version in gog galaxy: https://support.gog.com/hc/en-us/articl ... roduct=gog
4. You'll have to start a new game (unless you have some older compatible saves?).
Preferably go for something where you have at least a station already and try quickly doing some demanding things like rebuilding it, some big battles etc.
Play it at least for a few hours to see if you can get this or any other issues.

[timon37]

Did you figure anything out?