[EL] Crash on start-up sequence, 512 MB video card *FIXED*

Tips, tactics, and general discussion for Evochron Legacy.
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matchbox2022
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[EL] Crash on start-up sequence, 512 MB video card *FIXED*

Post by matchbox2022 »

Heyah guys

I am getting a crash to desktop at times, and all my troubleshooting has led to me going in circles. It seems to happen off and on since the latest update and utilizing the high textures + smoothing new feature. However I do not believe that video selection is causing my issue.

I'm running a 512mb video card, and have 3.25gb ram available, however the game was loading fine for the past year on that.

My issues are a two-parter, the first being that on load up, the game will go through the motions & sound files and appear to get stuck on the third line of the cockpit startup sequence.... "main fuel pumps"...so whatever is loading at that stage. It will then SOMETIMES...proceed to crash to desktop or completely stop accessing the hard drive (ram useage will go from steadily climbing to a dead halt)

IF it gets past that stage (which it does at times), I hear the startup3.wav sound kick in, but often I will see nothing but the original startup screen stuck on the third line of "main fuel pumps"...and the rest of the game will completely load, I can hear thrusters, guns firing, alerts, everything....but I will be stuck looking at that static screen.

This weird issue happens generally 75% of the time now, and less if I run the game with nothing else running straight after bootup...however even then it can have the same issues occur.

Even if the game starts up 110% perfectly, if I kill my pilot, go back to the pilot manager and load up someone else, or even the same pilot and try to startup the main game again on single or multiplayer, the issue will often happen again even though it was FINE a moment ago.

This is also as of the newest update I began noticing these issues (which nvidia control panels 3d setting, display-> compatibility mode helped alot) and reinstalling windows 7 32 bit

Some things I tried were running the game in fullscreen locked no VS, selecting compatibility mode in my nvidia driver display options, and reinstalling the required directX files included with the game.

As far as if anything worked (since the game DOES load from time to time completely and working perfectly..probably 20% of the time now.....)..it's been really rather difficult to pinpoint what the heck is going on.
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Re: Crash on start-up sequence before startup3.wav kicks in

Post by Vice »

Sounds like memory stops, intermittent due to everything being near the limit of what the game needs (system memory primarily, although 512 MB also being below the 1 GB video memory required could be a factor). It's not likely related to any changes in an update since the 'High + Smoothing' mode will only need more memory at the initial startup (the stage with the spinning circles right when you first start the game). So if you get past that and are encountering issues during the main launch sequence, your system is likely just running out of available physical memory. Something may have coincidentally changed on the system that has recently lowered the available memory slightly. Some things to check:

- Load msinfo32 and review the system summary screen. Note the available physical memory value. See if it's low, like 1.5 GB or less.

- Change the detail settings to medium/low values to test for changes. Lowering the memory consumption of the game may help improve stability.

- Review what you now have running in the background on your system. If you have things like GeForce Experience running or anything else using up memory (maybe some other software that has recently updated or installed and is now using more memory than before), disable them to free up more system memory, then test for changes.

- Do you have a 64-bit version of Windows 7 you can install? 32-bit limits you on memory and last time I reviewed your system, only about half of what you had installed could be accessed because of the 32-bit OS limitation. If you install the 64-bit version, your system will be able to access and use all of the installed memory available.

If the issue persists and you'd like me to review your setup for possible options, simply follow the steps here: http://www.starwraith.com/evochronlegacy/faq.htm#208
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Re: Crash on start-up sequence before startup3.wav kicks in

Post by matchbox2022 »

Don't know if this helps....
[COMMON]
PathToEXE=C:\sw3dg\EvochronLegacy\CrashOn_07_24_16.txt
[CEXE]
m_dwRuntimeErrorDWORD=Internal Code:11023
m_dwRuntimeErrorLineDWORD=128852

I'm also running a 32 bit chipset....this thing is from the darkages.
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Re: Crash on start-up sequence before startup3.wav kicks in

Post by Vice »

That's generally what you see with an out of memory stop. My suggestions may have an effect. You might find some memory space by stopping what else may be running and/or changing detail settings.
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Re: Crash on start-up sequence before startup3.wav kicks in

Post by matchbox2022 »

I had issues before with limited memory and windows would usually warn me, and not outright crash

I was logging data as the game attempted startup....

I managed to get a crash to desktop error log this time, my video ram was half used and task manager reported plenty of memory available. Is it potentially bad memory or something else?
My initial thought is direct x, but each time I run your setup in the game not much updates at all.

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: EvochronLegacy.exe
Application Version: 1.0.0.0
Application Timestamp: 566d9a27
Fault Module Name: d3dx9_35.dll
Fault Module Version: 9.19.949.1104
Fault Module Timestamp: 469fdd9e
Exception Code: c0000005
Exception Offset: 00341341
OS Version: 6.1.7600.2.0.0.320.65
Locale ID: 1033
Additional Information 1: 0a9e
Additional Information 2: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
Additional Information 3: 0a9e
Additional Information 4: 0a9e372d3b4ad19135b953a78882e789
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Re: Crash on start-up sequence before startup3.wav kicks in

Post by Vice »

That tends to indicate video memory/resources (9_35 DX module with a c0000005 exception code). Bad memory probably isn't the cause, particularly video memory. Usually, when that starts to go bad, you'll see visual artifacts, freezing, BSOD's, etc. The kind of crash your system seems to be encountering appears more memory availability related. And if it's still occurring around the fuel pump initialization, that suggest it's occurring around/during the time the game is loading the base set of images. So another step you could add to the list I provided earlier is to check your 3D control panel settings to make sure things like AA are not enabled (including AA in the game's menu). Otherwise, if that error occurs again, you're best option to try and get it to work with sub-minimum video memory would be to turn down the details to lower settings.
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Re: Crash on start-up sequence before startup3.wav kicks in

Post by matchbox2022 »

You can probably mark this as solved. Does High + Shading add /load any extra impact to video ram? Has anything like that changed since the last couple updates? Didn't have this issue since recently on updates.

I am definitely running into a video ram wall now after watching it closely, it seems very very likely now that that is the issue.

For everyone else, with 512mb ram, a workaround may be to turn down settings.
My current workaround right now (since I love the full graphics) is I reset my display adapter (nvidia inspector) before entering the game, it saves me the literally extra 20mb of video ram to get the game started up and running on windows 7 32 bit. As the game loads it uses up to 510Mb of my 512Mb of ram at this time.
I do not run shadows or AA, but would Aniostropic filtering cause any memory issues?...or just the higher detail level textures?
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Re: Crash on start-up sequence before startup3.wav kicks in

Post by Vice »

Interesting solution, thanks for posting the results.
Does High + Shading add /load any extra impact to video ram? Has anything like that changed since the last couple updates?
'High + Smoothing' doesn't really add to the memory use, at least not long term. It uses a little more during the building process, but that is eventually cleared. I suspect if everything else is left exactly the same, changing that setting wouldn't change the behavior much. Any other changes in updates have been minimal in term of potential memory use (likely reduced in fact in most instances), but if it's down to the last 2 MB, it's possible any slight increase could have an impact. Optionally, you could change background star detail to 'Medium' and it might be enough if that's the memory margin needed.
I do not run shadows or AA, but would Aniostropic filtering cause any memory issues?...or just the higher detail level textures?
Probably not with AF (although you can test that in the Nvidia control panel if it is set to override the application setting), just higher detail texture rendering at narrower angles.
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Re: [EL] Crash on start-up sequence, 512 MB video card *FIXED*

Post by matchbox2022 »

thx vice!
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