Hardlock Out and Automatic Restart

[MegaSevan]

Lately I've been running into a game breaking problem. I'm about a dozen missions into the story, and after 20 or so minutes my computer hardlocks out, my monitor stops receiving a signal, and it loops the last few seconds of sound for about a minute. Only a manual turn off and restart works to end it, after about a minute it restart automatically. No checkpoints are saved, this has happened 4 times now.

It started happening, as far as I can tell, when I updated to the current (as of this post) Nvidia drivers. But this may be unrelated. I have all the latest drivers, my xi-fi setting is on gamer, my sound settings is on stereo.

System Specs:
Windows Vista 32-bit
8800 GTS
2GB ram
Core 2 Duo
Creative X-fi platinum

Windows tells me this about the error after a forced restart:
-------------------------
Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 1000007e
BCP1: C0000005
BCP2: 8C3AB627
BCP3: 8BD0D728
BCP4: 8BD0D424
OS Version: 6_0_6001
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 768_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\Mini051409-01.dmp
C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-63648-0.sysdata.xml
C:\Users\Name\AppData\Local\Temp\WERFD8.tmp.versio n.txt
--------------------------
As it stands it makes playing the game impossible.

[Henius]

Similar for me: Game crashes after 5 - 10 min play, audio loops for some seconds and then the

Bought it from steam, and I have been sniffing around on the steam forums where this behaviour is being reported a lot. And no solution in sight. Steam is behaving like it is a developer problem.

I have Vista 32, SP1, Intel Core duo, ATI/AMD Radeon 4860 with fresh drivers. It is not a hardare or driver problem; I have a lot of games that run without problems.

This is sad, 'cause I really like the game. But if you don't do anything about this it is quite difficult to recommend it to others.

Suggestions?

-Henius

[jeff]

So far, all known crashes once the game is going have been caused by one of the following issues:





- Video drivers are not up to date (sounds like that isn't the problem here)





- Audio drivers are not up to date (unlikely to be the problem here, usually crashes within 5 minutes if that's the issue)





- The March 2009 version of DirectX is not installed (this combined with updating audio drivers can fix crashes)





and the one*we're seeing*the most recently


- Video card is overheating and shutting down or video card is not fully powered (all power plugs aren't connected) and it shuts down when trying to draw more power





This may seem surprising, but with all the creatures on the screen, all the visual effects and particle effects we have going through the video card, we're finding that Defense Grid pushes player's video cards more than many games out there.*





So far,*the recent cases that are like the two listed on this page, people have found that if they monitor the temperature of their video card, that their card is overheating and not being sufficiently cooled.* Typically this is because the case does not have enough ventillation.





I recommend that each of you monitor your video cards, the symptoms you are describing lead me to believe that your video cards are not sufficiently powered or cooled in your PC.





Jeff

[MegaSevan]

I seem to have fixed the problem.

But it's not easy to pin-point what exactly did the trick. My video drivers were up-to-date, so I can immediately rule that out. My audio drivers were not the most recent, and I updated those. But the audio driver crash seems to happen early, so I can, maybe, also rule that out. I also installed the march 2009 update to direct x, and re-installed the game. either of the last two could have solved the problem.

About the potential of video card overheating or being improperly powered. The crashes did seem to occur at the most intense moments of gameplay, during later waves. which seems to fit with overheating and/or lack of power. However, I've played very intense games like crysis, and other for long sessions without overheating issues. When I have experianced overheating in the past, it usually results in a crash to desktop (not complete shutdown and automatic restart) with a message about video driver failure.

Yes, I've noticed this in the steam threads. I've posted their myself. My problem is fixed, so far. I recommend people up date audio drivers, and download the direct x update.

[jeff]

You might think I'd want it to not be a game problem, but actually I prefer it when it is a game problem because then I can fix it.* But, everything we're seeing right now is a configuration problem and not a game problem.* We definitely had some game problems when we launched in December, but we appear to have patched all that we are aware of to date.* We know that for "no sound" there are still some issues with the Microsoft audio engine, and when we identify a device that isn't working with their March update we pass that along to them.* With respect to crashes though, each one in the last few months has found its solution in drivers, overheating, underpowered cards, or another system-specific problem.





Jeff

[MegaSevan]

if all your drivers are up to date. make sure you get the march 2009 direct x update. also you could try deleting the game through steam, and then re-downloading it.

[jeff]

Mega7's was an overheating issue.* Let me know if others are having a different issue.





Jeff