RE Random System Freezes (Possible Spoilers)

[Witch Döctor]

Bump, I really want to play the game again...

[plutomaniac]

The game can't really freeze the computer, it's something operating system/hardware related. Do you have the latest video & audio drivers for starters? Do you have any overclocking set? Have you tried disabling all background programs/services that may cause problems while running the game? Have you checked if Windows Reliability Monitor (Control Panel > System and Security > Security and Maintenance > Reliability Monitor) shows any driver crashes etc right before the freeze?

[yandexx]

A user-mode process such as a game cannot by itself hang the whole system (OK one way would be to run an intensive thread in Realtime priority but nobody would really do that).

So this indicates a driver/hardware problem.

What I would do:
- Check the Event Viewer, specifically System and Application event logs. Check if anything suspicious is logged prior to the system hanging.
- Advanced debugging troubleshooting:
** Run "verifier" from the command line, "Custom settings", enable "Deadlock detection" for some or all drivers. From this point if a deadlock happens, causing the hanging, the system will bluescreen instead, producing a dump file. Analysing this crash dump will point to the problematic driver in question.
Quoting the Windows Internals book: "The first step to troubleshooting hung systems is to enable deadlock detection on suspect drivers, then unsigned drivers, and then all drivers, until you get a crash that pinpoints the driver causing the deadlock."

** There is a way to force-crash the system with a key press when it hangs: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library...45499.aspx Once crashed, it will produce a crashdump which will need to be analysed.

If you succeed with any of these, upload the dump file and I can have a look.

[Witch Döctor]

First, I'm very thankful for the detailed support, and for clarifying that the game can't literally freeze the system. I'll try the suggested actions whenever I get the chance, and I will upload the relevant logs when the problem is recreated.

---

A bunch of info I can already give is this:
My GPU is not overclocked, or have I done any modification to it.
Ive tried disabling any program that might cause the problem in the past.
I'm pretty sure my drivers are updated but I will double-check the next time I'll get on my computer.

That's all I could give right now since I'm not at home. And thanks again

[Witch Döctor]

As following, Video and Audio drivers are indeed updated.
Reliability Monitor does not show anything related.
Enabling Deadlock detection is not helping, the 'hang' is not replaced by a BSOD, and therefore is not creating a dump file.

If it helps, what happens in my point of view, the monitor(s) (I have two, game is only running on one) turn to black and lose signal, and the sound loops. No input works, which is forcing me to hard reset.

[yandexx]

Anything in the Event Viewer though?

[Witch Döctor]

Honestly I couldn't figure it out, where should I check anything suspicious, or atleast show a screenshot of?

[yandexx]

Open System and Application event logs, locate the time when your system got unresponsive.
See if you find anything that looks related. "Informational" events are generally useless, but "Warning", "Error" and "Critical" are what's important.

[Witch Döctor]

Event Viewer doesn't show anything happening before I hard-reset (Critical error @ 19:41:34).

[yandexx]

OK yeah there's nothing, but it was worth checking.
I wonder if you can force-crash the system using a keyboard combination when it hangs? https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library...45499.aspx

I've not tried this personally, but sounds like a cool way to troubleshoot. Hopefully it works.