"<insert game> has stopped working"

mattStoor

mattStoor

mattStoor

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I've been trying to find a solution to this issue for a while now and am running low on ideas. I have searched the forums and google and found nothing that has resolved the problem. I hope someone on here might have some input.

Relevant PC Specs:
i5 3570K overclocked to 4.2GHz (low temperatures, I really don't think this is a worry)
8Gb RAM - definitely healthy
MSI R9 290 GPU - idles around 40C, max load temp I've seen is 94C
Samsung 250Gb SSD - definitely healthy
Windows 8.1

The Problem:
After playing a game for a period of time it will produce the error "<insert game> has stopped working". Time spent playing happily can vary, sometimes half an hour, sometimes a couple of hours and this seems to happen with most steam games. Examples include Civ 5, Tropico 5, Wolfenstein: The New Order, The Witcher 2. The list goes on. The only non steam game I have found the issue with also is Wildstar (open beta) and this has occurred only a couple of times in the hours and hours I've played it. May be related, may not.

Possible Causes:
1. I believe that the problem is something between Windows 8.1 and steam. I never had issues with Civ 5 before I upgraded.
2. My other thought is that it could be the hot graphics card. I know that the r9 290 is meant to run quite hot and that 90C is safe for the card. I have applied a custom fan profile to try and bring its temperature down and will be seeing if this prevents the ctd but I'm inclined to think this isn't the issue.

What I've tried:
1. Everything is running in administrator mode, that's steam, the game apps, everything.
2. I have tried running game apps in compatibility mode for win7.
3. I have done a clean reinstall of the latest amd drivers for my card.
4. I have updated my directx to the latest version.
5. I have tried some other things which I can not remember at the time of writing this.

Does anyone else have this issue? Did you fix it? Any suggestions will be gratefully received.
 
A few things that come to mind:

Are you able to test with a different card to rule that out.

Does this happen if you set the gfx of the game/s to very low.

Have you tried exiting Steam after launching the game (might not always work) to see if the problem is still there when Steam isn't running.


In my opinion it sounds like the gfx card is the culprit.
 
Dave**** said:
A few things that come to mind:

Are you able to test with a different card to rule that out.

Does this happen if you set the gfx of the game/s to very low.

Have you tried exiting Steam after launching the game (might not always work) to see if the problem is still there when Steam isn't running.


In my opinion it sounds like the gfx card is the culprit.
Click to expand...

Thanks, 3 things I haven't thought to do! I have got my old 6870 which I can give a go in there but I'll try the other two fixes first so I can hopefully avoid opening up the case and then reinstalling amd drivers etc. Lowering the game settings should drop the card temps a bit which might implicate the card.
 
Have you tried removing your over clocks and putting everything back to standard? What are your temps getting upto before the game crashes ? Have you tried uninstalling your video drivers and then reinstalling them. Could try uninstalling steam and reinstalling
 
AndyCroft1982 said:
Have you tried removing your over clocks and putting everything back to standard? What are your temps getting upto before the game crashes ? Have you tried uninstalling your video drivers and then reinstalling them. Could try uninstalling steam and reinstalling
Click to expand...

The only overclock I have is on the cpu and the temps on that are reaching 68C-70C at max gaming load.

GPU temps have reached 94C. I have tried reinstalling video drivers cleanly. I have not tried reinstalling steam but I guess it is something that I could give a go?
 
Dave**** said:
A few things that come to mind:

Are you able to test with a different card to rule that out.

Does this happen if you set the gfx of the game/s to very low.

Have you tried exiting Steam after launching the game (might not always work) to see if the problem is still there when Steam isn't running.


In my opinion it sounds like the gfx card is the culprit.
Click to expand...

When i try to close steam with the game open; the game stops working and crashes. I assume you need steam to run the game?
 
Ok I used Tropico 5 as a test subject. I ran the game at absolute rock bottom settings. The gpu ran at 85C-88C the whole duration. It still crashed after about 20 minutes gameplay.

It's hard to imagine that the gpu would crash at 88 and 94 degrees after running smoothly for long periods of time? I would have thought it would crash once it reached its "threshold" temperature if it couldn't handle it.

Highest temperature recorded on the cpu after playing the game on maxed out settings was 84C. I looked in to this and it is a safe temperature for the cpu.
 
mattStoor said:
The only overclock I have is on the cpu and the temps on that are reaching 68C-70C at max gaming load.

GPU temps have reached 94C. I have tried reinstalling video drivers cleanly. I have not tried reinstalling steam but I guess it is something that I could give a go?
Click to expand...

Temps aren't the only thing you need to look at for a stable overclock. You may not have enough voltahe. Personally, if it is happening in every game you play. I would set everything to their default/stock settings in your bios and see if it still does it.
 
Default the settings on the cpu and test that
Then make sure u have the lastest drivers

I use win 8.1 and havn't had a problem with steam
If it was the cpu I would expect it to crash not just error u out in to windows

After reading ur specs I have one idea get the lastest msi afterburner and up the voltage on the memory if u are worried about that down clock the memory by say 100mhz and test it.
Only saying test this because a lot of 290 to 290x had dodgy memory on them
 
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Ok I will reset my overclock next. I did stress test the cpu with a couple of benchmarking programs after oc'ing and it was fine though.

Before I reset the oc, I went and had a look at the windows event viewer and opened up the error log:

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Tropico 5\Tropico5Steam.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\d3d11.dll

I checked d3d11.dll on google and it seems to be a directx file. Could the applications be having some trouble accessing this dll?

EDIT:

Checked the logs of the other occasions Tropico crashed and the faulty module paths varied. They weren't all that file so I guess that isn't the issue.
 
Last edited:
Bonus Info. I found the tropico 5 dump file and the exception information said:

The thread tried to read from or write to a virtual address for which it does not have the appropriate access.
 
mattStoor said:
Bonus Info. I found the tropico 5 dump file and the exception information said:

The thread tried to read from or write to a virtual address for which it does not have the appropriate access.
Click to expand...

could find that file and se who is under "owner"
in properties, under the security tab

if its not you or admins then I suggest you try changing it, if not then its easy to change back
 
mattStoor said:
Bonus Info. I found the tropico 5 dump file and the exception information said:

The thread tried to read from or write to a virtual address for which it does not have the appropriate access.
Click to expand...

Based on that, it could be a Windows permissions issue, which seems unlikely, or perhaps it could be an iffy stick of RAM you've got. Or the RAM on the graphics card.

Try running memtest86 a couple of times, or some other RAM checking utilities. Try running with 4Gb RAM in your system instead of 8, and see if you can replicate the crash.

Try using Furmark to max out stressing your GPU, and see how quickly, if at all, you can replicate the error. I suspect you will be able to, as it sounds like an underlying hardware issue causing a crash.

Are you running with full Admin rights on your Windows account? If not, give yourself admin rights. Or to be on the safe side, give yourself a new profile, and try that.
 
The minidump gives the exception information that i said before. It also gives the error code 0xC0000005 and a long list of modules which I can only assume are the list of modules involved/used by the application?
 
matt_fsr said:
Based on that, it could be a Windows permissions issue, which seems unlikely, or perhaps it could be an iffy stick of RAM you've got. Or the RAM on the graphics card.

Try running memtest86 a couple of times, or some other RAM checking utilities. Try running with 4Gb RAM in your system instead of 8, and see if you can replicate the crash.

Try using Furmark to max out stressing your GPU, and see how quickly, if at all, you can replicate the error. I suspect you will be able to, as it sounds like an underlying hardware issue causing a crash.

Are you running with full Admin rights on your Windows account? If not, give yourself admin rights. Or to be on the safe side, give yourself a new profile, and try that.
Click to expand...

Thanks, a couple of things to have a go at. I'll start with Furmark.
 
mattStoor said:
The minidump gives the exception information that i said before. It also gives the error code 0xC0000005 and a long list of modules which I can only assume are the list of modules involved/used by the application?
Click to expand...

me and matt_FSR seem to be on the same page, I would try his approach. :)
 
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