solved Crash to Black Screen

[SharpeXB]

DCS crashed to a black screen and wouldn't respond to Ctrl Alt Del or anything. Log attached

dcs.log DxDiag.txt

[SharpeXB]

another one

dcs.log

[Slippa]

Well I can’t help but wondered if it was in MP?

I’ve had it lock up in MP and either freeze, or crash to black and freeze a couple of times. Had to force close and reboot.

good luck with it either way.

[SharpeXB]

These were both single player missions with the AH-64. But yeah the same thing, the screen goes black and I need to reboot. 

Edited April 26, 2024 by SharpeXB

[Flappie]

From your first log:

2024-04-25 23:35:03.960 INFO    WORLDGENERAL (Main): loaded from mission Scripts/World/birds.lua
2024-04-25 23:35:04.042 INFO    LUA (Main): Lua: States: 705, CPU load: 4.0%, Mem: 472.9 MB
2024-04-25 23:35:04.371 ERROR   ED_SOUND (21692): can't load wave: "effects\aircrafts\engines\mi8reductor"
2024-04-25 23:35:04.422 WARNING BACKENDCOMMON (22740): Need to reprocess [DDS] image '/textures/AH-64D_inside_D_Normal.dds'
2024-04-25 23:35:04.910 WARNING BACKENDCOMMON (6860): Need to reprocess [DDS] image '/textures/ah64_pilot_seat_all_Normal.dds'
2024-04-25 23:35:05.496 INFO    TACVIEW.DLL (Main): Recording flight data in [E:\Jim\Documents\Tacview\Tacview-20240425-183505-DCS-AH64-IA-Sinai-Weapons_Practice.zip.acmi]
2024-04-25 23:35:05.497 WARNING BACKENDCOMMON (13636): Need to reprocess [DDS] image '/textures/AH-64D_inside_D_Normal.dds'
2024-04-25 23:35:05.499 INFO    TACVIEW.DLL (Main): Export rights granted by the host: PlayerPlane=[1] PlayerSensors=[1] OtherObjects=[1]
2024-04-25 23:35:06.153 WARNING BACKENDCOMMON (13716): Need to reprocess [DDS] image '/textures/ah64_pilot_seat_all_Normal.dds'
2024-04-25 23:35:06.208 WARNING WORLD (Main): ModelTimeQuantizer: SAME MODEL TIME
2024-04-25 23:37:03.319 WARNING WORLD (Main): ModelTimeQuantizer: ANTIFREEZE ENABLED
2024-04-25 23:37:03.438 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Can't map structured buffer.
2024-04-25 23:37:03.438 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Failed assert `0` at Projects\render\dx11backend_win8\Source\DX11StructuredBuffer.cpp:100
2024-04-25 23:37:03.442 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): DX device removed. Reason: 0x887A0007
2024-04-25 23:37:03.445 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Can't map structured buffer.
2024-04-25 23:37:03.445 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Failed assert `0` at Projects\render\dx11backend_win8\Source\DX11StructuredBuffer.cpp:100
2024-04-25 23:37:03.448 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): DX device removed. Reason: 0x887A0007
2024-04-25 23:37:03.483 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Can't map structured buffer.
2024-04-25 23:37:03.483 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Failed assert `0` at Projects\render\dx11backend_win8\Source\DX11StructuredBuffer.cpp:100
2024-04-25 23:37:03.487 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): DX device removed. Reason: 0x887A0007
2024-04-25 23:37:03.568 WARNING WORLD (Main): ModelTimeQuantizer: ANTIFREEZE ENABLED
2024-04-25 23:37:03.570 WARNING WORLD (Main): ModelTimeQuantizer: SAME MODEL TIME
2024-04-25 23:37:03.572 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Can't map structured buffer.
2024-04-25 23:37:03.572 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Failed assert `0` at Projects\render\dx11backend_win8\Source\DX11StructuredBuffer.cpp:100
2024-04-25 23:37:03.575 INFO    LUA (Main): Lua: States: 705, CPU load: 0.8%, Mem: 477.3 MB
2024-04-25 23:37:03.575 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): DX device removed. Reason: 0x887A0007
2024-04-25 23:37:03.577 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Can't map structured buffer.
2024-04-25 23:37:03.577 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Failed assert `0` at Projects\render\dx11backend_win8\Source\DX11StructuredBuffer.cpp:100
2024-04-25 23:37:03.581 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): DX device removed. Reason: 0x887A0007
2024-04-25 23:37:03.583 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Can't map structured buffer.
2024-04-25 23:37:03.583 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Failed assert `0` at Projects\render\dx11backend_win8\Source\DX11StructuredBuffer.cpp:100
2024-04-25 23:37:03.586 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): DX device removed. Reason: 0x887A0007
2024-04-25 23:37:03.589 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Can't map structured buffer.
2024-04-25 23:37:03.589 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Failed assert `0` at Projects\render\dx11backend_win8\Source\DX11StructuredBuffer.cpp:100
2024-04-25 23:37:03.593 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): DX device removed. Reason: 0x887A0007
2024-04-25 23:37:03.595 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Can't map structured buffer.
2024-04-25 23:37:03.595 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Failed assert `0` at Projects\render\dx11backend_win8\Source\DX11StructuredBuffer.cpp:100
2024-04-25 23:37:03.599 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): DX device removed. Reason: 0x887A0007
2024-04-25 23:37:03.601 ERROR   DX11BACKEND (17852): Can't map structured buffer.

Your GPU struggles to handle textures.  I think it can be caused by a corrupted game file issue or a GPU issue.

Try a DCS cleanup and repair. Choose the "slow" way.

[SharpeXB]

5 hours ago, Flappie said:

Try a DCS cleanup and repair. Choose the "slow" way.

Is it enough to just run “Repair DCS” from the start menu? Do I need to run the .bat if I don’t have any unofficial mods?

[Hiob]

Have you checked your hardware? Temps, clocks etc.... everything in the green?

[SharpeXB]

11 minutes ago, Hiob said:

Have you checked your hardware? Temps, clocks etc.... everything in the green?

I had run Passmark and Cinebench to check the CPU and GPU just recently. All performs as expected. My temps are quite low,  the GPU is maybe in the 60s .The machine was recently refurbished and got stress testing then as well.

I had done the long repair too but I’ll try both of these again. 

Edited April 26, 2024 by SharpeXB

[Hiob]

Just now, SharpeXB said:

I had run Cinebench to check the CPU and GPU just recently. All performs as expected. My temps are quite low,  the GPU is maybe in the 60s 

Is it overclocked? I run my GPU at 3.000 MHz in the winter, but in the summer when my room is getting hotter, I need to reduce it a few bins.

Cinebench doesn't load your GPU, but I assume you know that.

You could also try a driver update and clear out all the shader caches (not only DCS, but the Nvidia cache as well). Slow repair takes for frickin' ever. I would try anything else first before startint that.

[SharpeXB]

1 minute ago, Hiob said:

Is it overclocked?

No, neither the CPU or GPU is overclocked. I do plan to oc the CPU at some point but one problem at a time is better.

2 minutes ago, Hiob said:

Cinebench doesn't load your GPU, but I assume you know that.

Cinebench has a GPU test but I don’t know much about it. Is there a better benchmark? The GPU was just stress tested last week. I can find out what the shop used I suppose. 

3 minutes ago, Hiob said:

You could also try a driver update

The drivers were all just updated during the PC repair. I haven’t checked Nvidia if something just launched in the last week or so. 

4 minutes ago, Hiob said:

clear out all the shader caches (not only DCS, but the Nvidia cache as well)

Have not tried that. How is that done? The game was just reinstalled last Saturday so I’m not sure what would need clearing out. 

5 minutes ago, Hiob said:

Slow repair takes for frickin' ever.

No worries, I have time. 
 

[Hiob]

2 minutes ago, SharpeXB said:

Have not tried that. How is that done? The game was just reinstalled last Saturday so I’m not sure what would need clearing out. 
 

user/appdata/local/nvidia/**cache

just delete all the files

Other than that, I have no ideas currently, sorry.

[Flappie]

1 hour ago, SharpeXB said:

Is it enough to just run “Repair DCS” from the start menu? Do I need to run the .bat if I don’t have any unofficial mods?

I believe you won't get the cleanup part, just the repair.

[SharpeXB]

1 hour ago, Flappie said:

I believe you won't get the cleanup part, just the repair.

So I ran another Cinebench test and the machine went to the black screen and the monitor won’t come on now. Talking to tech support, the white LED light on the mb when powering up indicates the graphics card isn’t connected. My theory here is when the machine was moved and worked on that heavy 4090 came loose. I’m going to try reseating it. 

[SharpeXB]

Aha. That was it. Reseating the graphics card did the trick. On a 4090 you definitely need this little support that holds the heavy card up or it will get loose. 
I’ll try running Cinebench again but this was likely the problem. 

[Flappie]

Thanks for your feedback.

[SharpeXB]

Well this may not be solved yet. Although the card being disconnected may have been an actual problem, I still get this black screen in DCS and other games. The conclusion here is that my graphics card is damaged. So the next step is to replace it. 

[Hiob]

I don’t know how comfortable you are with electronics. When you take it out, you might wanna check if it is cracked somewhere in the proximity of the bus connector (happens sometimes due to weight and pour manufacturing). You could try to claim a warranty case.

If visual inspection is ok, you can try to take off the cooler and reapply thermal paste (and check for burned or damaged parts).

There are reports about problems with 13th and 14th intel cpus as well. Have look on youtube on the big tech channels. Some of the problems can manifest with graphics issues, even though the cpu is at fault. I run a Ryzen, therefore I didn’t dig deeper into that and can’t dive you more info about it, but may be worth checking out before you buy a new card.

[Hiob]

[maxTRX]

50 minutes ago, Hiob said:

I've been watching this crap since the hell broke loose. I've been running my 13900k on XMP for over a year already and so far haven't noticed any issues but the damage might have been done already, we'll see .  I always monitored the temps and loads on CPU-Z harware monitor and haven't seen any exreme temps even during intense play sessions, but...  just in case I changed my long and short duration power to 253W and amps to 400 (XMP)   

[SharpeXB]

3 hours ago, Hiob said:

I don’t know how comfortable you are with electronics. When you take it out, you might wanna check if it is cracked somewhere in the proximity of the bus connector (happens sometimes due to weight and pour manufacturing). You could try to claim a warranty case.

Yes I’m curious to see if anything got broken when the machine was moved. The shop did discover that two of the pins on the power cable are broken off inside the plug on the card. But that didn’t affect the stress test they did so they left it alone. 
I don’t really have any performance issues when it’s running, the machine is fantastic. But then the screen goes black after a while like the graphics card has been unplugged. It’s possible the thing was actually loose since the VGA light lit up on the mb and restarting didn’t fix the issue. But after reseating the card I still get the black screen but can do a restart and there’s no VGA light. The temps on everything are fine, the GPU itself is in the 40-50c range even during Cinebench. 
 

I actually just replaced my 13900K since it crapped out too! Not my lucky year for hardware

Edited April 30, 2024 by SharpeXB

[SharpeXB]

Here’s the culprit. The power connector is fried. 
 

[Slippa]

Ouch.

At least you know what needs fixing I s’pose.

[Flappie]

5 hours ago, SharpeXB said:

Here’s the culprit. The power connector is fried.

5 hours ago, Slippa said:

At least you know what needs fixing I s’pose.

Exactly.

[Hiob]

The new power connector is a crime. You are far from the only one with this problem. It should have been recalled long ago.

If you replace your GPU, get one, that is rated for 450W, you loose like 3 fps, but save a lot of energy and don’t stress the power connector that much.

[SharpeXB]

10 minutes ago, Hiob said:

The new power connector is a crime. You are far from the only one with this problem. It should have been recalled long ago.

If you replace your GPU, get one, that is rated for 450W, you loose like 3 fps, but save a lot of energy and don’t stress the power connector that much.

The card was this odd brand, Palit Gamerock. The kind you get during shortages it seems. I replaced it with an ASUS and a cable with that 90d connection.