Crash to Desktop on explosions?

[Ginsu]

System Specs Below and crash log attached.

 

It seems as though once explosions or heavy particle effects start up, there is an immediate crash to desktop. No glitches prior to that, temps running fine (28C). Smooth frame rate with all settings to high at about 90fps+.

 

version 1.0.1 DCS Black Shark

Windows 7 Ultimate 64

Intel Extreme i7 3.33GHz

EVGA X58 3X SLI Classified HydroCopper MOBO

12GB Corsair DDR3 1600 RAM

2 X EVGA 295 GTX HydroCopper GPUs in SLI

2 X Intel X-25M G2 160GB SSDs

Koolance Exos Water Cooling

DirectX 11

X52 FCS + Saitek Rudder

DxDiag.txt

crashlog.doc

[Panzertard]

DCS version 1.0.1?

Mods - disabled?

Correct patched version from Clean 1.0 -> Clean 1.0.1 (while having no mods installed) - and all in same language?

[Ramstein]

sound and/or video drivers.. they can cause those problems too.

 

try different video settings in game..

[Ginsu]

No mods, brand new computer, clean installation - 1.0.1 as listed, both english versions.

Sound and video drivers are up to date.

 

Does the crash log tell you anything?

Edited December 9, 2009 by Ginsu

[Panzertard]

No mods, brand new computer, clean installation - 1.0.1 as listed, both english versions.

Sound and video drivers are up to date.

 

Does the crash log tell you anything?

 

Yes, it confirms what you say - it crashed with the Effects.dll - but that can be caused by all the things previously mentioned in the thread here.

So the questions remains; which parts contributed to the crash. :)

 

Does this happen 100% of the times? Or does it just happen now & then?

 

Do you have any "codec packs" installed? They could contribute to the sound being decoded in another fashion - and the crash.

 

You could also try to disable sound entirely to figure out this is part of the problem; http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=792951&postcount=21

If you get no crashes when the sound is disabled, then we know for sure what we can try to fix .. :)

[Ginsu]

Doesn't seem to happen all the time, no. It is intermittent. No codec packs installed that I'm aware of. I'll try disabling the sound tonight to see if this solves the problem.

 

One setting I do know of is that I have my default sound device (SoundBlaster X-Fi Elite Pro) set to the highest (studio quality, high sample rate) - Think that could be the problem? I'll try changing it tonight and see what happens.

[EtherealN]

Do you have Alchemy active? If yes, you could try without.

[Ginsu]

Ok, no alchemy active, drivers all up to date. Set the sound settings to lower sample rate.

At the first explosion, however, it happened. Thinking back now, it is happening EVERY time an explosion occurs, and I think every time there is enemy fire (SAM launch). Crash log again included, but nothing new there, I think.

 

I'll mess with the video settings to see if this fixes it, but any ideas on which specific settings to change?

crashlog (2).doc

[Panzertard]

Ok, no alchemy active, drivers all up to date. Set the sound settings to lower sample rate.

At the first explosion, however, it happened. Thinking back now, it is happening EVERY time an explosion occurs, and I think every time there is enemy fire (SAM launch). Crash log again included, but nothing new there, I think.

 

I'll mess with the video settings to see if this fixes it, but any ideas on which specific settings to change?

 

So did you try to disable all sounds? (not just lowering the sampling rate)

As in disabling the devices.

 

I still would suspect sound - I use the same video setup as you - no problems. But you have a different sound system, a sound system that frequently have started to appear in configurations where people have reported problems.

[Ginsu]

I'll try that tonight. My question of course then becomes, if it is related to the sound, how do I fix that?

[Panzertard]

Good question - it may be fixed ny using other codecs - if it's the OGG files that are the problem - but the DCS also plays WAV files.

Or it may be fixed by using alternative drivers.

Or different sampling (what you just tried).

Or a different sound-system ... I guess you didnt want to hear that of course.

 

But let's try to find the culprit first :)

[Ginsu]

OK.

I disabled the sound (both ingame and in the device manager), rebooted, and...as soon as I clicked the DCS icon, an error message came up telling me the launcher had failed and shut down. I did this of course several times to make sure. I re-enabled the sound device through the device manager and DCS launched without problems.

 

However, once in the instant action, I had repeated crashes to the desktop while approaching the town and settling into a hover, NONE of which, I might add, were associated with explosions (crash log attached, same as before). I'm guessing this could have been a SAM launch or other effect associated with the effect.dll that I didn't initiate. Either way, CRASH.

 

So, game won't load without the sound enabled, but won't play without crashing with the sound enabled. I'm ready to troubleshoot - what's next?

121009.doc

[Panzertard]

OK.

I disabled the sound (both ingame and in the device manager), rebooted, and...as soon as I clicked the DCS icon, an error message came up telling me the launcher had failed and shut down. I did this of course several times to make sure. I re-enabled the sound device through the device manager and DCS launched without problems.

 

It wont work unless you disable it in both the game and device manager, hence why I've written some instructions on how to do it previously - you need to read the url and look at the image in detail;

You could also try to disable sound entirely to figure out this is part of the problem; http://forums.eagle.ru/showpost.php?p=792951&postcount=21

If you get no crashes when the sound is disabled, then we know for sure what we can try to fix .. :)

 

OK.

However, once in the instant action, I had repeated crashes to the desktop while approaching the town and settling into a hover, NONE of which, I might add, were associated with explosions (crash log attached, same as before). I'm guessing this could have been a SAM launch or other effect associated with the effect.dll that I didn't initiate. Either way, CRASH.

Seen two types of problem related to SAM launches - stutter & crashes.

Both were related to drivers, SATA drivers for the stutter and sound drivers for crashes.

I'm about to run out of ideas if we cannot positivly confirm that it is the sound that causes this. :)

If such is the case - we may have to look at your system again, to see if there's something we've missed :)

 

Just to make it clear - not sure if I've asked this previously.

- No overclocking while troubleshooting, we need to eliminate overclocking as a contributing factor.

- No mods, now - nor during upgrade from 1.0 -> 1.0.1. Need to keep those out of the loop until we've figured out the cause.

[Ginsu]

Dutifully followed your instructions as before, disabling sound in the OPTIONS menu in the game AND in the device manager tab (per your previous link) before starting the game.

 

After disabling the sound in the device manager, I was prompted for a restart, then tried to run the game and got the error "Launcher.exe has stopped working".

 

Repeat, the game will not launch when I have disabled the sound through the device manager AND the in-game options menu. As soon as I re-enable sound through the device manager, the game will launch, albeit with the crash to desktop as previously mentioned.

 

No overclocking here at all. No mods whatsoever. Clean install of both the game and the update. Tomorrow morning, I may remove the game completely and reinstall to see if that does any good.

 

Thanks for your help so far. I love the game - played well on my old system, but this new system seems to have problems with it.

[Panzertard]

Sorry to hear - Let's hope someone else can come up with some fresh ideas. :)

[Ginsu]

Success, my friend!

 

Just not sure why exactly. Uninstalled DCS and my audio drivers this morning. I'll list the exact order in case anyone else has the same issue (since I'm not sure exactly which part fixed it). I also installed the game to a NON-SYSTEM drive under EagleDynamics folder and NOT the program files folder.

 

Reinstalled DCS (run setup as administrator)

reboot

reinstalled audio drivers

reboot

Launched the game, no lag, no crashes

Updated to 1.0.1b (run as administrator)

reboot

Launched, no crashes

Updated 1.0.1c (run as administrator)

reboot

Launched, no crashes.

 

issue seems fixed, although I'm not sure exactly why. I'm sure it could happen again, so I'll be sure to post if I have any other problems. Now, a few more refresher hours and I'll be ready to start tackling some multiplayer.

 

thanks for all the help.

[Panzertard]

Altough we didnt discover the original cause, I'm thrilled that it seem to have fixed it for you :)

[Ginsu]

Well, several missions into a campaign and I'm having the exact same problem. I'm on the downed pilot rescue mission first campaign and when the guns in the trees open up, CRASH TO DESKTOP! It's worked without difficulty on every other mission thus far, independent of what effects (guns, explosions, etc.) were present.

 

starting to get a bit disheartened with this!

 

EDIT: Same error now on any mission when effects.dll executes. HELP!!

Crash log and error log attached. Could you have a look at it and tell me what it indicates?

DCS-20091215-032608.doc

Error.txt

Edited December 15, 2009 by Ginsu

[Ginsu]

STILL having crashes. I have tried the following:

using onboard audio - crash

using legacy video drivers - crash

updating audio drivers - crash

unplugging input device - crash

reinstalling DCS - crash

updated chipset drivers, flashed BIOS - crash

 

Error log attached to previous post, crash attached to this one.

 

I have seen several other posts with this problem (effects.dll). Does ANYONE have ANY ideas about what I might do?

Should I reinstall to a different drive/folder? Can I uninstall the codecs that have previously been mentioned as a problem with Creative sound cards?

 

I'm getting desperate. thanks

DCS-20091216-225459.doc

Edited December 16, 2009 by Ginsu

[Ramstein]

have you gone to a video card like forum like http://www.guru3d.com/ and asked in there about maybe video card issues?

[Panzertard]

I have seen several other posts with this problem (effects.dll). Does ANYONE have ANY ideas about what I might do?

Should I reinstall to a different drive/folder? Can I uninstall the codecs that have previously been mentioned as a problem with Creative sound cards?

 

I'm getting desperate. thanks

 

This is indeed a hard nut to crack, Ginsu.

As for Effects.dll I would assume it responsible for handling the effects - sounds, explosions etc. That may include special sounds or 3d-object/texture files to be loaded.

With that in mind anything below may contribute to the problem you are having;

- Sound

- Graphics

- Filesystem / permissions / system health or problems

 

If you truly *can* get rid of any SB codecs, do it. It depends if their uninstall routines have been properly coded ...

 

Personally, I'm running out of ideas... we might need some fresh ideas on this one again.

[Panzertard]

Additional *idea*.

Over in other gaming communities I've seen people having issues when using 12Gb memory and certain games. Maybe this can be part of the problem?

 

Is it possible for you to run with 6gb while testing?

[Ginsu]

I have now done a complete format and Win 7 reinstall. So far everything seems to be working fine. I'll keep you posted.

 

I had hoped to be able to pinpoint something specific to fix and thus help anyone else who has had this problem, but instead I just used the "nuclear option."