Various game crashes and instability, infrequent PC hard-locks

[Seizure1990]

Hello all. I've had an ongoing issue where a variety of games will frequently crash out, some more frequently than others. Additionally, while playing a particular game, I will notice split-second geometry anomalies (the character models will distort across the screen for a brief flash, before returning to normal).

 

I've already done quite a bit of diagnostics and testing on my hardware, and am fairly certain by now that it isn't a hardware issue, or if it is, definitely not an obvious one. I have done the following:

• Ran Memtest overnight, found no errors in my ram.
• Used each of my two 8GB RAM sticks independently, and observed that my games crashed out regardless of which stick I used.
• Ran a bootable GPU memory tester for a few passes without seeing any errors (http://mikelab.kiev.ua/index_en.php?page=PROGRAMS/vmt_en)
• Ran FurMark with various settings without issue, though I'm not sure if this proves much other than I'm not overheating, which isn't really the issue. There is some noticeable stuttering in the framerate on the more intensive settings, but I am assuming this is normal and just due to my GPU not being able to keep up with the load, and completely normal
• Ran chkdsk. Not technically a hardware diagnostic, I know, but my system and games are installed on an SSD, so this is the closest I can get to verifying integrity of the drive, afaik. And anyways, the symptoms don't seem to point to a disk failure.

 

It seems awfully unlikely that both of my RAM sticks are faulty, but refuse to show any sign of this in a Memtest scan that I let run overnight (roughly 8 hours). I have been suspicious of my GPU but as I said, running the above mentioned VRAM tester doesn't show any problems, and FurMark runs along fine without any crashes, for whatever that is worth.

 

The crash logs for my games  are blow. Been playing a lot of Dark Souls III recently, so that will be the source of all these logs.

Most of them refer to d3d11.dll, and look like the below error log. They all refer to the same exception code, and all of them also refer to the same fault offset address:

Spoiler

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          11/2/2017 1:58:57 PM
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: (100)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      JesseDesktop
Description:
Faulting application name: DarkSoulsIII.exe, version: 1.15.0.0, time stamp: 0x598a43ef
Faulting module name: d3d11.dll, version: 10.0.16299.15, time stamp: 0xc2f92962
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x00000000001709b0
Faulting process id: 0x27f4
Faulting application start time: 0x01d353fed5dd4c4d
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\DARK SOULS III\Game\DarkSoulsIII.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\d3d11.dll
Report Id: e9c035f7-b6c6-4dad-8f6b-05d05bb14848
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Application Error" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>100</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-11-02T17:58:57.389516400Z" />
    <EventRecordID>521</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>JesseDesktop</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>DarkSoulsIII.exe</Data>
    <Data>1.15.0.0</Data>
    <Data>598a43ef</Data>
    <Data>d3d11.dll</Data>
    <Data>10.0.16299.15</Data>
    <Data>c2f92962</Data>
    <Data>c0000005</Data>
    <Data>00000000001709b0</Data>
    <Data>27f4</Data>
    <Data>01d353fed5dd4c4d</Data>
    <Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\DARK SOULS III\Game\DarkSoulsIII.exe</Data>
    <Data>C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\d3d11.dll</Data>
    <Data>e9c035f7-b6c6-4dad-8f6b-05d05bb14848</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

 

There was one error which referred to ntdll.dll, but I am assuming it is the same issue and just fell onto a lower level driver for whatever reason.

Spoiler

Log Name:      Application
Source:        Application Error
Date:          11/2/2017 1:12:07 PM
Event ID:      1000
Task Category: (100)
Level:         Error
Keywords:      Classic
User:          N/A
Computer:      JesseDesktop
Description:
Faulting application name: DarkSoulsIII.exe, version: 1.15.0.0, time stamp: 0x598a43ef
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.16299.15, time stamp: 0x493793ea
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x00000000000f87bb
Faulting process id: 0x3014
Faulting application start time: 0x01d353fc03f0bcbc
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\DARK SOULS III\Game\DarkSoulsIII.exe
Faulting module path: C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report Id: ab29d1a1-ca94-4c8a-8ff1-e9f6f5bde02c
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
  <System>
    <Provider Name="Application Error" />
    <EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
    <Level>2</Level>
    <Task>100</Task>
    <Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
    <TimeCreated SystemTime="2017-11-02T17:12:07.497440600Z" />
    <EventRecordID>517</EventRecordID>
    <Channel>Application</Channel>
    <Computer>JesseDesktop</Computer>
    <Security />
  </System>
  <EventData>
    <Data>DarkSoulsIII.exe</Data>
    <Data>1.15.0.0</Data>
    <Data>598a43ef</Data>
    <Data>ntdll.dll</Data>
    <Data>10.0.16299.15</Data>
    <Data>493793ea</Data>
    <Data>c0000374</Data>
    <Data>00000000000f87bb</Data>
    <Data>3014</Data>
    <Data>01d353fc03f0bcbc</Data>
    <Data>C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\DARK SOULS III\Game\DarkSoulsIII.exe</Data>
    <Data>C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll</Data>
    <Data>ab29d1a1-ca94-4c8a-8ff1-e9f6f5bde02c</Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
    <Data>
    </Data>
  </EventData>
</Event>

 

However, this isn't the only game that crashes. I have also crashed out of Heroes of the Storm, World of Warplanes, Overwatch, and Steel Division: Normandy 44. I'm sure there might be others were I to play them, but these are the ones I've been playing recently, so I can only speak for them.

 

Also, as I started to refer to earlier, I also have issues in DotA2 where character models will briefly distort, as if experiencing geometry errors. I wonder if this is the same issue as the other games, but perhaps DotA2's engine handles the errors more gracefully and just freaks out for a second before recovering and continuing on.

 

Interesting note is I don't seem to have any problems with Europa Universalis 4, which I looked up and apparrently it runs on DirectX 9, while the other games I've mentioned which do crash run on DirectX 10/11 (I believe).

 

However, DirectX is built into Windows, and I have no way of uninstalling it, or even trying to repair the installation. If I try to run the DirectX installer, it just tells me there is already a suitable version of DirectX installed, and I don't need to do anything.

 

What do I do from here? What else can I test, or verify? Is there a way to force a repair or integrity check of DirectX? Is there some diagnostics tool which runs a thorough test of DirectX functionality? Is there some thorough GPU functionality tester I could try running? Any other suggestions at all? This is driving me crazy and I'm starting to hit a dead end on this issue.

[Circaflex]

What GPU do you have? Have you tried different drivers? Are there any BIOS updates available for your motherboard?

[Seizure1990]

Sorry, I got so caught up in my testing methods I forgot to list my environment.

 

I'm running Windows 10 Pro, 16GB RAM (2x8GB), ZOTAC NVIDIA GeForce 660 GTX Ti, ASRock H170A-X1/3.1 Motherboard, Intel Core i5 6600.

 

I vaguely remember updating my BIOS a while ago, but there is a somewhat recent update from December 2016, which  Ican't remember if I applied or not. I've never seen a BIOS update fix my issues before, but I will give it a go and see what happens.

[Circaflex]

2 minutes ago, Seizure1990 said:

I vaguely remember updating my BIOS a while ago, but there is a somewhat recent update from December 2016, which  Ican't remember if I applied or not. I've never seen a BIOS update fix my issues before, but I will give it a go and see what happens.

I am usually in the same boat, however, last year I dealt with random crashes, reboots and all around stability issues and apparently it was the bios (ASUS). I had to request a beta bios and it solved my problems. I do agree though, usually a bios update wont solve major issues, but this could be one of those things.

 

Have you tried different drivers for the 660?

[Seizure1990]

I updated my BIOS to the latest available version, and my game just crashed.

 

NVIDIA has released multiple driver updates over the course of this issue. One came out recently in fact, and it's the one I am currently running.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

Have you tried temporarily disabling your security software to see if that makes any difference?

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[ThaCrip]

This probably won't work but this is worth a shot just to confirm Windows is in good running order...

 

run... "sfc /scannow" (without the ") from command prompt as administrator as that will tell you whether or not the core Windows files are intact or not.

 

p.s. in Windows 10 you can simply type 'cmd' (without the ') and when 'Command prompt' appears right click it and select 'Run as administrator' then you can run the sfc command i mentioned above.

[Seizure1990]

1 hour ago, goretsky said:

Hello,

 

Have you tried temporarily disabling your security software to see if that makes any difference?

 

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

I don't run active security software. I don't really do much that requires it, and I just manually scan my computer now and then (I've never had an infection in nearly 15 years). But yea, that isn't the issue.

 

1 hour ago, Riva said:

Try capturing a crash dump of the app and post it somewhere

Dark Souls 3 (the game I have been playing recently) doesn't seem to log crashes, oddly  So the Windows Event Viewer and the above mentioned crash reports it gives me are the only detailed technical info I have.

38 minutes ago, ThaCrip said:

This probably won't work but this is worth a shot just to confirm Windows is in good running order...

 

run... "sfc /scannow" (without the ") from command prompt as administrator as that will tell you whether or not the core Windows files are intact or not.

 

p.s. in Windows 10 you can simply type 'cmd' (without the ') and when 'Command prompt' appears right click it and select 'Run as administrator' then you can run the sfc command i mentioned above.

I actually did that shortly after making this thread, and it came up clean. Found no issues at all.

 

Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

[ThaCrip]

I know this will be time consuming but did you ever try clean installing things from scratch just to see if that fixes these issues?

 

but in case that don't work you could maybe make a image of your windows drive (with Clonezilla etc) just to put things back to the way they are now if the clean install does not work. this could save you a bit of time if you prefer not to have to reconfigure a bunch of stuff if the clean install fails to fix your issue.

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

 

In that case, perhaps you should check for malware.  Maybe your computer's GPU is running a crypto currency miner, and the games are interfering with it and causing the crash.

 

Regards,

 

Aryeh Goretsky

 

[Xahid]

4 hours ago, ThaCrip said:

I know this will be time consuming but did you ever try clean installing things from scratch just to see if that fixes these issues?

 

but in case that don't work you could maybe make a image of your windows drive (with Clonezilla etc) just to put things back to the way they are now if the clean install does not work. this could save you a bit of time if you prefer not to have to reconfigure a bunch of stuff if the clean install fails to fix your issue.

I second that, Clean install can tell you, if your hardware is faulty or not.

[Seizure1990]

I scanned with MalwareBytes free, SpyBot Search & Destroy, Emsisoft Emergency Kit, and TDSSKiller. I also ran a chkdsk on my SSD, and it did actually find some free space marked as occupied.

 

However, I am still getting occasional crashes, albeit less frequent, but I am not sure if that's just coincidence, since the crash frequency was pretty random to begin with.

 

Edit: Oh right, to clarify, the virus scans didn't find anything but the usual "tracker" bits, and some remnants of some PUPs that I had accidentally let in here and there, and already removed.

Edited November 8, 2017 by Seizure1990

[Circaflex]

Do you have a spare power supply you can run for a few days and see if the issue goes away?

[Bryan R.]

What happens if you run Prime95?

 

In Windows 10, there is more than SFC, there are also DISM checks you can try to run.

 

Have you tried a free video card benchmarking utility like the 3D Mark Demo?

[Circaflex]

1 minute ago, Bryan R. said:

Running a game isn't the only test. What happens if you run Prime95? Have you run Memtest86?

While I do agree, running a game isn't the only test, I don't necessarily think Prime95 is a great test either. I have seen a great deal of machines fail Prime95, yet be 100% stable with games and running continues loops of 3DMark, Prime95 really seems to hit the upper limit on CPUs that you wont see in any real-world scenario. The only reason I would use Prime95 is if my overclocked machine was running Seti/Folding/mining crypto-currency. However, I do agree with Memtest and I thought OP did that, but now just realized he ran single sticks to test stability.

 

I would run Memtest and see if there are any errors. If that comes back clean, I would try a different PSU for a few days.

[Seizure1990]

Interesting you mention the PSU. I've wondered about my PSU for a while, since I've had an issue where my computer will randomly turn on by its self unless I turn off the hard power switch on the back of my PSU, and this has been an issue over two different motherboards. However, were my PSU the culprit in such a situation, wouldn't it cause far more serious issues than a single app/game crashing out? I would imagine that would cause full-scale BSODs or hard machine freezes. But perhaps not?

 

Either way, no, I don't have a spare PSU to test with unfortunately, and I don't know anyone whom I can comfortably ask for that kind of favor, and also has a PSU meant for a gaming rig.

 

I have ran Memtest, yes, it's the first thing mentioned in my list of tests in my OP. I've also ran FurMark on all variety of settings, as also previously mentioned, and it didn't cause any crashes. To be fair, I didn't leave it running for nearly as long as I would generally play my games.

 

I'm not really sure what running a full-scale burn-in test would accomplish though. At absolute best, it would crash out like the game did, and then what? I am 100% sure this isn't an overheating issue. None of the symptoms or frequency of crashes point to that.

 

As I pointed out in my original post, almost all of the crash reports point to DirectX (d3d11.dll) so I am still wondering if there is any way to directly text the integrity of DirectX, or if stress testing really must be done, something which can directly stress test DirectX rather than a number of other unnecessary components like RAM and CPU.

 

I did run a bootable GPU integrity check as well, including a bootable one, also mentioned in OP, and didn't find any issues.

[Bryan R.]

1 hour ago, Circaflex said:

While I do agree, running a game isn't the only test, I don't necessarily think Prime95 is a great test either. I have seen a great deal of machines fail Prime95, yet be 100% stable with games and running continues loops of 3DMark, Prime95 really seems to hit the upper limit on CPUs that you wont see in any real-world scenario. The only reason I would use Prime95 is if my overclocked machine was running Seti/Folding/mining crypto-currency. However, I do agree with Memtest and I thought OP did that, but now just realized he ran single sticks to test stability.

 

I would run Memtest and see if there are any errors. If that comes back clean, I would try a different PSU for a few days.

I was a bit quick with my response, games weren't the only test he ran. I would be extra thorough with the memory configuration and do a clean boot - even if temporarily - to rule out software.

 

I recently did a clean install of ISO build 16299 and found a bug in the UWP that caused a system service to max out the CPU. Found that it was common on clean installs but not found in VM installs and not found in upgrades. 

 

57 minutes ago, Seizure1990 said:

I'm not really sure what running a full-scale burn-in test would accomplish though. At absolute best, it would crash out like the game did, and then what? I am 100% sure this isn't an overheating issue. None of the symptoms or frequency of crashes point to that.

A burn in test like Prime95 would only stress the CPU. If Prime95 caused a crash I would absolutely consider the processor/memory configuration over everything else.

57 minutes ago, Seizure1990 said:

 

As I pointed out in my original post, almost all of the crash reports point to DirectX (d3d11.dll) so I am still wondering if there is any way to directly text the integrity of DirectX, or if stress testing really must be done, something which can directly stress test DirectX rather than a number of other unnecessary components like RAM and CPU.

Aside from SFC scans, you can try DISM checks vis CMD: Dism /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth

[Seizure1990]

I guess I'll run Prime95 for a while and see if it can get through it. My game has been crashing a LOT less frequently since my chkdsk though, which makes me wonder... it still crashes now and then, but not as often. Perhaps there's a file system issue that chkdsk partially found and fixed, but not entirely...

 

Maybe I'll bite the bullet and go through the clean install process. God, I hate reinstalling...

[farmeunit]

I had the EXACT same issue after updating to 1709 last night.  Fine last week.  I swapped sticks of RAM, uninstalled and reinstalled drivers.  Removed some un-needed software.

 

Everything was completely fine after rolling back to 1703.

 

Core i7- 4790

16GB RAM

Radeon RX580 17.10.2, 17,10.3, and 17.11.1