Random Crashes

[Slith]

I've been running Steel Beasts PE on my 8800GT with no problems until recently. I believe the 195.62 Nvidia display driver might be causing issues.

I can play for a few minutes to a few hours, until at some point the game just 'crashes'. Actually seems more like a GPU glitch or something - I can hear shots still being fired, and tanks are still moving, but the display just goes black. If I alt-tab out of the game and then open it up again, the screen will be completely white instead of completely black.

This same issue occurs when I try to run a livestream of the game. Once the livestream software is turned on, tabbing back into the game will cause this same graphical glitch.

Tabbing in and out does not otherwise cause these issues.

Occasionally this will also completely freeze up my computer and force me to reboot. I'll edit here if updating to the latest Nvidia driver [197.45] helps or not.

[Sean]

If you have not changed the driver on the computer, and it just stopped working right all of a sudden, then I would look into a hardware failure. Make sure the fan is working on the card and check to see if the GPU and caked with dust and overheating.

[Ssnake]

It may help to run it in windowed mode, so that you can at least guess the position of the red X button, and/or may be able to use Alt+Ctrl+Del for the task manager.

If it isn't a hardware problem.

...or maybe the GPU is overheating - but that should happen only after a regular amount of playtime; not too likely.

[RogueSnake79]

I ran an 8800gts till recently. And I had loads of issues with it until I replaced the cooler on it with one from thermalright.

Most makes of the 8800 have a rather large design flaw in the stock cooler. One test you can do, is to check the core temperature. Their are a few different apps you can dl that will allow you to easily view it, and control the fan. SpeedFan is one. Also, I think the nvidia software will also allow you to change the fan speed. It will be set on something like "automatic", where the rpms increase with the temperature. Set it to run full speed at all times.

And check the temp at idle. IE a few minutes after you turn the PC on. And if its something like 60C+ You have a problem. And remember also that it may seem random when it crashes, but if its hot in your house, and then another time its cool, this will directly effect how long it takes for it to over heat.

It could be a lot things like they say, but you WILL have overheating issues with these cards. A class action law suite was filed against nvidia over the 8800 GPU.

And if that turns out to be the case, buy another card. A good heatsink for it still cost 50 bucks, and you can get a newer, faster card for that these days.

I typed all of that because that is exactly what my card was doing. I RMA'ed the POS twice, and finally figured out it was just overheating.

[9erRed]

Greetings All,

-- Ref the possiable GPU Fan not running fast enough to cool the card.

-- Nvidia has issued an alert that some cards and their drivers may cause the GPU fan to turn too slow to effectively cool the card. It is a driver issue and was resolved with the issue of updated drivers from Nvidia.

Ref: Potential issues with graphics driver version 196.75

NVIDIA is aware that some customers have reported fan speed issues after installing 196.75 drivers from NVIDIA's website. NVIDIA has removed these drivers and asked its partners to also remove the drivers. Any customers still using 196.75 drivers are asked to immediately discontinue use and either roll back to their previous driver or install the new 197.13 drivers. Driver roll back help can be found here.

Download the New 197.13 Drivers (Posted March 17th, 2010):

Windows 7 and Windows Vista (32-bit)

Windows 7 and Windows Vista (64-bit)

Windows XP (32-bit)

Windows XP (64-bit)

NVIDIA apologizes to our customers that installed the 196.75 driver and experienced quality issues. For the small number of customers that did experience problems, in almost every case reverting back to our 196.21 driver immediately resolved their issues. We continue to work closely with our add-in-card partners and PC manufacturers to help resolve any additional customer issues not solved by reverting to the earlier driver. Any NVIDIA customer who has questions about their board as a result of downloading 195.75 driver should contact their board supplier.

-- I had an issue with a game suddenly freezing and the video locking up, started with some slowing down of the scroll speed then some slight tearing aspects in the game image then the stop or freeze would happen.

-- The fix was to update and install the latest nvidia drivers, issue resolved and everything running fine after the driver install as well as installing the newest Direct X drivers.

-- found that installing any other software that had Direct x included in the install (and the software not asking or checking if the one being installed was older than the current install) may have overwriten something. Latest Direct X: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/resultsForProduct.aspx?displaylang=en&productID=9C954C37-1ED1-4846-8A7D-85FC422D1388

..... Dated: Feb 2010

--- Current Nvidia issue is version 197.45(WHQL) dated:2010.04.13 [GeForce 6 up to 300 series] {note: there's a 400 series out now. GOOD GOD!}

start here and select the levels for your system: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index5.aspx?lang=en-us

Currently running a GTS250 and the drivers have a setting to set the fan speeds higher during specific events. ie:Games

All for now , use what you need.

9erRed

[Slith]

I'm almost certain it is not a cooling problem, I've had that happen to me before, and the display gets very strange, which isn't happening here.

Anyways, updated to the latest Nvidia driver, didn't fix the issue. I should add that when the game crashes I'll get a driver error pop-up and the computer will drop to the desktop looking like it's in safe mode and will be at a default resolution [looks about 800x600]. Steel Beasts will still be running, but opening it just gives a blank white screen. If I use ctrl-alt-dlt to end the process, the entire screen goes black and the computer becomes unresponsive and requires a reboot.

I'm really quite sure it's a driver/software issue and not a hardware issue. I'm not having problems with any of my other games currently and they tend to be more graphically demanding than Steel Beasts.

Additionally, I didn't have these problems until I updated my drivers.

Playing the game fine

Update driver to 195.62

A few months later play Steel Beasts again and get random crashes

Update to 197.45

Still getting these crashes

I will try getting the latest directx in case that is the issue.

[Sean]

What happens if you downgrade to the original driver?

[Slith]

What happens if you downgrade to the original driver?

I don't know what driver I was using when it worked fine, I suppose I could go through each previous driver and test... but I don't really have time for that.

Anyways, I think I've managed to narrow down the problem a bit more. The crashes seem to be happening during artillery strikes, and particularly when observing from outside a vehicle.

[Ssnake]

That may just as well be an accident, a statistical cluster without actual significance. I just don't believe that either condition (or both) are the true source of your trouble.

I mean, I don't want just handwave your observations away, but still: The overwhelming likelihood indicates a driver issue. Every month there must be literally thousands of similar game situations where other players are in the external observer position while artillery strikes occur. If this really was a Steel Beasts bug, we should receive more complaints, and we should have received them almost immediately after the release of the latest version.

[Rosmarus]

I don't know what driver I was using when it worked fine, I suppose I could go through each previous driver and test... but I don't really have time for that.

Anyways, I think I've managed to narrow down the problem a bit more. The crashes seem to be happening during artillery strikes, and particularly when observing from outside a vehicle.

Well, now that you've found out what causes the crashes there is no reason not to try older driver versions. As sSnake already mentioned it is not likely to be a bug so you have to focus on your own hardware.