All games using unreal engine crash

[BloodRayne]

Hey guys,

I've been struggling with this problem on/off for some time now. I have had it on several different pieces of hardware, but lets concentrate on my current setup: Acer M7720, Intel® Core i7 processor i7-920, 6GB DDR3 RAM and an NVidia GTX 285 running on Vista Home Premium 64 bits. Important: I have these exact same issues using an Ati Radeon HD4750 HD.

The issue is as follows, any game based on the unreal engine crashes during explosions (e.g. large particle effects). The crash is so severe that my rig reboots, there are no entries whatsoever in the eventlogs (system, application etc.) and no windows 'messages'. It doesn't even go into the problemreports as windows can't even register the crash. The PC just... reboots. I've tried several different BIOS settings (e.g. halt on error) to no avail.

This happens in Bioshock, Gow, Jericho and others. The strange thing is before I could run these games fine on my old rig (AMD 2800+ with a much simpler setup). I can run other games in maximum settings for hours straight, think Crysis, Assasins Creed etc..etc.. So far testing has shown that this happens only on Unreal Engine 3 based games. I can play GoW for 5 minutes, then crash&reboot. Same goes for Jericho and Bioshock.

So far I have tested my memory using several programs running overnight, no issues. The heat of my card is very well controlled, it does not go over 60 degrees celcius, it has a 750 watts power supply, the CPU runs even cooler at 28 degrees idle and 34 when under stress. I have ruled out any hardware issues, the system is healthy. I am using the latest drivers for audio, video and the mainboard and have used driver cleaner several times while trying to reinstall drivers.

I don't know what other avenues to try so any help is appreciated!

[Sir_Brizz]

Jericho isn't Unreal Engine so it seems more like a particle effect issue or something.

[shoptroll]

I had a similar problem on a old rig a few years back. System would crash on the UT2003 intro video when the confetti explosion happened. Do a visual inspection of your hardware and look for bulging capacitors. I found one or two that ruptured when I tried to diagnose the problem.

[BloodRayne]

I guess I should've been more clear.

I'm talking about the Unreal 3 engine. (And yes, Jericho is built on the Unreal 3 engine). UT2003 runs fine. The hardware is all checked out. It must be some lingering driver issue or stupid setting somewhere.

[Sir_Brizz]

Jericho is not UE3.

[Phopojijo]

Yeah Clive Barker's Jericho is not Unreal Engine 3... it's a proprietary engine.

When I had these types of errors, it was a motherboard error... try unplugging the PC and popping the CMOS battery for ~2 minutes (or if you have a BIOS reset jumper on your motherboard... that works too). Some BIOSes have been known to keep settings even after they hide the entry TO change it -- ex: if you set memory to auto after you adjust the memory timings... you will not be able to see or adjust the memory timings until you set it back to manual BUT the manual settings you had BEFORE you set it auto will still be set even though it should be set to frickin' auto... meaning you'll need to set memory to manual, reset timings to auto, then set memory back to auto... and you will not know this because when it's set to auto you cannot see what settings the subsettings are set to...

Yes... some BIOSes just aren't intuitive.

[NRG]

Maybe update DirectX? I've seen games on a fresh install of Windows 7 not work because it's missing some of the newest and oldest stuff. The last update is very important for it. If you're not on Win7, I'd still get it anyway.

Latest DX9/10/11 Redist
Extract to new folder > run setup.exe

[BloodRayne]

*pops eyes* damn guys, you're right. Jericho is *not* U3 engine. How the hell did I get to think that? Phopojijo: Thanks, I had reset and flashed the bios to no avail in an earlier stage of troubleshooting. I'm now up to the latest version. Memory tests come out right, with the exact specs they should be. NRG: Dx is updated (both Dx9 and 10 were installed but somehow DX is showing I'm running version 11). I'm currently using Vista Home Premium 64 bits. After this I just came to the stupid realisation that my troubles started with the SP2 update from Vista.

Weirdness being I can run any other game fine.. I think it has either something to do with audio (drivers/hw) or there's some 64 bit stuff screwing around. I also found out I can play GOW far longer (20 mins instead of 5 mins) when making my audio 2 channels instead of 7.

Here's my full specs:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 11/8/2009, 08:54:36
Machine name: VERTIGO
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium (6.0, Build 6002) Service Pack 2 (6002.vistasp2_gdr.090803-2339)
Language: Dutch (Regional Setting: Dutch)
System Manufacturer: Acer
System Model: Aspire M7720
BIOS: Default System BIOS
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz (8 CPUs), ~2.7GHz
Memory: 6134MB RAM
Page File: 1741MB used, 10638MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 7.00.6002.18107 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: GeForce GTX 285
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_05E3&SUBSYS_12813842&REV_A1
Display Memory: 3817 MB
Dedicated Memory: 1005 MB
Shared Memory: 2811 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1200 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Monitor: AMILO LSL 3260W
Driver Name: nvd3dumx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvwgf2umx.dll,nvd3dum,nvwgf2um,nvwgf2um
Driver Version: 8.16.0011.9107 (English)
DDI Version: 10
BGRA Supported: Yes
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Driver Date/Size: 9/27/2009 15:12:22, 9441384 bytes
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
WHQL Date Stamp: n/a
Device Identifier: {D7B71E3E-46A3-11CF-6178-8A321EC2C535}
Vendor ID: 0x10DE
Device ID: 0x05E3
SubSys ID: 0x12813842
Revision ID: 0x00A1
Revision ID: 0x00A1
Video Accel: ModeMPEG2_A ModeMPEG2_C ModeVC1_C ModeWMV9_C <snip>

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0888&SUBSYS_10250198&REV_1001
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: RTKVHD64.sys
Driver Version: 6.00.0001.5864 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: n/a
Date and Size: 6/2/2009 17:15:14, 1766944 bytes
Other Files:
Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
HW Accel Level: Basic
Cap Flags: 0xF1F
Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
HW Memory: 0
Voice Management: No
EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No


------------------------
Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives
------------------------
Drive: C:
Free Space: 45.9 GB
Total Space: 238.2 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B0

Drive: D:
Free Space: 287.7 GB
Total Space: 953.9 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: WDC WD10EAVS-00D7B1

Drive: E:
Free Space: 198.3 GB
Total Space: 357.3 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: WDC WD6400AAKS-22A7B0

Drive: F:
Model: HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GH15F
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 6.00.6002.18005 (Dutch), , 0 bytes

[BloodRayne]

I've been testing all weekend with Gears of War and have found a common demeanor. When I set post processing to 'high' the game crashes after some time of playing and when there are large explosions in the screen.

I was able to play for an hour on end after setting the post processing to 'medium'. This seems like a glitch in the post processing phase of the U3 engine. I will test this out with other games that have this option available as well as doing a stress test under GOW this night (I'll leave it running to see what happens).

There's nothing in my hardware that could explain this behavior, it's more than strong enough to handle anything the engine throws at it.

[BloodRayne]

I have no viruses.

[BloodRayne]

Just some updates as I am still having this issue. I have finally managed to reproduce this with a different engine than the Unreal 3 engine which leads me to believe it's NOT an Unreal thing. Unreal most likely uses some kind of instructions more than other engines.

I have however found a new driver cleaner tool that has found several old registry settings and dlls used by ATI (my former card was an ATI 4780 HD, my current card is an NVidia GTX 985). After I uninstalled/removed these driers and rebooted, suddenly GoW wouldn't run any longer.

This leads me to believe some ATI drivers were in the way, or some of my NVidia drivers were being corrupted by ATI drivers. I have gotten my Win7 upgrade but have decided to clean every old driver from my system, then reinstall all drivers. I'll keep you guys posted on any progress/fixes.

[SkaarjMaster]

Here's hoping everything runs better with Windows 7.

[BloodRayne]

After having removed the ATI remnants GOW has stopped working completely. Uninstalling all drivers and cleaning up using the driver cleaner, then reinstalling helped for al other games but GOW stops working with a 'please insert the DVD'. But the DVD is in the drive. Getting frustrated with how whenever I solve one issue another one pops up. Could this have to do with the fact that it thinks my hardware has changed? Why is it that some form of DRM is always bugging my OS'es?

*sigh*