Cities: Skylines (Steam) - Cities Skylines crashes my PC

[MLethbridge]

Describe your issue
Cities Skylines crashes my PC

What is your game version?
Not Sure

What expansions do you have installed?
(DID NOT ANSWER QUESTION)

What mods are you using?
None

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
Bought this game a few years ago, but never had the chance to really get into it. Back then I was able to play for a little while without any issues at all.

Now I have a relatively new PC build, and I want to spend some time playing this game, but it will crash my pc into a full restart whenever I play.

This is just a vanilla build of the game, no mods or anything else installed.

About a week ago it would crash after about 10 minutes of play, so I did some research and tried adding the -force-d3d9 into the launch options settings, and that seemed to fix it for a little bit, as I was able to play for about 20 minutes, and then saved and quit the game. But now it will crash within 5 seconds of the map loading. And by crash I mean that the entire PC just reboots, no errors or anything. That was making me think it was overheating, but I have downloaded speccy and I am watching the temps when it crashes, and the GPU is only at 45-50 deg, and the CPU is less than 40 deg. I also set up a rather aggressive fan speed profile in EVGA Precision X1. I am not sure what to think, as I can play Microsoft Flight Sim without any issues for as long as I want, and even in VR and it still has no problems. I was also able to play Half Life Alyx for a few hours without any problems either.

My current PC specs (with current temps) are:

Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro Wifi (35C)

Core i9 9900K @ 3.6 ghz (36C)

64GB Corsair Vengeance

EVGA 2070 RTX Super (42C)

Corsair 850w PSU

Cities Skylines has been installed on both a NVME drive and a SSD drive.

Any thoughts or suggestions are greatly appreciated. If there is anything else I can provide let me know. All of my drivers are also up to date.
I wish I could attach some sort of error log, but none are created. The screenshot is useless, but necessary to submit my request for help.

Can you replicate the issue? If yes, please explain how you did it.
Yes, just by starting the game.

Attachments File(s) attached

 

[want_to_know]

How to retrieve the Log file:
* On Windows, the log file is found in the Steam game install folder under Cities_Data/output_log.txt (to open the game install folder, right click your game in the Steam library, select Properties, go to the Local Files tab and select Browse local files)

 

[MLethbridge]

Here is the output log. Hopefully this helps.

 

[AndrewT]

You shouldn't need to use DirectX 9 for that hardware, what happens when you remove that now?

And was that output log taken just after one of these crashes? Because it shows no problem a all.

 

[MLethbridge]

You shouldn't need to use DirectX 9 for that hardware, what happens when you remove that now?

And was that output log taken just after one of these crashes? Because it shows no problem a all.

Thanks for the response. I assume the output log is fine because there is no time to create one after a crash. The PC literally shuts down in the middle of playing.
I removed the dxd9 today and surprisingly I was able to play for about 15 minutes without any issues. Although I also lowered the graphics settings to medium so that might contribute. I'll keep an eye on this and update if it happens again.

 

[MLethbridge]

Just an update. I have been able to play for periods of up to an hour before I would save and quit. I thought everything was fixed. 2 days ago I launched the game, and about 5 minutes in, my entire pc crashed again. Tried playing a few times after that with no issues. Just now I launched the game and it crashed my pc during the loading screen which has never happened before. Unfortunately there is no crash log created. I'm at a loss as to what could be causing this. This is literally the only program I am having this issue with.

 

[AndrewT]

Very hard to diagnose with no log or other clue.

Look in the Windows Event Viewer, are there any errors or warnings in the few minutes leading up to one of these crashes?

 

[MLethbridge]

Very hard to diagnose with no log or other clue.

Look in the Windows Event Viewer, are there any errors or warnings in the few minutes leading up to one of these crashes?

It is very difficult to diagnose without clues. I really wish I could provide something but like I said. There are never any crash reports created.

I checked in Event Viewer, and there is nothing before the crash, just right after the crash. I get Event ID 41 Kernel - Power:

"The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly."

Yesterday I decided to open up the case and checked all my connections. Removed and reseated all the RAM and the graphics card. Checked the power supply cables to the graphics card and they are all fine.

Loaded it up today, it was running fine for about 10 minutes. The graphics card was at about 53 degrees, then as I zoomed in on the map the pc crashed again.
When I'm not playing the game the graphics card sits below 40 degrees.

When I play Flight Simulator, the graphics card is around 55 degrees, and I am pushing it fairly hard with a resolution of 5120x1440. I have never had a crash on that game, only on Cities Skylines.

 

[AndrewT]

Any overclocking active in this machine? If so please try undoing that.

And what sort of fps are you seeing in the game?

 

[MLethbridge]

Any overclocking active in this machine? If so please try undoing that.

And what sort of fps are you seeing in the game?

Never overclocked in my life.

I launched it for a few minutes today just to check fps, when I am zoomed out I am getting about 87-90fps, and when zoomed in it is around 60fps.

I am kinda leaning towards this being a hardware issue, but I'm not sure where to look now.

I tried out Flight Simulator again, and the graphics card was only giving me just under 50 fps, but the temp was at 64-65 degrees and it didn't crash.

 

[AndrewT]

In your Steam Library right-click on this game and choose Properties. Click on Set Launch Options, and paste this in there:

-limitfps 60

Does that change the problem at all?

 

[MLethbridge]

In your Steam Library right-click on this game and choose Properties. Click on Set Launch Options, and paste this in there:

-limitfps 60

Does that change the problem at all?

I did as you suggested, and surprisingly it did not limit the fps at all. I was still getting between 60-90 fps. I played it 2x today for about half an hour each time with no crashes so I'll keep an eye on it again and report back when something new happens.

 

[MLethbridge]

I'm really not sure what to say about this now. A few days ago it got back into the issue of rebooting my pc within seconds of the map loading. I left it alone for a few days. Today I installed the Game Pass version from the Microsoft Store, and played for a few hours today on that version without any issues (other than the worse interface and no mods lol). Just now I tried the Steam version again and only played for about 10 minutes but it didn't crash.

 

[MLethbridge]

Just wanted to give an update as I *might* have figured this out. I haven't had a crash in almost 2 weeks. I have been playing for about 30 minutes to an hour at a time and it has had no issues. I'm thinking the problem might have been the Evga Precision x1 utility. I uninstalled it and installed the newer version and I haven't had a single problem since. Keeping my fingers crossed.