Game Constantly and Consistently Crashing

[Shaka_Zulu]

Every game of stellaris I have played, no matter what technical or in-game settings, crashes at least 100 times per save. It gets worse as the game goes on, but it eventually becomes unplayable. I have a monster of a computer too so it shouldn't be a hardware issue. Please somebody help me with this problem because I love this game but if I can't fix this I will never play it again.

 

[AndrewT]

Right-click on stellaris.exe, properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullscreen optimizations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply, and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select the fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, refresh rate 60.

THEN test with a new unmodded galaxy.

If that doesn't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.log

 

[Shaka_Zulu]

I'm having this problem again despite listening to the above advice.

 

[AndrewT]

Does 'again' mean it was okay for a while?

Are we sure no mods were in use?

What fps are we seeing in the game?

DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

 

[Shaka_Zulu]

Yea it was bearable after the advice. I started playing it over January just on my laptop with basically no crashes and then started again recently playing on a monitor and that's when I started experiencing these crashes. Definitely no mods. Runs at bout 22 fps during a large late game war and ~80-100 fps when paused or not in a war

 

[AndrewT]

refreshRate=60
fullScreen=yes
borderless=no
vsync=no

With the above settings it should never go over 60 fps. Is GeForce Experience running maybe? That can override our settings; if so unload it before starting the game.


Please report the temperatures of your CPU and video (GPU)
1/ before starting the game up and
2/ after say 30 minutes' play.
If your PC's vendor has given you no way of reading temperatures, install
SPEEDFAN http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

[Shaka_Zulu]

Here is my temp. I still don't really think its a physical issue as I don't have these crashing problems with literally any other game I have, including other Paradox games. I can run most triple A games in 4K.

 

[AndrewT]

Well, there is something wrong if we set it to cap as 60 fps and it is running at 100! Did you unload GeForce Experience and check those settings in our launcher?

Let me see new copies of all those txt and log files I asked for before, thanks.

As to the temps, the GPU there is at 59c which is fine - problems start up around 80c. Can you get CPU temps also?

 

[Shaka_Zulu]

Yea NVIDIA was on I turned it off and it hasn't changed anything. Also the launcher keeps resetting it back to 144hz and I keep redoing it, but being capped to 60 fps doesn't really change it for me. It seems to happen most regularly when the game is autosaving. I'm playing exclusively on Ironman if that helps. Also I couldn't find the exceptions.log

 

[AndrewT]

I don't see the CPU temp in that screenshot? Granted, it's not highly utilised though.


As for crashes while saving, that can be an antivirus app getting in the way. Which one do you use?

Make sure stellaris.exe and steam.exeare in all its exceptions lists, AND it is not doing realtime scanning of the /Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/ folders.

 

[Astidur]

hi, i have the same problem, i have delete all of the game and reinstall it, and start it without mods and custem races but it keep crashing before year 2310

 

[AndrewT]

hi, i have the same problem, i have delete all of the game and reinstall it, and start it without mods and custem races but it keep crashing before year 2310

Please start your own new thread in future - similar symptoms do not necessarily come from the same root cause.

We see no crashes in this game in that dxdiag, only hangs. Are you seeing hangs, crashes, or both?

And, you've attached one save file - is that because it only happens in that galaxy?

 

[Astidur]

Please start your own new thread in future - similar symptoms do not necessarily come from the same root cause.

We see no crashes in this game in that dxdiag, only hangs. Are you seeing hangs, crashes, or both?

And, you've attached one save file - is that because it only happens in that galaxy?

i have it on other galaxies too, its only hangs most time.

 

[AndrewT]

Please do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere, and user empire designs.txt from /Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/ if you have made any custom empires or races.
- "uninstall" in Steam-Stellaris
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/Stellaris AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris folders - In particular you need to make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam Stellaris or Documents Stellaris locations, before installing again.
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add stellaris.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.


THEN Right-click on stellaris.exe, properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullscreen optimizations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply, and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select the fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, refresh rate 60.

THEN test with a new unmodded galaxy.

If that doesn't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.log

 

[Shaka_Zulu]

I don't see the CPU temp in that screenshot? Granted, it's not highly utilised though.


As for crashes while saving, that can be an antivirus app getting in the way. Which one do you use?

Make sure stellaris.exe and steam.exeare in all its exceptions lists, AND it is not doing realtime scanning of the /Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/ folders.

I'm not running any anti-virus. After the patch the problem is still persisting, with a majority of crashes happening around the autosave. There is a related problem of trying to load autosaves after a crash, causing another crash before the game fully loads. Sometimes loading the game first and then the save fixes it. Other crashes I'm seeing come after trying to build a lot of buildings, armies, or selecting a lot of ships. Another problem I'm having is every time the game crashes it chooses a new resolution and refresh rate. Main issue is still the fact that for every hour I play the game I'm spending 20-30 minutes dealing with the game crashing.

 

[AndrewT]

I'm not running any anti-virus.

In which case WIndows Defender will be active. In the Windows search box enter Ransomware. Enable Controlled Folder Access if disabled, then go into the Apps Allowed Through list. Add there stellaris.exe and steam.exe


Looking back at your dxdiag, we see three entirely unrelated crashes in stellaris.exe - not a good look! One quoting the game itself, one the DirectX11 Windows modules, one not quoting any particular module. Such crashes all over the place are typically a Windows, driver or hardware problem! But let's look further.

It is still capped to 60 fps and not hitting temps up to 80c or more, in either CPU or GPU?

Are there any ERROR or WARNING entries in the Windows Event Viewer at the times of these crashes?


Please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here, thanks.

Speccy - Free Download

Download Speccy - the System Information tool

www.ccleaner.com

 

[Shaka_Zulu]

after the patch, i get the app hang problem, but on fullscreen i get a black display with music playing and i cant close the game with alt+f4 or even use "alt+ctrl +end" only window key are working, mouse are is fixed on the game and only work on windows startmenu. i can it only kill with taskmanager.

an exceptions.log i cant found in Documents\Paradox Interactive\Stellaris\logs

i have used WinDbg to look wath happend, but i get only an:

(4c68.5350): Access violation - code c0000005 (first chance)
First chance exceptions are reported before any exception handling.
This exception may be expected and handled.
stellaris!PHYSFS_swapSLE64+0x12e51d3:
00007ff7`2dd35393 0200 add al,byte ptr [rax] ds:00000000`00000043=??

(4c68.5350): Access violation - code c0000005 (!!! second chance !!!)
stellaris!PHYSFS_swapSLE64+0x12e51d3:
00007ff7`2dd35393 0200 add al,byte ptr [rax] ds:00000000`00000043=??

Dude please start your own thread he will reply to it.

 

[Shaka_Zulu]

In which case WIndows Defender will be active. In the Windows search box enter Ransomware. Enable Controlled Folder Access if disabled, then go into the Apps Allowed Through list. Add there stellaris.exe and steam.exe


Looking back at your dxdiag, we see three entirely unrelated crashes in stellaris.exe - not a good look! One quoting the game itself, one the DirectX11 Windows modules, one not quoting any particular module. Such crashes all over the place are typically a Windows, driver or hardware problem! But let's look further.

It is still capped to 60 fps and not hitting temps up to 80c or more, in either CPU or GPU?

Are there any ERROR or WARNING entries in the Windows Event Viewer at the times of these crashes?


Please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here, thanks.

Speccy - Free Download

Download Speccy - the System Information tool

www.ccleaner.com

I don't really know how to find those error messages but this what I'm seeing in the event viewer. Also some of the crashes in the dxdiag might be me alt+f4'ing when the game freezes. Sometimes I have to force restart my whole computer too. Its been flipping from capped to uncapped so I'm not sure but its definitely not hitting 80C. Also the windows defender change seems to have reduced the number of crashes, especially the saving crashes but I will have to play more to confirm. A lot of crashes seem to happen when I queue a large number of actions, like building a number of armies or building or similar actions. However there are still crashes I can't seem to tie to any specific action.

 

[AndrewT]

That line in WEV you selected shows the crash in Windows' DirectX11 module. Do the other ERROR lines there show the same thing?

We can try this: In your Steam Library right-click on this game and choose Properties. In the Launch Options line, paste this in there:
-dx9

And test with a new galaxy. Do you get similar issues?

 

[Shaka_Zulu]

It definitely has my game running better but I'm still getting one kind of crash that reads as follows in the event viewer:
Log Name: Application
Source: Application Error
Date: 2/29/2024 8:26:39 PM
Event ID: 1000
Task Category: Application Crashing Events
Level: Error
Keywords:
User: ALIENWARE18\jsilv
Computer: Alienware18
Description:
Faulting application name: stellaris.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x65d644d9
Faulting module name: stellaris.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x65d644d9
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000000091402
Faulting process id: 0x0x67A8
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1DA6B86DC349D3D
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\stellaris.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\stellaris.exe
Report Id: ab61041c-ffdd-4a58-aa36-81894ac16189
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" Guid="{a0e9b465-b939-57d7-b27d-95d8e925ff57}" />
<EventID>1000</EventID>
<Version>0</Version>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>100</Task>
<Opcode>0</Opcode>
<Keywords>0x8000000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2024-03-01T03:26:39.8705184Z" />
<EventRecordID>255622</EventRecordID>
<Correlation />
<Execution ProcessID="10800" ThreadID="32640" />
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Alienware18</Computer>
<Security UserID="" />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data Name="AppName">stellaris.exe</Data>
<Data Name="AppVersion">1.0.0.0</Data>
<Data Name="AppTimeStamp">65d644d9</Data>
<Data Name="ModuleName">stellaris.exe</Data>
<Data Name="ModuleVersion">1.0.0.0</Data>
<Data Name="ModuleTimeStamp">65d644d9</Data>
<Data Name="ExceptionCode">c0000005</Data>
<Data Name="FaultingOffset">0000000000091402</Data>
<Data Name="ProcessId">0x67a8</Data>
<Data Name="ProcessCreationTime">0x1da6b86dc349d3d</Data>
<Data Name="AppPath">C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\stellaris.exe</Data>
<Data Name="ModulePath">C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Stellaris\stellaris.exe</Data>
<Data Name="IntegratorReportId">ab61041c-ffdd-4a58-aa36-81894ac16189</Data>
<Data Name="PackageFullName">
</Data>
<Data Name="PackageRelativeAppId">
</Data>
</EventData>
</Event>