Client Hang/Pc Lock -- No idea

ezekel

Been having a crazy issue for several client versions -- this doesn't occur in any other game, weirdest thing is it ONLY occurs when I attempt to exit the game

Basically I can play ns2 any amount of time, or not even play just main menu

And I have a small % chance that when I hit 'exit' the game will hang -- during this time the mouse cursor is responsive and the computer is active, as soon as you attempt to do anything like alt tab, or task manager the computer will fully lock and you cannot do anything besides force shutdown

I don't believe there's any log created, this doesn't occur on any other game and I can't even think of what can be causing it (I also have windows aero disabled when ns2 runs, but afaik it happened even before I did that)

Any ideas? I think just killing the process from task manager is a safer way to exit the game for now

Specs
i7 3770k @ 4.2
gtx 680 2gb (latest whql-happened on 310.70 whql as well)
win 7 pro 64
8gb ram @ 1600

elodea

Dear Ezekel,

Thankyou for your query

Could you please provide me with your log.txt file the next time this issue occurs?

You will be able to find log.txt at %appdata%\Roaming\Natural Selection 2

Warm regards,
Elodea

Unofficial Technical advisory

ezekel

My log is actually showing up empty - just the basic things console shows when you first boot up the game

And I wouldn't be able to get the log because my pc force closes -- so not sure there's any type of log created (or whatever is doesn't save because it's being closed down while being written to)

elodea

Dear ezekel,

Interesting! The log file should actually automatically update in real time as you are running the game (it's being constantly saved to every time a new console event happens).
Either way, your problem more and more is starting to sound like an issue with the gpu having trouble 'reseting' itself after you exit. Could you please try the following for me?

1. Try running ns2 in fullscreen windowed/windowed in the mean time and see if that stops the problem from happening
2. And/or try exiting via alt-f4 instead of clicking exit game to confirm that it isn't a problem with ns2 necessarily.
3. Check you have up to date gpu drivers blah blah
4. The other possibility is your powersupply or power settings. Make sure your windows power settings in control panel are on balanced, normal, or high performance (no power savings!)
5. Otherwise, could you check your gpu bios version? To do this, right click on your desktop wallpaper, select screen resolution, select advanced settings. Your gpu bios version should be in either this adapter tab, or you may have to click properties -> driver tab.
6. No harm trying to update your motherboard bios either. Unless you don't know how!

Waiting on your reply in earnest,

Elodea

Unofficial Technical advisory

ezekel

@elodea

I've had my gpu on 'adaptive' under power mode forever - ages ago on an old GPU I'd get a lot of black screen(different rig, this never occurred yet) - then driver recovery in games like CS and when I set my gpu to 'full performance always' the issue went away -- you think it could be the same thing? (weird now that ns2 is triggering it, but this is different because the screen never goes black and it's a full stall

I'll exit alt f4 and see if it ever occurs again

Umm I doubt it's mobo bios related - updating my bios probably has a higher chance of causing a problem now, especially since everything functions well and hardware manager shows zero unknown devices etc -- basically everything was set it stone/adjusted when I first setup the rig

gpu ver is: 9.18.13.3221

I shouldn't have anything in 'power saving mode' the only power saving thing I have is sleep mode -- also cpu downclocks when it's not running an application (from 4.2ghz to 1.6ghz) - afaik even my mouse drivers do registry changes to force the computer out of power saving modes but I'll have a look

I'm thinking more towards the gpu global driver setting power being 'adaptive' instead of full performance, what exactly does adaptive do? Constantly down/upclock while in 3d applications?

elodea

@ezekel

Yea, adaptive means it will try to 'adapt' your gpu clock/voltage constantly in order to power save. What can happen is it might incorrectly undervolt/downclock, which would cause stability issues.

Your gpu version looks fine. That shouldn't be the problem

With the windows power options, just make sure you havn't selected "power saver".

I doubt there is an instability with your cpu that is causing this (mouse cursor works fine untill you effectively alt-tab), although if you wanted to be sure, just run a normal p95 stress test over night and disable c-states and other cpu power saving stuff in BIOS.

Also wouldn't hurt to check your temps are fine. I have heard of cases where a gpu backplate would heat up alot during gameplay, and the resulting expansion and contraction when you exit would cause the backplate to short the board. Doesn't sound like it fits your problem here, but just interesting nonetheless.

Other than that, I am out of ideas. I'm hoping playing in fullscreen windowed and/or doing alt-f4 will be enough of a fix for now..

coolitic

To shorten what ^^ said, basically some gpu's (especially old ones) get stability issues with voltage/clock issues caused by the "adaptive" setting.

ezekel

elodea wrote: »

@ezekel

Yea, adaptive means it will try to 'adapt' your gpu clock/voltage constantly in order to power save. What can happen is it might incorrectly undervolt/downclock, which would cause stability issues.

Your gpu version looks fine. That shouldn't be the problem

With the windows power options, just make sure you havn't selected "power saver".

I doubt there is an instability with your cpu that is causing this (mouse cursor works fine untill you effectively alt-tab), although if you wanted to be sure, just run a normal p95 stress test over night and disable c-states and other cpu power saving stuff in BIOS.

Also wouldn't hurt to check your temps are fine. I have heard of cases where a gpu backplate would heat up alot during gameplay, and the resulting expansion and contraction when you exit would cause the backplate to short the board. Doesn't sound like it fits your problem here, but just interesting nonetheless.

Other than that, I am out of ideas. I'm hoping playing in fullscreen windowed and/or doing alt-f4 will be enough of a fix for now..

Temps always appeared fine when I did testing -- now that it's winter temps should be lower than ever

I checked the power options and I'm on balanced (I knew I wasn't on any type of power saving) -- However I think I'm going to swap the gpu into full performance mode -- because well what else would you want when playing a game besides full performance?

Thanks for all the info -- I'll keep you posted if it happens again

DC_Darkling

if your computer truly locks up and responds to nothing, your kernel hangs. (although like @ezekel is digging for, hardware can also hang kernel)

* Let me focus on the software side. Check windows event viewer (eventvwr) for any information around the time of your crash.
* If you reproduce this effect in a short time then go to sysinternals.com and download process monitor. Enable boot logging in the monitor and reboot. After reboot hang your game as usual. Reboot again due to crash. Open monitor and it should ask if you wanna save if all went well. (if not, dont bother with monitor). Note monitor eats memory like its nothing so dont run it for prolonged periods.
* disable and unplug any unneeded hardware to run the game. So any usb stuff like printers etc. Its quite possible something is hanging your kernel, vidcard is indeed a good place to start.
* Antivirus can have gaming modes, and work on kernel depth so check those also.

ezekel

DC_Darkling wrote: »

if your computer truly locks up and responds to nothing, your kernel hangs. (although like @ezekel is digging for, hardware can also hang kernel)

* Let me focus on the software side. Check windows event viewer (eventvwr) for any information around the time of your crash.
* If you reproduce this effect in a short time then go to sysinternals.com and download process monitor. Enable boot logging in the monitor and reboot. After reboot hang your game as usual. Reboot again due to crash. Open monitor and it should ask if you wanna save if all went well. (if not, dont bother with monitor). Note monitor eats memory like its nothing so dont run it for prolonged periods.
* disable and unplug any unneeded hardware to run the game. So any usb stuff like printers etc. Its quite possible something is hanging your kernel, vidcard is indeed a good place to start.
* Antivirus can have gaming modes, and work on kernel depth so check those also.

The case is isolated to ns2 only

My pc has zero extra usbs that are not in use - my usbs are my mouse, and my monitors profile switcher -- I actually think that's it on the usb side

The rest is 3.5mm for the headphones and ps/2 for the keyboard

It's not related to any antivirus - if I never exit ns2 it will never hang, the hang only occurs when hitting 'exit' on ns2 and then attempting to kill the process (ns2.exe) or alt tab etc

I'll keep an open mind but for right now I'm sticking with leaving my gpu on full performance when gaming since in an old rig/build in the past a different issue was related to the same setting

Originally ns2 use to crash on me and bluescreen but I fixed that by giving my cpu more volts - could be possible it needs one more 0.005v to be fully stable and ns2 -- thing is when the volts were low the crash occured when playing the game, now it never crashes during the game just when exiting -- if you continue to play it continues to run fine

And the occurrence is really random, can't ever get it to reproduce doing anything

DC_Darkling

a BSOD is sort of a kernel panic.
A utter true hang is worse then a kernel panic as it even failed to do that.
So yes, hardware like vidcard or cpu can cause this. (in my experience it was a failing ssd but that may of cause vary)

ezekel

DC_Darkling wrote: »

a BSOD is sort of a kernel panic.
A utter true hang is worse then a kernel panic as it even failed to do that.
So yes, hardware like vidcard or cpu can cause this. (in my experience it was a failing ssd but that may of cause vary)

I don't see any parts failing, only thing that comes into play imo is my cpu may need an extra umph in volts or setting my gpu to max performance should solve it