Game freezes while building rocket

[VaPaL]

Version: 1.0.4 - Steam

Had a demo version before.

Explanation: The game 'disappear and reappear again', like it had been minimized and maximized alone. It occurred seldomly at start (even on the demo version). Now, it happens more frequently and the game started freezing while building a rocket, forcing me to restart my system. Sometimes the mouse cursor still responds, others not. The sound keeps on, repeating the split second sound (characteristic of freezes). It happens of the game recover after some minutes, but also already gave me one blue screen.

The screen sometimes go black.

System Specs:

-Dell XPS L502x

-Windows 7 64bit

-8GB RAM DDR3 1600MHz

-NVIDIA GT540M 2GB

-Intel HD Graphics

-Intel Core i7 2670QM 2.20GHz

-HD 700GB - 461GB Free

Output_log: https://www.dropbox.com/s/9rtr2zwcq1xe4n3/output_log.txt?dl=0

[Padishar]

I don't see anything obvious in your log, the correct GPU is being detected and the log just stops with no indication of any problem.

The first thing I would check is that the GPU isn't overheating causing it to crash and the driver to reset it. Then I would check for updated drivers, first for your GPU and then for other parts of the system (I think Dell has a website for this).

After that, I'd start to suspect a more general hardware problem, e.g. RAM, so some general hardware diagnostic type checking including a full memory test might be an idea.

[VaPaL]

I mesure de GPU and CPU as well as the Memory data using Open Hardware Monitor, at the moment that the game freezes, the GPU temp was 67C, the CPU 87C and Memory data was 4,6/3,3 GB (used/free).

As for the drivers, I was running the latest update by NVIDIA, then I unistalled it and clear installed the latest driver released by Dell.

Just run SiSoftware Sandra Lite benchmarks and hardware analysis and everything looked fine. Also just played 20-25 minutes of Bioshock Infinite and everything went fine (102C/90C CPU/GPU temp).

Update: it froze during a flight with the lowest settings and KPS.exe won't quit and will give me a blue screen when a restart or shut down my sistem.

New log and other files: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/csbel6dva07edjh/AACu4HQ0ttC5Pnd4vjIG29Ala?dl=0

[sal_vager]

Hi VaPaL, you will need to find your Windows event log and find the exact stop error that occurs when your computer stops responding, please see here for more information [Link to Windows stop errors]

Please find what the error is.

[VaPaL]

Fortunately or unfortunately I hadn't blue screens on my attempts today, but I made a interesting observation. I played four times with different graphics config, highest, between highest and default, default and lowest. On highest and lowest the game froze very fast, after 5-10 min of play, and during flight. Between highest and default, it took about 30 min to freeze and with default (except fullscreen and 1366x768 res) it took 60-90 min to freeze, both while building.

The "The game 'disappear and reappear again', like it had been minimized and maximized alone." problem stopped.

Another important note is that it never froze during tutorials (made up to docking), but they were made near default graphics config.

The blue screens happened about 3x and I have already about 20-25 freezes. Two occured when I was able to end the game but KSP.exe kept running on the background. One happened when I was trying to restart my system and other after some hours on stand by, about 3h. The one that happened during the game was the first, the game recovered for a couple of seconds then the blue screen appeared.

[sal_vager]

Ok VaPaL, please list all processes running in the task manager when you play KSP, the easiest way to do this is to take screenshots of your taskmanager.

Do endeavour to capture the stop error message, also please test your system memory with the memtest86+ tool [LINK].

[VaPaL]

All the process running while playing KSP are on the images 1 to 5. The memory passed the test, the results are on the image 'Memory results'.

I don't have time today to try a blue screen, but as soon as a have, I'll try and post the results.

Link to the images: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/csbel6dva07edjh/AACu4HQ0ttC5Pnd4vjIG29Ala?dl=0

[VaPaL]

I got some spare time after launch so I played again, none blue screens until now, but I manage to close the game while frozen and saw this message "nvidia display driver stopped responding and has recovered".

I searched a little but haven't found nothing conclusive.

EDIT: The KSP.exe kept running after I closed the game, so I restarted my system, causing a blue screen.

Stop error message:

DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE

STOP: 0x0000009F (0x00000000000000003, 0xFFFFFA8007CAA10, 0xFFFFF80000B9C3D8, 0xFFFFFA800D61FC60)

Imagen on the same dropbox link

Edited September 13, 2015 by VaPaL

[John FX]

I also have had this issue, I suspect that KSP (via Unity) throws commands at the GFX card very quickly in the VAB causing the GPU to crash. I could play for hours in flight, map and KSC screen then after 2-10 seconds in the VAB I got a GPU crash from my normally stable NVidia GTX570. The card did not overheat after looking at the GFX card logs and KSP did not leave anything in its log to show any abnormal behavior. This happened independent of stock or modded. I am hoping that U5 will fix this as it did not happen with the previous version of Unity (4.5.5f1) or a new GPU driver may address the issue although this only happens with KSP.

The workaround I found was to underclock my GFX card to stop the crashes. I used MSI Afterburner to reduce from 700 to 600 and now my system is very stable in the VAB.

[sal_vager]

"nvidia display driver stopped responding and has recovered"

Definitely something wrong with the gfx card, I searched the stop message and came up with this [LINK], it may be that you have the incorrect driver installed.

I suggest you run dxdiag (start, run, type dxdiag) and see what your graphics hardware is, as KSP and sisoft sandra may be misreporting the card if the driver is incorrect.

[VaPaL]

I got the driver I'm using from Dell (http://www.dell.com/support/home/us/en/04/Drivers/DriversDetails?driverId=RRN66), its a GT 525M/GT 540M driver apperently.

The dxdiag only show the Intel Graphics, put a printscreen on the dropbox folder. I saved the dxdiag infos and searched on the .txt it created for 'nvidia' found a GT540M in System Devices, also put the .txt on the dropbox folder.

I searched what GPU Dell XPS L502x has, discovered that it could have both.

EDIT: Downloaded the GT525M driver from the NVidia site. Its the same as the one I had for GT540M. Also n system, manage devices it shows as GT540M, so it's the same for both.

Edited September 13, 2015 by VaPaL

[VaPaL]

I also have had this issue, I suspect that KSP (via Unity) throws commands at the GFX card very quickly in the VAB causing the GPU to crash. I could play for hours in flight, map and KSC screen then after 2-10 seconds in the VAB I got a GPU crash from my normally stable NVidia GTX570. The card did not overheat after looking at the GFX card logs and KSP did not leave anything in its log to show any abnormal behavior. This happened independent of stock or modded. I am hoping that U5 will fix this as it did not happen with the previous version of Unity (4.5.5f1) or a new GPU driver may address the issue although this only happens with KSP.

The workaround I found was to underclock my GFX card to stop the crashes. I used MSI Afterburner to reduce from 700 to 600 and now my system is very stable in the VAB.

Will try that later, but my problem is slightly different. I had 2 freezes on flight, and the time it take to freeze in VBA varies a lot, from some second to several minutes. But my GPU is fine for other games, such as Bioshock Infinite.

[sal_vager]

Okay, according to your dxdiag, you don't have an Nvidia card.

This suggests you're on a low power mode and the Nvidia is disabled, please check your power settings and ensure the laptop is plugged in.

If the laptop has a physical switch or key combination to toggle the graphics card, please make sure the Nvidia is enabled.

It's possible that the Nvidia is disabled in the Bios/Uefi, please see your laptop documentation and ensure the Nvidia is also enabled there.

[VaPaL]

From my research, its because de laptop uses Intel Graphics for everyday tasks and switches to NVidia for more demanding tasks.

On the NVidia Control Panel, it says tha KSP runs on NVidia GPU.

Is that right or I need to go further?

[sal_vager]

I think your computer is switching to the Intel card while you play, can you force it to use the Nvidia only?

[VaPaL]

Yes, I did that now, played, and it froze the same way again. Perhaps even quicker.

[sal_vager]

There should be an option to run KSP with the Nvidia when right clicking the KSP.exe

[VaPaL]

Did that now, it still froze. I put the KSP.txt file on dropbox, this is showing repeatedly at the moment that it freezes:

[EXC 18:49:12.137] NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

ModuleParachute.SetConvectiveStats ()

ModuleParachute.FixedUpdate ()

I looked this file after and it shown the same message repeatedly in the same way

[sal_vager]

There's nothing in the log to say what's causing these crashes though, the new error is probably caused by corruption from one of these previous crashes, so you should verify the game cache in the Steam client.

The crashes you are having suggest something seriously wrong with your system though, have you rebooted since installing the drivers?

[VaPaL]

Yes, I have rebooted. From Steam I got two corrupet files, that will be replaced.

I susppected that it was my system from start, but I can find anything wrong and it normal for everything else. I getting out of options in my range

[sal_vager]

Okay I have been searching some more, this may be hard to fix.

ReviverSoft says it's related to sleep mode or hibernation, and should be fixed by updating the bios [LINK].

Microsoft is just confusing, I don't know what "A device object has been blocking an IRP for too long a time." means [LINK]

Microsoft Answers blames Symantec [LINK] or power settings [LINK]

ComputerHope is pretty generic, basically "It's your hardware or driver" [LINK]

SevenForums also suggests it's caused by power management [LINK]

So I think you need to reset your power management, making a new user account should do that, also don't allow the laptop to go to a low power mode before playing KSP, don't even let the screensaver start, and look into updating the bios/uefi.

If none of that works I'd personally consider re-installation of the OS.

[VaPaL]

Thanks! I'll read through that I try it. It'll take me a while for that, but I post my results when done.

Thanks again!

[VaPaL]

Update: the problem persists.

I tested my Memory, GPU and CPU again and found nothing wrong again. I also updated to Windows 8.1.

The problem could be some incompatibility with my hardware or the game itself, since my hardware seems ok after all these tests.

I had compatibility problems before, with my Saitek X52 PRO, I can't use it with the laptop, but it works fine with every other one I tried.

[sal_vager]

Is KSP detecting your gfx card properly now? It'll say it at the top of the KSP.log

[VaPaL]

Yep, BTW updated the log on dropbox.