0.25 Bugs, My list of randomly (un)reproducible bugs.

[MGCJerry]

I've tried now for several days to pinpoint and reproduce a laundry list of bugs I have encountered since 0.25 to no avail...

* I have done a complete hardware burn in test over 24 hours, and even under-clocked.

* Memtest came up clean after 8 passes.

* Did a complete overnight virus scan using housecall (19 "threats" - all php files from my honeypot, these are ineffective on windows, even with php installed).

* HD surface scan using spinrite. Disks OK.

* Furmark video burn-in test. (Saints Row 3 maxxed out runs great for HOURS on end BTW)

* Hardcore rendering in Carrara Test scenes using all 8 cores.

Here are my specs.

MB: ASUS Sabertooth FX990

CPU: AMD FX-8120 8 core (Dihydrogen Monoxide Cooled 37°C while running KSP)

RAM: 8GB g.skill Dominator (DDR3, 1666)

VGA: MSI H6770 1GB (driver 8.961.0.0) I know its an old one, but the newest driver creates issues elsewhere)

AUDIO: Realtek HD Audio (driver 5.10.0.6251)

OS: Windows XP SP3 32bit

HDS:

320GB WD Enterprise, 10K RPM (firmware up-to-date, 3 partitions - C:, W:, I: )

1TB Seagate Barracuda, 7500RPM (firmware up-to-date, 3 partitions - L:, D:, E: )

1.6TB HP MSA1000, RAID6, 15K RPM (multiple firmwares, 1 partition - S: )

BOOT: Acronis Loader -> Windows NTLDER

boot.ini: multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Mah XP" /FASTDETECT /USEPMTIMER /NoExecute=OptIn

Whenever I try to reproduce one bug, something else crashes, or something else. I've run KSP probably 200 times over the last 5 days and I have found only a single trend. I've gone as far as saving each output_log.txt but I have nearly a GB of logs (all are 15+MB each). I've done research, and found issues seem to be relating to AMD processors, and every thread I've seen referenced on google, I don't have permission to view (here on the forums). People have suggested the /3GB boot.ini switch, but it disables my 3D acceleration, and audio card. Removing the /USEPMTIMER switch creates all kinds of new and interesting system bugs, and its part of the AMD kernel mode driver for the multi-core AMD Opteron processors for Server2003 and stuff to correct RTC drift by using a different timer.

However, today is an exception, and I cannot reproduce any of these bugs I have. Its working great, for now.

During the day, the game seems to have all kinds of bugs and crashes. However between the hours of 2AM-8AM the game has not crashed (goofed off because I couldnt sleep). BUT, except for today during the day. It has run fine for 2 hours (no crashes) even if my planes suddenly start to Bounce Down the Runway (craft file link) after a couple seconds. Restarting KSP fixes it.

Here's a list of the bugs, steps I've tried taking, and the result.

Methodology:

* When I get a crash (the "Oops" popup), its called a 'crash'.

* Check the logfile size (my upload speed is TERRIBLE). renamed log to something else (1.txt, 2.txt). Quit after 80.txt, it got old...

* Reboot after system configuration change.

* Jeb a vehicle, means crash the vehicle.

* KSP runs windowed.

* Tried running with only REQUIRED processes early on. (no effect on crashing).

* When reinstalling KSP, all files are deleted and every registry entry referencing KSP.exe, squad, & harvester. Followed by reboot.

Background processes:

* Firefox (not running when 'Kerballing' seems to have no effect)

* ClamWin (file scanner only)

* MS Office Shortcurt Bar (msoffice.exe only)

* When starting KSP, I keep window focus on it until it loads to the menu.

Edit:

* Reduced video texture size to the lowest possible resolution setting. Also setting -force-opengl runs choppy and is still as crash happy.

Bug List:

* Walls of the SPH & VAB disappearing (SPH reference: http://2thextreme.org/forum_images/ksp/0.25_Bugs/badsph.jpg ).

This randomly happens after starting KSP, and building something half-arsed, Jeb'ing the vehicle (crash it), reverting to VAB/SPH.

Lauching results in an immediate crash (2 out of 3 times), with a crash on next revert guaranteed. Leaves behind a 17MB or 21MB, log respectively.

* Crash on revert.

This happens most often (estimating at least 75% of the time), usually only after 10 minutes of "playing". I can usually half-arsed build something, launch it, Jeb it, or whatever and I get a few reverts before the game crashes. Leaves behind a 50MB log.

* Crash on 2nd vehicle launch

This one happens quite often as well. I can build something, launch it, then Jeb it, land it somewhere, or get an orbit. Then click revert, and get an immediate crash. Creates a 5+MB log.

* Parts 'x' not responding on startup

This happens rarely as well. Sometimes when loading KSP, it takes much longer to load and gives me a popup that some parts aren't responding, then a windows crash dialog (This program has terminated in an unexpected way). No log file. I never have enough time to read it. Reinstalled KSP.

* Crash on new game.

Sometimes when creating a new sandbox game, KSP crashes to desktop. Sometimes without error. No log file.

*Crash on going to Space Center

Rarely after a half-decent launch and getting into LKO, I run into an issue where I click "Space Center" and KSP crashes. These are the smallest logfiles. but I HAVE NOT been able to get this far to reproduce it reliably. KSP has run fine today, so it hasn't happened. A 12+MB logfile is left behind.

* Dim & unresponsive UI menu selection

Rarely, when starting KSP when the menu comes up, its dim and completely unresponsive. Restarting KSP does not always fix it. No logfile. Reinstalling KSP seems to be the only DEFINITE fix.

* Random bounce down the runway

Sometimes when building planes, I can get them to fly good, & handle well. Then I'll make a modification (small or big), then suddenly it starts doing a discotech down the runway until it Jebs. Restarting KSP usually fixes the problem. Craft file is toward the top... Here is a output_log.txt from the bouncing craft play. This overall session lasted awhile. http://2thextreme.org/forum_images/ksp/0.25_Bugs/bounce_log.txt

Honestly, I'm sure this 'report' is even acceptable. I REALLY want to be able to play KSP and I want it to be stable so I can enjoy it. I've spent more time pattern finding, troubleshooting, research, scanning, testing, etc than actually getting anything going.

Edited October 19, 2014 by MGCJerry

[biohazard15]

Wait... You're running a system with 8 Gb RAM and 8-core CPU on a 32-bit WinXP? Man, stop that necrophilia and install at least Win7 x64!

[MGCJerry]

I have a few programs that I use all the time that do not work on 7, and it hinders my workflow. Win7 is a great OS overall, but not for my needs. I gave myself 8 months to use Windows 7 when I got a new laptop and while it has improved over the years, it still cripples a major part of my workflow due to an old application incompatibility (program does not have permission to read and write to some portions of the registry and files, even when given SYSTEM permissions). Sure I can update them for a small fortune just so I can do the same stuff I'm doing now while consuming 3 times the resources. But, if you'd be willing to donate $$$ for me to buy another copy of Win7, be my guest.

Besides, 8GB was the minimum RAM I could buy, they were out of stock of the 4GB pair and the 8GB was on sale. Also my apps are 32bit, which will see no real world improvement on a 64bit OS. If server2003 wasn't graphics crippled, I'd be using it because though its 32bit it can address up to 64GB RAM. It ran great on my old DL580 w/16GB ram.

BTW, I wont reinstall and reconfigure an OS to play a game, regardless of how much I like the game.

[Padishar]

The trouble is that a 32 bit process can only address 4GB of address space and, on Win32, 2GB of that space is reserved for the OS so KSP running on Win32 can only allocate a maximum of 2GB of memory (minus the combined size of the exe and all the non-OS DLLs). KSP 0.25 on the default settings comes very close to this just getting to the main menu so you need to do something to reduce the amount of memory that it uses. The usual solutions to this are either reducing the texture quality by one (or more) notch, or by running with the -force-opengl command line switch, or by installing the Active Texture Management mod. I would recommend you try these in this order if you are still having crashes.

[MGCJerry]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention those. I had already reduced video texture size to the lowest possible resolution setting. Also setting -force-opengl runs choppy and is still as crash happy. I'll update my above post with this information as well.

<starts KSP>

System is eating 1.5GB with this window open, and KSP running.

System Information:

KSP process Only

Current processes. Rarely do I run anything else with KSP besides firefox. But this morning I was also programming.

Edited October 19, 2014 by MGCJerry

[Claw]

Well, I'm not sure, but if you suspect it's your processor, have you tried the following? (cut from the Self Help sticky):

AMD Phenom processor

Phenom CPU's can still crash even with all fixes in this thread applied, this is due to the Phenom's Turbo Core technology which can cause instability in KSP. You can disable Turbo Core in two ways:

*Add the following line to the target box of a shortcut after KSP.exe: "-force-gfx-st" (without the quotes)

*Disable it in the Bios / UEFI

Give that a swing and see what happens.

Cheers,

~Claw

[MGCJerry]

I've played KSP a lot since posting my previous reply but it ran great up until that point. I haven't had time to play it today to confirm.

After reviewing my notes I also seen that I did change my RAM speed from 1333 (auto) to 1666 (manual. The cpu, ram & board is rated to run this speed) 2 days ago. However, I have tried the -force-gfx-st switch with KSP in the past and it runs as smooth as frozen molasses. Though the last several times I've loaded KSP last night, it ran well but I still went into my bios and turned off "Turbo Core". The funny thing about this is that it seems to improve the CPU scores in performance test by 1%. If this combination fixes KSP, I'll be very happy then I can finally move my space program to 0.25. I spent most of last night trying to blow up *all* of KSC with a huge rocket/bomb combination and had no KSP crashes.

When I keep encountering weird things (like excessive crashing that nobody else is reporting) it makes me want to find out why especially since I love KSP.

I'm going to compile another list of some stuff, and do some experimentation. This may be my last AMD build (but the price was right at the time) because there seems to be some AMD specific issues out and about. This is my first AMD build since the Athlon T-bird XP-xx00 days.

For now, we can call this solved but I still want to run some more tests and get more play out of KSP before I call it.

[rosenkranz]

Yeah, sounds to me like a memory overrun crash. I used to have the same issues on my old machine.

I'd advise using the -opengl switch (may not work for every video card) and Active Texture Management mod. My current machine has 32gb but KSP still crashes somewhere over 3.3gb. Just using ATM, mine now stays around 2.7gb max.

Since you're running winx32 you're crash theshold will be even less. ATM should get a stock install to just about 1gb. The -opengl switch (if it works) should do you even better. My radeon doesn't seem to like the opengl, otherwise, i'd be using that as well.

[MGCJerry]

I've used the -opengl switch but makes KSP render 7 frames every other week. It seems to really despise my Radeon card as well. Recently I've went into Catalyst and created a profile for KSP and turned off all the fancy graphics options.

I have not actually had a KSP crash for a few days now even after HOURS of crashing rockets, and "experimenting". I've actually got to see the exit dialogs! I have now moved over to .25 and left the previous version.

I'm actually VERY wary about using mods because when I tried using Remote Tech, mechjeb, void, FAR, NEAR, (installed one at a time) it seemed to make the game less stable (back in the .21 days or whatever when I got KSP). FAR & Mechjeb gave me the most instability back then even as recent as ARM version.

It seems turning off all the fancy graphics options in Catalyst, and lowering every KSP setting to the lowest seems to have resolved these issues on my machine. KSP has crashed once (lockup, today) since my last reply. I think we can mark this topic as Resolved.

My solution that worked for me:

WinXP (32bit) & AMD 8 core & Radeon video card

* Create a Catalyst profile for KSP.exe and set all settings to the lowest and not "application controlled".

* Set ALL KSP settings to the lowest possible graphics settings.

* RAM was originally under-clocked by BIOS (1333). Set it to my RAM rated speed to 1600 (I doubt this makes a difference).