My game routinely freezes my PC

[domcoppinger]

Well I have finally reached the point that I am so annoyed I am going to post a thread about it here, in the hopes that someone can help!

My problem is as follows, whenever I play my game after what seems like a random amount of time my game freezes. With this my entire computer freezes and I am forced to do a "hard reset".

Sometimes this takes a while to happen sometimes barely a minute or two in game. More recently it seems to be taking the latter. There does not seem to be a particular reason or time that causes the freeze, my game can be paused or un-paused, I can be issuing orders or negotiating a diplomatic treaty. The freeze occurs over a range of situations. Possibly modifications to the game could be causing an increase in the rate of crashes, however they don't seem to be the cause as it seems to crash even on the vanilla un-modified game.

Now, what I am wondering is this, does anyone else have this problem, or possibly a similar one? Does anyone know of any solutions? Does anyone have any suggestions?

I DO NOT have any similar issues in any other game or in windows.

Below is a series of information about my game and system, mainly to help find common causes if anyone else has the problem, but also to help find possible causes:

• System:
  Windows 7 Home Premium 64x
  i7 920 @ 3.3
  6GB DDR 3 Ram
  SSD (Windows) + 4 HDD (Steam on a HDD)
  AMD Radeon HD 6900 2GB

Game via Steam, have verified cache and reinstalled several times in an attempt to solve this problem.
Game at latest version 7.2.2
Game currently modified with Fistalis's Modern World mod + an extra .UNIT tweak (Fistalis would want me to say that his mod is NOT the causes!)

If other people report they have this problem then I will post more information in the hopes that we can find the cause!!!

This issue is truly truly ruining the game for me, especially given how often it is now happening. It is literally reached the point where when I go to launch the game but instead I decide to play something else because I know that I will only get a short play before I have to restart!!! I am going to continue to try and troubleshoot and will get back here with any new information I find!

One other purpose of this post is to give other people a place to post if they have this issue so that we can raise awareness of this issue to the developers and try and work out what the common cause is!

[domcoppinger]

Well I have checked it out and my Vanilla game seems to work fine, so I will now try with a few well used modifications, such as Fistalis Modern World, to see if it is just modifications in general that crash my PC or if it is tweaks I make!

[Fistalis]

Seeing as steam modifies the .exe it could be my mods.. Since I don't have the steam version, the only version I test on is the non steam version. I can't and won't promise compatibility with steam versions because I haven't a clue how and what they modify in the .exe and won't buy a steam version to test for issues myself.

I can say that my mods cause no extra stability issues on non steam versions.

It could be you adding too many changes in override form and have nothing to do with steam though, although that method is viable that doesn't mean its flawless. However that would only cause stability issues with the specific scenario you have modified.

[tofofnts]

Seeing as steam modifies the .exe it could be my mods.. Since I don't have the steam version, the only version I test on is the non steam version. I can't and won't promise compatibility with steam versions because I haven't a clue how and what they modify in the .exe and won't buy a steam version to test for issues myself.

I can say that my mods cause no extra stability issues on non steam versions.

(could be you adding too many changes in override form and have nothing to do with steam though, although that method is viable that doesn't mean its flawless)

I use steam and your modern wold mod runs fine, not sure about your other mods

[domcoppinger]

Well I have done more testing and it does occur in your (unmodified) mod Fistalis however it took quite a while. I still havn't had it occur in the vanilla version, it could be there but I havn't yet had it occur but I am starting to doubt this.

It also occurs (it seems to be more frequent than with Fistalis mod!) in a modifed .UNIT file I use that adds some 370 units. All of the unit codes are unused. I was wondering if the fact that the unit codes go from 6562 to 6925 (and 4 buildings from 21950 to 21953) could the unit ID's all being in the 6*** range which is usually for type 6 units (Transport units) cause issues because most of the units are from other unit types (Such as UNIT type 20 for transport ships which is typically in the 20*** range for its ID's)

I know this is a bit of a long shot but I figured that I would ask anyway!

[Fistalis]

Well I have done more testing and it does occur in your (unmodified) mod Fistalis however it took quite a while. I still havn't had it occur in the vanilla version, it could be there but I havn't yet had it occur but I am starting to doubt this.

If thats the case I should probably remove it from the public availability until I can track down whats causing it. Although to be honest I probably never will.. because I know of nothing in my mods that could cause that type of thing.

TBH I was happier when my mods were only for my private use anyway.

[number47]

TBH I was happier when my mods were only for my private use anyway.

Now, why would you even say such a thing? Erase that thought from your mind, immediately!

[domcoppinger]

I agree entirely with Number47!

Your mods bring new life to this game and this community! You are an inspiration to us all, especially those of us who aspire to mod even half as well as you do!

When I said that it occured in your mod I meant not to criticise your mod at all! I meant it more as showing how it is my computer/copy of the game that is causing the issue! Because your mod is so well used I was using it as a benchmark to see if it was just any modification to my game that was causing the freeze! It turns out that this may not have been the case at all...

I have done some more troubleshooting and I now believe that the freezing is linked to how many times I load a game. You see if I experience a crash of any kind whatsoever, or just come back to my game after having closed the program, I then try to carry on from the latest save. However because there is no information showing which save is the latest I have to load each save I have relevant to the country I am playing. Typically I have two saves for each country so I can alternate and the two autosaves because I mainly resume the game I was most recently playing. This means that I have to load, one after the other, four separate saves, then re-load the save with the latest date.

This is all well and good, but I now believe that this either directly causes, or certainly increases the rate at which, my pc freezes. I have tested this and my procedure for opening a game now goes like this. I work out which save I need to load, quit the game, open it again and then load just that latest save. Since I started doing this I have yet to see a freeze!

[number47]

...

My documents/My games/Supreme Ruler Cold War/Savegames/sort by date modified....(or any other path you might have for your savegames) this is the easiest way to see what is your last savegame before starting the game (maybe at some point in the future BG will add some savegame info to make this process even more easier )

[domcoppinger]

Great shout there Number47!

I never really thought about using the savegame folder to tell which game to go for! I have now setup a shortcut to my desktop for ease of access and hopefully this will help! Especially since my game crashed last night for some reason or other, will be great to tell which autosave to use this morning!

Edit:

;(

Turns out that both the autosaves are corrupted! The later one returns me to the home screen, the earlier one causes the game to crash when I try to load it! Which means I have to go back at least half an hour (luckily I also save manually every now and then!)

[number47]

Great shout there Number47!

I never really thought about using the savegame folder to tell which game to go for! I have now setup a shortcut to my desktop for ease of access and hopefully this will help! Especially since my game crashed last night for some reason or other, will be great to tell which autosave to use this morning!

Edit:

;(

Turns out that both the autosaves are corrupted! The later one returns me to the home screen, the earlier one causes the game to crash when I try to load it! Which means I have to go back at least half an hour (luckily I also save manually every now and then!)

On some rare occasions, when I load the game I crash to desktop with "has encountered the problem and needs to shut down" message. I just start the game again and the savegame loads just fine (to my delight)...
So, I really don't know what to suggest to you, I'm just glad that the problems I encounter with the savegame crashing is not serious (obviously not a corrupt save but some other loading instability issue)

[SGTscuba]

On some rare occasions, when I load the game I crash to desktop with "has encountered the problem and needs to shut down" message. I just start the game again and the savegame loads just fine (to my delight)...
So, I really don't know what to suggest to you, I'm just glad that the problems I encounter with the savegame crashing is not serious (obviously not a corrupt save but some other loading instability issue)

Same happens to me too sometimes, and it always works out fine.

[domcoppinger]

Yeah I am starting to have similar problems (game crashing to desktop every-now and then) although it tends to break my latest autosave, although only this once has it broken both!

The main reason that I think I am starting to experience these crashes is because I am having far far less freezes now that I load one save each time I start the game, the trade off being that now I can play for longer I am starting to notice other issues more, such as random crashes and the destack issue (I am finally playing long enough play sessions to really notice it) Guess that the majority of my problems are now down to patches, that and working out what is causing the (now rare) game/pc freezes!