Freezing / BSOD playing Mass Effect 3

[Talexe]

Hi!

I've been tearing my hair out about this! Official support and the game forums have turned up nothing useful - but then I remembered how useful you guys have been in the past!

So I downloaded the Mass Effect 3 N7 Digital Deluxe Edition through Origin. Everything seemed to install correctly. I booted up the game, started a new game and the opening cinematic began. However, about half-way through this, at roughly the same time each time, the image freezes then blacks out. The sound continues for a bit longer before also freezing. Sometimes there is a repetitive hum and other times a complete BSOD; either way the system is frozen and no amount of Ctrl-Alt-Del helps.

Basic information
Windows 7 64-bit
Pretty sure it is the original installed OS, OEM version
About 3 years old

Crash files and system health goodies attached!

You will have my eternal gratitude if you can do anything to help; I was really looking forward to playing the game!

 

[zigzag3143]

"It's not a true crash, in the sense that the bluescreen was initiated only because the combination of video driver and video hardware was being unresponsive, and not because of any synchronous processing exception".

Since Vista, the "Timeout Detection and Recovery" (TDR) components of the OS video subsystem have been capable of doing some truly impressive things to try to recover from issues which would have caused earlier OSs like XP to crash.

As a last resort, the TDR subsystem sends the video driver a "please restart yourself now!" command and waits a few seconds.

If there's no response, the OS concludes that the video driver/hardware combo has truly collapsed in a heap, and it fires off that stop 0x116 BSOD.

If playing with video driver versions hasn't helped, make sure the box is not overheating.

Try removing a side panel and aiming a big mains fan straight at the motherboard and GPU.

Run it like that for a few hours or days - long enough to ascertain whether cooler temperatures make a difference.

If so, it might be as simple as dust buildup and subsequently inadequate cooling.

I would download cpu-z and gpu-z (both free) and keep an eye on the video temps

http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lo...op-0x116-video_tdr_error-troubleshooting.html


ALSO AND IMPORTANT

Asacpi.sys

The pre 2009 version of this driver is a known BSOD cause.

Please visit this link: Asus tek computer inc. -support- drivers and download p7p55d le

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download P7P55D LE
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Motherboards- ASUS P5K-VM

Scroll down to the utilities category, then scroll down to the "atk0110 driver for windowsxp/vista/windows 7 32&64-bit" (it's about the 12th item down).

Download and install it.

Go to c:\windows\system32\drivers to check and make sure that the asacpi.sys file is date stamped from 2009 or 2010 (not before).

 

[Talexe]

"It's not a true crash, in the sense that the bluescreen was initiated only because the combination of video driver and video hardware was being unresponsive, and not because of any synchronous processing exception".

Since Vista, the "Timeout Detection and Recovery" (TDR) components of the OS video subsystem have been capable of doing some truly impressive things to try to recover from issues which would have caused earlier OSs like XP to crash.

As a last resort, the TDR subsystem sends the video driver a "please restart yourself now!" command and waits a few seconds.

If there's no response, the OS concludes that the video driver/hardware combo has truly collapsed in a heap, and it fires off that stop 0x116 BSOD.

If playing with video driver versions hasn't helped, make sure the box is not overheating.

Try removing a side panel and aiming a big mains fan straight at the motherboard and GPU.

Run it like that for a few hours or days - long enough to ascertain whether cooler temperatures make a difference.

If so, it might be as simple as dust buildup and subsequently inadequate cooling.

I would download cpu-z and gpu-z (both free) and keep an eye on the video temps

http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lo...op-0x116-video_tdr_error-troubleshooting.html


ALSO AND IMPORTANT

Asacpi.sys

The pre 2009 version of this driver is a known BSOD cause.

Please visit this link: Asus tek computer inc. -support- drivers and download p7p55d le

ASUSTeK Computer Inc. -Support- Drivers and Download P7P55D LE
ASUSTeK Computer Inc. - Motherboards- ASUS P5K-VM

Scroll down to the utilities category, then scroll down to the "atk0110 driver for windowsxp/vista/windows 7 32&64-bit" (it's about the 12th item down).

Download and install it.

Go to c:\windows\system32\drivers to check and make sure that the asacpi.sys file is date stamped from 2009 or 2010 (not before).

Thank you very much for the reply! As the first quote block didn't give any concrete advice (I'm pretty sure my video card isn't overheating), I went straight to the second part. I have downloaded the zipped file you pointed to and extracted it to the desktop. Lo and behold, the asacpi.sys driver in System32 is from 2005! Should I delete it and drag the newly downloaded asacpi.sys file in? Is that likely to solve the problem on its own?

Also, the new asacpi.sys file I'm looking at is in Desktop\MB_WIN7_ATK\MB WIN7 ATK\64\WIN7. Is that the right one?

Apologies for the perhaps unnecessary questions, but I'm not taking any chances!

 

[zigzag3143]

Actually there is info in the DMP that does point to your video subsystem.

Isnt there an installer with that?

 

[Talexe]

Actually there is info in the DMP that does point to your video subsystem.

Isnt there an installer with that?

Ah, there's an executable called AsApciIns.exe - I guess that's it!

UPDATE: Ran the executable and asacpi.sys is now up to date. Should that have solved the problem or do I need to do something to my "video subsystem"?

...and oh no! What do you recommend I do? According to the AMD Catalyst Control Centre I have all the latest drivers and my fans are relatively quiet.

 

[zigzag3143]

Actually there is info in the DMP that does point to your video subsystem.

Isnt there an installer with that?

Ah, there's an executable called AsApciIns.exe - I guess that's it!

...and oh no! What do you recommend I do? According to the AMD Catalyst Control Centre I have all the latest drivers and my fans are relatively quiet.

We do need more DMP files to find the pattern.

I would re-install the video drivers EVEN if they are the newest using this method.

When upgrading your graphic driver you MUST remove all traces of the current driver.

In order to do that we recommend using
Phyxion.net - Driver Sweeper

When it is removed then download and install the fresh copy.

 

[Talexe]

Actually there is info in the DMP that does point to your video subsystem.

Isnt there an installer with that?

Ah, there's an executable called AsApciIns.exe - I guess that's it!

...and oh no! What do you recommend I do? According to the AMD Catalyst Control Centre I have all the latest drivers and my fans are relatively quiet.

We do need more DMP files to find the pattern.

I would re-install the video drivers EVEN if they are the newest using this method.

When upgrading your graphic driver you MUST remove all traces of the current driver.

In order to do that we recommend using
Phyxion.net - Driver Sweeper

When it is removed then download and install the fresh copy.

Okay, great. Do you mind if I just confirm what I'm doing? I've downloaded Driver Sweeper 3.2.0 and am running it now. Do I choose to analyse and clean just the "AMD - Display" option? Will that automatically reinstall fresh copies of my drivers or would I need to seek out the updates myself afterwards? How I'd do that without display drivers I don't know...

Also, do I need to "remove" all the "AMD - Display" file and registry entries?

 

[zigzag3143]

Ah, there's an executable called AsApciIns.exe - I guess that's it!

...and oh no! What do you recommend I do? According to the AMD Catalyst Control Centre I have all the latest drivers and my fans are relatively quiet.

We do need more DMP files to find the pattern.

I would re-install the video drivers EVEN if they are the newest using this method.

When upgrading your graphic driver you MUST remove all traces of the current driver.

In order to do that we recommend using
Phyxion.net - Driver Sweeper

When it is removed then download and install the fresh copy.

Okay, great. Do you mind if I just confirm what I'm doing? I've downloaded Driver Sweeper 3.2.0 and am running it now. Do I choose to analyse and clean just the "AMD - Display" option? Will that automatically reinstall fresh copies of my drivers or would I need to seek out the updates myself afterwards? How I'd do that without display drivers I don't know...

Also, do I need to "remove" all the "AMD - Display" file and registry entries?

If your video driver is ATI/AMD then yes you remove ALL OF IT using driver sweeper. Thats its whole purpose to remove the remnants that add/remove misses.

You will need to go get the newest driver and might want to do that first.

 

[Talexe]

We do need more DMP files to find the pattern.

I would re-install the video drivers EVEN if they are the newest using this method.

When upgrading your graphic driver you MUST remove all traces of the current driver.

In order to do that we recommend using
Phyxion.net - Driver Sweeper

When it is removed then download and install the fresh copy.

Okay, great. Do you mind if I just confirm what I'm doing? I've downloaded Driver Sweeper 3.2.0 and am running it now. Do I choose to analyse and clean just the "AMD - Display" option? Will that automatically reinstall fresh copies of my drivers or would I need to seek out the updates myself afterwards? How I'd do that without display drivers I don't know...

Also, do I need to "remove" all the "AMD - Display" file and registry entries?

If your video driver is ATI/AMD then yes you remove ALL OF IT using driver sweeper. Thats its whole purpose to remove the remnants that add/remove misses.

You will need to go get the newest driver and might want to do that first.

Well yes, my video card is AMD but I also have one "NVIDIA - Display" registry entry which is strange as well as a "NVIDIA - Physx" directory and registry entries. Can I leave those? How do I go about getting the newest driver first? Sorry to make you spell it out, but I haven't done this before.

 

[zigzag3143]

Okay, great. Do you mind if I just confirm what I'm doing? I've downloaded Driver Sweeper 3.2.0 and am running it now. Do I choose to analyse and clean just the "AMD - Display" option? Will that automatically reinstall fresh copies of my drivers or would I need to seek out the updates myself afterwards? How I'd do that without display drivers I don't know...

Also, do I need to "remove" all the "AMD - Display" file and registry entries?

If your video driver is ATI/AMD then yes you remove ALL OF IT using driver sweeper. Thats its whole purpose to remove the remnants that add/remove misses.

You will need to go get the newest driver and might want to do that first.

Well yes, my video card is AMD but I also have one "NVIDIA - Display" registry entry which is strange as well as some "NVIDIA - Physx" entries. Can I leave those? How do I go about getting the newest driver first? Sorry to make you spell it out, but I haven't done this before.

Neither have I. {grin}

Before you do anything do a backup Just in case.

Then remove all the video entries (it should still be able to use the integrated chipset) then install just then driver related to your video card. The multiple entries may be the issue causing the BSOD.

 

[Talexe]

If your video driver is ATI/AMD then yes you remove ALL OF IT using driver sweeper. Thats its whole purpose to remove the remnants that add/remove misses.

You will need to go get the newest driver and might want to do that first.

Well yes, my video card is AMD but I also have one "NVIDIA - Display" registry entry which is strange as well as some "NVIDIA - Physx" entries. Can I leave those? How do I go about getting the newest driver first? Sorry to make you spell it out, but I haven't done this before.

Neither have I. {grin}

Before you do anything do a backup Just in case.

Then remove all the video entries (it should still be able to use the integrated chipset) then install just then driver related to your video card. The multiple entries may be the issue causing the BSOD.

Where could the NVIDIA files possibly have come from if I don't have NVIDIA hardware? I'm a little bit concerned about removing it when I don't know why it's there. Also, can't find the specific driver files to back up... maybe Driver Sweeper will do it for me?

 

[zigzag3143]

Well yes, my video card is AMD but I also have one "NVIDIA - Display" registry entry which is strange as well as some "NVIDIA - Physx" entries. Can I leave those? How do I go about getting the newest driver first? Sorry to make you spell it out, but I haven't done this before.

Neither have I. {grin}

Before you do anything do a backup Just in case.

Then remove all the video entries (it should still be able to use the integrated chipset) then install just then driver related to your video card. The multiple entries may be the issue causing the BSOD.

Where could the NVIDIA files possibly have come from if I don't have NVIDIA hardware? I'm a little bit concerned about removing it when I don't know why it's there. Also, can't find the specific driver files to back up... maybe Driver Sweeper will do it for me?

Look if you dont have a backup make one. If y ou do go ahead and do it. The files could have come from anywhere (a game, an app, etc).

You have a choice, do it or not.

 

[Talexe]

Thanks for your help! I disappeared for a few hours because the game started working and there was no going back! I cleaned out the ATI drivers (leaving the NVIDIA ones alone) and reinstalled them; that seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, the game crashed the computer again inexplicably this morning.

Are there any new insights? I appreciate your patience with me!

 

[zigzag3143]

Thanks for your help! I disappeared for a few hours because the game started working and there was no going back! I cleaned out the ATI drivers (leaving the NVIDIA ones alone) and reinstalled them; that seemed to do the trick. Unfortunately, the game crashed the computer again inexplicably this morning.

Are there any new insights? I appreciate your patience with me!

Literally all of these are the same and point to the BCC 116 I posted back on post 2. You may not think your video card is overheating but something is going on with it

"It's not a true crash, in the sense that the bluescreen was initiated only because the combination of video driver and video hardware was being unresponsive, and not because of any synchronous processing exception".

Since Vista, the "Timeout Detection and Recovery" (TDR) components of the OS video subsystem have been capable of doing some truly impressive things to try to recover from issues which would have caused earlier OSs like XP to crash.

As a last resort, the TDR subsystem sends the video driver a "please restart yourself now!" command and waits a few seconds.

If there's no response, the OS concludes that the video driver/hardware combo has truly collapsed in a heap, and it fires off that stop 0x116 BSOD.

If playing with video driver versions hasn't helped, make sure the box is not overheating.

Try removing a side panel and aiming a big mains fan straight at the motherboard and GPU.

Run it like that for a few hours or days - long enough to ascertain whether cooler temperatures make a difference.

If so, it might be as simple as dust buildup and subsequently inadequate cooling.

I would download cpu-z and gpu-z (both free) and keep an eye on the video temps

http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lo...op-0x116-video_tdr_error-troubleshooting.html