Random Computer Crashes

akray21 · July 2014

Hello Everyone,

Ever since last weekend I have been experiencing random crashes of my PC while playing ESO.

What is happening

- I boot up my PC and start the ESO launcher
- I log-in to my account and load up my chosen character
- I play for anywhere between 1 minute and 3 hours without interruption
- After a random amount of time, my screen turns black and my computer reboots. This has happened within 60 seconds of my login into a main town where there is nothing going on, and it has also happened after 3 hours of play during a dungeon run.
- One time I got a blue screen after the crash, all other times it goes straight to a normal reboot.
- This has not happened while playing BF4 for about 1 hour (I played only to test if other programs crashed the system.)

What I have done to try to solve the issue
- I have updated all my addons
- I have disabled addons that have been known to cause issues
- -- My wife plays with me and she has the SAME addons enabled with NO ISSUES
- I have repaired my launcher (10's of times)
- I shutdown all other programs when I run the game
- I have disabled my firewall and virus protection while playing the game
- I have checked all component temps and found no overheating
- I ran a full virus/malware scan
- I have heard of mem leak issues with this game and first thought it was that. I checked windows system rating and it says out of my 8GB of RAM only like 5.64 GB are (useable).

My System Specs
- GTX 760
- FX-6300
- Rosewill 650W 80 PLUS BRONZE PSU
- G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) 1600 RAM
- Windows 7 - 64 bit

Please share your ideas about what the issue might be. I plan on running stress tests on my system for my GPU, CPU, and RAM this weekend (but that is a whole weekend ordeal to run all those tests, AND I WANT TO PLAY ESO ON MY DAYS OFF!) Thank you all in advance!

boogie95 · July 2014

i get random game crashes not my whole pc but the game crashes often i get a thing saying eso has had a critical error
then ask me if i want to submit a report to eso

class101 · July 2014

There is so much reasons

Firstly I would stop my computer from auto rebooting on failure to do that you can hit

Windows key + R, type control sysdm.cpl > Advanced tab > Startup and recovery > hit Settings > System failure > uncheck Automatically restart

You have chances like that to see the blue screen with the driver that is failing

After that you can inspect too the Event log for a possible log of the crash failure

Windows Key + R > type eventvwr.msc > Windows Logs > Aplication or System

You may have lots of entries inside, maybe is better to clean the event viewer once when you right click a category like Application and select Clear log, so you will be sure next log entries will be more relevant to your actual problems

Next would be to test you memory slot at boot time for this there is an excellent tool called Memtest86+, you go in download and you grab the Auto installer for USB key, then next time you boot up your computer on the USB key, memtest86+ will start immediately testing all your memory for possible errors, if an error occurs you will have to test the memory slots one per one to identity the bad one and replace it or at least no more plug it in.

The same for HDD testing there is a good one it is called Seagate Seatools and works with all HDD brands (non-SSD) you must test you hdd at boot time too

And if all this works you need to stress test your Graphic card with a tool like FurMark

Can be a problem of memory, hdd, gfx, but not only , can also be a power supply problem like if you connect too much equipment on the same electrical outlet, psu may provide not enough power, etc....

akray21 · July 2014

I appreciate the great response! I will try everything you said when I get off work today. I have the worst luck with computers, and troubleshooting is always difficult for me

.

Romo · July 2014

1. If your system is compatible with your spouse's, then first swap RAM with her; if that doesn't fix things swap the graphics cards.
2. Heat might be a problem, drop the side of the case, aim a regular fan at the innards and see if that helps. Cleaning out the dust and pet fur would help too.

The above is a tad bit faster than the memtest, etc.

meany1967 · August 2014

having same problem as originally posted by akray, sent in game consultant report to support this morning.

Seravi · August 2014

If you are running NVIDIA you may want to search for black screen fixes. Most of the time running window full screen will fix it but some of us have to change to DX9 in the usersettings.txt file so it won't happen.

Open your usersettings.txt file and look for this line and change the following:
SET FULLSCREEN_v5 "2" from "2" to "1" (windowed fullScreen)

If that is set to windowed full screen then try the DX change from 11 to 9:
"SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D11"" to "SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D9""

With those two set I can play. If I change either one I get the black screen anywhere from a few minutes to an hour or so in the middle of the game. I can be standing still and get the black screen. I've tested memory, cpu and everything from A-Z on this system. I have even gone as far as a complete drive wipe and OS fresh install for every SINGLE NVIDIA driver I have tried.

Others can run DX11 but have to tweak some other settings in the usersettings.txt file so if the above doesn't help just search the forums for NVIDIA and black screen fixes.

Paske · August 2014

When was the last time you opened your computer case ad cleaned it with compressed air ?

Im serious by the way.

This looks like classic case of GPU or CPU overheating.

Seravi · August 2014

Me personally I clean my fans weekly all 12 of them. Then once a month I break it down and clean the boards, etc and test the memory etc.

werecougar · September 2014

Edit: Within an hour after I wrote that I have no problems in other games, Borderlands 2 crashes the same way now. Starting to believe it's hardware failure now. Fantastic.

I'm having the exact behavior you describe, @akray21‌. Just powers off and reboots without warning. Sometimes within a few minutes, sometimes after 2 hours.

No problems in other games or applications, just ESO. Not even Skyrim with 100+ graphics mods and a very hefty ENB will crash.

Similar system to yours:
Intel i5 4690K
MSI Z97 Gaming 5 MB
XFX GTX 760 4GB (newest drivers)
GSKILL 4GBx2 1600
Corsair HX HX750 PSU
Samsung 256GB SSD, WD 500GB Black HDD
Win7 64bit

I tried everything you mention (disable all addons, antivirus, etc.) and nothing makes a difference. Also tried @Seravi‌ recommendation of using DX9 instead of DX11. No difference. Reseated RAM sticks, inside of case is clean as a whistle.

No temp issues that I can see. CPU at 45°C max, GPU at 68°C max. I don't have a temp on the PSU.

CPU does not appear to be close to maxing out; and GPU is somewhere in the 70% vicinity. Video RAM at 50%. Even lowered the video settings from "ultra/high" to "medium" and still crashes.

Memtest86 shows no errors, as does BurnInTest. Ran 3dMark11 twice with no problems.

I believe it's a memory leak, but I don't have any hard evidence to support that. I am concerned that I'm at 80+% memory use in-game. Rarely do I use up that kind of RAM.

Now here's where it gets interesting.

This behavior only showed up since August 27 (Windows Event Viewer logs). No problems at all since I started playing in May. Patch 1.3.5 was released on Aug 25. I don't want to jump to a conclusion, but the very next time I play after a patch is released, and I crash without fail, every night.

It could also be that this existed for some time, and only now am I entering "buggy" areas of the game? Greenshade seems particularly crashy.

I'm hoping that patch 1.4 might take care of this. Do we have an approximate date on that release?

CorruptGnosis · January 2016

It's a graphics card issue. I have the same problem. Also got the GTX 760 4GB.

Are there any solutions by now?