ESO crashes when using Process Hacker

VoidBiscuit

Title

yachoor

Thank you so much! Closing process hacker fixed crashes for me

omnidoh

Yes, but I use process hacker to lower the priority of ESO, since it's executable was so poorly coded that it will literally freeze system performance and prevent keystroke interrupts from registering because, reasons.

This is especially prevalent when multi-tasking, E.g. Running ESO on one monitor and interacting with other programs running on other / multiple monitors.

The ESO.exe will cause significant input lag while loading anywhere, a behavior that NO developer should ever code.
The only process that should have realtime interrupt priority are those inherent to the operating system itself, NEVER any other program. By using process hacker, one can force ESO to behave itself and remain at idle priority, as well as forcing very low I/O priority, so that your entire system doesn't become unresponsive while multi-tasking.

Sigh, I guess I'll have to develop a method for manipulating the kernel process table, so as to ensure that ESO obeys the performance laws I've set for my operating system.🙄

VoidBiscuit

omnidoh wrote: »

Yes, but I use process hacker to lower the priority of ESO, since it's executable was so poorly coded that it will literally freeze system performance and prevent keystroke interrupts from registering because, reasons.

This is especially prevalent when multi-tasking, E.g. Running ESO on one monitor and interacting with other programs running on other / multiple monitors.

The ESO.exe will cause significant input lag while loading anywhere, a behavior that NO developer should ever code.
The only process that should have realtime interrupt priority are those inherent to the operating system itself, NEVER any other program. By using process hacker, one can force ESO to behave itself and remain at idle priority, as well as forcing very low I/O priority, so that your entire system doesn't become unresponsive while multi-tasking.

Sigh, I guess I'll have to develop a method for manipulating the kernel process table, so as to ensure that ESO obeys the performance laws I've set for my operating system.🙄

Compiling it yourself from GitHub instead of using the release version doesn't flag ESO's signature detection and comes back clean on VT, unlike the release versions which come up as PUA on VT (also, side not the crashing arises specifically from peview.exe usage, not ProcessHacker.exe usage)

Official release version
https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/4259e53d48a3fed947f561ff04c7f94446bedd64c87f52400b2cb47a77666aaa

ESO's coding could be improved, yes, that's no secret or surprise. In case I didn't make myself clear, I'm not suggesting you don't use it, I'm suggesting ZOS fix it.

Edit:
Just checked, adjusting I/O priority in my own compiled version of ProcessHacker works perfectly, so I'd just suggest doing that, rather than writing your own drivers, but don't let me stop you
Also, thanks for the I/O tip, I didn't realise I could do that!

fred4

omnidoh wrote: »

Yes, but I use process hacker to lower the priority of ESO, since it's executable was so poorly coded that it will literally freeze system performance and prevent keystroke interrupts from registering because, reasons.

This is especially prevalent when multi-tasking, E.g. Running ESO on one monitor and interacting with other programs running on other / multiple monitors.

The ESO.exe will cause significant input lag while loading anywhere, a behavior that NO developer should ever code.
The only process that should have realtime interrupt priority are those inherent to the operating system itself, NEVER any other program. By using process hacker, one can force ESO to behave itself and remain at idle priority, as well as forcing very low I/O priority, so that your entire system doesn't become unresponsive while multi-tasking.

Sigh, I guess I'll have to develop a method for manipulating the kernel process table, so as to ensure that ESO obeys the performance laws I've set for my operating system.🙄

I'm on an old quad core. Changed UserSettings.txt (that's what it's called right?) some time ago for ESO to only use 3 cores. This works best for me after the last round of multi-threading optimisations.

fzr6

It fixes the crashes for me also. I had crashes after few seconds and now, if I close process hacker before playing, everything is ok even with adddons.

Thank you

VoidBiscuit

fzr6 wrote: »

It fixes the crashes for me also. I had crashes after few seconds and now, if I close process hacker before playing, everything is ok even with adddons.

Thank you

You're welcome man

VoidBiscuit

@ZOS_GinaBruno I don't know who to @, but I've had multiple people message me thanking me for fixing their ESO issues, and I worry that this post isn't enough, and come the weekend there will be people who can't play. I'm aware that Process Hacker is classed as a PUA, and you may have had internal reasons for disabling it, but I think this is a problem which needs a little bit more attention, or at least an error message given to players detailing which executable caused ESO's protection to kick in.

Another note, the reason this issue is so insidious, is that Process Hacker for many people runs at startup, and runs in the System Tray (out of sight, out of mind), and the crash gives no useful information in the Windows Event Log, so finding the cause of the issue is not trivial. I had to go hunt for the cause of the problem with procmon.

fzr6

@VoidBiscuit I 've propagated this problem/solution on some related topics and already adressed some of ZOS crew about that. (Even on the French forum)

Hope this will help.

VoidBiscuit

fzr6 wrote: »

@VoidBiscuit I 've propagated this problem/solution on some related topics and already adressed some of ZOS crew about that. (Even on the French forum)

Hope this will help.

Much appreciated

Snamyap

What is the Process Hacker for, what is it supposed to do?

fzr6

Basically a very powerfull Task Manager and resources monitor (and much more) for Windows. Nothing related to ESO.

https://processhacker.sourceforge.io/

Snamyap

fzr6 wrote: »

Basically a very powerfull Task Manager and resources monitor (and much more) for Windows. Nothing related to ESO.

https://processhacker.sourceforge.io/

Ah, it's not a standard Windows program. Ty.

fzr6

Latest maintenance (Nov 14) has fixed crashes with Process Hacker for me.

fzr6

Process Hacker renamed by System Informer, maybe it will stop to be considered as a cheating tool by games