sunday 12.51 am EST : post server restart errors. 100% cpu usage and 7gig ram with only eso running

aetherial_heavenn · March 2017

Got back in to Cyrodil, Players are not rendering-my side are all black, the enemy is invisible, mount is hitting invisible walls and running very fast in one spot, game is stuttering and FPS flicking between 2 and 50 with no players around. (It was fine before the last server restart, low FPS in crowds with lots of ultimate lag, but otherwise fine.)

I Checked performance through task manager:CPU usage 100%, 7 gig ram being used, 2 instances of eso showing in services.

I changed nothing between the crash at approx 9pm US EST and when i could log back in.

My friend had these issues all week and spent days troubleshooting to no avail: he runs windows 10, is in Colorado and I run windows 7 in Victoria Australia.

We both start the game using eso.ex so it's not the launcher. He's stopped playing and has a sub.

Zos i think you have a memory leak and/or corrupted files on your server...just guessing.

rosendoichinoveb17_ESO · March 2017

Your CPU should be running on high only on the first core. ESO is not optimized for multithreading as it is still on DirectX 11

This is why still some people with high end PCs have issues running the game smoothly.

aetherial_heavenn · March 2017

rosendoichinoveb17_ESO wrote: »

Your CPU should be running on high only on the first core. ESO is not optimized for multithreading as it is still on DirectX 11
This is why still some people with high end PCs have issues running the game smoothly.

my pc is a 3/4 year old ASUS ROG laptop. It is far from high end. It usually runs with much lower cpu usage (15-20%) and about 5 gig ram. I run nothing else when playing.

This 100% CPU spike and 7.5 gig of ram use happened immediately after the last server crash. Nothing else changed at my end.

When i shut down the second instance of eso showing in my services the game continued to run and the usage dropped to it's usual level. I assume this is to do with something server side as it has only happened once before, post the one tamriel 'patch to fix the patch'. I spent a month with these issues, then they vanished after a routine maintenance (between new year and end of Jan 2017 were when i had multiple the issues.)

I hope this information helps as I know several people having this issue this week, without changing anything on their end.

catch22atplay · March 2017

rosendoichinoveb17_ESO wrote: »

Your CPU should be running on high only on the first core. ESO is not optimized for multithreading as it is still on DirectX 11
This is why still some people with high end PCs have issues running the game smoothly.

This is so wrong and sadly many people say this for lots of games. Sure some are not optimized for multi thread and only run 1 core. However most in fact are multithreaded. DX12 is an improvement on it and as such DX12 games can benefit greatly if properly programmed to take advantage of it. Below is a screen shot of ESO on my comp using msi afterburner.

My computer is Intel 2600k cpu, p8z68progen3 mobo, 2133mhz mem, gtx970, cpu and mobo both 5 years old.

As you can see all cores are being used. Core 5 actually has the highest use. Ram shown on the bottom is total system ram being used and not the game. The game is using just under 3gb. cpu usage stays under 40%. I've not personally observed any sort of memory leak. I use that program all the time and would notice it.

Op you may want to list a dx diag report or at least list your system specs. I might also add that i only have 1 instance of eso64 running and not 2.

aetherial_heavenn · March 2017

catch22atplay wrote: »

Op you may want to list a dx diag report or at least list your system specs. I might also add that i only have 1 instance of eso64 running and not 2.

The 2 instances showing in the services, but only one ESO in the application tab was the issue i was trying to highlight. After I closed the second eso service through task manager, things improved. I do not understand the reason it happened or what it even means, but this was the only thing I could identify that had changed on my system from 3 hours before when the game ran as well as usual in Cyrodil.

I run the game on my SSD. here are my specs.

OS Name Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
Version 6.1.7601 Service Pack 1 Build 7601
Other OS Description Not Available
OS Manufacturer Microsoft Corporation
System Name XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
System Manufacturer ASUSTeK Computer Inc.
System Model G53SX
System Type x64-based PC
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-2670QM CPU @ 2.20GHz, 2201 Mhz, 4 Core(s), 8 Logical Processor(s)
BIOS Version/Date American Megatrends Inc. G53SX.209, 20/12/2011
SMBIOS Version 2.6
Windows Directory C:\Windows
System Directory C:\Windows\system32
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume2
Locale Australia
Hardware Abstraction Layer Version = "6.1.7601.17514"
User Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Time Zone AUS Eastern Daylight Time
Installed Physical Memory (RAM) 8.00 GB
Total Physical Memory 7.98 GB
Available Physical Memory 6.16 GB
Total Virtual Memory 16.0 GB
Available Virtual Memory 13.7 GB
Page File Space 7.98 GB
Page File C:\pagefile.sys

catch22atplay · March 2017

I have no eso shown in services. It does show in details though. But i'm using Win 10. Have you tried using the launcher instead of the eso.exe? Not sure why you're bypassing the launcher as it has options to change from 64bit to 32bit etc. Some launchers actually do quite a bit more then just having a play button. Some will do a system check and direct X version check etc etc and are required to run the game. This game doesn't seem to require this though.

So using the launcher would not allow me to run 2 instances of the game. Bypassing the launcher and using eso.exe did allow me to run 2 instances of the game. Maybe you alt tabbed or something and started a 2nd instance of the game by mistake. Done this many times myself over the years. Other then that i've no idea.

aetherial_heavenn · March 2017

Thank you for your reply. Yes, possibly i did accidentally start 2 instances. While the rendering issues and a series of 'eso has unexpectedly stoped working ' crashes have re occurred, the 2 instances of eso has not.
I started using eso64.exe to start apart from update patches after one tamriel because
-the launcher always has started 2 copies of itself and i have to remember to close one
-the launcher uses more memory . It appears in my services and i have an old machine in which virt memory and ram use is at a premium.
-i can exit the game using the normal quit screen icon when i do not use the launcher to start the game
- recently many people i know have started doing this since homestead as their game is generally more stable ...fewer crash to loadscreens and other odd glitches and more stable fps. This was recommended to me when i was suffering these issues and it did seem to help me and others. We patch or repair through the launcher and otherwise run the game from the exe file. This method is of course based on anecdotal experience not technical expertise.