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Crashing frequently - most recent crash has completely borked my PC

Epona222
Epona222
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I'm really quite upset at the moment. Since the last patch, ESO has been freezing and crashing regularly, and the last crash was so serious that it has pretty much rendered other stuff on my computer inoperable, I'm currently running chkdsk and then I will be trying to repair my OS install, and am going to have to reinstall Steam and a load of other stuff.

ESO caused my system to hang for over 2 hours, I couldn't shut it down via task manager (that would just hang too), then my PC switched off and on restart everything is up "you know what" creek. I can't even access my hard drives.

Extremely upset at the moment, any advice would be welcome.
GM - Ghost Sea Trading Co - NA PC

Epona was a Romano-Celtic goddess dating back to around 1800 to 2000 years before computer games were invented.
  • Atreidus
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    this harddrive check is the best you can do at this stuff. I am i the same boat like you are.
    The rest is on Zenimax
    Edited by Atreidus on May 25, 2014 11:52PM
  • Epona222
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    Atreidus wrote: »
    this harddrive check is the best you can do at this stuff. I am i the same boat like you are.
    The rest is on Zenimax

    It is some comfort at least to know I am not the only one in this boat :/

    It's going to take hours to run chkdsk and reinstall everything, barely anything is working right now (I can't access my hard drives, can't run any games) and it looks as if I'm going to have to do a complete format/clean install of my entire system, which completely sucks. I just hope there's no hardware damage.

    It's all very well saying that it's on Zenimax, but it's not as if they are going to come round here and sort it out or can magically grant me back the rest of my holiday weekend that I am going to spend fixing my computer instead of playing.

    Not at all amused :/

    Edited by Epona222 on May 26, 2014 12:50AM
    GM - Ghost Sea Trading Co - NA PC

    Epona was a Romano-Celtic goddess dating back to around 1800 to 2000 years before computer games were invented.
  • lao
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    just wow. how incompetent can ZOS possibly be. if this is truely caused by faulty code id expect, no id demand that some heads roll in the development department.
  • michaelgoodmichael
    This is unfortunate. Hopefully no harm has been done.

    If you're unable to shut down your computer like that in the future, I suggest just manually turning it off, either by holding down the power button until it turns off, or even by unplugging it from the wall. This isn't the preferred way to shut down a computer, but overall it should be a safer way if your computer hangs for.. ever, possibly.
  • lao
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    well i just hope this isnt caused by the game. infact its unlikely they messed up THAT bad. the more likely scenario is that ur hard drives had an issue which caused eso to crash rather than the other way around.

    would be nice to have some official reply on the matter as this is a very serious issue.
  • crislevin
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    lao wrote: »
    the more likely scenario is that ur hard drives had an issue which caused eso to crash rather than the other way around.

    .

    Say that to my brand new computer. Please dont blame victims here.
    Edited by crislevin on May 26, 2014 2:03AM
  • WhimsyDragon
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    If you're unable to shut down your computer like that in the future, I suggest just manually turning it off, either by holding down the power button until it turns off
    Had to do this a couple times with ESO since update and still had to run a chkdsk. Took a while and it screwed up chrome badly (which was open at the time). Nothing else as far as I can tell.

    I've been crashing less when using the eso.exe directly, no launcher unless I need an update, but just now I had trouble loading, which resulted in a rollback in Greenshade :disappointed: Thinking that fix needs some more tweaking.

    Edited by WhimsyDragon on May 26, 2014 2:08AM
  • KracsNZ
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    It's unlikely the game was the direct cause of the issue. It's pretty had to bork a PC without maliciously coding it do to so. It may however be indirectly affecting the PC in the way it utilizes components, i.e. it may stress the CPU or GPU more than other games you've played. Or there may be allot more memory read/writes than normal causing your RAM to heat up more than expected etc... Another one not related to the game maybe issues with your hard-drive, a failing HDD or SSD will cause all sorts of issues.

    The fact it's been freezing and crashing regularly may point to a heat related issue. Have you tried running HardwareMonitor or GPU-z while gaming, and monitoring the temperatures?

  • Kahlar
    Kahlar
    never a fun scenario... ugh :\

    chkdsk /f

    auto repair command.

    if you can get to a command prompt that is encouraging.

    also, win 7 'startup repair' is fairly competent.
    may need to run it a few times, but it can fix problems.

    HIGHLY unlikely ESO is the root cause.
    like any modern game it will tax your machine and reveal flaws.

    most likely culprit is hard drive...
    followed by memory...
    then cpu.

    i4770K Intel Quad Core @ 3.6Ghz| 8gig 2400Mhz Geil Trident X
    690GTX EVGA | 120gig Corsair Neutron GTX
    Titanium Pro Fatality pcie x4 Creative | Maximus Gene VI Asus
    1200 Watt Corsair | Windows 7 Ultimate x64
    FioS 75MBs fiber optic internet
  • TicToc
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    KracsNZ wrote: »
    It's unlikely the game was the direct cause of the issue.
    [...]

    It is highly likely, actually. Since the patch a lot of people have been experiencing hard crashes, including myself. Fortunately, most of us have not had any serious issues with our computers. It is quite possible that something got corrupted when his computer crashed, so I would consider that caused by the game.

    I hope that they get a handle on this quickly. I am crashing about 10-12 times a day since the patch. And these are hard crashes, not the return to the log in screen ones.
    Edited by TicToc on May 26, 2014 2:29AM
  • KracsNZ
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    TicToc wrote: »
    KracsNZ wrote: »
    It's unlikely the game was the direct cause of the issue.
    [...]

    It is highly likely, actually. Since the patch a lot of people have been experiencing hard crashes, including myself. Fortunately, most of us have not had any serious issues with our computers. It is quite possible that something got corrupted when his computer crashed, so I would consider that caused by the game.

    I hope that they get a handle on this quickly. I am crashing about 10-12 times a day since the patch. And these are hard crashes, not the return to the log in screen ones.

    A CTD is vastly different from a system failure. Windows and Macs are pretty damn good at preventing non-malicious applications from causing system halt conditions (old BSoD etc...). One uncaught exception can produce crashes, million other things can cause application crashes. Causing a system stop condition is very unlikely except at maybe things like poorly written custom shaders, or executing commands against the GPU (but this is a Direct X game when on Windows so no) etc... If it was that, huge numbers of people would be having this issue, not a few.

    Yes, application crashes they need to address, do that by submitting crash dump reports. But If you're getting more than just CTDs (i.e. system stop condition), do some investigation first, try eliminating issues from your end, hence the reason I was suggesting HardwareMonitor or GPU-z.
    Edited by KracsNZ on May 26, 2014 3:48AM
  • WhimsyDragon
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    Been playing for hours at a time nearly daily and never had hard crashes with ESO or any other games until the day of update so I do think something changed as a result. Too much coincidence.
  • Sirvandal
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    'Crashed' is on Zenimax. Had the same problem, lovely 2 x blue screen. After yesterdays small patch (sunday morning) no more crashes. They fixed the mem leak, probably caused by the window framed way of running the game change. Lot of players with AMD cards had the problems on old and new machines. Oh before I get all kinds of stories its still my machine, before the patch NO PROBLEMS at all.
  • lao
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    crislevin wrote: »
    lao wrote: »
    the more likely scenario is that ur hard drives had an issue which caused eso to crash rather than the other way around.

    .

    Say that to my brand new computer. Please dont blame victims here.

    dont get me wrong im not saying ur wrong and it cant be ESO´s fault. it is however very unlikely as many other have stated below me. it takes some serious screw up to force BSOD´s with a game.

    i however agree that this is abit too many coincidences..
  • Epona222
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    Yeah just giving a bit of an update on my situation, bit embarrassing really, but I jumped to the wrong conclusion initially (really thought it was corrupted data caused by the game crashing).

    As it turns out I was a little hasty in assuming and should have done some proper troubleshooting before running my mouth - turns out my hard drive was in the process of catastrophic failure, it just happened to start to die when I was playing ESO. I'm still not in a good mood because the hard drive was only a year old (Seagate too, not some unbranded generic rubbish), but I am now cross at that, not ESO - I doubt it was anything to do with the game, just co-incidence.

    So feeling pretty embarrassed, but it's only the right thing to do to set the record straight and let everyone know what was up, even if I've ended up looking a bit of a pratt :o
    GM - Ghost Sea Trading Co - NA PC

    Epona was a Romano-Celtic goddess dating back to around 1800 to 2000 years before computer games were invented.
  • Brabok
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    Thats the thing,
    The game is new and does indeed have its issues, so of course when something goes borked its easy to think the game broke it.
    what a lot of people dont seem to be aware of is that, if it was the game causing a problem like this, there would be a lot more people with similar issue.

    Also, since it is a pretty hefty game to run it does take a lot of resources to run it smoothly... a pc that might be calmly purring along playing wow, for example, would likely break into some serious sweat running this game. thats when problems with hardware will show.
    so, yeah ok, the game may have been the trigger, but not necessarily the cause of the problem.

    sorry to hear about your harddrive though. i lost 2 1TB harddrives last year in quick succession... since then i added more fans to my system.
    the biggest killer to any PC is heat!!

    So, and this cannot be stressed enough, always make sure to keep the insides clean from dust and provide ample cooling .
    Never argue with Idiots
    They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience
  • Niliu
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    So a bunch of people with terrible/poor quality computers were getting away with playing before, and now that true fullscreen is live they're complaining that their terribad computers couldn't handle it.

    Crysis crashed my computer a lot, then I upgraded. Simple as that.
    Gimme back my sweetroll or so help me
  • Epona222
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    Niliu wrote: »
    So a bunch of people with terrible/poor quality computers were getting away with playing before, and now that true fullscreen is live they're complaining that their terribad computers couldn't handle it.

    Crysis crashed my computer a lot, then I upgraded. Simple as that.

    I don't have a terrible computer, I have a fairly top end gaming rig. Apart from the dead HDD that is :D
    Edited by Epona222 on May 26, 2014 3:52PM
    GM - Ghost Sea Trading Co - NA PC

    Epona was a Romano-Celtic goddess dating back to around 1800 to 2000 years before computer games were invented.
  • Lox
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    crislevin wrote: »
    lao wrote: »
    the more likely scenario is that ur hard drives had an issue which caused eso to crash rather than the other way around.

    .

    Say that to my brand new computer. Please dont blame victims here.

    Not saying it definately is the problem, but having a brand new computer is irrelevant. Components can fail at any time from straight out the box to ten years down the line.

    A hardware failure of some kind is far more likely in a case like this.
    Edited by Lox on May 26, 2014 4:05PM
  • Mablung
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    KracsNZ wrote: »
    It's unlikely the game was the direct cause of the issue. It's pretty had to bork a PC without maliciously coding it do to so. It may however be indirectly affecting the PC in the way it utilizes components, i.e. it may stress the CPU or GPU more than other games you've played. Or there may be allot more memory read/writes than normal causing your RAM to heat up more than expected etc... Another one not related to the game maybe issues with your hard-drive, a failing HDD or SSD will cause all sorts of issues.

    The fact it's been freezing and crashing regularly may point to a heat related issue. Have you tried running HardwareMonitor or GPU-z while gaming, and monitoring the temperatures?

    This. Stop blaming the game for everything. Your system is most likely not capable of running the game correctly. You should post your specs here so that people can offer assistance instead of raging about the issue and placing blame where it is most likely unwarranted.
  • Zeeed
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    Seagate ?? Those drives are *** my baracuda died after 1.5 year just like that.

    Gotta love when PC noobs balme software for killing their hardware. Last time i remember that happening was years ago on windows 95. There was a virus that could kill your monitor by forcing crazy refresh rate signal from GPU and some monitors died.

    But as person tbat builds PCs since 280sx time i am yet to see legal software that can kill any part of full working pc.
  • Epona222
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    You really are a judgemental bunch aren't you? I already apologised for making a mistake, what exactly do you want, a pound of flesh or something?

    EDIT: @Zeeed - and I never said that ESO had broken hardware, initially thought that some data had been corrupted, which is entirely possible. And I have been building PCs for long enough (built my first in around 1989) that I'm not a complete idiot, and certainly not a noob - so take your rude comments elsewhere please.
    Edited by Epona222 on May 26, 2014 4:13PM
    GM - Ghost Sea Trading Co - NA PC

    Epona was a Romano-Celtic goddess dating back to around 1800 to 2000 years before computer games were invented.
  • Cously
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    I think this patch made the game consume more resources, make temps go higher and so on. Maybe your pc was okay functioning at let's say 80% of usage but then the patch came and made your pc go to 100% usage, then some component has failed for a unknown number of reasons once using its fully potential. Could be this ESO Patch or other modern game you have installed at some point that stressed your system when it wasn't prepared to.
  • Prettiboi
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    Gaming software causing hardware to fail? Don't make me laugh you noobs. Games stress PCs and reveal what was already flawed with your PC in the first place.

    Considering the OP mentions other software in his PC being affected, OP probably has a harddrive issue that has nothing to do with the game.

    Don't blame the game when you don't even know what's causing your issues.

    LONG STORY SHORT: OP already admitted it's a harddrive issue, nothing to see here, move along folks.
    Edited by Prettiboi on May 26, 2014 4:21PM
    PrettiBoi
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  • Mablung
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    Joolio wrote: »
    I think this patch made the game consume more resources, make temps go higher and so on. Maybe your pc was okay functioning at let's say 80% of usage but then the patch came and made your pc go to 100% usage, then some component has failed for a unknown number of reasons once using its fully potential. Could be this ESO Patch or other modern game you have installed at some point that stressed your system when it wasn't prepared to.

    Or it could be more simple like his system isn't up to specifications or his hard drive died or he has a plethora of apps/programs running in the background or his hard drive died.
  • KracsNZ
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    Epona222 wrote: »
    You really are a judgemental bunch aren't you? I already apologised for making a mistake, what exactly do you want, a pound of flesh or something?

    EDIT: @Zeeed - and I never said that ESO had broken hardware, initially thought that some data had been corrupted, which is entirely possible. And I have been building PCs for long enough (built my first in around 1989) that I'm not a complete idiot, and certainly not a noob - so take your rude comments elsewhere please.

    I don't think they're attacking you specifically, well I hope not anyways. But good to hear you found the culprit, probably more a relief than anything I bet.
    Sirvandal wrote: »
    'Crashed' is on Zenimax. Had the same problem, lovely 2 x blue screen. After yesterdays small patch (sunday morning) no more crashes. They fixed the mem leak, probably caused by the window framed way of running the game change. Lot of players with AMD cards had the problems on old and new machines. Oh before I get all kinds of stories its still my machine, before the patch NO PROBLEMS at all.

    This is a hard one. Like I said in a previous post, GPU is one area that can still cause issues, but isolating who is at fault is a real problem. I don't have much experience with OpenGL, nor writing for bare-metal, but mucking around with DirectX and shaders (mostly self-taught) I have caused myself allot of grief just because the stuff that looks like it should work as advertised, sometimes doesn't and needs workarounds.

    Not saying Zenimax aren't blameless; since they wrote a custom engine for ESO likely lots of issues they'll have to work through, and likely they'll continue to break something in a driver version for a specific hardware generation, even a specific card (i.e. loading a custom shader for some on-screen effect etc...). Hate to think of the number of vendors, hardware generations and driver versions they have to test.

    I know its a pain in the arse, but for at least one crash, submit a crash dump along with a dxdiag export (no idea the equivalent on Mac) so they know there is a crash happening for your specific hardware.
    Edited by KracsNZ on May 26, 2014 8:34PM
  • KracsNZ
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    Prettiboi wrote: »
    Gaming software causing hardware to fail? Don't make me laugh you noobs. Games stress PCs and reveal what was already flawed with your PC in the first place.

    Considering the OP mentions other software in his PC being affected, OP probably has a harddrive issue that has nothing to do with the game.

    Don't blame the game when you don't even know what's causing your issues.

    LONG STORY SHORT: OP already admitted it's a harddrive issue, nothing to see here, move along folks.

    Don't mean to be a stickler, but there is the possibility they can. Starcraft II back in 2010 didn't limit the framerate on the menus and caused quite a few GPUs to fail. Granted, you possibly could argue this was a flaw with the GPUs, but still caused by the game.

    http://www.geek.com/games/starcraft-ii-menu-screen-are-overheating-pcs-1273539/
    http://www.dailytech.com/Hot+Starcraft+II+is+Frying+Graphics+Cards+Blizzard+Issues+Temporary+Fix/article19224.htm

    So it can technically happen.
    Edited by KracsNZ on May 27, 2014 12:14AM
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