PC Total System freezing?

[quinch1199]

Recently, since 1.2, I've been experiencing issue when whilst I'm in game it will completely freeze/crash. I get a sharp noise in my headset (sort of like dragging your finger over a record player stylus fast ... as your father what a record is) and the screen is frozen utterly.

CTRL+ALT+DELETE doesn't budge it, nor does alt-tab. I have to force a hard reboot (not a great idea). The issue would happen once a game session perhaps of about 2-3 hours but recently its getting more regular with last nights 2hr session facing three such stoppages. 

Whilst I haven't extensively tested on other software or games yet...I'm not playing much else other than The Division at the moment....I wonder if anyone else has had this issue and thus might be software related?

I have checked core temps and they're running at a load max of 60 celcius (140F) during gameplay. I've been checking regularly for this as, of course, when it freezes I can't access the data. 60 isn't ideal but not unheard of as a load temp. Likewise with the graphics card, its running well within temp barriers I think.

I run a Skylake i5-6400 with stock cooler at the moment with 8GB DDR4 2400Mhz RAM and Nvidia 960 ITX 2GB card, ASUS H110M-A mobo. Game runs from a Toshiba HDD, OS is Windows 10 and runs on a separate 120GB SSD (I'll provide the full diag tonight when I get home). 

Ideas or suggestions welcome. Be it either upgraded cooler or additional RAM etc. This has me scratching my head at the moment, all drivers are up to date and the signifier doesn't really match anything (except over heating) that I've encountered before. I run the game on modified Medium settings, reducing some minor factors to low or medium from high like AA etc and get a solid 60FPS all times. 

 

[Callsign_Gloves]

Hey quinch,

I've had this issue too a few times not only with The Division, but stuff like Battlefield too. However I usually just restart and everything is back to normal. I would try it with other games first so if we can determine if it's the game or the actual machine.  Full DXDiag would be super helpful if this ends up happening with other games too. Temperatures seems fine. I usually am running 55-65c and tend not to have any major issues. So I doubt it's that. Of course is never hurts to reapply thermal paste if it's been a few months since you last did.

See if you get the problem with other games, then we'll go from there.

~ HawKShoT

 

[quinch1199]

Hey quinch,

I've had this issue too a few times not only with The Division, but stuff like Battlefield too. However I usually just restart and everything is back to normal. I would try it with other games first so if we can determine if it's the game or the actual machine.  Full DXDiag would be super helpful if this ends up happening with other games too. Temperatures seems fine. I usually am running 55-65c and tend not to have any major issues. So I doubt it's that. Of course is never hurts to reapply thermal paste if it's been a few months since you last did.

See if you get the problem with other games, then we'll go from there.

~ HawKShoT

I'll get teh DXDiag up tonight but I'll do some testing on Total War: Warhammer for starters and see over the weekend. 

Thanks for confirming temperatures though. Cooler is only on since January so still fresh. 

 

[quinch1199]

DxDiag attached.

I've had Total War: Warhammer running since I got home and haven't topped 55c on any of the cores. Clearly Division is the heaviest load I have. 

View attachment DxDiag.txt

 

[Callsign_Gloves]

DxDiag attached.

I've had Total War: Warhammer running since I got home and haven't topped 55c on any of the cores. Clearly Division is the heaviest load I have. 

View attachment 711

It is pretty resource heavy yeah. So it may be just the game here? I'm going to look over the diag and see if anything looks wrong. Will get back to you here soon.

~ HawKShoT

 

[quinch1199]

It is pretty resource heavy yeah. So it may be just the game here? I'm going to look over the diag and see if anything looks wrong. Will get back to you here soon.

~ HawKShoT

Thanks buddy, much appreciated. Yes, doesn't seem to be happening on any other software so load/temp is very possible as an issue especially if the game has spikes in when it draws processing power - loading a new room, environment etc - as I have only been able to monitor the temperatures when the machine is running normally, its showing at max 60c but this doesn't exclude a sudden heat-spike. 

 

[quinch1199]

@HawKShoT Don't suppose you've had opportunity to look them over? Another hard restart needed last night just as the mission boss spawned so I only got the core mission rewards not the boss loot drop *Sad*

 

[Callsign_Gloves]

@HawKShoT Don't suppose you've had opportunity to look them over? Another hard restart needed last night just as the mission boss spawned so I only got the core mission rewards not the boss loot drop *Sad*

Hey Quinch,

Was out of state for the week, just got back and looked it over. I don't see anything wrong here. So I have to think what it could be here. Have you verified game files yet? Is your Ubisoft cloud enabled?

 

[quinch1199]

Thanks for looking into this, I haven't done a Steam verification of the game files but Ubisoft cloud is enabled ok. 

However, and keeping fingers crossed, since 1.3 update I've had two uninterrupted game sessions of several hours long a piece. Too early to be conclusive but maybe some stabilisation occured within the patch release as well. 

Not sure, I feel I need more cooling regardless so its on my shopping list money permitting.  

 

[Callsign_Gloves]

That would be great if the update solved it. I guess keep playing and see if it has or not and let me know after a few days.

~ HawKShoT

 

[quinch1199]

Will do buddy!

 

[quinch1199]

@HawKShoT - Happened again and as I was in the Underground I couldn't rejoin the mission and was removed from the group I was in.

I'm going to investigate cooling options.

 

[Callsign_Gloves]

So much for the update fixing it.

Looking into cooling won't be a bad idea. You can buy Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO's for about 25£. That's one of the best active cooling solutions I know of.

Although if this ends up being software based, because we already know it's something to do with The Division, then it will be harder to solve because there is so many possibilities to what a problem is with software.

Do you also have your Steam cloud enabled as well? Worst case scenario is you'll end up reinstalling it. For whatever reason verifying files just doesn't do crap. When I first got the game I had so many technical problems similar to this and ended up reinstalling it. Vola! Worked brand new. Not sure what it is with this game and it's issues.

Did you say your CPU usage was really high with The Division also?

~ HawKShoT

 

[quinch1199]

Did you say your CPU usage was really high with The Division also?

Don't know, I'll have to check that. As the game Freezes rather than crashes I'm a little confused by this to be honest, it could be anything to be honest but improved cooler is on the shopping list when I can afford it.

Likewise, last night... 4 hrs and no freeze. *shakes head* .... and who says computers don't have personalities. Had this since my ViC-20 days! (who would not load software if I was looking at her)

 

[Callsign_Gloves]

Don't know, I'll have to check that. As the game Freezes rather than crashes I'm a little confused by this to be honest, it could be anything to be honest but improved cooler is on the shopping list when I can afford it.

Likewise, last night... 4 hrs and no freeze. *shakes head* .... and who says computers don't have personalities. Had this since my ViC-20 days! (who would not load software if I was looking at her)

Real weird. I don't know, if it was crashing it would be a bit easier to diagnose. I'm getting sorta stumped. Last thing I can thing up for a issue like this is a reinstall. Unless you exit and reopen every 2 or 3 hours I suppose. But The Division is a bit of a big download depending on your speed.

I think if you want to resolve it completely a reinstall might be the way to go...

~ HawKShoT

 

[Tran51ucent]

Was this issue solved/fixed?

(If so then it might be a good idea to add a [solved] into the title like other sites do.)

 

[Tran51ucent]

Don't know, I'll have to check that. As the game Freezes rather than crashes I'm a little confused by this to be honest, it could be anything to be honest but improved cooler is on the shopping list when I can afford it.

Likewise, last night... 4 hrs and no freeze. *shakes head* .... and who says computers don't have personalities. Had this since my ViC-20 days! (who would not load software if I was looking at her)

Sounds like your graphics card is getting too hot but if you want to nail the problem completely please post your full specs. Your driver/drivers aren't a problem because you can run the game.

Considering the fact that you can run the game for hours I would try watching your temps. Try a stress test of your components and see what happens.

If you need any help then just ask. 

P.S. Computers don't have personalities.

 

[quinch1199]

Sounds like your graphics card is getting too hot but if you want to nail the problem completely please post your full specs. Your driver/drivers aren't a problem because you can run the game.

Considering the fact that you can run the game for hours I would try watching your temps. Try a stress test of your components and see what happens.

If you need any help then just ask. 

P.S. Computers don't have personalities.

DxDiag attached several posts above.

Issue is possibly either over heating or memory leak (I've had one memory leak related error shown). Stress tests appear inconclusive and haven't been able to replicate but I'll keep trying. I'm experiencing the issue occasionally still in 1.3 and I can't say its solved until I've invested in some replacement hardware (different cooler, more RAM).

 

[Tran51ucent]

Don't know, I'll have to check that. As the game Freezes rather than crashes I'm a little confused by this to be honest, it could be anything to be honest but improved cooler is on the shopping list when I can afford it.

Likewise, last night... 4 hrs and no freeze. *shakes head* .... and who says computers don't have personalities. Had this since my ViC-20 days! (who would not load software if I was looking at her)

Seems like you know your problem already. I hate to be arrogant but I am. What fixed your problem?

 

[quinch1199]

Seems like you know your problem already. I hate to be arrogant but I am. What fixed your problem?

Whilst I know the issue and "may" have two possible solutions to it I have yet to fix as solutions require money, which I don't have currently as I've just got back from holiday.