Factorio Forums

When i use the steam version it randomly freezes or crashs my PC at the latest after 30 minutes. This results in either a frozen screen or a black screen. Shortly after my speaker only transmits static noise. After getting the blackscreen, my PC fans start spinning at maximum speed as if the fan control is failing. The screen freeze actually happended today the first time. I allways have to hard reboot my PC. Once it restarted automatically. The first time i have seen this was 0.17.51. Switched from 0.17.42.
Sadly i can't deliver a log, because the log is allways empty when such a crash happens.
At first i thought this was my CPU overheating because I changed some fans and thought i misconfigured/misinstalled them. So i logged all my Sensordata during playing Factorio and all data stayed in safe areas.
What i did to rule out a hardware defect:
- run a stresstest on my CPU (100% usage over all threads for 10 hours) Everything went fine. never over 70°C and rarely over 65°C
- run a memory test on my RAM. No Errors detected.
- run the selftest from smartmontools on my drives which also passed.
- since 0.17.42 was fine, i went back to the oldest available Beta on Steam 0.17.44. This one is still working fine.
- testet the non steam version. This one is also running fine. At least till 0.17.56, did not yet test the current one

I also changed my GPU between 0.17.42 and 0.17.51. I may try the weekend to change it back to the old one and see if the crash still happens to rule out my GPU. But i don't think a GPU could cause something like this.

If you need any more data i can provide just ask.

Are you on Mac? If so, 73441 sounds almost exactly like what you're having. (No solution as of yet, unfortunately.)

If you aren't on a Mac, I would check that you have the latest graphics drivers, then try disabling Steam overlay (and other overlays like discord overlay. disabling overlays is probably worth trying even if you are on a Mac).

If that doesn't fix it upload your log.

Chatastroph wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2019 8:24 pm - since 0.17.42 was fine, i went back to the oldest available Beta on Steam 0.17.44. This one is still working fine

If that is the case, try to disable "Use flip presentation model" in graphics settings and restart the game.

EDIT: Also, what was your previous GPU and what is your current one? I've seen couple of crashes caused by Raptr on computers with Nvidia cards. Raptr is some kind of gaming overlay and it used to be installed with AMD drivers inside AMD Gaming Evolved App package.

Jap2.0 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 20, 2019 1:54 am Are you on Mac? If so, 73441 sounds almost exactly like what you're having. (No solution as of yet, unfortunately.)

This will probably come out as me being a jerk, but I am really curious how people come up with these conclusions. How did you conclude the issues sound exactly alike?

Maybe i should have written that too. I'm on Windows and that other threads sounded like a different problem.
But i will disable the Steam overlay and try it again later the day.

posila wrote: ↑Sat Jul 20, 2019 6:47 am

Chatastroph wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2019 8:24 pm - since 0.17.42 was fine, i went back to the oldest available Beta on Steam 0.17.44. This one is still working fine

If that is the case, try to disable "Use flip presentation model" in graphics settings and restart the game.

EDIT: Also, what was your previous GPU and what is your current one? I've seen couple of crashes caused by Raptr on computers with Nvidia cards. Raptr is some kind of gaming overlay and it used to be installed with AMD drivers inside AMD Gaming Evolved App package.

Will try that too. My previous was the GTX 780 and now i have the GTX 1660.
I use the NVIDIA overlay, but that is also on the standalone Version, so i don't think that is the problem, but worth a try.

Zavian wrote: ↑Sat Jul 20, 2019 4:59 am If you aren't on a Mac, I would check that you have the latest graphics drivers, then try disabling Steam overlay (and other overlays like discord overlay. disabling overlays is probably worth trying even if you are on a Mac).

If that doesn't fix it upload your log.

What log? As i said the factorio-current.log is allways empty during these crashes. and the previous log is usually updating mods.

Even a log from updating mods is potentially useful, since it provides info the devs don't have, like which operating system (including version), which graphics card and drivers, what graphics settings, which cpu, how much memory, what mods etc.

posila wrote: ↑Sat Jul 20, 2019 7:20 am

Jap2.0 wrote: ↑Sat Jul 20, 2019 1:54 am Are you on Mac? If so, 73441 sounds almost exactly like what you're having. (No solution as of yet, unfortunately.)

This will probably come out as me being a jerk, but I am really curious how people come up with these conclusions. How did you conclude the issues sound exactly alike?

No, that's a legitimate question. Looking closer, there are a few red flags that it's probably not quite the same issue. Also, the words "if" and "almost" are important. That said, I still should have worded it more as a potentially related issue and not as exactly the same thing. But I'll get to that at the end.

What initially made me think it could be the same thing? Both mentioning Steam is a minor point but a similarity nonetheless. Both are hangs, not crashes, after several minutes of play. Both involve updating several versions. Both were posted within a few days of each other. Neither has a full log.

Looking back at it? This one just says PC, and nine times out of ten people on mac say they're on mac. This one claims to have no log, where on the other it's truncated. It sound like this one is more of a complete system hang where the other does reliably crash eventually.

Tl;dr: it was badly worded and poorly thought out, but not entirely made up.

So i updated my GPU drivers to the current version and it just happens later now. But with this i suspect more the GPU than before. I just don't understand why this only happens with the steam version of Factorio and nothing else. Especially since Factorio isn't that GPU heavy.
Interestingly it may have allways created a log. I just assumed it is empty, because it was allways shown having a size of 0 KB. I opened it on a whim and after that the size got updated to its actual size (maybe because it wasn't closed properly, i don't know). I will attach the log.
I will try deactivating Steam overlay and deactivating "Use flip presentation model" option before switching back to my old GPU. I currently don't have much time because of vacation preparations, but i will keep you updated

EDIT: i know this is a log from a heavily modded game. I tested it in vanilla and it happened there too. just later. But this may have something todo that i started a new game in vanilla and am further with the modded one.

Deactivating "Use flip presentation model" didn't do anything. Deactivating the steam overlay improved it a bit. With it off i could play 2 out of 4 times more then 2 hours, but the other 2 still crashed. I activated the steam overlay again and switched to my old graphic card and with this i could play more than an hour without crashing. So it does seem to be my new graphic card, even tough i don't understand why it only happens with the steam version of Factorio.
Well time to learn how to use warranty.
Thanks to anyone who helped.

Chatastroph wrote: ↑Sun Jul 21, 2019 10:17 am So i updated my GPU drivers to the current version and it just happens later now. But with this i suspect more the GPU than before. I just don't understand why this only happens with the steam version of Factorio and nothing else.

It almost always turns out to be that the one problem game pokes a GPU that is right on the very edge of problems in a bad way, and it falls off. In some cases it'll never go beyond that, or you can underclock and it'll work fine. In others it'll get worse over time (hello, NVIDIA bad solder joints) until you get complete failure.

For example, Path of Exile is amazingly good at detecting graphics cards that are not seated correctly in the PCE-e slot. It happens to transfer textures to and from the GPU memory in a way that shows up during gameplay, not just as longer loading screens, which means that people are *sure* there must be a bug with the game, not a hardware problem... because everything else is "fine", even big AAA shooters.

It isn't actually fine. They just got used to super-long load screens. Incorrect seating means the card negotiates a 1x rather than 8x or 16x connection, and also has more errors in transfer that it'll just repeat ... but everything moving across it is slower.