Factorio crashing, taking Linux Mint desktop with it

[NineNine]

I'm running into a new problem where Factorio is crashing and taking my entire desktop with it (Linux MInt). Attached is a log file and my current game (no mods).

What happens:
Starting about a week ago, I'll be playing Factorio for a random amount of time (seconds, minutes), and Factorio freezes. My monitor signal turns off and on twice (I assume this is the video driver crashing). Then, the whole desktop crashes (along with Factorio).

I haven't installed or changed any hardware before or since this has started. I have allowed recommended Linux Mint updates to go through, though. I've attached what's updated since roughly this problem has started. (Unfortunately, I can't remember exactly what day this crashing problem started happening.)

[Rseding91]

Hello, I was told you might try removing the AMD Microcode update and see if it makes any difference.

[NineNine]

After sort of hosing my install with Timeshift, I finally got around to playing it with all of the current Linux Mint updates except for the amd64-microcode update. So far, so good. No crashing in about 3 hours of playing. Will keep testing. Thanks for the suggestion!

[NineNine]

Another 3-4 hours of play, and no problems. I think this was my problem. Thank you! The factory continues to grow!

I can only imagine how many other problems are being caused for people by this update...

[NineNine]

Could you please post a link where I could find more information about how/why this update causes a problem? The folks over a Linux Mint seem to think that this update wouldn't have any impact on my particular system (it doesn't effect the CPU I'm using). I've been testing continuously for the past few days, and I can verify that this update definitely causes my system to crash when it's installed... not always in Factorio, but much more frequently when Factorio is running.

[Rseding91]

I don't have any links about this specific issue but we have had many issues in the past around AMD CPUs crashing in verified correct code.

We first noticed it years ago: https://www.factorio.com/blog/post/fff-231
https://www.reddit.com/r/factorio/comme ... _87_times/

And eventually AMD said they fixed it and released some update to prevent the issue: viewtopic.php?t=59771

However the issue was never fully resolved and still happens for a handful of users. So when you have an AMD CPU, an update list showing some AMD CPU related change, and a crash in a section of code that simply does not crash on properly working systems - it made us guess that it might be related.

Additionally someone found this a while ago https://twitter.com/aionescu/status/1394359314102427650 which just points at more dodgy stuff happening around AMD CPUs.

[NineNine]

Thanks so much for that information!

Unfortunately, I think I might have spoken too soon. As it turns out, right now, I think I'm looking at a hardware problem (intermittently failing video card?!). I'm still trying to get down to the bottom of this one, but I just want to update the thread for now.