6 replies to this topic

[Shredhead]

Ok, since about two patches ago something very odd started to happen. Some minutes after closing or tabbing out of MWO, my PC just shuts down. No blue screen, no warning, just shutting down.
Well, my first thought was overheat, but that wasn't the case, and illogical anyway, as there was no load on the hardware at that time anyway. So I checked my RAM and started monitoring my system, but I couldn't find anything to cause this.
Today then I had a fit of "let's update SC hangar module and visit the ship". And boom, five minutes after finally closing the HM, my PC just shut down.
So it seems I have found the cause: the CryEngine!
As there is no real support I can contact at Crytek, I'd really need PGI to forward my problem. I have already explained it as thoroughly as possible on their FB page, but I hope you guys can do something about it, this is a severe issue. I'll repost my report from FB here:

Quote

I have both Mechwarrior: Online and the Hangar Module of Star Citizen installed on my PC. After their latest respective patches something very odd occured. After closing the games respective client, some minutes later my PC suddenly shuts down. Every single time.
I could exclude overheat, bad RAM or nearly any other hardware failure through monitoring my specs.
The shutdown happens while there is no load whatsoever on the hardware, aside from the OS, browser and sometimes TS3.
Today I patched the hangar module of SC and bam, same thing after closing it, so I am 99% sure it has to do with their versions of CryEngine, no doubt about that.
I can run every other game I have, put my PC under load as much as I like without the shutdown happening.
My PC specs:
Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200
6 GB DDR2 RAM
NVidia GeForce GTX 660
Driver: 9.18.13.3523
Win 7 Home Premium 64 Bit

Please forward this your support team.
I hope to hear from you soon.

Chris

Your help would be very much appreciated, tia

[nightsniper]

Was seeing this some time ago on my old rig. Have you checked GPU temp if it spikes which it can even after you shut down the games it may be forcing the bios into a reboot. I have seen this with Radeon Cards. The fans drop down right after load is suspended and the heat still builds. Also I have seen the hard drive hang trying to exit also I believe because of heat you really need to make sure your computer is neat and tidy and has real good air flow. CryEngine does push the use of all resources and even just one getting hot can cause random shut downs it does this to protect the system. My last system the heat sink in the south and north bridge just dropped in the case because the heat fried the paste on my gigabyte board running and AMD 945 quad core. Replaced both with fan coolers and system held together anther 9 months before heat issues took out some of the capacitors. Running MWO and Star Citizen requires real heat management any weakness will cause the motherboard to just shut down. Unlike the blue screen which usually signals a driver conflict or corrupted file Heat just turns it off.

[Shredhead]

nightsniper, on 12 March 2014 - 05:14 AM, said:

Was seeing this some time ago on my old rig. Have you checked GPU temp if it spikes which it can even after you shut down the games it may be forcing the bios into a reboot. I have seen this with Radeon Cards. The fans drop down right after load is suspended and the heat still builds. Also I have seen the hard drive hang trying to exit also I believe because of heat you really need to make sure your computer is neat and tidy and has real good air flow. CryEngine does push the use of all resources and even just one getting hot can cause random shut downs it does this to protect the system. My last system the heat sink in the south and north bridge just dropped in the case because the heat fried the paste on my gigabyte board running and AMD 945 quad core. Replaced both with fan coolers and system held together anther 9 months before heat issues took out some of the capacitors. Running MWO and Star Citizen requires real heat management any weakness will cause the motherboard to just shut down. Unlike the blue screen which usually signals a driver conflict or corrupted file Heat just turns it off.

I already ruled that out. Heat was also my first suspect, but my PC runs within the parameters all the time. I use SpeedFan to monitor my heat. I've got six temperature sensors + GPU sensor, there's nothing I could have missed.

[nightsniper]

If you completely rulled out heat as an issue I would suggest you look at the power supply as the issue. A windows issue or driver issue would not just shut it down as you say the only things that can do this is the heat safety settings or the PSU. This game is straining most systems, Cry3 does that, and any weakness will show up. The PSU may be intermittent with a drop in voltage on one bar or the other this may continue for a short time till pop nothing from it the risk is damage from the power it is putting out to your system. Look for an 80 Plus unit to replace in the 900-1000 watts replacing this as a next step. After that I would suggest your MOBO has some weak capacitors that are slowly failing and time for an upgrade. Age really is not as big a factor as the heat and how hard your running it Gigabyte runs solid Copper on most of their boards which handles the heat far better and adds longer life.

Good Luck.

[Durant Carlyle]

If CryEngine was the direct culprit, it would shut the computer down WHILE you were playing, not minutes later. It may be indirectly exposing a weakness in your system though.

I'd say it's either a power supply issue or a heat-related issue.

By heat-related, I don't mean that your stuff is overheating. I mean that components in your computer are heating up and expanding when under load (like they normally do), and then they are contracting when they cool down (again, like they normally do). But somewhere in the cool-down/contraction phase, something (like your graphics card or the mainboard's power circuitry or even the components of the power supply) may be losing contact with the rest of the system -- and that would shut the whole thing down. I've seen it happen (not with CryEngine, but with other games). Under normal circumstances, the system is fine. But under just the right (or wrong, depending on your point of view) conditions, something loses contact. Especially on an older system that has been expanding and contracting for years, like your Core 2 Quad.

If that's what's happening, not using CryEngine-powered games would be a temporary fix. However, the weakness would eventually become weaker and the shutdowns would start happening with other games as well.

Edited by Durant Carlyle, 13 March 2014 - 06:45 AM.

[Shredhead]

Thank you guys, that's really good advice. I'll look into it, maybe there's something I can do temporarily until I have the money to upgrade my PC further (new mobo, processor and RAM).

[Corvus Antaka]

shutdown definitely sounds like an auto shutdown, check your PCU temps your motherboard may be powering you down to prevent an overheat.