26 replies to this topic

[Heavy Money]

Okay, update: I tried re-enabling just ingame sound (not music, and VOIP was always enabled) and now the crash is back.

So at this point, I'm fairly certain its an issue with ingame audio. And since it only occurs on certain maps, I can only assume its something to do with a sound on those maps?

Any ideas what could be tried to fix the audio? I have integrated sound on the motherboard, but I'm just using a USB headset with the game. I do generally have music playing in iTunes, so I'm going to see if not doing that makes any difference. Beyond that I'm not sure what to try.

[Tarl Cabot]

Heavy Money,

Sound may not be the issue in itself but the resources it utilizes, pushing system resources JUST enough for the DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_RESET to occur on said maps. Disabling game sound was simplest the quickest route to reduce/stop the DirectX crashes, but sound on crashes may have simply been a symptom.

• Even with the headset plugged in, was all sound being routed through headset or split up, music via headset and game sounds via computer speakers?
  
• Had you previously completely unplug headset itself and used the actual motherboard sound and external speakers plugged into the audio slots?
  
• From OS to OS, has the game always been installed on the same harddrive?
  
• Finally, are you able to create a second Windows account (Local User Account) and run MWO from it without loading without USB headset plugged in?

[Heavy Money]

It seems implausible that the sound is pushing the resources over the edge. I have a fair amount of system resources. And I've successfully run MWO while doing resource intensive background tasks, like rendering out video, without crashes occurring, and with only minor performance impact noticeable. I've played MWO with 3D programs running in the background with huge files open calculating physics simulations and no performance impact observed (video rendering and physics sims would both be CPU intensive, but not touch GPU). Whatever is happening is some sort of bug unrelated to resources, or that causes a massive spike in resources.

- When using the headset, all sound is going through it.

- I have played the game on speakers with and without music playing and not observed a crash, but this could be coincidence. Usually I'm on Discord, so I don't use the speakers. I've been on Discord and had ingame VOIP enabled while playing recently, and went nearly a week of no crashes with ingame sound disabled, only to crash within 30mins of re-enabling it.

- The game has always been installed on the same drive, but it was completely re-installed with only my hotkey config kept. I've also fully uninstalled and reinstalled since the OS upgrade.

- I can make a second account, but I'm not sure what you mean by "without loading"?

Thanks as always for your help.

[Tarl Cabot]

That is lot of missing info, ie CPU intensive programs running in the background, but which does not touch GPU....

Quote

- I have played the game on speakers with and without music playing and not observed a crash, but this could be coincidence.

So the question is, over the years, same hardware but updates to OS, drivers and game itself, crashes on certain maps but not all the time.

It would not be the first time that USB headsets could be causing game issues/crashes, and at least in this post you have noted that, afaik, the game had not crashed when not using USB headset. Were the headsets simply not plug in, or plugged (edit pulled = plugged - blaming Jack/Coke!!) in but simply using computer speakers. With USB you would not be using the motherboard sound drivers/components but USB since the soundcard itself is in the headset, and default window drivers or headset program.

A second, local account request is that it would not be setup to load all of the programs which are loaded under your main account, just the system default, but we can stick going with/without USB right now.

1. Headset plugged in USB port in front or rear? If front switch it to the rear, if rear switch to a different port.
2. Headset program installed or using default window?
3. Play without headset
4. Play with headset for VOIP/external music but have game sound going to computer speakers instead.

Edited by Tarl Cabot, 08 May 2021 - 03:24 AM.

[MrVaad]

Heavy Money, on 07 May 2021 - 07:01 PM, said:

I have a small theory but i need you to do a test with an empty user.cfg (and the same tuning.cfg)
Just add those two lines in the user.cfg :
s_MaxActiveSound = 128
s_MaxChannels = 128

These are MWO's default values. But i wonder if something could set them both to 64.
If you are still using my cfg :
- remove the line s_MaxChannels at the end.
- add s_MaxActiveSounds = 128 and s_MaxChannels = 128

If you still crash, you can try setting them both to 64.

Edited by MrVaad, 10 May 2021 - 12:51 AM.

[Heavy Money]

Thanks everyone, i'm still testing the lastest round of suggestions.

[Heavy Money]

Well, there does finally seem to be an answer to what was going on. I won't go through all the gory details, but basically I just lived with the problem for the last few months as it got more and more common. Then eventually it started happening on my desktop. I ran tons of diagnostics and never found any issues.

Then I tried removing the graphics card and blowing out the dust. This got me 3 weeks of no crashes, then they came back badly. So then I pulled the card again and tried it in a different slot which didn't help. So then I cleaned the card's contacts with rubbing alcohol and put it back in the original slot and its been perfect for about a week so far. And upon further research, this kind of this isn't unusual for a 5 year old rig.

Just wanted to put this info in incase anyone else finds this thread due to similar issues.

Edited by Heavy Money, 04 October 2021 - 09:17 PM.