Help request: Every table crashes within 30 seconds.

[MuddyWolf]

The subject basically says it all.

After I select a table it crashes within 30 seconds once it has loaded and I get an ‘application stopped working’ error message. It doesn’t matter if I let the camera zoom over the playfield for a while or if I start up a game right away.

I hope somebody here can help because I’m getting desperate myself and I’m running out of ideas of what to try/do next.

Here’s some detailed info…

I usually run the game in DX11 but switching to DX9 made no difference.
Neither did resetting all the config settings back to default and after that, setting everything to the lowest settings possible.

I verified the game files. No files corrupt or missing.

Finally I decided to remove all game files and do a complete clean install of the game.
Since I hadn’t updated my graphics drivers in a while, I also updated those with a clean install.

After all that I verified the game files again . No files corrupt or missing.

But nothing has changed either.
The game keeps crashing.

I haven’t played TPA for real since the last table addition so I don’t when the trouble started exactly but I did set a high score on the last one (F14-Tomcat).

I own the pro editions of all five seasons so I’m sure it doesn’t matter from which season the table is.
I don’t have any problems logging in to my Farsight account.
I’m opted out of all Steam Beta’s.
I don't have problems running other games.

Specs:
Windows 7 64 bit (everything up to date)
GPU: GTX 580 (now with the latest drivers)
CPU: i2500k (not overclocked)

Thanks!

-Edit
I tried a few more start-ups and now it also crashes with the blue screen that says ‘out of memory’.

This was a known issue a while ago but I could still play back then.
The game just crashed sometimes.

This bug is different.
It's consistent and the game also crashes without showing that screen.

[Paratech2008]

Contact support via e-mail
[e-mail]
They don't post much here.

[MuddyWolf]

Thanks Paratech.

I took your advice and just did.
I probably tried most of what I can try myself already anyway.

If somebody still happens to have an idea, please post though.

[Zombie Tsunami]

Originally posted by MuddyWolf:

Thanks Paratech.

I took your advice and just did.
I probably tried most of what I can try myself already anyway.

If somebody still happens to have an idea, please post though.

even though your pc only crashes with the pinball, i'd try and figure out what the issue is with the blue screens...

http://www.maximumpc.com/blue-screen-of-death-survival-guide-every-error-explained/

[MuddyWolf]

Thanks Slim.

But those blue screens were really a TPA specific bug.
I went through everything back then and lots of people here were experiencing the same bug.
There are more than a few screenshots of it too.

Although you can never be 100% sure, I'm convinced this problem is also TPA specific.
I can't even remember the last time I had a real screen of death...thankfully.

[mjohns]

Most blue screens of death are in my personal experience due to a hardware fault and for me it was bad ram, you could try running a ram test program as there are many free ones out there but they can take hours to complete their tests, but it still may be worth a shot as in my 1000 plus hours of playing the pinball arcade i have never got a blue screen of death ever. anyway whatever it is i hope you manage to sort it out.

[MuddyWolf]

Thanks for the suggestion Slim & mjohns.
I gave in and followed your advice.
You never know for sure if you haven't tried it.

Farsight will probably ask me to do the same thing anyway.

Fortunately, I didn't have to run such time absorbing tests.
I still had new mem sticks laying in a drawer right next to me.
(A corsair vengeance 1600-8gb kit)

Unfortunately, the game keeps crashing in the exact same way :(

btw
The blue screen TPA bug is well known. Just click on the screenshots tab on this board. A few places from the top down you'll already come across the first one.

[Zombie Tsunami]

Originally posted by MuddyWolf:

Thanks for the suggestion Slim & mjohns.
I gave in and followed your advice.
You never know for sure if you haven't tried it.

Farsight will probably ask me to do the same thing anyway.

Fortunately, I didn't have to run such time absorbing tests.
I still had new mem sticks laying in a drawer right next to me.
(A corsair vengeance 1600-8gb kit)

Unfortunately, the game keeps crashing in the exact same way :(

btw
The blue screen TPA bug is well known. Just click on the screenshots tab on this board. A few places from the top down you'll already come across the first one.

you sound like you have covered all the bases, i'll throw some stuff out that you have probably already tried. run the game in a different compatibility mode/run as admin - launch game from the game directory instead of shortcut icon or through steam library.
i hope you get it working. let us know what the fix was when you find the problem.

[MuddyWolf]

Originally posted by Slim Pickens:

you sound like you have covered all the bases, i'll throw some stuff out that you have probably already tried. run the game in a different compatibility mode/run as admin - launch game from the game directory instead of shortcut icon or through steam library.i hope you get it working. let us know what the fix was when you find the problem.

Yep.
Tried all of that and more. No cigar.

But I’ve made some real progress on a different front...
I found that I don’t even have to go and select/load a table for the game to crash.

It also crashes if I don't select anything but just start it up and let it idle on the start-up menu screen (where you also have to login to your Farsight account and where the Challenges, Tournaments, etc. are listed.) I only have to wait a little longer but that plus time is probably the time that it normally takes to select a table and load it.

The last thing I’ve tried is (re-)installing the VS2012 Redistributable package. Farsight recommended this in a stickied thread about the game not booting but my hopes were already low.

The game does boot up.
It’s just as if it starts slurping up my memory right after it.

I really hope Farsight can help if it's a bug and specific to my configuration.
I've never had problems playing the game in the past.

Thanks for thinking along :)

[MuddyWolf]

Oh, and just in case a Farsight programmer happens to be reading along.

My complete specs are:

Windows 7 64 bit (everything up to date)
Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V PRO/Gen 3
CPU: Intel core i5-2500k (not overclocked)
GPU: Asus GeForce GTX 580 (with the latest drivers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 1600-8gb kit
Power: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 850W

[Zombie Tsunami]

Originally posted by MuddyWolf:

Oh, and just in case a Farsight programmer happens to be reading along.

My complete specs are:

Windows 7 64 bit (everything up to date)
Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V PRO/Gen 3
CPU: Intel core i5-2500k (not overclocked)
GPU: Asus GeForce GTX 580 (with the latest drivers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 1600-8gb kit
Power: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 850W

are you using both the onboard Intel graphics and your GTX 580 together?
if so maybe pinball arcade can't digest the setup.

check out your event logs, even thought the computer crashes with the one application it may give you a better picture as to what is going on.

you probably know this but....
right click Computer - left click Manage > Event Viewer

Custom Views - Admiinistrative Events
Windows Logs - Application, System
Applications and Services - Hardware Events

[milkfat]

Standard software should not be able to cause a BSOD. BSOD is indicative of a hardware or low-level software (drivers) issue. Pinball Arcade might be tickling your hardware in the right place to cause a BSOD, but that does not mean that Pinball Arcade is at fault.

You could start by making sure all your system drivers are up-to-date. Your motherboard drivers appear to be located here (I would guess the most likely culprits to be BIOS, chipset, and SATA drivers): http://www.asus.com/Motherboards/P8Z68V_PROGEN3/HelpDesk_Download/

For any further assistance you will need to give us details about your BSOD. You need to supply the specific error message as well as any specific files that were the cause. Here is a good article explaining how to do this, it also contains a link to a utility that will allow you to analyze the BSOD debug files (Windows creates a dump file for every BSOD): http://www.howtogeek.com/163452/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-blue-screen-of-death/

Here is a forum that appears to be dedicated to assisting with BSOD, you will get much better support at a place like this rather than with a game developer: http://www.sevenforums.com/crash-lockup-debug-how/

[Bruno]

BSODs are part of the reason why pc gaming is declining in popularity. Too bad the ps4 PA version isn't as good as the pc one.

[Zombie Tsunami]

Originally posted by Bruno:

BSODs are part of the reason why pc gaming is declining in popularity. Too bad the ps4 PA version isn't as good as the pc one.

It may be part of the reason but it's Infinitesimal at best.

[Zombie Tsunami]

Originally posted by MuddyWolf:

Oh, and just in case a Farsight programmer happens to be reading along.

My complete specs are:

Windows 7 64 bit (everything up to date)
Mobo: Asus P8Z68-V PRO/Gen 3
CPU: Intel core i5-2500k (not overclocked)
GPU: Asus GeForce GTX 580 (with the latest drivers)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance 1600-8gb kit
Power: Cooler Master Silent Pro M2 850W

wouldn't hurt to try this..

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3134-TIAL-4638

[Full_Throttle_F14]

How about running the included redistribute files in the pinballarcade/commonredist folder?