[SOLVED] Game freezes, not crashes. Trying to identify cause.

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

EDIT: The FCU Windows 10 update breaks the bHookCriticalSections setting in NVSR. Setting it to 0 solved my problem. The game doesn't feel as nice now but it's not crashing anymore.

I've been having this problem since I forget what major Windows 10 update some months back but I have to way to know the update was the cause. It crashed a lot at that point, and after some changes the crashes became freezes. Not sure that it's the same problem, though.

I have gone to the point of testing vanilla, using Process Lasso to restrict cores and raise NV's priority, overclocking my CPU and GPU, hours upon hours of testing .ini edits in NVSR and NVSE as well as the game's three .ini files, making a load of changes using W10Privacy...and I just can't fix it. My FPS is now massive and everything is phenomenally smooth, so much more than I've had it probably ever, and still, between fifteen minutes and an hour or so, it will freeze. Not crash, just freeze. I can usually even Alt-F4 the game, at least after some of my most recent changes (but before that, it was Task Manager).

The most curious thing to me is that memory usage is always at about 2GB when it happens, which sounds like the game's limit if I didn't have the 4GB patcher, which I do. I've even tried the old launcher and that didn't work, either.

My mod list is basically all graphics and cut content mods and whatever weather mod I'm trying out to make it not freeze but still have a good weather mod (Nevada Skies of late). Yes, these are all bad, I know, but my game was a solid 40 FPS without too many issues on Windows 7 and seemed pretty decent at the beginning on Windows 10.

I have all the stability and performance mods of course, and I've been more or less following the TTW performance guide.

I do not run an ENB.

My specs are:
AMD FX-8320, overclocked to about 4 Ghz
ASUS M5A97 R2.0
GTX 750 Ti, overclocked slightly, prioritising temperature, 100% fan speed
Windows 10 (the devil)

I have a Babyface Pro soundcard and all my sound goes through that. It's only just now occurring to me to look into that, though I was getting crashes before buying that (but not freezes).

Thank you.

[Anro]

the problem is your CPU

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

If that's true, I'd like to know why it's happening now and not before. I have about 1000 hours logged in this game on my Steam copy alone, and a good 800-900 of them didn't give me these problems. The game ran more or less perfectly on Windows 7 once I made the right tweaks to compensate for my mods. The game didn't run fine ever on Windows 10 but it used to be much better than this. Even vanilla was crashing and stuttering when I tested that.

[Anro]

Originally posted by E.P.D. Gaffney:

If that's true, I'd like to know why it's happening now and not before. I have about 1000 hours logged in this game on my Steam copy alone, and a good 800-900 of them didn't give me these problems. The game ran more or less perfectly on Windows 7 once I made the right tweaks to compensate for my mods. The game didn't run fine ever on Windows 10 but it used to be much better than this. Even vanilla was crashing and stuttering when I tested that.

by me run the game much better on windows 10

[Anro]

the problem of your cpu is following:
Architecutr = Modul
1 Modul = 2 Cores
2 Cores = Use the same Cache
Problem = 4 Core / 8 Threads
Problem 2= Bad Single Core Performance
Problem 3 = Fallout New Vegas can only use effectiv 2 Cores
So you need a stronger single core performance

OC by a FX its only a joke. you dont get more power
only more energie and more heat

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

Right but that's not my situation. What I want is some help diagnosing the actual cause. For example, the memory never getting past 2GB is pretty peculiar in my opinion.

[Anro]

Originally posted by E.P.D. Gaffney:

Right but that's not my situation. What I want is some help diagnosing the actual cause. For example, the memory never getting past 2GB is pretty peculiar in my opinion.

the game can not handle vanilla more than 2 Gb
with the 4Gb Patcher it can only handle 3,3GB after that the game crash instead (maybe only 3,1Gb im not sure)

[KriKitBoNeZ]

If only there was some mod to use more than 2 gb...

[Anro]

i send you a friendship than i can help than a bit more maybe

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

I understand your criticism of my processor, but unfortunately that doesn't help me because this game has worked pretty much fine for me for years. So I need to pinpoint the source of the problem now that something has changed.

And overclocking shot up my FPS almost double and kept it almost completely maintained. That's what's weird about my problem now: it shows no signs of having a heavy load until it suddenly just freezes. Sometimes it's over an hour of completely smooth 50-60 FPS even in the rain or in massive fights, and then like the flip of a switch it stops working.

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

Thanks. I'll add you back in a second.

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

Originally posted by KriKitBoNeZ:

If only there was some mod to use more than 2 gb...

Did you read my post?

[KriKitBoNeZ]

Originally posted by E.P.D. Gaffney:

Originally posted by KriKitBoNeZ:

If only there was some mod to use more than 2 gb...

Did you read my post?

Not really.

[Adoring fan]

Originally posted by KriKitBoNeZ:

Originally posted by E.P.D. Gaffney:

Did you read my post?

Not really.

lol your an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

[KriKitBoNeZ]

Originally posted by Fulcrum:

Originally posted by KriKitBoNeZ:

Not really.

lol your an ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

You + are = you're. Grammatical contraction.

[E.P.D. Gaffney]

All right, so, the problem is as I suspected the Windows 10 update. It breaks the bHookCriticalSections setting in NVSR. My game now no longer crashes but all that wonderful smoothness I had after overclocking is gone. Shame but better than crashing constantly.