(SOLVED) My game keeps minimizing every 5-7 minutes! PLEASE HELP

[(BB4H) nickeliii]

I really hope somebody can help me with this. I have a Steam downloaded version of Dark Souls 2 and even though everything within the game runs impeccably, the program minimizes by itself to Desktop approx every 5-7 minutes! I can't tell you how frustrating it is to find yourself in a hard situation only to have the game disappear and continue in the background. I can restore it immediately but it's usually too late in the middle of combat.

I have tried contacting Namco Bandai support but it's been days without a response. My current specs are:
-Windows RT 8.1 64-bit
-Nvidia GeForce 600 ti
-Game purchased from Steam

I have tried: Deleting background processes on at a time, updating/rolling back my video drivers, unplugging my 2nd monitor, unplugging my mouse (im playing with an xbox 360 wired controller), numerous variations on the in-game video settings... I have no other ideas! This is the only game it's ever happened with! PLEASE HELP! I can't proceed because the boss I'm up against takes longer to kill than this issue allows for!

SOLVED: I managed to fix the issue by playing the game with the Windows Event Log running in the background. I noticed immediately after the game minimized that a program from my Samsung phone had attempted some sort of process. I deleted the program and the problem disappeared. I recommend the Event Log approach to anyone having the same issue. See if you can find the program that's conflicting, and - after making sure that there are no consequences for unistalling it - uninstall it. Thanks for all the feedback.

0


Nickeliii

Posts: 1
Joined: Sun Apr 27, 2014 11:29 am
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[sylance]

I have this with other games and haven't found a solution. Windows 8.1 as well... I found some possible solutions with Google but nothing definitive yet.

[Fortrfire]

I had this with a few games, and the cause for me was quite strange: having Task Manager or Resource Monitor open was the culprit.

[Franky™]

Try to disable the pci express energy saving option, maybe this will do the trick...

[kobra]

try putting it in windowed mode

[(BB4H) nickeliii]

Thank you for the responses... something really weird has happened. I already ruled out background processes ala task manager/Resource Monitor etc... but I just made the change to Windowed Mode. Now, the game DOESN'T minimize to desktop, but every 3 minutes or so I lose control for 1second. The in-game cursor appears, and my character stands still, and then it's fine again! It's definitely an improvement but I can still see it being a pain in the ass. Surely there's a background process getting in the way, but I've disabled Steam from interjecting during game, and i've been through and disabled every single other process in task manager individually! What else is there?

[eNut_ButteR]

I have the exact same problem and it's driving me insane.

Please, please, please, let me know if you find a solution to this.

[(BB4H) nickeliii]

Originally posted by eNut_ButteR:

I have the exact same problem and it's driving me insane.

Please, please, please, let me know if you find a solution to this.

Mate I'm still working on it. Can you tell me anything about your system specs? Operating system, graphics card, etc? And anything you;ve already tried to fix it? Cheers.

[eNut_ButteR]

It's actually totally gone as of today.

I am using Windows 8.1, GTX 760, and an FX-6300 with 8 GB RAM.

I saw a Java notification this morning, so I updated that before I started, disabled my AVG anti-virus, then started Steam, downloaded the little patch for Dark Souls 2 (that may be what fixed it) and started the game up. Just finished playing for an hour and a half or so and didn't get minimized once.

If it wasn't the patch that fixed it then I have no idea what did.

[(BB4H) nickeliii]

Ok, that gives me an ounce of hope. I'm in Australia, and I havent seen an update yet. Hopefully thats what it takes. It damn well better be... I just got skewered by the Old Dragonrider when the game ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up, and I had him at 1/4 healtth! I'll be picking bits of my desk outta my fists for weeks! lol

[eNut_ButteR]

I feel ya man. Hopefully it was the update. If not, the only other thing I did that I hadn't tried was do the java update although I have no idea why that would have caused it, but hey, try everything.

[(BB4H) nickeliii]

FIXED! And it was frustratingly simple :) As soon as the game minimized I checked the Windows Event Viewer for the process that had tried to run at the same time. The culprit was a Samsung application called AllShareFrameworkDMS.exe, likely having something to do with my Galaxy s4. After making sure I could safely remove it I got rid of it, and DS2 runs without a hitch. I celebrated by shoving my scimitar up the Old Dragonrider's hole. I've never enjoyed undead sodomy so much before.

Thanks for all your help and suggestions.

[Solumine]

It seems that this problems can come from a lot of programs, fixed it simply by desactivating AVG.

[TheWoodsman]

I was having the same issue. I recently solved it for my personal situation. The problem was that Windows Error Reporting was getting errors from Intel Smart Connect and possibly other applications running in the background. I disabled the Windows Error Reporting service and have not seen the problem for over 2 hours of play time. Previously it had been about every 5 minutes.

[Kleever]

I know you said your issue was fixed now, but did you have citrix receiver installed and running by chance? That is known for causing that same scenario when playing full screen games.

[TheWoodsman]

No Citrix here. Although Citrix may be throwing errors to WER in the background in that case.