Hard Crash when alt-tabbing (Hardware Related?)

[Strongylos]

Using the Steam overlay to leave the game window to use Firefox (or other possible applications), triggers a 5 second "freeze" were all monitors go black, then leads to a windows blue screen.

This has happened twice in a 3 day space of time, once on the 13th and again on the 16th.

1st time: Produced a 5 second freeze, then a blue screen
(Was not able to take a photo of the error name in time)
I think the error said memory_allocated_open_space.
I'll provide the .dmp file and error codes from Windows Reliability Monitor

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/16lzzowF3CBoFxovCcFTYTqeaoiwS_Udf?usp=drive_link

2nd time: Produced a 15+ second freeze and was needed to be force shut downed.

Edit: I am on a laptop and also using a borderless window.

[Zak]

Blue screen most likely means drivers issue or even a hardware problem. Hopefully, it's just the GPU drivers, though really any driver can cause BSOD, even sound drivers. So, make sure your GPU drivers are the latest. Then try either Full Screen or Borderless mode in the game settings, one may work better than other with Alt Tabbing. . How about Full Screen? Does it crash too?

Please copy and paste Steam->Help->System Information.

I don't know how to read dump files, Musashi is good with that, maybe he'll come by. But having your hardware info would be helpful.

Not sure what you mean by "Using the Steam overlay to leave the game window" but I use Full Screen and I Alt-Tab all the time with zero issues and I never had a blue screen in nearly 2000 hours.

Oh, and you should delete the other post in the Bug Report section. It will be easier to follow up in a single thread than two.

Edit: Laptop? OK, we need System Information, please.

[Strongylos]

Computer Information:

Manufacturer: Metabox
Model: Alpha-X NH58AF
Form Factor: Laptop
No Touch Input Detected

Processor Information:

CPU Vendor: AuthenticAMD
CPU Brand: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 6-Core Processor
CPU Family: 0x17
CPU Model: 0x71
CPU Stepping: 0x0
CPU Type: 0x0
Speed: 3593 MHz
12 logical processors
6 physical processors
Hyper-threading: Supported
FCMOV: Supported
SSE2: Supported
SSE3: Supported
SSSE3: Supported
SSE4a: Supported
SSE41: Supported
SSE42: Supported
AES: Supported
AVX: Supported
AVX2: Supported
AVX512F: Unsupported
AVX512PF: Unsupported
AVX512ER: Unsupported
AVX512CD: Unsupported
AVX512VNNI: Unsupported
SHA: Supported
CMPXCHG16B: Supported
LAHF/SAHF: Supported
PrefetchW: Unsupported
BMI1: Supported
BMI2: Supported
F16C: Supported
FMA: Supported

Operating System Version:

Windows 11 (64 bit)
NTFS: Supported
Crypto Provider Codes: Supported 311 0x0 0x0 0x0

Client Information:

Version: 1747176658
Browser GPU Acceleration Status: Enabled
Browser Canvas: Enabled
Browser Canvas out-of-process rasterization: Enabled
Browser Direct Rendering Display Compositor: Disabled
Browser Compositing: Enabled
Browser Multiple Raster Threads: Enabled
Browser OpenGL: Enabled
Browser Rasterization: Enabled
Browser Raw Draw: Disabled
Browser Skia Graphite: Disabled
Browser Video Decode: Enabled
Browser Video Encode: Enabled
Browser Vulkan: Disabled
Browser WebGL: Enabled
Browser WebGL2: Enabled
Browser WebGPU: Enabled
Browser WebNN: Disabled

Video Card:

Driver: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
DirectX Driver Name: nvldumd.dll
Driver Version: 32.0.15.7628
DirectX Driver Version: 32.0.15.7628
Driver Date: 4 27 2025
Desktop Color Depth: 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Refresh Rate: 144 Hz
DirectX Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070
VendorID: 0x10de
DeviceID: 0x1f14
Revision: 0xa1
Number of Monitors: 3
Number of Logical Video Cards: 3
No SLI or Crossfire Detected
Primary Display Resolution: 1920 x 1080
Desktop Resolution: 4996 x 2164
Primary Display Size: 20.75" x 11.65" (23.78" diag), 52.7cm x 29.6cm (60.4cm diag)
Primary Bus: PCI Express 16x
Primary VRAM: 8191 MB
Supported MSAA Modes: 2x 4x 8x

Sound card:

Audio device: Speakers & Audio Jacks (Realtek

Memory:

RAM: 32664 Mb

VR Hardware:

VR Headset: None detected

Miscellaneous:

UI Language: English
Media Type: Undetermined
Total Hard Disk Space Available: 2860656 MB
Largest Free Hard Disk Block: 307515 MB
OS Install Date: Nov 22 2024
Game Controller: None detected
MAC Address hash: f3594321f15354bc490098e80cd5f7ad17436d0a

Storage:

Disk serial number hash: 7b7df37f
Number of SSDs: 2
SSD sizes: 500G,500G
Number of HDDs: 1
HDD sizes: 2000G
Number of removable drives: 0

[Strongylos]

Originally posted by Zak:

Blue screen most likely means drivers issue or even a hardware problem. Hopefully, it's just the GPU drivers, though really any driver can cause BSOD, even sound drivers. So, make sure your GPU drivers are the latest. Then try either Full Screen or Borderless mode in the game settings, one may work better than other with Alt Tabbing. . How about Full Screen? Does it crash too?

Please copy and paste Steam->Help->System Information.

I don't know how to read dump files, Musashi is good with that, maybe he'll come by. But having your hardware info would be helpful.

Not sure what you mean by "Using the Steam overlay to leave the game window" but I use Full Screen and I Alt-Tab all the time with zero issues and I never had a blue screen in nearly 2000 hours.

Oh, and you should delete the other post in the Bug Report section. It will be easier to follow up in a single thread than two.

Edit: Laptop? OK, we need System Information, please.

Sorry for the late response. Where to begin...

I do believe my drivers are pretty much up to date for my Laptop 2070, Nvidia's change log has nothing of interest. I'll switch to fullscreen but I don't think the outcome will be different, as this has happened randomly days apart with me playing daily.

The dump file is for the developers; before this steam post I submitted a bug report via the pinned post directly to their website. I did leave some screenshots from the Reliability Monitor to show what happened.

"Using the Steam overlay to leave the game window" just means I didn't use the Windows Key to alt tab which does help with old 2000's games on steam when the steam overlay soft crashes them.

I also deleted the other post, I wish steam discussions had cross posting so people could get a higher response range from people.

[Musashi]

Originally posted by Strongylos:

Originally posted by Zak:

Blue screen most likely means drivers issue or even a hardware problem. Hopefully, it's just the GPU drivers, though really any driver can cause BSOD, even sound drivers. So, make sure your GPU drivers are the latest. Then try either Full Screen or Borderless mode in the game settings, one may work better than other with Alt Tabbing. . How about Full Screen? Does it crash too?

Please copy and paste Steam->Help->System Information.

I don't know how to read dump files, Musashi is good with that, maybe he'll come by. But having your hardware info would be helpful.

Not sure what you mean by "Using the Steam overlay to leave the game window" but I use Full Screen and I Alt-Tab all the time with zero issues and I never had a blue screen in nearly 2000 hours.

Oh, and you should delete the other post in the Bug Report section. It will be easier to follow up in a single thread than two.

Edit: Laptop? OK, we need System Information, please.

Sorry for the late response. Where to begin...

I do believe my drivers are pretty much up to date for my Laptop 2070, Nvidia's change log has nothing of interest. I'll switch to fullscreen but I don't think the outcome will be different, as this has happened randomly days apart with me playing daily.

The dump file is for the developers; before this steam post I submitted a bug report via the pinned post directly to their website. I did leave some screenshots from the Reliability Monitor to show what happened.

"Using the Steam overlay to leave the game window" just means I didn't use the Windows Key to alt tab which does help with old 2000's games on steam when the steam overlay soft crashes them.

I also deleted the other post, I wish steam discussions had cross posting so people could get a higher response range from people.

Your crash dump has nothing to do with NMS ... NMS is even not listedt in this file

Your Nvidia Driver is a bit outdated ...
maybe a clean install is needed ?
Go to
https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/

At install choose custom and there Clean Installation

Next disable Steam Recording and Nvidia Overlay

But I doubt that this would fix your BlueScreen issue ...

You may do some Windows Troubleshooting

Start with a clean boot
Clean Boot Win11
https://www.windowscentral.com/software-apps/windows-11/how-to-perform-a-clean-boot-of-windows-11

Here Hide all Microsoft Services .. and than disable all but Steam

[Zak]

Thanks for the report and clarification. No worries.

So yes, your drivers are recent: 576.28. And you CPU and GPU are quite capable of playing this game.


Edit: @Musashi: I run even a bit older driver with an RTX4080 and it's fine. Some latest NVIDIA drivers had a bug, more about it below.


Are your other games running fine?
Have you tried some stress tests?
Did NMS run well before?
Did the problem start recently?

If it happens "randomly days apart with me playing daily" then I don't think it's a serious hardware issue.

You have two monitors? Yeah, I'd try the Full Screen mode to see if it makes any difference.

Have you tried to verify the game files in Steam?

Try deleting the NMS graphics settings file:

\Steam\steamapps\common\No Man's Sky\Binaries\SETTINGS\TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS.MXML

Since the game runs well most of the time, I doubt this the case, but gaming laptops with NVIDIA GPUs can sometimes be weird since they have an on board iGPU and switch between them on the fly to save power. I saw many people with HP Omen laptops, for instance, on other forums where the HP Omen utility started switching aggressively to the iGPU after a Windows Update, causing havoc in games. They had to go to the HP Omen app and change something in the setting, Hybrid GPU Off, or something. So what if the laptop tries to switch to low power iGPU when you Alt-Tab out of game? It's a long shot, but it may be worth looking into your laptop power/GPU settings.

Here is another long shot:

As of driver version 576.02 NVIDIA introduced a bug that made the temperature readout unreliable after the PC wakes up from sleep. This may cause overheating as the fans don't kick in because the driver reports inaccurate, low temperature. I am not sure if they fixed it. I haven't really kept up with this story.

576.28 was supposed to fix it but people were still reporting issues with it.

Run Furmark **very briefly**, just for like 5 seconds, and observe the temperature, if it remains low and is not changing and the fans don't spin up despite the stress test in progress then this may be it. You should also be able to tell if the laptop is getting hot.

If that's the case then try to clean-install slightly older driver, like the one I'm using (572.83). The game runs fine for me. I have a 4080 so it will work fine with your 2070. I kept an older driver because I heard about this issue and I have no problems.

Badly overheating GPU would crash and may cause a hardware related blue screen.

Another possibility is that the driver is just corrupted and doing a clean-install might help. I'd either try the latest drivers or the older one. Especially because it happens "days apart". I'd think that it would crash more often if it was overheating.

Maybe the dump file has some clues. Never mind :)

[Musashi]

I´m also on 572.83... just mentioned the clean install .. it sometimes solves problems

But again.. it´s not a NMS issue

[Zak]

Originally posted by Musashi:

I´m also on 572.83... just mentioned the clean install .. it sometimes solves problems

But again.. it´s not a NMS issue

True, it's definitely not an NMS issue. I played almost non-stop for the last two weeks now without a single crash or glitch, Alt-Tabbing frequently.

[Ozwald]

Windows doesn't like alt tabbing.

It's a resource hungry OS & it has a hard time running when all those resources are being used by a game. The only real solution is more power or a lighter OS.

[Strongylos]

Well thanks you two (ZAK & Musashi). I'll keep the discussion unresolved till the 3rd crash. I'll do the following as it's seems the most obvious things to do.

- Clean update of my gpu driver
- Setting the game to fullscreen
- I already have the nvidia overlay & steam recording disabled

PS

* I don't play newly released game at all these days so I tend to update the drivers monthly due nvidia's known issues

* That .dmp file is from the 1st no man sky crash, I wish it had info in it.
* That Windows 11 clean boot seems a bit much as this game is the only one having issues

[Strongylos]

Originally posted by Ozwald:

Windows doesn't like alt tabbing.

It's a resource hungry OS & it has a hard time running when all those resources are being used by a game. The only real solution is more power or a lighter OS.

My main 'tower' computer got used less to not at all when I got my laptop for UNI (3D Building Software) (Archicad) related, then I updated the tower from W10 to W11 and the AMD gpu drivers went ♥♥♥♥♥ (I know how to fix it, just lazy and it's "less powerful" than the laptop);

So now I'm waiting for Steam OS / GTA 6 to officially come out so I can have a reason to fix it.

I went from XP to W7 to W10 (I hate it only) to W11 (Which I like and defend against W10)

[Strongylos]

Originally posted by Zak:

Thanks for the report and clarification. No worries.

So yes, your drivers are recent: 576.28. And you CPU and GPU are quite capable of playing this game.


Edit: @Musashi: I run even a bit older driver with an RTX4080 and it's fine. Some latest NVIDIA drivers had a bug, more about it below.


Are your other games running fine?
Have you tried some stress tests?
Did NMS run well before?
Did the problem start recently?

If it happens "randomly days apart with me playing daily" then I don't think it's a serious hardware issue.

You have two monitors? Yeah, I'd try the Full Screen mode to see if it makes any difference.

Have you tried to verify the game files in Steam?

Try deleting the NMS graphics settings file:

\Steam\steamapps\common\No Man's Sky\Binaries\SETTINGS\TKGRAPHICSSETTINGS.MXML

Since the game runs well most of the time, I doubt this the case, but gaming laptops with NVIDIA GPUs can sometimes be weird since they have an on board iGPU and switch between them on the fly to save power. I saw many people with HP Omen laptops, for instance, on other forums where the HP Omen utility started switching aggressively to the iGPU after a Windows Update, causing havoc in games. They had to go to the HP Omen app and change something in the setting, Hybrid GPU Off, or something. So what if the laptop tries to switch to low power iGPU when you Alt-Tab out of game? It's a long shot, but it may be worth looking into your laptop power/GPU settings.

Here is another long shot:

As of driver version 576.02 NVIDIA introduced a bug that made the temperature readout unreliable after the PC wakes up from sleep. This may cause overheating as the fans don't kick in because the driver reports inaccurate, low temperature. I am not sure if they fixed it. I haven't really kept up with this story.

576.28 was supposed to fix it but people were still reporting issues with it.

Run Furmark **very briefly**, just for like 5 seconds, and observe the temperature, if it remains low and is not changing and the fans don't spin up despite the stress test in progress then this may be it. You should also be able to tell if the laptop is getting hot.

If that's the case then try to clean-install slightly older driver, like the one I'm using (572.83). The game runs fine for me. I have a 4080 so it will work fine with your 2070. I kept an older driver because I heard about this issue and I have no problems.

Badly overheating GPU would crash and may cause a hardware related blue screen.

Another possibility is that the driver is just corrupted and doing a clean-install might help. I'd either try the latest drivers or the older one. Especially because it happens "days apart". I'd think that it would crash more often if it was overheating.

Maybe the dump file has some clues. Never mind :)

Are your other games running fine? Yeah, As I'm typing this, a modded cities skylines map / game session is alt tabbed and running fine with youtube playing in the background

Have you tried some stress tests? Like proper software... no but modded cities skylines runs in the system harder (CPU 75% / VRAM 7.5GB / GPU 40% / RAM up to 31gb down to 22gb a hour in) than CS1. I could list other games

Did NMS run well before? yes... with medium and high settings at 75herts mostly solid, SSD helps with planet loading

Did the problem start recently? Had the game sitting in my library, start playing it a week ago, got the "daily itch" for it like war thunder, CS1 and Transport Fever 2 which is also modded

Have you tried to verify the game files in Steam? I'll verify it before bed (it's 2:45AM for me) and I prob won't find anything

Try deleting the NMS graphics settings file: That's a bit much, I'll try that after the 3rd crash

Since the game runs well most of the time, I doubt this the case, but gaming laptops with NVIDIA GPUs can sometimes be weird since they have an on board iGPU and switch between them on the fly to save power: Makes sense... tho I have a 3600, no igpu but my power plan does reset to balanced on every boot but that's unrelated.

As of driver version 576.02 NVIDIA introduced a bug that made the temperature readout unreliable after the PC wakes up from sleep. This may cause overheating as the fans don't kick in because the driver reports inaccurate, low temperature. I am not sure if they fixed it. I haven't really kept up with this story: Heard about this, one of the reason I don't update as soon as I should, I don't use sleep mode I turned that ♥♥♥♥ off. I removed my fans twice since 2021 to fully clean them and to remove clumped dust so overheating is not the problem.

[Zak]

Originally posted by Ozwald:

Windows doesn't like alt tabbing.

Um... no. Alt-Tabbing is perfectly fine under Windows. Unless you're on a total potato maybe. With the exception of one game, Satisfactory which doesn't hide to the background upon Alt-Tab, I have zero issues Alt-Tabbing under Windows, never had any.

Originally posted by Ozwald:

It's a resource hungry OS & it has a hard time running when all those resources are being used by a game.

I don't even know what to say... This is misinformation, basically.

Originally posted by Ozwald:

The only real solution is more power or a lighter OS.

More power is always great but what "lighter OS"? Linux? LOL, no, thanks :)

[Strongylos]

Originally posted by Strongylos:

Well thanks you two (ZAK & Musashi). I'll keep the discussion unresolved till the 3rd crash. I'll do the following as it's seems the most obvious things to do.

- Clean update of my gpu driver
- Setting the game to fullscreen
- I already have the nvidia overlay & steam recording disabled

PS

* I don't play newly released game at all these days so I tend to update the drivers monthly due nvidia's known issues

* That .dmp file is from the 1st no man sky crash, I wish it had info in it.
* That Windows 11 clean boot seems a bit much as this game is the only one having issues

Verifyed the game, nothing found / changed

[Mr. Bufferlow]

Originally posted by Ozwald:

Windows doesn't like alt tabbing.

It's a resource hungry OS & it has a hard time running when all those resources are being used by a game. The only real solution is more power or a lighter OS.

NMS doesn't like alt tabbing- for some hardware/software combinations- at least in my experience.

My current system has no issues with alt tabbing out to the desktop. My prior system would cause the game to turn into a slideshow if I alt tabbed out and back in to the game. Even though that system was on the lower range of minimum requirements at ran the game very well with a couple of options turned down to standard. It just did not adjust well to switching between the desktop back to the game.

No idea why that happened, but I just learned to avoid that behavior and fully exit out of the game before doing something else on the computer.

[Musashi]

Originally posted by Strongylos:

Originally posted by Strongylos:

Well thanks you two (ZAK & Musashi). I'll keep the discussion unresolved till the 3rd crash. I'll do the following as it's seems the most obvious things to do.

- Clean update of my gpu driver
- Setting the game to fullscreen
- I already have the nvidia overlay & steam recording disabled

PS

* I don't play newly released game at all these days so I tend to update the drivers monthly due nvidia's known issues

* That .dmp file is from the 1st no man sky crash, I wish it had info in it.
* That Windows 11 clean boot seems a bit much as this game is the only one having issues

Verifyed the game, nothing found / changed

* That .dmp file is from the 1st no man sky crash, I wish it had info in it.

Nope it was not a real NMS crash
A NMS Crashfile looks like
NMS_crash_xxxxxxxxxx_NMSVersion_0xCrashcode_SteamID.dmp
and can be found in
C:\Users\Your_PC_Name\AppData\Local\Temp

* That Windows 11 clean boot seems a bit much as this game is the only one having issues
The reason for this is to ensure that no other application is running in the background and possibly causing the crash ...