intel 14900HX crashes on stellaris ?

[EstebanT]

Hi all,

I recently changed my laptop for a new one with a 14900HX core i9.
It's my first time putting so much money on a PC, but I got a nice offer.

Stellaris was one of the first game I reinstalled on Steam, but...
It keeps crashing and crashing.
I unchecked all mods, reinstalled from scratch, veryfied the files and...
It keeps on crashing.
I can play but have to relad sometimes every 1/2h, sometimes every 5 minutes

Always :
Application: Stellaris
Version: 3.14.15926
Date/Time: 2025-01-06 13:23:23

Unhandled exception C0000005 (EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION)

(I know it's not a real help...)

Has anyone encountered this behaviour ?
Am I doomed with a faltly processor (I saw posts of other laptop users complaining of the 14900HX) ?
Is there anything I can do ?

I have 4000+ hours on stellaris, and it was very stable for years (excepting the very first versions...)
It is my favorite game ever and I'm so sad :(

[EstebanT]

I should add I installed latest bios, latest nvidia drivers, windows up to date...

PC is predator helios neo 18, 14900 HX and RTX 4070. A dream setup that turns into a nightmare...

[jodnus]

Do you have stability issues in other games that are processor intensive? That would be a good indicator of where to begin troubleshooting

Shot in the dark, but you may want to try turning off the CPU Turbo Boost features in the BIOS and see if that helps.

[EstebanT]

Damn I disabled turbo mode to put the laptop in silence mode.
1h play, no crash so far...

How can I proove I have a faultly processor and what hope do I have to have my laptop fixed ?

[jodnus]

If my suggestion truly works, it's not really a faulty processor, so much as it is a compatibility issue.

With some limited experience with Asus products, my suspicion was that it has to do with Intel's Turbo Boost technology sometimes not working optimally with some configurations of Asus's 'AI suite' overclocking tools in certain processor intensive applications.

Usually turning off one or dialing back the other tends to stabilize things.

[Spiny_Boi]

Originally posted by jodnus:

Do you have stability issues in other games that are processor intensive? That would be a good indicator of where to begin troubleshooting

Shot in the dark, but you may want to try turning off the CPU Turbo Boost features in the BIOS and see if that helps.

I'm pretty sure i'm having the same problem as OP, and i've tried what you suggested. It seems to have worked maybe possibly hopefully. I've just had a session longer than i was able to before (one hour) before i intentionally exited the game. I'll report back tomorrow if it has worked for sure.

edit: Left the game in an ai only galaxy running overnight and it was still going when i woke up. Prior to this, i couldn't run the game for more than 40 minutes before i crashed. This has definitely worked.

[davann41]

Was having the same issue with my i9 14900, Turning off Turbo appears to be working. I've been trying everything over the past 30 days. Thanks for the solution!