Frontier Fix Annoying D3D Cannot Lock a Buffer

[KingTurtle]

I was doing 2vs1 with a wing of two adders, and somehow the one behind me cracked my canopy open (bs if you ask me). Anyways, after getting my revenge and starting up my FSD at 4 minutes of oxygen I went to into hyperjump..You can pretty much guess what happens next.

I am greeted with a Black Screen with audio still playing in the background, so I crashed to the desktop right? Nope. The game was still running for 2-3 minutes before it finally decided to crash. Well at least I will be close to the station since I was aiming there before the crash. No, I am put in the middle of the system with 30 seconds of oxygen. -.-

Thanks old game bug, thanks cheating NPC, and thank you game for resetting my location but not my oxygen timer.

[Ancient]

"D3D Cannot Lock a Buffer" error is a result of a TDR crash (Timeout Detection and Recovery). These crashes often occur due to a jump from low load to high load. The card 'stalls' hitting a higher performance, which windows detects and reboots the card. It's not a Frontier bug, but an issue with lots of GPU models that are factory (or user) overclocked. The nature of E:D's visual content is such that there is often little to render (just the cockpit, space and orbit overlays) and the card will downclock itself as it's not working very hard, then all of sudden the GPU is asked to go full bore. If it takes it more than a few seconds for the GPU to respond, you get a TDR crash.

Reducing the core clock of the GPU (if it's overclocked) a little makes the jumps easier for the card to handle, which is the most effective way FDev has found of stopping these issues. More advanced ways to address this are setting up more lenient TDR settings in the registry ( https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff569918%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396 ) or adjusting up the card's mV via overvoltaging to make sure it has enough voltage to fully power the overclock. Enabling KBOOST in EVGA Precision also prevents this type of crash by forcing the card to run at it's full boost clock at all times.

[KingTurtle]

I still don't understand why they don't work with the graphic cards manufacturers to fix the issue. I can run Stars Wars Battlefront and GTA 5 on ultra, but Elite Dangerous on medium is too much for it to handle. :/

[SMRFKILR - rhbmobile]

Not all games use the same graphics engines. Different engines work the cards in different ways. Doesn't matter how well game x runs, game X isn't ED.

[Memento64]

Can confirm the factory overclocked cards cause problems with ED. I have to run EVGA precisionX when I play ED and turn down my gtx 970 by about 50 hz. If I don't the same error pops up when ever I go from somewhere with nothing to render to a whole lot to render. Like a station of planet surface for example.

Come to think of it I don't even remember how I came up with the solution.

[DocShady]

It is what it is KT. Frontier isn't gonna fix it, the video card manufacturer isn't gonna fix it. Just bite the bullet and drop your cards clock by 50mhz. Use MSI afterburner and create a profile so you can easily switch between default and underclocked settings.

[KingTurtle]

Originally posted by DocShady:

It is what it is KT. Frontier isn't gonna fix it, the video card manufacturer isn't gonna fix it. Just bite the bullet and drop your cards clock by 50mhz. Use MSI afterburner and create a profile so you can easily switch between default and underclocked settings.

The underclock is like 75% chance of working on my end. The best solution seems to be the Kboost from EVGA, but the noise level from the fans is distracting (headset has been my workaround for now).

[Jake]

Originally posted by KT:

Originally posted by DocShady:

It is what it is KT. Frontier isn't gonna fix it, the video card manufacturer isn't gonna fix it. Just bite the bullet and drop your cards clock by 50mhz. Use MSI afterburner and create a profile so you can easily switch between default and underclocked settings.

The underclock is like 75% chance of working on my end. The best solution seems to be the Kboost from EVGA, but the noise level from the fans is distracting (headset has been my workaround for now).

Afterburner or the one from AMD allows you to toggle fan speed, not sure if kBoost does that?

[Julius Augustus Octavius Caesar]

Originally posted by Ancient:

"D3D Cannot Lock a Buffer" error is a result of a TDR crash (Timeout Detection and Recovery). These crashes often occur due to a jump from low load to high load. The card 'stalls' hitting a higher performance, which windows detects and reboots the card. It's not a Frontier bug, but an issue with lots of GPU models that are factory (or user) overclocked. The nature of E:D's visual content is such that there is often little to render (just the cockpit, space and orbit overlays) and the card will downclock itself as it's not working very hard, then all of sudden the GPU is asked to go full bore. If it takes it more than a few seconds for the GPU to respond, you get a TDR crash.

Reducing the core clock of the GPU (if it's overclocked) a little makes the jumps easier for the card to handle, which is the most effective way FDev has found of stopping these issues. More advanced ways to address this are setting up more lenient TDR settings in the registry ( https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/hardware/ff569918%28v=vs.85%29.aspx?f=255&MSPPError=-2147217396 ) or adjusting up the card's mV via overvoltaging to make sure it has enough voltage to fully power the overclock. Enabling KBOOST in EVGA Precision also prevents this type of crash by forcing the card to run at it's full boost clock at all times.

how im having the same problem

[Philip j fry]

Use EVGA k-boost and make sure you turn off Wallpaper engine crashes this game. Maybe do a clean boot via msconfig disable all the crap you have installed on start up. Someone mentioned k-boost keeping and it worked for me Just keep eye on temps it prevents gpu throttling.

[꧋ꦙSigismundꦙ꧋]

Originally posted by KT:

I was doing 2vs1 with a wing of two adders, and somehow the one behind me cracked my canopy open (bs if you ask me). Anyways, after getting my revenge and starting up my FSD at 4 minutes of oxygen I went to into hyperjump..You can pretty much guess what happens next.

I am greeted with a Black Screen with audio still playing in the background, so I crashed to the desktop right? Nope. The game was still running for 2-3 minutes before it finally decided to crash. Well at least I will be close to the station since I was aiming there before the crash. No, I am put in the middle of the system with 30 seconds of oxygen. -.-

Thanks old game bug, thanks cheating NPC, and thank you game for resetting my location but not my oxygen timer.

Yea happen here even out in combat a few times
Today have been stable
Maybe servers having minor troubles here and there

[funkynutz]

Downclock your card by 50Mhz. 99% of the time that's all it takes... It's not a problem with ED. It's a problem with overclocked cards not being as stable as stock clock cards. Most of the time it won't cause a problem, but occasionally with certain games it will fall over.

[Nfected]

Originally posted by Funkynutz:

Downclock your card by 50Mhz. 99% of the time that's all it takes... It's not a problem with ED. It's a problem with overclocked cards not being as stable as stock clock cards. Most of the time it won't cause a problem, but occasionally with certain games it will fall over.

I never mess with overclocking unless it's already done so on the card - but instability is what I usually see and hear when things like the above happen

[꧋ꦙSigismundꦙ꧋]

Originally posted by Der Auslander:

Originally posted by Funkynutz:

Downclock your card by 50Mhz. 99% of the time that's all it takes... It's not a problem with ED. It's a problem with overclocked cards not being as stable as stock clock cards. Most of the time it won't cause a problem, but occasionally with certain games it will fall over.

I never mess with overclocking unless it's already done so on the card - but instability is what I usually see and hear when things like the above happen

One day it happens the other it does not
but yea I do agree that maybe in such cases a number of things may be a problem
Alhough my problem and KT might not even be of the the same nature.

[funkynutz]

It could even just be a case of a bad graphics driver install (especially if windows updated it for you).

You'll need to use DDU to wipe the current drivers, block windows from installing driver updates, and install the latest version for your card if that's the case.

[Sniffy]

I just recently started getting this error on the same hardware that ive been playing ED with since it was launched. Apparently this has been a known issue for at least as long.
Anyway, my old GPU is not overclocked and runs pretty much at 90-100% whenever playing except for the loading screen.
Ive tried rolling back the drivers and pretty much every suggested solution ive been able to find, including the registry fixes mentioned above, none have any effect.
One thing ive just noticed however is that just after the screen locks up before getting the direct3D error, my GPU usage plummets to 10% and CPU usage is flat out at 100% until i kill the application.