FO4 hangs entire computer.

[sacredchao]

Ok, I've searched this forum and online and haven't found anything that really answers this. I've got over 580 hours on this game, more or less trouble free and all on this computer. Toshiba Satellite, i7-4710, AMD M265X, 8GB memory, Win 10 64bit. Don't tell me it won't run the game, it has for that 580+ hours of playtime that I mentioned earlier.

So I haven't played for a few months, but I got the urge and fired it up. A few minutes later, it hung. Not CTD, not blackscreen, a hard freeze. Image on the screen stops moving, sound an ugly constant buzzing stutter. Ctrl-Alt-Del doesn't work, Alt-Tab doesn't work, Numlock and Caps keys don't respond, the machine is flatout HUNG. Only way to get it back is hold down the power button until it dies and fire it up again. I get maybe a minute of game time each time before it does the same thing.

I don't get this problem with any other game. I've tried disconnecting from the internet. I've validated the files through Steam (all good). Drivers are current. Dxdiag reports no problems. It's not getting stupidly hot. I'm guessing that it's either the CC update or an OS update that's killed but I'm pretty sure I can't roll back a game update and I have no clue which OS update, if any, I should tear out.

Does anyone have any useful thoughts?

[Zes]

Well this is new, i never saw a game hangs computer completely, especially under windows 10 architecture. It's a strange situation, you should get a blue screen in a worst scenario. Maybe you have a hardware problem, or a driver level failure?

Try to update your video drivers and run a gpu stress benchmark. I think this is not about f4

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Typically this kind of freeze is a CPU fault. Not saying the CPU is bad or damage, but a fault is could be occuring there at a level lower than Windows 10, which is usually pretty good at recovering from even nasty Video Driver crashes.

I don't like OEM ♥♥♥♥, especially laptops that aren't specifically designed for gaming, because it can be in some wierd power-save settings baked into their proprietary BiOS.

First recommendation would be to go into Windows 10 power management options (control panel) and set everything to High Performance/maximum performance. It'll drop your battery, so keep it plugged in.

[Zes]

I have 2 memory chips 4 + 4 gb and one of them has a problem. It runs ok usually but sometimes it causes blue screens. I mean even a hardware failure is handled like that. Maybe hobo is right this might be about your cpu, the brain of your computer :)

Anything runs on software level especially things running on ring3 (desktop applications) can be handled by operating system. And even ring1 applications (device drivers) have error handling on some level and working cooperatively with your os.

This looks like a hardware issue, and yeah probably about cpu.

[sacredchao]

Welp, reinstalled Windows, reinstalled the game, pulled the laptop apart and cleaned up the cooling system and put new thermal paste in (made it run a touch cooler). Nothing. Deleted all the old save and ini files and now it just crashes to desktop rather than hanging the machine completely so I guess that was part of it. It still won't go for more than about 10 minutes or so though so that basically makes it unplayable.

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Honestly, your GPU might be dying. Knowing just what you've said it sounds like a possible power-phasing issue (old VRMs) and the GPU can't kick up or hold its volts properly.

Try some GPU benchmarks, or a game that taxes the GPU to 100% for a long time. If they crash or hang too, that might be your huckleberry.

I know it sucks to hear, but hardware doesn't last forever. Especially in the unique thermal and power usage ecosystem of a laptop, laptops age horribly because they're often constantly operating at their TDP, where as a desktop with sufficient airflow or good aftermarket cooling will have 20% or more headroom thermally, with more robust power delivery.

[GOD RAYS ON ULTRA™]

Originally posted by sacredchao:

Welp, reinstalled Windows, reinstalled the game, pulled the laptop apart and cleaned up the cooling system and put new thermal paste in (made it run a touch cooler). Nothing. Deleted all the old save and ini files and now it just crashes to desktop rather than hanging the machine completely so I guess that was part of it. It still won't go for more than about 10 minutes or so though so that basically makes it unplayable.

Top of Steam > help button > system information, copy and paste the log here.

[ⓀⒾⓦⒾ‰]

Originally posted by ÐÜÐĘŞåÜ©Ę™:

Originally posted by sacredchao:

Welp, reinstalled Windows, reinstalled the game, pulled the laptop apart and cleaned up the cooling system and put new thermal paste in (made it run a touch cooler). Nothing. Deleted all the old save and ini files and now it just crashes to desktop rather than hanging the machine completely so I guess that was part of it. It still won't go for more than about 10 minutes or so though so that basically makes it unplayable.

Top of Steam > help button > system information, copy and paste the log here.

you keep telling people to do this but never actually help anyone ><

[GOD RAYS ON ULTRA™]

Originally posted by ᵏᶤᵚᶤ‰:

Originally posted by ÐÜÐĘŞåÜ©Ę™:

Top of Steam > help button > system information, copy and paste the log here.

you keep telling people to do this but never actually help anyone ><

I just helped someone yesterday so yeah it does

[Hobo Misanthropus]

Originally posted by ᵏᶤᵚᶤ‰:

Originally posted by ÐÜÐĘŞåÜ©Ę™:

Top of Steam > help button > system information, copy and paste the log here.

you keep telling people to do this but never actually help anyone ><

Full system information can help spot things like bad drivers or misconfigured settings. It does help. You have no idea how many solutions to people's problems turn out to be their Laptop/craptop using the INtel GPU and not the dedicated one (If present)

[sacredchao]

Originally posted by ÐÜÐĘŞåÜ©Ę™:

Originally posted by ᵏᶤᵚᶤ‰:

you keep telling people to do this but never actually help anyone ><

I just helped someone yesterday so yeah it does

Was there something relevant missing from the description in the original post?

[sacredchao]

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Honestly, your GPU might be dying. Knowing just what you've said it sounds like a possible power-phasing issue (old VRMs) and the GPU can't kick up or hold its volts properly.

Try some GPU benchmarks, or a game that taxes the GPU to 100% for a long time. If they crash or hang too, that might be your huckleberry.

I know it sucks to hear, but hardware doesn't last forever. Especially in the unique thermal and power usage ecosystem of a laptop, laptops age horribly because they're often constantly operating at their TDP, where as a desktop with sufficient airflow or good aftermarket cooling will have 20% or more headroom thermally, with more robust power delivery.

It's perfectly happy running Skyrim (including the Enderal mod) for as long as I want it to and any other game I've thrown at it so far. It's literally only FO4. Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure the crashes co-incided with the latest patch where it throws up the CC promotion on startup. It's just hung the machine again, so deleting the ini files and save games did nothing after all, although it does take a little longer now.

[GOD RAYS ON ULTRA™]

Originally posted by sacredchao:

Originally posted by ÐÜÐĘŞåÜ©Ę™:

I just helped someone yesterday so yeah it does

Was there something relevant missing from the description in the original post?

What do you think?

Originally posted by sacredchao:

Originally posted by Hobo Misanthropus:

Honestly, your GPU might be dying. Knowing just what you've said it sounds like a possible power-phasing issue (old VRMs) and the GPU can't kick up or hold its volts properly.

Try some GPU benchmarks, or a game that taxes the GPU to 100% for a long time. If they crash or hang too, that might be your huckleberry.

I know it sucks to hear, but hardware doesn't last forever. Especially in the unique thermal and power usage ecosystem of a laptop, laptops age horribly because they're often constantly operating at their TDP, where as a desktop with sufficient airflow or good aftermarket cooling will have 20% or more headroom thermally, with more robust power delivery.

It's perfectly happy running Skyrim (including the Enderal mod) for as long as I want it to and any other game I've thrown at it so far. It's literally only FO4. Thinking about it, I'm pretty sure the crashes co-incided with the latest patch where it throws up the CC promotion on startup. It's just hung the machine again, so deleting the ini files and save games did nothing after all, although it does take a little longer now.

That means absolutely nothing at all.

[CiberX15]

Ok sorry for the necro BUT I think I understand whats happening and how to fix it. (or at least the series of events that magically made it stop happening for me.)

Posted a potential solution in https://steamcommunity.com/app/377160/discussions/0/357287935555039711/?ctp=2

TL;DR: Open the Vanilla launcher. Open options in the launcher (not the game). Pick one of the default detail settings, your native resolution, and enable windowed mode and borderless, then run vanilla, then close the game. Once that's done you should be able to launch through F4SE and play without any more crashes or hangs.

This assumes that you are using F4SE, though it might also apply if you are hitting this and bypassing the launcher?

So I went through basically all the same steps as the OP, turned on and off mods, updated drivers etc. Then I wanted to see what would happen if I just launched the base game. Up until this point I had been launching through F4SE.exe.

When launching vanilla, it opened the launcher and the launcher told me it didn't recognize my graphics card and it was setting everything to low. I thought that was odd but I had upgraded my graphics card since the last time I played (currently on GTX 2070 fwiw).

I set it back to ultra and also checked the windowed mode + borderless boxes and set it to native resolution. I then restarted the game in vanilla and played through the entire tutorial level without an issue. I thought... It can't be that simple. Launched through F4SE.exe and continued my save that I had started having problems with. No issues. Played for 3h with all mods still enabled and no crashes or hangs.

I think what was happening is something clears or invalidates Fallout 4's knowledge of the graphics settings, but since we are launching through F4SE it never rechecks and fixes whatever missing. So launching through the normal launcher and fixing the settings initializes whatever needs initializing, and then we can launch through F4SE again. Or this was all a complete fluke. X_X

[Dante]

I got the exaxtly Problem with complete freeze but my comes maybe 10-15 i think