Crashing in Newest Version

[Tigereye]

Whenever I play Factorio, after a while it will start to crash my other running applications. I'm always in discord while playing since I play with friends, and usually disc is restarting over and over before crashing and being unable to open. Any chrome pages also crash, along with broswer extensions. I'm usually unable to close these pages or applications if they stay open and don't completely crash, and will just become a white box. Sometimes, my screen just goes completely black and my monitor will say there's no connection or whatever, and the only fix is shutting down the computer itself. Other times, my screen will just freeze. It only happens with Factorio, and definitely isn't due to having a bad computer considering the games I run. Any advice? As the title says, I play the newest version, which might just be why.

Specs:
Alienware Aurora R6 Base
256GB M.2 PCIe SSD (Boot) + 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s (Storage)
16GB (2X8GB) 2400Mhz DDR4 Memory, up to 64GB (additional memory sold separately)
NVIDIA(R) GeForce(R) GTX 1080 with 8GB GDDR5X
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-7700 Processor (4-Cores, 8MB Cache, Turbo Boost 2.0, up to 4.2GHz)
Alienware(TM) 460 Watt Multi-GPU Approved Power Supply with High Peformance Liquid Cooling


Note: I'm not too tech savvy, I'd probably need a detailed explination x.x

[KatherineOfSky]

Please attach your log. Instructions are here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/427520/discussions/5/412448792355921191/
Moved to the appropriate subforum.

[AlexMBrennan]

If your issue your GPU shutting down entirely ("Sometimes, my screen just goes completely black and my monitor will say there's no connection") then I would imagine that the kernel log might be more relevant than factorio's log.

To be completely honest I would contact the hardware manufacturer because that is not a problem that can be caused by userland software (faulty or otherwise) - it's either a broken driver, or hardware defect. Either way Dell will be better able to help you than any one of us.

[piccolo255]

I have a similar issue, though I have a weaker GPU and it happens in many games. Sometimes the PC completely freezes (with display turning off due to no signal from GPU), sometimes it will manage to recover after a few seconds and just the game crashes, sometimes it will recover completely and the game keeps going. It's completely random, I could play for a hundred hours with no issues, then it will crash twice in a day.

There's a bit of a difference, I don't think I've had it pull down other software, except if the other software is also using GPU for display.

My issue persisted over several full OS reinstalls, driver versions, etc. It usually happens in at least moderately graphically intensive games (Skyrim, Endless Space 2, Grim Dawn), but if it does happen for a game not even toning the graphic settings down to a minimum helps. Other games are perfectly stable, though it's a bit difficult to be absolutely sure due to randomness :)

I believe it's a hardware issue, there's probably a flaky part in the GPU (or even CPU or motherboard). However, stress testing the GPU and CPU found nothing, so I can't locate the problem. I've resigned myself to mostly playing games where it doesn't happen. I'll play a game, if the GPU crashes, I'll lower the settings; if it crashes again, I won't play it anymore until I eventually buy a new PC :)

---

Anyway, I actually do have some advice. I also had a crash or two in Factorio when I first started, and lowering the settings actually worked here. Haven't had a single GPU crash over the last ~1000 hours (in Factorio; other games merrily keep crashing). Here's my graphical settings in Factorio:

Full screen: off
Vsync: on
Show <item>: all on
Sprite resolution: normal
Lights render resolution: 0.25
Full color depth: on
HQ animations: on
Texture streaming: on
Video memory usage: low
Atlas texture size: largest possible
Texture compression: low quality
Max render threads: 4

You could try with something like the above, it could help.

[impetus_maximus]

attach your log as Katherine instructed. also try playing without Discord running to see if it's related to the problem.

[Tigereye]

Sorry about my reply being so late, I haven't been able to play recently.

Originally posted by KatherineOfSky:

Please attach your log. Instructions are here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/427520/discussions/5/412448792355921191/
Moved to the appropriate subforum.

Alright, I'm going to load my game up now, when it crashes I'll grab the log!

Originally posted by piccolo255:

Anyway, I actually do have some advice. I also had a crash or two in Factorio when I first started, and lowering the settings actually worked here. Haven't had a single GPU crash over the last ~1000 hours (in Factorio; other games merrily keep crashing). Here's my graphical settings in Factorio:

Full screen: off
Vsync: on
Show <item>: all on
Sprite resolution: normal
Lights render resolution: 0.25
Full color depth: on
HQ animations: on
Texture streaming: on
Video memory usage: low
Atlas texture size: largest possible
Texture compression: low quality
Max render threads: 4

You could try with something like the above, it could help.

I'll definitely try this for now! I'm about to go into the game again now.