Factorio Randomly Crashing My Computer With No Apparent Reason

[Mr.Thickly]

(EDIT: It seems to be fixed now, I just had to lower/disable all of the graphics settings that affect RAM.)
I've been having an issue with Factorio since I got a new PC in January where my computer will randomly crash while running the game with no warning. The issue is only with Factorio, all the other games i have work fine. The game launches and runs fine till it crashes, and there's nothing consistently happening when it crashes. The crashes are a full computer crash, not just a crash to desktop, and typically it's a freeze, followed by an automatic restart but it has been a Windows blue error screen a couple times. Also I have a pretty powerful computer, so there shouldn't be any issues with running the game. I've tried restarting my computer, verifying the integrity of the files, uninstalling and reinstalling, closing all apps i had running in the background, and adjusting the in game settings. I don't have any mods installed either. Does anyone know any fixes, suggestions or even whats causing the crashes?
Here's the log file: (Also the big time jump in the log file is because I left the game open on the main menu to see if it'd crash before loading a save, after which it crashed)
0.000 2022-12-02 15:18:48; Factorio 1.1.72 (build 60222, win64, steam)
0.000 Operating system: Windows 10 (build 22621)
0.000 Program arguments: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Factorio\bin\x64\Factorio.exe"
0.000 Config path: C:/Users/MrThi/AppData/Roaming/Factorio/config/config.ini
0.000 Read data path: C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/data
0.000 Write data path: C:/Users/MrThi/AppData/Roaming/Factorio [209871/953065MB]
0.000 Binaries path: C:/Program Files (x86)/Steam/steamapps/common/Factorio/bin
0.016 System info: [CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10850K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 20 cores, RAM: 6803/32634 MB, page: 8652/34682 MB, virtual: 4353/134217727 MB, extended virtual: 0 MB]
0.017 Display options: [FullScreen: 1] [VSync: 1] [UIScale: automatic (100.0%)] [Native DPI: 1] [Screen: 255] [Special: lmw] [Lang: en]
0.022 Available displays: 2
0.022 [0]: \\.\DISPLAY1 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti {0x80005, [0,0], 1920x1080, 32bit, 144Hz}
0.023 [1]: \\.\DISPLAY2 - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti {0x80001, [1920,1], 1920x1080, 32bit, 144Hz}
0.063 [Direct3D11] Display: 0, Output: 0, DisplayAdapter: 0, RenderingAdapter: 0; d3dcompiler_47.dll
0.212 Initialised Direct3D[0]: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti; id: 10de-2486; driver: nvldumdx.dll 31.0.15.2737
0.212 D3D Feature Level: 11.1, DXGI 1.5+, SwapChain: 3,flip-discard,-,-,-,none
0.212 [Local Video Memory] Budget: 7270MB, CurrentUsage: 4MB, Reservation: 0/3763MB
0.212 [Non-Local Vid.Mem.] Budget: 15549MB, CurrentUsage: 1MB, Reservation: 0/7902MB
0.212 Tiled resources: Tier 2
0.212 Unified Memory Architecture: No
0.212 BGR 565 Supported: Yes
0.212 MaximumFrameLatency: 3, GPUThreadPriority: 0
0.212 Graphics settings preset: very-high
0.212 Dedicated video memory size 8038 MB
0.275 Desktop composition is active.
0.275 Graphics options: [Graphics quality: high] [Video memory usage: all] [DXT: high-quality] [Color: 32bit]
0.275 [Max threads (load/render): 32/20] [Max texture size: 0] [Tex.Stream.: 0] [Rotation quality: normal] [Other: STDCWT] [B:-50,C:0,S:100]
0.310 [Audio] Backend:SDL(default); Driver:wasapi, Device:Headphones (High Definition Audio Device), Depth:16, Channels:2, Frequency:44100
0.453 Razer Chroma Controller initialized.
0.488 Loading mod core 0.0.0 (data.lua)
0.588 Loading mod base 1.1.72 (data.lua)
0.993 Loading mod base 1.1.72 (data-updates.lua)
1.066 Checksum for core: 870127790
1.066 Checksum of base: 4211423066
1.239 Prototype list checksum: 3034860339
1.275 Loading sounds...
4.794 Info PlayerData.cpp:73: Local player-data.json unavailable
4.794 Info PlayerData.cpp:76: Cloud player-data.json available, timestamp 1670016157
4.918 Initial atlas bitmap size is 16384
4.950 Created atlas bitmap 16384x16364 [none]
4.953 Created atlas bitmap 16384x13068 [none]
4.953 Created atlas bitmap 8192x4188 [decal]
4.954 Created atlas bitmap 16384x5568 [low-object]
4.955 Created atlas bitmap 8192x4432 [mipmap, linear-minification, linear-magnification, linear-mip-level]
4.955 Created atlas bitmap 16384x6064 [terrain, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-mip-level]
4.956 Created atlas bitmap 4096x3216 [terrain-effect-map, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-mip-level]
4.956 Created atlas bitmap 4096x1856 [smoke, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-magnification]
4.956 Created atlas bitmap 4096x3088 [mipmap]
4.957 Created atlas bitmap 8192x2240 [icon, not-compressed, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-magnification, linear-mip-level]
4.957 Created atlas bitmap 8192x1496 [alpha-mask]
4.960 Created atlas bitmap 16384x14772 [shadow, linear-magnification, alpha-mask]
4.960 Created atlas bitmap 8192x2352 [shadow, mipmap, linear-magnification, alpha-mask]
4.960 Created atlas bitmap 2048x240 [icon-background, not-compressed, mipmap, linear-minification, linear-magnification, linear-mip-level, ]
4.966 Texture processor created (2048). GPU accelerated compression Supported: yes, Enabled: yes/yes. Test passed. YCoCgDXT PSNR: 35.83, BC3 PSNR: 33.82
5.975 Parallel Sprite Loader initialized (threads: 19)
10.943 Sprites loaded
10.955 Generated mipmaps (4) for atlas [3] of size 16384x5568
10.967 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [4] of size 8192x4432
10.977 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [5] of size 16384x6064
10.989 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [6] of size 4096x3216
10.999 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [7] of size 4096x1856
11.027 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [8] of size 4096x3088
11.038 Generated mipmaps (5) for atlas [9] of size 8192x2240
11.049 Generated mipmaps (3) for atlas [12] of size 8192x2352
11.063 Custom mipmaps uploaded.
11.244 Factorio initialised
11.246 Steam Storage Quota: 4647/4768
61.138 Loading map C:\Users\MrThi\AppData\Roaming\Factorio\saves\the strain makes the brain pain.zip: 6671009 bytes.
61.172 Loading level.dat: 17082550 bytes.
61.175 Info Scenario.cpp:199: Map version 1.1.72-0
61.369 Loading blueprint storage: Local timestamp 1670015813, Cloud timestamp 1670015821
61.371 Loading script.dat: 1182 bytes.
61.374 Checksum for script C:/Users/MrThi/AppData/Roaming/Factorio/temp/currently-playing/control.lua: 3795083680
2217.901 Info AppManager.cpp:306: Saving to _autosave2 (blocking).
2218.076 Info AppManagerStates.cpp:1903: Saving finished
2518.070 Info AppManager.cpp:306: Saving to _autosave3 (blocking).
2518.239 Info AppManagerStates.cpp:1903: Saving finished

[PunCrathod]

As in crash to desktop? please find your log file and post its contents so we can start to make guesses other than "your computer broke"
Here are instructions on where to find the log files https://steamcommunity.com/app/427520/discussions/5/412448792355921191/

[Mr.Thickly]

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

As in crash to desktop? please find your log file and post its contents so we can start to make guesses other than "your computer broke"
Here are instructions on where to find the log files https://steamcommunity.com/app/427520/discussions/5/412448792355921191/

Sorry, I forgot about the log file. As for the crashes, it fully crashes my computer, it's not just a crash to desktop

[PunCrathod]

What kind of crash is it? Does it give you a blue screen or does everything just freeze or does the computer just turn off and then back on again? The more details you can give the easier it is to figure out the culprit. Also does it happen with other games or just factorio?

[Mr.Thickly]

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

What kind of crash is it? Does it give you a blue screen or does everything just freeze or does the computer just turn off and then back on again? The more details you can give the easier it is to figure out the culprit. Also does it happen with other games or just factorio?

Typically my computer freezes, then restarts but I have had a few blue screens. Also the issue is only with Factorio, all the other games I own work fine.

[PunCrathod]

My best guess at this point is that it is ram related. Random freezes combined with blue screens usually indicate cpu or ram problems and Factorio stresses ram a lot more that most other games. If you are comfortable with it you can try re-seating your ram(youtube is full of tutorials on how to do that if you are not familiar with it) to see if the situation changes. If your computer gets more unstable or if the problem gets fixed then the most likely culprit is/was poor contact between ram and motherboard and the fix for that is to keep re-seating the ram sometimes swapping the place of two sticks of ram until the problem goes away. Sometimes ram slots can be finicky and if you get the contacts to be just on the edge you can end up in a situation like this where the problem only happens in very specific conditions. You can also try just removing half or all but one of the ram and see if that fixes it. Diagnosing these kinds of problems can be hard and time consuming. Especially when it only happens randomly and only on one game. You might do something that seems to have fixed it but it later happens again.
But the good news is that if you are unlucky and have a slightly broken stick of ram that only fails with specific loads you can most of the time get that ram swapped under warranty and ram usually has a very long warranty time.

[Mr.Thickly]

Originally posted by PunCrathod:

My best guess at this point is that it is ram related. Random freezes combined with blue screens usually indicate cpu or ram problems and Factorio stresses ram a lot more that most other games. If you are comfortable with it you can try re-seating your ram(youtube is full of tutorials on how to do that if you are not familiar with it) to see if the situation changes. If your computer gets more unstable or if the problem gets fixed then the most likely culprit is/was poor contact between ram and motherboard and the fix for that is to keep re-seating the ram sometimes swapping the place of two sticks of ram until the problem goes away. Sometimes ram slots can be finicky and if you get the contacts to be just on the edge you can end up in a situation like this where the problem only happens in very specific conditions. You can also try just removing half or all but one of the ram and see if that fixes it. Diagnosing these kinds of problems can be hard and time consuming. Especially when it only happens randomly and only on one game. You might do something that seems to have fixed it but it later happens again.
But the good news is that if you are unlucky and have a slightly broken stick of ram that only fails with specific loads you can most of the time get that ram swapped under warranty and ram usually has a very long warranty time.

Thanks for the help, I disabled/lowered all of the settings in graphics that adds more stress to the RAM and it seems to be working now, I'll update this post if something changes.

[RiO]

Another thing that comes to mind: are you using any clock boosting on the RAM?
Look at what it's stock speeds are vs what you're actually running it at.

AMD boards typically are more fickle here, which is why many AMD owners have settled into the practice of only buying RAM that is certified to work correctly together and at what potential boosted speeds through Qualified Vendor Lists (QVL) maintained by the motherboard and RAM module vendors.

But Intel is no saint either. And in recent years it has become a relevant consideration for that side of the pond as well.

You might just be having general RAM stability problems; but latent and with Factorio being the only thing on your system that is actually pushing the hardware hard enough for them to come to front.

As PunCrathod mentioned as well; Factorio is really hard on RAM. In some ways, it's probably harder on it than actual memory testers and benchmarking tools.