Planet Coaster restarts my PC

[Blackjack4800]

Every time I play Planet Coaster, it takes 10 minutes for my screen to go black and my PC to restart. I've monitored all of the temps in my computer, and all were well below their limits. All of my drivers are updated, and there isn't any prompts to restart my PC by any program. I have no lag in the game at all, and it just decides to shut down my PC, and possibly currupt my system. It's annoying to have this happen when I've played resource intensive games like GTA V for hours without hiccups. Any ideas anyone?

[Frugl]

At any rate it should be fine running the specs that came with the system that you bought, I assume you have not modified the rig yourself?

However, let's put that a aside for a second. What I am telling you, as a software developer, is that it is quite literally not possible for any piece of of code running in usermode(basically everything, with the execption of the OS kernel and kernelmode drivers) to cause a system shutdown directly in the way you describe. What they may do is they may submid requests to kernelmode code that may at some point malfunction. But in this case it is a bug in the driver at fault, and not something that the game developer can do anything about.

But, in your case, since you do not appear to have any mini-dumps generated, as would be the case in 99% of kernelmode errors. What most likely causes your machine to reboot is a sudden disrruption in the PWR_OK signal from the 24 pin connector of your PSU. This pin is usually directly connected to the reset pin on most CPU, and as such will cause the system to "cold reboot" instantly as you describe. This is done to prevent the CPU from operating at unsafe voltages, which could result in hardware damage or data corruption.

I understand your frustration, but short of trying another PSU, could you atleast make sure that your current PSU-fan spins during normal operation?

[Frugl]

Another step would be for you to confirm that both C:\Windows\LiveKernelReports\ and C:\Windows\minidump is empty (this may have already been answered ealier in the thead, sorry if that is the case.)

[Minotaur]

Get Bluescreenview from www.nirsoft.net and check again that nothing is there, as mentioned if you get no errors it sounds like a power problem.

btw, your BIOS settings are on Normal not Auto? If it's on Auto, change it! If you have high speed memory ie 2400+ try testing it without the XMP profile at stock speeds.

[Blackjack4800]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Minotaur:

Get Bluescreenview from www.nirsoft.net and check again that nothing is there, as mentioned if you get no errors it sounds like a power problem.

btw, your BIOS settings are on Normal not Auto? If it's on Auto, change it! If you have high speed memory ie 2400+ try testing it without the XMP profile at stock speeds.

Alienware is stupid about their bios - they don't allow any overclocking whatsoever.

[Blackjack4800]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Frugl1:

At any rate it should be fine running the specs that came with the system that you bought, I assume you have not modified the rig yourself?

However, let's put that a aside for a second. What I am telling you, as a software developer, is that it is quite literally not possible for any piece of of code running in usermode(basically everything, with the execption of the OS kernel and kernelmode drivers) to cause a system shutdown directly in the way you describe. What they may do is they may submid requests to kernelmode code that may at some point malfunction. But in this case it is a bug in the driver at fault, and not something that the game developer can do anything about.

But, in your case, since you do not appear to have any mini-dumps generated, as would be the case in 99% of kernelmode errors. What most likely causes your machine to reboot is a sudden disrruption in the PWR_OK signal from the 24 pin connector of your PSU. This pin is usually directly connected to the reset pin on most CPU, and as such will cause the system to "cold reboot" instantly as you describe. This is done to prevent the CPU from operating at unsafe voltages, which could result in hardware damage or data corruption.

I understand your frustration, but short of trying another PSU, could you atleast make sure that your current PSU-fan spins during normal operation?

There are 4 dump files, one of them from yesterday. I'll inspect them all, but in the meantime, you brought a good point up about PWR_OK signals. Now, hopefully that isn't the case, because I'd have to downclock, which I am unable to do.

[Blackjack4800]

The dump file says that it's caused by a driver. Phew, not a PSU issue :). Unfortunately, this looks like an internal windows driver, and we all know that playing with those leads to.. unforeseen consequences.

[Blackjack4800]

The program is ntoskrnl.exe. This is gonna be fun.

[boxman]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Blackjack4800:

The program is ntoskrnl.exe. This is gonna be fun.

It still strongly points towards some kind of stability issue though, but it is less definite now that it is PSU. It could still be PSU, but it could also be ram instability, cpu or even a driver.

Does it say anything else?? Like for example something about memory or uncorrectable WHEA? That might help you narrow it down somewhat.

Edit: And by the way ntoskrnl.exe is the kernel/main component of windows itself

[Blackjack4800]

Początkowo opublikowane przez boxman:

Początkowo opublikowane przez Blackjack4800:

The program is ntoskrnl.exe. This is gonna be fun.

It still strongly points towards some kind of stability issue though, but it is less definite now that it is PSU. It could still be PSU, but it could also be ram instability, cpu or even a driver.

Does it say anything else?? Like for example something about memory or uncorrectable WHEA? That might help you narrow it down somewhat.

The most info I have is what address the program communicated with. It doesn't specifically say RAM or driver issue. I'm gonna bet on it's a ram issue, which can lead to the prediction of a memory leak in Planet Coaster. Then again, take it with a grain of salt, I'm still looking into it.

[Minotaur]

What's the Bugcheck code? 101? 124?
0x101 = increase vcore
0x124 = increase/decrease vcore or QPI/VTT...have to test to see which one it is
0x0A = unstable RAM/IMC, increase QPI first, if that doesn't work increase vcore
0x1E = increase vcore
0x3B = increase vcore
0xD1 = QPI/VTT, increase/decrease as necessary
0x9C = QPI/VTT most likely, but increasing vcore has helped in some instances
0x50 = RAM timings/Frequency or uncore multi unstable, increase RAM voltage or adjust QPI/VTT, or lower uncore if you're higher than 2x
0x116 = Low IOH (NB) voltage, GPU issue (most common when running multi-GPU/overclocking GPU)

[lewisknight923]

Początkowo opublikowane przez Frugl1:

This is most definitely a hardware fault. Usermode software simply cannot directly cause a system shutdown(Short of requesting a regular shutdown, which PlanetCoaster is not). Should any software be the cause of your issues, it'll be down to driver bugs, and in such a case windows would trigger a bug check and write a dump for you. This sure does sound like a faulty PSU. Keep in mind that it may not be a heavy load alone causing your system to fail, but instead a fluctuating one, that if your PSU is not able to stay within ATX specification voltages the entire time, could cause your system to fail. This is not a question of looking at readings of an UPS, as that won't tell you the voltages of the individual PSU rails. Hope this clears it up for you.

Its not a hardware issue as today I have swapped out my PSU with my friends PSU and its still happening!

[lewisknight923]

I'd just like to say that sometimes it doesn't totally switch the PC off sometimes it blackscreens and the PC is still on. Also I know it sounds impossible for a software programme to switch off a PC but in essense a Virus can switch off a PC and do all sorts of damage - the only difference with a computer game its designed to be benign, however by accident can damage a PC by cold rebooting or turning off a PC etc.
Also another bit of evidence is that Elite was doing the same thing and was resolved later on for those users that were having this problem, suggesting to the fact that since Frontier made both Elite and Planet Coaster the cause is them.
Also aswel there has been a small handful of players (from the looks of it) have different rigs and PSU's and it happens exactly the same way.
In addition, the game crashed my monitor display and it didnt switch off my PC on other occasions - is my emergency cut off switch tempermental?
Also checking if a PSU fan spins to see if its working doesnt mean its not as somewhere in my Corsair handbook for my PSU it states not to worry and this is normal operation and only kicks in when it gets super hot.
In addition check my top post -its still happening with my friends PSU.

[lewisknight923]

Things done today to sort issue....

Rolled back my Video card driver to previous drivers (up to a year) 6 of them at random.
Uninstalled and reinstalled (crash was more aggressive)
Underclocked my CPU back to factory
Installed windows 10 to try the OS - (now rolled back to 8.1)
Swapped my PSU 1000W to my friends PSU 1200W
Took out my GTX 780s swapped them around, tried them singlularly, put in my old 580 tested that.
Put in old RAM sticks up the value of 16 MB - tested.
Allocated unlimited voltage to GTX 780 overclock suite.
Played game on lowest graphics settings
Uninstalled Steam and reinstalled and then reinstalled Planet Coaster

NO LUCK!

Things to try next ...
Wait for results of ticket

[Dorin]

I remember I used to have this same issue but with a completely different game and only in a very specific situation. It happened in The Witcher (1), and only when playing the dice poker minigame.

The way I fixed it was by limiting the FPS to 120, I really am not sure why that worked but I think my PSU was too old at that point and got weak, so when I played the minigame and the GPU pumped thousands of FPS the PSU couldn't keep up with the power demand or something.

[Jacknm2]

I still cant find anything on the Elite forums and ive been combing them all day at work (shhh), every thread that i find ends up being a hardware issue or a driver issue.