(Trying to fix) TDU2 crashing on Windows 10

[Chester]

TL:DR:
Best fix/results so far - Download and run the TDU2 Universal Launcher (yes, it supports online play), this has had positive effects for me so far, maybe even solving the issue but it's too early to say. Anyhoo! Here's where you get it (it's russian, just look for the download button in the middle) http://i-knyazev.ru/tools/tdu2-universal-launcher/
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There's a bunch of us out there running windows 10 that want to play TDU2 but suffer from crashes/freezes roughly once per hour in-game, and i'm trying to fix it! :) This is the log from my (not so professional) efforts which will hopefully result in a fix for all of us.

If you're suffering from crashes too please post your system specs here so we can try to gather some info on what the cause could be. If you want to chip in or share advice on a fix that maybe worked for you, please post! Come on, world, we are the hoomanz! We can fix this together!

First off, here's my specs:
OS - Windows 10
CPU - i7 4770k 3.5ghz
GFX - GeForce GTX 970 4gb
Mobo - Z87

Nvidia Driver Version - 361.91 (latest stable release)
Additional - Logitech Profiler for G27 wheel/pedals/shifter

Issue:
Game crashes roughly once per hour, sometimes triggered by driving on the same stretch of road but not always, not able to replicate the issue consistently (it happens randomly).

Suspected Causes:
According to sie interwebz, the crashes on Windows 10 are caused by Microsoft no longer supporting the use of Securom (a form of copyright protection) due to security issues it caused, and since TDU2 requires Securom, the game crashes, or so they say! BUT that's not entirely accurate. A securom conflict is likely affecting those players who are struggling to get the game to start at all, that would make sense, but not those who are suffering crashes at random intervals once or more times per hour, so the search goes on!

Directx 9c support - This is an interesting idea. Apparently Microsoft also dropped support for Directx 9c, which TDU2 requires to run, and that could very well be causing the crashes. It's possible to install directx 9c on windows 10 but not as easy as it should be, i'll be testing this out soon.

Attempted fixes:
#1 Verified TDU2 files through Steam, redownloaded 18 files.
Result - Crashed after ~30 mins of gameplay.

#2 Reinstalled TDU2
Result - Waste of time (lol)

#3 Checked all drivers were upto date (minus Nvidias latest trainwreck drivers that cause crashes across all games for most users)
Result - All drivers were already upto date, crashes continue.

#4 Tried to enable the support of Securom through the command prompt with command line "sc start secdrv" and also "sc config secdrv start=auto".
Result - Game crashed after ~1 hour

#4 Downloaded TDU2 'Universal Launcher'
Source: http://i-knyazev.ru/tools/tdu2-universal-launcher/
Result - Promising! Game crashed after 2 hours and for the first time it generated a crash report! This could indicate that the crash was actually just a normal, random game crash that happen in TDU2 occasionally anyway and that the issue was infact fixed by the Universal Launcher, recommended to me by a Windows 10 user that runs the game without issues. The results are promising and i'm going to give it more time to see if it's fixed before I either continue here or post the issue as fixed.

#5 Installed directx9.
Result - Nada, still crashes intermittently.

Left the game running overnight (online) to test if the game crashes on simply by running on the system or not. Returned to the PC after ~8 hours and the game had not crashed, it was running fine just as I left it. 2 hours after playtime the game crashed and generated a crash report which I stupidly hit 'send' on before remembering to copy/paste it here... Oops! Though the error code yielded no results through google. BUT the game only seems to crash when there are moving/loading assets/animations, and seemingly has nothing to do with windows software in itself.

Notes:
Windows 10 alone can't be the root cause of this issue since there are many Windows 10 users out there claiming to run the game without regular crashes plus as stated above, i've managed to run the game for an entire night while stationary in-game and returned to a fully functional game. The crashes have always occurred either when driving in-game or once when the map opening animation was started.

With that being said, if the universal launcher doesn't seem to have fixed the crashes after some more testing today, it may well be a directx issue and i'll try to play around with that to get directx 9c on windows 10.

Stay tuned!

[Chester]

Well i've tried everything short of downgrading to windows 7 and seeing if that helps, and honestly i'm not going to do that for 1 game when windows 10 works perfectly fine otherwise :P

Sorry, guys! No fix from me it seems!

Alternative:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/241560/?l=english

[Xyzzy]

nice effort. actually securom was stopped on all win os even Vista. I deliberately bought my new pc early to avoid win-10, I'm still win-7. Being wary and expecting it, I searched about securom and I got its kb number, so when win-update installed the 'stop securom' I uninstalled the update, and.. I have to do this every time, that's my workaround, it works for me on win-7. I dunno if it will help win-10, it might.. the number is kb 3086255. Win7 already has directx-9c too. my pc, i4790, gtx980. Re- your random ctd, have you installed it just the once, or is it a reinstall? Has it ever played true on this pc? did you get the dotnet framework, all versions, and the c++ runtime all versions, does it ctd in offline-mode? have you allowed tdu2 ports 3478 and 8889 in your router firewall? also allow it in your Windows firewall. also switch Upnp on in router.
[crew is poo, i have it on other pc, actually i uninstalled it after 40 dire hours of yawn.]

[Chester]

Originally posted by Xyzzy:

nice effort. actually securom was stopped on all win os even Vista. I deliberately bought my new pc early to avoid win-10, I'm still win-7. Being wary and expecting it, I searched about securom and I got its kb number, so when win-update installed the 'stop securom' I uninstalled the update, and.. I have to do this every time, that's my workaround, it works for me on win-7. I dunno if it will help win-10, it might.. the number is kb 3086255. Win7 already has directx-9c too. my pc, i4790, gtx980. Re- your random ctd, have you installed it just the once, or is it a reinstall? Has it ever played true on this pc? did you get the dotnet framework, all versions, and the c++ runtime all versions, does it ctd in offline-mode? have you allowed tdu2 ports 3478 and 8889 in your router firewall? also allow it in your Windows firewall. also switch Upnp on in router.

Some nice ideas here, i'll keep you posted when i've tried them! :) Didn't think of the firewall side of things.

Also regarding you having to uninstall that update everytime, instead you could let the update install, open the command prompt and write in ' sc config secdrv start=auto ', that should start the securom process automatically on windows 7 without you needing to uninstall the windows update.

[Xyzzy]

yeah, thanks, i'm used to it now but noted, sc? well in win7 you can just go to Services. and the other questions i asked? ...
... [ have you installed it just the once, or is it a reinstall? Has it ever played true on this pc? did you get the dotnet framework, all versions, and the c++ runtime all versions, does it ctd in offline-mode? have you allowed tdu2 ports 3478 and 8889 in your router firewall? also allow it in your Windows firewall. also switch Upnp on in router. ], I presume those all ok.

[Chester]

Originally posted by Xyzzy:

yeah, thanks, i'm used to it now but noted, sc? well in win7 you can just go to Services. and the other questions i asked? ...
... [ have you installed it just the once, or is it a reinstall? Has it ever played true on this pc? did you get the dotnet framework, all versions, and the c++ runtime all versions, does it ctd in offline-mode? have you allowed tdu2 ports 3478 and 8889 in your router firewall? also allow it in your Windows firewall. also switch Upnp on in router. ], I presume those all ok.

have you installed it just the once, or is it a reinstall? - Reinstall

Has it ever played true on this pc? Nope, the last time I played TDU2 was on a totally different machine entirely.

did you get the dotnet framework, all versions, and the c++ runtime all versions? Not yet :x

does it ctd in offline-mode? Havn't tried it

have you allowed tdu2 ports 3478 and 8889 in your router firewall? Not yet (lol)

[Xyzzy]

i dunno if used in win-10 but if so, see u got all dotnets and vis c runtimes, mybe tdu2 needs some older versions and win-10 not installed them..
at uninstall you say yes to 'revoke license' i'm sure you did that.. and invoke it at reinstall. (more drm bollocks).

[Xyzzy]

don't use vsync in game, do use adaptive vsync 60 in nvidia panel.

[Chester]

Originally posted by Xyzzy:

don't use vsync in game, do use adaptive vsync 60 in nvidia panel.

No effect :P But thanks!

[Chester]

I've sent off an email to Eden Games (they're back, currently developing a racing game for iOS). I won't hold my breath to hear back from them but it's worth a shot.

[Xyzzy]

Eden been back 2 years, but independent from Atari,
they made gt-spirit for Apple tv. not for pc.

[Chester]

After recieving a reply from Eden games regarding them not being able to do anything with TDU2 due to it being owned by Atari, I forwarded my query to Atari and recieved a response today (albeit a slightly generic one).

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Greetings!!

Thank you for your report. Our technicians are aware of the issue and are currently working towards a resolution.

We appreciate your patience and understanding.

Sincerely,
Atari Customer Support
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[sin2044]

in game video option the quality of the world to a low level. I don`t have freeze, I have 2 achivment today

[ingus76]

the same situation, 1:1. game crashes randomly, but only while in action. Crash after 20minutes - 2hours, "tdu2.exe has stopped working".
I can lot of hours sit at Casino slot machines and no crashes, as i start drive- crash after 20minutes - 2hours(max).
I try unpack game, apply Unofficial patch 0.4 + Mega car pack, start with Universal launcher 3.5, nothing changes, all the same random crashes.
i am try make exceptions in win Firewall and also try completelly disable my Avast Premier, nothing help, still random crashes.

os- win10 pro 64bit
m/b - asus p8z77 Vdeluxe
cpu - i7 3770K @ 4,2GHz
ram - 16Gb
video- msi gtx 980ti
psu- 1200w
hdd- samsung ssd

drivers versions- hmm...., i am doubt that for so old game newest drivers have some matter, in my opinion it is a bit BS, so i am not mention my drivers versions.

[ingus76]

Today drive about 4h in row, till got tdu2.exe stopped working message.
What i was do?
I am reinstall game, unpack again, unofficial patch etc..
I am disable Vsync and turn off my Bandicam and MSI Afterburner software.
I am NOT make any compatibility settings in any .exe properties.
I am exclude unpacked game folder from my Avast Premiere realtime scan shedule.

For sure, it can be just clear luck and maybe are not in any kind connected with all operations mentioned above. Tomorrow i will try again.

[Chester]

Originally posted by ingus76:

Today drive about 4h in row, till got tdu2.exe stopped working message.
What i was do?
I am reinstall game, unpack again, unofficial patch etc..
I am disable Vsync and turn off my Bandicam and MSI Afterburner software.
I am NOT make any compatibility settings in any .exe properties.
I am exclude unpacked game folder from my Avast Premiere realtime scan shedule.

For sure, it can be just clear luck and maybe are not in any kind connected with all operations mentioned above. Tomorrow i will try again.

No idea, I don't know what is causing the problem, I think the game might just be unsupported garbage lol.