(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!

[Xyzzy]

lol, u not supposed to unpack. not allowed by game. derp.

[NotMe]

http://steamcommunity.com/app/9930/discussions/0/360670708777268870/

We tried many things too but nothing helped

[ingus76]

I am now can play stable 4-7h. After that, i am anyway get "tdu2.exe stopped working", but 4h is not so less.
Please, read my done actions in previous posts.

[NotMe]

@ingus76 i tried this too but it didnt work for me

[Big Fish Actual]

did you install win10 fresh (iso/usb + HD wipe) or did you just "upgrade" from your last version

[ingus76]

I have fresh install.
Oh, for sure, first i was upgrade version from 7pro to win10, but very soon after upgrade (aprx after month) i start encounter lot of glitches etc., so i choose reinstall fresh.
But i am stop search workarounds, because for me 4h are more than enough, ohh, yes, sometimes i got ".exe stopped working" also after 1h or 2h, but mostly this message come after about 4h of playing in row, so, for me are OK condition at this point.

[Big Fish Actual]

i recall getting the same issue on win7 years ago. i did not do a fresh install of win10 and i get 0 crash issues.
there is probably something out there that fixes it

[NotMe]

I dont know but i think there is something with the pc specs that causes the problem... @Speedy what specs do you have?

[Big Fish Actual]

it works fine with a gtx770 or a gtx1080. so i dont think there is any fault of a gpu. its not going to be the cpu.

its going to be some software

[beks]

Hey guys, I know this is old, and will likely not be responded to, but I have a solution for anyone that is still trying and searching in 2020.

So after hours of diagnosing, it is indeed an issue with Securom. A windows 10 update disabled it due to hackers using it as a backdoor.

Two Methods to get around this and play without crashes:

Method 1: Open Command Prompt as an admin and type "sc start secdrv". NOTE: This does make your PC more vulnerable, but seeing as Securom hasn't been used in years, any "potential" hackers are using other, easier methods. If you still feel unsafe about keeping it on, after your playtime, you can go back into Command Prompt and type "sc stop secdrv" to once again disable it.

Method 2: Install a no CD crack/patch. These are easy to find. I recommend GameBurnWorld, as it's the most credible site and won't lead you to sketchy popups if you have a decent popup blocker.

Other Recommendations:
- Upgrading your TDU 2 to the latest OFFICIAL version. Since Atari servers are down, your UpLauncher will not update the game anymore. If you would like a link to this, add me and send me a message.
- Upgrading to the latest unofficial patch, v0.4, which can be found on the Turboduck Forums.
- Using Knyazev's TDU 2 Launcher.

And there you go, enjoy playing TDU 2 on Windows 10 :)

[Silvertone 1490]

Lemme just necromance this thread a second time

I got the game and it worked for the most part with some intermittent crashes and even a handful of bluescreens.
I started looking into a fix, and ended up in this thread.
I tried all the steps including the Universal launcher, reinstaling DirectX 9c, attempting to get SecuROM working somehow (which I didn't manage to do, using a No CD patch, updating to the latest version of the game, etc etc.

What ended up working for me came through sifting through the crashlogs looking for a pattern and typing my findings into Google. When I did that I stumbled across someone having a supiciously similar issue in a different game. It looks to be a savefile read/write permission issue from what little I can tell. Following the instructions in this thread seems to have fixed my issues:

https://www.reddit.com/r/eu4/comments/cytfhn/access_violation_error_exception_0xc0000005_at/

I hope this'll be helpful to at least a couple of you.

Note: If you're having the "map crash" then this will not fix your problems since that appears to be a problem related to Nvidia RTX cards.