Bioshock was playing fine...now locking up randomly?

[WolfpupNX]

Hey all,

Some help would be appreciated...

So I got Bioshock a few weeks ago and have been playing quite a bit...few hours night most nights. Didn't have a single crash until last night, and I had two (did have some issues initially loading levles if I didn't turn everything off, but making sure all tray services were off resolved that). Running Vista 64 with 4 GB RAM, a Quad Core, a GTX 280, and a PCIe X-Fi card.

Anyways, last night, I had been playing a few hours, searched a corpse, and all of a sudden the game hung... All movement basically stuttered to a stop, and I got static and noise from the speakers. ALT-TAB, CTRL-ALT- DEL, etc...nothing worked. Had to do a hard reset.

Rebooted...reset my game settings (as they were all reset to default), and played again. Maybe played a half hour...went into the map menu screen to listen to an audio log again...and another hang and more static...

Any ideas? Trying to think of any recent changes, and here's all I can think of:
- using the newest nVidia BETA drivers, but I had been doing that for several days and had played a few times before on those with no problems.
- there were some updates to my sound card drivers a few days back, but likewise, pretty sure I've played since updating those...
- I installed the official Lightscribe software the other day, but I do close down the tray icon when I play, so it'd be pretty bonkers if this was that...

The only thing I've changed so far and haven't tried yet is uninstalling the tablet PC services, since I guess that's a good thing to do, but I'm at a loss. I've read about savegames being corrupted, and if that's the case I'm gonna be pretty annoyed...

Thoughts? Any help definitely appreciated...

[WolfpupNX]

Also just installed the "release" nVidia drivers just in case it could have been those BETAs...

[WolfpupNX]

Hmmm...well, also realized I registered Nero in the last few days, and Nero Home gave me an error at system startup, so I thought maybe that's it... Don't care for the Nero Home features so disabled it from starting up.

But...still happening. Granted, I played almost 4 hours tonight before it did, but it did (again in the map/audio log screen). Turned off the speakers and it sounds like the PC speaker is screeching too. I don't *think* my video card could be overheating - fan isn't even sped up and heat output in the back is warm but not unusually hot. (And when torture testing the system, I really pushed the card to the point the fan does go to near max.)

At any rate, I learned the delete the running.ini trick to prevent it from reloading defaults, so it's not quite as annoying, but the thing that bothers me most is when it happens, I have to do a hard reset of the system...

Granted when it happens, there appears to be no hard drive activity whatsoever, so hopefully that means there won't be any damage to Windows or data loss, but even so, makes me uncomfortable.

[WolfpupNX]

Seems to be an issue in UT games, specifically on X-Fi cards with 64 MB of XRAM. I decided to try rolling back from the newest driver to the previous ones where I hadn't had crashes using EAX, and so far so good (but hardly conclusive...).

[WolfpupNX]

Well, still happens in the older drivers...so I'm at a loss.

[snyk99]

Yes the same problem cam e with me also
Rebooted...reset my game settings (as they were all reset to default), and played again. Maybe played a half hour...went into the map menu screen to listen to an audio log again...and another hang and more static

[WolfpupNX]

Hmmm...interesting to hear I'm not alone, but sorry to hear you're having the same problems. Did they start right away when you began to play the game, or did they appear after you'd been playing successfully for some time and just start to happen out of the blue?

My latest fix attempt is to use some new BETA X-Fi Titanium drivers released yesterday. Release notes say it fixes an XP blue screen of death some were having, but thought it was worth a shot even if I'm on Vista.

Can you list specs so we can compare and see if we can find a common denominator? I'm:

- Windows Vista Ultimate x64
- ASUS P5E3 Premium Wi-Fi @P (X48) BIOS 0505
- QX9770 Quad-Core 3.2 GHz
- 4 GB DDR3-1600 Kingston RAM
- eVGA GTX-280 FTW (newest nVidia BETAS [tried non-BETAS as well])
- Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Fata1ity Pro (newest Creative BETAS [tried 2x non-BETAS as well])

I should mention my board has built-in SoundMax, which I haven't disabled yet, but it's never conflicted so far - I may try turning that off next. Also, I'm not running in any sort of compatibility mode in Vista, which I've considered trying.

By the way, when that happens and your game settings get reset, if you want to cancel that (so your game settings are all the way they were when you played last as I got really, really sick of reconfiguring them every time), you can go to (in Vista; path may be slight different in XP):

C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Roaming\Bioshock

Delete the running.ini file there, and Bioshock will start normally with all your previous settings intact.

[Novum]

Hi Wolf,

I have the exact same problem as you. You can imagine how surprised i was when i managed to find someone who has encountered the same problem and at a similar date as myself.

I recently upgraded my computer because it needed a much needed bump in the power for gaming department. I was able to play Bioshock fine through the first 2 levels. Absolutely no problems what so ever. But all of a sudden as soon as i arrived in Arcadia i get random crashes and "Bioshock has stopped working" responses.

What area did you begin to find these crashes? One other thing i did notice is that my save files seem to be becoming exponentially bigger in the size department. Perhaps it's meant to be that way i'm just grabbing at strawers here. I would just like to find a method to rectify these crashes so i can continue to play this great game.

If any representatives are out there reading this thread, Has 2k been able to find any reasons for these crashes during the development/porting of the ps3 version of Bioshock? Or have been able to find possible causes for these issues at all?

I have tried some of the other solutions located on these forums but considering that this computer hasn't had any real changes to registry/operating system/software because it's a recent build i wonder if it's to do with the Bioshock software at all?

[EDIT] I forgot to mention my gaming rig is as follows:

Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.12GHz
4GB 1066Mhz RAM Patriot
Nvidia Inno3d GTX260
Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit

[WolfpupNX]

Novum, for me, I played through Welcome to Rapture and Medical Pavillion fine with absolutely 0 crashes like you. Also the first half of Neptune's Bounty.

My crashes happened towards the end of Neptune's Bounty and now also into Arcadia. Unlike you, I don't generally get (have a few times after exiting) the "Bioshock has stopped working" error...since the machine is completely unresponsive to even get back to Windows.

My current attempt is running in XP SP2 compatibility mode along with administrative rights to see if this might fix it - no crashes so far, but I've only played around an hour with those settings.

I looked at my saves and they get progressively bigger as well (go from about 1.8 MB up to 5 MB; still in the latter part of Arcadia). Though I think that's normal - it makes sense since the game appears to track everything you do throughout the whole game (since you can go back to past areas you've visited in the state you left them in).

I'm having a fantastic experience with the game aside from the crashes, but being booted really ruins the immersion (not to mention how much I *hate* hard resetting an otherwise very stable computer).

[Novum]

Hey Wolf,

I think i have managed to track down the solution for my bioshock issues. Hopefully they will address yours too. I've done two experimental reinstalls of my vista installation. Extreme measures i know, however i think it's enabled me to somewhat track down the issue to two possible sources.

On the first reinstall i did the full patching of updates post Service Pack 1 on Windows Vista. When i tried playing Bioshock i still ran into the same problems that i had been having prior. On my second installation i haven't yet installed any updates for vista and Bioshock is running like a breeze.

I think that since we both were able to play bioshock without error until only recently that one of the compatibility updates could be to blame for our crashes and "bioshock has stopped working" occurances.

The other issue i dealt with, though im more inclined to believe that which was described earlier, is that i noticed i had failed to install my drives with their proper SATA drivers. As a result IDE was emulating the necessary details to allow my hard drives to work. The reason i don't believe this was the issue is that i was playing bioshock without problems on my very first install of vista, and that install had not had the SATA issue dealt with. I will be sending an email off to 2K Tech support so that they can hopefully get in touch with microsoft since this is one of the promoted "Games for Windows" line.

I hope this helps you out mate. I'm sorry that i'm not able to pinpoint the vista update that caused it but perhaps you can look at the times your bioshock began to play up and apply that to the patch installations through the control panel -> Programs and Features Window.

Kind Regards
Novum

[WolfpupNX]

Novum - great research! I can't really afford to reinstall Vista (just no time for it - too much I need on here; and my install is pretty clean as is still with everything else working great, so I hate to for one program, even if it is a good one).

I can confirm that XP SP2 mode with Admin priveleges does *not* fix my issue.

It could very well have been one of the Windows updates, but I posted my issue on the 7th, and the only update even around there that it seems it could have been is around the 9th (all others are things like Defender definition updates and such), so that's...confusing to say the least.

I'm really thinking about trying the game with EAX set to off to see how that works as I've heard of problems wtih UT3 engine games and EAX, but I kind of hate to do that as it sounds pretty great with EAX (though I can't hear an immediate difference with brief testing with it off), and I can usually play at least a few hours as is...

I dunno. The other thing I have yet to try (may do this one tonight) is shut down every single background process I can aside from core Windows components...seeing if maybe an updated one of those did it.

But great research with your Vista install, and so odd that Bioshock works without any updates to Windows.

All my SATA drivers (using AHCI mode) should be correct, so I don't think that's the issue here either.

Question for you too...were you using your old saves with the brand new installs? Or did you start a brand new game? Because it occurred to me it is possible it just hasn't started crashing yet if it is an issue in the game instead, if that makes sense... But what would make it different on one install and not the other is beyond me. heh.

[Biological]

To answer your question about the difference between one install and another. The difference is that a fresh install will not have any problems (unless the install files are corrupt of broken), an older install over time, modding, tweaking, updates, hotfixes, and patches, may cause problems because of a bad install or updates from other programs or OS updates may use and/or modify certain program files/extensions which may corrupt files or cause a conflict error.

[Novum]

Question for you too...were you using your old saves with the brand new installs? Or did you start a brand new game? Because it occurred to me it is possible it just hasn't started crashing yet if it is an issue in the game instead, if that makes sense... But what would make it different on one install and not the other is beyond me. heh.

Hey Wolf,

I have been transfering my save files over with every installation that i have been doing so i don't believe it was them causing the issue. I'm in Haephaetus now and eating Big Daddies for breakfest!

Another thought occured to me, when i would check my error logs i was generally getting an nvidia or directX dll or sys file as cause of the crash. I'm using the same drivers as before so i'm more inclined than ever now that a compatibility update for Vista altered something in a directX file and was causing the issue.

Needless to say i won't be installing any Vista updates till i have at least finished Bioshock or the issue has been fixed.

[WolfpupNX]

Thanks for the feedback (both of you). Hmmm...so strange.

Well, elminated a few possibilities. Closing down more programs didn't help (Task Manager). And neither did turning off EAX (which I really thought might be the culprit). [On the surprising side, personally I can't hear a difference...game engine sounds as good as EAX to me...]

*sigh* I dunno... This isn't a total showstopper...I'm making progress...but it really hurts the immersion to keep wondering when it's going to crash on me (twice tonight in about 2 and a half hours of play). I'm fairly certain at this point nothing in Windows is getting damaged at least when this happens, but I still don't like it.

[Novum]

It's understandable Wolf, I feel for you buddy. Bioshock is a damn excellent game when you can get it running without issues.

Are you able to see what files/modules are causing your crashes in your Application Event Viewer? Maybe that can point us to some files that we can sniff a trail out of?

[WolfpupNX]

I think you're a genious! LOL. Dunno why - never thought to check event viewer. Around the same time of the crashes from what I get around 20 error messages like the following from source "Search" which is listed as a Gatherer.

The entry <C:\USERS\SHAUN\APPDATA\ROAMING\BIOSHOCK\MEMORY\CU RRENTGAME\LEVEL_1-MEDICAL.BSG> in the hash map cannot be updated.

Context: Application, SystemIndex Catalog

Details:
A device attached to the system is not functioning. (0x8007001f)

There seems to be one for every level of the game I've been to so far (I think those are the saves, yes?)

hmmm... I wonder what it means. Really appreciate the help, btw - thank you. =o)

[Novum]

To be honest Wolf i don't quite know what those files are responsible for. The save files are found in your Documents folder under Bioshock -> SaveGames. However these may be linked somehow. I will do a little research and see what i can come up with.

If anyone else has some insight i'm sure we could use it. Who knows this could possibly solve some issues for some other players with problems.

[WolfpupNX]

Okay, I did some searches. Seem this is related to the indexing service Windows uses. Apparently some people with Mass Effect (also a UT3 game) were experiencing lockups and getting these errors... The files in question appear to be the realtime files the game is using while playing. Looks like maybe Windows is trying to index them and is causing a conflict... So maybe this is it!

I made a change (in Indexing Options in Control Panel) to exclude this directory, and I'm really hoping this may fix the problem. Too late to play more tonight, but let's cross our fingers!

Any other feedback or findings of course very helpful, and thanks again for all of the help so far - really glad you've got things working better on your end!

[WolfpupNX]

Looking at these times more, I know this much:

I froze twice tonight. I see Windows Search wigging out twice tonight.

I froze once last night right around 5 AM, and I see these same Windows Search errors at 5:07 AM.

As crazy as it sounds, I really think this could be it, even though I've never seen another report on the problem (for Bioshock at least).

[WolfpupNX]

Also, the date of the first major crash the 7th or so is the same as the first time this happened in earnest. I think we may have a winner. Either that, or those errors are *because* the game crashes, but I don't see why Windows would coincidentally try to index files when the game crashes... Seems to me the indexing would more likely be the cause. At any rate, time should tell if this fixes it..

[Novum]

I'm glad we've hopefully been able to identify the problem for your crashes Wolf, make sure you post if it goes through properly. I want to know if the changes to Windows Search that you made were the fix.

I finished bioshock today. FINALLY! lol. So i thought i would take it upon myself to install some vista updates to narrow down the update that caused my initial problems. I thought it would be good to figure out the exact update and if nothing else it will cure my inquisitive natures itch. I installed all "important" updates for the windows operating system and as of yet i have encountered no problems with bioshock. The updates left were:

KB950126
KB905866
KB950124
KB905125
KB954366
KB940157

An interesting thing that i did see is that KB940157 is in fact Windows Search 4.0 for Windows Vista. Perhaps this could have been related to you problems since it is only a 'reccomended' update and not a 'important' one.

Anywho i think i might sit tight with updates from this, I have the crucial ones and bioshock is playable for my next run through.

[WolfpupNX]

Thanks for the update.

Now that *is* interesting about the Windows Search 4.0 update (I always install everything). That may very well be it.

Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to play last night - hopefully tonight.

I did notice a few other events (like IPv6 running out of virtual memory) right before the Windows Search problems, but I think it could be because of the Search problems still. If it's hung up on those files, it's probably using all the memory trying to index them even though it can't or something...

Virtual memory is set as it should be (Vista's managing it...around 4 GB). If the problems continue, I may try increasing that manually and seeing if that makes for a change. But I'm pretty optimistic about having the indexing functions ignore that folder - I think this may just work.

[WolfpupNX]

Looked up the Desktop Search 4.0 update, and I actually installed it on August 6, about a month before this started happening. I do note in the error logs, previous to me encountering problems, I can see a few instances of this hash error before encountering crashes, but only 2 or so. Once it starts crashing, there are around 20 each time... It seems the MEMORY folder gets bigger as you progress through the game, so I think that's perhaps why it's happening now.

[WolfpupNX]

Good news. Not conclusive of course since I've played longer without crashes before, but managed to play a little over 2 hours last night without this problem reocurring (better luck than I had been having the last few days for sure) - maybe we actually nipped it!

I did have a weird crash first time I tried to play (as soon as I hopped in the game and tried to load), and no idea what caused that. (When I first ran BioShock, for some reason the copyright screen loaded a bit different than usual (could see a partial window), so maybe it was that. Went in fine the second time around and pretty sure this was some sort of fluke... Anyways, it didn't hurt to have to go in and reset all my game settings just to double check 'em.

[WolfpupNX]

Ack! Heh...played two nights in a row with no lockups, but happened again last night (3rd time playing). Checked the system logs and I see a few IPv6 memory errors but that's it.

Next try is to increase virtual memory. It was at 4 GB (automatic managing) and I'm trying 8 GB now.

The only other thing I can think of is, when I was building this thing, I had a hard time getting the memory 100% stable. I eventually did it, or so I thought (Prime95 24 hour stable, SuperPi 32M Calculation, FurMark 2 Hour Extreme Burnin, and OCCT 2 hour). And I'm not experiencing crashes in anything else (Windows, other games, etc.), so I'm hesitant to say it's a memory issue...

[WolfpupNX]

Actually, new nVidia drivers came out last night, so trying those before the virtual memory change. (And I used Driver Sweeper to make sure everything was gone before installing these since I was on betas before). No lockups last night, but then I only played about 45 minutes.

[Novum]

Hey Wolf,

Sorry for my lack of a reply, my net was slowed due to excessive bandwidth consumption.

Looks like you were able to identify some of main culprits which is great news indeed. It's a shame you are still getting errors though, but perhaps it is just one of those incidental crashes that we all get from time to time.

Did the latest drivers address have any affect on bioshock for you?

[WolfpupNX]

Actually, since using driver cleaner and installing the latest, I haven't had any crashes, but I also haven't played as much (shorter durations at night). Still, played maybe an hour and a half last night with no crashes and played an hour or more several other nights without issues, so I'm hopeful... Thanks for your continued interest.

I have had a few random hangs when first starting the game (first time loading a savegame mainly) for no apparent reason, but those have happened since getting the game and are relatively infrequent. I can also CTRL ALT DEL out of those just fine. Seems to happen much less if I close out of the background processes before starting the game, so not really concerned about these as I think they just, as you said, happen.

I should mention one other thing I did in my computer. I went in and switched one of the power supply cables (Silencer 750) going to the video card just in case it could be a power supply issue (doubtful, but you never know - I had read of similar issues for people).

[WolfpupNX]

I have to say, either I've been tremendously lucky as of late, or the crashes are finally solved (my guess being the driver cleaning and installation of the latest)... I should note that *after* uninstalling the last nVidia (and also PhysX) drivers, there were some left over files that Driver Cleaner caught, so could have been this too. At any rate, played several more hours with no crashes in site *crosses fingers*

[WolfpupNX]

Just a (possibly final) followup. I think the crash issue is finally gone (or my luck is good enough that I should go to the casino - one of the above - lol). I still am not certain what was the root cause, but my suspicion has to do with the nVidia drivers... While I haven't been playing as much of late in general, I played tonight for 3+ hours without issue, and a few other nights, without this reoccuring. Here's a list of things I did that may have fixed this for me:

- Uninstalled nVidia graphics AND PhysX drivers (note: 2 uninstall programs), then ran Driver Sweeper to remove all remnants of both (please note I think this may have really made the difference for me, so I highly recommend it), before reinstalling the latest nVidia drivers.

- I'm running Vista Ultimate with Dreamscene (moving background images). I had read Dreamscene pauses when gaming or using any full screen applications (which is true) and so doesn't really need disabled, but I really do think it may affect stability and not always do this correctly. I noticed I had all kinds of problems when I recently installed the Stardock Deskscapes version (expands Dreamscene capabilities) - one of my other games (World in Conflict) suddenly started crashing constantly, one of them similar in nature to what I was getting in Bioshock, and I traced it to Deskscapes. So, now when I play, I switch to a static background, which disables Dreamscene/Deskscapes and seems to solve my WIC issues. I can't prove this was an issue for Bioshock, but I figure it certainly couldn't hurt to disable it.

- I also switched one of the PSU cables to my video card. I really don't think this was what solved my problem, but...couldn't hurt to try it.

Good luck and thanks again to all the people who assisted me with my problem.