Windows 10: BSOD on Windows 7 and currently Windows 10 while playing Dota2

Hi,

when i start Dota2 (which runs with the -dx9 parameter by default) the game and Windows crash fight after the main menu loads. For this crash i have attached the file generated by the log collecotor.

I have had this problem with Windows 7 and currently with Windows 10. I have tried various drivers and currently was using the old ones which i downloaded from the vendor (acer) website. But the exact same error happens with newer drivers as well. I reinstalled WIndows several times, replaced the HDD, installed various drivers for different components, nothing helped. Also, i used to install Ubuntu on a separate partition, i remember the game crashing there too, but that was long ago. Maybe i'll try it again tomorrow.

The Laptop had overheating problems (it never turned off due to that though, it was just really hot with over 90° most of the time while playing), currently its barely over 80°.

Now the other part of the problem (and the reason why i could live with the first problem for so long) is, that when i start the game with the -dx11 parameter, the game does not crash right after the start. It crashes while i play the game, sometimes not in days and sometimes all the time. Of course right now it doesnt want to crash, so ill upload the dump as soon as the game crashes. Although i have to say, that i need to use newer drivers for -dx11 to work, and the newer drivers dont cause Windows to crash, only the game. So ill upload the crash dumps from the game instead.

Sorry for the wall of text, i hope that someone can take a look at the dump from the first problem (with -dx9).Attachment 58578

Thanks

:)

 

Dota2 game crashes while playing on Windows 10

I have a similar problem and that didn't work

 

Dota2 game crashes while playing on Windows 10

Hello Muhammad,

We understand the inconvenience you have experienced.

From your description, I can see you telling that the problem is specific to Dota2 game. I mean to say, the issue won't appear when playing other games. I suggest you to check this issue by uninstalling and reinstalling the games again to see if it makes
any difference. This might give us the clue on the root cause of the issue.

In case problem still persist, try to reproduce the issue by keeping your computer in Clean Boot state.

A clean boot is performed to start Windows by using a minimal set of drivers and startup programs. This helps eliminate software conflicts that occur when you install a program or an update or when you run a program. Follow the
below mentioned steps to perform Clean Boot:



a. Press Windows Key, type
msconfig in the search box, and hit Enter.

b. On the Services tab of the
System Configuration dialog box, tap or click to select the Hide all Microsoft services check box, and then tap or click
Disable all.

c. On the Startup tab of the
System Configuration dialog box, tap or click Open Task Manager.

d. On the Startup tab in Task Manager, for each startup item, select the item and then click
Disable.

e. Close Task Manager.

f. On the Startup tab of the
System Configuration dialog box, tap or click OK, and then restart the computer. Now see if the same thing happens.



If a service is causing issue, I suggest you turn on 5 services at a time, reboot and then see if the problem reappears, keep repeating this until you find a group of 5 services, which are causing this issue, then check the one
by one, till you find the one which is causing your issue. Perform the same divide and apply for
Startup's too.



Refer the below article on "How to Perform Clean Boot". As the article is designed for Windows 8.1,
Windows 8 and Windows 7. Unlike launching step for 'System Configuration', options and steps to Clean Boot are same for Windows 10.



Note: After you finish troubleshooting, refer "How to reset the computer to start normally after clean boot troubleshooting" from the same article.



Let us know how it went.

 

It seems the crashes are GPU related, specifically the Nvidia one.

It also appears Acer doesn't have drivers for your laptop and some drivers are very old.
I suggest to revert back to Windows 7 and reinstall the nvidia drivers.

 

While that is true, i did have the same bluescreens even on Windows 7, but often times (iirc) the error was not TDR but somehing like IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. Since im trying to troubleshoot this i am reinstalling Windows every few days, i don't mind installing Windows 7 again to try it out.

Would you kindly look at the dump file from Windows 7 if the error occurs again? I would upload it here when i'm done.

Ill try Windows7 + Acer drivers and Windows 7 + newest NVidia drivers.

 

No problem, but the IRQL error makes me suspicious about the memory.
I have a reason for it, but it is a little complicated to explain, because to fully understand it it requires some knowledge about how Windows works.

Please test your memory using memTest86+





Diagnostic Test

RAM TEST


Run MemTest86+ - Test RAM - Windows 10 Forums



Note



MemTest86+ needs to be run for at least 8 passes for conclusive results. Set it running before you go to bed and leave it overnight. We're looking for zero errors here. Even a single error will indicate RAM failure.

 

Hi,

i ran memtest over the night, no errors. After i freshly installed Windows 7 yesterday (and installed all of the acer drivers), i could play with no issues and was almost thinking that the problem was solved. But right now, after i started the game with the dx9 parameter, it crashed at the same place in the main menu like in Windows 10. Maybe i played yesterday with the -dx11 parameter, ill try that out now and see how it goes. But it definitely crashes with dx9 just like in Windows 10.

Here is the dump:
Attachment 58789

Edit: i just had another BSOD while playing with -dx11

 

Both crashes are 0x116 what means the drivers of the GPU (Nvidia GPU) had a TDR (Time-out (didn't respond anymore) Detection (Windows noticed it) and Recovery (Windows tried to get the drivers functioning)) failure.
The system usually gives 30 seconds delay before the TDR calls the bugcheck function, this function takes care of the bluescreen, to protect your system, non-functioning drivers from an important component could cause lots of data corruption.

What drivers are you using for Windows 7? I see 3 downloads on the support page of Acer for Nvidia.
Are you switching between GPU's? Switching between GPU's could also cause a TDR, because switching isn't always going proper.

 

Hi and thanks.

I am using the latest NVidia and Intel driver listed on the page. Also there is a separate download for the PhysiX driver, i have installed that one too.

I still cant quite recall why i could play a day before without issues. I just reinstalled Windows 7 because i had downloaded the wrong Iso before and thus could not activate. Now i installed Home Premium, installed the drivers just like yesterday and am going to play again now and see if it crashes. Currently ill disable windows update, since i think that was the only differnce between the two days, after the first day i think windows installed some updates.

Next step, if i get the BSOD again with this driver constellation, ill install the newest driver from the NVidia page.

Thanks for your time, ill bump the thread as soon as i get another crash with additional informations. If you need other informations in the meantime just ask.

One question though:
Since i had some heat issues from time to time with this laptop, do you think its possible that this issues are the result of damaged hardware? What i fing so odd is that all of the GPU stress test software never had any BSODs...

 

I do have a question that hasn't been answered *Smile

I would recommend to stick with the drivers Acer provides for you.
Laptop manufacturer alter their drivers, this causes the user to install the drivers the manufacturer provides. Drivers from official companies (like Nvidia) will work too, but not 100%.

It depends on how long your laptop had heat problems, if it was hours everytime then it certainly has caused hardware damage.

Below 2 things you mentioned are things that I have seen a few things, but these are something I can't explain.

 

I think i didnt document well enough what i tried after the last time. Currently im systematically starting the game with different options etc. so i can see when the game gets playable again. Currently, with -dx9, it does crash every single time right after the start. So probably, i somehow changed to dx11 right away and could play with that the day. It seems that -dx9 doesnt work in any case (any windows version, any driver).

To answer your question:
I dont switch manually. I have configured in the nvidia control center that for dota2.exe it should use the NVidia card, and that apparently works because when i first started the game (and didnt have this setting on) it didnt crash but was very slow so im sure it was using the Intel card there. Now it uses NVidia the whole time and crashes.

I have tried several things now, like using only external monitor, disconnecting any usb drives, etc. it still crashes every time with -dx9.

So now ill start testing with -dx11. Here are the recent dumps, i suppose they are same as the other ones.

 

Please turn off any way of switching, use only 1 GPU and see how it goes.

 

There is no physical or BIOS-Switch like some laptops with Optimus have. My only Option is to do it in NVidia settings. If i do it there (set that the preferred card is NVidia) then it will just switch to NVidia while launching any or most applications. But the switching still occurs im pretty sure. There seems to be no way with this laptop to tell it to use NVidia for everything.

My progress with the testing is very weird. Now the game crashes with -dx11 too. I cant explain it... i did use Professional last time though, this time its Home Premium. But other than that it should be all the same, since i dont actually install much, only the drivers and the game...

 

Try to disable 1 and see how it goes, please be aware that sometimes weird things may occur when trying this.

 

So i previously already tried to disable the Intel GPU, but then the screen goes dark and i need to restart the laptop with the power switch. Back in windows, the GPU is activated again. So i tried that again but was using only the laptop screen (usually i use external hdmi display) and this time it also turned black and i had to restart, but after restarting the Intel GPU was still inactive. But: i cant start NVidia settings because "i use a display wich is not connected to a NVidia GPU".


Then i restarted and plugged the display at the hdmi port, got the same message. Plugged the display at VGA-Port, still the same. It seems that everything on this laptop, even the stuff rendered by NVidia card, is still in some way processed through the Intel card and sent to the display.

Dont know if that changes anything here. As i said, the Intel card alone (when i start the game without the NVidia switch) works fine and i never had a crash there (although i never played that long because the performance is so bad).

Back to testing topic: I dont get BSOD every time the game crashes with dx11. The system sometimes just hangs and i need to hard reset it, with no dumps created. But here is one dump which was created with dx11. I think most/all of the previous dumps were dx9.