24H2 W11 update : Issue Found : No more crashes

[Phileus_1978]

I FINALLY FOUND AN ISSUE
After doing a lot a thing,

One was the good one:
A registry entry as usual

Add a QWORD(x64) value in
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorPort

Named HmbAllocationPolicy
Value 0 (default)

In fact, this value avoid a memory leak wich causes the crashes encountered

FOr the first time, no crash nor memory leak for a long day

Enjoy it

 

[AndrewT]

What exactly does this do, please, and where did you come across it? Thanks.

 

[Phileus_1978]

What exactly does this do, please, and where did you come across it? Thanks.

HI, a lot of things ^^

I have been a systems engineer for more than twenty years,
I'm usually working day after day to resolve issues and providing workarounds.

A few days ago, I wanted to play CK3, i don't know why but you know this feeling.
Crashes, crashes and crashes like a lot of people here.

By analysing the crashes, i could identify a memory leak caused by system ater a CK3 calls.
Ok, it's not a matter of paradox but a matter of Windows, in order to determine the workaround.

So, i resad the releases notes and the forum focus of 24H2 issues.
There was a lot sof thread reporting a conflict with some olds SSD'S drive, those without DRAM embedded.

Some system calls with 24H2 try to write into these additionals memory adresses. The calls fails and return to system who write into the system memory, but in a space already allocated. These is causing a lot of crashes since 24H2 update.

-> I found and tried this registry adress and was able to play two sessions of 8 hours, instead of ... you know what.
This entry avoids the system to make this king of calls for this extra-range of adresses
In my case, it's works. I'v got an "old config" with two old SSD's.
They are talking about WD's drives, but it's a generic pattern for old SSD.

Try it and remove it if teh crashes persist. !

 

[V@lOo]

Thanks a TON on this one. I tested it for 8 hours. Nothing else than a smooth crashless experience. Game is working flawlessly. Windows 11 latest insider version, Game is on a recent Intenso 512 gb SSD. Before i was experiencing increasing amount of crashes due to heavy street activity once 400k citizen reached. I was thinking about stop playing. this post was the first one i clicked to investigate.

I just added the reg key as described.

Spread the word !!!!

This is a critical one.

THE GAME IS WORKING

 

[DodgyRoger]

Thought I had seen this fix before. The fix applied to WD drives and Windows 11 BSOD/crashes after an update.

If so, and you have a WD drive, the true fix may be to do a firmware update for your drive - which (IIRC) was made available in October.

 

[V@lOo]

I am on an Intenso SSD, SATA

 

[Phileus_1978]

I am on an Intenso SSD, SATA

I agree with DodgyRoger, a firmware update appears to be the best issue. In my cas, i didn't have a true WD's drive, it is like many of them a rebranded/repackaged one. Don't worry about adjusting or trying to your registry. HKLM is often the target of a workaround. This entry avoids a system call inducted by the lastest major update.

If it's helping some player, it's nice and it's "making my day"

 

[axmunson]

I would like to clarify what problems were being seen by those here who have used this registry workaround and have seen improvement. Was the game just crashing to desktop with no other errors in Windows? Were BSODs experienced in normal use and/or game use? If playing Cities Skylines 2, how large was the city? Were the storage drivers and related reinstalled or updated? Were these clean installs of 24H2 and drivers, or are they upgrades from a previous Feature Update, OS, or Insider build?

 

[djvandebrake]

This fix worked for me, using a Western Digital HD rather than SSD - four hours of play today with no freezes!

 

[Phileus_1978]

Bonjour,
My issue was a random crash, two minutes or less after the load of the savegame.
It seems to be systematic when I put the cursor of the mouse in a baronny next to the one where my player was. Precisely, when I put the cursor to see a character..
Here, lost of sound, the mouse is always active but just for the movement, unable to change in other app's and unable to access to the task manager..
After a few minutes, reboot with no log.
In fine, it is a memory leak ^^
Only in CK3, whenever the save used (short or long, french or arabic ...)

Immediately after the use of this entry, I was able to play.
==> I don't have clearly a WD drive. This entry avoid the memory leak encountered in my case;

 

[axmunson]

Bonjour,
My issue was a random crash, two minutes or less after the load of the savegame.
It seems to be systematic when I put the cursor of the mouse in a baronny next to the one where my player was. Precisely, when I put the cursor to see a character..
Here, lost of sound, the mouse is always active but just for the movement, unable to change in other app's and unable to access to the task manager..
After a few minutes, reboot with no log.
In fine, it is a memory leak ^^
Only in CK3, whenever the save used (short or long, french or arabic ...)

Immediately after the use of this entry, I was able to play.
==> I don't have clearly a WD drive. This entry avoid the memory leak encountered in my case;

Thank you for this. This is what I am looking for. This workaround is being presented as an option for crashes a lot of us are having in Cities Skylines 2. What you described is the kind of crash I would expect this workaround to address. Cities Skylines 2 users are experiencing a lot of different crashes, but specifically a lot of crash to desktop and the OS is working fine. I do not think this workaround will address most of the crashes we are experiencing.
In regards to your issue, it looks like this became known back in October. I have read a few articles about it including how manufactures are issuing out firmware to address the problems. Sandisk and WD drives are mostly affected, but as we have seen other drives appear to be affected as well. If you are not able to find a firmware update from your drive manufacture, you may want to look at storage controller drivers, or possible a fresh install of Windows. I am always a bit wary of registry fixes as they can cause future problems such as if Microsoft offers out a fix and the registry change that has been made then causes an error. One other thing I am wondering is if this is related to Direct Storage. I wonder if Windows is trying to have the feature active on a drive that can not properly support it which then causes the issues described above. It might be worth checking if Direct Storage is active on your systems. IT looks like it should be viewable in the Windows Game bar in a game. There may be other ways to check.

 

[djvandebrake]

Spoke too soon. Another freeze today. Guess I was just lucky before.

 

[axmunson]

Spoke too soon. Another freeze today. Guess I was just lucky before.

Since you have a WD SSD, I would revert the registry change and perform a firmware update using the latest firmware on Western Digital's site. There is also a peice of software that they have to manage their SSDs including firmware updates. I am not sure how familiar you are will all of this, but that would be the next thing I would do. I can give more information if you need it.

 

[djvandebrake]

Since you have a WD SSD, I would revert the registry change and perform a firmware update using the latest firmware on Western Digital's site. There is also a peice of software that they have to manage their SSDs including firmware updates. I am not sure how familiar you are will all of this, but that would be the next thing I would do. I can give more information if you need it.

I believe you misread my previous post - I do not have an SSD, it is a HDD. And I have checked the WD website for my particular drive; there are no updates for drivers for it.

 

[Radical_Inu]

I believe you misread my previous post - I do not have an SSD, it is a HDD. And I have checked the WD website for my particular drive; there are no updates for drivers for it.

Yeah. I have a Samsung Evo 970 plus, old at this point I guess, but there were no new firmware/driver updates for my SSD either. I hope this all doesn't end up with Microsoft gaslighting us to upgrade our computers. Mine was working quite fine for the games I play before this all started happening with CK3.

I haven't played much else recently for comparison besides AoW4 during December and early January, but I had far fewer issues playing that game. I only had to fiddle with my settings for Grexolis or whatever that final 5v4 campaign map was called.

 

[axmunson]

I believe you misread my previous post - I do not have an SSD, it is a HDD. And I have checked the WD website for my particular drive; there are no updates for drivers for it.

You are correct, I did misread your post and I apologize.

Yeah. I have a Samsung Evo 970 plus, old at this point I guess, but there were no new firmware/driver updates for my SSD either. I hope this all doesn't end up with Microsoft gaslighting us to upgrade our computers. Mine was working quite fine for the games I play before this all started happening with CK3.

I haven't played much else recently for comparison besides AoW4 during December and early January, but I had far fewer issues playing that game. I only had to fiddle with my settings for Grexolis or whatever that final 5v4 campaign map was called.

From what I have seen the Evo 970 should not be affected. IT should have DRAM and has not had updates for a while I have one myself, but I am still running Windows 10.

I would say for everyone having issues, keep aware of other problems with your systems. If you are experiencing BSODs then there dump files can be looked at to see what is triggering the event. From what both of you have provided, it seems to me like you are having driver issues. Personally if both of you upgraded to Windows 11 24H2, I would use the clean reset option in Windows 11 to start fresh. If you want to troubleshoot your current install, then it will be time to review your event logs and dump files if you have them (BSODs will generate them. The path to them will be listed in Event Viewer along with other info about the BSOD event.) WinDbg is a tool you can get from the Microsoft Store app in Windows that allows you to analyze the dump file and find the cause. There should be more information online about everything I have posted.

 

[djvandebrake]

You are correct, I did misread your post and I apologize.


From what I have seen the Evo 970 should not be affected. IT should have DRAM and has not had updates for a while I have one myself, but I am still running Windows 10.

I would say for everyone having issues, keep aware of other problems with your systems. If you are experiencing BSODs then there dump files can be looked at to see what is triggering the event. From what both of you have provided, it seems to me like you are having driver issues. Personally if both of you upgraded to Windows 11 24H2, I would use the clean reset option in Windows 11 to start fresh. If you want to troubleshoot your current install, then it will be time to review your event logs and dump files if you have them (BSODs will generate them. The path to them will be listed in Event Viewer along with other info about the BSOD event.) WinDbg is a tool you can get from the Microsoft Store app in Windows that allows you to analyze the dump file and find the cause. There should be more information online about everything I have posted.

Sadly, I didn't upgrade to 24H2, so I can't even try to downgrade. I bought new system components late last year - almost everything except reusing my case and old graphics card - and built my PC in December; for Christmas, I also got a new graphics card, which is when I could finally try CK3. But that means the first time I installed Windows 11 was in December after the 24H2 rollout. I came into CK3 in the middle of this mess. I have also updated drivers for all my components recently, including motherboard, processor, graphics card, etc.

Also, no BSoD for me; just the freezes, and *only* on CK3. (But I haven't tried some other Paradox games or Ubisoft games that might be susceptible.)

 

[axmunson]

Sadly, I didn't upgrade to 24H2, so I can't even try to downgrade. I bought new system components late last year - almost everything except reusing my case and old graphics card - and built my PC in December; for Christmas, I also got a new graphics card, which is when I could finally try CK3. But that means the first time I installed Windows 11 was in December after the 24H2 rollout. I came into CK3 in the middle of this mess. I have also updated drivers for all my components recently, including motherboard, processor, graphics card, etc.

Also, no BSoD for me; just the freezes, and *only* on CK3. (But I haven't tried some other Paradox games or Ubisoft games that might be susceptible.)

Yeah that is a hard position. You mention switching graphics cards. When you rebuilt the system and installed Windows, were you using the old graphics card? If yes, then you installed the new graphics card afterwords on the same Windows installation? That could be the problem. Did you do a full removal of the graphics drivers and software when you switched graphics cards? This matters even if switching cards from the same company. Both AMD and Nvidia should have removal tools to help clean out the software. It might be worth doing and reinstalling the graphics drivers. Outside of that, the only things that come to mind is verifying the game files, adjusting setting in the game graphics and the driver, and maybe looking at the BIOS setup if something is not right. Resizable bar support not being on (or it on and not working right) could be a factor.

 

[xGhost4000x]

If you launch a powershell terminal with admin permissions you can do this pretty easily like so:

Test-Path HKLM:\system\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorPort\HmbAllocationPolicy
New-Item HKLM:\system\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorPort\HmbAllocationPolicy -Value "0"
Get-Item HKLM:\system\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorPort\HmbAllocationPolicy

I'll see if I can play with this change.

 

[Cain776]

Not working, still crashing