BATTLETECH - Game Crash within minutes of battle starting - UnityPlayer.dll Exception code: 0xc0000005 - NO CITRIX

[Rexorn]

One line summary of your issue
Game Crash within minutes of battle starting - UnityPlayer.dll Exception code: 0xc0000005 - NO CITRIX

What platform are you running the game on?
Steam

What operating system do you use?
Windows 10

Which version of the game are you running?
1.91-686R

What DLC do you have installed?
Flashpoint, Urban Warfare, Heavy Metal

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
The game will crash during campaign character creation (once) or during initial tutorial mission between before round 10.

Sometimes the system will recover enough to allow me to reboot. Usually the last set of sounds will continue to play on a black screen with no system response. After a five minute pause I would power cycle the PC.

I dearly enjoyed playing this game and would like to resume doing so. Any advice would be appreciated.

Have you tried verifying your files?
Yes

Steps to reproduce the issue
Start game, complete character creation. Start first battle. Game will freeze before turn 10.

I had originally purchased the base game and later purchased the battle-pass which included Heavy Metal, Urban Warfare, and Flashpoint. My new campaign after purchasing the DLC became increasingly unstable I could play one or two mech moves before the game crashed.

I updated to the March release drivers for my video card. I also ran the Steam verification of my game files which found no errors. The problem persisted - see two March crash folders attached.

An April driver update was released and I again updated my drivers. I also did a clean uninstall of BattleTech per the link in the forums. This included removing the saved game files from the original install. I did a reinstall of the BattleTech game afterwards.

ref: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/battletech-guide-uninstall-battletech-cleanly.1107452/



I have never installed Citrix Workspace and have confirmed no Citrix software is listed for removal in the control panel.

A windows SFC command prompt scan found no issues with the windows install.

Steam Cloud was disable BEFORE the re-install and is still disabled. Enable Steam Overlay while-ingame is NOT marked though I noticed a "Steam [Log] Steam Overlay Initialized" message in the output log file.

This is a repost of support ticket #272777 dated 2023-04-25. The support representative requested I repost this issue to the forums.

Reference Attachments:
*five zipped copies of crash files from \AppData\Local\Temp\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH\Crashes

*two copies of the output log from \AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH
Note: the earliest output log was created by copying the log to the desktop after a crash and before the last attempt.

*DXDiag export results

* Copy of information from the Windows Reliability Report showing crash data with exception codes.

* zip with three auto-generated save game files from 2024-04-24 & 2023-04-25 crashes. Each attempt was a fresh start not a save load but the auto-generated saves are attached just in case they are helpful.

Attach DxDiag (PC), System Info log (Mac), or run sudo lshw -html > specs.html and uploaded specs.html (Linux)
File(s) attached

Attach Output Log
Windows: \Users\YourUserName\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH\output_log.txt
Mac OS: Users >{name} > Library > Logs > Unity > Player.log
Linux: ~/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/Player.log
File(s) attached

If the game crashed, please attach the crash file with the time stamp closest to the crash.
Windows: [Steam library folder]\steamapps\common\BATTLETECH\DumpBox
For v.17 and beyond try here: C:\Users\[YourUserName]\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BATTLETECH
OSX: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > Steam > steamapps > common > BattleTech > DumpBox
Linux: [Steam library folder]/steamapps/common/BATTLETECH/DumpBox
File(s) attached

If a save game was loaded at the start of the game session, upload it. Please make sure to upload the save game with the timestamp closest to when you loaded it.
Windows:
Steam: [Steam installation folder]\userdata[SteamID]\637090\remote\C0\SGS1
GOG: 'C:\Users\USER_ID\AppData\Local\GOG.com\Galaxy\Applications\50593543263669699\Storage\Shared\Files\C#\SGS#'
Vanilla:'C:\Users\USER_ID\AppData\LocalLow\Harebrained Schemes\BattleTech\C#\SGS#'
OSX:
Steam: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > Steam > userdata > [SteamID] > 637090 > remote > C#> SGS#
GOG: Macintosh HD > Users > [username] > Library > Application Support > GOG.com > Galaxy > Applications > 50593543263669699 > Storage > Shared > Files > C# > SGS#
Vanilla: Macintosh HD > Users > [username]> Library > Application Support > unity.Harebrained Schemes.BattleTech > C# > SGG#
Linux:
Steam: /home/.steam/steam/userdata/[steamID]/637090/remote/C#/SGS#
GOG: /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/remote/C#/SGS#/
Vanilla: /home/[username]/.config/unity3d/Harebrained Schemes/BATTLETECH/remote/C#/SGS#/
File(s) attached

Attach screenshot / video
File(s) attached

 

[AndrewT]

As you can see in that output log, the crash comes immediately after a number of DirectX11 errors. So it is presumably in the video/graphics area.

What refresh rate are you seeing in the game? If it's over 60 (ie your Desktop setting) go into the game's advanced video settings, and make sure Vsync is enabled.

If that doesn't help, I'm not really sure what else to suggest! Maybe try reducing some of the quality settings in there.

 

[Rexorn]

Thank you for the suggestions!
Sadly the crash persists.

I enabled VSYNC and reduced the resolution to 1280x720 the game crashed after the initial camera use instructions and before the first move.
output_log20230426-22.23 vsync.txt

I switched to windowed mode and had the same result except in this case the BattleTech.EXE window was white vs black and I was able to tab out instead of power cycling the PC. - an improvement as I could shut down the box normally.
output_log20230426-2237-windowed.txt

I reduced the basic quality setting from HIGH to MEDIUM and was able to reach round 3 before the game stopped responding. An improvement over the first to attempts on 4/26 but I was able to reach turn 8 when I opened the original ticket. I think the exact turn count is a coincidence.
output_log20230426-2256Med.txt

I used the AMD performance metrics tool during these runs my frame rate in full-screen move did not exceed 60 though that is probably due to the VSYNC with my desktop refresh rate. I do not have numbers from before the VSYNC option was enabled.

I noticed the log indicated unloading serialized files to reduce memory usage. VRAM max MB usage varied between runs 2385, 2446, and 1804. The last was probably caused by the reduction in quality to MEDIUM. The card has 4GB VRAM, twice the recommended so this is probably a red herring.

No new crash folders were created.

 

[AndrewT]

I am sorry, I cannot see exactly why the game is so unstable on this computer. It's not a general problem of course!

I don't know if this game supports DirectX 9, but We can try this: In your Steam Library right-click on this game and choose Properties. In the Launch Options line, paste this in there:
-force-d3d9

Assuming that doesn't help, make a new Windows user on this machine and log into it with that - any different there?

 

[Rexorn]

-force-d3d9 seemed to have no effect. The game still crashed with d3d11 messages.
I did second uninstall/reinstall and it failed again.

I did third uninstall but only reinstalled the base game not the 3 DLC (Flashpoint, Urban Warfare, Heavy Metal) as the base version worked very well from June until I bought/installed the DLC in November. Problems had not started until I think January. A long shot but I tried.

Even without the DLC installed the game still failed.

I created a new account on this PC. Rebooted & logged in as the new user. Battle tech still failed in round 1.

Strangely my new account can see my HKEY_USERS -1001 entry but the original Admin account cannot see the -1002 entry for the new account. If I do another uninstall I will likely have to switch through both accounts to fully delete registry entries. I am pretty sure the current_user is only tied to one hkey_users entry at a time.

 

[AndrewT]

I am sorry then, I don't have anything else to try with the game.

Please try these Windows repair tools - desperate I know!

.NET

Microsoft .NET Framework Repair Tool is available - Microsoft Support

Describes the .NET Framework Repair Tool and how to obtain it.

support.microsoft.com

SCANNOW:

Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files - Microsoft Support

Describes how to use the System File Checker tool to troubleshoot missing or corrupted system files in Windows.

support.microsoft.com

 

[Rexorn]

Windows SFC found no errors during my scan before I opened the ticket. A new scan today 2023-04-30 also found no errors.

The Dot Net tool only supports up to version 4.8. My win10 box shipped with 6.0.7 installed and that was the version I used until today. I could not find a newer version of the fix tool so I got the newest DotNet 6.0.16 version and let the package uninstall 6.0.7 during the new install process.

Still crashing.

It was fun for half a year and some change but, I think I am doomed.....

Just curious, is your PC running Win7, 8, or 10?

TY very much for taking the time to try to help a fellow gamer.
Best wishes to you!

 

[AndrewT]

I have MacOS 13.3.1 and Windows 10 on my desk here, but I don't play this game on either machine I'm afraid.

 

[Rexorn]

TY, handy to have someone with a breadth of OS experience helping others!

I found a friend with a new win10 box. He could install BattleTech and it ran fine. Looks like it's my box only. Good for the world, bad for me. He's got an NVidia card not an AMD. I'll keep submitting AMD crash reports and updating drivers with each patch. Maybe they broke something and it'll get fixed some day.

Or maybe it's just my box.

GL and be well.

 

[AndrewT]

If it's been a while since you last installed Win10, maybe it's time to consider a Reset or even wipe and reinstall? It's all I got left, sorry!

 

[BTNomad]

UNIGINE Benchmarks

Performance benchmarks by Unigine

benchmark.unigine.com

Grab this and run it. If you see any errors, it freezes or studders it could be anything from power to a driver issue. You can also check your windows event logs.

 

[Rexorn]

Unigine Benchmark ran fine. No crashing.

I set the resolution to 1600x900 enough higher than 1280x720 we had BattleTech set to during the vsync attempts outlined above to put a load on the video card.

FPS stayed in the 90-140 range except during scene changes when it dipped lower. GPU was running at 98-100% utilization throughout.

No exceptions noted in the reliability monitor. Although, I would not expect a unityplayer.dll protection exception as this does not seem to use the unity engine.

Also only BattleTech is crashing. Other games are running fine: Star Trek Online, Elder Scrolls Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online, MW5, GuildWars2, Master of Orion, and Solasta. Some of those are older games, some are a little bit newer. At least one of these should show an issue if it was hardware.


Nice video scene on the benchmark tool

 

[AndrewT]

Also only BattleTech is crashing. Other games are running fine: Star Trek Online, Elder Scrolls Skyrim, Elder Scrolls Online, MW5, GuildWars2, Master of Orion, and Solasta. Some of those are older games, some are a little bit newer. At least one of these should show an issue if it was hardware.

You'd think so, wouldn't you! But OTOH if it is a BattleTech or Unity bug, why don't all other players get it?

Are any of those Unity games?

 

[Rexorn]

This is NOT a failing hardware issue.

I've had failing power supplies on other PCs. It may start intermittently but it never restricts itself to one piece of software unless it's the only thing your running. Ditto other failing hardware types. RAM tests good. HDD no bad sectors. SSD no bad sectors. CPU gets heavy use on other games and apps.

If I codec convert a video I can keep the CPU at 99+% usage for over an hour. While playing other games!

After four months, I would be seeing hardware induced crashes in at least one other program!


THIS IS a software issue.

I agree, no one could play if it was purely internal to BattleTech. Heck, BattleTech worked for me for months in 2022.

Why is this not affecting everyone??
BattleTech/Unity collided with a change to CITRIX. Limited user impact there too.

BattleTech/Unity is colliding with something on my box. Something many other current players either do not have or have a different version of.


I found someone with Win10 and the latest patches, he can play BattleTech. Scratch Win10 with the most recent Win10 patches from the suspect list.
My friend has a NVIDIA card so it could still be an AMD driver issue, possibly only affecting a limited range of models.

Also, I tried disabling Win Defender that is bundled with Win10 because AV software can get picky about some software calls. No fix.


I have four other Unity games installed: Solasta & MoO listed last post plus Deserts of Kharak and The Witcher. All have their own versions of Unity installed, each with a differing file size so most likely different versions. Especially those using UnityEngine vs UnityPlayer.


Solasta UnityPlayer.dll 24.9MB signed timestamp 2022-03-11
BattleTech UnityPlayer.dll 21.8MB signed timestamp 2019-06-05 **
Master of Orion UnityEngine.dll 827kb no digital signature
Deserts of Kharak UnityEngine.dll 828kb no digital signature
The Witcher Enhanced Ed UnityEngine.dll 464kb no digital signature **

Solasta, MoO, and Deserts ran fine today.


I had not tried playing The Witcher for some months. It crashed after playing about 4 minutes from my old save also with a c0000005 protection exception!!! The error was not in the dll but the core witcher.exe file but we have some similarities.


This could be a false lead or the collision only affects certain versions of Unity, running with certain versions of whatever I have, possibly only in a Win10 environment.

 

[AndrewT]

Please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here please.

Speccy - Free Download

Download Speccy - the System Information tool

www.ccleaner.com

 

[Rexorn]

Using BattleTech in windowed mode I was able to get a SpecCy dump about two minutes after the game crashed. There was the usual brief fade to black of both monitors then the screens recovered except for the BattleTech window which was it's usual blank self. I had to wait for the screen and mouse to respond to save the output.

TY

 

[Nikolai II]

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
The game will crash during campaign character creation (once) or during initial tutorial mission between before round 10.

Sometimes the system will recover enough to allow me to reboot. Usually the last set of sounds will continue to play on a black screen with no system response. After a five minute pause I would power cycle the PC.

I dearly enjoyed playing this game and would like to resume doing so. Any advice would be appreciated.

Have you tried verifying your files?
Yes

Steps to reproduce the issue
Start game, complete character creation. Start first battle. Game will freeze before turn 10.

You seem to be experienced with Battletech and have had other problems already, but I still feel compelled to ask "have you tried skipping the tutorial" (since there has been other threads here saying the tutorial is now borked on newer computers).

 

[AndrewT]

The AMD GPU is a little warm at 60c, but nowhere near 80c where such problems usually start. Any chance you can see its temps in the game before the crash happens?

Make sure Spybot is not doing any realtime scans of folders that the game is using.

In Speccy you can see a whole bunch of Failed or 'In Progress' Windows patches, going back to 2020. But if this game ran in 2022 I guess they are unlikely to be the problem here.

One last idea - try disabling all Startup apps and utilities you can, then reboot and test the game again. Any different?

 

[Rexorn]

Thank you for your patience.

I had free version of SpyBot. Only the premium version has real-time functions. However, both versions register as AV with Windows hence the odd listing of two active AV programs. Very much worth asking, two AV programs running has crippled many a PC.

I uninstalled SpyBot just in case. Sadly SpyBot is still showing as an "active and up to date" antivirus product. BattleTech isn't the only software set with messy uninstalls


I took a look at the failed patches. Most were listed as canceled. I know on the 5/14 set Windows automatically canceled updates part way through to restart and apply a cumulative patch. The "canceled" patches were then downloaded and applied after the restart. You can see them in the installed list as well as the not-installed list. I saw the same pattern in the 2022-05-11 list but obviously I can't remember if there was a restart.


I deactivated all the StartUP aps as well as the firewall service and used the Win Defender security panel to exempt BattleTech, UnityPlayer, and just in case the entire BattleTech folder. Rebooted, then used the panel to temp-disable Defender. Still crashed.

I disabled all the non-Microsoft services, rebooted then re-temp disabled Defender. Still crashed.


I found a copy of the AMD drivers from Oct 2020. I might try a clean driver uninstall & load the 2020 version. Not was I was using when I first played the game but all I could find.....

Failing that I have a donor box with a compatible HDD. A fresh install of windows would leave my box down for too long just to fix a game, but with a spare HDD I can bios switch and try it without loosing access to the box full time.

Wish me luck

 

[AndrewT]

Very much worth asking, two AV programs running has crippled many a PC.

My record is a customer with 5 separate AV apps ... !

I uninstalled SpyBot just in case. Sadly SpyBot is still showing as an "active and up to date" antivirus product.

AV apps are deliberately made hard to uninstall completely, as that is what some malware tries to do. You can use the free utilities Revo Uninstaller and Ccleaner to make sure it is 100% gone.

Wish me luck

I do!