Game crashing on the first of every month.

[Arkanth]

Hi, I had the game for a while on my steam library but hadn't tried it yet, so last week I decided to give it a go. At first evertything worked smoothly, no problems at all, but as the galaxy started to get revealed and other empires show up, I started getting crashes, few initially but it eventually got to a point where it basically crashed every few seconds. After looking at it, I realized it happens on the first of every month, unless I'm looking at a spot with nothing on it (nebula at the center of the galaxy for example).

I initially thought it might be cloud-saves or something like that, so I turned that off, but nothing. Turned to overlays, turning off discord, nvidia and steam overlays. Still crashing.
Then I tried to check perfomance, set everything to low, window mode and lowered resolution, closed all other apps, including browser, even deactivated animations on steam library and profiles but still happening, so I'm at a loss here on what to do. Already tried to verify files, and reinstall game.

I'm playing vanilla game, no mods, no DLCs. As mentioned, window mode, 1920x1080 resolution.
The game is a fairly small, basic one, with small galaxy with few empires as I was just trying it out.

Setup is: i7-14700KF 3.40 GHz, RTX 4070, 64GB RAM. Perfomance should not really be an issue.

If anyone knows what could be happening and how to fix it, I would be really greatful.

PS: Logs from last two crashes attached.

 

[AndrewT]

Right-click on stellaris.exe, properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullscreen optimizations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply, and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select the fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, refresh rate 60.


If that doesn't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here. IF dxdiag.txt fails to attach here, rename it to dxdiag.log , or zip it up. Thanks.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log

 

[Arkanth]

Hello, thanks for replying. The changes going back to fullscreen and turning off Vsync seem to increase the rate of crashing, sometimes it doesn't even load the game.

As for the files mentioned, I attach a few crash logs, though pdx_settings.txt is not generated for some reason.

 

[AndrewT]

Assuming you are run this game from your Steam lLibrary and so are seeing our launcher, pdx_settings.txt really ought to be there. settings.txt will be too.

We see several unrelated crashes in this game in that dxdiag. That tends to point to something outside the game.

You only mention one particular galaxy here; if you start a new test one does this happen there too?

What antivirus do you use? Make sure stellaris.exe is in all its exceptions lists.

Are you seeing fps opver 60 in the game?

 

[Arkanth]

I indeed launch from Steam and go through the launcher, but can't find pdx_settings.txt. Settings.txt is there though.

I also thought about the problem being external, but the computer is quite new (November) and I can't find any problems with it either, I've been troubleshooting this past few days with OCCT and no problems found anywhere. Is there any particular process being run on the first on every month in-game? That could give me some clues about where to look specifically.

I've tried with a new galaxy and early game is fine, but late game starts crashing again.

I don't run a dedicated antivirus, just windows defender, and Stellaris appears as an exception.

And yes, I'm seeing around 300 FPS in-game both with locked 60 FPS refresh rate or not, which I guess shouldn't happen?

 

[AndrewT]

I indeed launch from Steam and go through the launcher, but can't find pdx_settings.txt. Settings.txt is there though.

I cannot account for that, I don;'t think I've ever seen a situation where the launcher fails to create that file. Indeed I believe it would error or crash if it coldn't! Do you mind if I see a screenshot of the Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris folder, and of the launcher in use with this game? thanks!

And yes, I'm seeing around 300 FPS in-game both with locked 60 FPS refresh rate or not, which I guess shouldn't happen?

You are correct, and that is a very likely source of your problem. Looking at the settings.txt files you sent in, you don't appear to have done this:

Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select the fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, refresh rate 60.

Please give that a try!

 

[Arkanth]

I cannot account for that, I don;'t think I've ever seen a situation where the launcher fails to create that file. Indeed I believe it would error or crash if it coldn't! Do you mind if I see a screenshot of the Documents/Paradox Interactive/Stellaris folder, and of the launcher in use with this game? thanks!

Oh, that's my bad. Given settings.txt and the error logs where generated inside each individual crash folder, I assumed pdx_settings was there too. I dind't realize it was on the root Stellaris folder.

You are correct, and that is a very likely source of your problem. Looking at the settings.txt files you sent in, you don't appear to have done this:

Please give that a try!

I tried at one point but it just seems to crash the game sooner. Steam FPS counter still showing around 300 FPS though, not sure why. I attach the last crash log, with refresh rate set to 60.

 

[AndrewT]

Did you do this as well?

Right-click on stellaris.exe, properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullscreen optimizations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply, and exit.

And, if GeForce Experience is running, unload it before starting the game, as I've seen it interfere with our settings in its attempt to 'optimise' the game.

 

[Arkanth]

As an update to this, it was apparently related to the whole intel voltage debacle. As someone mentioned on steam community in a similar thread, it seems the game has some process running that spikes the power demand on the first of every month and my cpu went insane drawing way more than was needed but not to a point where it would show anywhere else, causing the silent crashes.

After undervolting the CPU and limiting it, the game has taken a hit perfomance wise but does not seem to crash anymore.

 

[AndrewT]

Yes, I can believe that! Have you checked with Gigabyte for the updated bios that ought to help with this? When you get that, use the new Intel Default setting that should be in it.

And, Intel will be releasing updated microcode for those CPUs some time this month, which will come out in yet another bios update - keep an eye out for that!