Stellaris crashes to desktop on Autosaves, or crashes when constructing a building

[Trooper17]

No mods are involved, game is running pure vanilla.
I've attached a copy of the save file in question in case it is needed.
I don't have controlled folder access / ransomware protection turned on in windows security; I mention this because someone in a similar thread mentioned having this enabled was causing their issue.
I have verified the integrity of the game cache and all files were validated successfully.
Game is installed on a SSD.



Event Viewer shows the following Timestamped 5/5/2025 3:39pm:
Faulting application name: stellaris.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x6818710a
Faulting module name: stellaris.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x6818710a
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000001d9700a
Faulting process id: 0x4674
Faulting application start time: 0x01dbbded989bc163
Faulting application path: F:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Stellaris\stellaris.exe
Faulting module path: F:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Stellaris\stellaris.exe
Report Id: bc7f7ead-f19c-48ee-a4a1-2dc09d613af3
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:



Error.log shows the following:
[14:43:30][dlc.cpp:337]: Invalid supported_version in file: mod/ugc_1677991388.mod line: 9
[14:43:30][dlc.cpp:337]: Invalid supported_version in file: mod/ugc_1677991563.mod line: 9
[14:43:30][dlc.cpp:337]: Invalid supported_version in file: mod/ugc_687226658.mod line: 7
[14:43:30][dlc.cpp:2101]: Incorrect MOD descriptor: "mod/ugc_1181575896.mod"
[14:43:45][gamestate.cpp:2262]: Repaired savegame, cleared 101 invalid deposits!
[15:06:00][parser_util.h:46]: Failed to read key reference from database file: update_auto_culling_settings line: 1
[15:35:23][planet.cpp:10299]: Failed to add building of type 'Urban Dwellings' to planet 'Amandi IV' at common/scripted_effects/pre_ftl_scripted_effects.txt:1581 @ scripted effect set_pre_ftl_age_effect at file: events/first_contact_dlc_situation_events.txt line: 853: trigger_yes Exists
trigger_no Owner:
trigger_yes Is pre-FTL
trigger_yes Does NOT have YHive Mind! Authority
trigger_no One must be true
trigger_no Has the YMachine Age! flag
trigger_no Has the YIndustrial Age! flag
trigger_no Has the YAtomic Age! flag
trigger_no Has the YEarly Space Age! flag



My PC Setup if needed:
CPU: intel i9 14900k cpu with XMP disabled
CPU Cooling: Corsair AIO Liquid Cooling
Motherboard: ASUS TUF GAMING Z790-PLUS WIFI
Corsair CMH64GX5M2B6400C32 32gb x2 memory sticks
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Graphics card
PSU: Corsair HX1200i 1000+Watt Platinum Cert
OS storage: Samsung 990 PRO SSD 2TB M.2 NVMe (+Various other secondary storage drives)
Case and cooling: Lian-Li 4x 120mm case fans, 3 front 1 back, (2 top attached to AIO liquid cpu cooler)



Any help on how to resolve this? It's extremely immersion breaking having the game crash every 15-30 or so minutes, losing bits of progress, and having to do some things over.

 

[Trooper17]

Crashed again, this time not during an auto save, I was attempting to construct a mining specialization building on one of my colonies; as soon as I clicked it, game crashed to desktop.

I've attached the latest stellaris error.log file for this crash, it's quite lengthy, so I won't paste it here.

Event Viewer error message for this crash; Timestamp 5:45pm today:

Faulting application name: stellaris.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x6818710a
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000014e8f190
Faulting process id: 0x5a44
Faulting application start time: 0x01dbbdfca5895ce3
Faulting application path: F:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Stellaris\stellaris.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: f8bf3ee6-fb47-4a39-9fc6-0f8a3b105a6c
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

 

[AndrewT]

Are these crashes repeatable from particular save files? Or when you reload you get past the previous crash point, perhaps only to crash later?

If the former, and there are mod mods involved and you started a new galaxy under the 4.x patches, it's probably a game bug; please post a new thread in Bug Reports and attach the affected save there.

 

[Trooper17]

Are these crashes repeatable from particular save files? Or when you reload you get past the previous crash point, perhaps only to crash later?

If the former, and there are mod mods involved and you started a new galaxy under the 4.x patches, it's probably a game bug; please post a new thread in Bug Reports and attach the affected save there.

I loaded the save file onto another PC, and it ran flawlessly, so the issue seems to be PC specific and not save file specific.

I started a new galaxy under the 4.x patches. There are no mods, I'm running vanilla only.

 

[AndrewT]

Interesting situation then! Quite odd in fact.

CPU: intel i9 14900k cpu

You may have the CPU/bios hardware issue discussed here:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ration-intel-processors.1591821/post-29305331
If you haven't updated your bios recently (say, the last month) please check for an updated bios. Then please implement the “Intel Default” option in it, if present.

 

[Trooper17]

Interesting situation then! Quite odd in fact.


You may have the CPU/bios hardware issue discussed here:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ration-intel-processors.1591821/post-29305331
If you haven't updated your bios recently (say, the last month) please check for an updated bios. Then please implement the “Intel Default” option in it, if present.

Thanks @AndrewT — I wanted to follow up and let you (and others who may be running into similar crashes) know what helped me stabilize my system.


After digging into this for weeks, I confirmed the issue was tied to my hardware—specifically, instability caused by the i9-14900K under light or fluctuating CPU loads (like what Stellaris generates). These crashes were always tied to 0xc0000005 (Access Violation) errors and not related to mods, save corruption, or file integrity.


What ended up working for me was adjusting CPU power limits and undervolting using ThrottleStop (though Intel XTU would also work). Here's what helped me:

• Applied a mild undervolt:
  • CPU Core offset voltage: –30 mV
  • CPU P and E Cache offset voltages: –20 mV
  • System Agent offset voltage: –7.8 mV
• Disabled C1E in my gaming profile (this alone helped Stellaris a lot)
• Set Speed shift EPP to 16 for gaming profile, 32+ for idle profile, and disabled speedstep
• Dropped the Max CPU Cache Ratio down to 42 from 50
• Disabled Thermal Velocity Boost (Some may want to also disable V-Max Stress)

Once I did this, Stellaris stopped crashing entirely. The issue seemed worsened by overly aggressive motherboard defaults (ASUS Z790, in my case), and is likely tied to the Vmin instability Intel recently acknowledged. I have been continuing to experience this instability despite have the latest bios flashed for my chipset, and having RMA'd my processor twice, thinking I had seen the last of these issues with my freshest processor.


For anyone else affected, it’s worth noting that Intel has recently released (as of two days ago) a new microcode update (0x12F) designed to further mitigate this issue—especially instability that builds up over long uptimes or during low-threaded workloads. BIOS updates including this microcode are expected from most motherboard vendors soon (ASRock has already started rolling theirs out). That may be a more permanent solution if the CPU hasn’t already degraded.

(Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-com...releases-0x12f-update-to-fix-vmin-instability )


Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.