Surviving Mars - System Powers Off

[novagenesis]

Description
System Powers Off


Windows


Steam

What is your game version?
228,184

Please explain your issue is in as much detail as possible.
In the first 1-2 hours of play, my computer suddenly shuts down.

As it initially seemed like an overheat, I ran other tests that make it appear Surviving Mars-Specific. I'll treat their outcome as symptoms.

1. I have downclocked the CPU, and it slows the onset slightly. I clocked it back to 100% and buried the needle playing Skyrim (for the 100% GPU) while running a docker cluster in the background (silly/easy way to 100% CPU) without the shutdown.

2. When the system powers down, my CPU is running at 70-85C and my GPU at 65-75C. Without running the game, my system maintains indefinitely if I push it to 5-10C higher on both sides.

3. To test #2, I maintain 100% CPU+GPU using other games, plus third-party apps. I *cannot* replicate the power-down in those circumstances. It runs for hours without complaint.

4. I set temperature alarms at 90C. In all cases, they never fire while playing/crashing Surviving Mars. I have triggered them a few times in my other stress tests (with no power-offs)

I'm playing on low-to-medium settings on a Lenovo P50 with:
CPU: Xeon E3-1505M v5 @ 2.80GHz -> underclocked to 75% now
GPU: Quadro M2000M

Can you replicate the issue?
Yes, by playing Surviving Mars for an hour or two.

Attachments

 

[novagenesis]

Since it took me significantly more than the refund window on Steam to troubleshoot and trace this issue down to *only* Surviving Mars, I'm well past any refund window and have an unplayable game. Really frustrated/disappointed by that fact. It's fun, but the low-rate of autosaves combined with the repeated shutdowns make it basically useless to me right now.

 

[novagenesis]

Since nobody has gotten back to me directly, I'm updating for future users who might have this issue.

I was able to dial in on making the crash-out happen as low as 60C, and parallel running it for hours at 80C. Then by coincidence, I made one change that made the issue go away.

See, it seemed like it didn't matter, but I did all this on my Lenovo docking station with an external HDMI monitor. I don't know what kinda wonky code between the docking station interface and paradox's use of creative 3d could have caused it, but the moment I ran it undocked, I was able to actually play through a game of Surviving Mars. I upped the CPU again, let it run warm, and it never shut down for 6 hours of play. I actually got to see the mid- and late-game.

Maybe it's a very specific hardware issue, but it seems that since Paradox tech-support is too busy to help, I could have this one possible solution sitting out there. Hopefully it'll save someone else from the headaches I had.