Victoria 3 shuts my computer down

[Bismark776]

Victoria 3 causes my entire computer to shut down unexpectedly. This is the only game or program that I experience this issue with. I've been monitoring the CPU temp and the issue isn't happening at high temps, typically it's in the neighborhood of 70 degrees. It isn't a power issue either, I'm running a desktop with plenty of spare power available from the PSU. Based on an older thread I tried disabling fullscreen optimisations, turning off Vsync, and locking framerate to 60. This has not solved the issue.

Based on paradox employee requests in the prior thread I have attached: DxDiag.txt, system.log, error.log, and pdx_settings.json.

 

[monicaida25]

I have a savegame where the problem occurs, it's version 1.8.5 and I'm playing with Spain.

In this game I tried to change country to see some features of other European powers and compare, when I tried to select Austria, the computer suddenly shut down, then I turned it back on and entered the game, I tried to change to Austria again and everything was fine, then I tried to select Prussia, and the computer shuts down, I turn it back on, I reload the game, this time I focus on Prussia and Austria, I try to zoom in and out to see if it's a GPU problem or something, everything seems to be fine, I try to change the game country to Prussia and everything is fine, I try again with Austria and everything is fine, now I try again with Prussia, and the computer shuts down.

In this game, the problem seems to be when I try to change to another country, although I don't know if that's it, or just some power problem when I try to select another country.

I can pass the savegame if any developer wants to check it out.

 

[Skitzo Sam]

Same issue here, hard shutdown of my pc like ive had a power cut then fails to boot a couple of times. i9-9900k with 3080 and an 850 new psu temps are all fine

 

[AndrewT]

Victoria 3 causes my entire computer to shut down unexpectedly. This is the only game or program that I experience this issue with. I've been monitoring the CPU temp and the issue isn't happening at high temps, typically it's in the neighborhood of 70 degrees. It isn't a power issue either, I'm running a desktop with plenty of spare power available from the PSU. Based on an older thread I tried disabling fullscreen optimisations, turning off Vsync, and locking framerate to 60. This has not solved the issue.

Based on paradox employee requests in the prior thread I have attached: DxDiag.txt, system.log, error.log, and pdx_settings.json.

Actually 70c is starting to get up there - it never ever gets to 80c or over?

Has this always happened since you've had the game? Or it was okay up to some point?

Do these leave entries in your Windows Event Viewer?

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.

 

[AndrewT]

I have a savegame where the problem occurs, it's version 1.8.5 and I'm playing with Spain.

In this game I tried to change country to see some features of other European powers and compare, when I tried to select Austria, the computer suddenly shut down, then I turned it back on and entered the game, I tried to change to Austria again and everything was fine, then I tried to select Prussia, and the computer shuts down, I turn it back on, I reload the game, this time I focus on Prussia and Austria, I try to zoom in and out to see if it's a GPU problem or something, everything seems to be fine, I try to change the game country to Prussia and everything is fine, I try again with Austria and everything is fine, now I try again with Prussia, and the computer shuts down.

In this game, the problem seems to be when I try to change to another country, although I don't know if that's it, or just some power problem when I try to select another country.

I can pass the savegame if any developer wants to check it out.

If this reliably happens with that one save game, I guess it is a game bug although I've not heard of one being able to down the whole PC before! Please make a new thread in Bug Reports and attach it there, thanks.

 

[Bismark776]

Actually 70c is starting to get up there - it never ever gets to 80c or over?

Has this always happened since you've had the game? Or it was okay up to some point?

Do these leave entries in your Windows Event Viewer?

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.

Odd, I thought I had already attached my dxdiag file. Its attached now.

This is a recent problem. It didn't come up when I first bought V3 and played it a fair bit but I haven't played since July of last year. I just went to give it another go and experienced this issue while figuring out changes to the game since my last playthrough.

As for the temps, my understanding is that 70-80 is pretty normal for "heavy load". Regardless, I know it's not hitting auto-shutdown temps.

I am also not having the same issues at the other repliers. This isn't related to a specific save game, in fact it happened multiple times before I even reached a first auto-save. I also didn't do any tag switching.

 

[AndrewT]

Do these leave entries in your Windows Event Viewer?

IF dxdiag.txt fails to attach here, rename it to dxdiag.log , or zip it up.

 

[jpd]

Odd, I thought I had already attached my dxdiag file. Its attached now.

This is a recent problem. It didn't come up when I first bought V3 and played it a fair bit but I haven't played since July of last year. I just went to give it another go and experienced this issue while figuring out changes to the game since my last playthrough.

As for the temps, my understanding is that 70-80 is pretty normal for "heavy load". Regardless, I know it's not hitting auto-shutdown temps.

I am also not having the same issues at the other repliers. This isn't related to a specific save game, in fact it happened multiple times before I even reached a first auto-save. I also didn't do any tag switching.

It may be that your PSU can't cope with what's demanded of it, and shuts down before it suffers permanent damage.

What exactly do you have installed as internal components (CPU, GPU, RAM, drives, etc), and what make and model PSU do you have?

 

[Bismark776]

It may be that your PSU can't cope with what's demanded of it, and shuts down before it suffers permanent damage.

What exactly do you have installed as internal components (CPU, GPU, RAM, drives, etc), and what make and model PSU do you have?

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600X (65 Watts)
• GPU: AMD Radeon RX 7600 (165 Watts)
• SSD: Samsung SSD EVO 860 (2 Watts)
• HDD: Seagate BarraCuda 7200 (13 Watts)
• RAM: TEAMGROUP Elite DDR4 32 GB(16x2) (unsure exact Wattage, let's call it 12 Watts)
• Approximate Subtotal: 257 Watts

• PSU: GAMEMAX 750W GM-800

So unless my system is ramping up to triple its listed power consumption, I don't think power is the issue.

Edit: Adding dxdiag but renaming to .log as per earlier instructions. How do I know if the shutdowns leave entries in my windows event viewer?

 

[AndrewT]

How do I know if the shutdowns leave entries in my windows event viewer?

You look in it at the minute or two before that shutdown occurred. Any ERROR or WARNING entries at that time?

 

[Bismark776]

You look in it at the minute or two before that shutdown occurred. Any ERROR or WARNING entries at that time?

Can you give me some more direction, I've never used the event viewer before.

 

[monicaida25]

If this reliably happens with that one save game, I guess it is a game bug although I've not heard of one being able to down the whole PC before! Please make a new thread in Bug Reports and attach it there, thanks.

It doesn't only happen in this savegame, in the last update it happened a lot, so now I'm on Beta 1.8.5 which seems to cause less of this problem, but I've had this problem since the last update of Pivot of the empire.

The computer suddenly shuts down without warning, there's no overheating warning, there's nothing... it just shuts down as if the power went out, and this ONLY happens when playing Victoria 3.

I'm not the only one, I posted a post on steam discussions with this problem, and there are really many people reporting the same problem.

 

[AndrewT]

Can you give me some more direction, I've never used the event viewer before.

Click on Custom View in the left column, then Administrative Events there. After a while they'll be listed in the main window of the app. Scroll down to the timestamp of the latest computer shutdown due to this game, and look for ERROR and WARNING entries just before that time. You can ignore any that say DistributedCOM in the "source" column, they are normal and not a concern. We'd be looking for any that call out any software or hardware modules.

 

[AndrewT]

It doesn't only happen in this savegame, in the last update it happened a lot, so now I'm on Beta 1.8.5 which seems to cause less of this problem, but I've had this problem since the last update of Pivot of the empire.

The computer suddenly shuts down without warning, there's no overheating warning, there's nothing... it just shuts down as if the power went out, and this ONLY happens when playing Victoria 3.

I'm not the only one, I posted a post on steam discussions with this problem, and there are really many people reporting the same problem.

Well, if the save you mention reliably triggers this for you, that would be a great resource while looking into this! Are you able to see if that save causes the problem on other machines? Or you could attach it here for others to try.

 

[Milanor]

It doesn't only happen in this savegame, in the last update it happened a lot, so now I'm on Beta 1.8.5 which seems to cause less of this problem, but I've had this problem since the last update of Pivot of the empire.

The computer suddenly shuts down without warning, there's no overheating warning, there's nothing... it just shuts down as if the power went out, and this ONLY happens when playing Victoria 3.

I'm not the only one, I posted a post on steam discussions with this problem, and there are really many people reporting the same problem.

Same thing is happening to me , I have 543 hours on victoria 3 on steam but now my pc shutdowns when I try to play ( It shut downs after starting a game and some time happens, it doesn't crash at the menu or something like that)

 

[monicaida25]

I'm happy to attach my save here, just tell me how to do it, where are the saves?

I have a laptop that can run Victoria 3 with a bit of difficulty, I can try it on that one too, but I'm afraid of damaging it, it's my work laptop

 

[PDX_Sosanna]

Just to avoid some misunderstandings - there is nothing on game side that could cause a full system shutdown, it's always a hardware or OS (as in the case of recent Windows 11 problems) issue.
If there are no overheating/RAM stability/PSU stability issues, the process will simply get killed by the respective function, initiating a classic crash to desktop. If there is a full shutdown without BSOD, it's likely something wonky with the power supply or GPU/CPU temps.

 

[monicaida25]

Just to avoid some misunderstandings - there is nothing on game side that could cause a full system shutdown, it's always a hardware or OS (as in the case of recent Windows 11 problems) issue.
If there are no overheating/RAM stability/PSU stability issues, the process will simply get killed by the respective function, initiating a classic crash to desktop. If there is a full shutdown without BSOD, it's likely something wonky with the power supply or GPU/CPU temps.

That sounds reasonable, but this problem ONLY occurs when playing Victoria 3, I even did a test putting the processor and video card under a lot of stress for a long time and I had no problems.

I can assume that the problem could be that for some reason, the game makes a peak demand to a hardware and this could be higher than what my power supply can supply, but I repeat that it only occurs with Victoria 3, and there are many people who have the same problem on the steam forums.

 

[AndrewT]

I'm happy to attach my save here, just tell me how to do it, where are the saves?

Local saves are in Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/save games/

Cloud saves are visible at https://store.steampowered.com/account/remotestorage

To attach here just drag and drop them onto a post you are making. But if they are too large for this forum software ( over 30mg I think) you'll need to zip them first.

 

[jpd]

That sounds reasonable, but this problem ONLY occurs when playing Victoria 3, I even did a test putting the processor and video card under a lot of stress for a long time and I had no problems.

I can assume that the problem could be that for some reason, the game makes a peak demand to a hardware and this could be higher than what my power supply can supply, but I repeat that it only occurs with Victoria 3, and there are many people who have the same problem on the steam forums.

Well, vic 3 relies quite heavily on the AVX CPU extensions. Which is why you need a reasonably recent CPU to even be able to start it. Not a lot of other software, for this very same reason, makes use of AVX. Maybe AVX is stressing out your CPU a bit too much.