[Win 10] Game crashes to desktop after a random amount of time on the campaign map

[Stinkeschlumpf]

The game crashes after a random amount of time (10 - 20 min ish) on the campaign map. There is no specific event that causes it (the crash also occurs if I leave the game paused on the start date). I own eu4 on epic games without any dlc and on steam with all dlc. It is hard to trouble shoot because when I test whether the game works I can never know if it just hasn't crashed yet. The epic game version works fine (played whole campaigns without crashes), and the steam version seems to work fine as well with dlc disabled. I have tried to test what specific dlc might be causing the crashes and while testing crashes only occurred when the unit packs where enabled. I'm pretty sure the steam version with all dlc enabled used to work a couple months ago, but I don't know the specific patch on which the first crashes happened. The only error message I get is a warning that my vram isn't big enough. I get that because my laptop doesn't have a graphics card and my processors graphics chip uses mostly shared memory which the game seemingly doesn't detect when checking for how much vram I have. The error message pops up when i start the game though and not when it crashes.

I have tried a fresh reinstall as instructed, but it didn't fix it.

 

[Stinkeschlumpf]

The event viewer errors are not from the same crash which is in the logs. They are from a later crash that looked identical (as in as described above).

 

[Stinkeschlumpf]

Quick update: The game crashed again. This time I had all unit pack dlc disabled. I had all dlc enabled when I created the safegame though.

 

[AndrewT]

FYI this game is not supported on any Intel video hardware. That may or may not be related to your problem, but you should update its driver; try Acer support first, failing that Intel https://downloadcenter.intel.com/

Then Right click on eu4.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.

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


Is that any better? If not, Please report the temperatures of your CPU and video (GPU)
1/ before starting the game up and
2/ after say 10 minutes' play.
If your PC's vendor has given you no way of reading temperatures, install
SPEEDFAN http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php

 

[Stinkeschlumpf]

I tried updating my drivers by using the device manager, which didn't work, because it couldn't find a newer version of my driver online. Then I used the Intel download center to download and clean install the newest driver for my graphics chip. The installation was seemingly successful because everything including games works, except it completely broke the steam version of eu4 haha (the epic game version still works fine). Instead of a crash I now get a flimmering black screen while the game is open. I can however alt tab and close the game as well as klick things in the game menu (that I'm not able to see but hear). I can bypass the blackscreen by starting the game in windowed mode.

I had fullscreen optimisations already disabled, and I can't find vsync and refresh rate options in the launcher.

I also cleaned my cpu cooler which was dusty. My cpu is at ~30°C on my desktop, 50°C in the game menu and while letting the game run on speed 5 for 10 min it was at a stable temperature with all cores between 50°C and 70°C. That is a normal temperature while running games on my system. My laptop is pretty thin so cooling will never be great, but I did not run into any cooling issues with other games yet.

I have not experienced any crashes after installing the newer driver (I only had the game open for 10 min to check my cpu temperature), will do further testing later today. Thank you for the Help

 

[Stinkeschlumpf]

I tried playing eu4 today and the game crashed again in exactly the same way it did before updating my drivers. The epic games version now crashes too.

 

[AndrewT]

Have you re-done the other settings changes I mentioned above? They may need to be done again after each game patch.

If so can I get the temperature data I requested please?

 

[Stinkeschlumpf]

I did, report the temperatures above. They were:

30°C before launch
50°C in menu
stable 50°C-70°C in all cores while running the game at speed 5 for 10 min

Also I think I have identified the issue. My graphics chips driver is what is causing the crashes as you suggested. The problem is that it automatically gets set back to the old version every time I try to update it. I followed instructions from Intel on how to manually clean install their drivers which were the following:

1. Download the installer for the new driver
2. disconnect from internet
3. keep deleting old drivers until it doesn't say intel iris xe graphics in device manager + tick the box in the delete dialogue
4. restart pc
5. check that no new driver was installed
6. install new driver
7. restart again

I got the instructions from here: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000057389/graphics.html

I must be doing something wrong.

EDIT:
This is not uncommon apparently https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000056993/graphics.html
I was able to get the newer driver by rolling the one it resets to back in the device manager. Deinstalling the older driver is what causes windows to reinstall it and use it over the new one.

 

[AndrewT]

That newer driver did fix your crashing, are you saying? If so, great!

 

[Stinkeschlumpf]

Yes it fixed it, thanks for the help!