Game locking up and apparently corrupting Windows

[caralampio]

Windows 7 Ultimate, SP1. 16 GB ram and 4 gb vram. Nvidia gtx 760. Driver 359.61. PSU corsair 650 tw. I have a handful of mods, none that greatly affect performance. I already tried playing with all of them removed though.

 

Here's my case> When the game came out, and 450 hours after that, I could play without a problem, save the occasional stutter. The game recommended high setting, but I discovered I could play on ultra without hindrance, 35-50 fps. Then about a week ago I started getting lockups. The game would freeze, but not the computer. I could CTRL/ALT/DEL out, find task manager and kill the game, although it took its time before it closed. I could have played hours without a problem, or minutes. Sometimes it was preceded by the game going mute, although I could still move and fire until a little more then it locked. However, usually the game is not totally frozen, if I wait a while it unlocks and I can continue playing, with good fps etc. although this leads to more lock ups seconds or minutes later. If I persist it can end in a total screen freeze.

 

The lock up usually isn't at any moment, it is at the moment of doing something like opening a container, the pip-boy, VATS, etc. Up to that moment the game is smooth and suddenly snap.

 

When and if I can get out of the game to Windows, this is sometimes still working just fine. Other times, Windows itself has become very sluggish, taking very long to open folders and files, respond to the mouse etc. If I try to restart Fallout 4, sometimes it does, others it crashes or freezes on launch.

 

After I have had these events, when I reboot Windows sometimes fails to boot. I get a message that Windows couldn't boot because of recent changes in hardware or software, or perhaps a faulty USB or hard disk. If I continue, it eventually boots but can take up to 20 minutes and is sluggish after that. If I reboot again, and don't play Fallout in the interim, then it seems to fix itself.

 

OK here the usual things come to mind, failing PSU, failing hard disk, hot video card, memory etc. I ran check disk and reported no errors. I also ran an utility called Crystal that checks the disk, no errors. I couldn't check the PSU directly, but I made tests with Furmark for a good while and nothing happened. The video card behaved too. temps fine. Mem test, all fine. I updated the driver to 361, but that was worse, I still had the lock ups and furthermore scratchy noise and stutters. Rolled back to 359. I had recently upgraded to .Net 4.6, thinking that could be it, I did windows restore to before upgrading it (to .Net 4.5.2). Incidentally, to a time when I still wasn't having this problem. The lockups continued. Tried starting a new character (to see if it was a bloated save file). No luck.

 

A tech I consulted said that all of this smacked of a corrupted Windows, and suggested repair or reinstall. I was about to do this when I decided to do one more test. I would not play Fallout, but would play a lot of other games to see if the problem repeats. In the last three days, I've been playing Skyrim, Oblivion, Fallout 3, Fallout New Vegas, Medieval 2 (believe or not M2 is a greater resources hog than later games), Empire total war, Rome 2 total war, Sid Meiers Civ 5. All games at maxed settings, and heavily modded. I have rebooted several times, I have downloaded stuff, navigated the internet, watched you tube etc. I HAVE NOT HAD A SINGLE PROBLEM. Nothing.

 

So I think I have pinpointed Fallout 4 as the cause of the problems. It still could be something with my system hardware or software, that can handle everything else except fallout, but I find that bit hard to swallow. And anyway, it would still be only Fallout 4 causing me problems.

 

I'm no expert, but I wonder might FO4 be doing something, trying an invalid access or corrupting a windows driver, to cause these problems? What do you suggest?

[roamwild]

A tech I consulted said that all of this smacked of a corrupted Windows, and suggested repair or reinstall.

I tend to agree, this is a good recommendation and might save you hours of headache.

 

Hardware issues can also cause strange and difficult to trace problems. I know that it is possible for a hardware, driver, or software/OS issue to only be exposed by a particular game when others seem to do fine. This, from my fairly shallow understanding, is due to the myriad ways that different software can make use of your system's resources. Memtest is best done with one stick at a time installed from what I have read. Most recommendations are to let it run for several hours at a time. Also research windows event logging and look there, and check for memory/debug dumps created from crashes/freezes. These can sometimes point to a particular driver (video, disk controller, who knows what). Realtime monitors are available to "keep an eye" on in-use system resources and may point out a problem that isn't recorded or easily pinpointed in other types of reports.

 

If your system does freeze or crash then system files can be corrupted by lost or bad/incomplete writes to the disk as I understand it.

 

If you want me to elaborate on any of this then ask but try to search for yourself (it seems that you will, I think I gave you enough info to go on if you want to diagnose further before trying to repair/reinstall your OS.)

 

Chkdsk is good but also try an sfc "system file check".

If you are comfortable / know how to work with your PC hardware try safely removing and then re-seating your RAM and add-in cards. RAM should snap in and the latches should close without being pressed in by extra fingers. Make sure connections are tight, re-seat HDD connectors. Basic stuff, maybe you've tried this, maybe it seems useless but strange things happen. Good luck, probably someone more knowledgeable can offer better advice.

[caralampio]

Thanks, I'll see about that.

[Kastergir]

You mention you did run memtest, it came back ok ? No RAM errors ?

Edited January 18, 2016 by Kastergir

[motormatt48]

Same here...Windows 10 had to do a backup start on my Bio`s because of this game......