CTD in Combat When Blocking

[AH1]

Hello,

 

I'm having a very strange problem. My Skyrim game is running pretty smooth, with very little crashing issues. However, I have recently started to have one very troubling and serious issue which I'm having trouble figuring out--my game CTDs when taking a blocked strike in combat. This only happens to me the player, not NPCs, and it only happens when I receive a blow while blocking. I can block perfectly fine, I can attack fine, NPCs can block fine, but the moment I receive a hit while blocking--crash.

 

I have already tried several things to try and stop this. I updated FNIS (just in case), I rebuilt DSR (just in case), and then I reinstalled XPMS and reran FNIS and DSR. The last thing I did seemed to alleviate the crashing for a few hours. But today, when I logged in and started playing, the problem started again. Just to test, I also started a new game, and the problem persisted there as well.

 

The thing that is throwing me off is that this is a totally new game, with a very carefully selected and curated mods installed. I have not installed any major mods since beginning the game, and I played for about 4-8 hours without any problems. I have already run a memory block log, and it doesn't seem to be a memory block issue. SKSE and the Papyrus logs are also not giving me any useful information.

 

Given how specific and reproducible this crash is, I'm hoping with a few other minds on the case, we might be able to quickly figure it out. Please help.

 

System Specs:

Windows 10, 64-bit

AMD Phenom X8, 8 Core, 3.6ghz processor

ATI Radeon R9 280x, 3gb Vram

24 GB RAM

 

Mod List:

http://pastebin.com/hhvGCvKa

 

UPDATE (7/10): So, I did a SKSE minidump, and the problem being returned is a driver error XAudio2_6.dll, is apparently trying to "divide by zero". This seems to make sense, as blocking crashes when the blocking sound plays. I wonder if there is a problem somewhere in the game registering the sound. I checked my sound drivers, and they are all up to date. I also ran the updaters for DirectX 9 and 10, just to make sure, and they are also up to date. I just ran a brand new game, and the problem still occurs. So I'm not quite sure what is going on.

Edited July 10, 2016 by AH1

[Darkstyler35]

I found in this wiki :

Common causes of error xaudio2_6.dll :
DLL errors can occur for various reasons. One of the common causes is forcing or sharing the DLL file with an outdated version of a program through other applications. Another possibility would be incorrect installation or uninstalling a program...

Other links :

Tomshardware
Suport microsoft direct x troubleshoot

May be you could also post a request on harware specialized communities to have more chances.

[AH1]

Hello Darstyler,

 

Thank you for your response. I'm please to let you know that I have solved the issue. The xaudio2_6.dll was a clue, not the problem. Because it was an audio file registering the crash, I reasoned that an audio problem must be causing it, specifically some sound playing while blocking. I thought that perhaps an effect was causing a memory block issue, so I went back and ran my memory block tests again. While doing them, I did a shout, and crashed. The shout effect played fine, it was the the SHOUT sound that was the problem.

 

So, what did blocking and shouting have in common? Player Exclusive Voice Path. I did some digging. The sounds for shouting and recoiling (specifically stamina draining) are NOT tied to the player character, but issued by an invisible NPC quest trigger. PCEV replaces all the player-triggered sounds, but the author himself has admitted had not yet figured out how to fix the low stamina thing.

 

So, if anyone else experiences this problem, are you using a voice replacer? If so, that is probably the place to start.

[Darkstyler35]

Nice catch, glad your problem is solved.

[infinitywolf1]

28/7 . this topic was helpful