Bug Report (Constant Crashing) -> Cause Found -> Workaround Found -> Up to Uber/Coherent/AMD to Fix

MSI Z68A-GD65
Intel Core i7 2600K
16GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 PC3-14900C9 Memory @ 1866Mhz
2x Sapphire AMD Radeon R9-290X Tri-X Graphics Cards @1010Mhz
Asus Xonar D2X Sound Card
Game Running from 4TB Western Digital Black Hard Drive
Windows 10 Pro x64

Latest AMD Beta Drivers: Catalyst 15.8beta
Previously Test Drivers: Catalyst 15.7.1 (Stable)

PA: Titan Build: Stable (log.zip)

First run was with crossfire enabled. Ran fine for about 5 minutes and then the UI failed. Couldn't interact with anything.

Second attempt to play. This time with Crossfire disabled through Catalyst Control Center. Ran fine for about 3 - 4 minutes and then the game hard crashed. Not CTD. Full hard crash. Couldn't get back to Desktop even with ctrl+alt+del. Just black screen. Forced to Hard reset computer.

EDIT: Just tested PTE build. Hard crash within one minute. Log added: (PA-2015-09-05_004528.txt)

* Clarification regarding what I mean by Hard Crash: To be precise. Game hard crashes. But the crash is so severe, that I can't alt-tab out and I can't ctrl-alt-del out. Alt-tab does nothing, and if I attempt to perform a ctrl-alt-del, I get a black screen. I can see and move my mouse, but nothing else. I'm eventually forced to perform a hard reset on the computer in order to get it working again.

Highlights from the crashes I've been looking at with ValhallaAshes (bignick277):

Code:

[23:54:35.891] INFO [COUI] PID: 10512 | 15092 22:54:35.563968 [10512:15092:ERROR:(0)] Onscreen context lost via ARB/EXT_robustness. Reset status = GL_UNKNOWN_CONTEXT_RESET_EXT
[23:54:35.891] INFO [COUI] PID: 10512 | 15092 22:54:35.563968 [10512:15092:ERROR:(0)]   GLES2DecoderImpl: Context lost during MakeCurrent.
[23:54:35.891] INFO [COUI] PID: 10512 | 15092 22:54:35.563968 [10512:15092:ERROR:(0)] Exiting GPU process because some drivers cannot reset a D3D device in the Chrome GPU process sandbox.
[23:54:36.625] ERROR [COUI/ContextError] GPUProcessCrash: GpuProcessCrashed
[23:54:40.688] INFO Crash uploaded, link developer to http://crashes.uberent.com/report/index/bp-530a024f-44d5-4264-bc15-eae792150904

Code:

[23:42:28.469] INFO [COUI] PID: 5600 | 17000 22:42:28.346750 [5600:17000:ERROR:(0)] Onscreen context lost via ARB/EXT_robustness. Reset status = GL_UNKNOWN_CONTEXT_RESET_EXT
[23:42:28.469] INFO [COUI] PID: 5600 | 17000 22:42:28.346750 [5600:17000:ERROR:(0)]   GLES2DecoderImpl: Context lost during MakeCurrent.
[23:42:28.469] INFO [COUI] PID: 5600 | 17000 22:42:28.346750 [5600:17000:ERROR:(0)] Exiting GPU process because some drivers cannot reset a D3D device in the Chrome GPU process sandbox.
[23:42:28.672] INFO [COUI] PID: 5600 | 13892 22:42:28.540965 [5600:13892:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(483)] GPU process crash detected!
[23:42:59.079] INFO Mouse constraint pushed: 0
[23:43:01.079] INFO Mouse constraint popped.
[23:43:02.610] INFO Mouse constraint pushed: 0
[23:43:06.875] INFO Mouse constraint popped.
[23:44:31.657] INFO [COUI] PID: 5600 | 17000 22:44:31.522906 [5600:17000:ERROR:(0)] Onscreen context lost via ARB/EXT_robustness. Reset status = GL_UNKNOWN_CONTEXT_RESET_EXT
[23:44:31.657] INFO [COUI] PID: 5600 | 17000 22:44:31.523406 [5600:17000:ERROR:(0)]   GLES2DecoderImpl: Context lost during MakeCurrent.
[23:44:31.657] INFO [COUI] PID: 5600 | 17000 22:44:31.523406 [5600:17000:ERROR:(0)] Exiting GPU process because some drivers cannot reset a D3D device in the Chrome GPU process sandbox.
[23:44:31.844] INFO [COUI] PID: 5600 | 13892 22:44:31.702084 [5600:13892:WARNING:gpu_process_host.cc(483)] GPU process crash detected!
[23:44:31.844] INFO [COUI] PID: 5600 | 13892 22:44:31.702084 [5600:13892:ERROR:gpu_process_host.cc(511)] GPU process crash limit reached! Rendering will stop on all hardware accelerated pages!

PTE

Code:

[00:47:00.312] INFO [COUI] PID: 9092 | 5540 23:47:00.238088 [9092:5540:ERROR:(0)] Onscreen context lost via ARB/EXT_robustness. Reset status = GL_UNKNOWN_CONTEXT_RESET_EXT
[00:47:00.312] INFO [COUI] PID: 9092 | 5540 23:47:00.238088 [9092:5540:ERROR:(0)]   GLES2DecoderImpl: Context lost during MakeCurrent.
[00:47:00.312] INFO [COUI] PID: 9092 | 5540 23:47:00.238088 [9092:5540:ERROR:(0)] Exiting GPU process because some drivers cannot reset a D3D device in the Chrome GPU process sandbox.
[00:47:00.000] ERROR [COUI/ContextError] GPUProcessCrash: GpuProcessCrashed

Did some more testing today. Decided to see if running the game in Windows 7 compatibility mode might make a difference, although I doubted it. Also tried executing the PA.exe file manually as well to see if there would be a difference. No difference, other than having to log in to playfab instead of autologging in through steam. Same issues with coherent UI crashes. These tests were also done with the stable version of PA:Titans.

PA-2015-09-05_131143.txt = executing bin_x64\PA.exe directly and loggin in through Playfab and playing a round. Crashed after about 5 minutes

PA-2015-09-05_131951.txt = This was only a test to confirm which executable the game was launching by default when executing game through steam. Checked via Task Manager. Confirmed x64 executable used by default.

PA-2015-09-05_132033.txt = Tested running the game with Windows 7 compatibility mode applied to bin_x64\PA.exe. Same result as first log highlighted above. UI crashed after about 4 or 5 minutes

Did some more testing today. I've spent the last couple days setting up a Windows 7 install to a USB drive to act as a secondary ad-hoc OS for games and apps that don't work properly in Windows 10. First tested game was PA:Titans.

For Notes and Testing conditions.

Same hardware except for running OS from USB hard drive. Game was run from same install path as Windows 10. I have my hard drives set up specifically so that my system can run multiple OS's, but games are all run from one central hard drive location (separate physical hard drive, which I've dedicated specifically for games). This is not only to maintain data continuity, but also prevent un-necessary data duplication which only serves to waste valuable hard drive space. So todays testing was done across 2 OS's, but the one central game data installation was used. To note, this game was installed via Steam while running Windows 10. Also, since this game is installed in a physical internal hard drive connected via SATA, any latency inherent to USB drives is rendered a non-issue due to only the OS being run from the USB drive.

PA:Titans Tested build: Stable
Same hardware and Drivers. Same driver package is used between Win7 and Win10 for AMD Drivers.
OS's Tested: Windows 10 Pro x64 and Windows 7 Ultimate x64 SP1

Differring variables between OS's: Firewall. Windows 10 has latest Kaspersky Total Security Suite installed. Couldn't install Kaspersky on Windows 7 as Kaspersky requires hard drive to be an internal local disk. As such it detected the hard drive was USB and refused to install. Comodo Internet Security Free was installed instead. I've accounted for and eliminated this variable as a possible cause between OS's by, during one of the 2 tests on Win10, I completely disabled and closed Kaspersky Total Security (No Kaspersky processes running).

Windows 7 Test was run with Crossfire enabled.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows 7 Test Result: Game worked perfectly. Ran it for a full test game. No Coherent UI crashes. No GPU crashes.

Windows 7 Test Log: PA-2015-09-09_154621.txt
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Windows 10 Test Results (Same Build, Same Drivers, Kaspersky Enabled): Same as reported earlier. Hard Crash after about 5 minutes.

Windows 10 Test 1 Log: PA-2015-09-09_163317.txt
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Windows 10 Second Test Results (Same Build, Same Drivers, Kaspersky Disabled and Closed/shutdown ie no processes running): Same as reported earlier. Coherent UI Crash after about 5 minutes.

Windows 10 Test 2 Log: PA-2015-09-09_164035.txt
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Testing for Crossfire enabled was only done on Windows 7 in this instance, because I've already tested this extensively in Windows 10 which you will see earlier in this thread. Game has same results regardless of crossfire state under Windows 10. Has no impact what-so-ever. Crossfire was disabled during todays testing on Windows 10. But was enabled on Windows 7. But this is a rather moot point. 1 due to this having already being tested extensively before. And 2, because if the game's not going to run properly on one GPU under Windows 10, then it's not going to work under 2 GPU's either.

This line of testing seems to have shown pretty definitively, that the issues I'm having with this game on my system, are not due to my hardware. Nor is it "necessarily" an issue with my drivers. But it is pretty definitive, that whatever is causing my issues with PA:Titans, it has something to do with Windows 10.

As requested by a user below, and I think it is a good point to request these and will add them here as well. The following are the DxDiags taken from each OS today and are relevant to these tests:

Win7 DxDiag.txt

Win10 DxDiag.txt

can you upload a DxDiag.txt from both win 7 and win 10..

Edit,,
I just want to see the difference in version of the video card drivers between the 2 versions of windows you have installed.

Double edit..
I only need the DxDiag.txt from the window 7 install if you haven't updated the video driver in windows 10 since your first post.

Will do... Give me 5 minutes

Just to cover all bases, I've done it for both OS's real quickly. Here they are.

Win7 DxDiag.txt

Win10 DxDiag.txt

Could we get these tests run with a single GPU in the system? We'd like to eliminate the possibility that this a multi-GPU issue.

PA-2015-09-04_235147.txt
PA-2015-09-05_131143.txt
PA-2015-09-05_131951.txt
PA-2015-09-05_132033.txt
PA-2015-09-09_163317.txt
PA-2015-09-09_164035.txt

All of the above listed Logs are Tests run with Crossfire Disabled. So only one GPU used. All were under Windows 10. The only windows 10 log I haven't included in that list, is the one with Crossfire enabled.

Would it be possible to actually remove the GPU just to make sure? There are cases where the GPU is disabled but will still have an affect, and we would like to remove that possibility to make absolutely certain that the issue is not related to that. This would help us narrow down the parameters required to get this bug to occur and thus speed up our bug fixing process.

Here's a BIG difference I noticed between the 2 DxDiag.txt's..
In windows 7 the system detects 4gb of video memory but in windows 10 it detects a total of 16gb of video memory!

@wyao, could this be part of the problem?

I don't know how this would affect this not do I know where dxdiag is getting that number from. Although I should point out that the parameter your quoting is the Display memory. Not the dedicated or shared memory. Where the dedicated memory is the actual total combined dedicated memory housed across both GFX cards, which would make sense. Not sure what exactly the shared memory is. As for the display memory, maybe DX12DXdiag is combining the the Dedicated and Shared values to get that value. But there are clear differences between the way Win10's DXdiag is reporting compared to Win7's. But all of this is higher level software that I simply just don't know much about. I'm more of a hardware guy.

Yes, I might as well do this. But if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it properly to eliminate any doubt. It's going to take a couple hours, but I'll have the logs posted within that time. Here's the process I will use.

*Screenshots will be provided as well.

First test will be: Crossfire disabled for game executable profile settings via Catalyst Control Center.

Second test will be: Blanket Crossfire disabled for everything via root level settings of Catalyst Control Center.

Third test will be: Uninstallation of full AMD driver suite -> Shutdown -> Removal of secondary GFX card -> Boot and Reinstall of full AMD driver suite.

This way I can cover all the variables. Give me a couple hours to complete this process.

That's fantastic and above what I expected, but the results should prove very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to do this!

@wyao

Well I'll be damned! It was the crossfire! But I didn't have to completely remove the graphics card to do it. I only got as far as step 2 before getting positive results. Until today, I had tested step 1 in the process highlighted above, but I had not ever tested step 2.

Game test scenario used was AI Skirmish. One AI. Set to idle (for testing purposes). One planet. Goal: Build as much as I can (structures and units) before game crashes.

Results:
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Test 1: Crossfire disabled via application profiles in Catalyst Control Center:



*Note: The reason this executable was chosen instead of the main one in the root is because in order for Catalyst Control Center to use profiles properly, you have to select the executable for the actual application running. Not a root executable that does nothing more than auto select which executable to run the game on. Which is the way PA is set up. Main executable reads the system and then executes the game executable appropriate to the system. Whether that's the 64bit executable or the 32bit executable. It also does some stuff related to steam as well, but it has nothing to do with the game actually running. This is why the bin64 executable was chosen instead of the root executable. Catalyst Control Center profiles only work on executables that are actually used for running the game.


*Note, in order to fully disable Crossfire for an application via a profile, you should disable both CrossfireX and Frame Pacing. Although my understanding is Frame Pacing relies on CrossfireX in order for it to work, because it's specifically for Crossfire. But just to ensure it doesn't have an effect and to ensure Crossfire is off as the CCC would make you think, I disable both for good measure.

Results: Same as highlighted previously. Coherent UI crash after about 5 minutes.

Log: PA-2015-09-10_170239.txt

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Test 2: Deleted PA:Titans profile in Catalyst Control Center. Fully blanket disabled Crossfire via Catalyst Control Center.



Result: Managed to play a full game. No GPU crashes. No Coherent UI crashes. Ran perfectly.

Log: PA-2015-09-10_171222.txt
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Due to results from test 2, followed this line of testing further instead of removing secondary graphics card. Needed to confirm results.

Test 3: Re-enabled Crossfire in Catalyst Control Center and recreated profile for PA.exe and disable Crossfire for the executable again in the profile via method highlighted in Test 1.

Result: Coherent UI crash after about 5 minutes.

Log: PA-2015-09-10_173901.txt
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Test 4: Deleted the profile in Catalyst Control Center again. Then again completely disabled Crossfire within Catalyst Control Center via method highlighted in Test 2.

Result: Again, Managed to play another full game. No GPU crashes. No Coherent UI crashes. Ran perfectly.

Log: PA-2015-09-10_174908.txt
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5th and Final Test: Played a second game. This time with 5 planets. Same idle AI. Same goal.

Result: Again, managed to play full game. No GPU crashes. No Coherent UI crashes. Ran perfectly. Even tested smashing planets and using Catalyst on metal planet. Not a single issue.

Log: PA-2015-09-10_182926.txt
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You were right. I can confirm beyond a doubt in my book, that Crossfire was causing the issue in Windows 10. Odd how Crossfire in PA works perfectly on Windows 7, but crashes constantly on Windows 10. That's as much information as I have at this point. I'm hoping this is enough information to make removing my secondary graphics card unnecessary, but it's your call at this point. I'd rather avoid the hassle if possible. So please let me know if you would still like me to remove my second graphics card for testing, or if this line of testing was sufficient to identify the source of the issue.

Does it do anything for the crashing if you also add the CoherentHost_UI.exe to the no-Crossfire profile? Or even just CoherentHost_UI.exe and no PA.exe?

Hmm, I don't know. But that's certainly something worth testing. Give me an hour and I'll test it.

Great to hear! Thanks for narrowing that down, and I look forward to seeing the result of your next test. It would help let us know who to contact about fixing this issue.

Nope, tested it and it seems to have no effect.

Test Scenario: Same as before. AI Skirmish. One AI on idle (for testing purposes). One planet. Goal: Build as much as I can (Both units and structures) before game crashes. Crossfire Enabled in Catalyst Control Center.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Test 1: Crossfire enabled. No profile set for Bin64\PA.exe (so default as far as CCC is concerned is Crossfire enabled). Profile added for Bin64\host\CoherentUI_Host.exe and disabled Crossfire

Result: Coherent UI crash after about 5 minutes.

Log: PA-2015-09-10_204845.txt
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Test 2: Crossfire enabled in CCC. Profile added for Bin64\PA.exe and disabled Crossfire. Crossfire still disabled for Bin64\host\CoherentUI_Host.exe via profile.

Result: Coherent UI crash after about 5 minutes

Log: PA-2015-09-10_205657.txt
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I was actually hopeful for that to work. Because then I would only need a permanent profile instead of having to remember to fully disable Crossfire every time I want to play the game. But hopefully you guys can fix this issue in a future update so I don't have to worry about it anymore. But as a temporary solution, it's bearable and easy enough to do.

In any case, it seems the Catalyst Control Center profiles are not performing the function they are supposed to be performing in Windows 10. I have used profiles extensively in Windows 7 over the years when the need arises and never really had an issue with them not working as expected.... Except for maybe with VSync settings in "some" games. But this is the first time I've seen the Crossfire settings via profiles not taking effect. Would probably be worth reporting this to AMD as well so they can fix their applied profile settings in Windows 10 to make sure custom application profiles work again in the new OS.

*EDIT: I've now reported the issue regarding Catalyst Control Center Profiles not taking effect to AMD's Driver issue report site. It would probably help if Uber reported AMD driver issues for PA and PA:Titans to AMD as well. It would help if you reported the Crossfire issues at the very least.

@wyao

Thank you for your help with this issue. Do you have any further thoughts on this issue? Will you be working to fix this in a future update?

At this point, we have to pass this on to Coherent and AMD to work out, as the issue lies in the interaction between how the Coherent UI interacts with AMD's Win 10 drivers. But thank you again for all your testing, it was very helpful and appreciated.