PA.exe has stopped working (Steam version) Details inside.

Discussion in 'Support!' started by Xemozu, September 20, 2015.

  1. Xemozu

    Xemozu New Member

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    Hey there. Since a long time ago I haven't been able to run PA from steam. Originally, I resorted to using the uber standalone version which worked perfectly. Now however I just bought Titans from steam. And I gave it another try.
    It just crashes right away. ALTHOUGH, If I go directly into the PA folder, and run pa.exe from there, it runs without any kind of problem.
    I would really like to be able to run the game from steam and be able to use the overlay/achievements. May I get some help on this? Here's a dxdiag and the log file.

    Attached Files:

  2. DeathByDenim

    DeathByDenim Post Master General

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    According to the log, PA crashes the moment it tries to access the GPU. Can you try disabling the Steam Overlay in Steam and see if that helps?

    Additionally, there is a list with common incompatible programs. Though it would be kind of weird if those distinguish between running PA stand-alone or through Steam. In any case, you might want to check it:
    http://steamcommunity.com/app/233250/discussions/2/558751813508748383/
  3. Xemozu

    Xemozu New Member

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    Steam overlay did nothing. I disabled firewall/Avira just to be sure and that did nothing too. Disabled F.lux which is the only thing that I have which does something to the screen and nothing happened either. I found this in that link you gave me: *amBX. Cause startup crash of Steam version.
    However I don't have said software installed. It's an instant crash, the game won't even open.
    I just want to make it work on steam somehow. Don't know what other information I can provide.

    Edit: After doing said stuff, the log changed somehow. Here's the most recent log. Notice that in one of the cases it loads some more things:
    The log where it gets the farthest, came after I added "--software-ui" to launch options. Admittedly I don't exactly know what that does, but I read it could help.

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: September 20, 2015
  4. DeathByDenim

    DeathByDenim Post Master General

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    Interesting. The parameter --software-ui turns off the hardware rendering of the UI, so everything is done using the slower software version. It can be useful in circumventing driver issues. I haven't actually seen any difference in speed myself when I use that flag though, so the effect is probably minimal on performance.

    So which one is the log where you use --software-ui? I'm guessing it's the one named PA-2015-09-20_182420.txt because that one is a log when launched from Steam while the other is from a session outside of Steam (and consequently working properly).

    In any case, it does get further than the first log you posted. It now crashes while trying to compile the shaders. The only time I've ever seen that happen is on Linux though, so probably not related... Weird. I'm not sure what Steam could be doing that interferes so badly with OpenGL that it's causing crashes. Turning off the Steam Overlay basically means that Steam should touch that stuff.

    Could you also try adding the option "--localstorageurl steam". That will create a new blank PA profile. So all PA graphic settings will be reset (but for Steam only). If it's a bad setting causing these crashes, then this should fix it.
  5. Xemozu

    Xemozu New Member

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    Oh wait, does it generate a log when I get to launch the game properly? In that case disregard that log.
    210822 is the log generated without software-ui
    211238 is the log generated WITH software-ui
    211632 is the log generated WITH software-ui and "--localstorageurl steam. Strangely enough it crashes again in the line "[21:16:32.814] INFO Starting async parallel for driver with 6 threads"

    Thanks a lot for your time mate : )

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  6. DeathByDenim

    DeathByDenim Post Master General

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    Sure and thanks for your patience. :)

    Well, something seems to be interfering with graphics drivers that only happens with Steam. Could you try doing a clean boot of Windows? That should get rid of any software running in the background that could interfere like this. Instructions are here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/929135/

    I'm slightly suspicious of f.lux, because if does a somewhat similar thing as amBX. Even though I know many people use that without any trouble with PA and you disabled it while running PA. You could try uninstalling it just to see if that has any effect.
    Xemozu likes this.
  7. Xemozu

    Xemozu New Member

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    Game launched perfectly with clean boot : D. (flux was running by the way, so you can mark that as safe)
    Now I just need to find out which service is interfering with steam somehow. Do you think you could help me on that?
    http://prntscr.com/8ip8zh
    http://prntscr.com/8ip917
    http://prntscr.com/8ip92z

    These are the services that were disabled. (Avira auto activated itself, but the game launched perfectly with it running, so that's not it.)

    Edit: OK I tinkered here and there some more and realized that the problem causer was the "Process monitor" service that is "necessary" for my ancient old quickcam to work. (It isn't).
    I don't know how the hell that interferes with steam, but somehow it does. So you can add that to the list of incompatible software.
    After a quick search on google it turns out that the service fucks up a lot of other things as well. So I'm glad to have it disabled.

    Thanks a lot man, would have been impossible without your help!.
    Last edited: September 21, 2015
    Alpha2546 and DeathByDenim like this.
  8. DeathByDenim

    DeathByDenim Post Master General

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    Nice find! Thanks!

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