One game alone causes hard crashes

[ravenish]

The PC game Empyrion keeps causing hard crashes (PC shuts off, have to reset power supply to turn it back on - Event Kernel-Power 41 (63) - when it goes from the menu to load the game. I've done some troubleshooting but it is confusing me.

The game played fine until a week ago. Other resource intensive games including other Unity engine games still play fine. Startup CPU/GPU temps are 34/34, various games (including Empyrion after a fresh install) run at a peak of 54/78 for hours with no issues. Empyrion generally crashes instantly at loading, when temps are still around 38/42.

• I verified integrity of steam files, says they're fine but game crashes.
• I deleted and reinstalled game. Worked great for as long as I played it. Next time I tried to play it instantly crashed pc.
• I deleted/reinstalled game and updated video drivers. Worked great for as long as I played it. Next time I tried to play it instantly crashed pc.
• I did a system restore, deleted/reinstalled game and updated video drivers. Worked great for as long as I played it. Next time I tried to play it instantly crashed pc.

Save files always get corrupted. Sometimes the game identifies them as corrupt, but even if not identified, opening a save file from a previous attempt in a new install instantly crashes the game. It made me think bad RAM or SSD but Windows Memory Diagnostic and disk check find no errors. The game appears to get corrupted every time it gets played, but why, and why only this one game (so far)?

The developer (Eleon) deleted my thread on Steam so they don't seem very supportive. Any ideas?

Win 10 Home 64
AMD FX 8320, always run at stock speed
AMD R9 380, DX11 always run at stock speed
Samsung 850 EVO 250GB
Kingston HyperX FURY 8GB Kit (2x4GB) 1866MHz DDR3 CL10 DIMM

Some of the game Log from a crash, the lines about missing scripts and script behavior show up in the log of every crash:

<RI> Initializing input.

<RI> Input initialized.

<RI> Initialized touch support.

UnloadTime: 1.494371 ms
05-04:39:44.779 23_39 -LOG- *************************************************************************
05-04:39:44.786 23_39 -LOG- Empyrion - Galactic Survival
05-04:39:44.786 23_39 -LOG- Version: Alpha 7.6.0
05-04:39:44.788 23_39 -LOG- Build: 1461
05-04:39:44.788 23_39 -LOG- Platform: Win, 64 Bit
05-04:39:44.788 23_39 -LOG- OS: Windows 10 (10.0.0) 64bit
05-04:39:44.788 23_39 -LOG- DRAM: 8137
05-04:39:44.788 23_39 -LOG- CPU: AMD FX(tm)-8320 Eight-Core Processor
05-04:39:44.789 23_39 -LOG- Freq: 3500
05-04:39:44.789 23_39 -LOG- Cores: 8
05-04:39:44.789 23_39 -LOG- Gfx: Direct3D 11.0 [level 11.1]
05-04:39:44.789 23_39 -LOG- VRAM: 4071
05-04:39:44.790 23_39 -LOG- SL: 5
05-04:39:44.790 23_39 -LOG- Force DX9: False
05-04:39:44.790 23_39 -LOG- Texture Arrays: False
05-04:39:44.790 23_39 -LOG- Instancing: True
05-04:39:44.793 23_39 -LOG- TimeZone: -05:00
05-04:39:44.797 23_39 -LOG- Build: Release (childColor)
05-04:39:44.797 23_39 -LOG- *************************************************************************
Localization key 'Armor' is already present
(Filename: C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/DebugBindings.gen.cpp Line: 51)

Localization key 'rswRepair' is already present
(Filename: C:/buildslave/unity/build/artifacts/generated/common/runtime/DebugBindings.gen.cpp Line: 51)

Setting up 4 worker threads for Enlighten.
Thread -> id: a04 -> priority: 1
Thread -> id: 9d8 -> priority: 1
Thread -> id: 2788 -> priority: 1
Thread -> id: a08 -> priority: 1
Unloading 4 Unused Serialized files (Serialized files now loaded: 0)
UnloadTime: 3.191776 ms
05-04:39:47.954 23_39 -LOG- EAC: Not configured
05-04:39:48.129 23_39 -LOG- Args: Empyrion.exe -logFile Logs/1461/Client_180204-233940-62.log
Platform assembly: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Empyrion - Galactic Survival\Empyrion_Data\Managed\System.Xml.dll (this message is harmless)

Unloading 388 unused Assets to reduce memory usage. Loaded Objects now: 3641.
Total: 4.103085 ms (FindLiveObjects: 0.131942 ms CreateObjectMapping: 0.159735 ms MarkObjects: 3.567124 ms DeleteObjects: 0.243405 ms)

The referenced script on this Behaviour is missing!
(Filename: Line: 1516)

The referenced script on this Behaviour (Game Object '<null>') is missing!
(Filename: Line: 1759)

A script behaviour (probably TerrainEngine.TreesPreset?) has a different serialization layout when loading. (Read 48 bytes but expected 140064 bytes)
Did you #ifdef UNITY_EDITOR a section of your serialized properties in any of your scripts?
(Filename: Line: 1895)

05-04:39:49.628 23_39 -LOG- Local player 76561198036222098/'Leadpaint'
05-04:40:10.265 23_40 -LOG- Window 'FullTexture' is already open
05-04:40:11.357 23_40 -LOG- Starting SP/MP game
05-04:40:11.362 23_40 -LOG- Save game version Alpha 7.6.0, Build 1461
05-04:40:16.199 23_40 -LOG- Loading playfield 'Akua'
05-04:40:18.080 23_40 -LOG- Playfield 'Akua' with seed 57 loaded.
WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/Dof/DX11Dof' - Pass '' has no vertex shader
WARNING: Shader Unsupported: 'Hidden/Dof/DX11Dof' - Setting to default shader.
Platform assembly: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Empyrion - Galactic Survival\Empyrion_Data\Managed\Boo.Lang.dll (this message is harmless)

 

[XavierMace]

Are you sure they deleted your thread on Steam? This thread would seem to be oddly similar: https://steamcommunity.com/app/383120/discussions/2/1699415798765129223/

Checkdisk isn't exactly a good way of checking your disks health and it seems unlikely the game is corrupting itself.

 

[mikeymikec]

There's a quicker chkdsk that can be run or a more thorough one. For the sake of ensuring that it's the full one I normally put the switches /f /v /r on the end of the command. While it doesn't check the health of the storage device, I'd expect the idea of something corrupting the file system to be corroborated by a full file system check. I'd also check the SMART readings of the drive just in case (download the zip from here).

At one point you say it instantly crashes the game, and at another point you say it crashes the PC. Please could you elaborate? I think you mean that the whole PC crashes each time (ie. instant reboot).

Are there any other interesting event log errors or warnings around the times of the crashes or in general?

 

[pandemonium]

This part of the log appears to possibly reference invalid files:

A script behaviour (probably TerrainEngine.TreesPreset?) has a different serialization layout when loading. (Read 48 bytes but expected 140064 bytes)
Did you #ifdef UNITY_EDITOR a section of your serialized properties in any of your scripts?
(Filename: Line: 1895)

Are there any mods for the game installed? If so, remove them and try again. Possibly uninstall the game and anything related to it and re-download it? (You may want to backup all of your save and configuration folders and files for the game as well just to be safe and have the game provide original files there as well; likely in your Windows user folder.)

I admit I'm advising blindly on this game as I know nothing about it and can't see the Steam workshop for it since I'm currently at work.

 

[ravenish]

Thanks for the replies. You are right that that is my thread. I got a message it has been deleted, apparently they moved it though to a different section.

Sorry for being unclear, yes every time it crashes the PC shuts down and I have to reset the power supply before I can restart it.

Yes I thought Samsung might have some kind of utility to check the disk but I couldn't find one. I will run check disk with the switches you advise tonight.

Nothing else unusual has happened so far, that's why I am so confused. Everything else is fine, this game will play for hours fine as a fresh install, but 100% crashes the PC the second time it is run.

 

[ravenish]

Ran chkdsk with /f /v /r, apparently no issues found:

Chkdsk was executed in scan mode on a volume snapshot.

Checking file system on C:

Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...

539648 file records processed. File verification completed.

7537 large file records processed.
0 bad file records processed.
Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...

427 reparse records processed.
630428 index entries processed. Index verification completed.

427 reparse records processed.
Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...
Security descriptor verification completed.

45391 data files processed. CHKDSK is verifying Usn Journal...

37622928 USN bytes processed. Usn Journal verification completed.

Windows has scanned the file system and found no problems.
No further action is required.

242806217 KB total disk space.
182434788 KB in 297939 files.
187884 KB in 45392 indexes.
659657 KB in use by the system.
65536 KB occupied by the log file.
59523888 KB available on disk.

4096 bytes in each allocation unit.
60701554 total allocation units on disk.
14880972 allocation units available on disk.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


Stage 1: Examining basic file system structure ...

Stage 2: Examining file name linkage ...

Stage 3: Examining security descriptors ...

Reinstalled Empyrion, played fine. Quit, relaunched and loaded a save game, crashed PC. Other games play and load save files with no issue. It's like something in the game always corrupts save files. I am mystified.

 

[mikeymikec]

It does sound game specific. Does the company have a method for users to make support requests?

 

[ravenish]

Maybe on their official forum. I decided to just give up and leave it uninstalled. So now something else just did the same thing, hard crash. Ugh. I'm going to try to look through logs etc.

 

[mikeymikec]

Maybe on their official forum. I decided to just give up and leave it uninstalled. So now something else just did the same thing, hard crash. Ugh. I'm going to try to look through logs etc.

Ok, so was that hard crash immediately after starting the game, like the first game?

 

[Ketchup]

CPU temp of 78 looks like your problem. Max temp on the FX 8320 is around 61 degrees, and it will shut down your PC if temps get into the 70s. Of course, this is assuming the software you are using to monitor temps is accurate (as many cores of AMD chips have been notoriously difficult to monitor accurately). More info is available here:

https://community.amd.com/thread/199066