Hard lockups during scenarios

[oboe]

I'm trying to figure out why I experience hard lockups when flying scenarios.  I can't seem to last more than an hour before my machine freezes, and I have to do a warm reboot.    It has consistently happened during a voice transmission, so I'm reasonably sure it's related to the voice system.

Sometimes I'm able to get back in before my 5 minutes of flight and resume, but yesterday both times by the time I got back in the 5 minutes has expired.

I have gotten in the habit of turning off everything I can when logging in - my printer utility, CCleaner, Steam, and even lately my AV - Bit Defender (though I had recently upgraded to most recent version of BD and I couldn't figure out how to shut this version off - the new version doesn't seem to come with an off setting).   Between my first and second lockups during yesterday's scenario, I uninstalled BitDefender and installed Avast instead.   But I still had a hard lockup about an hour after I got back into the SEA, and again it was while I was transmitting.

I have since found "Game Mode" in Avast and now I have entered all the exe's related to AH I can find (the editors, viewers, game executables for both DX9 and Dx11).   So I hope that helps.

I'm just mystified why its always and only in scenarios, not the MA.  I spend much more time in the MA, and have not experienced this type of lockup in the MA, but its a regular occurrence in scenarios.

I checked the folder for dumps, and there was no DMP file from yesterday.   I had also checked my Net Status when I got back in after the first lockup and it looked OK.

Just not sure what else to check - it wasn't because of too much activity in my local airspace - in each case I was flying in a small formation of 3 planes with no other a/c in sight.  And I had already mixed it up with up to half dozen Ki.84s and gotten through that OK.

Thanks help.

[Bizman]

Sort of a side track here, but: I don't know if BD is any better than Avast concerning gaming. Avast has been known to cause issues, then again I'm a happy user of it. The first thing to learn about it is that the Game Mode only stops the announcements from showing. It's nice but that's all it does. The other thing to do with Avast and any other Anti-Virus is to set AH to the Exceptions list. In Avast the path is Settings-General-scroll down to Exceptions. Yet another thing to do with it is to minimize the features. By default it also installs the paid features and running them every so often, telling you there's so much to fix for a nominal fee... Go to Control Panel-Programs and Features, choose Avast and Modify. Start by choosing "Minimum shield", then check the free features you'd like to have. If you use an e-mail client program, the e-mail shield might be useful. If you read your mails using the browser it's useless. Read the descriptions and decide if you need that. On the Avast control panel Shield and Privacy tabs you can see if a feature is free or not.

As for the lockups in scenarios only, aren't they on a different server than the MA? You might want to reset your Internet settings, especially the DNS cache. Cold resetting your router is also a good thing to do every now and then. Simply unplug it from mains, wait for half a minute and replug.

[Skuzzy]

A DXDIAG output might be helpful.  And yes, Avast is one of the bad ones.  It WILL interfere with the game.

[oboe]

Here's the first part of my DxDiag output.  Full file attached below.

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 10/30/2017, 07:03:52
       Machine name: CORSAIR-PC
   Operating System: Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1 (7601.win7sp1_ldr.170913-0600)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
       System Model: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
               BIOS: BIOS Date: 04/23/14 13:08:31 Ver: 04.06.05
          Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-4590 CPU @ 3.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.3GHz
             Memory: 16384MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 16320MB RAM
          Page File: 4267MB used, 28369MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\Windows
    DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
   User DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
 System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
    DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
     DxDiag Version: 6.01.7601.17514 64bit Unicode

------------
DxDiag Notes
------------
      Display Tab 1: The file aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll is not digitally signed, which means that it has not been tested by Microsoft's Windows Hardware Quality Labs (WHQL).  You may be able to get a WHQL logo'd driver from the hardware manufacturer.
        Sound Tab 1: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 2: No problems found.
        Sound Tab 3: No problems found.
          Input Tab: No problems found.

--------------------
DirectX Debug Levels
--------------------
Direct3D:    0/4 (retail)
DirectDraw:  0/4 (retail)
DirectInput: 0/5 (retail)
DirectMusic: 0/5 (retail)
DirectPlay:  0/9 (retail)
DirectSound: 0/5 (retail)
DirectShow:  0/6 (retail)

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
          Card name: Radeon (TM) RX 480 Graphics
       Manufacturer: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
          Chip type: AMD Radeon Graphics Processor (0x67DF)
           DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
         Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_67DF&SUBSYS_34151462&REV_C7
     Display Memory: 3783 MB
   Dedicated Memory: 4039 MB
      Shared Memory: 3840 MB
       Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (59Hz)
       Monitor Name: Generic PnP Monitor
      Monitor Model: S27D590C
         Monitor Id: SAM0BEA
        Native Mode: 1920 x 1080(p) (60.000Hz)
        Output Type: Displayport External
        Driver Name: aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx64.dll,aticfx32,aticfx32,aticfx32,atiumd64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atidxx64.dll,atiumdag,atidxx32,atidxx32,atiumdva,atiumd6a.cap,atitmm64.dll
Driver File Version: 22.19.0676.0004 (English)
     Driver Version: 22.19.676.4
        DDI Version: 11
       Driver Model: WDDM 1.1
  Driver Attributes: Final Retail
   Driver Date/Size: 9/1/2017 18:31:12, 1919560 bytes
        WHQL Logo'd: No
    WHQL Date Stamp: None
  Device Identifier: {D7B71EE2-249F-11CF-D677-B1167BC2DB35}
          Vendor ID: 0x1002
          Device ID: 0x67DF
          SubSys ID: 0x34151462
        Revision ID: 0x00C7
 Driver Strong Name: oem10.inf:ATI.Mfg.NTamd64.6.1:ati2mtag_Polaris10:22.19.676.4:pci\ven_1002&dev_67df&rev_c7
     Rank Of Driver: 00E62000
        Video Accel:
      Deinterlace Caps: n/a
       D3D9 Overlay: Not Supported
            DXVA-HD: Not Supported
       DDraw Status: Enabled
         D3D Status: Enabled
         AGP Status: Enabled

-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
            Description: Speakers (Realtek High Definition Audio)
 Default Sound Playback: Yes
 Default Voice Playback: Yes
            Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0892&SUBSYS_1849D892&REV_1003
        Manufacturer ID: 1
             Product ID: 100
                   Type: WDM
            Driver Name: RTKVHD64.sys
         Driver Version: 6.00.0001.7004 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
            WHQL Logo'd: Yes
          Date and Size: 7/30/2013 06:16:46, 3564376 bytes
            Other Files:
        Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
         HW Accel Level: Basic
              Cap Flags: 0xF1F
    Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
 Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
              HW Memory: 0
       Voice Management: No
 EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
   I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No

            Description: 1 - S27D590C (AMD High Definition Audio Device)
 Default Sound Playback: No
 Default Voice Playback: No
            Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_1002&DEV_AA01&SUBSYS_00AA0100&REV_1007
        Manufacturer ID: 1
             Product ID: 100
                   Type: WDM
            Driver Name: AtihdW76.sys
         Driver Version: 7.12.0000.7725 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
            WHQL Logo'd: Yes
          Date and Size: 7/6/2017 15:42:38, 96256 bytes
            Other Files:
        Driver Provider: Advanced Micro Devices
         HW Accel Level: Basic
              Cap Flags: 0xF1F
    Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
 Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
              HW Memory: 0
       Voice Management: No
 EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
   I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No

            Description: Realtek Digital Output (Realtek High Definition Audio)
 Default Sound Playback: No
 Default Voice Playback: No
            Hardware ID: HDAUDIO\FUNC_01&VEN_10EC&DEV_0892&SUBSYS_1849D892&REV_1003
        Manufacturer ID: 1
             Product ID: 100
                   Type: WDM
            Driver Name: RTKVHD64.sys
         Driver Version: 6.00.0001.7004 (English)
      Driver Attributes: Final Retail
            WHQL Logo'd: Yes
          Date and Size: 7/30/2013 06:16:46, 3564376 bytes
            Other Files:
        Driver Provider: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.
         HW Accel Level: Basic
              Cap Flags: 0xF1F
    Min/Max Sample Rate: 100, 200000
Static/Strm HW Mix Bufs: 1, 0
 Static/Strm HW 3D Bufs: 0, 0
              HW Memory: 0
       Voice Management: No
 EAX(tm) 2.0 Listen/Src: No, No
   I3DL2(tm) Listen/Src: No, No
Sensaura(tm) ZoomFX(tm): No

[Skuzzy]

Are you expecting audio through your HDMI cable connected to a television or monitor with speakers?  If not, disable that AMD audio driver.  It can cause stability problems.

[oboe]

Thanks!  I'll try that.  I'm sure I've disabled HDMI audio in the past (I use the mini audio jack output to a powered speaker) but it must re-enable itself when I upgrade  AMD drivers.

Curious, where do you see HDMI? I've searched through the file with CTRL-F find and do not get a match on HDMI?

[Skuzzy]

The only reason to have the AMD or NVidia audio drivers loaded is when you use an HDMI cable connection to a monitor/television and expect audio to come from those units speakers.

HDMI cables can carry audio and video.  DVI cables only carry video.

[The Fugitive]

the second group/description under sound devices gives you the info oboe

[oboe]

Thanks for the help and info.

Seems to me it used to identify itself as an HDMI driver but now I don't see that acronym anywhere.   

[oboe]

I think that did did the trick, no freeze/lockups this time.

Thanks very much for the help!

[Pudgie]

Thanks!  I'll try that.  I'm sure I've disabled HDMI audio in the past (I use the mini audio jack output to a powered speaker) but it must re-enable itself when I upgrade  AMD drivers.

Curious, where do you see HDMI? I've searched through the file with CTRL-F find and do not get a match on HDMI?

Hi Oboe,

Just to help you going forward, when you use a DisplayPort connection to connect your graphics card to your monitor\TV the OS will see this as a HDMI connection as HDMI & Displayport both will carry video & audio signals thus the OS will load the HDMI drivers for the graphics card if left to itself to determine this.

In the dxdiag report the video connection will be labeled as the actual type of connection it is (displayport external).

This is why you didn't see HDMI there but as far as the OS is concerned, HDMI & DisplayPort are the same when it comes to audio & video signal.....................

Hope this helps you out going forward.

 

[oboe]

Thank you Pudgie - that helps, and makes sense now since I did switch from HDMI cable to DisplayPort cable a while ago.