Constant Crashing - No solution?

[andrazorwire]

Hi. I've been having problems with this game crashing to the desktop for the better part of the week. Here are steps I have taken to try and remedy based on other people's solutions with very little success:

1) Running in Windowed Fullscreen (doesn't crash to desktop with DirectX error anymore, now just freezes and I have to force quit through task manager)

2) Made sure directx is up to date, reinstalled. 

3) Made exceptions for Origin and DAI.exe in Avast and Windows Firewall
4) Updated AMD graphics drivers (uninstalled previous drivers first/cleaned registry)

5) Downloaded AMD beta drivers as per stickied FAQ 
6) Thought might be overheating issue, fixed fan issue didn't know I had (now computer runs at 45-50c while playing game)
7) Underclocked GPU slightly.
8) Deleted profiles in savegame folder (has been my most consistent but temporary fix, still crashes after about 30-40 mins when i'm in areas outside of stronghold/cities)
9) Disabled block and slash/taken off companions' quickbars
10) Repaired game installation through Origin
11) Turned graphics settings to low in certain spots (when i was constantly crashing at a gate in Redcliffe Dungeons this was the only thing that got me to get past it, otherwise I run at mostly ultra with smooth framerate)
 
Still have crashes all the time. Have attached dxdiag. Please someone tell me I'm missing something obvious. Whenever I try to play this game for an extended period I spend about an hour troubleshooting and seemingly finding a solution until the game starts crashing consistently again when I get to a certain spot. Would love a permanent solution, if there is one. 

[mcsupersport]

1)  Have you tried using Mantle instead of DirectX...options screen since you have an amd vid card?

2)  You may try 16.2.1 series of video drivers instead of the newest beta...I wouldn't go beta for a game 2 years old.  Current is 17.1 iirc...I am running the 16.2 on mine and doing pretty well.

3)  Have you made sure all overlays such as origin ingame, afterburner, the stupid AMD ingame program and all others are turned off??

4)  Put in windows mode and watch taskmanager and see if something comes on about the time it crashes...

[andrazorwire]

Thanks for the reply! direct responses to your points are below.

but first, one thing to pinpoint my problem is that it seems to only happen in VERY specific spots in hostile areas. Non-hostile (stronghold, val royeaux, etc) has no problems - i actually just got to skyhold and spent probably about 2-3 hours going everywhere and talking to everyone, not a hitch. But when I go to the field, as soon as I hit a specific general location it spits out the error. For example; in hinterlands: the mercenary castle, cave with dwarven fort where you find carta with vault (can't remember name), area near camp where you find blackwall, ocularum near crossroads, redcliffe dungeons; and most recently (like just 30 mins ago) in the western approach, south of the first camp with the fade rift. So...don't know if that helps identify a possible solution. Once I get past the area - in whatever way - it never really seems to be a problem again, though I haven't really revisited too many areas. I think there were a couple places in hinterlands where I returned to a crash area after getting past it and it crashed again. Basically I seem to keep hitting "crash spots".

anyway, when i got to the aforementioned crash spot in the WA i tried your suggestions:

1) I didn't realize there was an alternative to DirectX - i'm pretty casual about this kinda stuff - BUT I just tried mantle. Unfortunately it didn't work. One, the windowed fullscreen option didn't work anymore - WF it just went to fullscreen. two, Both fullscreen options resulted in a similar crash in the spot where I was getting the directx crash. Didn't try windowed because it didn't scale right, even though it should have.
2)I tried 16.2.1 (after uninstalling my drivers) and it seemingly worked, only to later get caught in dufferent crash spot. However, THIS time the crash locked the whole computer instead of just freezing the game - couldn't ctrl-alt-delete, alt-tab, anything, just had to hard reset. I deleted my profile options again as last time and after a couple attempts. Hit another crash spot after like 10 minutes but it didn't lock my computer this time, was able to get to task manager, close the program, and then delete the profileoptions again. Idk why that was happening?
3) ALL overlays are turned off.
4) I haven't tried that, maybe next time this happens I'll do it. Not entirely sure what I'd be looking for though.

Once again, it seems that deleting the profileoptions files in the saves folder gets me past a crash spot. It eventually crashes again later, though, but at least that seems to be the consistent (if temporary fix). Would still love if there was a way to like...not interrupt my gameplay every hour or so, haha. If i hit another crash spot I guess i'll bring my task manager up and see what I can see?

[mcsupersport]

Watching taskmanager and possibly something like speedfan is so you can watch when the game locks up and see if another program has started up and eating memory/cpu to cause your issue.  Speedfan would allow you to monitor individual processors of your CPU for temps....as well as other temps on Mobo and vid card.  Why you would monitor individual temps of your CPU??  Well, I remember a game(I want to say DAI) but can't remember the exact game for sure, but anyway, I remember a game that used only a few of the cpu's on some chips and if they were too close together, it would overheat ONLY those parts of the processor causing strange issues, but you could set up the program to use certain processors and it would allow spaces to keep them all cool.  This was found by watching what was going on with monitoring programs and eventually the issue was corrected at the programming level....but can't hurt to check when you have looked at many other issues already.

One other thing to try is clean boot...this is restarting your computer without alot of the junk that normally loads.  IIRC the sticky above about troubleshooting has directions or a link to the process.  This would help eliminate cross program interference.

You may also change your audio settings as well, especially if you have something other than just stereo selected.  Audio doesn't USUALLY cause crashes, but again, you have tried most everything else, so can't hurt to look around for driver updates for your audio and maybe change some options to see if any difference made.

Does playing with origin offline make any difference??  And you don't have any mods installed do you??

[andrazorwire]

hm, well finally hit a crash spot where deleting my profiledata didn't fix anything! even after 5 attempts. so i got to test a lot of stuff out:

tried to notice something with task manager. didn't, really. maybe if i encounter this crash again i'll try speedfan?

tried different audio settings, clean uninstalled/installed audio drivers (and repudated my graphics drivers to the current ones just because) - still crashed.

origin offline - still crashed. I DO actually have one mod, a qunari hair mod which requires the meshes to be in ultra (instead of high, which is what my settings default to). switching the meshes from ultra to high was the only graphic option i changed when i deleted profiledata so i tried switched to high, effectively turning off the mod. i THOUGHT it worked, until i eventually reached a spot (separate from the one I'm at right now) where it didn't. uninstalled the mod completely - still didn't work. ok. really happy that's not the issue cuz otherwise i really dislike all the default qunari hair options. 

long story short I did a clean boot and...got past it! so...maybe it's something going on with that. hopefully. really, really, hoping it is. going to give it a few more days of play/trying that method instead of deleting profiledata if it crashes again. 

[andrazorwire]

annnnnnnd that's a negative, still crashing after the clean boot now.

just wish i could get my money back. it is insane that a game almost 3 years old can still have problems like this. i've spent about a fifth of my game time trying to trouble shoot its crashes. ugh...