General protection fault crashes

[Selvator]

Well we went trough a lot of thing but it still crashes.

I was talking to Wrex on the normandy and it crashed again when I clicked on a conversation option.

By the way the only time crashes occur is during conversation when I click on a option.

This the crash log:

[480.694] Critical: appError called:
[480.694] Critical: Rendering thread exception:
General protection fault!

History: GZLibFile::~GZLibFile() Address = 0x1159ee15 (filename not found) [in D:\Games\Origin Games\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe]
GMatrix2D::EncloseTransform() Address = 0x115404aa (filename not found) [in D:\Games\Origin Games\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe]

[480.694] Critical: Windows GetLastError: The operation completed successfully. (0)

[holger1405]

@Selvator  sorry to hear that.

Please go to your "Dokumente\BioWare\Mass Effect\Logs" folder and load up the latest logfile. 

Did you made changes to one of the INI files of ME1?

Look in the in Game sound menu if Hardware sound is enabled, if so disable it.

Subsequent go to your  "D:\Games\Origin Games\Mass Effect\Binaries" folder and set ME1 to the compatibility mode for Win XP SP3.  > Test

[Selvator]

I made only 1 change to the ini file and that was to fix the face texture of garrrus.

The game is already set to windows XP SP 3.

I will change the hardware sound to disabled and try again in the afternoon.

I was also able to contact EA about this.

They told me to reinstall the game, clear the Origin cache and even told me to create a new admin account for windows.

I will try all of these steps and let you know if it works

[holger1405]

@Selvator

Yup, Origin cache and new installation can't hurt. 

Make a backup of the INI with the fix. You want to rule out any possible error source.

Also disable the windows XP SP 3 entry if the game doesn't woks with it, the game should work on Win 8.1 without the compatibility mode.

[Fred_vdp]

Do you have that one mission in your quest log about scoring some drugs for a guy who's standing right outside Flux? If that mission has been accepted but not completed, GPF errors can occur randomly.

[Selvator]

Well I just tested the game again, new installation, hardware sound disabled etc.

The good news is the ran for about 2 hours before it crashed again, so that's a new record.
Unfortunately the crashing is still there when talking to an NPC.

The quest about scoring drugs for a guy is one I have already done so that shouldn't crash the game, in fact it crashed before I even got there but it was worth a shot to ask

This was the latest log file:

[13724.812] Critical: appError called:
[13724.812] Critical: Rendering thread exception:
General protection fault!

History: GZLibFile::~GZLibFile() Address = 0x1159e9c5 (filename not found) [in C:\games\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe]
GMatrix2D::EncloseTransform() Address = 0x1154005a (filename not found) [in C:\games\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe]

[13724.812] Critical: Windows GetLastError: The operation completed successfully. (0)

As you can see I also installed the game on a different drive for a change.

[holger1405 · Accepted solution]

@Selvator

Good thinking with the disk change.

I assume you also disabled the windows XP SP 3 compatibly mode and you use a unchanged INI file?

I'm still focused on the Audio. Could you disconnect your Xonar U7 (disable it in the device manager first) from the machine and use your Motherboard audio for a test run?

[Selvator]

Yes I did disable the windows XP compatibility setting and cleared my INI settings, I forgot to mention that in my previous post.

I will try my onboard soundcard tomorrow and see if that helps.

I have contacted EA support again but they have now forwarded my case to a specialist who may help.

They first told me to create a "bug report" here but this game won't be patched any time soon, besides many people play this game without crashing on Windows 8.1 so there should be a fix out there somewhere

[holger1405]

@Selvator

Yea, I also played it on 8.1 and now on Windows 10 without problems. That's why I think it's a Hardware or driver problem.

[Selvator]

Small update:

I have done some more searching on the web.

and found out the windows Even Viewer gives some more details into this problem , this is the log result:

Faulting application name: MassEffect.exe, version: 1.2.20608.0, time stamp: 0x4a55fea1
Faulting module name: wrap_oal.dll_unloaded, version: 2.1.8.1, time stamp: 0x46927487
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0002f9e0
Faulting process id: 0x1d40
Faulting application start time: 0x01d1c898e03b09f6
Faulting application path: C:\games\Mass Effect\Binaries\MassEffect.exe
Faulting module path: wrap_oal.dll
Report Id: 196e32a0-34ac-11e6-8429-94de807d3b59
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

I read somewhere else that I could apply the following fix:

"1) in /program files/Mass Effect/Binaries locate the OpenAL32.dll and wrap_oal.dll files

2) Rename OpenAL32.dll to OpenAL32.bak

3) Rename wrap_oal.dll to OpenAL32.dll

4) Launch as Admin by using the MassEffect.exe"

Before I do that I will now test using only my onboard soundcard.

I am now using standard Realtek drivers and I am no longer using my Xonar U7 and will see what happens.

If it still crashes I will use the above fix and see if that changes anything.

On another side note, the Specialist at EA is a dead end, he won't help me, this is the respond I got:

"thanks for the update.

Sadly since this game was released so long ago, there is not any developers around that we can work with in order to get this up and running. That team simply does not exist anymore so it is difficult for us to support the game outside of the normal troubleshooting steps we have already tried.

Now with that being said, I do want to do everything I can to help you out. I can get you a newer title that we have and add it to your account for Free today. This is a list of all the games that I can offer you for Pc. Go ahead and take a look at them and shoot me back an email and I will be happy to get one of these games added for us.

Need for Speed: Most Wanted
Dragon Age: Inquisition
Sims 4
Mass Effect 3
Plants vs Zombies Garden Warfare

I look forward to your reply and working with you to get this resolved"

I think it's nice that they are being honest about this though, the game is just to old to help me with this problem it seems, hopefully some day this game will get a "remastered" version so they can support it again.

The fact that they allow me to get a game for free is really nice though, I would easily trade in ANY offer just to prevent the game from crashing but hey it's a nice gesture.

I will update here once more when I have done testing the above stuff.