Mass Effect 1 Crashing after 10 mins [ Edited ]

[ZethRyder]

{The Overall Problem}
The game crashes and is unplayable.

{The Problem in detail}
After about 10 minutes of play, the game switches from smooth gameplay to stuttering until 2-3fps, really choppy movement then it crashes back to the desktop. I have even left it just on the title screen run and after 10 minutes, it began to stutter and then crashed.

{System Specs}
CPU: AMD FX(tm)-8350 Eight-Core Processor 4.3GHz
Memory: 16334 MB
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 64-bit
Graphics Card Vendor: ATI Technologies Inc.
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon (TM) R9 390 Series 8GB 512-Bit GDDR5
Harddrive: 1TB
Direct X Version: 12

{Steps I've taken to try to solve the problem}
I've google searched a lot of fixes and work arounds from compatibility mode to engine tweaks to turning down graphics and none has worked. I've literally read over several websites from steam, to here, to reddit trying to find any solution that can make this game playable again. I've also tried game repair and reinstallation which none have worked.

{Requesting help}
As it stands right now, I am not able to play through it and that kind of ruins the feel of playing through the trilogy if you can't even play the game that started it. I definitely think its a bug EA should tackle (And the AMD blackpixel bug in Peak 15/Ilos) before they release it on the Origin Access Vault. It would make no sense to advertise a game for the Origin access that is just going to crash on its users.

[holger1405 · Accepted solution]

Ok, @ZethRyder the DxDiag shows that Mass Effect exe is crashing.

First, go to your "<drive>:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect\DirectX" folder and run the "dxsetup.exe" > restart and test.

If that not helps, download the patch 1.02 from here and install it > restart and test.

[holger1405]

@ZethRyder Well, it's not a common bug, and the way you describes it, it sounds more of a technical issue at your machine than a bug in the game. 

If you have "Origin in Game" enabled, disable it > test

If that not works or if you already disabled "Origin in Game", please create and post a DXdiag Report. 

Also download GPU-z install it > go to the sensor tab > Log to file > name the file and save > Play the game until it crashes > stop login > load up the log file. 

A few other questions.

- do you run any mods for the game?

- did you edited game files of ME1?

- do you play other games without this error?

- what kind of PSU do you use. (brand and model)

- is Windows and all your drivers up to date?

[ZethRyder]

- If you have "Origin in Game" enabled, disable it > test
I have disabled Origin in game, both the application settings in Origin itself as well as the game properties for Mass Effect 1.

- do you run any mods for the game?
No I do not. I run it vanilla.

- did you edited game files of ME1?
I have not touched or editted any of the ME1 files. I've even done a clean installation to be sure of it and still the error persists.

- do you play other games without this error?
yes, all of my other origin games run fine actually, along with my steam games. 

- what kind of PSU do you use. (brand and model)
CORSAIR Gaming Series GS700 700W ATX12V v2.3 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC High Performance Power Supply

- is Windows and all your drivers up to date?
Yes, before this bug started to happen I actually had just recently installed Windows 10 upon my system since I bought all brand new computer parts to upgrade from my old system. So all the Hardware is new and I made sure all my drivers for win 10 was up to date, along with my GPU drivers which I installed directly from AMD's website. So everything is installed to the latest version.

Attached is the Dxdiag and GPU-z sensor logs you requested.

[holger1405]

Hi @ZethRyder

You said that the game crashes after 10 minutes, but the GPU-z logfile is only 30 seconds long. Did something special happen or is that the way the Game behaves the entire time? 

Your GPU did not go over 560Mhz core clock and that was only a spike.

I'm checking your DxDiag, and will update you later.

In regards to the blackpixel bug, that's a Bug inside the AMD FX CPU's so there is simply nothing Bioware can do about this short of recoding parts of the game, and that's are not going to happen, not for a 9 years old Game and also not because such action could lead to other even more serious problems elsewhere.

There are two workarounds:

The simple one is changing Amour as soon you're inside Peak 15 and then immediately change it back. (that however don't work for all people.)

The more complicated is to edit your "BIOInput.ini".

- Go to your "\Dokumente\BioWare\Mass Effect\Config" folder and open the the "BIOInput.ini" in a text editor.

- search for [Engine.Console].

- set the cursor right behind [Engine.Console], press ENTER and put "ConsoleKey=Tilde" (without the quotes) inside the line you just created.

- save the "BIOInput.ini". (If you use a non English keyboard, use another key like  "ConsoleKey=NUMPAD9" > the number 9 on your Number Pad .)

Now, as soon as you come into the part where the error occurs, press the key you chose above. That opens the in game console. Then type "viewmode unlit" (without the quotes) in and press ENTER. (You can not run the game permanently under that mode because the lightning would look wired.)

As soon as you leave the area press the key again and type in "viewmode lit" and press ENTER again. 

[holger1405 · Accepted solution]

Ok, @ZethRyder the DxDiag shows that Mass Effect exe is crashing.

First, go to your "<drive>:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect\DirectX" folder and run the "dxsetup.exe" > restart and test.

If that not helps, download the patch 1.02 from here and install it > restart and test.

[ZethRyder]

---

@holger1405 wrote:

Ok, @ZethRyder the DxDiag shows that Mass Effect exe is crashing.

First, go to your "<drive>:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\Mass Effect\DirectX" folder and run the "dxsetup.exe" > restart and test.

If that not helps, download the patch 1.02 from here and install it > restart and test.

---

I did both of those and that seems to have fixed it! The stuttering is gone along with the crashing and the game is playable again! Thank you for your help! 

[holger1405]

You're welcome, and thanks for the XP.