Frustration-Flavoured 10 Seconds-Of-Death Game Freeze With Subsequent Session Crash And Insta-Ragequit With Forum Complaint As A Bonus

[dadaddadada]

TL;DR game freezes randomly for 5-10 seconds causing loss of connection with the host, resulting in the client being kicked to the solar map for inactivity.

 

Oh, come on OP, again with a topic about the most unconclusive yet underestimated bug report ever applied?

Yes. Yes indeed. I still have faith in mankind :)

 

For the 2 people that still are unaware of this issue, let me briefly summarize why I tried to poke my eyes out with a toothpick already 5 times today.

 

The process Warframe.exe randomly freezes its execution for a number of seconds in the range 5-10, then resumes.

This happens a totally random number of times a day; lets say, you have a statistical 75% chance of it happening every hour.

 

There are some situations where this isn't a problem. For example, it may happen while chilling in the menu or while playing a solo mission. The game just freezes for a couple of seconds and then resumes.

 

If this happens during a coop mission... lets say you might want to close your eyes with both hands trying to ignore nearby sharp objects. There is a 90% chance of being kicked to the solar system map because the client during the freeze isn't communucating with the host and gets kicked for inactivity.

 

Not only this issue should never happen in the first place, but the game handles it kind-of incorrectly.

If you have the stomach to watch the full process of your 45-minutes survival being irrecoverably annihilated, then you may notice a couple of things.

Right after the proverbial 10 seconds of panic, the game actually resumes... kind of.

All the mobs repeat indefinitely the animation they were doing right before the implosion, symptom of the client not knowing absolutely what the hek is going on. Then, a message appears, something along the lines of "the host is migrating...". Of course, the host isn't really migrating. The host and the other 2 pals are happily extracting with 100 000+ XP with boost. So, that message is misleading. Whenever the client realizes that it has been left alone, it salvages the salvageable, perhaps some of the loot may be recovered, but any kind of team bonus is lost (which is often 75% of all the XP I usually collect in any defence mission).

 

If the host has the issue, the whole session/lobby/cell dies an horrible and unhandled death.

 

It is not my system, it is not my internet connection. Why I know this? Well, while the game is busy not being a biatch, it runs quite fine!

It really feels like there is a sleep(10) command hidden within the code that its just there to screw around stuff.

 

Is there anyone around able to explain to my poor smashed keyboard precisely why this issue happens? I dont really know. People say this bug was around since update 11... whaaaat? I wasn't even there at the time.

 

Can someone please tell some devs that this IS still a common problem and needs immediate fixage? Please?

 

I'm done brain-farting. Good night. I want to wake up with this issue fully fixed.

 

 

EDIT:

I totally exclude overheating or power supply issues to be the cause of this problem. With PSU fan, CPU fan and GPU fan maxed keeping everything under 50 degrees, problem still shows with the same rate. The test was performed after unplugging everything that could use PSU energy like additional hard drives or ODDs.

 

I exclude a networking issue. I don't have a powerful connection but I can host games with 2 other people with no reported lag.

 

Of course, all graphic settings are on low.

 

My system has 3GB of main RAM and an additional 1GB on the graphics card. I exclude a memory issue.

Tried to disable antivirus scans during gameplay but problem still shows, but at this point I can't exclude an antivirus-related issue.

If you have this problem, let me know of what antivirus you have. I have Avast btw.

 

Additional details:

while freezed, CPU is still doing something (remains stable or gets even more busy). Disk is idle (0% usage).

 

EDIT 2:

Threads about this issue:

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/137572-random-10-second-freezes/

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/154298-small-freezes-since-u11/

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/159867-client-stops-responding-in-missionplanets-interface/

https://forums.warframe.com/index.php?/topic/178888-periodical-freezing-followed-by-disconnections-has-been-happening-a-long-time-decided-to-finally-inquire-about-it-for-help/?p=2096540

 

Ok from the logs of the people having this issue (including me) this problem seems to be caused by a Buffer Underrun (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffer_underrun) involving only WAV music files.

I will perform tests to check whether the issue pops at the start/finish of the current background music being played.

 

This is my EE.log (only the relevant lines are listed):

 

...
898.901 Net [info]: IRC out: PRIVMSG Random-User:I don't feel very well right now lol
911.367 Snd [Error]: Buffer underrun streaming /Lotus/Sounds/Menu/MainMenuAmbienceLoop.wav (0 active streams)
917.069 Sys [info]: Build label: local=2014.03.07.13.46/Z19uL7Mat8PweX50MSnQLg, server=2014.03.07.13.46/Z19uL7Mat8PweX50MSnQLg
917.069 Sys [info]: Budget overrun updating WebGet (9 ms)
...

 

EDIT 3:

Reinstalling Warframe doesn't seem to help.

Disabling Antivirus or Firewall doesn't seem to help.

 

EDIT 4:

The problem is totally NOT related in any way to the antivirus installed in the system.

Disabling/Enabling Multithread rendering does NOT make any kind of difference.

Verifying/Defragging the download cache does NOT make things better either.

Freeze length does NOT seem to be related to the horsepower of the system.

Edited March 23, 2014 by dadaddadada

[Hayzemet]

Play solo.. im lvl 10 never had those issues

[Fleyrion]

Have crashing issues since a couple of month where the game randomly crashes when to much stuff is going on.

BUT it runs smooth with 60FPS but then BAM crash so I checked my GPU and CPU graphs results are:

GPU jumps from aroung 60% to 100% for 2 to 5 seconds after that the game crashed and it's down to idle at 1%.

CPU no such thing so somthing is wrong maybe some one can help me ^^

 

My GPU is a GTX 650 Ti SSC from EVGA btw ;)

[AnatharsWrath]

i get this issue quite often myself in different forms though they all happen after a dreaded 10+ second game lockup..

 

sometimes im the host and it will happen causing my friends to drop and the host migrates for them (leaving them as a group in the mission) and it will put me by myself in the same mission.

 

other times it will leave me alone and force them back to the starchart causing them to lose out on mission rewards and exp since it usually happens when the objective is complete and cant re-invite.

 

and the third option is that i drop from the host losing exp/mission progress ect as i get flung back to the starchart.

 

this by far is the most annoying thing i deal with in this game aside from the awful RNG of course.and i tried many things hoping to fix it with no luck. one of my friends believes it is due to my low processing power (computer is about 11 years old and uses dual-core)

[Tails-san]

This started for me after Update 12. I've noticed this issue seems more likely to occur the longer Warframe has been open, and especially common if I opened Firefox at any point during that time. This leads me to believe that the issue may be memory-related. 

[http404error]

The only times I've had similar freezing are upon opening the Foundry or overheating.

[dadaddadada]

The only times I've had similar freezing are upon opening the Foundry or overheating.

+1 for overheating. I will perform a 1 hour long speedrun in Crysis and report back if issue arises. Fair enough.

[dadaddadada]

The only times I've had similar freezing are upon opening the Foundry or overheating.

 

+1 for overheating. I will perform a 1 hour long speedrun in Crysis and report back if issue arises. Fair enough.

 

Nope, I did tests and stated that overheating isn't the problem. I also edited my OP post with more details.

[Endoko]

This issue makes me not want to play. i played before i got my gpu and i would get like 20-30fps and this would happen then after i got my gpu i get a constant 60 and still get this issue almost every game i join into. im running an intel i5, 2GB GTX 760 with 8 gigs of ram.

[Ambisyon_Ni_Batman]

My brother had this problem. The game freezes for several seconds either during extraction, a door opening or sometimes just randomly. If the freeze was like 10 seconds, the game will be disconnect to the host or clients if he is the host. 

 

We removed everything Warframe related in his laptop: The game itself, Registry entries and even some of the left over folders in the appdata folder. We then reinstalled it. Its been three days and no freezes so far

 

EDIT: Reinstalling seems to fix the issue temporarily. Its back after weeks

Edited April 16, 2014 by Ambisyon_Ni_Batman

[dadaddadada]

Edited my post. In the meanwhile I bump the thread for great justice.

[dadaddadada]

I think I will bump this thread until one of these two things is going to happen first:

1) I get banned

2) the issue gets fixed

[Morcant]

I think I will bump this thread until one of these two things is going to happen first:

1) I get banned

2) the issue gets fixed

 

It's fine to bump your thread, even though developer sightings have been rare in here for the last 9 months. Do you really need to bump every other thread that sounds remotely similar, though?

[dadaddadada]

It's fine to bump your thread, even though developer sightings have been rare in here for the last 9 months. Do you really need to bump every other thread that sounds remotely similar, though?

Put away the "remotely". They are all about the same exact problem u.u

I made a forum thread, I opened a support ticket and collected many in-game experiences of this issue.

I can't really think of anything else to do. If I dig enough I'm sure I will find dozens of reports, perhaps bumping them once may be enough to catch some attention.

I'm happy with the 6-7 threads I already bumped for now. So I can stop if you insist.

I like playing warframe and I don't like having this sword of Damocles randomly ruining my enthusiasm. No one does.

Edited March 18, 2014 by dadaddadada

[dadaddadada]

Bump. Edited my post with results of more tests.

[tsk0]

If you are sure the issue is sound related try disabling sound acceleration in dxdiag.

It seemed to help a little with freeze frequency but that might have been placebo effect.

 

And I seriously doubt this issue has a singular cause.

From what I've seen the triggers are ranging from thread synchronization to memory handling.

 

[dadaddadada]

If you are sure the issue is sound related try disabling sound acceleration in dxdiag.

It seemed to help a little with freeze frequency but that might have been placebo effect.

 

And I seriously doubt this issue has a singular cause.

From what I've seen the triggers are ranging from thread synchronization to memory handling.

 

I cant exclude a sound related issue simply because the log says so. Buffer underrun is self explanatory: system hangs for some time to let a buffer load. Which is pretty darn close to the freezes we experience.

 

Actually, even if the log says so, its impossible to tell whether the buffer underrun is the Cause of the hangs or just a Consequence of something which... isn't handled by Warframe.

 

You mention thread syncronization. I should specify that even with multi-thread rendering disabled problem persists as frustrating as before.

Incorrect memory handling. This might as well be the final cause (putting Texture Memory on High often results in crashtowindows), but the random nature of the freezes make it impossible to tell for sure (freezes may happen in the solar system map, when not much stuff is going on, with same length and rate).

 

I will try to disable audio hardware acceleration and see what happens.

[dadaddadada]

Tried to disable audio hardware acceleration. Deadly freeze after 20 minutes.

What's next.

[Jawnn]

I played this game when it first came out, and I had to quit due to horrible network problems within the game. I just picked it back up, in hopes that I could play online with my friends now.

 

Boy, was I wrong.

I'm having the same issue, here. The network issue I was having is long fixed, but man, this one effects solo AND menus. Geez.

Something I have to support your claim of sound: I had my game idle in the background a few days ago, I put on my headphones and listened to when it would shut off. I had Window's Resource Monitor up, on the CPU tab. I found Warframe and clicked it, so it'd stay at the top. Finally after 8 minutes, it froze on me again. The process turned red, and said (not responding) next to it. I saw CPU usage spike a bit, drop, and come back.
But then I noticed something. "Sndvol.exe" also went red, and not responding at the same time warframe did. 

What this means, I have no idea. But I think it at least shows a possible connection between the two. 

[Lord_of_Lords]

I am not a mod or a Warframe dev but I have developed a few other games and have a gross amount of knowledge in Windows problems.  Take my suggestions lightly.  You are not required to do any of this but I am trying to help.

 

You should open Resource Monitor and watch the page fault count under the memory tab.  If it spikes when Warframe crashes, then the problem is with the speed at which Warframe is loading the files; if it doesn't spike, then the files may have minor artifacts (i.e. slightly corrupted).

 

If the files have artifacts, try verifying and then defragmenting your Warframe Cache (if you want to because this might cause other problems that can be fixed by reinstalling Warframe).

 

If you don't want to do the above step, run chkdsk /r /f as an administrator on your Warframe directories (install and appdata).  Chkdsk is the Windows utility to scan for, and attempt recovery of corrupted files.

 

I have 1 more last resort that I won't post until you report back.  It's pretty risky and can remove a bunch of customizations so I would like my entire post to list and describe the risks.

 

Please report back with results.  This bug sounds like a fairly isolated, special case but sure is annoying.  

 

Also, turn off 64-bit mode and dx11.  You don't really have enough ram to take advantage of those.  I mean, you do, but the last thing we want is for the page file to be polled while we try to iron this out.  Your amount of ram might have something to do with crashing with high texture quality.

[dadaddadada]

I am not a mod or a Warframe dev but I have developed a few other games and have a gross amount of knowledge in Windows problems.  Take my suggestions lightly.  You are not required to do any of this but I am trying to help.

 

You should open Resource Monitor and watch the page fault count under the memory tab.  If it spikes when Warframe crashes, then the problem is with the speed at which Warframe is loading the files; if it doesn't spike, then the files may have minor artifacts (i.e. slightly corrupted).

 

If the files have artifacts, try verifying and then defragmenting your Warframe Cache (if you want to because this might cause other problems that can be fixed by reinstalling Warframe).

 

If you don't want to do the above step, run chkdsk /r /f as an administrator on your Warframe directories (install and appdata).  Chkdsk is the Windows utility to scan for, and attempt recovery of corrupted files.

 

I have 1 more last resort that I won't post until you report back.  It's pretty risky and can remove a bunch of customizations so I would like my entire post to list and describe the risks.

 

Please report back with results.  This bug sounds like a fairly isolated, special case but sure is annoying.  

 

Also, turn off 64-bit mode and dx11.  You don't really have enough ram to take advantage of those.  I mean, you do, but the last thing we want is for the page file to be polled while we try to iron this out.  Your amount of ram might have something to do with crashing with high texture quality.

 

Short reply.

1) Freezes happen also when my system is running without ANY pagefile (literally, 0MB pagefile). This excludes major page faults to be the cause.

2) since my OS is 32 bit, both 64-bit and dx11 options are disabled and grayed.

3) reinstalling doesn't help. I tried.

 

The machine is now doing a chkdsk. Will report back.

Thank you for the suggestions.

[dadaddadada]

Lord_of_Lords, did chkdsk and U13 tested and still freezing like crazy.

 

At this point, I think I tried everything humanly possible from an OS point of view. This is definitely a problem limited to the warframe application.

[aim4it]

Are you running any overlays? Can you post an active process list?

[TakaraHoshi]

As aim4it has said, I've been encountering this issue on my older gaming rig. And I've just noticed what's causing it, Xfire.

It seems to have a UI crash with Warframe and dump a crash.dmp file into C:/Program Data/Xfire which floods pagefile and your OS disk R/W.

 

My proof (for me at least); crash.xml | crash.dmp

 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?>

<ExceptionReport Version="4">
<Application Build="729" Command=""R:\Steam\steamapps\common\Warframe\Warframe.exe" -fullscreen:1 -dx11:0 -threadedworker:1 -cluster:public -language:en -relaunch:"-cluster:public -registry:Steam""/>
<OperatingSystem Type="2"><Version Major="6" Minor="2" Build="9200"/></OperatingSystem>
<Exception Code="80000003" Address="01425757"><Module Section="0001" Offset="00044757" FileName="R:\Steam\steamapps\common\Warframe\Warframe.exe"/></Exception>
<Registers EAX="2FF5F8E2" EBX="00000000" ECX="2FF5F8E1" EDX="00000000" ESI="00CD3448" EDI="534A9A54" CS="0023" EIP="01425757" SS="002B" ESP="00B1F77C" EBP="00000000" DS="002B" ES="002B" FS="0053" GS="002B" Flags="00200297"/>
<BackTrace>
</BackTrace>
</ExceptionReport>

[dadaddadada]

I'm not using such things as overlays nor anything that goes under the name "XFire".

 

Looks like at this point the only way to fix the issue is to change gaming rig from the ground up... and hope that the new rig you are going to buy doesn't have the issue (even very new systems are affected).

But no. I'm not going to spend money on a new computer just for a small bug in Warframe.