ArmA2 crash to desktop

[MortenS 0]

I've a lot of CTD, so far only in singleplayer. I got this error-report after my last one (it's in Norwegian so I've added a translation in english):

Problemsignatur:

Navn på problemhendelse (Event name): APPCRASH

Programnavn (Program name): arma2.exe

Programversjon (Program version): 1.2.0.58134

Tidsstempel for program (timestamp of program): 4a435199

Navn på feilmodul (Name on error module): arma2.exe

Feilmodulversjon (Error module version): 1.2.0.58134

Tidsstempel for feilmodul (Timestamp of error module): 4a435199

Unntakskode (exeption code): c0000005

Unntaksforskyvning (exeption displacement): 00610e2a

OS-versjon: 6.0.6002.2.2.0.256.1

ID for nasjonal innstilling (ID for national setting): 1044

Tilleggsinformasjon 1 (addition info): fd00

Tilleggsinformasjon 2: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

Tilleggsinformasjon 3: fd00

Tilleggsinformasjon 4: ea6f5fe8924aaa756324d57f87834160

[longwinger 10]

Since upgrading to v1.03 I can't play the campaign I'm on which seems to be the same for others in Manhatten it won't load the autosave and keeps kicking me out to windows. I've had it working once when I re-named a save game to a autosave but now even that doesn't work. I deleted my .cfg file to let refresh the system details but for now I'm stumped and can't play the game. So far I've re-installed an OS purchased a new 4870x2 all to play this game (I'm a big fan of OFP and upgraded my last PC just for that) I know its daft but every now and again a special game is made but this for me so far is unplayable. Any ideas if needs be how to I skip manhatten and play the campaign from there on.

Ste Lea

[mlenser 10]

Since upgrading to v1.03 I can't play the campaign I'm on which seems to be the same for others in Manhatten it won't load the autosave and keeps kicking me out to windows.

The only way I could continue ARMA II after the 1.03 patch was to restart the current mission from scratch. Seems the in mission saves (user or auto) are not compatible but the campaign save is?

[_Hurricane 0]

The beta patches improved the CTDs quite a lot. I'm still getting the "out of memory" error when playing large missions like Warfare, Domination, ... though.

[Mythos 10]

Right then....

I've been battling this issue since purchasing Arma II nearly 10 days ago, and I've done some pretty in-depth research, but I'm pretty sure that I've fixed the problem. Last night I managed to play for over five hours without a single crash.

My issue appeared to be three fold. I was suffering unhandled exception errors, BSoD's or even complete machine shutdowns at random intervals after between 5-10 minutes of play. In the case of the BSoD's and Exception errors, the culprit appeared to be the NV4_DISP.DLL file.

Some days of research later, it became apparent that NV4_DISP.DLL is notorious on nVidia graphics cards for getting caught in infinite loops that in turn cause the SPECIFIC BSoD I was seeing.

A quick search for a fix turned this up:

http://www.synapse.gr/downloads/nv4loopfix.zip

CLARIFICATION: This fix is only intended to function with nVidia 8x and 9x graphic cards. It will have no impact on ATI kit.

And it worked! No more exceptions or bsod's! woot!

However, I was still getting the complete PC shutdown. Two days later I realised I was using a NoCD patch (over v1.03) and that the DRM software BIS use causes a 'degrade' in the game that can indeed lead to a complete shutdown of an unstable OS.

So, simply removing the NoCD and putting the original .exe back in place solved that issue too.

Believe me, folks, I went through sooooo many fixes before reaching this one that I was getting to the point of giving up. Try it, let me know if it works for you.

TECHNICAL INFO:

So what does it do? It closes the RX55 memory register in BIOS. The RX55 register's official name and function is Memory Write Queue (MWQ) timer. The MWQ timer is actually a timing device included in the memory host controller to prevent write data being held in the memory queue too long. After the data has been in the queue too long it times out. This timed out data is then given a higher write request priority. Now that might sound nice � a bit of extra performance BUT the procedure fails when overloaded. 3D games and Win XP put too much load on the memory queuing timer procedure. The nVidia new driver exaggerates the problem even more as the driver enables nVidia cards to use even more memory than previous driver versions.

So in a nutshell it�s a memory timing problem that only happens when the RX55 register is opened. Some motherboard manufacturers have already released new BIOS that have the register closed. In other instances, this patch is needed.

Edited August 25, 2009 by Mythos
Technical Info

[Kramxel 10]

I normally get CTDs if I alt-tab a lot and then load a mission....

60% of the times that will result in a CTD....

Other than that I've never had any other CTDs...

[kilo3 10]

I'm in the same boat as many others, with my main problem being attempting to save in "Dogs Of War" (I think-Mission to capture towns and try to get the MEU back into the game), anyway:

When attempting to save I get a crash based on "Too many virtual memory blocks requested". I tried rolling back to older Nvidia drivers, to no avail. Also played with graphics settings a bit-but will continue to scale back view distance as well. I cleared up some HD space as well. I've had some pretty bad graphics performance as well-and I should not have ANY performance problems, see specs below. I am running the latest patch for A2. Note that I have not had too much time to sift through ALL of the many posts related to these problems...it's just tooooo much.

This is ridiculous for a released game. That said, I absolutely love OFP, ARMA, ARMA2 and find them to be about the most immersive games ever-I'm just not happy about having to wait so long for it to work correctly.

I really wish that new games and applications would have options for multiple CPU's, and the larger amounts of memory that is now possible to have. I mean, I should really not have to use a swap file much, and I should not be having serious performance issues.

Thanks to anyone who can point me in the right direction to possible fixes-I'm rather hoping that the game is made more compatible (or fixes help in that manner), than me having to fight to make my updated system compatible. I do understand that it is impossible for software designers to make a product that is fully compatible with ALL system configurations, but I don't think my system is too exotic

I have the Steam Version (US)

Vista 64-bit Ultimate (legit copy, by the way)

Intel Core i7 2.66 Ghz (Quad core w/HT)

EVGA Nvidia 285 GTX 2 GB (PhysX is OFF)

Soundblaster X-Fi gamer

12 GB OCZ Platinum 12800 Triple channel Memory (I know, I know, but it was on special!)

150 GB Western Digital VelociRaptor 10000 Rpm Sata II (about 30GB Free)

250 GB Western Digital Caviar Sata II

BFG Sli 850 Watt Power supply

Biostar TPower X58 Motherboard

1.5 TB worth of USB Hard drives

[skunksta 10]

I have a legit downloaded version from game or play.com (cant remember which)

The game randomly crashes, there is no time limt, just whenever it feels like it wants to crash it crashes. no real error signals just a send or dont send error report box...

I thought the problem was my nvidia 8800gts bfg running at over 100 degrees celcius!

but no the problem is still occurring even tho im am now running an ati 1gb 4890 xfx...

Distressing as it is i can find no reason for why it does this, if im seriously unlucky the game crashes out at the main menu and i havent even started playing!

i have plenty of spare memory and im quite sure all my drivers are up to date.

i hope it doesnt come down to it being just another arma game full of bugs!

i had nothing but hassle with the first arma and op flashpoint!

shud have learnt my lesson by now...

PC Spec...

AMD phenom 9500 quad core 4 x 2.2

2gb kingston hyper x 1066mhz (tested)

1tb hd sata2

260gb hd sata2

ATI Radeon XFX 4890 1gb

[substitute 10]

I had the 'cannot commit' problem when saving but the beta patches seem to that fixed somewhat.

At the moment I'm trying to play Dogs of War and capture that Elektro-something town but 95% of my save attempts result in a ctd. I only get the 'Arma2 has stopped working' notification this. Previously I couldn't even go into Elektro-town because the game crashed immediately when I entered. That was fixed with the video memory setting.

Running:

- Arma2, latest beta patch to date

- Intel Q9300, 4GB RAM

- 8800GT, latest drivers (tried older ones also)

- Win Vista 64-bit, SP1

- using -profiles=profiles because default drive doesn't have enough space and the game is installed to a different partition

Correction: I tried again and this time the saves didn't cause a crash but game did not actually save at all. Everything seemed to go fine but the new saves didn't replace the old ones. No point in playing anymore...

Edited September 6, 2009 by substitute

[Flash Thunder 10]

Arma 2 crashes when Im near a large explosion, I doesn't make sense considering I have a state of the art CPU, what could be the problem?

I got an Ati 3650 512MB card BTW with low-medium details and get around a constant 30fps.

[WhoCares 0]

I had the 'cannot commit' problem when saving but the beta patches seem to that fixed somewhat.

At the moment I'm trying to play Dogs of War and capture that Elektro-something town but 95% of my save attempts result in a ctd. ...

I also have that CTD in DoW when trying to save the game, but to me v1.59025 has not changed the problem.

Here the slightly edited arma2.rpt dump:

=====================================================================

== G:\Games\ArmA2\beta\arma2.exe

== "G:\Games\ArmA2\beta\arma2.exe" -mod=beta;g2e -nosplash -world=empty -maxmem=2047

=====================================================================

Exe timestamp: 2009/09/09 20:24:53

Current time: 2009/09/10 21:27:13

Cannot register unknown string STR_STATE_HEALSOLDIER

Cannot register unknown string STR_STATE_FIRST_AID

Cannot register unknown string STR_USRACT_THRUST_ANALOGUE

Cannot register unknown string STR_USRACT_BRAKE_ANALOGUE

Exe version: 1.03.59025

Error in expression <_leader kbhastopic "sqlComm">

Error position: <kbhastopic "sqlComm">

Error Generic error in expression

...

Error in expression <_leader kbhastopic "sqlComm">

Error position: <kbhastopic "sqlComm">

Error Generic error in expression

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\drzformaci.wss', header cannot be loaded.

...

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\vratsedoformacee.wss', header cannot be loaded.

Duplicate weapon ItemMap detected for Ins_Soldier_1

Duplicate weapon ItemCompass detected for Ins_Soldier_1

Duplicate weapon ItemWatch detected for Ins_Soldier_1

Duplicate weapon ItemRadio detected for Ins_Soldier_1

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\drzformaci.wss', header cannot be loaded.

...

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\vratsedoformacee.wss', header cannot be loaded.

Duplicate weapon ItemMap detected for GUE_Soldier_MG

Duplicate weapon ItemCompass detected for GUE_Soldier_MG

Duplicate weapon ItemWatch detected for GUE_Soldier_MG

Duplicate weapon ItemRadio detected for GUE_Soldier_MG

Duplicate weapon ItemMap detected for GUE_Soldier_1

Duplicate weapon ItemCompass detected for GUE_Soldier_1

Duplicate weapon ItemWatch detected for GUE_Soldier_1

Duplicate weapon ItemRadio detected for GUE_Soldier_1

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\zpatkye.wss', header cannot be loaded.

...

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\kemne.wss', header cannot be loaded.

found in (59,167).

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\drzformaci.wss', header cannot be loaded.

...

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\drzformaci.wss', header cannot be loaded.

found in (60,167).

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\kemne.wss', header cannot be loaded.

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\doformacee.wss', header cannot be loaded.

Duplicate weapon ItemMap detected for GUE_Soldier_AT

Duplicate weapon ItemCompass detected for GUE_Soldier_AT

Duplicate weapon ItemWatch detected for GUE_Soldier_AT

Duplicate weapon ItemRadio detected for GUE_Soldier_AT

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\male01\cz\report\presun.wss', header cannot be loaded.

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\vratsedoformacee.wss', header cannot be loaded.

...

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\vratsedoformacee.wss', header cannot be loaded.

Duplicate weapon ItemMap detected for CDF_Soldier

Duplicate weapon ItemCompass detected for CDF_Soldier

Duplicate weapon ItemWatch detected for CDF_Soldier

Duplicate weapon ItemRadio detected for CDF_Soldier

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\vratsedoformacee.wss', header cannot be loaded.

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\female03\cz\kemne.wss', header cannot be loaded.

Error: cannot load sound 'ca\dubbing\global\radio\male01\cz\report\presun.wss', header cannot be loaded.

Cannot commit

ErrorMessage: Cannot commit

This is a screenshot from the ProcessExplorer after the crash showing how the memory consumption of the ArmA2 process keeps growing and then jumps further up when trying to save and staying there after the crash:

This is maybe about 1/2h of gameplay. Note also the ArmA2 line of the ProcessExplorer I copied in the screenshot, showing ArmA2 to consume 2GB of memory, though the graph just peeks at 1.6GB.

As shown in the .RPT I used maxmem=2047 - I am now considering to try with a lower value (1.4-1.7GB), trying to accomodate for the peek that apparently happens with the save. But that will have to wait until tonight or tomorrow...

My save is about 95MB big, zipped still 10MB, so I saved me that upload, as I'd imagine that it should be reproducible with the save at the community tracker as well.

My system is listed in my signature.

[Guardiannknight 10]

I have already posted this in a post about the new 191.00 Nvidia drivers, but figured I would post it here as well, since it has to do with the CTD issue. :)

Thanks for posting the new 191.00 Nvidia drivers. I tried them out last night or well this morning before I headed to bed on Arma 2, hoping it would cure the CTD problem.

For one, the new drivers makes the game run like a totally different game. With the settings I was running, with the 190.62 drivers. The game ran smooth and I was able to enjoy playing it, instead of all the lag and chop that occurs when a lot of stuff is going on sometimes. Again, everything was smooth even in good size battles, until about 15 mins. into the game, the game freezes and sends me to the desktop. I've been keeping an eye on the time, and it's right at 15 minutes every time, maybe give or take a minute or two. Sometimes it would show that Arma2's main exe file had an error, and I would report it to Microsoft. Sometimes it goes to the desktop with Arma2's exe still running, however using no CPU usage, but still has around 890 to 950 MB of RAM... I then have to end the process and all the RAM is free. Sometimes it just freezes in the game with the sound repeating and skipping, then I have to do the CTRL ALT DEL and go to Start Task Manager and that allows me to get out into the desktop so I can end the process the Arma 2 file.

One strange thing I did notice, when this occurs is when I get the CTD and the Arma2's exe is still running, I figured I would try and run the game again, with the main exe still running. Usually when you do this with another program, you would get exe file already in use, or program already running, instead, the game started right up... A little strange, but I didn't try to play it, because I know I didn't have the RAM to have two games running at once :P just strange to be able to do that from one main exe file for a game.

I will be posting this info over in another post as well, I was reading about people having the freezing problems, so maybe it will give some help to the developers on getting the problem fixed. This is a great game and has a lot of potential, I tried Arma years ago, and didn't even play it a week because of it's bugs. Arma 2 has come a long way, but the crashes are getting really old Especially 15 minutes every game...

Some info on what part of the game I was playing. I have played pretty much all the tutorials, without the game crashing at all. Even with the Nvidia 190.62 drives and 170 some drivers before that. It was laggy with the 170 some drivers(I can get the exact driver model if needed) and the 190.62 cleared that up a lot, have not tried the tutorials with the 191.00 drivers. Also, note, I have not been in a tutorial for 15 minutes. At least I don't think I spent that long in any of them.

What I have been doing is using the editor in the single player menu. I have been learning and using it for about a week now. I have a sweet battle set up, and when I go in to preview and play it, it freezes or I get the CTD every 15 minutes, again maybe give a minute or two.

My gaming system specs are as follows.

Processor: Intel® Core2 Duo CPU E4700 @ 2.60GHz (2 CPUs), ~2.6GHz

Memory: 2046MB RAM

Video Card: XFX NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX 768MB DDR3

Sound Card: Creative SB X-Fi Fatality

OS: Windows Vista 32-bit Service Pack 2

I haven't tried the game in my gaming Laptop which run Windows Vista 64. I'm thinking about trying it on here, if I keep getting the CTD on the desktop. The Laptop specs are

INtel Core2 Duo CPU P8400 2.26GH (2 CPUs) 2.27GHz

4GB Memory

Nvidia GeForce 9800M GS 512MB

OS: Windows Vista 64-bit Service Pack 2

I was thinking that maybe the desktop was just having problems and I was really thinking about going out and buying a new system. However I was looking at the specs for my CPU and it's still considered a high end CPU, it's in the lower section of the high end's but it's not a mid range CPU yet :P I'm able to run most games on full specs, so I'm glad to see it's Arma 2 that testing all machines even the top of the line ones. I think, if the developers can and hopefully will, smooth Arma 2 out, they could have a great game on their hands. However, with all games, I have my wish list of stuff that would make the game sweeter, but we'll just worry about the bugs, crashes, and freezes for now

Oh, one more thing, I am running the Steam version, and is patched with the latest 1.04 patch.

Edited September 20, 2009 by Guardiannknight

[Guardiannknight 10]

Well, just tried it on my Asus laptop. The specs are listed in my post above. The game crashed right at 15 minutes, just like my desktop PC did. I'm running Vista 64 on the laptop and Vista 32 on the desktop, again specs for each system is listed in the post above.

Again this is playing by previewing a mission I am creating. It's got a lot of units in it, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. But, just strange it's 15 minutes on both systems when it freezes or I get the CTD.

I did make a small mission on my desktop to try and see if it would crash with just a few units on the map. I placed 3 squads of Russia units, with a seek and destroy way point for each squad, I then placed 3 squads of BLU units and gave them each seek and destroy way points. I then made a sniper for myself. So, I started the preview and took my sniper and hide in some bushes to where the fighting would take place. I left the game running and it ran 50 minutes before I was finally found and killed, and it never crashed...

So, I'm thinking if one puts so many units in the game, it will end up crashing, no matter how much RAM or the computer specs you have. The Asus laptop is running Vista 64 compared to my desktop Vista 32. My laptop has 4GB of RAM compared to my 2 GB desktop. My laptop as a Geforce 9800M GT with 512MB of video RAM compared to my Desktop Geforce 8800 GTX 768MB video RAM. Laptop CPU is a little slower than the desktop, but for the game I turned the factory settings up to extreme turbo over clocking, so I'm sure that narrowed the small gap in the CPU difference.

So, even with more RAM, a 64 bit version of OS, a comparable video card and CPU, the laptop crashed at the same amount of time with a lot of units on the battle field(most are not in sight). The battle I have set up is a long one, so the units are scattered over a 8,000m distance.

However the desktop was able to preview and play a mission with only a small amount of soldiers on the battle field....

Don't know if that will help any with the problem... But there is some more info...

Edited September 21, 2009 by Guardiannknight

[andersson 285]

I had a strange error after a CTD..

Error 3e6 reading file 'addons\roads2.pbo'
ErrorMessage: There’s a problem with the disc you’re using. It may be dirty or damaged.

The last it of the rpt, it was more of the memory reports above:

Memory store: Failed mapping, already mapped 5064 KB, error 8

Virtual free 28065792 B, page free -1 B, physical free -2050265088 B

Memory store: Failed mapping, already mapped 5068 KB, error 8

Virtual free 28065792 B, page free -1 B, physical free -2050265088 B

Memory store: Failed mapping, already mapped 5072 KB, error 8

Virtual free 28065792 B, page free -1 B, physical free -2050265088 B

Memory store: Failed mapping, already mapped 5076 KB, error 8

Virtual free 28065792 B, page free -1 B, physical free -2050265088 B

File read error: addons\roads2.pbo,ERROR_NOACCESS

Error 3e6 reading file 'addons\roads2.pbo'

ErrorMessage: There’s a problem with the disc you’re using. It may be dirty or damaged.

Error 3e6 reading file 'addons\roads2.pbo'

[Guardiannknight 10]

A little more info on the CTD on my end. Last night I took about 1/4 of the units off the battle field in the editor and tried playing/previewing it, the game did not crash until 30 minutes. This was on my desktop setup. So, it seems that the game does not like a lot of units on the battle field. I'm going to try decreasing the units some more and see if it will play longer. It's not a RAM issue, because as I listed before, even with 4GB or RAM on the laptop, it crashed at the same amount of time as the desktop. However I have not tried the 1/4 less units on the laptop yet.

Also, it's not a processor being maxed out issue, because on my laptop, it has a LCD near the keyboard that displays RAM and CPU usage, and the CPU on the laptop(note it's a little slower then the desktop, but I was over clocking it, so it was probably ), stayed around 60 to 80% of usage, usually hung around 70% or less, and every now and then it would hit 100% for a second or two and drop back down.

Just some more info. Hope it helps.

[Bulldogs 10]

Could be that it's running out of virtual memory (page file)

[Guardiannknight 10]

Another little update. Well, I just removed 3 or 4 more units and I ran my mission (made my own mission) through preview and it played all the way through. Took 1 hour and 40 minutes So, it looks like the unit count has a lot to do with the CTD.

Hopefully they can get this fixed, because the seller for this game for me is the editor. Having huge battles and being apart of them is sweet :) What makes it sweeter is the ability to change the mission or add to it, to make it different, just so many possibilities lie in editor system with this game :)

You maybe right on that Bulldogs. Hope they can get the problem fixed. I still have several units in the game, if I have time tomorrow evening when I get home from work I will count them and try to also count the amount of units at the beginning when I was having the CTD. That's if I have time. Hopefully I will :)

[kenosis 10]

crash to desktop during autosaving.

how to solve it? i am playing campaign and now i am in Manhatten

[killakaze 10]

I have a sparkle 285gtx with 2gb vram and regularly crash to desktop without an error msg i press control alt and delete and find arma still running in processes if i flush the ram by pressing shift and the minus key next to the number pad and then blind typing flush during the game every 10 minutes i can play all night if i have my graphics settings on the highest it crashes within 5 minutes even though it was running perfectly smooth to start off with so i cant wait for the problem to be resolved. i looked in ARMA2.rpt and found this:

Forced memory flush (5595136 system memory surface creation failed)

Virtual memory total 2047 MB (2147352576 B)

Virtual memory free 49 MB (52035584 B)

Physical memory free 2024 MB (2122694656 B)

Page file free 4095 MB (4294967295 B)

Process working set 882 MB (924966912 B)

Process page file used 909 MB (953798656 B)

Runtime reserved 1057 MB (1108901888 B)

Runtime committed 453 MB (475222016 B)

Longest free VM region: 3538944

Small mapped regions: 38, size 184320 B

Cannot create system memory surface DXT5,2048x2048 (size 5595136 B), Error 8007000e

*** Device reset recovery requested

Error during v-buffer creation: error 8876017c

[kklownboy 43]

You use "Default Memory". not veryhigh, to use all your VidRAM. I also use the -maxmem=2047 parameter in the shortcut string. To make sure the system ram is where it should be.( i get 1.9GB~ usage )

[killakaze 10]

when i use default the game looks abit better but crashes alot quicker.

[StefX 0]

Another little update. Well, I just removed 3 or 4 more units and I ran my mission (made my own mission) through preview and it played all the way through. Took 1 hour and 40 minutes So, it looks like the unit count has a lot to do with the CTD.

Hopefully I will :)

Hi had the same issue check here to see my fix:

http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=75609&page=3

[KilgoreTrout 0]

I had the same crash problem, within minutes the game started stuttering with heavy hard disk thrashing and then CTD.

I put the -maxmem=2047 on my shortcut and altered the video memory setting to Very high. That seems to have fixed it.

[KilgoreTrout 0]

Update: It didn't stop crashing, but the game lasts at least 15-30 minutes before doing so. Which is sucky, but at least a lot better than before.

My rig:

Core i7@3,8 GHz (rock stable under prolonged 100% load)

6 GB Memory

ASUS P6T-SE

nVidia GTX 275

[jw custom 56]

Update: It didn't stop crashing, but the game lasts at least 15-30 minutes before doing so. Which is sucky, but at least a lot better than before.

My rig:

Core i7@3,8 GHz (rock stable under prolonged 100% load)

6 GB Memory

ASUS P6T-SE

nVidia GTX 275

Try running cpu @ stock speed even though it's "rock stable".

Disable HT

remove the -maxmem parameter

set "Video memory" to high.

keep all video settings on high.