Profile has been reset after BSOD crash

[rangoon 0]

I have had many CTD crashes while playing the SP campaign, frequently requiring me to manually close the process through Task Manager. However tonight I had my first BSOD crash.

I suppose that's fine, except that now my profile has been reset. I really don't want to go through all of my controls and settings again, and I'm hoping my profile might still exist somewhere in the state before the BSOD. Any ideas? It kept my profile (name at least), but all settings have gone back to default.

Is anyone aware of a way to retrieve it somehow?

Thanks.

EDIT: I was able to use the Restore Previous Version function (right-click on file) in Windows (Windows Vista 64-bit). I guess that takes care of my problem, but maybe it will happen to someone else.

Edited June 22, 2010 by rangoon

[gossamersolid 155]

if your profile is reset, that means the BSOD was PROBABLY caused by HDD failure and that's why your profile was whiped. The profile is saved in your MyDocuments. Go check to see when the YourNameHere.Arma2Profile file was created.

[rangoon 0]

I ran Check Disk on both of my hard drives - they both came back with zero bad sectors and clean bills of health.

For what it's worth, this BSOD crash came after a series of CTDs and AI problems (like losing control of my squad until hitting some magic combination of commands to get them to listen to me again).

I'm not sure if Restore Previous Version can restore a file after it's been deleted and recreated, or if it can only restore the actual file after it's been modified. If it's the latter, then that means the file was never deleted (meaning ArmA must have reset defaults in the current file rather than generating a new file).

Either way, it's unsettling. I wonder if this has happened to anyone else.

[EDcase 87]

Good to hear you recovered it but its certainly not normal to have CTDs let alone BSOD.

Whats your system specs/settings and ARMA version?

[rangoon 0]

I'm running:

Vista 64-bit (SP2)

e8400 @ 3.9 GHz

4GB RAM

300GB 10,000 RPM Raptor HDD with about 20% free space available, same drive as OS

GTX 285

X-Fi

TrackIR, CH Controls

ArmA Steam version 1.05 (haven't moved to the beta yet but was thinking of doing so tonight)

I'll have to remember my current video settings but as I recall:

View Distance 3500

AF Very High

AA OFF

Textures Very High

Video RAM Default

Objects Normal

Terrain Normal

Shadows Very High

PP Very High

Resolution: 1920x1200

Fill Rate 125%

I can confirm these later, but that's what I remember. Let me know if anything sticks out to you. Only switches I'm running are nosplash, 2 CPUs, and the one that displays errors on screen (which by the way occur frequently in the SP campaign).

Thanks!

[gossamersolid 155]

well the BSOD can EASILY be caused by the massive overclock on your CPU. ArmA 2 does not cause BSODs, but faulty hardware or bad OCs can.

Maybe try to downclock that a bit.

[rangoon 0]

You're right - I've considered that but haven't clocked it back yet. You know how it is...you run the stress tests for 24 hours, solid...play Crysis (also OC sensitive) maxed out for hours on end, solid...every other game maxed out for hours, solid. It's always hard to think ArmA is so different that suddenly the OC is too much.

But sure, it could be.

Yet the other thing which is strange is that the AI started acting weird as things led up to the BSOD, which had happened to me once before, too. And in that case, it led to a corrupt save game. In both cases, things started acting odd (like my teammates suddenly ignoring me but still behaving kind of normal at the same time). I started getting crashes, then either the corrupt save or the BSOD.

In the first case, I was able to back up a few saves, then continue on without issue. In this case, everything was fine, then it started again and the BSOD. It seems that if it was an overclocking issue things wouldn't get so screwed up with save games and AI. It seems it should fix itself on reload of a save game. But perhaps that is naive.

Edited June 25, 2010 by rangoon