Only X-Plane. But again, in the last 3 days I haven’t play much else “in earnest”. What I mean is that I have run both DCS and IL2 with a plane parked an in the pit and left them idling overnight with no issues. X-Plane I’ve been running a bunch. The BSODs have always been with X-Plane running but only half the time was I flying in VR. The other times I was letting it do its thing in a 2d window while I either posted here or monitored the Air Hauler map.
I have had bad memory pass a Memtest.
What I do now is run a custom torture test with prime95 and tell it to use all available RAM (GB * 1024 = MB ram to use). With a bad RAM stick, the system will usually crash almost instantly once Prime95 loads it up. You can also use this as a CPU and thermal test, if you have concerns about cooling. After a minute or so you can cancel it, for RAM concerns.
If that fails, pull one stick and try again. Fails again, pull another (you can put back the first one). In the end you should have one out and all is well if RAM was an issue.
This won’t do GPU though and it is annoying because you have to load all the VRAM and the GPU cores (which react differently to different load types) to get a result.
Your overnight game-idle tests and then playtime failures also fit with my experience of a going-bad GPU.
In the past my dying GPUs all started to fail with my most intense game after an hour or so at the time but eventually would crap out with those games instantly and eventually even with basic office/browser work, BSODs were rare at first (usually graphics driver crashes and screen artifacts plus GPU audio glitches).
Without a second GPU to test, all you can do is perhaps remove it and try using onboard video (if available) and testing with what little graphics power that provides.
As well the very different fault codes fit in line which what I saw when my GPU’s went bad as it seems the GPU cutting out would cause various drivers to crash, hence the BSOD.
(I have had a couple GPU’s “expire” on me.)
1 Like
I know too you’ve mentioned running VR, Oculus, and X-Plane, and I read about the X-Plane beta killing Oculus VR and the workaround - have you tried just running without Vulkan (again, a quick glance up the thread and I can’t answer my own question)?
1 Like
@Wes. Thanks! That seems the most likely culprit too. I guess if replace the GPU and still BSOD I can still keep the GPU and build another machine and the GPU is no loss. My last test before doing that will be to uninstall Oculus. There has been some chatter about residual garbage causing BSODs after a number of revisions fail to clean after themselves.
@BeachAV8R Laminar has ignored Oculus’ advice for two years running that developers must remove no longer supported OpenGL cubemaps. With Oculus v17 that came out last week, those maps were removed from the Oculus software. LR didn’t listen and so OpenGL still calls for the maps and the game locks up. Vulkan takes care of that. There is another workaround but to be simple about it, the beta with Vulkan works, release version or beta with OpenGL does not. I have had BSODs in all scenarios: Release (OpenGL), beta Vulkan, beta OpenGL. And I have had BSODs in both VR and 2D with no VR active. I have had BSODs with the Oculus diagnostic tool open and with it closed; with ASW on and off; with a pixel multiplier of 1.2 and with 1.0. The only common factor to all BSODs has been that X-Plane was running in some form.
Ah…OK…I was hoping it was some exotic thing with Vulkan that was not getting along with your GPU.
Man, I hope that fixes it for you. We are all rooting for you…!
The other thing is the way in which the GPU is failing may be such that only X-Plane triggers it. Here’s an overview of my experience:
My first computer graphics failure (as a child) was in Roller Coaster Tycoon 3 (which was properly 3D vs the prior games) - I didn’t take too well to my dad telling me to “just not play it if it doesn’t work”. A few years later when I was early Tech Savvy and had a laptop that did work, I found out the cause was mis-matched RAM sticks (different timings) and the older motherboard didn’t perform speed matching. I got new ram for the computer and it was my first home server for many years!
The next was my laptop - it’s GPU called quits. It started out where ONLY fsx would crash it. Even turning down the settings all the way didn’t help. Later became other games and then office stuff. I have since sworn off laptops and “heat death”.
Followed up was one of the GTX660TI’s in old rig’s SLI setup and DCS was the failing game. Got a warranty replacement 670 as they were out of production, it had less VRAM so I kept the other 660TI in.
About two years ago now I think it was, that 660TI also quit. First only DCS, then it also affected World of Warcraft. Deja Vu set in and I bought my 1070TI.
If it is hardware, I sympathize completely. The utter mess hardware faults cause can drive you insane. I have known a few instances where crazy Windows problems turned out to be failing hard drives.
1 Like
Thanks for the shoulder to cry on @Wes. I’ve had a GPU fail but it failed beautifully–with horizontal lines and colorful bands across the screen. No guesswork there! I’ve also had at least 2 hdd failures but never in a desktop. And yes they feel much like this does. But I am with you, I think its the GPU and, if it is, here is what pushed it over the edge:
The crashes it caused were weird. I’ve never known that a GPU could be used for batch conversions this way. I attempted it twice with the GPU version of the converter (which is much faster if it works) before giving up and using the CPU conversion tool. During the GPU attempt, which ran several minutes before crashing, I could hear the liquid cooling fan really running hard. This wouldn’t be out of the ordinary in DCS or X-Plane, but it was odd with only the console window open. Even if I am being unfair and my GPU is fine, I put this out there as a warning for @BeachAV8R and others who might be using Forkboy2’s stuff–use the CPU conversion tool only. The Nvidia converter is uncontrolled and I think risky.
2 Likes
Yeah…I used that CPU/GPU converter maybe a dozen times…usually split 60/40 GPU/CPU I think. I didn’t encounter any problems that I know of. That was with my old GTX 1080 and an i7. I’ve run it once with my 2080ti and i9, but usually use my old computer to run mindless, churning tasks like doing those conversions or building ortho since I’m not using it much.
1 Like
Actually, I take that back - I did run into one problem. For some reason I ran that convertor program out of the wrong directory once and at the end it has an option to “clean up” files…and it deleted my Windows directory. That was fun.
1 Like
So after my previous debacle with the X-plane demo , i have mapped the controls , but now am suffering the oculus/x-plane thing . How do i switch to Vulkan ?
Thank you ! I scanned that screen several times and didn’t see that . Must not be the eagle-eyed pc aviator i once was 
1 Like
No joy 
the only tick box in that approximate position is “draw parked aircraft” . Version 11.41 and supposedly a full-featured demo…the debacle continues …
Perhaps i’ll roll the dice and skip the evaluation , but that will have to wait . New GPU is the priority right now-Thanks again !
1 Like
Vulkan is only currently available on the X-Plane 11.50 Beta. It makes quite a difference in performance, but the usual Beta caveats apply.
2 Likes
Thank you ! Bad timing on my part then…Open GL busted with Oculus , and Vulkan not available in demo . I’ll put X-plane on the back burner for a while…
Thanks again , you saved me a bunch of hair-pulling
(Well , if i had any hair)
1 Like
There is a solution with the non beta that forces XP to not load the offending opengl cubemap. But I need to search for it. But even with that, the game will always lock on exit when using Oculus regardless of XP version. It’s LR’s fault🤒
2 Likes
Here it is:
I’ve tried it. It works and appears to be safe. I have since just given in and started using the beta.
1 Like
We always tell players that have a onset of BSOD too look for two possibilities as the cause.It almost always holds true in the end, once the get over the denial phase.
-
You have had or soon will experience a sudden hardware failure. Then recommend they check their Device Manager for the dreaded Yellow or Red symbology first , and then download HWiNFO as it is far better than Win DM at seeing any incoming failure potential, plus they can see HEAT LEVELS etc…
-
If they have recently installed any new Drivers, Software , or especially any type of Mod for a given software app to either rollback or un install those , especially if one of them has a install date or time within 24 hours of BSOD occurrence.
There is very little , aside hardware failure or failing hardware and / or a recent driver change or corrupted driver install that will cause a BSOD . The occasional game client that they installed 32 bit when they needed 64 bit client or the opposite maybe.
Its a frustrating damn experience man, and I feel for you. IF there is anything I can do to help let me know.
Might try HWiNFO and seeing as how you have the ghost BSOD nightmare try BlueScreenView , if you have not already done so. It should at least find some trace of them and a minimal log of some kind, if nothing else.
Good luck man !
1 Like
Thank you . I have already “uninstalled” it . That experience did not impress either
Appreciate the extra time you took to find that !
1 Like
A (maybe premature) update. First, I know this thread has been a bit self-indulgent. We all have hardware issues so why am I special? I started the thread as a warning. I really thought X-Plane or an X-Plane related function was causing the BSOD. Ultimately I got the help I wasn’t seeking and…it helped! So thanks again.
Today I have flown more X-Plane than I ever have in a single day. And that’s not including letting it run in the background, which it has also been doing when I wasn’t flying. I did pause for a couple of hours to install 3 more regions of Forkboy2’s ortho and used the GPU/CPU app to make the conversions from jpeg to dds. No issues so far!
If the stability remains for another couple of days, I’ll correct any misinformation I typed above. What changed? Yesterday I read a post on reddit about BSODs after an Oculus update last year. Oculus acknowledged the issue then and recommended that people suffering from them uninstall Oculus Home and reinstall (but in a specific manner). That’s what I did. Fingers crossed…
3 Likes