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Consistant Crashing, Cannot even play.

Kitsune8Kitsune8 Member Posts: 7
edited March 2021 in Technical Support
Launching the game works. But anytime I press new character, premade character, change resolution or try to join a internet game, the game completely crashes out with no warning, no errors. I cannot even play it.
I've the Steam version, validated, uninstalled and re-installed several times, drivers up to date.

Posted on support desk, with reference number NWNS-8504

My Laptop Specifications are: Asus TUF Gaming FA706IU Manufactured in december last year.

CPU Type OctalCore AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, 2900 MHz (29 x 100)
Motherboard Name Asus TUF Gaming FA706IU Laptop
Motherboard Chipset AMD K17.6 FCH, AMD K17.6 IMC
System Memory 15789 MB
DIMM1: Micron 4ATF1G64HZ-3G2E1 8 GB DDR4-3200 DDR4 SDRAM
DIMM2: Micron 4ATF1G64HZ-3G2E1 8 GB DDR4-3200 DDR4 SDRAM
Display:
Video Adapter AMD Radeon(TM) Graphics (512 MB)
Video Adapter GeForce GTX 1660 Ti (6 GB)

Reproduction Steps
Launch the game
click new game and then prelude. Choose new character or premade character the game crashes with no warning.
Click multiplayer, join internet/lan. Join any game and it will crash without error.

Both instances the game just closes itself.

Included attachments are the files in the "logs" folder of my documents>NWN

Module Selector
Neverwinter Nights (Original Campaign)
Platform
Windows - Windows 10
How did you purchase Neverwinter Nights: Enhanced Edition?
Steam


I've deleted all the files, reinstalled, deleted settings.tml, turned off windows defender, updated all my drivers, tried a different install directory., set windows antivirus not to scan the exe, or any folders, ran as administrator, Tried setting it to my radeon gpu directly, and tried setting it directly to the dedicated nvidia gpu, installed DirectX 9, Changed driver settings, turned off controlled folder access and everything else you can think of. Nothing changes in the way it crashes.

Here's the error log for windows
Faulting application name: nwmain.exe, version: 79.8193.0.0, time stamp: 0x5fda4688
Faulting module name: nwmain.exe, version: 79.8193.0.0, time stamp: 0x5fda4688
Exception code: 0xc0000409
Fault offset: 0x00000000008777d4
Faulting process ID: 0x3108
Faulting application start time: 0x01d7156786a2d96f
Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Neverwinter Nights\bin\win32\nwmain.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Neverwinter Nights\bin\win32\nwmain.exe
Report ID: 204e79f4-7b69-4b3d-b28b-7907ac7b9d02
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

Only get one error log.

nwsync: reconfigured successfully
Error: 40964
Error: 40964
Error: 40964
[Sun Mar 7 05:43:07]Server Starting Up: 10 Second Heartbeat logging has been disabled
[Sun Mar 7 05:43:07]---- Server Options ----
Max Players: 6
Char Levels: (1-40)
Player Password: NO
DM Login Enabled: YES
Server Admin Login Enabled: YES
Post Game To Internet: YES
Game Type: Action
Difficulty: 1
PVP Setting: PARTY
Vault: LOCAL
Only One Party: YES
Enforce Legal Characters: NO
Item Level Restrictions: NO
Player pausing: ENABLED
Auto Reload When Empty: On
Auto Save: Enabled
Saving Characters in Saved Game
---- End Server Options ----
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
*** ValidateGFFResource sent by user.
[Sun Mar 7 05:43:08] [] () Joined as Server Admin 1
[Sun Mar 7 05:43:08] () Joined as Player 1
[Sun Mar 7 05:43:08] Loading Module: Prelude
Post edited by Kitsune8 on

Comments

  • FelipefplFelipefpl Member, Translator (NDA) Posts: 119
    Also got several crashes with GOG version for no reason but i can play most of time without (BIG) problems.
  • SymphonySymphony Member, Developer Posts: 142
    The first thing I suggest to people, which has become quite popular these days, instead of deleting anything, is to rename. This way you keep your old files if you have any.

    I would like to know, since it isn't specifically posted, if this is a recent occurrence, and you used to be able to play fine, or if you are a brand new player who only recently purchased this game. Just knowing in general if this exact computer has ever run NWN:EE can be a huge help.

    Normally I would recommend that your open "Documents" and rename the Neverwinter Nights folder to something like NWNold, and playing with a fresh Neverwinter Nights folder. This can sometimes help with permissions, or temporarily dodge a problem like OneDrive hijacking the games files (and deleting them after upload and leaving behind virtual copies!). You did say you deleted all files, though, and while sometimes people say that when they only meant the install files, we can try something else anyways to dodge a few more bullets.

    Use Steam's Library to open the properties for NWN:EE, and in the General tab, under Launch Options, use exactly this command:

    -UserDirectory "C:\Games\NWN"

    98bz1pkyyahq.png

    This will avoid asking Windows for your Documents folder location, and use this manual location instead.

    Getting out of the Windows Username folder can avoid a few problems, like OneDrive, Antivirus, pathname problems, and more, so while this probably shouldn't be considered a fix (if it works), it's a great indicator.

    Meanwhile, your documentation is pretty detailed, so, I imagine you're not having NWN crashes, that pop up the NWN crash window that says "NWN has encountered a fatal error and cannot continue", which also generates .log and .dmp files for those crashes in your user directory. If you did you'd have likely included those also.

    If NWN does not display this error message and post those files, NWN is less likely to be "closing itself" and more likely to be getting terminated by Windows or Antivirus etc. To me, this sounds like a "fast crash", where Windows assassinates a program without much user say-so at all, because something seems strange or uncomfortable. This (might be) like when banks decline your card when you make "Strange" purchases. Sometimes they save your butt because your card was stolen, and sometimes you really were trying to buy something and they inconveniently stopped you from using your money.

    The exception code you have matches that, it is an "0xc0000409" error, which is the Microsoft code for "The system detected an overrun of a stack-based buffer in this application. This // overrun could potentially allow a malicious user to gain control of this application.", though a lot of developers don't think this is a good description. A little googling and it looks like Windows also tells most people who get this error to run system file checks to fix it, and others suggest an issue with BIOS settings.

    I'm not sure about all that, so, I say go for the -UserDirectory test above, and try starting a game in Single Player prelude from there. If that doesn't work, then what we want is the .dmp files NWN isn't getting to make (due to termination instead of NWN closing itself).

    Microsoft makes a program called "procdump.exe" that creates .dmp files based on specified conditions, externally from the application. We can have procdump watch NWN:EE, gather information, and then as soon as NWN:EE stops existing, export that last second of information to a .dmp file. I've made a few .bat batch files to take care of the typing for players, so they don't have to run the command prompt and procdump.exe and type the instructions themselves.

    Download the .zip
    Extract the contents to a folder
    Double click on procdump.exe to run procdump on nothing (to accept MS's terms and agreements)
    Double click on "ExportMiniDumpOnEnd.bat" (This is a text file you can open and view if you need to)
    Run the game
    Create a new Single player Prelude game
    Have NWN die on you
    Check the folder for an nwmain crash dmp file
    Compress it and upload it here

    One of the nice things about getting a .dmp file is that you can never quite trust the whole integrated/discrete GPU selection systems, I find, but this .dmp file should have the graphics drivers listed for whichever GPU you were using at the time of the crash, which can be helpful.

    Also, you may want to run Microsoft's dxdiag.exe program, save all information as text, and include that dxdiag.txt in the .zip as well. Sometimes things become obvious there, like USB monitors (instead of HDMI etc) that don't behave well with NWN.

    Lastly, if you are getting in game (in your C:\Games\NWN user folder) but still dying on character creation, you should have a settings.tml in C:\Games\NWN that would be worth attaching as well, to double check graphics options sanity there.
    JuliusBorisov
  • Kitsune8Kitsune8 Member Posts: 7
    Symphony wrote: »
    The first thing I suggest to people, which has become quite popular these days, instead of deleting anything, is to rename. This way you keep your old files if you have any.

    I would like to know, since it isn't specifically posted, if this is a recent occurrence, and you used to be able to play fine, or if you are a brand new player who only recently purchased this game. Just knowing in general if this exact computer has ever run NWN:EE can be a huge help.

    Normally I would recommend that your open "Documents" and rename the Neverwinter Nights folder to something like NWNold, and playing with a fresh Neverwinter Nights folder. This can sometimes help with permissions, or temporarily dodge a problem like OneDrive hijacking the games files (and deleting them after upload and leaving behind virtual copies!). You did say you deleted all files, though, and while sometimes people say that when they only meant the install files, we can try something else anyways to dodge a few more bullets.

    Use Steam's Library to open the properties for NWN:EE, and in the General tab, under Launch Options, use exactly this command:

    -UserDirectory "C:\Games\NWN"

    98bz1pkyyahq.png

    This will avoid asking Windows for your Documents folder location, and use this manual location instead.

    Getting out of the Windows Username folder can avoid a few problems, like OneDrive, Antivirus, pathname problems, and more, so while this probably shouldn't be considered a fix (if it works), it's a great indicator.

    Meanwhile, your documentation is pretty detailed, so, I imagine you're not having NWN crashes, that pop up the NWN crash window that says "NWN has encountered a fatal error and cannot continue", which also generates .log and .dmp files for those crashes in your user directory. If you did you'd have likely included those also.

    If NWN does not display this error message and post those files, NWN is less likely to be "closing itself" and more likely to be getting terminated by Windows or Antivirus etc. To me, this sounds like a "fast crash", where Windows assassinates a program without much user say-so at all, because something seems strange or uncomfortable. This (might be) like when banks decline your card when you make "Strange" purchases. Sometimes they save your butt because your card was stolen, and sometimes you really were trying to buy something and they inconveniently stopped you from using your money.

    The exception code you have matches that, it is an "0xc0000409" error, which is the Microsoft code for "The system detected an overrun of a stack-based buffer in this application. This // overrun could potentially allow a malicious user to gain control of this application.", though a lot of developers don't think this is a good description. A little googling and it looks like Windows also tells most people who get this error to run system file checks to fix it, and others suggest an issue with BIOS settings.

    I'm not sure about all that, so, I say go for the -UserDirectory test above, and try starting a game in Single Player prelude from there. If that doesn't work, then what we want is the .dmp files NWN isn't getting to make (due to termination instead of NWN closing itself).

    Microsoft makes a program called "procdump.exe" that creates .dmp files based on specified conditions, externally from the application. We can have procdump watch NWN:EE, gather information, and then as soon as NWN:EE stops existing, export that last second of information to a .dmp file. I've made a few .bat batch files to take care of the typing for players, so they don't have to run the command prompt and procdump.exe and type the instructions themselves.

    Download the .zip
    Extract the contents to a folder
    Double click on procdump.exe to run procdump on nothing (to accept MS's terms and agreements)
    Double click on "ExportMiniDumpOnEnd.bat" (This is a text file you can open and view if you need to)
    Run the game
    Create a new Single player Prelude game
    Have NWN die on you
    Check the folder for an nwmain crash dmp file
    Compress it and upload it here

    One of the nice things about getting a .dmp file is that you can never quite trust the whole integrated/discrete GPU selection systems, I find, but this .dmp file should have the graphics drivers listed for whichever GPU you were using at the time of the crash, which can be helpful.

    Also, you may want to run Microsoft's dxdiag.exe program, save all information as text, and include that dxdiag.txt in the .zip as well. Sometimes things become obvious there, like USB monitors (instead of HDMI etc) that don't behave well with NWN.

    Lastly, if you are getting in game (in your C:\Games\NWN user folder) but still dying on character creation, you should have a settings.tml in C:\Games\NWN that would be worth attaching as well, to double check graphics options sanity there.

    Thank you for the advice.

    1. I don't use onedrive, it is completely removed from the system
    2. I've never been able to run NWN:ee, and i only got it about a week ago. Can't get past menus.
    3. The original NWN diamond edition runs perfectly fine.
    4. I just delete the files in my documents, the NWN folder that is, I've tried a renaming of it prior too.
    5. This is a laptop, bios settings are locked. I've ran a CHKDSK C: /f a few times now.
    6. I've tried older builds of the game, same issues. It will just close itself, doesn't even get into anything 3d accelerated.
    7. I will run the processdump, however I tell windows which gnu to run on, like I said.
    8. Settings.tml is whatever it is when it first creates the file.
    9. I use only the laptops screen.
  • SymphonySymphony Member, Developer Posts: 142
    Hey, Kitsune, thanks for the files.

    The .dmp looked very strange. I was very puzzled, since I hadn't seen anyone crash here before.

    I was trying to figure out what you meant by "which gnu you run on" and was confused, before I realized you meant GPU.

    THEN I was about to tell you that "Yes, choosing the GPU is good, but, I don't trust a lot of the settings that are supposed to let you choose, 100%, so it's always nice to see it in a .dmp to know for sure. One time I even had a .dmp that showed someone using both their integrated AND dedicated graphics cards to play the game", and then when I went to double check which one you were using, it seemed you also had both running for some reason.

    11qgls47d5e7.png


    Usually this happens on Desktops when the game uses the dedicated graphics, but the player has their monitor hooked up to the Motherboard's HDMI or DP out instead of the GPU's. This wouldn't be your problem, though, so that is confusing.

    Both are listed in your dxdiag.txt, which is normal, with the Radeon APU being the one running the monitor, which I also think is normal.

    I was surprised to see "Stardock" in NWN's loaded drivers, though, I am not sure that I've seen that before, and I am not sure that a start menu customizer should be required for NWN. I have no idea, but, I am desperate enough to wonder if that might be causing the game to load the Radeon drivers instead of only the Nvidia.

    See if you can adjust the graphics again (maybe try the opposite, and force NWN to run the Radeon's instead of forcing the Nvidia) to see if the crash goes away. I'll try to ask around a little to see if the crash/termination makes sense given the places you're reporting the dropping. I've had people with terminations like this because their Intel integrated GPU's were trying to write to Nvidia VRAM, or something, or vice versa, or something like that, and Windows was not okay with that. Furthermore, the game's shaders have to be compiled by the graphics driver to custom tailor them for themselves, so if one GPU compiles the shaders, they won't be useable by the other graphics processor. Either of these (or a whole list of other problems I'm sure) would prevent gameplay.
    JuliusBorisovKitsune8
  • Kitsune8Kitsune8 Member Posts: 7
    edited March 2021
    Symphony wrote: »
    Hey, Kitsune, thanks for the files.

    The .dmp looked very strange. I was very puzzled, since I hadn't seen anyone crash here before.

    I was trying to figure out what you meant by "which gnu you run on" and was confused, before I realized you meant GPU.

    THEN I was about to tell you that "Yes, choosing the GPU is good, but, I don't trust a lot of the settings that are supposed to let you choose, 100%, so it's always nice to see it in a .dmp to know for sure. One time I even had a .dmp that showed someone using both their integrated AND dedicated graphics cards to play the game", and then when I went to double check which one you were using, it seemed you also had both running for some reason.

    11qgls47d5e7.png


    Usually this happens on Desktops when the game uses the dedicated graphics, but the player has their monitor hooked up to the Motherboard's HDMI or DP out instead of the GPU's. This wouldn't be your problem, though, so that is confusing.

    Both are listed in your dxdiag.txt, which is normal, with the Radeon APU being the one running the monitor, which I also think is normal.

    I was surprised to see "Stardock" in NWN's loaded drivers, though, I am not sure that I've seen that before, and I am not sure that a start menu customizer should be required for NWN. I have no idea, but, I am desperate enough to wonder if that might be causing the game to load the Radeon drivers instead of only the Nvidia.

    See if you can adjust the graphics again (maybe try the opposite, and force NWN to run the Radeon's instead of forcing the Nvidia) to see if the crash goes away. I'll try to ask around a little to see if the crash/termination makes sense given the places you're reporting the dropping. I've had people with terminations like this because their Intel integrated GPU's were trying to write to Nvidia VRAM, or something, or vice versa, or something like that, and Windows was not okay with that. Furthermore, the game's shaders have to be compiled by the graphics driver to custom tailor them for themselves, so if one GPU compiles the shaders, they won't be useable by the other graphics processor. Either of these (or a whole list of other problems I'm sure) would prevent gameplay.


    Edit: Unfortunately i cannot find anything other than what's shown/windows to force the gpu on something. Radeons program sucks, NVidias the only one i can force with. But does'nt work really. I've tried both suggestions and it still closes at the same point.


    Yeah, the apu is running the monitor, then nvidia one takes over when high performance is needed, the apu still handles low power tasks like chrome and such. atleast thats how i understand it.

    Stardock is just my start bar thing, since i don't like 10's native menus.

    This is what i can only do for graphics and such. https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5035/~/run-with-graphics-processor-missing-from-context-menu:-change-in-process-of

    This picture i've given shows you the best how my laptops display is set up.

    I'll try to see if i can get steam to run on the nvidia gpu, since you mentioned shaders.. Im not sure why steam would compile them now on the dedicated one when it does with othergames. It's very strange.

    I'll keep trying things. Trying to find something that'll force the program on one gpu via third party program perhaps, Windows 10 20h2 and such are awful since that force gpu option was removed.kjtt8fuhtljv.png
    Post edited by Kitsune8 on
  • Kitsune8Kitsune8 Member Posts: 7
    Is there anything more i can do?
    full debug or something?
    Kinda wasted my money here on a game that doesnt work.
  • Kitsune8Kitsune8 Member Posts: 7
    in response to julius comment on my steam thread.

    The game crashes at anypoint trying to start -any- campaign or 3d graphics. It also crashes when i change resolution or try to maximize the window.

    There are no files under content > 704450
    Windows defender has been completely disabled. I've turned off protection, core isolation, all checking of apps, memory integrity, tamper protection, auto sample submission, reputation based app protection, exploit protection and disabled them from the nwnmain exe.

    It still crashes before it does anything. Its never loaded a campaign or otherwise. Its gets to the loading module screen then closes itself.

    I submitted that dump file on your forums too earlier. Symphony didnt even know why.

    I don't think a game should need the system integrity compromised to run.

    My laptop https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/For-Gaming/TUF-Gaming/ASUS-TUF-Gaming-A17/


    The game runs on my other laptop a HP omen with a intel i7 and a 2060. That's never been used from new.

    I dont understand why it works on that laptop and not my asus. The only difference is the omen is not a system that has two gpus.
  • Kitsune8Kitsune8 Member Posts: 7
    Here is a full dump file using symphony's tools.
    It is too big to upload to the forum, but maybe a full dump will help. So i've uploaded it to my mega account.https://mega.nz/file/n2Qh0QhI#NSkAZCM8KSnSeBWSmM_COVq9eqTKZmZyUu5Ttl8w0qs
  • SymphonySymphony Member, Developer Posts: 142
    Kitsune,

    I'm not completely sure, but I do not think this is an issue in anything other than graphics. I have never seen a dump with two different GPU's on it from a person who can play the game.

    The full dump is more helpful in some situations, but for you both dumps show me you have two different GPU drivers loaded.

    Now, I am somewhat concerned by the Nvidia PhysX window shows your "monitor" attached to a little USB-C port. I know it is a laptop, but usually if players do have USB monitors, they do not work well with NWN, since NWN needs the graphics card, which does not have USB-C outputs. That is not usually a USB-C thing (There are some fancy Thunderbolt display adapters the graphics card output plugs into in some workstation class machines).

    Also, PhysX is not "Having an Nvidia card and using it", PhysX, which I don't know a lot about (Don't tell anyone, but I'm on Team Red), is an optional Physics simulation accelerator, not, "Use my graphics card". This might even be your preventative measure of "force enabling" your GPU, which may have made your GPU an "extra" graphics processor just for PhysX (For, like, people getting two GeForces, one for display and one for physics simulation). I am not sure.

    Meanwhile, your Omen does have "two GPU's". The i7, in addition to pretty much all Intel processors, I think, that start with i (Not Xeon?), have integrated "HD Graphics" or "UHD Graphics" or "Iris" or so on, and those are the same as the Radeon, CPU's that have an integrated GPU.

    I do know of many players using Radeon APU's with and without additional GPU's (Such as discrete Radeon cards, like the Vegas, etc, or GeForce cards like yours) that do not have render problems, these TUF laptops are quite popular, but I don't have your computer, and can only make guesses about what to try next without the machine in my hands. These other players' dumps (I have seen a thousand or so) do not have both their Radeon and Nvidia or both their Radeon and Intel drivers listed, except for the strange example above (who fixed it by plugging his HDMI into his Nvidia and not his motherboard accidentally).

    The next things I would try is to see if it launches in full screen (does it remember if you alt + enter, to full, crash, and restart the game? If not, can you launch to the main menu at all with full screen manually entered in settings.tml), and, if you can find an external monitor, if it launches on it.

    I am not sure about files "under content > 704450", maybe someone was asking you to not launch the game with Steam Workshop items. Generally I prefer to ask people to double click on nwmain.exe in the bin/win32 folder instead, which launches the game without Steam/GOG overlays, because I've found that when people think they're not using workshop overrides, they sometimes still are. The installation folder, along with this nwmain.exe bin folder, are where you asked Steam to installed the game, and, this is usually the default path:

    d066iabl25va.png
    JuliusBorisov
  • Kitsune8Kitsune8 Member Posts: 7
    The Omen ( This is the one that i own too. https://bit.ly/311aJQ ) has the intel's Igpu disabled either in the bios or physically on the processor, because it does not show up nor drivers for it are installed.


    This is the Asus https://bit.ly/3s2C8O0

    Yeah the workshop comment was from julius in the steam thread i posted in. but I've already done everything.

    Yes, two gpu drivers are loaded, the APU handles low power things like web browsing and such, and the nvidia handles high end games as far as i understand. I did get NWNmain.exe to run on the nvidia, because there's an option in nvdia's control panel to show it's running on that gpu. I've also used the HDMI out on the laptop to my television, But that's absolutely no difference in how it crashes.

    It is installed the same way as your picture, with the same directory structure.

    Doing alt enter makes it crash. Trying to go into fullscreen makes it crash.
    changing the settings tml file to fullscreen makes the game try to fullscreen but it never successfully does so and crashes again. I even did your dump file thing to see if there was a different error, but there was not, It is the same stack error.

    I've even tried the gog version and it does the exact same thing.

    I even downgraded my Nvidia drivers.

    I've included a screenshot and a small report made by Aida64.

    3ssokw0kwxsf.png
  • tigstigs Member Posts: 1
    edited May 2021
    I've got my NWN:EE recently too and my game also kept crashing! The thing that fixed my specific crashes was turning off 'Radeon Chill' in the Radeon Software.

    /I don't know if this is your issue, but perhaps it helps?
    Post edited by tigs on
    JuliusBorisov
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