Windows 11, frequent crashes and BSOD when playing Online

[bensnexus18]

This is a very stressing issue as it has caused my computer to become unusable and takes a lot of time to get it functional again, I have had this happen twice in a row and it only happens when I play Deadlock in Public online matches, Private Bots it does not have this issue. When it first happened I blamed it on my hardware but after fixing it then playing a couple of bot matches and not experiencing it I felt like giving it a second chance, when online today and the BSOD crash happened again. I checked the Steam Discussions from desperation and actually found a thread from 12 hours ago mentioning frequent crashes and BSOD's. Here is the discussion: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1422450/discussions/0/4632609289965457793/

Now I will explain as much information as I can to help find if this is an issue with the game. This started happening when Deadlock updated to the 11-07-2024 build. I main Shiv and only played 2 online games and each one the game would be fine for 8 minutes and then randomly crash, then I would go back into Steam re-launch it and then get back into the server play for 30 seconds, crash again, then I would attempt again, 30 seconds crash, again and again so then I would shutdown my PC to reload everything and during restart/shutdown I would get a BSOD, for my computer it will then boot loop BSOD until I disable Secure Boot and then after a few more attempts it will finally let me recover my PC and Windows 11 will boot normally again. I swear this only happens with Deadlock and only when playing Online, I play Counter-Strike 2 as well, I don't crash like this.

My PC specs are these:
Windows 11 Home 64bit installed on an M.2 NVME Pcie Gen4 1tb
AMD Ryzen 7 5700X3D @ 3.00ghz
32GB DDR4 @ 3600mhz
AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT @ 8GB with driver 24.10.1
Corsair Gold PSU @ 750 watts
Noctua NH-U12S cooler for CPU
144hz Freesync compatible display @ 1080p
Logitech Superlight 2 with wireless dongle
Corsair mechanical keyboard

I will attatch a dxdiag of my computer for more details.

I don't think I'm going to play this game for a while now, I can't keep risking this sort of BSOD crash as its really messing up my computer. To see that I'm not the only one experiencing this is at least comforting as this could be an issue with the game itself.

I hope you can look into this and see if there is really a major issue going on. Thank you.

*Edit*: I must add that when I finally restored the computer for Windows 11 to boot and went into Steam it started validating Deadlock's files, I did not tell Steam to do this before the crash/BSOD and Deadlock was the only game to validate its files, downloaded a 363mb file after it was complete.

*Another edit*: I should probably explained video settings too. I played at 1080p with FPS capped to 240 which is the max in-game, all video settings are low except FXAA is enabled Stretch is at 100% and Texture Quality is on High. Display is on Borderless Fullscreen with AMD Anti-Lag 2 enabled, Backened selected is DirectX11 and display is at 144hz with adaptive sync enabled in the AMD Adrenalin, AMD Adrenalin settings are all on Default.

*More edits*: I just want to mention that I just spent 30 - 40 minutes playing Counter-Strike 2 online in Deathmatch servers at High recommended settings just to test another Source 2 game with online and it ran at a solid 240FPS and no crashing, my temps for GPU were around 65c and CPU was 60c, the highest this CPU has ever gotten is 70c but that's only when writing to SSD or loading programs for a few moments. Should be pretty standard operational temps and the fans are never too loud even at 240fps so I don't think there's any signs of overheating, it could be AMDs latest driver causing these major crashes and BSOD but something about Deadlock is triggering it because I just haven't experienced this sort of problem with any other game before this or since to my memory.

*Even more edits! because I care too much about this*: I did multiple 3DMark tests, GPU tests, CPU tests, mainly focused on GPU to test any driver problems or the GPU itself failing, I did normal/light tests a few times then did a 20 loop test on the max graphic benchmark, it completed with no crashing, GPU temperatures where averages were 65c and hotpoints got to at most 87c but only 3 moments in the 20 loops, framerate was stable from 18-20 mostly 18.81fps. No crashing. CPU temps got as high as 70c on the CPU thread benchmark tests. No crashing, no hitching, no stutter. I really think it's a problem with how Deadlock is interacting with a PC build like mine right now.

*Progress Edit*: I decided to rollback from AMD Adrenalin 24.10.1 to 24.9.1 and played 1 more casual online match (already had to abandon 2 because of the BSOD crash) and after 30 minutes and victory the match ended and there was not a SINGLE crash all game long, I cannot fully confirm this has fixed the problem as it could happen in a future match and I just got lucky but after 3 games now this 3rd match didn't have a crash and BSOD after I rollbacked the driver. I will play another later tonight so wish my luck this has fixed it, I really don't know what else I can do on my end about this. My PC seems healthy despite this issue with Deadlock

 

[bensnexus18]

I just played 4 matches after rolling back AMD Adrenalin Drivers to 24.9.1 from 24.10.1, didn't get a single crash or BSOD so I also bug reported it to AMD, hopefully AMDs next driver doesn't carry this crash problem over but because Deadlock is not an official game driver support is going to be very problematic until it does. I hope Valve can reduce this kind of crash for AMD from happening because it would be a shame to have to stick to an old driver just to play this game.

 

[hellduke]

Great that you found the AMD driver to be an issue. Might be something worth flagging to AMD support so that it could be resolved.

Just to be clear - this is not for Valve to fix, since it's not Deadlock that is causing these crashes, the issue is with your system. A stop error (BSOD) is caused by hardware failures, driver failures or corrupt OS files. That's it. Deadlock is neither, the closest you can get is with kernel level anti-cheats or cheat software (though a few OS crashes is the least of your concerns if one engages in using cheats, you might as well post every bit of your private life on your social media). Just because only Deadlock requests your OS to do something that results in a stop error does not mean that Deadlock caused the crash

Think of it this way: car A stops in front of car B and B has to brake very fast. The steering wheel of car B broke off. Does that mean that car A caused the steering wheel to break? Let's put some crappy glue on and put the steering wheel back on just like it was done before! Oh no, I have to stop again behind car A! Steering wheel came off. The steering wheel only breaks when I stop behind car A! Surely car A is breaking my steering wheel!

Sounds silly, doesn't it? Correlation does not equal causation is another saying that comes to mind.

 

[bensnexus18]

Great that you found the AMD driver to be an issue. Might be something worth flagging to AMD support so that it could be resolved.

Just to be clear - this is not for Valve to fix, since it's not Deadlock that is causing these crashes, the issue is with your system. A stop error (BSOD) is caused by hardware failures, driver failures or corrupt OS files. That's it. Deadlock is neither, the closest you can get is with kernel level anti-cheats or cheat software (though a few OS crashes is the least of your concerns if one engages in using cheats, you might as well post every bit of your private life on your social media). Just because only Deadlock requests your OS to do something that results in a stop error does not mean that Deadlock caused the crash

Think of it this way: car A stops in front of car B and B has to brake very fast. The steering wheel of car B broke off. Does that mean that car A caused the steering wheel to break? Let's put some crappy glue on and put the steering wheel back on just like it was done before! Oh no, I have to stop again behind car A! Steering wheel came off. The steering wheel only breaks when I stop behind car A! Surely car A is breaking my steering wheel!

Sounds silly, doesn't it? Correlation does not equal causation is another saying that comes to mind.

I get what you're saying and this response is going to seem like I didn't read any of it but I can't help but mention, if you use software that causes an issue and you have other software, some similar, some completely different that do not cause the same error how can it not be the fault of that particular software? It definitely is AMD drivers not working correctly with Deadlock but to say Deadlock did not cause this problem sort of sounds like I should never report any problem with any software. It definitely doesn't help pulling the blame off of Deadlock if others are experiencing the same problem. Sure BSOD is hardware failure but didn't Deadlock trigger the failure? I tried many different games and software to recreate as much as I can to put the hardware through extreme lengths to cause a trigger but it didn't only Deadlock caused this. So I'm sorry but AMD had a problem but it came from Deadlock, if I never played Deadlock my chances of ever finding this problem may have never came up.

 

[hellduke]

I get what you're saying and this response is going to seem like I didn't read any of it but I can't help but mention, if you use software that causes an issue and you have other software, some similar, some completely different that do not cause the same error how can it not be the fault of that particular software?

It's the type of failure that is the problem. A stop error is a very particular type of crash. If it were a problem with Deadlock, then Deadlock would crash or freeze, but you would never get a stop error. You can watch this video to get a better understanding:

A game might push the system to it's limits, or request the system to do something specific that others games do not normally ask it to do. The thing is that the OS and drivers are meant to handle that. Even if the game does it wrong, what happens is that the game crashes (note that in the video the Forza example is a development version of Windows, not Forza that had the issue). If you get a blue screen then at that point it's the driver that malfunctioned and the issue lies with the driver. Sure the game can do a workaround to alleviate the issue, but ultimately it's not the game that is causing the issue. Fixing the game would be akin to using different glue to affix the steering wheel in my previous analogy. Will the wheel be back on? Sure. Maybe it will hold better when breaking! Is your steering wheel still broken? Absolutely.

Multiple people experiencing the same issue with the same AMD driver simply points the finger to AMD messing up. It seems a bit odd to suggest that Deadlock needs to be blamed when AMD messed up. It's kind of how back when New World launched, people blamed that it killed graphics cards. Sure graphics cards died and it was seen that the game did not limit the FPS in the menu causing the GPU to basically run at full throttle. That said, it was still a deffective GPU that gave out under expected loads, not the game killing the GPU. Same here, your system crashes under expected circumstances that Deadlock just happens to be the only software YOU use utilizes. If it was not Deadlock, some other application would have come latter down the line and cause the issue anyway.

At the end of the day, this is just something for AMD to fix, nobody else.

 

[bensnexus18]

Thanks for even more detailed explanation but I must end the night by saying I played 1 more match and the in-game crashing returned, what didn't return was a BSOD. I read a tip that when you reconnect you should wait for the shader text bubble to go away before pressing Rejoin or it will instantly crash again but even with that advice my match went like this: First 12 minutes everything was nice, then I approached a Yamato on a different lane to attack I got Shivs 2 off and dashed away then looked at Yamato about to throw a spell and the game froze and booted me off to Steam Client, I reconnected and then 6 minutes later I saw Yamato again and attack her then it crashed the same way, I rejoined told my team to keep Yamato away from me because of the crashing but then 5 more minutes later a Haze showed up with my Abrams partner then I crashed, rejoined, some how lived and killed Haze then the rest of the game I was pretty much afraid to do anything for my team but we still won. I quit the game and BSOD did not occur which is good. I really don't know if I should play this game for a while, might have to go cold turkey like what if I played ranked this week? It's not worth the risk.

 

[hellduke]

If only you crash in the given circumstances there is likely still something wrong with your system even if you do not BSOD. The fact that you were getting stop errors previously is a hint that there definitely is something wrong with your system, but it's most likely not hardware related. Might be that you have corrupt libraries or something is wrong with the drivers. You could troubleshoot and try things like reinstalling graphics drivers (use Display Driver Uninstaller), but I'd recommend you just do a clean Windows install wether you continue to play the game or not. Make a backup of all your important data off the PC and do a clean install of Windows. That should be the most straight forward way to fix crashes in the game and get ahead of issues in the future.