Thread: Blue Screen crashes when playing LOTRO

Hello everyone. I was wondering if anyone else has been having PC crashes lately while playing LOTRO. I've played for nearly a year without this issue, but over the past several days, my PC has crashed once or twice every day, always while playing LOTRO. The error message seems to indicate a memory problem, so I'm curious if maybe the latest update to LOTRO has caused it to use more memory, or something to that effect.

Specifically, and perhaps coincidentally, my PC has crashed at least 4 times during the load screen when I enter the Bree auction house. It happens elsewhere too, and I don't see why that one place should matter, but I thought I'd mention it.

Anyone know if LOTRO could be causing the issue, or at least making the problem worse than it otherwise would be if I wasn't playing a game (but rather just doing something mild like browsing the internet, for example)?

Thanks!

Hello I would be glad to help out with this problem that you are having:

Heres a list of things that cause a crash when loading an app.

1- Not enough memory
Virtual Memory =
Virtual Memory is a space on your HDD (Hard Drive Disk) or SSD (Solid State Drive) where is used as if it was RAM (Read Access Memory) See for an example if you only have 2GBs of RAM its a good idea to have 2GBs or more Virtual Memory space reserved on your drive.
With Windows® 7 playing LOTRO™ you need 3GBs of RAM or higher to not worry about issues.
With Windows® Vista playing LOTRO™ you need 4GBs of RAM or higher to not worry about issues.
With Windows® xp playing LOTRO™ you need 2GBs of RAM or higher to not worry about issues.

2- Data broken and/or missing
Some times with HDDs you can break files. ether a kick to the computer, virus, or power surges.
Im not saying that SSDs are not able to have the same thing happen to them but SSD have no moving parts so file breaking is less of an issue.
Try uninstalling LOTRO™ and reinstalling. If there is files that are broken and/or missing that should fix your problem.

3- Graphic driver
Have you changed the way the graphics card runs the game?
Or installed a newer version driver?
I can help you with this issues when you respond.

4- Computer shutting down? Turns off? Or is there a Blue Screen?
If your computer is shutting off then this is a over heating problem and/or memory load problem.
If you see a Blue Screen with white lettering than this problem means that it is a memory issue. And most likly the only way to fix it is to run a check disk on your HDD.

Send me more info, and we can surely fix this problem.

I am A+, Network, Cisco, Microsoft certified.
And if you have already fixed it then great see you back in the game!

Was working before and now isn't. First thing to do is blow all the dust/cat hair out. Especially around memory and video card. In fact, pull out the video card and blow it off seperatly.

I used to get blue screens from LOTRO. It was a Creative sound card that was causing it. I fixed it by switching out to another computer. Sorry, not much help there. It used to BS me a lot when I went in and out of buildings. It sounds like Phoenix (above) has the expertise and is willing to help.

I too am having this blue screen issue. It only happens to me sometimes when I enter a building/new zone. It indicates a memory issue. its the blue screen with white letters. I run dx11 on my gtx470s on SLI and I have 24 gb of ram. I am able to pretty much run any other games at full setttings just about, including very demanding games like Arma II. It doesnt make sense that I would be having issues with this game does it? Recently installed the newest nvidia driver for my video cards. Is it an SLI issue? I have never had this kind of issue on any game and I am now playing The Witcher with all settings maxed out and no problems.

Oh, also I am new to the game and have just been playing for about 1 week or so.

What is the fastest method to get a problem like this looked at by the development team? I did file a bug report tonight. Pretty frustraing to have this happening, cant see playing the game too long if its not resolved. It crashed 2x on me tonight in the space of about 1 hour.

Bump for more feedback

Blue screens of death are caused by the parts of the software that runs on the actual computer as opposed to the virtual computer that the application runs on. Usually by a poorly written device driver. Of couse it takes a naughty applcation to send the bad data to the device driver. (bad physical memory can also cause BSoD)

A device driver should check to see if the data sent it is valid before trying to use it. Some companies write very poor device drivers. Sound card manufactors seem prone to this practice (Video card drivers can do this too). Thier drivers do not seem to want to check the operating system headers to see if the application is telling the truth about how much memory and the address it sent.

Make sure you have the newest drivers, unless it started to happen when you updated the driver, then roll back to an earlier one.

Originally Posted by SalionOfBrothers

.

Make sure you have the newest drivers, unless it started to happen when you updated the driver, then roll back to an earlier one.

Yeah, I would say it might be the new NVIDIA driver they have up now, its about 1 month old or so. I havent played the game long enough though to say for sure that its the new driver. If it continues I may try switching back to the old driver. Problem for me is I havent been in a habit of saving all of the old drivers, and I am hoping it wont be too hard to find the last driver before this one on the NVIDIA site.

Funny thingi is The Witcher is working flawlessly with the new driver, but I suppose each game has its own problems and one cannot assume just because one program runs well other will too?

Guru 3d has all the older drivers and they are free. http://downloads.guru3d.com/

LOTRO is notorious for having issues with Creative sound cards. chances are the issues you're having aren't related to memory at all but are in fact bad coding on the part of Turbine and Creative. I would try searching around on here for other posts related to the issue, but as far as I can tell this bug has been in there since beta and it still hasn't been fixed

Originally Posted by iCeDrAgOn2025

LOTRO is notorious for having issues with Creative sound cards. chances are the issues you're having aren't related to memory at all but are in fact bad coding on the part of Turbine and Creative. I would try searching around on here for other posts related to the issue, but as far as I can tell this bug has been in there since beta and it still hasn't been fixed

I am running creative's sound card X-fi fatality. Maybe that is it. its strange though how it is so intemittent. I can go hours with no trouble but then have it happen 2x in an hour. Just cranked up the amount of system memory used for graphics and the load time when I zone now is nonexistent, maybe that will help if its not due to the sound card. Set it to as high as it would go, 1.0. The sound on the game on my card BTW is great, dolby digital 5.1 inm DTS. The game has good sound and the graphics IMO are very good for an MMO since I have them cranked up. I get zero lag, seems to run flawlessly except for this zoning issue.

Originally Posted by Maldorf1

I am running creative's sound card X-fi fatality. Maybe that is it.

Bingo! I have that sound card and was having the same issue. Somebody suggest to change my lotro audio settings from:

SB X-Fi Audio
to
Generic Software on speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)

Every so often it auto changes back and I start crashing again. Switch to Generic and problem solved.

I hope its not the sound card because the sound is one of the things I really like about the game, and I tried that software enabled verison and it sounds like &&&& compared to what im running now. ive got the computer hooked up to a decent Onkyo receiver with 5.1 speakers.

Here is what the devs emailed me today, and they do ask that I turn off the hardware rendered sound:

"Greetings ,



Thank you for contacting Turbine Technical Support. Please perform the steps outlined below:

Click on the Windows "Start" button.
Then click on My Documents or Documents.
Double-click the The Lord of the Rings Online folder.
Within there locate and open the userpreferences.ini file.
Within that file under the sectioned titled [Display] make the following changes:

Change AllowFakeFullScreen=True to False
Change SyncToRefresh=False to True
Verify that the number following Resolution= matches your current Windows desktop resolution.
Change Antialiasing= to Disabled if set to 2x/4x etc. (e.g. Antialiasing=Disabled )
Change AllowDesktopCompositing=False to True
Under the section titled [Render] change the GraphicsCore option to D3D9 (i.e. GraphicsCore=D3D9 ).

Under the section titled [Troubleshooting] change the MaximumFrameRate option to 57 (i.e. MaximumFrameRate=57 ).

Exit the file and choose yes when prompted to save changes prior to launching the game to test these settings.

Some additional settings changes can be made from the in game Options menu:

Under "ADV Graphics" disable the "Player Mesh Combining" setting.
Lower the "Player Crowd Quality Control" slider to 0.
Under Audio change to the "Software on" setting and ensure that "Use EAX" is disabled.
Under the Troubleshoot section lower the Engine Speed to Medium.
Thank you,
The Turbine Technical Support Team


Turbine, powered by our fans."

In most of those actions you end up regressing video quality, I hate to make the compromise. Running on dx9 instead of dx11. Is that going to cause a decrease in video quality, or will it not matter all since the LOTRO program is rather old anyhow? I think I am going to play a bit longer with the slider for using system memory for video cache set to max and see if it continues to happen. Hopefully frequency on the issue will dissapear or go way down.

Originally Posted by nikil

Bingo! I have that sound card and was having the same issue. Somebody suggest to change my lotro audio settings from:

SB X-Fi Audio
to
Generic Software on speakers (Creative SB X-Fi)

Every so often it auto changes back and I start crashing again. Switch to Generic and problem solved.

So you got blue screen mentioning memory issues and it only happened when you zoned? It happened no other time?

Originally Posted by Maldorf1

I tried that software enabled verison

Did you leave it on long enough to see if it made a difference? I run through monitor speakers, so the sound quality doesn't change much for me. Being 70% deaf in my right ear might have something to do with that.

Originally Posted by Maldorf1

So you got blue screen mentioning memory issues and it only happened when you zoned? It happened no other time?

Yes, it mentioned memory issues. The BSODs used to happen when in Rift raids back in the day and also when zoning. The last few times the audio reset to SB card and not Generic, I would only get the error when zoning. Could be a driver upgrade that has it now only happening when zoning. As if they are getting closer to fixing the SB/LOTRO incompatibility issue.

Originally Posted by Maldorf1

In most of those actions you end up regressing video quality, I hate to make the compromise. Running on dx9 instead of dx11. Is that going to cause a decrease in video quality, or will it not matter all since the LOTRO program is rather old anyhow?

imho dx11 was thrown in as a last thought and has not been fully implemented as such about the only thing you may notice in lotro will be the water effects as you play in the water, other than that its not much of a loss, there is a bigger difference between dx9 and 10

some people have found that if you disable your audio before zoning these crashes dont happen, a bit of a pain in the rear though

if your using a 32bit version of windows with 3-4gb of ram you may find the advice here to be a better solution
Workaround for Client Crash to Desktop in 32-bit Windows

it is for a CTD but as your BSOD is caused by a memory issue, not sure what your bsod error actually is though but this could also resolve your problem

It sounds like it might be my SB card. Im going to play the game some with the system ram setting maxed out so it uses the max amount for video because it makes zoning really fast and I see no degradation in play at all. I did set my max frame rate to 57 like they suggested, maybe that might help the crash. If it continues I may trying shutting off the sound card when I zone, thanks for that idea. The difference in sound quality is dramatic between using the software and the hardware on my card. It really does make a difference when you have the computer hooked up to a decent reciever or amp. Im playing it in dolby 5.1 DTS. I am getting a full 5.1 channels of sound, its pretty darn good. When doing the software version the sound isnt nearly as crisp and it sounds like its maybe 3 channels at best.

Maldorf, it is 99.9% certain that your BSODs are due to the x-fi issue.

"true x-fi" + LotRO + 64-bit Windows = lots of BSODs.

Thankfully, Creative found the bug in their drivers and addressed it. There is now a beta driver from Creative that fixes the issue.

The problem was documented here.

The fix (a beta driver from Creative) was announced here.

Originally Posted by Hurin

Maldorf, it is 99.9% certain that your BSODs are due to the x-fi issue.

"true x-fi" + LotRO + 64-bit Windows = lots of BSODs.

Thankfully, Creative found the bug in their drivers and addressed it. There is now a beta driver from Creative that fixes the issue.

The problem was documented here.

The fix (a beta driver from Creative) was announced here.

Thanks. Its funny that you wrote this tonight because I just found that thread you linked. I downloaded the beta driver from their site: http://support.creative.com/download...ype=11#type_11

I installed the beta driver from 12/11 File Name : XFTI_PCDRVBETA_US_2_17_0008C.e xe

I was sure to remove all the old programs and the driver from device manager and rebooted etc. Then I installed the new one. It produced sound, but when I ran it on Witcher it was producing a terrible hissing sound. I think the card was somehow amplifying the sound of my hard drive spinning, it was a high pitched whine like that. So it sounded like &&&&. I checked all of the settings in the software and it was all correct.

Maybe it didnt work for me because I am using the digital out through fiber optic to a reciever? I also am using the Digital NEO PC turned on to get 5.1 out of stereo signals. Perhaps its one of those settings I dont know, but the driver sounded like &&&& on my PC for some reason.

So I had to uninstall it and go back to the old one. The old one sounds great. Setting it to software in the game loses most of the channels, its sounds like it just splits left and right between all 5 speakers or something.

Not sure what I am going to do. I am insistent on playing the game with the best sound, perhaps I will try a new video card.

WHAT OUT THERE SOUNDS AS GOOD OR BETTER THAN MY SOUNDBLASTER X-fI TITANIUM fATAL1TY CHAMPION? I havent seen much on sound cards, it was almost as if the only thing I could find much on was Sound Blaster. Obviously the software support from that company blows. Anyone out there have a good card to recommend?

Originally Posted by Maldorf1

Thanks. Its funny that you wrote this tonight because I just found that thread you linked. I downloaded the beta driver from their site: http://support.creative.com/download...ype=11#type_11

I installed the beta driver from 12/11 File Name : XFTI_PCDRVBETA_US_2_17_0008C.e xe

I was sure to remove all the old programs and the driver from device manager and rebooted etc. Then I installed the new one. It produced sound, but when I ran it on Witcher it was producing a terrible hissing sound. I think the card was somehow amplifying the sound of my hard drive spinning, it was a high pitched whine like that. So it sounded like &&&&. I checked all of the settings in the software and it was all correct.

Maybe it didnt work for me because I am using the digital out through fiber optic to a reciever? I also am using the Digital NEO PC turned on to get 5.1 out of stereo signals. Perhaps its one of those settings I dont know, but the driver sounded like &&&& on my PC for some reason.

So I had to uninstall it and go back to the old one. The old one sounds great. Setting it to software in the game loses most of the channels, its sounds like it just splits left and right between all 5 speakers or something.

Not sure what I am going to do. I am insistent on playing the game with the best sound, perhaps I will try a new video card.

WHAT OUT THERE SOUNDS AS GOOD OR BETTER THAN MY SOUNDBLASTER X-fI TITANIUM fATAL1TY CHAMPION? I havent seen much on sound cards, it was almost as if the only thing I could find much on was Sound Blaster. Obviously the software support from that company blows. Anyone out there have a good card to recommend?

That's the fist I've heard of that driver causing hissing or anything like that. I'm using TOSlink/optical to a receiver as well via the DTS Connect pack. So that's not the culprit. You've got some other setting or "third factor" causing that behavior. When all fails, try it again. I'd turn off the "NeoPC" aspect of the DTS Connect pack though. You don't need it to get full surround in LotRO.

Once, a long time ago, when I had a PCI version of the x-fi, I got a similar squeeling wailing type of sound. It was just a fluke though. . . I reinstalled drivers and such and it went away. This was 3 or 4 years ago though.

Can't really recommend another sound card that will do hardware accelerated OpenAL sound in LotRO. Even Creative's newer ones are said to be inferior to the x-fi.

Best,

B

Originally Posted by Hurin

That's the fist I've heard of that driver causing hissing or anything like that. I'm using TOSlink/optical to a receiver as well via the DTS Connect pack. So that's not the culprit. You've got some other setting or "third factor" causing that behavior. When all fails, try it again. I'd turn off the "NeoPC" aspect of the DTS Connect pack though. You don't need it to get full surround in LotRO.

Once, a long time ago, when I had a PCI version of the x-fi, I got a similar squeeling wailing type of sound. It was just a fluke though. . . I reinstalled drivers and such and it went away. This was 3 or 4 years ago though.

Can't really recommend another sound card that will do hardware accelerated OpenAL sound in LotRO. Even Creative's newer ones are said to be inferior to the x-fi.

Best,

B

Well, I reinstalled the driver and the hissing was still there. it is infact there all the time even if I am not playing a game, its there as soon as the computer boots. I tried all sorts of different settings and nothing gets rid of it.

After looking inside my PC I think I may see what the matter is. The sound card lies almost directly on top of one of my GTX 470 video cards. Since I have 2 cards in SLI there isnt much free room in there and the only slot open for the sound card is right on top of the video card. For some reason the main driver they released back in 2010 works great and there is no hiss. This new beta driver hisses like a snake! I read somewhere that video cards can do that to sound cards, even if they have a lot of shielding. Im not sure how good the shielding is on my card.

I have no altrernative other than run the main 2010 driver and toss out the beta.

Really strange. There should be nothing inherent to the beta driver that would somehow make the card more susceptible to interference. That would just be bizarre.

I wonder if it's enabling other recording devices by default. Try this. . .

With the new driver. . .

• right-click the audio icon in the system tray (lower-right corner next to clock).
• choose "playback devices."
• right-click "Speakers" and choose properties (yes, even though you're using SPDIF OUT, we want "speakers" here. These settings are still used!).
• Click the "Levels" tab.
• Click the speaker icon next to each of the items listed (except the top one) so they are all muted. Like so. . .

Once you've clicked OK (etc.) and you're back out. Do the following as well. . .

• right-click the audio icon in the system tray (lower-right corner next to clock).
• choose "recording devices."
• right-click and disable all devices except whatever you use for voice chat (actually, you might want to disable all here for testing purposes, temporarily).

I can't imagine that electromagnetic interference would vary from driver to driver. I suppose anything is possible. But it seems very, very unlikely. Try those settings above and let's see if the hissing goes away.

I too have my x-fi directly above my first nvidia video card (running SLi here too).

Best,

H

Originally Posted by Hurin

Really strange. There should be nothing inherent to the beta driver that would somehow make the card more susceptible to interference. That would just be bizarre.

I wonder if it's enabling other recording devices by default. Try this. . .

With the new driver. . .

• right-click the audio icon in the system tray (lower-right corner next to clock).
• choose "playback devices."
• right-click "Speakers" and choose properties (yes, even though you're using SPDIF OUT, we want "speakers" here. These settings are still used!).
• Click the "Levels" tab.
• Click the speaker icon next to each of the items listed (except the top one) so they are all muted. Like so. . .

Once you've clicked OK (etc.) and you're back out. Do the following as well. . .

• right-click the audio icon in the system tray (lower-right corner next to clock).
• choose "recording devices."
• right-click and disable all devices except whatever you use for voice chat (actually, you might want to disable all here for testing purposes, temporarily).

I can't imagine that electromagnetic interference would vary from driver to driver. I suppose anything is possible. But it seems very, very unlikely. Try those settings above and let's see if the hissing goes away.

I too have my x-fi directly above my first nvidia video card (running SLi here too).

Best,

H

Good ideas. I think I am going to spend another hour testing this more! If it works though I will be excited!

Also, in Creative Audio Control Panel. . .

• Set to Game Mode
• Disable X-Fi CMSS-3D
• Enable DTS Connect
• DISable DTS Neo:PC (not needed for game surround sound)
• Flexijack set to Microphone
• Disable X-Fi Crystalizer
• Disable Bit-Matching

At that point, our settings are very similar. And hopefully the mystery hissing will be gone.

Best,

H

Originally Posted by Hurin

Also, in Creative Audio Control Panel. . .

• Set to Game Mode
• Disable X-Fi CMSS-3D
• Enable DTS Connect
• DISable DTS Neo:PC (not needed for game surround sound)
• Flexijack set to Microphone
• Disable X-Fi Crystalizer
• Disable Bit-Matching

At that point, our settings are very similar. And hopefully the mystery hissing will be gone.

Best,

H

Thanks for the pointers. If it werent for you I would have given up on that driver. I actually made all the changes you described in your first post tonight and THEN installed the new driver. Its not making the hissing sounds anymore! I dont know what was wrong, but something worked!

So for everyone out there with this sound card and getting BSOD, you need to down load that new beta driver from creative and then if you get the hissing problems like I had try doing the things Hurin mentions. It worked for me.

Now I have not tested the new sound driver in the game yet to see if the BSOD comes back, but I am confident that it wont after reading all the success stories on this site.

If after a while you guys dont hear back from me it means the issue is resolved for me.

PS, looks like you may have saved me over $200 or so spend on a new card I dont really need. This one sounds great IMO.

Strangest thing is how the hissing wasnt there for some reason with the old driver. Now the new beta no longer has that terrible hiss.

I muted that as in Hurin's request and it has no effect on anything I can tell. What exactly does the MIDI do? Is it just for interfacing with musical instruments or something? I looked into it a bit online but didnt really see a clear explaination.

Originally Posted by Maldorf1

I muted that as in Hurin's request and it has no effect on anything I can tell. What exactly does the MIDI do? Is it just for interfacing with musical instruments or something? I looked into it a bit online but didnt really see a clear explaination.

Back in the mists of time, before (digital) recorded music in games became the norm, MIDI was sorta like "sheet music" for computerized musical playback devices. So, a MIDI file (which was often embedded in a game) would say: "play three C notes, then a long B sharp, and use the Oboe instrument. Now two sharp snare drums while a trumpet blasts four sharp C notes."

The problem with MIDI is that the music will sound different from device to device. Someone who spent extra money on good MIDI playback (a "Roland Sound Canvas" module, etc.) would get very realistic sounding instruments and the music would be quite good. Others who depended on the terrible MIDI synthesizer in their cheaper Sound Blaster cards would hear something. . . errrrr. . . less good.

Essentially, MIDI is snythesized music played live by the MIDI synthesizer built into a sound card (or even from a "software MIDI synth" built into Window, then piped through the sound card).

The beauty of MIDI was that it was very lightweight. Since it's essentially sheet music, it only took up a few bytes on a floppy disk or (later) CD. But once high capacity storage media (CDs and then DVDs) became the norm and (then) internet bandwidth grew in capacity, the era of MIDI (for the average consumer) was essentially over and "on the fly" MIDI playback was replaced by recorded digital audio.

FYI, here's a site with some old Roland Sound Canvas recordings of the MIDI music included in the Ultima series. Keep in mind, however, that very few people heard the music sound that good since the Roland Sound Canvas was no inexpensive and few people had them (which, again, is the inherent problem with MIDI music in games, etc.).

Best,

H

Thanks for the quick lesson on MIDI. Sounds like something none of us will ever use. Wonder why they even waste resources on putting it on cards. The MIDI on the sound cards today must be really cheap!

I remember hearing about those Roland cards and how good they were.

Played about 4 hours last night with lots of zoning and not a single hickup. Works well. The sound quality is just as good as before. ONly thing I notice is that it seems like I have to turn up the volume on my receiver a bit higher now to produce the same level of sound as before, but that is no problem.

I posted my solution to LOTRO bsod here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIfZfslTuJs

Don't waste time trying to figure it out - just backup data, and reinstall.

Originally Posted by celticrocks

I posted my solution to LOTRO bsod here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIfZfslTuJs

Don't waste time trying to figure it out - just backup data, and reinstall.

This was a thread that was detailing a blue screen relating to the Creative X-Fi drivers and is almost a year old. As you detailed in your video its an ASUS laptop I would recommend this thread here.