Please help - EliteDangerous.exe crashes while loading Odyssey

Might be worth trying with a windows 10 build.
A bit of a pain for a O\S reinstall of course but it might be more stable especially with the Nvidia drivers
 
Heya CMDRs, thank you for your syggestions, appreciated.

Entring the BIOS I have removed the overclock from the E8400 Dual Core CPU bringing back to the factory value of 3.0 Ghz
I must say I overclocked it nearly one year ago bringing it to 3.6 Ghz and had never a stability issue with that setting during the months - never seen a single BSOD.

The GPU is an ASUS Cerberus gtx 1050 Ti not overclocked. I did not see the reason to do that because of course the bottleneck of my pc is of course the cpu. Non the less, ED Horizons plays nicely at 'high' with solid 60 fps in space and 40 inside stations.

Anyhow, tried to launch the game, the issue is still there, same behavior.
Black screen, music continues, EliteDangerous64.exe crashed.
I forgot to say the Task Manager in Win7 always shows EliteDangerous64.exe as 'still running' instead of 'stop responding'.
I must kill EliteDangerous64.exe with Task Manager to go back to the launcher.

I have taken a screenshot of the crash error window that shows up and attached here the two log files that I am able to recognize in ED:O main installation directory.

Hope I am not bothering you too much and thank you in advance for any further advice

o7


Please check the event viewer for any crash concerning PID 4064 or EliteDangerous64.exe during the time the startup was refused. This should tell the exception code which in turn should tell why it crashed. I assume it's a missing dependency and with that error code I could possibly find out which. Check inside the application view of the windows protocols inside event viewer. You'll find it in the control panel within administrative tools.
 
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Hello CMDR,

I have checked Event Viewer as suggested, inside the application view of the windows protocols, looking for events that happened at the time the startup was refused.

I did not found any event registered! I have looked for several times during the latest 24 hours (I can be precise on each time a crash occurred because it is recorded in the log files inside ED:O ‘Logs’ subdirecory).

I am wondering that for Win7 the EliteDangerous64.exe application did not crashed?

I noted that when I enter Task Manager after each crash, EliteDangerous64.exe is shown as ‘running’ and I have to kill it to return back to the Launcher.

I read online that Windows Event Viewer could not show events from non-Microsoft applications if these do not write information in Event Viewer itself. That could be the case of EliteDangerous64.exe creating a crash report independently from Windows and allowing to send it to Frontier...

I noted inside both ED:Horizons and ED:Odyssey directories a txt file named ‘EliteDangerous64.exe.watchdog’

Frontier Support told me that Whatchdog handles the crash reports within Elite Dangerous.

The Watchdog txt file of ED Horizons says:

[…]
Event triggered!
Target app exited cleanly with exit code 0.
Closed log file.

Instead, the Watchdog txt file of ED Odyssey says:

[…]
Event triggered!
Heartbeat timer reset failed.
Exception occurred in ThreadID : 3456
GenerateDump
StartProcess
Closed log file.

I suspect that is a time synchronization issue but cannot argue more...

Thanks for reading
 
Two relatively weak (by modern standards) logical cores combined with both system and video memory limitations could well be the issue. The CPU in particular is well below the minimum requirements.

The long frame time and watchdog timeout could imply that the system too slow for worker threads to be synchronized correctly.

Try launching the live game (Horizons or other) and manually set all graphical settings to the lowest values possible, including resolution, then try starting the Alpha. Perhaps this will allow the game to compile shaders, then allow you to turn up some settings once it actually starts. It's a longshot though.
 
Hello Morbad!

Thanks for your explanation and suggestion, I just tried to start Alpha after having set all the graphical settings in Horizons to the very minimum, including resolution. The behaviour remained exactly the same.

Yes my cpu is well below the minimum requirements for Alpha hence is definitely possible (or I should say very highly probable) that my system just cannot comply with the computational demands.

A thing that still puzzles me is that, reading here in the forum and looking at a issue confirmed in Frontier Support site, I am not the only one experiencing this odd behaviour, other players have whose PCs are above the stated minimum requirements... although I can imagine there can be different situations ongoing.

I will wait for next Alpha phase start when, according to Frontier Support, additional fixes will be applied to ED:O code that could solve the issue at least for some players.

Thank you very much for everyone that gave me suggestions to try, I highly appreciated your consideration.

Will let you know how it will go, in the meanwhile I will continue enjoying exploration in Horizons 😄

Stay healthy, fly dangerously!

o7
 
did you try lowering the core clock in 50hz increments down to about 150 hz of the core clock default (game is unoptomized)
as long as you don't save the value it will reset on reboot (msi afterburner)
As this problem does sound tdr related to me if sound continues...………...
try deleting the gpu.worktable.xml from your products folder before trying the above and when in horizons set graphics to minimum settings b4 quitting and trying the odyssey (you can step this value back up after the menu screen shows and is stable)
if horizons works ok so should odyssey with regards to systemfiles an updates so nothing to change there inc drivers ect
as far as I am concerned.
 
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@CptMarkHarlock Did you ever find a solution? I am having nearly the same problem as you had... been trying to solve it for a week now.

Press play from the ED launcher with Odyssey selected, it goes to the first scene with the ship (sidewinder) flying by, and it crashes... never gets past that scene.

1. Newest drivers installed and all windows updates installed.
2. Verified game files... completely reinstalled ED and the DLCs... several times
3. Un-linked and re-linked Frontier account from steam.
4. verified partner keys on Frontier store page (none exist for Odyssey?)
5. Verified .net, C++ and Direct X installations.
6. restarted steam after each step...
7. Screamed... lost my mind... pulled hair out...

Steam denied my refund... says I played it for 11 hours... HOW??? it will not even launch... I have been playing Horizons.
 
Heya CMDR!

Sorry to hear you are having these troubles and even more not so being probably unable to help… I explain what happened to me.

My PC hardware at this time was below the minimum specs: Windows 7 64bit, E8400 2 cores CPU and GTX 1050 Ti 4Gb GPU, 8 Gb RAM. I admit I had been kinda gambler but, being very passionate about ED and because Horizons was performing much acceptably, I was really curious to try Odyssey.

Not being able to launch the game, I even opened a ticket to Frontier support and the guys that answered, very collaborative, told me that likely the CPU was not capable to ‘respond’ quickly enough to certain code chechsums and hence crashed. They suggested the code game could have improved over time but were ultimately not able to find a solution.

Few days after the posts above I uninstalled ED:O and got a refund from Steam, having declared that I was unable to play the game.

Then, in late June, after Odyssey few early patches, I tried again: bought from Steam and installed; this time the game started with no issues.

I have been able, since then, to play ED:O with my modest CPU in medium settings for space and planetary exploration, while shooting in settlements was out of question because the game frame rate dropped to single digit per second, more like a slide show… none the less my playstyle indeed is focused on exploration, I had lived with that limitation and had fun wandering the space, looking at the new planetary vistas and ranking up the exobiologist carrer.

So unfortunately I do not have a good suggestion for your issue other than, possibly, open a ticket to Frontier, from your efforts I do think you have done all the possibilities.

I really wish you will solve your problem, my sincere ‘good luck’ CMDR

o7
 
@CptMarkHarlock Did you ever find a solution? I am having nearly the same problem as you had... been trying to solve it for a week now.

Press play from the ED launcher with Odyssey selected, it goes to the first scene with the ship (sidewinder) flying by, and it crashes... never gets past that scene.

1. Newest drivers installed and all windows updates installed.
2. Verified game files... completely reinstalled ED and the DLCs... several times
3. Un-linked and re-linked Frontier account from steam.
4. verified partner keys on Frontier store page (none exist for Odyssey?)
5. Verified .net, C++ and Direct X installations.
6. restarted steam after each step...
7. Screamed... lost my mind... pulled hair out...

Steam denied my refund... says I played it for 11 hours... HOW??? it will not even launch... I have been playing Horizons.
Had an issue on the old times of Horizon, (long before odyssey) that game was crashing at start, and found out the it was just being killed by the luncher's error reporter included in the game.
This did help me and I just do without all the time.

Create a batch file, name it as you like, ex:"runED.bat".
and past all this in :
Code:
@ECHO off
PING -n 3 127.0.0.1 >NUL
:KIILL
tasklist /FI "IMAGENAME eq WatchDog64.exe" 2>NUL | find /I /N "WatchDog64.exe">NUL
IF "%ERRORLEVEL%"=="0" (
ECHO WatchDog64 is running
ECHO Terminating WatchDog64 in 10sec...
PING -n 6 127.0.0.1 >NUL
ECHO Terminating WatchDog64 in 05sec...
PING -n 6 127.0.0.1 >NUL
taskkill /F /IM WatchDog64.exe
PING -n 21 127.0.0.1 >NUL
)
ECHO.
ECHO %time%
ECHO WatchDog64 is not running.
ECHO Waiting for WatchDog64 to start...
PING -n 6 127.0.0.1 >NUL
CLS
GOTO KIILL


When you start luncher, just start the batch file and let it go (it will close when work done) then start game.
The game will start and the error handler will not be able to consider it crashed or whatever as it's not running anymore.

Edit : Please note the 10 seconds waiting, this is because the WatchDog64 is the one lunching the game app, so it has to run a minimum time. BUT you can try less time if you think it's fine.

Please share your results :)
 
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Gave it a try, still no luck, can't get past the scene after you press Play.
Source: https://youtu.be/nXXDvpo9sD8


My computer specs

Motherboard - GIGABYTE Z390 AORUS PRO
CPU - Intel Core i9-9900K Overclocked to 5.1 GHz (water cooled)
Ram - G.SKILL Ripjaws 32GB 3600 (2 x 16GB) CL16
Video Card - EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 Super FTW3 Hydro Copper
Cooling - Full custom water cooling loop

I have never had an issue running anything on this PC
 
weird ...
did you update drivers?
did you try steam file check?
did you try playing in window mode?

Maybe try to reset local configuration?
press both windows key & R
paste : %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Local\Frontier Developments\
rename Elite Dangerous folder to anything (to be able to reset it back after if needed)
and start game again.

Any luck?
 
Yeah, like I said a few posts up,

1. Newest drivers installed and all windows updates installed.
2. Verified game files... completely reinstalled ED and the DLCs... several times
3. Un-linked and re-linked Frontier account from steam.
4. verified partner keys on Frontier store page (none exist for Odyssey?)
5. Verified .net, C++ and Direct X installations.

I have also deleted the Frontier appdata folders when I uninstalled the game in preparation to re-install.
 
Well... I've had a mild overclock on this water cooled EVGA 2080 super from the day I bought it... I did extensive testing to find a stable overclock, and I have not had a crash because of it... I disabled the overclock, and Odyssey loaded normally.
 
Well... I've had a mild overclock on this water cooled EVGA 2080 super from the day I bought it... I did extensive testing to find a stable overclock, and I have not had a crash because of it... I disabled the overclock, and Odyssey loaded normally.
this may mean you have an issue on the CG RAM, if it is not too old you could ask for a replacement.
but you being able to lunch game is good news :)

Yeah, like I said a few posts up,

1. Newest drivers installed and all windows updates installed.
2. Verified game files... completely reinstalled ED and the DLCs... several times
3. Un-linked and re-linked Frontier account from steam.
4. verified partner keys on Frontier store page (none exist for Odyssey?)
5. Verified .net, C++ and Direct X installations.

I have also deleted the Frontier appdata folders when I uninstalled the game in preparation to re-install.
well you got most what to do when having an issue, I guess the last thing to do is clean install windows? But ... well ... that's a real pain ...
 
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