[phillpower2]

I'm out of suggestions atm I`m afraid   as the problem only happens with the one game and the substantial (and excellent) work carried out by BrianDrab and yourself has not resolved the issue I suggest that you post here to see if anyone at the steam community has encountered this issue and more importantly if there is a fix, I will keep pondering on this in case I have overlooked something but tbh I feel that the MGS software is the problem.

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Thanks very much.  Both Brian and yourself have been great.  At this point, I don't care nearly as much if I have to restart before I play this game, because now it takes a couple of minutes and the PC will be completely booted and usable if I walk away after turning it on.  My system generally feels smoother now, so even if the problem isn't totally sorted, I'm really glad that we've done all this.

I've posted on the Steam forum and searched through all the MGSV threads for a similar problem but no-one seems to have the same trouble.

 

I honestly don't think it's MGS as much as it's MGS finding the thing that's wrong with my system, because I believe more people would be having this trouble otherwise.  I have one more thing to try later. I remember someone complaining that Resident Evil 5 was causing blue screens for them, and we went through all his drivers and such looking for problems and I gave up for a couple of days.  When I talked to him again, he said it was a wireless gamepad dongle of all things, and that if he played without that, there were no blue screens.

 

I have an iLok for a lot of my music software licences, and iLoks are notoriously both invasive and faultily coded.  Perhaps in some way that's the problem.  It's related to the sound, and my sound card was totally removed (aside: just played for a couple of hours with the sound card back in, so that wasn't the problem) for several sound-related blue screens if I recall, and I remember one of the earliest blue screens was a 'USB bug code check' or something similar.  Over the next couple of days I'll run some tests.

Thanks again, both of ye.

Edited by For the love of sod., 08 October 2015 - 09:12 AM.

[For the love of sod.]

Thanks very much.  Both Brian and yourself have been great.  At this point, I don't care nearly as much if I have to restart before I play this game, because now it takes a couple of minutes and the PC will be completely booted and usable if I walk away after turning it on.  My system generally feels smoother now, so even if the problem isn't totally sorted, I'm really glad that we've done all this.

I've posted on the Steam forum and searched through all the MGSV threads for a similar problem but no-one seems to have the same trouble.

 

I honestly don't think it's MGS as much as it's MGS finding the thing that's wrong with my system, because I believe more people would be having this trouble otherwise.  I have one more thing to try later. I remember someone complaining that Resident Evil 5 was causing blue screens for them, and we went through all his drivers and such looking for problems and I gave up for a couple of days.  When I talked to him again, he said it was a wireless gamepad dongle of all things, and that if he played without that, there were no blue screens.

 

I have an iLok for a lot of my music software licences, and iLoks are notoriously both invasive and faultily coded.  Perhaps in some way that's the problem.  It's related to the sound, and my sound card was totally removed (aside: just played for a couple of hours with the sound card back in, so that wasn't the problem) for several sound-related blue screens if I recall, and I remember one of the earliest blue screens was a 'USB bug code check' or something similar.  Over the next couple of days I'll run some tests.

Thanks again, both of ye.

Edited by For the love of sod., 08 October 2015 - 09:12 AM.

[For the love of sod.]

So, new dump file.  Looks like more of the same to me but you can make sure if you like.  This time the game went for over three hour after being woken from sleep.  It never would have done that before some of the stuff I did as per Brian's instructions, which means we've made significant improvements, and I hate to say it but I think that makes it prey on my mind more.

 

Earlier I started the PC like normal but with the sound card back in (restarted a couple of times for proper driver installations and such), and at some point later I played the game for a couple of hours with no trouble.  Later, both physically and via the taskbar I removed the iLok, which is always in, and I put the PC to sleep.  I came back several hours later, and eventually started the game.  That was my test.

I suppose I could try putting it to sleep now that the iLok wasn't in during the boot process, and then try to play the game.  If it works, that test only helps to narrow down which of my components is laughing at my strife as for practical purposes, if I have to start the game only if the iLok was never in, that sort of defeats the purpose.

Another weird thing about my arrangement is it's a Mac keyboard and mouse I do use on my Windows PC.  Never been a problem before but that hardly means it isn't now.

 

Unfortunately, the most likely culprit if it's a piece of hardware, is my GPU, and I can't test the game without that, nor have I access to any others.

 

Cheers.

Attached Files

•  Minidump.zip   1.15MB   201 downloads

[phillpower2]

Apologies for the delay getting back to you 

 

Nothing specifically identified in the latest crash dump but there are two instances of iLok drivers failing to load;

 

fffff880`09bb2000 fffff880`09bbd000   iLokDrvr.sys

fffff880`04aa6000 fffff880`04ab1000   iLokDrvr.sys

 

Not convinced that your GPU itself is to blame, a GTX 760 or above would be better but a 750Ti does meet the minimum requirements for MGS V

 

Can we have a screenshot of Disk Manager please;

 

1. Click on the Start button and then choose Control Panel.

2. Click on the System and Security link.

Note: If you're viewing the Large icons or Small iconsview of Control Panel, you won't see this link so just click on the Administrative Tools icon and skip to Step 4.

3. In the System and Security window, click on the Administrative Tools heading located near the bottom of the window.

4. In the Administrative Tools window, double-click on the Computer Management icon.

5. When Computer Management opens, click on Disk Management on the left side of the window, located under Storage.

After a brief loading period, Disk Management should now appear on the right side of the Computer Management window.

 

Note: If you don't see Disk Management listed, you may need to click on the |> icon to the left of the Storage icon.

 

To capture and post a screenshot;

 

Click on the ALT key + PRT SCR key..its on the top row..right hand side..now click on start...all programs...accessories...paint....left click in the white area ...press CTRL + V...click on file...click on save...save it to your desktop...name it something related to the screen your capturing... BE SURE TO SAVE IT AS A .JPG ...otherwise it may be to big to upload... then after typing in any response you have... click on browse...desktop...find the screenshot..select it and click on the upload button...then on the lower left...after it says upload successful...click on add reply like you normally would.

 

Screenshot instructions are provided to assist those that may read this topic but are not yet aware of the “how to”.

 

[For the love of sod.]

Thanks.  Here's the screen shot:  http://prntscr.com/8q2i98

 

Interesting findings with the iLok but as the game's crashed with no iLok in, I would think it's not that, yeah?  Another thing I thought of is what if something weird happens to the memory when I put it to sleep?  Maybe I should run that MemTest again both before and after the PC's been put to sleep.  Remember, this is that other MemTest that runs from the desktop, not the one that boots from a CD or USB drive before Windows boots.

[phillpower2]

Thanks for the screenshot 

 

The reason why I asked for the screenshot was because after rereading the whole thread I noted the below in your Speccy log, it may be something or nothing dependant on your update regarding the said info;

 

Storage

2794GB Seagate ST3000DM001-1CH166 ATA Device (SATA): 35 °C

746GB ASDK ST3000DM001-1CH166 ATA Device (NULL)

1GB SanDisk U3 Cruzer Micro USB Device (USB)

 

WDBackupEngine.exe

Process ID: 3700

User: SYSTEM

Domain: NT AUTHORITY

Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Western Digital\WD SmartWare\WDBackupEngine.exe

Memory Usage: 33 MB

Peak Memory Usage: 33 MB

WDDMStatus.exe

Process ID: 6172

User: Erik

Domain: Endloser_Winter

Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Western Digital\WD Quick View\WDDMStatus.exe

Memory Usage: 30 MB

Peak Memory Usage: 30 MB

WDDriveAutoUnlock.exe

Process ID: 7160

User: Erik

Domain: Endloser_Winter

Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Western Digital\WD Security\WDDriveAutoUnlock.exe

Memory Usage: 11 MB

Peak Memory Usage: 11 MB

WDDriveService.exe

Process ID: 3356

User: SYSTEM

Domain: NT AUTHORITY

Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Western Digital\WD Drive Manager\WDDriveService.exe

Memory Usage: 16 MB

Peak Memory Usage: 16 MB

WDDriveUtilitiesHelper.exe

Process ID: 7120

User: Erik

Domain: Endloser_Winter

Path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Western Digital\WD Utilities\WDDriveUtilitiesHelper.exe

Memory Usage: 12 MB

Peak Memory Usage: 12 MB

 

What I am pointing to is the fact that you have 746GB + of unallocated space on the Seagate HDD and while there is no mention of Western Digital HDDs in your list of storage devices detected by Speccy it does list all of the above Western Digital software, any idea as to why.

[For the love of sod.]

Ah yeah sorry, that's my external drive that WD one is.  Don't be keeping it plugged in however.  The Seagate is a 3TB one, which Asus for whatever reason (the motherboard I assume) automatically instally software to read all 3TB.  It said 2TB was its maximum and installed Disk Unlocker to partition it automatically.  Seems a bit dodgy to me but it's worked so far.  I keep my Steam games on that partition and back up the other one, as I can just download my Steam games from the cloud if needed at any point.

[phillpower2]

As I suspected but had to check because of the presence of the USB Sandisk Cruzer device.

 

I keep my Steam games on that partition and back up the other one

 

 

To which partitions are you referring please.

 

For best performance and security it is best to have Windows on its own partition out of harms way and data such as games ect on their own partition, one of the suggestions that I was going to make was to try installing MGS V on a partition away from Windows, you could try bringing the unallocated space into use and after ensuring that it has been allocated a drive letter install MGS V there and test.

 

Tip

 

While troubleshooting be sure to disconnect all USB storage devices from a computer.

[For the love of sod.]

Ah right, the E drive is the partition with my games, which is the partition Disk Unlocker made automatically.  Not long ago I moved all my Steam stuff to that previously unused partition, but definitely a good while before I got MGSV.  No other games have had any problems.  That partition is of course not the same one as Windows.

 

Thanks for the tip.  That USB device was only there as I was trying to run thebootable MemTest as opposed to the HCI one that's run from the OS.  Generally, I don't have one in, but I probaby wouldn't have thought to remove it for a bit so thanks for that.  This time, I remembered and it hasn't been in there for a few day at least, but usually I'd have forgotten.

 

I've considered dual-booting a Windows 10 upgrade to see what does and doesn't work.  Would you advise that and how would you go about it?

 

Thanks.

[phillpower2]

Not long ago I moved all my Steam stuff to that previously unused partition

 

 

Not sure if I am understanding correctly here as unallocated space on a HDD cannot be used until it has been formatted and allocated a drive letter.

 

Excuse the title of the tutorial, a step by step guide here, please note that you will need to use all of the unallocated space as one partition, this because Windows will not boot with any more than four partitions on a single storage device, you could try installing Windows 10 and nothing else to the new partition and then test out MGS V.

[For the love of sod.]

Sorry, knew I'd forgotten something.  That unallocated space appears to be the E partition.  My motherboard is an Asus M5A97 R2.0 (Socket 942), and for whatever reason it has trouble with a HDD over 2TB.  So, it seems to recognise that that space is there but be unable to do any thing with it I suppose, and it installs Disk Unlocker (this is all a while ago, so it's from memory and may be slightly inaccurate) which partitions whatever's over 2TB so you can use it.  I think the confusion is it somehow virtually treats it as a separate drive entirely, for some purposes, and for other purposes it remembers it's a partition.  A bit confusing to me but I've gone with the flow so far and not had any problems.

[phillpower2]

That is messy and small wonder that you have had problems with slow boot times 

 

No easy way of trying out Windows 10 then unless you install it to your WD external drive and set the BIOS to boot from USB then load MGS V from the internal drive, alternatively, upgrade Windows 7 to 10 and if you dont like it roll it back to Windows 7, see article here

[For the love of sod.]

Been trying to research the purpose of Disk Unlocker and it seems that my motherboard and Windows 64-bit both are capable of handling over 2TB HDDs, so I'm really confused.  I probably won't bother with Windows 10 in that case.  Thanks.

[phillpower2]

Aye most odd as Disk Unlocker was an optional download from way back in 2012, it should not have been installed on your computer without your knowledge.

[For the love of sod.]

Well, it didn't do it without prompting me, but the prompt said that either Windows or the motherboard couldn't read HDDs over 2TB and would I like to install this to do it a different way, so I allowed it thinking I had to if I wanted to use my whole drive.  Is there something I can try to remove it and maybe it will read all 3TB anyway?