Two PCs. The older one never crashes. The newer one crashes frequently.

[TheKnightsWhoSayNi]

I have two different machines that I've been running VAM on:

1. Intel Core i5 6600K 3.5Ghz / GTX 1080 8GB GDDR5X / 16GB RAM
2. Intel Core i7 4790 3.6Ghz / GTX 1650 4GB GDDR6 / 16GB RAM

I use the same Oculus Rift headset with both machines.

Machine #1 crashes frequently when loading scenes or loading looks onto an already loaded person atom. By frequent, I mean about 75% of the time.

Machine #2 almost never crashes at all, but it doesn't perform very well. If I have a moderately complex scene loaded (2 people, detailed environment, reflections), I can't get much beyond 30fps on medium settings. It has the Core i7 vs the Core i5 in the other machine, but the Core i7 is two generations older than the Core i5.

I just ordered an RTX 2070S which will be going into machine #1. Machine #2 is small form factor and uses a compact GTX 1650 with a smaller than standard backplane, or I'd just throw it in there.

Is it really just a matter of Core i5 vs Core i7??? Why would the newer machine with the better GPU be having such a hard time being stable? All drivers are up to date. Machine #1 has always had this instability, ever since I started using VAM last year. Machine #2 has surprised me with its stability, especially since its an old HP EliteDesk 800 G1 from eBay. It's been a champ, but the VAM performance is just too slow.

CPU-Z / GPU-Z screenshots attached.

 

[MacGruber]

Have you tried other demanding games? Do they crash as well?

• Could be a too small power supply?
• Could be a driver issue, but you said you are already on the newest driver.
• Could be a heat issue if it takes a while until it crashes. You could try running with open case and see if that does something.

 

[TheKnightsWhoSayNi]

Have you tried other demanding games? Do they crash as well?

• Could be a too small power supply?
• Could be a driver issue, but you said you are already on the newest driver.
• Could be a heat issue if it takes a while until it crashes. You could try running with open case and see if that does something.

Thanks for replying, and thanks for the content you create.

Power supply in machine #1 is EVGA Supernova 1600W P2 80 Plus. (Waaay more than I need, but I got it for a song.) I regularly game on it at 4K with settings either cranked or just a notch or two below max. Games like Fallout 76 and No Man's Sky. Games don't crash for me. The GPU fans definitely crank way up sometimes, and nearly always when running VAM.

This seems like a stretch, but maybe it's the GDDR5X bus vs the GDDR6 bus??? That seems unlikely because I've seen some other VAM threads where people are claiming good performance with hardware as old as a GTX 970. But again, it just kinda blows my mind how the cheapo $330 SFF budget rig I put together runs stable (and with a 4th gen Core i7). It's just a little on the slow side for complex scenes in VR. Runs smooth with settings cranked in VAM desktop mode.

I guess I'll see if I can rule out the GPU when the RTX 2070S arrives tomorrow. If not, it may also be time for a CPU upgrade.

 

[Gaff]

Could it be a RAM issue? VAM is so demanding it's the only program (I have 32GB) that causes out of memory errors if I have that and Chrome running for more than 30 minutes.
I would fiddle with the memory clock settings in the BIOS. Lower it a tad and check the result.

 

[TheKnightsWhoSayNi]

Could it be a RAM issue? VAM is so demanding it's the only program (I have 32GB) that causes out of memory errors if I have that and Chrome running for more than 30 minutes.
I would fiddle with the memory clock settings in the BIOS. Lower it a tad and check the result.

Not a bad idea! I'll try timing the RAM a little lower. I feel like it's something along these lines. I just can't understand how Machine #1's specs are providing a less stable experience than Machine #2.

 

[Trabant Dave]

Not a bad idea! I'll try timing the RAM a little lower. I feel like it's something along these lines. I just can't understand how Machine #1's specs are providing a less stable experience than Machine #2.

I recently had random black screening/crashing on my system which is X570 Ryzen 9/3900x RTX2080Ti. I literally stripped the Mobo bare, blew out the radiator (liquid cooled), cleaned all the fans, filters, repasted the CPU, reseated RAM and built back up. Problem now gone. I reckon it was heat-related, and I'm in the UK, not on the hot side of the sun! You could try adding a couple of fans from your secondary machine to the faster one and see if that helps.....

 

[kevinBurinn]

I'm sorry, I didn't read all the answers, I'm not very good at English.

But if it helps, I had a crash problem with Vam, initially I thought it was a RAM problem, because looking at the task manager, the RAM never decreases ...
I had 4 bars, so I tried one by one, still crashes and this time faster ...
so i bought new ram bars, result? always the same crash of VAM ...

I also had a problem with another game, so this time I changed the graphics card to an RTX 2070 SUPER, same !!! crash again ...

After several months, I finally changed the tower and I formatted my pc with a new windows ...
since all works wonderfully, (my Vam installation, did not move and it is still on the same hard drive)

In short my solution was to formatted and to have a new windows.

I hope to help others and avoid them buying additional components when there is no need ...

 

[Deleted member 1503]

If you have any overclocks apart from XMP turn them all off and try it. If it doesn't cash its an OC. New windows install might be another thing to try (I do a fresh install every year or so, probably not needed but a habit).

 

[TheKnightsWhoSayNi]

Thanks for replies and suggestions. More info...

So the RTX 2070 Super arrived and I installed it. Performance in VAM is INCREDIBLE (when it runs). But...crash is still happening frequently during scene loads and look swaps. It's not that I can't make ANY scene changes, it's just that scene changes or changing performance settings more frequently causes crashes than anything else. The white hourglass starts spinning and then locks up, and then the headset goes dark and VAM crashes. SOMETIMES, the video in the headset crashes, but VAM keeps running and the audio continues playing.

Again, I use this exact same Oculus Rift hardware on my other weaker machine, and it runs flawlessly, but with much lower performance results (because...GTX 1650). On both machines, all Oculus sensors are "green" in the Oculus software, indicating that they are successfully connected via USB 3.0.

As for games on the new RTX 2070S, I can run No Man's Sky at 4K with every single setting cranked and it runs smooth as butter with zero issues, so I strongly doubt it's a GPU / CPU / RAM issue. (I did not have my 6600K overclocked until now. I have no idea why I didn't do that before, but now it's running at the standard safe 4.2GHz overclock. I have a very large fan-cooled heat-pipe heatsink on the CPU.)

HOWEVER...
I've realized there's a symptom that I noticed before but I hadn't been paying attention to: when VAM crashes happen, my Rift headset goes dark and I hear the standard Windows 10 USB disconnection sound play over my normal speakers, and then the re-connection sound plays. So it may be that there's some kind of interruption happening in USB that's disrupting the Rift and then causing VAM to crash. This machine has ASMedia USB drivers, and I've ensured they're up to date. The motherboard is an ASRock Z170M Extreme4. However, there's also the possibility of a video signal issue...

The other thing is that I have my 4K TV hooked up to the HDMI port on the new card, and the Rift connected to one of the DisplayPort ports with a DisplayPort-to-HDMI adapter. (Both my old GTX 1080 and new RTX 2070S have 1 HDMI and 3 DisplayPort ports). The weird thing is: Rift works with the adapter (until VAM crashes happen), but the adapter does not work with my 4K TV beyond the boot screen. In other words, I can't use the adapter to view my Windows desktop; I NEED to use the HDMI cable to view Windows. That might just be an HDMI version thing. I have a much nicer adapter on order.

Bear in mind that the cable coming out of the Rift is a composite HDMI/USB cable that splits into a Y before going into the appropriate ports on the computer. So maybe if the USB us cutting out, or if the video signal is cutting out, there's an interruption between the headset and the computer, potentially causing the VAM crash.

So, the difference between the machines that stands out to me is HOW the Rift video is connected. On the weaker machine with GTX 1650, I connect the Rift directly to the video card with HDMI because that one has enough HDMI ports to support both my monitor and my Rift. But on my better machine with the RTX 2070 S, I have to use the DisplayPort adapter with the Rift because I have no other option. So maybe this better adapter will do the trick. If that's all it is, I'll be kicking myself.

I'll share results after adapter arrives.

 

[Gaff]

Did you try plugging the headset directly into the HDMI port on the GPU and use the DP adapter on the monitor (if that's even possible). Adapters can be wonky enough to upset the headset. As for USB ports even my Asus AM4 TUF Gaming X570 motherboard puts out BARELY enough power to keep my odyssey+ happy and that's if I disconnect everything besides the mouse so I've resorted to getting a powered USB hub.

 

[Trabant Dave]

Just a thought, have you had a peek at the error log in Administrative tools? Maybe a good first step would be to clear the error log completely using a powershell script or admin cmd, and then when the thing crashes again see what errors happened immediately before the crash-out. I used this in the past and found I had a dodgy Nvidia driver file that I cured by using the DDU utility to thoroughly clear the old driver files and reinstalled the drivers cleanly
.