Re: Dragon Age: Origins Ultimate Edition - Crashing On Startup

I am now getting crashes every 10-15 minutes of game play. I have set affinity to run on a single core but I have to do that every time I get into the game because it resets to default every time I exit the game. This buys me the little bit of game play I get between each crash.

@Nick2Sterling 

For setting affinity permanently: (GOG or Steam, will not work in EA app.)

• Go to your "....Dragon Age Origins\bin_ship\" folder.
• right click "DAOrigins.exe" > select "Send to" > "Desktop (create shortcut)"
• right click the new "DAOrigins.exe - Shortcut" on your Desktop > "Properties"
• Delete anything in the "Target" line.
• Copy and paste: "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 DAOrigins.exe" (Without the quotes) into the "Target" line
• Click OK.
• Start the game from this shortcut and the affinity will be set automatically.

For the crash:

The game crashes with a standard Access Violation error code.

This means (in very simple terms) that the game or a component called by DAOrigins.exe is trying to perform an operation in memory that is not allowed.

Problem is that this can have any number of reason. Maybe a dump will bring more light into the problem:

• Press the Windows key and "R" at the same time.
• In the new Window, type or copy and paste "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps" (Without the quotation marks) > Press ENTER
• Look if there are any "DAOrigins.exe.Xxxx.dmp" files in the "..Local\CrashDumps" folder.
• Zip 2 - 3 ""DAOrigins.exe.Xxxx.dmp" files together and upload them at a free file hosting service like Dropbox or Onedrive.
• Post the link here.

If there aren't any dump files of ME:

• Press the Windows key > Write: Command Prompt > Right click on "Command Prompt" in the search results > Run as administrator.
• Copy and paste reg add "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps\devenv.exe" /v DumpType /d 2 /t REG_DWORD into the prompt Window > Press ENTER.
• Play the game until it crashes.
• After the game crashes, let all Windows crash dialogues finish.
• Press the Windows key and "R" at the same time. > Type "%LOCALAPPDATA%\CrashDumps" (Without the quotation marks) into the new window > Press ENTER.
• Zip 2 - 3 "DAOrigins.exe.Xxxx.dmp" files together and upload them at file hosting service like Dropbox or you can use the Onedrive "public" folder.
• Post the link here.
  
  
  If you want to undo the automatic dump creation, use the command below in a elevated command prompt (As in point 1) reg delete "HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows Error Reporting\LocalDumps" /f

Here's the crash dump files: - CrashDump

I should also note that the affinity pathway you gave me for the Target line in the shortcut doesn't work. I copied and pasted it as you sent it and double checked it for accuracy, but it crashes instantly on launch.

@Nick2Sterling 

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Nick2Sterling wrote:

I should also note that the affinity pathway you gave me for the Target line in the shortcut doesn't work. I copied and pasted it as you sent it and double checked it for accuracy, but it crashes instantly on launch.

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This is strange. Could you provide a screenshot of the shortcut itself (just the file on the desktop) and the "properties" window of the shortcut?
I will have a look at the dump later on.

@Nick2Sterling 

The errors are "NULL_POINTER_READ" or "NULL_CLASS_PTR_READ", meaning that there is a attempt to read a pointer that does not (a pointer normal "points" to a valid memory address.)
refer to a valid object and the attempt to access the data stored at that memory location, in this case in a from the OS restricted area, is a access violation.

The problem is that there is no indication of what is causing the error, we know it is not the game itself, if there was a bug in the game that caused this behaviour it would not run for anyone.

So all we can do is standard troubleshooting

Do you use mods or reshade? 

Please preform a clean boot and test the Game in clean boot mode.

In clean boot:
- Make sure the "EABackgroundService" remains enabled under point 3 in the guide.
- Make sure your virus scanner and other security software and also Afterburner and similar software is disabled.
- Make sure any CORSAIR/ASUS/Razor software is disable or deinstalled and that your GPU & CPU are not overclocked.
- Make sure only your Mouse and keyboard are connected to the PC

@Nick2Sterling 

For setting affinity permanently: 

• Go to your "....Dragon Age Origins\bin_ship\" folder.
• right click "DAOrigins.exe" > select "Send to" > "Desktop (create shortcut)"
• right click the new "DAOrigins.exe - Shortcut" on your Desktop > "Properties"
• Delete anything in the "Target" line.
• Copy and paste: "C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 DAOrigins.exe" (Without the quotes) into the "Target" line
• Click OK.
• Start the game from this shortcut and the affinity will be set automatically.

Strike that, it will not work in EA app because EA app is not processing command line arguments. It will work in GOG though.
Do you have the game in Steam? If so it is possible as to set it there as well, just in a different way. 

(If it is a Steam only installation)

You are Correct! Lol. I have the game in both EA and Steam, and my Steam install works better with the 4G patch and new executable. I still occasionally crash, but I usually get at least an hour or so before that happens. Now I think I may go ahead and try a couple mods....Lol. Thanks for the affinity fix! It works fine in Steam!

@Nick2Sterling 

You're welcome! Have fun gaming.