ME2: Crash during intro sequence

@Woebin

Please create a DxDiag, also go to your Reliability monitor (Press the windows key and "R" at the same time and copy or type "perfmon /rel" (without the quotes) in > ENTER and look if it has ME2 entries.

If yes double click at the last one, copy it to the clipboard, (Bottom left corner) save it to a text file and load it up together with the DxDiag. You can do that with the "choose file" button at the bottom right corner of the reply window.

@holger1405

Thanks for taking the time to help! There were entries in the Reliability Monitor with both the labels "Stopped working" and "Stopped responding", so I grabbed them both. 

@Woebin

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@Woebin wrote:

Thanks for taking the time to help!

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No Problem.

Make sure that the game and Origin are closed.

Go to your "C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Mass Effect 2\redist\DirectX" folder and run the "DXSETUP.exe" > reboot > test.

If that don't helps, please report back.

@holger1405

I'm afraid the same problem persists. It ran long enough for me to start moving Shepard around the burning ship, as it has a couple of times before, but when I got into contact with one of the floating chairs on the way to Joker I got the same crash as before. What's more, I experienced a BSoD right afterwards. 

I'm attaching the Reliability Monitor logs for the Windows crash in case they're relevant, the one for Mass Effect 2 is exactly the same as the previous ones save for its timestamp. Starting to suspect there might be some underlying hardware failure though.

@Woebin

Please disable "Origin in Game" if it is enabled and test.

Also, we need to know what exactly is responsible for the blue screen crash.

Download "WhoCrashed" and run the program. > Click on "Analyze" > Scroll down and save everything after "Crash Dump Analysis" into a text file and load that text file up like the DxDiag.

After that run SFC /scannow and post the final massage after it has finished. 

@holger1405

Since I bought the game on Steam, there is no Origin integration whatsoever. I did still look through the settings, and have tried disabling the Steam overlay (Steam's equivalent of Origin in-game) with no effect.

Attaching the WhoCrashed results, and the results of sfc / scannow read:

Beginning system scan.  This process will take some time.

Beginning verification phase of system scan.
Verification 100% complete.

Windows Resource Protection did not find any integrity violations.

@Woebin

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@Woebin wrote:

@holger1405

Since I bought the game on Steam, there is no Origin integration whatsoever. I did still look through the settings, and have tried disabling the Steam overlay (Steam's equivalent of Origin in-game) with no effect.

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Sorry about that, somehow I was at ME3 in my mind. Good thinking though, to disable the steam overly.

I assume the the Windows Anniversary Update was installed before you bought ME2?

Is that a update or a fresh installed version of the Windows Anniversary Update?

The WhoCrashed.txt indicates a problem with your Graphic driver. I would suggest that you try to install driver 368.81 from Nvidia.

The 368.81 driver is WDDM 2.0 while anything above is WDDM 2.1

- Use DDU in save mode.

After reboot:

- shut down any not necessary programs in the background.
- if your GPU is overlocked set it back to the factory clocks.
- shout down any and all system monitoring programs and any overlooking tools you might have.
- shut down your virus scanner.
- install the driver only from the Exe, don't use GeForce experience.
- use the custom installation and only install the components you need. Make sure you select the PhysX System Software.  (don't deselect components you need, the installation program will uninstall them if you do)
- always preform a clean installation. (if you have profiles for games, back them up using "NVIDIA inspector")

@holger1405

Okay, if I'm understanding that correctly your suggestion is to roll back to a previous version of my graphics drivers, correct? Would doing so through these means overwrite my current drivers or will they be installed side by side with the ones I have? I'd like to play the game, but it's not worth rolling back to me since that's likely to negatively affect other games.

@Woebin

First you said you installed "legacy PhysX drivers". Did you installed the normal PhysX System Software from Nvidia in the meantime?

If not uninstall the legacy PhysX from the Windows control panel > reboot > install the PhysX Software from the link > test.

Second, did you saw the two questions I asked?

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@Woebin wrote:

Okay, if I'm understanding that correctly your suggestion is to roll back to a previous version of my graphics drivers, correct? Would doing so through these means overwrite my current drivers or will they be installed side by side with the ones I have? I'd like to play the game, but it's not worth rolling back to me since that's likely to negatively affect other games.

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It would delate the current driver and install the older one, but if you don't play a game that has a driver check in place (like BF1) there should be no negative affects on other games. 

(if you do play such a game let me know, there are easy ways to bypass this driver check.)

I know that users are told to always update the Graphic Driver, but the simple truth is, and I now that because of over 20 years in the IT business, that lots of people "updating" themselves into problems at one point. That doesn't mean that you should stay on the same Graphic Driver forever, but if you have a problem you should roll back to test if the problem is solved on the older driver.

Furthermore, the effect of Game ready drivers are overrated in most cases, there are exceptions, but most of the time it makes not much difference.

Or in other words, "Never change a running system" is still a very good idea.

The situation in the moment is that we have a major feature update from MS (the AU), that changes the WDDM of Windows. All major GPU manufactures have some problems with this new Windows Display Driver Model, and it will take some time until it is fully optimized.

Besides that, the Anniversary Update has some problems on its own, especially if it is an update and not a fresh installation.
  

@holger1405

Fair enough, I'll try rolling back as soon as I have the time to spend on doing so. I suppose there's nothing to stop me from going back to more recent drivers in the future if I need to, either.

As for PhysX, I've had it installed as part of the package the GeForce experience provides, and enabling its effects in other games has worked. The legacy drivers I installed were based on other advice I found through googling, although as mentioned following it didn't do anything for me. I'll switch to the version you're linking and see if it helps.

Regarding your questions, I'm sorry I failed to answer before: yes, the Anniversary Update is installed, and in the form of an update rather than a fresh install.

I'll respond again once I've had time to try your advice. Thanks again for spending time helping me, it's much appreciated.