Re: Mass Effect 3 crashes whenever I try to continue a previous save. Game Breaking.

@Eragonda 

Gotcha! Have you tried repairing the installation through Steam at all?

If you're able to attach a DxDiag file that can provide a bit more information as to what may be causing this otherwise, thanks!

So turns out this affects the other two games as well. I ran the DxDiag and have made a case on ea help (which will probably take a while.) If you need me to attach the file here just ask.

@Eragonda 

We indeed would need the DxDiag to see if there is a obvious problem.

Here

@Eragonda 

The only error regarding Mass Effect is a error for ME2 involving the "d3d11.dll" which is the Direct3D 11 runtime, part of DirectX 11.

I also see some unusual entries for both graphic drivers.

Did you tried to repaired the game as @EA_Mako suggested?

If not please try it:
(Origin > Game Library > right click MELE > Repair)
(Steam > Game Library > right click at MELE > Properties > Local Files > Verify integrity of game files.)

Restart the Computer > Test.

If that don't helps download the "DirectX End-User Runtimes".

Run the installer.

Restart the Computer > Test.

Mass Effect 2 didn't crash, ill test Mass Effect 3 later today. Thank you for your help, I really love this franchise and it really bothered me that I couldn't continue with my Shepard.

I got about an hours worth of gameplay on ME3 before the crashing restarted. I tried repairing then using DirectX again, however the issue still remains.

@Eragonda 

OK, go to the Acer side of your notebook and download the newest available Intel and NVIDIA Graphic drivers. 

• Then go here and follow the instructions to the letter to clean deinstall the NVIDIA driver.
• After the restart do the same for the Intel graphic driver. 
• After the restart install the Intel driver you downloaded from Acer.
• Restart.
• Install the NVIDIA driver you downloaded from Acer.
• Restart > Test.

I did as you recommended and jumped on ME3 to see if it would instantly crash. It didn't.

Thank you for your help. I'll post an update in the next few days just to make sure it doesn't crash after a few hours again.

Didn't even take an hour this time. I'm currently repairing/verifying the game again to see if it'll help.

At this point I just don't think it'll every be playable again, at least not until there's another update.

This issue only appeared after my NVidia's latest update, I've also tried rollback to a previous version, but this didn't work either.

@Eragonda 

This is most likely not a problem with the game, especially if the crashes started to happening after a driver update.

Lets see if we can find the reason behind this crashes.

• 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 "MassEffect3.exe.Xxxx.dmp" or "MassEffectLauncher.exeXxxx.dmp" files in the "..Local\CrashDumps" folder.
• Zip 2 - 3 "MassEffect3.exe.Xxxx.dmp" or "MassEffectLauncher.exeXxxx.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 "MassEffect3.exe.Xxxx.dmp" or "MassEffectLauncher.exeXxxx.dmp" files together and upload them at free file hosting service like Dropbox.
• 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

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Anwgy4YnWunYrwtVVjQeNnwTR6bK?e=ohBAIW

here

@Eragonda 

OK, it is a null pointer read access violation of d3d11.dll.

It means that the DLL tried to read from a memory location that is restricted or invalid.

Please provide a new DxDiag.

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

Make sure your virus scanner and other security software and also Afterburner and similar software is disabled.

Make also sure that your GPU & CPU are not overclocked.

here,

tried the clean reboot, didn't help much.

I'd like to state that other games are no longer working as intended, & it's starting to make me concerned.

@Eragonda 

It is possible that this is a hardware problem, but we are not there yet.

There is still the same NVIDIA driver installed as before.
Did you clean reinstalled both drivers with DDU and did you used the driver from the Acer page?

If so, do you have GeForce experience or a different tool set up to automatically update the graphic driver?

• Hit Windows key and X.
• Choose either “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command prompt (Administrator),” whichever option is offered.
• Inside the PowerShell or CMD, enter “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Checkhealth” without quotes. > ENTER.
• If errors are found, notify us. If no errors were found reaped steps 1 & 2.
• Inside the PowerShell or CMD, enter “DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth” without quotes. > ENTER.
• The system will start validating soon. If it throws an error, please list it here.
• After it reaches 100%, hit Windows key and X again.
• Again, choose “PowerShell (Administrator)” or “Command Prompt (Administrator)”
• Inside the PowerShell or CMD, enter “sfc /scannow” without quotes. >ENTER.
• Post the message you receive at the end of the processes here.
  (If it says it successfully repaired system files please load up the "CBS.log" file.)
  
  
  I also would like to know what is going on in your system on the hardware side. 
• Download hwinfo64 (The green button) > Install and execute the program > Sensors only. 
  
• Click on the sheet with the green cross (logging) > give the file a name and save it to a place of your choice. 
• Wait 5 Minutes > Start ME3 > Play for 10 Minutes > Stop the hwinfo logging (the sheet again)
• Rename the Log to > ">your name for the file<.CSV.txt"
• Upload the Log file here as you did with the DxDiag.

I clean reinstalled both drivers, and I’ve used EasyDrivers and GeForce to make sure everything is up to date. Ill give another response tomorrow as it’s late here.

@Eragonda 

Yes, it is late here as well.

For the driver, the idea is to not use the up to date drivers because you said that the problems started with a driver update.

In addition, notebook drivers are often adapted by the manufacturer to the specific requirements of the respective device.

(If you look at the NVIDIA driver release notes you will find a passage about that.)

It is always preferable to use the drive from the manufacturer as long you don't have any problems or if you run into problems.

I didn't get any errors from the commands.

However when logging I wasn't able to use Me3 for 10 minutes as both times crashed on start up.

https://1drv.ms/u/s!Anwgy4YnWunYrwolBHK7qe6jk8tE?e=UHdWVt

Both of the logs I made are in the OneDrive. 

@Eragonda 

The log files are not readable in the HWinfo log viewer.

They should be created as *.csv files and only in this formate they are readable.

Second, please go back to post #11 and preform the clean installation of both drivers again.

Do not update them after the clean installation, disable Geforce experience or don't install it at all. 

You can install it later on.

Then test with the old drivers.

Furthermore, tools like DriverEasy can do more harm than good to a system.

I would suggest not to use such tools at all.

Windows 10 is fully capable of initiating any update including critical driver updates via Windows Update or you can do it by hand over the device manager or from the manufacturer web page of your notebook.  

ill try clean reinstalling again.

On the log reading issue, it apparently saves them as .csv files, but when i find the they're excel files. ill try and sort this out.

@Eragonda 

csv is a file format that is associated with Excel.

That is fine, just rename the "XXX.csv" file into "XXX.csv.txt" by hand, without opening it in Excel.

I've changed the files, they're still in the OneDrive.

Also the clean reinstall didn't help like last time, it crashed on the pick imported ME2 character screen.

Ill do a new log with the clean drivers later today. (uni classes)

I did some testing with the graphics drivers and the games that have been crashing, its defiantly the NVidia update that's causing the crashes. non of the games crashed on the cpu driver. However ME3 is unplayable on it as it gets an average of 8-15 fps.

Gonna install the previous NVidia update and see how it goes.

I am happy to report version 471.68 is working with the games. Thank you for your help. ill give it a couple of days before I accept a solution just to make sure that its a permanent solution.