Constant crash: Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost.

Hi from France 🙂,

I read yesterday your conversation as I was a brand new impacted user. I build my new PC this week and launched JFO which seems to be fantastic. But after 3 to 5 min, I suffered from a recurrent error, just enough to avoid any save on the first mission 😬

Windows event :

The description for Event ID 14 from source nvlddmkm cannot be found. Either the component that raises this event is not installed on your local computer or the installation is corrupted. You can install or repair the component on the local computer.

Origin popup :

LowLevelFatalError [File:Unknown] [Line: 200] Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost. (Error: 0x887A0020 - 'INTERNAL_ERROR') etc .....

Here is the detail of what I run :

MB : Asus B450-i ROG STRIX GAMING - Mini-ITX

CPU : AMD Ryzen 7 2700X

RAM : Delta TUF Alliance RGB - 2 x 8 Go - DDR4 3200 MHz

GPU : MSI GeForce RTX 2070 VENTUS GP - 8 Go

GPU driver version when KO : 432.00

GPU driver when OK : 445.75 (see installation below - it's important)

First try : Update Nvidia Driver from 432.00 to 445.75 using GeForce Experience

Result = still KO

Possible reason : Updated driver may contain old files, or parameters. I suppose it is not clean enough to resolve my issue.

So I decide to apply a bundle of every solution I found on Google and for now everything works fine (3 hours session yesterday, no occurrence). Hope my actions can help you :

Second try

Step 1 - Fresh Nvidia driver installation

Necessary softwares (both free) were DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) and  Registrar Registry Manager

Remove existing driver

1. Restart your PC in Safe Mode
2. Start DDU
3. In options panel : Select the option which does not allow Windows update to auto install a new driver.
4. On the main page : Select GPU and NVIDIA
5. Clic the top button. In english it should be something like "uninstall and restart (recommended)"    //sorry my DDU is in french

Remove any Nvidia register entry to make it disapear (key step)

1. Start Registrar Registry Manager
2. On the left panel, make  the following research :
   • Type of search = Plain text search
   • Text or data to search for = Nvidia
   • Where to search = Registry
   • What to look for = key name + value names + data
3. Select all (ctrl + A) and "delete selected keys and values" (important : I read sometimes that you must exclude 3D software, or games entries.Personnaly I did delete ALL but I am not responsible if it broke some functions - registry is a tricky thing to modify so be carreful please)

At this step, I recommend a new restart of your computer, to make sure that everything is clean.

Once done, install the last Nvidia driver available : for me yesterday (April 2020) it was 445.75 so the exact same version than my first attempt which was KO but this time fresh and clean.

Step 2 - Disable PCIe power restriction

Out of the box, Windows 10 try to limit the power consumption of your PCIe components. To make sure that every Watt are delivered, I changed this option do deactivated any power energy mode (sorry french screenshot but understandable 🤭 )

Step 3 - New registry DWORD value

To add some tolerance on the driver behavior, I manually changed 2 defaults value in registry (default values are not visible in regedit, you need to create 2 new DWORD entry)

First, increase the default Timeout delay from 2 sec to 5 sec :

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers]

"TdrDelay"=dword:00000005

Then, switch the debug mode from recover to recover unconditionnal

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers]
"TdrDebugMode"=dword:00000003

Once again, you can restart and please let me now if it help you. Good luck everyone

Camille