Error encountered during gameplay of Cities Skylines
Error encountered during gameplay of Cities Skylines
Hi, I hope someone can assist you with this. I've been looking everywhere online and following various tutorials, but nothing appears to be resolving the problem. As the title implies, I frequently encounter BSODs while playing Cities Skylines. At the moment, I only have the game installed, so I can't attempt to replicate the issue in another application. I've completed the following tests and benchmarks, all passing without any problems:
- Windows Memory Test using MemTest86 (2x4 passes totaling 8) – no failures
- Switched RAM modules to different slots or tested one at a time
- Ran the "Superposition Benchmark" – no issues
- Executed the OCCT Benchmark for 30 minutes – no issues
- Reinstalled AMD GPU driver via DDU and AMD Cleanup Utility in Safe Mode
- Installed an older version of AMD drivers as a test (to rule out driver-related causes)
- Restarted Windows
- Verified that the latest BIOS update is installed; BIOS logs and PERFMON dumps are available at the provided OneDrive link
System details:
- OS: Windows 8.1, 8, 7, Vista? or Windows 11 x86 (32-bit) / x64?
- OS version: Is it an OEM release (pre-installed) or a full retail version?
Regarding the motherboard:
- Model: AsRock Z790 PRO RS WIFI DDR5 Power Supply
- Brand & wattage: Not applicable (laptop)
- Exact model: Not specified
- Laptop or desktop: Desktop
Please let me know if you need anything else.
Thanks, Steve
Think you've addressed most issues. It's not a simple task to pinpoint the problem. I'm not familiar with Skylines but I spend a lot of time in Satisfactory and it really demands CPU power. Have you experimented with lowering your clock speed? Consider pinning your 13900K cores and removing the overclocking factor. This won't fix it long-term, but it could help narrow down possible causes. For your GPU, you might use Afterburner to adjust settings. Other suggestions include using just one RAM stick and turning off XMP/Expo profiles. These aren't definitive fixes, but they could guide your testing. Be sure to test changes gradually and revert if something fails.
The Unpexted_Kernel_Mode_Trap dump files appear empty. Unknown drivers are suspected, and the stack trace is minimal. The final two files suggest possible RAM issues due to page faults, but the involvement of multiple processes indicates a deeper problem. It seems the OS may have been severely damaged, possibly from VC++ libraries or other core components. This aligns with my current view—it looks like the system has been corrupted beyond repair. Of course, if the crashes only happen during gameplay, this theory doesn't hold up.
I’ll check cinebench and furmark to confirm stability. I might delay under-clocking until the end if nothing else shows up.
EDIT: Completed cinebench—no crashes after the full session. Score of 24041 is solid, which should help eliminate CPU concerns.
EDIT2: Executed furmark stress test for 30 minutes. Still clean results.
Thanks! I also have a feeling it could be ram, even though I ran memtest86 and windows memory test across each individual stick. May bite the bullet and get another stick to confirm. (Really hoping it’s not a motherboard issue) Re. the theory of a corrupt OS. That would be ideal, as software problems is a much easier (and cheaper) fix. I did reinstall, but it was from the original partition already on the pc. May be worth getting an external copy and doing reinstall from that.
Initial update suggests possible OS issues or failing boot drive. (Financial data remains on the drive I couldn’t test.) Replaced the faulty SSD with a fresh one and installed Windows 11 from Microsoft. Swapped the new drive into place and updated the system. No BSODs have occurred in the past couple of hours, but testing continues. Cities skylines keeps crashing to desktop; likely driver or antivirus conflict (Bitdefender). Will monitor and finalize this thread after a few days if no further problems arise.
It seems the CTD problem has been resolved. Likely a faulty boot drive and/or a glitch in the OS were involved. Swapping the SSD and installing a new OS recently helped (hopefully). Cities skylines continues to crash to desktop randomly, though that appears to be a different issue. Appreciate all the support!