MTA freezing every three seconds.

[DRW]

I've been using a laptop for 4 years already and MTA worked flawlessly all that time, the laptop had 4GB RAM, Dual-Core 2GHz and a shitty Intel HD Graphics integrated card. 5 days ago, I bought a new PC, which has 4GB RAM, Quad-Core 3.2GHz and an Nvidia dedicated graphics card + an Intel HD Graphics integrated card. Yesterday I've installed MTA SA and ran it on my local server so I could continue developing, but seems like my game freezes and unfreezes every 3 seconds accompanied by the loading spinner at the bottom. It's unplayable now, and I don't understand what the hell is happening, also, sometimes when I restart my MTA it doesn't show the splash screen but it shows MTA as a process on the task manager, until I restart Windows entirely, then it works again. My OS is Windows 8.1.

NOTES: I'm using the Nvidia default graphics card to play the game, using 1920x1080 and two monitors.

[DRW]

If there is still a problem with one monitor, do this:

1) Start MTA

2) Settings->Advanced->Debug setting->#0000 Lua trace

3) Then just when the game freezes, hold down Left-CTRL and Right-CTRL. (The game should crash)

Repeat 3 times and then zip up MTA/dumps and upload here: https://upload.mtasa.com/

Same problem with a single monitor. Here's the file.

http://upload.mtasa.com/u/616881433/MRFreeze.zip_

[ccw]

The pause is happening inside gameoverlayrenderer.dll which is part of Steam.

One of these should fix it:

1) Remove SteamApps\common\Grand Theft Auto San Andreas\d3d9.dll

2) Launch MTA from the Start Menu.

[DRW]

The pause is happening inside gameoverlayrenderer.dll which is part of Steam.

One of these should fix it:

1) Remove SteamApps\common\Grand Theft Auto San Andreas\d3d9.dll

2) Launch MTA from the Start Menu.

Well, did that much before and it still happened. Anyways I've tested the game again without Steam, d3d9 or any DirectX-related dll or asi files. No difference, it still has the freezing problem.

[ccw]

Do this again without Steam and with the custom d3d9.dll removed:

1) Start MTA

2) Settings->Advanced->Debug setting->#0000 Lua trace

3) Then just when the game freezes, hold down Left-CTRL and Right-CTRL. (The game should crash)

Repeat 3 times and then zip up MTA/dumps and upload here: https://upload.mtasa.com/

[DRW]

Had to restart 3 times the PC, but anyways, done.

http://upload.mtasa.com/u/177860412/MRFreeze2.zip_

[ccw]

Thanks.

Why did you have to restart your PC?

Open Command Prompt and enter the following line:

wmic Path Win32_PnPSignedDriver Get IsSigned,HardWareId 

How long does it take to complete?

[DRW]

I had to restart my PC because after every time I exit MTA: SA, running it again will not work although it shows up as a process.

About the cmd line... It's taking more than 25 minutes and still doesn't show anything.

[DRW]

After one hour the CMD window still doesn't update.

[ccw]

It should only take a few seconds.

What about this command:

wmic Path Win32_PhysicalMemory Get 

[DRW]

Attributes  BankLabel  Capacity    Caption          ConfiguredClockSpeed  ConfiguredVoltage  CreationClassName     DataWidth  Description      DeviceLocator   FormFactor  HotSwappable  InstallDate  InterleaveDataDepth  InterleavePosition  Manufacturer  MaxVoltage  MemoryType  MinVoltage  Model  Name             OtherIdentifyingInfo  PartNumber          PositionInRow  PoweredOn  Removable  Replaceable  SerialNumber  SKU  SMBIOSMemoryType  Speed  Status  Tag                TotalWidth  TypeDetail  Version 
1           BANK 0     4294967296  Physical Memory  1600                                     Win32_PhysicalMemory  64         Physical Memory  ChannelA-DIMM0  8                                                                               0467                      24                             Physical Memory                        RMR5030KD68F9F1600                                                    401CF67D           24                1600           Physical Memory 0  64          128 

[ccw]

How long did it take to complete?

[DRW]

1-2 seconds.

[ccw]

The reason why MTA is freezing is because 'wmic Path Win32_PnPSignedDriver Get' does not work on your PC.

I've never heard of this before, so I can only guess the cause might be:

1) Corruption somewhere in the system

2) A vital component (e.g. service) is disabled

3) Misbehaving 3rd party driver

4) Driver trying to protect itself from discovery

You could try:

1) Running sfc /scannow as described here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 5b60477a93

2) Boot time anti-virus scan

I'll also make MTA more tolerant of such problems in the next update.

[DRW]

The reason why MTA is freezing is because 'wmic Path Win32_PnPSignedDriver Get' does not work on your PC.

I've never heard of this before, so I can only guess the cause might be:

1) Corruption somewhere in the system

2) A vital component (e.g. service) is disabled

3) Misbehaving 3rd party driver

4) Driver trying to protect itself from discovery

You could try:

1) Running sfc /scannow as described here: http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/wind ... 5b60477a93

2) Boot time anti-virus scan

I'll also make MTA more tolerant of such problems in the next update.

The scannow said the operation was complete, but there were some problems that couldn't be fixed.

Also, MTA still behaves the same as before, I would send you the logfile the scannow created, but sadly it's so long that my browser crashes.

[DRW]

Also, thank you very much for your time, MTA has an awesome supporting team.

[Dutchman101]

The scannow said the operation was complete, but there were some problems that couldn't be fixed.

To make sure it repairs anything detected, you can fix sfc (so that error won't show up) by taking the following steps:

- Run cmd as administrator and enter: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

- After that completed, restart your PC

- Now run sfc /scannow again, and it should work as it's supposed to, without "there were some problems that couldn't be fixed".

If the more succesful SFC scan still doesn't solve your freezes, then as the cause is known to be a systemlevel problem (hard to diagnose) and seen you told it's a huge problem you cannot play MTA, the best you can do is re-install Windows to ultimately fix it, without spending hours trying to find and fixing root cause (the yet unknown system problem)

[DRW]

The scannow said the operation was complete, but there were some problems that couldn't be fixed.

To make sure it repairs anything detected, you can fix sfc (so that error won't show up) by taking the following steps:

- Run cmd as administrator and enter: DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

- After that completed, restart your PC

- Now run sfc /scannow again, and it should work as it's supposed to, without "there were some problems that couldn't be fixed".

If the more succesful SFC scan still doesn't solve your freezes, then as the cause is known to be a systemlevel problem (hard to diagnose) and seen you told it's a huge problem you cannot play MTA, the best you can do is re-install Windows to ultimately fix it, without spending hours trying to find and fixing root cause (the yet unknown system problem)

Well, the problem is that I have already re-installed Windows when I updated from Win8 to Win10. I'll check this out and see if it works, but I'll upgrade my PC to a GTX 750ti and I'll add 4GB more of RAM this month anyways and I'll tell you if the upgrade solves the problem. I don't think it's a software problem at all. It probably has to do with the hardware and a lack of compatibility.

[Dutchman101]

but I'll upgrade my PC to a GTX 750ti

That's your choice but I can almost assure you this won't fix it, as your whole system, including card is 100% compatible to Windows 10, as you note possible hardware compatibility issues. It could only work out if it turns out to be related to damaged hardware, with that I mean your videocard being physically faulty, as the symptom of the problem is failing driver sign check indicates the problem to be with your GPU.

From there, I can see just these 2 options:

- System level corruption as suggested before, which if not found out what, won't resolve itself until re-install

- GPU hardware damaged/faulty, but clearly not the case because you said you can play other games just fine. (MTA uses a system call to validate GPU driver, other games might not always, and the failing call is a symptom of underlying Windows OS corruption, so the corruption that is present is a term for the problem to show up)

There is no specific hardware problem known that can occur in GPU's making that windows OS call fail.

Most likely system level corruption, or display driver corruption. You might have re-installed that driver several times but it leaves behind traces, so I will guide you to an last attempt of fixing your problem, that includes updating to a driver newer than your current one installed.

1: Make sure you did the last sfc /scannow as I described it in my previous post, to let it fix and detect everything it can.

2: Download and unpack/run DDC (Display Driver Installer) from http://www.wagnardmobile.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=179 (from ''Official Download Here'' in that topic)

2B: No need to let it boot and run safemode, just continue on all prompts, choose the button for removing Nvidia drivers

3: As it completes, restart your PC, then run the Nvidia installer from driver linked below in step 4:

4: Download and install the latest driver for your videocard: http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/361.91/361.91-desktop-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql.exe

5: update your Intel chipset drivers: https://downloadmirror.intel.com/20775/eng/SetupChipset.exe

This ensures all traces and possible undetected corruptions in the video driver are wiped out, so if it's driver related it could resolve it

Edited February 19, 2016 by Guest

[Dutchman101]

Also, the call in your system that fails, relies on WMI components, so you can try doing this to fix the service (as ccw mentioned it might be a service problem):

1: register the service component SignDrv.dll by commandprompt as admin > '' regsvr32 signdrv.dll ''

2: fix the service;

- Go to Run > services.msc > find Windows Management Instrumentation, rightclick > properties, stop the service and set it Disabled.

- Run the following in commandprompt: '' Winmgmt /salvagerepository '' after that also '' Winmgmt /resetrepository ''

Now open a text file, paste in the following content:

  
@echo off 
sc config winmgmt start= disabled 
net stop winmgmt /y 
%systemdrive% 
cd %windir%\system32\wbem 
for /f %%s in (‘dir /b *.dll’) do regsvr32 /s %%s 
wmiprvse /regserver 
winmgmt /regserver 
sc config winmgmt start= auto 
net start winmgmt 
for /f %%s in (‘dir /s /b *.mof *.mfl’) do mofcomp %%s 
  

Save the text file as fix.bat (selecting All file types) then run the fix.bat as Administrator from where you saved it.

After the .bat script completes, restart your PC and see if it worked

[DRW]

Sorry, been busy these last days to try it out. I'm gonna do everything now, thanks.

[DRW]

https://gyazo.com/860e121b3ac0dd41c7e9c9aa325092a5

I cancelled it with ctrl+c after an hour and a half because the bar didn't pass from 20.0%

[Dutchman101]

I cancelled it with ctrl+c after an hour and a half because the bar didn't pass from 20.0%

If that doesn't even work, then it goes from potential system integrity corruption, to for sure, since this process cannot fail unless the windows ''component store'' is highly damaged, to where it cannot even fix itself.

To confirm that, make sure other factors in that process aren't wrong: go to Run, > services.msc and look for ''Windows Update'' service, make sure it's started, and if not, start the service.

Also look if ''Windows Firewall'' service is on. If not, start it (otherwise on some PC's Windows Update, needed for the DISM recovery process, doesn't work correctly)

If both Windows Update and Windows FIrewall services are now running, try the DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth in cmd again, and after that is done, sfc /scannow also, after a PC restart following the DISM finishing.

In case you had to also start the Windows Firewall service (temporarily; if it was off) then make sure you disable it again after you did both dism and sfc, because it only serves to let it work.

Edited February 19, 2016 by Guest

[Dutchman101]

If all that does not work to let that DISM scan complete succesfully, then you now have several indicators it's just a very corrupted windows OS; 1) the wmic commands ccw posted didn't work, 2) sfc returns partial failure, 3) trying to fix the sfc by repairing its component store hangs also; each of all three means Windows corruption, but alltogether you can be sure it's that, instead of hardware.

Then it must motivate you to simply work on solving the Windows OS problem as if that is a fact, replacing some hardware is wasted effort and money because it's not the problem, and it will still happen.

After you pass the DISM and SFC scan fixing part, don't forget to do all remaining steps in some of my other replies;

1: Download and unpack/run DDC (Display Driver Installer) from http://www.wagnardmobile.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=179 (from ''Official Download Here'' in that topic)

2B: No need to let it boot and run safemode, just continue on all prompts, choose the button for removing Nvidia drivers

3: As it completes, restart your PC, then run the Nvidia installer from driver linked below in step 4:

4: Download and install the latest driver for your videocard: http://us.download.nvidia.com/Windows/361.91/361.91-desktop-win8-win7-winvista-64bit-international-whql.exe

5: update your Intel chipset drivers: https://downloadmirror.intel.com/20775/eng/SetupChipset.exe

This ensures all traces and possible undetected corruptions in the video driver are wiped out, so if it's driver related it could resolve it

2:

Also, the call in your system that fails, relies on WMI components, so you can try doing this to fix the service (as ccw mentioned it might be a service problem):

1: register the service component SignDrv.dll by commandprompt as admin > '' regsvr32 signdrv.dll ''

2: fix the service;

- Go to Run > services.msc > find Windows Management Instrumentation, rightclick > properties, stop the service and set it Disabled.

- Run the following in commandprompt: '' Winmgmt /salvagerepository '' after that also '' Winmgmt /resetrepository ''

Now open a text file, paste in the following content:

  
@echo off 
sc config winmgmt start= disabled 
net stop winmgmt /y 
%systemdrive% 
cd %windir%\system32\wbem 
for /f %%s in (‘dir /b *.dll’) do regsvr32 /s %%s 
wmiprvse /regserver 
winmgmt /regserver 
sc config winmgmt start= auto 
net start winmgmt 
for /f %%s in (‘dir /s /b *.mof *.mfl’) do mofcomp %%s 
  

Save the text file as fix.bat (selecting All file types) then run the fix.bat as Administrator from where you saved it.

After the .bat script completes, restart your PC and see if it worked

[DRW]

Sorry for not replying at time, too many exams.

Well, started Windows Update, but Windows Firewall's service was already running. Didn't do the trick anyway, still stuck at 20%.

As I see, it's a problem of my Windows version. I'll back up all my files and I'll reinstall my Windows version and see if the problem persists. Thanks for your help, man, it's so appreciated

[DRW]

I'm going to use a virtualized OS to see if it could work that way, my hardware could probably handle it. Anyway I have fixed my old laptop and now I can work on my servers and everything.

EDIT: The virtualized OS works perfectly with MTA on my new PC, so yeah, definitely a problem of my OS and and nothing to do with the actual hardware.