Yeah same problem for me. Worked fine until the season 7 update and now the game is crippled. I just started a few days earlier and am still on some earlier missions and the game is unplayable now. Oh well.
Sounds to me like most of you are using the integrated Intel graphics chip set. This is not really intended for gaming, I'm sorry to say.
It's good enough to run Skyrim on medium-ish settings, which is a newer, more powerful game with absolutely no issues whatsoever. There's no reason it shouldn't be able to run this. It's pretty obviously a bug in the new update.
I will try playing again in a month or so. If it hasn't been patched by then, I'll just uninstall the game. Too bad, because as a lifelong Star Trek fan this is a dream game for me. Was thinking about investing some $$$ for the bonus features, but stuff like this is... pretty off-putting.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
I came to the forums hoping to be encouraged by some announcements of "how to fix it" but I am now more discouraged than ever. I, too, have been having random and repeated blackouts and display driver crashes since the 7 patch. I used to not have any issues at all.
My husband just downloaded and installed the game this weekend and he can't even get it logged on long enough to adjust settings or anything. He did manage to create his character, but now as soon as he logs on he gets the BSOD. PLEASE tell us how to fix this. Thank you.
You can't call 'working as intended' on this one, otowi. The game went from running smooth as silk at medium high settings on my integrated chipset to OMFG HANG HANG BLACK SCREEN CRASH DUMP LOCK literally overnight. EVEN WHEN RUNNING THE GAME IN SAFE MODE.
Season 7 has borked something majorly. Hopefully the devs will pay attention to this thread, as it is literally game-crippling.
I'm not saying "working as intended". I was just pointing out that the Intel integrated cards are not really meant for heavy gameing wich requires a lot of graphics power. (Doom III, Battlefield III and so on)
And yes even those with dedicated mobile graphics cards are having problems, I know that.
I know STO works fine with the various mobile graphics cards, included the Intel type. Heck my laptop has an Intel card, and STO works pretty good with it, but when I switch to the dedicated ATI mobility card, the game runs so much smoother.
My guess is that something changed in S7 graphics code or the way the game renders. And since it affects all kinds of dedicated and integrated graphics cards, this is something Cryptic needs to investigate.
Okay I finally had time to test things out. After changing to the latest driver for my integrated Intel i3 video, I set the max performance setting and started playing. At first it seemed to have worked but I suddenly got a random crash again.
The test was done with the video limit set at 768. I changed it to 1024+ and it still crashed. I set it to 512 and it crashed as well. I changed back to my old driver and it does not crash no mater the video limit setting. I am not convinced it's the entirely the video driver because I know I was able to play fine with the updated one in season 6. It has to be something with Season 7's coding and the new driver. I guess it's possible that some Intel cards will work fine after awesominator6000's fix but mine for sure does not.
I guess I am going to just have to use my old driver to play the game. No big deal though as there do not seem to be any ill-effects on my system by doing so. Only problem is Windows seems to want to keep installing the updated one automatically for me randomly. I am going to have to change Windows update behavior and just do things manually for my updates as a work around to that though.
I will report back if for some reason my old driver suddenly crashes. If it does (and it has not yet) then I would be convinced it would have nothing to do with the driver at all and be something on the coding for S7.
Near as I can tell, Cryptic hasn't even commented on the issue, which now appears to be affecting more than just the Intel crowd. They have, however, been promoting lots of free and discount deals which no one can actually take advantage of because of the BSOD / crash dump epic fail. I haven't even been able to experience any of Season 7 even though it's been out for almost a month now because of this.
I too am getting this problem since the release of season 7. I sent very detailed bug reports to Cryptic/PWE for a resolution, but I pretty much stumped them to no end. I was told all the info I provided would be forwarded to Devs to dissect, but I doubt anything will come of it. Though, if anyone is serious about getting some kind of patch update, SEND IN your bug reports, and be as descriptive and as detailed as possible, i.e. write down error codes, phrases in the BSOD, the address codes, etc, write down EVERYTHING. If you can't get the BSOD info because it restarts the computer, you may need to turn that off so that it sticks to the BSOD screen for you to get the information.
Bottom line, don't just send in reports stating with one line "My graphics driver crashes". As a tech, I can tell you that without knowing what error codes pops up, or what you were doing when the problem occurred, that one line message pretty much is useless.
I am hopeful that PWE/Cryptic finds a solution. I only recently got into playing this game, and this problem is very much a turn off to playing. The problem only recently started as Season 7 went live.
I sent a bug report from the in-game option to do so myself, in the hopes it will help. I don't know if I gave enough detail. Then again, I imagine they've received quite a few and must surely be aware.
Hopefully it gets fixed. At the moment all I can really do is log in, do some duty officer stuff, and log out. Any attempt to play a mission leads to me needing to hard reset my computer, which just isn't happening.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
Guys there is another solution that no-one has mentioned yet.
STO is all online so simply buy a $1500 gaming laptop. Sweet yeah?
In all seriousness I also want to add im running an i3 laptop with intel HD graphics and wish to subscribe to this thread so that if a solution is found I get emailed about it. I do love STO, my life has changed for the worse since s7.
The suggestion of rolling back the graphics driver works for me.
I was initially hesitant about it as I wasn't sure what effect it would have on my system. But I decided to give it a go and downloaded the latest from Fujitsu which is a 2010 version. After installing it, I tried several problematic missions which usually crashes my driver since the release of season 7. But this time round, it didn't happen. I know this is not the best option (rolling back drivers) but given complexity of the issue, I guess it will suffice for now.
CAVEAT: Even though this works for me, it may not work for everyone and may make things worse. So I guess it's a "do it at your own risk" sort of work-around.
This stabilized my game as a short term solution. After not being able to really fly around or do missions since the season 7 launch, I finished up the mission I kept crashing in, did the Explore New Worlds thing for dilithium, and the dilithium mining asteroid near Bajor, all without a stutter personally. I played it safe and had some of the optional settings slightly lower than he suggested, and had no issues. Maybe it will help some of you too.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
This stabilized my game as a short term solution. After not being able to really fly around or do missions since the season 7 launch, I finished up the mission I kept crashing in, did the Explore New Worlds thing for dilithium, and the dilithium mining asteroid near Bajor, all without a stutter personally. I played it safe and had some of the optional settings slightly lower than he suggested, and had no issues. Maybe it will help some of you too.
Yes, that works for most ppl, but will lag a little. Today i fixed my problem, game works flawless now on high settings. I ve rolled back drivers to those from laptop manufacturer, they are from 2010. Also i have deleted the following files:
If you want to try deleting and rolling back drivers, wich i dont necesarely adivse to, you should make a backup for all files you delete. Actualy these two "fixes" rolling back driver and deleting config files were suggested to me by game support in a ticket on this matter.
For me it worked , now game runs very well on max settings, but if you dont want to complicate yourself just stick to those settings wich dont crash video driver.
Unfortunately now i have a bigger problem, for two days i get disconnected every ~15 minutes. They really need to fix this disconnecting issue as really makes game unplayable.
This stabilized my game as a short term solution. After not being able to really fly around or do missions since the season 7 launch, I finished up the mission I kept crashing in, did the Explore New Worlds thing for dilithium, and the dilithium mining asteroid near Bajor, all without a stutter personally. I played it safe and had some of the optional settings slightly lower than he suggested, and had no issues. Maybe it will help some of you too.
I tried this and STO still ended up grabbing my computer by the back of the head and repeatedly smashing its face into the pavement until the screen turned blue. Cryptic needs to stop dancing around the issue and fix whatever it is they broke. I haven't been able to play since November 13th (or thereabouts). This is asinine.
Anyone having a problem with the ground combat? im still getting the black screen issue!!!
If you can even GET as far as ground combat, you're lucky. Many of us get as far as logging in and the graphics thrashing and CTD starts. Don't even have time to beam down anywhere. Pretty sure Cryptic doesn't care at this point. It's been about a week short of a month since they rolled this glitch out, and there's no fix in sight.
If you can even GET as far as ground combat, you're lucky. Many of us get as far as logging in and the graphics thrashing and CTD starts. Don't even have time to beam down anywhere. Pretty sure Cryptic doesn't care at this point. It's been about a week short of a month since they rolled this glitch out, and there's no fix in sight.
It is definitely a season 7 issue, because there was no issue till that patch. Blaming Intel and their drivers is not a very professional attitude when its clear that changes in the S7 patch are the root cause of the issue. Intel's drivers weren't crashing Season 1-6.
This is being made difficult by the lack of normal error reporting because it's not crashing in any process in our game. The game freezes because it ends up waiting forever for the dead driver to respond.
This is being made difficult by the lack of normal error reporting because it's not crashing in any process in our game. The game freezes because it ends up waiting forever for the dead driver to respond.
As others have stated, it's very unlikely that this is an Intel issue, given that Seasons 1 - 6 were running fine, and the last Intel HD driver update that I can see was released by Intel has a date of October 2012, well before the November release of Season 7. You also have to realize that it isn't just Intel users who are getting the crash - therefore, as others have said, blaming Intel may be unjustified.
I've got the 2010 graphics driver installed and tried those suggestions somewhere else on the forum and STILL no joy my going to have to abandon this game because its becoming a pain in the neck which is a shame cause i like it alot
As others have stated, it's very unlikely that this is an Intel issue, given that Seasons 1 - 6 were running fine, and the last Intel HD driver update that I can see was released by Intel has a date of October 2012, well before the November release of Season 7. You also have to realize that it isn't just Intel users who are getting the crash - therefore, as others have said, blaming Intel may be unjustified.
Even if the software was written maliciously, with the intent to crash (which it wasn't), the kernel side of the driver should simply not be able to crash regardless of what bad input is fed into it through DirectX. We HAVE seen plenty of crashes on the user-mode side of the driver, some of which have been our fault and some of which have been faulty drivers, but this is different.
The reason we're seeing it now is that legitimate shader changes in Season 7 may be causing a driver issue to manifest itself that was not before.
One way or another, the issue is happening within the kernel mode driver - something we don't have access to in order to debug. Only Intel can fix that. Even in the case where there's bad code on the side of Cryptic's engine, the only way a crash like this can happen is if there is ALSO bad code in Intel's driver.
Even if the software was written maliciously, with the intent to crash (which it wasn't), the kernel side of the driver should simply not be able to crash regardless of what bad input is fed into it through DirectX. We HAVE seen plenty of crashes on the user-mode side of the driver, some of which have been our fault and some of which have been faulty drivers, but this is different.
The reason we're seeing it now is that legitimate shader changes in Season 7 may be causing a driver issue to manifest itself that was not before.
One way or another, the issue is happening within the kernel mode driver - something we don't have access to in order to debug. Only Intel can fix that. Even in the case where there's bad code on the side of Cryptic's engine, the only way a crash like this can happen is if there is ALSO bad code in Intel's driver.
I know what the problem is with this I've had it on this back up computer thats sort of on its last leg where a portion of the motherboard got overheated a few years ago. The problem is which the OP probally has is that is one of their plugins is constantly crashing like this PC I have does where the screen will go black and once the plugin restarts it will then start functioning normally. Sometimes what I have to do is reinstall the flash plugins when this happens frequently.
I know what the problem is with this I've had it on this back up computer thats sort of on its last leg where a portion of the motherboard got overheated a few years ago. The problem is which the OP probally has is that is one of their plugins is constantly crashing like this PC I have does where the screen will go black and once the plugin restarts it will then start functioning normally. Sometimes what I have to do is reinstall the flash plugins when this happens frequently.
I don't think so. You have to realize that this is not happening to just one person. This is happening across a huge spectrum of players, and it is happening even when the game is run in safe mode. My computer is not 'on its last leg' with an 'overheating motherboard' as you suggest, nor, would I venture to guess, are many of the other computers this is being affected by, as at least one report suggests that this epic crash is happening on a computer someone just bought last month.
I used a program called gamebooster (Use google lol) last night and ran STO and there wasnt a problem but it did crash a little during a ground mission so be careful if you guys use it
I'm thoroughly pissed about this isue and ready to give up at this point.I've been playing the game since April of 2011.I've spent quite a bit of money on the game and pay tri-monthly because I fell madly in love with the game.It seems that maybe they have begun to address the problem and sounds as if it may not be a quick fix.But for people like myself who have invested so much time and money into the game and to keep having the issue pop up time and time again without a resolution,especially after over a month,is pretty awful.The game is pretty much null for any action except to log in and check on Doff missions.Cryptic and PWE,I offically give you one more Month to correct the problem or this is one less paying cutomer you will have.(that is being pretty damn patient mind you!)
The reason we're seeing it now is that legitimate shader changes in Season 7 may be causing a driver issue to manifest itself that was not before.
Why can't we just have an option in the setting to turn off those shader changes that were added in season 7 so that brings us back to the graphics levels of season 6, but allows people with higher end video cards to have the increased graphics?
Comments
It's good enough to run Skyrim on medium-ish settings, which is a newer, more powerful game with absolutely no issues whatsoever. There's no reason it shouldn't be able to run this. It's pretty obviously a bug in the new update.
I will try playing again in a month or so. If it hasn't been patched by then, I'll just uninstall the game. Too bad, because as a lifelong Star Trek fan this is a dream game for me. Was thinking about investing some $$$ for the bonus features, but stuff like this is... pretty off-putting.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
My husband just downloaded and installed the game this weekend and he can't even get it logged on long enough to adjust settings or anything. He did manage to create his character, but now as soon as he logs on he gets the BSOD. PLEASE tell us how to fix this. Thank you.
I'm not saying "working as intended". I was just pointing out that the Intel integrated cards are not really meant for heavy gameing wich requires a lot of graphics power. (Doom III, Battlefield III and so on)
And yes even those with dedicated mobile graphics cards are having problems, I know that.
I know STO works fine with the various mobile graphics cards, included the Intel type. Heck my laptop has an Intel card, and STO works pretty good with it, but when I switch to the dedicated ATI mobility card, the game runs so much smoother.
My guess is that something changed in S7 graphics code or the way the game renders. And since it affects all kinds of dedicated and integrated graphics cards, this is something Cryptic needs to investigate.
Near as I can tell, Cryptic hasn't even commented on the issue, which now appears to be affecting more than just the Intel crowd. They have, however, been promoting lots of free and discount deals which no one can actually take advantage of because of the BSOD / crash dump epic fail. I haven't even been able to experience any of Season 7 even though it's been out for almost a month now because of this.
Bottom line, don't just send in reports stating with one line "My graphics driver crashes". As a tech, I can tell you that without knowing what error codes pops up, or what you were doing when the problem occurred, that one line message pretty much is useless.
I am hopeful that PWE/Cryptic finds a solution. I only recently got into playing this game, and this problem is very much a turn off to playing. The problem only recently started as Season 7 went live.
Hopefully it gets fixed. At the moment all I can really do is log in, do some duty officer stuff, and log out. Any attempt to play a mission leads to me needing to hard reset my computer, which just isn't happening.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
Copying this over from the Tribble release notes subforum for those that may not have seen it.
At least they are aware and looking into this. That's all we can ask really, at least they are on it.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
STO is all online so simply buy a $1500 gaming laptop. Sweet yeah?
In all seriousness I also want to add im running an i3 laptop with intel HD graphics and wish to subscribe to this thread so that if a solution is found I get emailed about it. I do love STO, my life has changed for the worse since s7.
I was initially hesitant about it as I wasn't sure what effect it would have on my system. But I decided to give it a go and downloaded the latest from Fujitsu which is a 2010 version. After installing it, I tried several problematic missions which usually crashes my driver since the release of season 7. But this time round, it didn't happen. I know this is not the best option (rolling back drivers) but given complexity of the issue, I guess it will suffice for now.
CAVEAT: Even though this works for me, it may not work for everyone and may make things worse. So I guess it's a "do it at your own risk" sort of work-around.
This stabilized my game as a short term solution. After not being able to really fly around or do missions since the season 7 launch, I finished up the mission I kept crashing in, did the Explore New Worlds thing for dilithium, and the dilithium mining asteroid near Bajor, all without a stutter personally. I played it safe and had some of the optional settings slightly lower than he suggested, and had no issues. Maybe it will help some of you too.
"We are smart." - Grebnedlog
Member of Alliance Central Command/boq botlhra'ghom
Yes, that works for most ppl, but will lag a little. Today i fixed my problem, game works flawless now on high settings. I ve rolled back drivers to those from laptop manufacturer, they are from 2010. Also i have deleted the following files:
~\Cryptic Studios\localdata\GamePrefs.pref
~\Cryptic Studios\Star Trek Online\Live\Localdata\GamePrefs.pref
and everything from cache here
~\Cryptic Studios\Star Trek Online\Live\cache\
If you want to try deleting and rolling back drivers, wich i dont necesarely adivse to, you should make a backup for all files you delete. Actualy these two "fixes" rolling back driver and deleting config files were suggested to me by game support in a ticket on this matter.
For me it worked , now game runs very well on max settings, but if you dont want to complicate yourself just stick to those settings wich dont crash video driver.
Unfortunately now i have a bigger problem, for two days i get disconnected every ~15 minutes. They really need to fix this disconnecting issue as really makes game unplayable.
I tried this and STO still ended up grabbing my computer by the back of the head and repeatedly smashing its face into the pavement until the screen turned blue. Cryptic needs to stop dancing around the issue and fix whatever it is they broke. I haven't been able to play since November 13th (or thereabouts). This is asinine.
If you can even GET as far as ground combat, you're lucky. Many of us get as far as logging in and the graphics thrashing and CTD starts. Don't even have time to beam down anywhere. Pretty sure Cryptic doesn't care at this point. It's been about a week short of a month since they rolled this glitch out, and there's no fix in sight.
This is being made difficult by the lack of normal error reporting because it's not crashing in any process in our game. The game freezes because it ends up waiting forever for the dead driver to respond.
As others have stated, it's very unlikely that this is an Intel issue, given that Seasons 1 - 6 were running fine, and the last Intel HD driver update that I can see was released by Intel has a date of October 2012, well before the November release of Season 7. You also have to realize that it isn't just Intel users who are getting the crash - therefore, as others have said, blaming Intel may be unjustified.
Yeah, for me the game is largely unplayable. So much for being able to enjoy the Winter Event and all the rewards it brings... :mad:
It's bad enough that I haven't even been able to explore Season 7 yet...and now this...
Even if the software was written maliciously, with the intent to crash (which it wasn't), the kernel side of the driver should simply not be able to crash regardless of what bad input is fed into it through DirectX. We HAVE seen plenty of crashes on the user-mode side of the driver, some of which have been our fault and some of which have been faulty drivers, but this is different.
The reason we're seeing it now is that legitimate shader changes in Season 7 may be causing a driver issue to manifest itself that was not before.
One way or another, the issue is happening within the kernel mode driver - something we don't have access to in order to debug. Only Intel can fix that. Even in the case where there's bad code on the side of Cryptic's engine, the only way a crash like this can happen is if there is ALSO bad code in Intel's driver.
I know what the problem is with this I've had it on this back up computer thats sort of on its last leg where a portion of the motherboard got overheated a few years ago. The problem is which the OP probally has is that is one of their plugins is constantly crashing like this PC I have does where the screen will go black and once the plugin restarts it will then start functioning normally. Sometimes what I have to do is reinstall the flash plugins when this happens frequently.
usually mine when i re-install adobe flash player and then alt+tab between the desktop to STO then it clears this black screen.
I don't think so. You have to realize that this is not happening to just one person. This is happening across a huge spectrum of players, and it is happening even when the game is run in safe mode. My computer is not 'on its last leg' with an 'overheating motherboard' as you suggest, nor, would I venture to guess, are many of the other computers this is being affected by, as at least one report suggests that this epic crash is happening on a computer someone just bought last month.