Game crashes randomly...

Can you please provide your DxDIag so we can take a look at your system specs and see if that's a potential cause? 

Details on how to do so here - https://support.sega.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4409224957073-How-to-Find-my-system-DxDiag-system-information

Thanks. 

Hi, Neil, 

Thank you for your prompt reply. Attached is the DxDiag.txt you requested. Thank you. 

Have a nice day. Thanks again.

 

DxDiag.txt

Looking at your system it seems what is happening is that the system is disconnecting from your primary GPU and switching to Integrated. 

Typically when this happens, it can cause whats known as a DXGI_ERROR. Please see this article for more information and troubleshooting that may help, and let us know how you get on: https://support.sega.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4409237549201-What-do-I-do-if-I-receive-a-DXGI-ERROR-DEVICE-error-message#text

Unfortunately, it doesn't work. The black screen shuts down again suddenly... I've played "First XI vs Second XI" like 3 or 4 times, because it crashes during the game, and I never finish the match. 

Probably, it's not exactly the game crashing, but the system crashes itself... the "Crash Dumps" folder is empty. I can only force shut down (hold the Power button for several seconds and restart), which is frustrating. 

I'm not sure the configuration of my computer is too old: 

Intel Core i5-3330 CPU @3.0GHz 
NVIDIA GeForce GT640 
8GB RAM 

Even if it struggles to run the game, I'd expect things load slowly or at the worst, the game quits itself, instead of a shut down like this. Besides, I did read that FM22 shares the similar system requirement as FM21. Yes, the crash happened since FM21, but I did play for over 100 hours without any problems there... There have been no hardware change at all since I bought the computer in 2013 (except replacing the hard disk).

For software change, I was actually too lazy to update Windows for many years (fail to boot into the system after update, so I blocked Windows Updates). I only resumed Windows Updates after a few crashes in FM21 (maybe around May 2021), in the hope that any updates can rescue... but obviously, nothing works.  

Actually, it crashes more often in FM22 than FM21. If lucky, I could play like 2 hours before a crash with FM21. However, in FM22 beta, it has already crashed like 4 or 5 times, in like 3 hours total game play. Can't even get through the "First XI vs Second XI" game! 

Would it be related to those Player Face Pack or anything from third-party? But, it did crash once when I was setting up in Preference, before even creating a new game.  

Sorry, I've written too long... Please advise what may be the problems... I wanna play! If you need more information, please let me know. Thank you. 

Thank you very much again. Have a good weekend! 

I'd be temped to say it may be worth backing up files and reinstalling Windows 10, because there may be a general Operating System corruption feeding into this. Appreciate that's a fair bit to do mind.

The graphics card is old, but should be more than capable of running the game.  As Lucas said above, seems like for whatever reason the system switches between the dedicated GPU (Nvidia) to integrated one (Intel) mid-game and causes the game to crash. Shouldn't be switching really, which would either be a power option fault (so switching due to the system being unplugged from the mains and going to battery) or a problem with the OS which just means it's performing it incorrectly.

As said best fix all option would be to reinstall the OS and perhaps uninstall and reinstall both the Intel and Nvidia GPU drivers - https://support.sega.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4409230515089-How-to-Update-and-or-reinstall-my-Graphics-Card-Drivers

Whatever you decide to do, please keep us updated.

Thanks. 

Well, I seemed to find a breakthrough (fingers crossed)... 

I had a look at "NVIDIA GeForce Experience", which has found the game (identified as FM21 at the moment, though), and it suggests several optimizations. I followed, and turned all those "Render Quality", "Mesh Detail" and others to the lowest. 

The suggestion includes Full Screen (I always prefer Windowed), and a lower resolution (1360x768, my screen is 1920x1080). I can live with the blurry match play, but I prefer smaller text with a higher resolution. OK, I gave it a go anyway and it seems to do the trick... Not only did I get through the "First XI vs Second XI", but I also reached the end of July without any crashes so far (touchwood!) 

The resolution looks to be the reason, at the moment... and I'll try to find a balanced resolution between this 1360x768 and 1920x1080. A higher resolution that looks better and does not crash! 

Until I can afford a new computer, I'll live it this way then... 

Of course, if anyone have other suggestions, please let me know. 

I can't wait to go back to my game... Have a good day. Really appreciated for the support, Neil and Lucas! Thank you very much.

Thanks for the update. Will mark this as resolved but feel free to update if anything further related to this comes up. Or just create a new issue if required.

Thanks again. 

I've kind of gone through a test: Playing until the end of winter transfer deadline now... each month I played with a different resolution, and see if the game crashes. The result: I didn't encounter any crashes to the full 1920x1080 and Windowed! 

I tended to think it's all about resolution, instead of Graphic Quality, since I don't think the graphics on the Player Profile screen is significant enough to crash anything like this. Well, the Preferences page certainly doesn't have many graphics, and I still suffered a crash there. 

However, after my test, I think I might be wrong, and Graphic Quality does play the big part. I just never expect that switching from "Low" to "Very Low" can save me! 

Anyway, I just wanna share what happened in my case, and hopefully can help others who has the same problems while playing. My test was quite brief anyway, as I didn't play every game, sometimes just simulated the game through or went on holiday. 

At the moment, I'll stay with the lowest settings for everything related to graphics. 

Hope that helps. All the best. Thank you very much again. 

OK, me again... 

The latest news is that the test has failed, and the game crashed every now and then. It only proves that following the suggestion from "NVIDIA GeForce Experience" doesn't really help... Well, it may last longer before a crash, if the settings are set as low as possible and resolution is set to the suggested value. 

Even worse, I failed to load up the save game for several times after I restarted Windows... The crash occurred when I was browsing around, setting up a tactic, game proceeding, etc. NOT while saving game. So, I'm not sure how the save game becomes corrupted after a crash. 

Anyway, I've had enough... I'll stay away from FM22 for a while. Hopefully, a miracle happens or whatever it might be... 

Thank you. Have a nice day! 

P.S. Oh, by the way, I've disabled "Auto Save".. always turned it off completely. I only save the game manually, so this is not the reason why the save game was corrupted. 

Since today i have problems with Staffsearch...some of the Staff are not accesible to see there attributes....play in Belgium.....

16 hours ago, PoorJ said:

P.S. Oh, by the way, I've disabled "Auto Save".. always turned it off completely. I only save the game manually, so this is not the reason why the save game was corrupted. 

Would you be able to provide us with the save you were having issues with?

It crashed again, and the save game could not be loaded after restart. 

Here's the save file: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aj57He92uLAAiAOYsovfk1WZ9EdJ?e=Be0O5n

Thanks. Have a nice weekend! 

1 hour ago, PoorJ said:

It crashed again, and the save game could not be loaded after restart. 

Here's the save file: https://1drv.ms/u/s!Aj57He92uLAAiAOYsovfk1WZ9EdJ?e=Be0O5n

Thanks. Have a nice weekend! 

The crash dump would be very helpful as well if you have it please. 

I checked before after those crashes, and the crash dumps folder is always empty... 

Since you asked about it, I had a look again anyway, and I found a file in the folder! However, the date of the file is 24 Oct...

Well, I attach it in this post anyway, but it's definitely not related to the save game above. The save game above was from a crash earlier tonight (30 Oct). 

Anyway, thank you again. Have a good day! 

upload_parameters.json

1 minute ago, PoorJ said:

I checked before after those crashes, and the crash dumps folder is always empty... 

Since you asked about it, I had a look again anyway, and I found a file in the folder! However, the date of the file is 24 Oct...

Well, I attach it in this post anyway, but it's definitely not related to the save game above. The save game above was from a crash earlier tonight (30 Oct). 

Anyway, thank you again. Have a good day! 

upload_parameters.json

If you are able to run the game, and turn off your internet and cause this to crash, this should absolutely generate a crash file which you could send to us to take a look. 

If a crash file isn't generating then what you are describing isn't really a crash - it might be that the process is just terminating for some unusual reason (or forced) through task manager, hanging, or similar. 

If you can try this at least, let me know, and hopefully we can get something out of your issue. 

Yes, I know. Everything seems to be running for a while before really stopping, as I've explained in this thread. So, I understand the game does not really crash... maybe more like a hardware problem (as I asked if it's about memory or display card), or about the driver/DirectX. 

Anyway, hope you guys have some ideas about what may be the reasons. Thank you. 

I guess I should give an update here, as I might have found a breakthrough in fixing this crash. 

Firstly, I need to apologize that it is not really a game crash, but more of a hardware problem. So, nothing to do with FM21 or 22... it's my bad as FM is the only game I play, so the problem only occurred here. 

Anyway, I did a search about "black screen", "Nvidia", "Geforce" and "game" in Google. There are several possible reasons, from hardware to software. I probably have done everything in software. Unfortunately, for hardware, I just couldn't try every suggestion, for example, trying another power supply or replacing with a new cable. OK, so I tried what is left: Unplug the display card/memory, and do a cleanup on the "contact" part. 

So, I opened the computer case, and did the above. I also cleaned up the dust inside, on the display card, motherboard, fans, and everywhere. 

Well, amazingly... it seemed to have done the trick! I've played for almost a week since, for total of 20+ hours, without a single crash (touchwood!)... It looks like it has nothing to do with resolution, graphic quality, or any third-party face packs. 

There's more! Before all these, in "Preferences" > "MATCH" > "3D", my computer always got a "2-star"... However, after the cleanup on Monday, it gives a "5-star"! "Graphic Quality" > "Recommended for this PC" suddenly becomes "High" instead of the long-time "Low". I'm not sure that can make a difference here as well. Of course, everything looks nicer and runs well, and I've nothing to complain... 

Anyway, in case anyone has similar problems, you may give my solution a try.

I'm looking forward to the update (official release) next week. Thank you very much.

Good Luck! Enjoy your weekend!