Can I stop getting these crashes?

[TheJRB]

I've been creating a couple of scenarios recently, one on Danny's merged South London and Thameslink route and another on the GEML London to Ipswich route. Both times as I've got towards the end of creating the scenario, I've hit a crash, sometimes of the "failed to create vertex buffer" kind but more often "failed to save dump file". Then lowering the graphics settings helps a bit but I can't run the finished scenario with any decent settings.

I'm wondering if I ought to upgrade some PC components as my current setup is about four years old. My processor is an i7-2600k, I have 8 GB of RAM and a GeForce GTX 560. Would upgrading the memory or graphics card help prevent these crashes? It's really quite frustrating.

[Trev123]

Upgrade the 560 to say a 960 2gb card. I have just done that after my 560TI died.

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 1&t=142320

[TheJRB]

Upgrade the 560 to say a 960 2gb card. I have just done that after my 560TI died.

http://forums.uktrainsim.com/viewtopic. ... 1&t=142320

Ah thanks. So you've noticed quite some improvement then?

[Trev123]

Yes I have. Running TS at its highest settings with no problems. Everything looks a lot sharper.

[Trev123]

If you get a new card go for a Asus one. Two reasons for this is that they have been around for a while since 1998 making TNT graphics cards and if you are into games you get the latest Batman game free via a code which you enter on Steam. You get the code when you enter the serial number of the card at Asus.

[gptech]

Personally I'd go for an EVGA card, but as the root cause isn't determined it seems a bit daft to go spending money.


You have a CPU that's the dogs back wheels---no problems there.
A 560 is beefy enough, albeit a little dated now, to handle the game---again, should be no problem
8 GB of memory is over twice the amount the game can *see* being a 32bit app (simplified point, I've just done a 12 hour night shift and can't be bothered with VAS)--guess what?...no problem (in theory)

I'm wondering if I ought to upgrade some PC components as my current setup is about four years old

Four years is more than enough time for errors to be built up in your configuration, so unless you know for definite that a particular hardware component is failing I'd be looking at spending some time in Windows rather than in the shop.

What operating system are you using?
How many hard disc drives do you have? If multiple, are they configured so that the OS has exclusive use of one and all other programs are on separate disc(s)?
How much free space is on the system drive?
What are your Virtual memory settings?

[gptech]

Upgrade the 560 to say a 960 2gb card. I have just done that after my 560TI died.

Ah thanks. So you've noticed quite some improvement then?

I'd sincerely hope that a new card outperformed a dead one......

[TheJRB]

Personally I'd go for an EVGA card, but as the root cause isn't determined it seems a bit daft to go spending money.


You have a CPU that's the dogs back wheels---no problems there.
A 560 is beefy enough, albeit a little dated now, to handle the game---again, should be no problem
8 GB of memory is over twice the amount the game can *see* being a 32bit app (simplified point, I've just done a 12 hour night shift and can't be bothered with VAS)--guess what?...no problem (in theory)

I'm wondering if I ought to upgrade some PC components as my current setup is about four years old

Four years is more than enough time for errors to be built up in your configuration, so unless you know for definite that a particular hardware component is failing I'd be looking at spending some time in Windows rather than in the shop.

What operating system are you using?
How many hard disc drives do you have? If multiple, are they configured so that the OS has exclusive use of one and all other programs are on separate disc(s)?
How much free space is on the system drive?
What are your Virtual memory settings?

Thanks for that. To answer your questions:

Windows 10 Insider Preview
I have four drives! I have a pretty much dedicated SSD for TS2015. I have some other programs alongside Windows on C:
It has 12 GB free of 88 (it's another SSD).
My virtual memory is set at 1280 MB. I didn't realise until checking and I see Windows is recommending I up to 1915 MB.

Upgrade the 560 to say a 960 2gb card. I have just done that after my 560TI died.

Ah thanks. So you've noticed quite some improvement then?

I'd sincerely hope that a new card outperformed a dead one......

Haha, true!

[davep]

Upgrade the 560 to say a 960 2gb card. I have just done that after my 560TI died.

Ah thanks. So you've noticed quite some improvement then?

I'd sincerely hope that a new card outperformed a dead one......

LOL - Love it Gary.

[gptech]

I have four drives! I have a pretty much dedicated SSD for TS2015. I have some other programs alongside Windows on C:It has 12 GB free of 88 (it's another SSD).

Show off!!!
Your PC has all the right bits; there's definitely nothing that stands out as weak and in need of upgrading. Nothing to stop you doing so of course, but it'd be because you wanted to rather than needed to.

My virtual memory is set at 1280 MB. I didn't realise until checking and I see Windows is recommending I up to 1915 MB.

Back in Ye Olden Dayes the rule of thumb for the size of the swap file (virtual memory) was 1 1/2 times the amount of *real* memory installed; so, 12Gb in your case. However there's little benefit to having much more than 4GB allocated (mine is set at 12Gb out of habit, and I've never been bothered enough to change it) . Windows 10 deals with the memory side of things better than previous versions but 1915MB does seem a little on the low side. Is Windows in control of sizing the swap file from minimum and maximum values? If so it'd be worthwhile taking a bit of control yourself and using a fixed size, if only to prevent tiny pauses as Windows resizes the swap file when it needs to. This could happen when a program (TS in this case) needs to access that virtual memory only to find it has to pause because Windows is busy with it. Consequently the action that should be taking place could time out which would often give a fatal error (dump file or crash)
How big a swap file you need is like asking "how long's a piece of string?" but I'd suggest setting a fixed size of 4GB (4096MB) and testing. If it works then great, if not up it a bit more, and a bit more and so on. If it still crashes even with 8GB set I'll have wasted your time, for which I'll apologise in advance but at least you'll have ruled out a possible factor

[TheJRB]

I have four drives! I have a pretty much dedicated SSD for TS2015. I have some other programs alongside Windows on C:It has 12 GB free of 88 (it's another SSD).

Show off!!!
Your PC has all the right bits; there's definitely nothing that stands out as weak and in need of upgrading. Nothing to stop you doing so of course, but it'd be because you wanted to rather than needed to.

Haha! I did think things were in reasonably good order.

My virtual memory is set at 1280 MB. I didn't realise until checking and I see Windows is recommending I up to 1915 MB.

Back in Ye Olden Dayes the rule of thumb for the size of the swap file (virtual memory) was 1 1/2 times the amount of *real* memory installed; so, 12Gb in your case. However there's little benefit to having much more than 4GB allocated (mine is set at 12Gb out of habit, and I've never been bothered enough to change it) . Windows 10 deals with the memory side of things better than previous versions but 1915MB does seem a little on the low side. Is Windows in control of sizing the swap file from minimum and maximum values? If so it'd be worthwhile taking a bit of control yourself and using a fixed size, if only to prevent tiny pauses as Windows resizes the swap file when it needs to. This could happen when a program (TS in this case) needs to access that virtual memory only to find it has to pause because Windows is busy with it. Consequently the action that should be taking place could time out which would often give a fatal error (dump file or crash)
How big a swap file you need is like asking "how long's a piece of string?" but I'd suggest setting a fixed size of 4GB (4096MB) and testing. If it works then great, if not up it a bit more, and a bit more and so on. If it still crashes even with 8GB set I'll have wasted your time, for which I'll apologise in advance but at least you'll have ruled out a possible factor

Thanks. That's very helpful. I admit I know very little about virtual memory so it's good to know all this. It sounds consistent with my problems so I'll give it a shot! Definitely worth a try at least.