Arch Linux

advleon

Member

Registered: 2024-10-11

Posts: 23

System Freeze when playing some games

Hi friends, I'm hoping you can help me shed some light on some issues I've been having, here's the rundown:

While playing certain games the game will freeze up completely while still allowing mouse movement. The next part varies but usually either the display goes black or even the mouse becomes stuck and the audio will get stuck in a 1 second loop. In the end this always requires a hard reboot, I've been unable to recover from these freeze ups.

The main 2 games I have noticed this in are Crusader Kings 3 and World of Warcraft. I've also had some issues in the past with Crusader Kings 3 and Baldur's Gate 3 where the system just instantly shuts down and reboots, unsure if related.

I've been doing a lot of testing in WoW to replicate the issue, its seems to occur most when the graphics settings are set higher than 3 on the preset slider, quick movements and opening menu windows seem to be the culprit most often.

I never had these issues with WoW on Windows or on my Steam Deck, only on my Arch desktop. Tested WoW on Bottles and Lutris, different Wine and Proton versions don't seem to make a difference.

The other game I mainly play on this system is Rimworld which has absolutely no issues, I've never had a freeze or crash even when loaded up with hundreds of mods.

Some system details:
Nvidia RTX 3080
Intel i7-9700k
KDE running on X11

Apologies for the scarce info here, I'm on my phone currently, if you need more info just let me know and I can gather it when I am next at my PC.

I'm sure I'm just not looking in the right place, I'm hoping someone here can help me find the right tool or command to hone in on the issue. It feels like a graphical issue since it happens while gaming, the screen going black some of the time makes me think the GPU is crashing or failing in some way.

xerxes_

Member

Registered: 2018-04-29

Posts: 898

Re: System Freeze when playing some games

Setup SysRq and use REISUB when system is hung. Don't power off by power button, unless everything fails, because system logs may not save what happened and you risk filesystem corruption.

Post full (with admin rights - sudo) Journalctl log(s) from that hanged boot(s) if there are some hints.
Also coredumpctl may have some records.
Also in xorg logs there may be something.

advleon

Member

Registered: 2024-10-11

Posts: 23

Re: System Freeze when playing some games

Hi, thanks for assisting.

Here is my Journalctl output for today: https://0x0.st/8S0A.txt
I reproduced the crash at around 18:26 and 18:47.

During the first crash I also got an error window on screen which I think could be from WINE:

ACCESS_VIOLATION = The instruction at
"0x00000001431d8693" referenced memory at
"0x0000000000000040".
The memory could not be "read".

Screenshot of above error message: https://i.imgur.com/wRFkJUB.jpeg

What am I looking for in coredumpctl?

Here is the xorg log output: https://0x0.st/8S09.txt

Based on that error message could this be a memory issue perhaps? I admit I'm not the best at comprehending logs!

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,546

Re: System Freeze when playing some games

[     8.776] (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"

Please post the contents of that file.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

advleon

Member

Registered: 2024-10-11

Posts: 23

Re: System Freeze when playing some games

[     8.776] (==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"

Please post the contents of that file.

https://0x0.st/8SCI.txt

EDIT 14/03:
Since seeing that memory error I managed to borrow some RAM from my colleague and have done some testing in WoW. No crashes at all at max graphics, flying around and opening menus which was a guaranteed crash before. Will do some testing in Crusader Kings next to see if that is sorted too.

Last edited by advleon (2025-03-14 21:20:26)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,546

Re: System Freeze when playing some games

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig

remove /etc/X11/xorg.conf as it does nothing useful and forces X to ignore completely the integrated intel gpu builtin to your processor .
restart X (or reboot) after removing that file.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

advleon

Member

Registered: 2024-10-11

Posts: 23

Re: System Freeze when playing some games

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig

remove /etc/X11/xorg.conf as it does nothing useful and forces X to ignore completely the integrated intel gpu builtin to your processor .
restart X (or reboot) after removing that file.

Thanks, I removed that file but it doesn't seem to make a difference.

I may have spoken too soon in my previous edit. It no longer crashes when opening menus, instead I just sat still for a while and the game eventually freezes up again. Tried different RAM sticks in different slot combinations, doesn't seem to make much of a difference. I really thought I had it for a while with the replacement RAM

Could this be due to the graphics settings being too high or would that simply close the game? I turned the settings up to max as that is a consistent way of getting the game to freeze up. If I turn the settings right down it doesn't seem to happen. Seems strange considering I was playing at max settings on Windows with no issues before I switched a few months ago.

EDIT: I should also note that if I leave the game frozen for a minute even REISUB does not work.

Last edited by advleon (2025-03-15 18:50:59)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,546

Re: System Freeze when playing some games

The journal you posted in #3 doesn't look a system journal.

After the next crash/freeze and reboot, as root run

# journalctl -b -1 | curl -F 'file=@-' 0x0.st

The -1 will get the journal from the previous boot , if that's not the crash/freeze use a bigger number like -2 or -3 to get journals from older boots.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

advleon

Member

Registered: 2024-10-11

Posts: 23

Re: System Freeze when playing some games

I've been struggling to replicate the freeze now, very confused by the inconsistency so I'm going through and trying to methodically test the RAM I have as well as the one I am borrowing, will update when I have completed that. My initial thought is that it may be  a specific slot on the motherboard? My next thought is that it's all a placebo effect and I'm slowly going mad

For now I have noticed that if I switch input on my monitor and then switch back it seems to do the same thing, where the main monitor is completely frozen and I can move my mouse around on the second monitor but cannot click anything or interact in any other way. I have the journal output for that here: https://0x0.st/8Q6j.txt

I will keep trying to get another freeze and will do the same when that occurs!

EDIT: So I have an update of sorts. I have been testing all the DIMMs I have to rule out memory issues or perhaps a board issue, but now I am unable to replicate the freeze at all, not sure why it has stopped all of a sudden, but hours in CK3 and WoW have resulted in no freezing issues. As I mentioned above the only issue now seems to be the one where I change the monitor input on my main monitor and then change it back, it causes the same freeze. Luckily I can live with that as I don't have to do it often but still very strange that it just started occurring and the previous issue with the games suddenly stopped!

Last edited by advleon (2025-03-24 08:09:20)