MP game Dedicated Server: Server Log File Excerpt: Event just before a hard lockup of client machine forcing shutdown and reboot

Conan Exiles PC Discussion
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1

Game mode: Online: MP mode
Type of issue: Log shows connection lost on between private dedicated server and Steam, causing Client Machine to lock up. Refer to Logfile txt below.
Server type: PvP
Region: North America

Client on game machine goes into freeze and results in whole system lockup.
Forced to Shut off power and reboot.

Please provide a step-by-step process of how the bug can be reproduced. The more details you provide us with the easier it will be for us to find and fix the bug:

  1. See the following server log file below:

[2019.05.12-12.21.41:119][192]LogEngine:Warning: GetWorldFromContextObject called with a NULL game instance object.
[2019.05.12-12.21.41:120][192]GUI:Warning: Code: SlotServerRatingRequestTimedOut: Rating request timed out with error 12
[2019.05.12-12.21.53:179][563]LogServerStats: Sending report: exiles-stats?players=1&=12.31%3A32.98%3A505.00&uptime=7335&memory=26475610112%3A34358685696%3A4279193600%3A4304785408&cpu_time=7.557814%3A60.462509&npcailods=2%3A7%3A17%3A5983&buildingailods=0%3A0%3A0%3A14&placeableailods=0%3A0%3A0%3A144&ipv4=192.168.42.5&sport=7777
[2019.05.12-12.22.12:857][170]LogNet:Warning: UNetConnection::Tick: Connection TIMED OUT. Closing connection. Elapsed: 60.03, Real: 59.72, Good: 59.72, DriverTime: 7355.91, Threshold: 60.00, [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: 192.168.42.147:62475, Name: SteamNetConnection_0, Driver: GameNetDriver SteamNetDriver_0, IsServer: YES, PC: FunCombat_PlayerController_C_0, Owner: FunCombat_PlayerController_C_0
[2019.05.12-12.22.12:858][170]LogNet: NetworkFailure: ConnectionTimeout, Error: ā€˜ConnectionTimeoutā€™
[2019.05.12-12.22.12:858][170]LogNet: UNetConnection::Close: [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: 192.168.42.147:62475, Name: SteamNetConnection_0, Driver: GameNetDriver SteamNetDriver_0, IsServer: YES, PC: FunCombat_PlayerController_C_0, Owner: FunCombat_PlayerController_C_0, Channels: 78, Time: 2019.05.12-12.22.12
[2019.05.12-12.22.12:858][170]LogNet: UChannel::Close: Sending CloseBunch. ChIndex == 0. Name: [UChannel] ChIndex: 0, Closing: 0 [UNetConnection] RemoteAddr: 192.168.42.147:62475, Name: SteamNetConnection_0, Driver: GameNetDriver SteamNetDriver_0, IsServer: YES, PC: FunCombat_PlayerController_C_0, Owner: FunCombat_PlayerController_C_0

I installed a brand new 750W power supply just for the S&Gs in case the issue causing previous severe whole system lockups had anything to do with a failing power supply. This was during the time I was playing SP mode. Since then, I downloaded and installed the dedicated server setup you provided onto my dedicated Server Machine which runs the game for this connection.
As a result, during game play, Iā€™ve had three other lockups since starting up a dedicated server, but at least these havenā€™t been as severe as was happening while playing SP mode on my gaming machine.
What you see above is an excerpt of the server logfile of the events at the moment of a lockup.
This is the information I could not see while playing in SP mode.
However, this information shows up on my server.

At a glance, the problem seems to be related to whatā€™s going on between the Game Server and the Steam Pipeline.

2

COME ON DEVS !
Take a look at this and at least let me know something.

3

Having this specific line spammed in my server logs as well. No solution so far.

LogEngine:Warning: GetWorldFromContextObject called with a NULL game instance object.

I think Iā€™ve only been getting it since the latest update.

4

Hey @Vahlok & @SilverJustice

Could you verify the integrity of the files just in case some file got corrupted? Does the Windows Event Reporting tool showing something unusual?
Could you also let us know if there is any mod installed and the system specs of your server? You can send us your client and server dxdiag files privately if you want, so we can spot something weird going on.

5

I donā€™t have enough elements to give a fair assessment, but to me it sounds like an hardware or operating system issue.

Before digging more in things that could be totally unrelated, could I suggest a number of things to check just so we can eliminate a culprit:

  • Install some temperature monitoring software (that checks both the motherboard, cpu and gpu) and run some stress software, like what is used to test the overclocking stability of a machine (like some of the graphic benchmarks in loop mode), or these Prime number calculation programs. (You can see some examples on How to Stress-Test CPUs and PCs (Like We Do) | Tom's Hardware)
  • If that passes, we know itā€™s probably not an overheating issue, the next potential culprit would be the memory: I suggested to get memtestx86+, install it on a bootable usb key or CD, and then let it run during all the night: That could be something as simple as a flaky memory stick that only triggers now and then, explaining why your system locks up.
  • If we are still good, I would do a system check, to verify that you donā€™t have any corrupted system file on disk: Use the System File Checker tool to repair missing or corrupted system files - Microsoft Support
  • And obviously, what @Ignasi suggested (Steam integrity check for Conan)

(I assumed you already did the usual thing: Making sure Windows is up to date, scan for virus/malware, check the graphic card drivers, etcā€¦)

Regarding the Server, I can see why a wonky server would cause your game client to crash or misbehave, but that should not make windows to freeze.

6

@Ignasi @Toolguy
Thank you for getting back to me on this.
The only thing that shows up on my Windows Event is ā€œunexpected shutdownā€ (where I had to turn the power off in order escape and to reboot).
There are no mods in use.
The server runs with dual quad core 4122 AMD Opterons at 2.20 GHz and 32GB Registered RAM mounted on an AMD KCMA D8 system board powered by a 750W Power supply.
Iā€™ll see if I can get a dxdiag setup going and get those files to you asap. Please keep in mind that the lockup occurs on the client machine and not the server. The client machine is more up-to-date in hardware.

Iā€™ve run the usual checks and scans as well as the integrity checks.
However, Iā€™m going to follow your lead on the two links for stress testing and file checking.

The last two lockups that occurred happened just when the server showed this line:
[2019.05.12-12.22.12:858][170]LogNet: NetworkFailure: ConnectionTimeout, Error: ā€˜ConnectionTimeoutā€™
(this is the stuff I didnā€™t get to see when Iā€™ve played solo and the lockups were frequent).

Iā€™m running the server/client connection through a Hugheā€™s Net Satellite Modem.
I can half way understand that causing the client to freeze. But that should be escapable through the task manager if necessary. But not so severe that I must resort to shutting off the power on the client machine.

Recap:
Iā€™ll get to those tests and get back with something.

  1. On the system scan, everything is normal. No errors, no repairs. (I actually ran that test several times even before your suggestion).

  2. Iā€™ll see about running a stress test tonight and get back with you tomorrow.

I do have one question though.
What are the chances of a network card going bad?

7

Sorry, I should have been more explicit: Itā€™s the client information Iā€™m caring about, since thatā€™s the client system that freezes, not the server.

What are the chances of a network card going bad?

Actually, at work we had to install (good: Intel) network cards on most of our machines than used built in motherboard Ethernet because we were using so much network traffic with our distributed builds, client-server connection, steam downloads and uploads, etcā€¦ that it was starting to impact build times and sometimes even the ability of moving the mouse because of the high cpu usage.

But freezing the system completely for more than a couple seconds, no, Iā€™ve not see that.

8

Thank your for the clarification.

Iā€™ve run the dxdiag separately on both 32 and 64 bit.
There were no problems found.
I was halfway expecting something, but there was nothing to report.
I have saved copies of those tests sitting on my desktop if you still want them.

Still, I have to dig deeper on this because there are times when Iā€™m browsing with IE that something seems to be loading up and causing display unresponsiveness. (including the mouse movement being affected as you mentioned above).
Now that Iā€™m thinking about it, I need to check something.

9

Maybe try to install ā€œprocess explorerā€ (or something equivalent) and let it running on the side, so when you notice your machine starting to suffer, you can see which process is starting to eat at your cpu, memory or disk.

Iā€™m not sure if you are running IE ā€œout of the boxā€, but these days, running a web browser without ad-blockers or java script catchers is a sure way to end up running some nasty scripts in the background.

Myself, while trying to find some very old version of some unsupported middleware library, I ended up on a website that had been hijacked trying to serve webpages full of bitcoin mining scripts: Just for the fun I try to run one in a sandboxed environment, and the entire machine collapsed until I killed the web browser :slight_smile:

10

If ā€œOut of the boxā€ meaning the browser that came with the OS, yes. Itā€™s the current Windows Internet Explorer 11 set as the default browser.
As for a ā€œHome Pageā€, I have that set to ā€œAbout: Blankā€. (a blank ā€œhome pageā€ loads when initializing the IE specifically in Windows 7).

Iā€™ll check out that ā€œprocess explorerā€ and see if anything shows up.

11

Oddly, for the past couple of 24 hour segments (auto restarts included) ā€¦
Itā€™s been running somewhat stable.
I get some minor stuttering while moving around that lasts for a couple of seconds.
Other than that, it seems to have settled down.
If the lockup happens again, Iā€™ll have to dig deep and try to find out what might have caused it.
But in any case itā€™s been an enormous improvement over solo play where the lockups were completely random.

12

Running with the Resource Monitor on the side could help find out if the stutter is caused by memory, cpu, network or disk usage: Keep it on the side of the screen so you can see the small graphs and see if they spike.

Common culprits have been things like anti-virus deciding to scan your files while you play.

13

On boot-up this morning something caught my attention. It booted up normally and appeared to run smoothly for a few moments.
I then opened Steam to look into the forums when during that time my system froze becoming unresponsive. It was locked up.
On this occasion I chose to wait and see what happens. So while it was in stalemate, I initialized the task manager. In roughly about a minute, the system freed itself and the task manager opened, then I got a look into the process list along with the graphs in the resource monitor.
This caught my attention:

Adobe ARM
3+ instances hogging a massive amount of CPU and Memory plus clogging up the network.

Sound familiar?

On a hunch, Iā€™ve completely uninstalled Adobe.
Iā€™ll leave the (victim) PC running today and reboot tomorrow morning.

14

Common applications eating your CPU and memory budget like a Cookie Monster, definitely.

I donā€™t use Adobe ARM, so I canā€™t comment on that, but itā€™s quite common to have services in the background doing very intrusive updates that kill the performance of even the strongest machine.

Hopefully your problems will be solved after that, but keep monitoring :slight_smile:

EDIT: If you only use Adobe to read PDF files using Acrobat, you can use Sumatra PDF instead, iā€™ts very compact, very fast, and uses almost no disk space at all :slight_smile:

15

Iā€™ll check into that app as a suitable replacement for Adobe if I determine a need for a pdf reader on this machine in the future. If I can live without it on this machine, I have two other machines besides the server that can use it.