First, a little backgroundI've started playing Panzar on late July.
Worked like a charm for 1-2 weeks then suddenly, during a match, i was staring at my desktop.
No error codes, no messages...anything at all.
Started Panzar again, after playing 5 mins it happened again.
Restarted the whole OS and Panzar, played for a while, and yet again my desktop was in front of my eyes.
So i was like "SCREW THIS!", and played another game for 1h or so; after that i played Panzar wich worked fine for 2 hours.
The day after, after several crashes without notification, i've checked the forums and noticed
this post from Saucex and done the following, as the post suggest:
# Reset CPU/GPU frequency to default --
Unnecessary, i don't overclock (checked clocks to be sure).
# Make sure you have enough RAM on your computer --
Got 4GB, should be enough.# Update your graphics drivers --
Unnecessary, already have the latest.# AMD video card owners, disable anti-aliasing --
Done! --Crashed again!# Close all programs running in the background (Skype, Browser and etc) --
Done! --Played fine for the rest of the evening! --The day after i did the same but the system crashed again!As part of my job, i'm used to troubleshoot hardware and software, so it looked like i had a problem with system memory(RAM); funny enough, Panzar it's the only game i'm playing which crash consistently.
So i've downoladed
Memtest and ran a few checks. No failures found.
I was (and still am) convinced that the primary reason for which Panzar crashes was tied to system memory; it's not the only reason(recent spirit stones have proven this), but surely the primary one.
After a lot of testing i was down to 2 causes:
1)Process isolation/Private working set is somehow overrided on Panzar executable image (this shouldn't be possible)
2)Some kind of glitch related to Dual/Quad Channel memory architecture
To prevent both causes to happen i had to shut down all unnecessary processes and services to keep an as-low-as-possible memory profile.
Executables are just programs that you or your system starts one time; if the process is killed it won't be restarted unless you do it manually
Services are usually started by the system, and most of the times are an integral part of your OS; they usually will be restarted if you stop them.
Please, notice that the following hasn't been tested but on 1 system. It works for me 9 times out of 10Here start the workaround--The following is to prevent 2 services from being restarted once stopped--1)Clik start ->Run -> type in "services.msc"(without quotes) --If you can't find the "Run" command, hit the windows button+R on the keyboard
2)Once the services window search for "Windows Update" and "Windows Search"
3)On both services click on "Recovery" tab and on first, second and subsequent failures switch to "Do nothing"
4)Apply and close
5)Close the services window
Now to deal with unnecessary/unwanted executables you have to kill them; since doing this manually is very annoying and time consuming i've written the following into a batch file to speed up the process
--The following is just an example taken from the batch file that suits me.--
--You have to edit your file to kill executables or stop services--
--The semicolons "::" are comments, you can remove them safely--
--The wildcard "*" is used to kill more processes at the same time--Now there are still a few things to do:
Go
here wait 5 secs and save the file(already checked, it's virus/ad free for all major antiviruses but ViRobot)
Install Memory Cleaner, the file you have just downloaded and start it.
Click on "Trim processes working set" and on "Clear system cache"
Close Memory Cleaner
Start Panzar and try to play.
If it crashes, just try restart it and the game should run fine
If it crashes again, download
memfill (already checked, it's virus/ad free for all major antiviruses)
Start memfill or memfill_x64, depending on your OS; if you have windows 32 bit start memfill, otherwise start memfill_x64.
Input 1024 in the text box and click "Fill"
Wait 5 secs and click "Free"
Close memfill
Try to play Panzar now. If it crashes again i can't help you anymore, i'm sorry.