Frequent heap corruption crashes in DCS = memory leak?

[Nealius]

I am frequently having hard crashes where DCS simply closes. No crash log is generated, no prompt to report crash. DCS simply closes as if it's been Alt+F4'ed. Typically in low-intensity missions on the Channel map. It occurs both during play and during replay tracks, both 2D and VR, but the point at which the crash occurs is not consistent. 

 

Windows event viewer reports exception code 0xc0000374 with DCS.exe. 

 

This only occurs with DCS and with no other games or software. DCS logs don't show anything egregious that I can tell. Research of exception 0xc0000374 points to memory leaks in application code in most cases. 

 

Attaching dcs.log (see last entry for crash), dxdaig, and offending .miz file.

 

 

 

Sandbox Overcast.miz dcs.log DxDiag.txt

[BIGNEWY]

Hi

 

please remove all unofficial mods from  c:/users/neali/saved games/dcs/

 

run a slow repair on your dcs install 

 

and check your pagefile, with 32GB RAM its best to leave the pagefile in managed by windows / auto

 

do you still see the issue with a vanilla DCS install? if you do please attach your log from that session so we can take another look.

 

thank you

[Nealius]

Removed mods and ran a repair. It seems to be caused when fxo/metashaders2 folders get "too full." If I regularly clean them the heap corruption errors don't occur as much. Still unsure why the end user needs to babysit the software so much to prevent crashing or performance issues. 

 

Manual pagefile was recommended for VR due to known DCS memory leaks.

[wernst]

5 hours ago, Nealius said:

Still unsure why the end user needs to babysit the software so much to prevent crashing or performance issues. 

 

 

" . . . needs to babysit the software . . ." that's it, you hit the point.

If a program only has fewer crashes when I have to apply all sorts of healing recipes, then it's not even in beta.

[Nealius]

Advice to run pagefile in auto is also strange as the pinned post in the top of this very forum section specifically says to manually set the pagefile.

[Flappie]

4 hours ago, Nealius said:

Advice to run pagefile in auto is also strange as the pinned post in the top of this very forum section specifically says to manually set the pagefile.

 

AFAIK, the pinned post doesn't ask you to do it. It explains how to do it when you're told to do so.

[Nealius]

6 hours ago, Flappie said:

 

AFAIK, the pinned post doesn't ask you to do it. It explains how to do it when you're told to do so.

 

No such wording exists on the pinned post. It says to do it if you experience crashes, not when told to do so. 

[Flappie]

You're right. However, NineLine says it's a tip (tip = piece of advice = not mandatory) that may help (not guaranteed) if you experience unexplained crashes which seem to be related to memory issues. I believe he was refering to the "E_OUTOFMEMORY" error message which was commonly encountered at the time. You don't seem to have tihs message in your log.

 

Now, back to your pagefile: I believe BIGNEWY advised the use of automatically managed pagefile because he saw in your log a striking "2000 MB" of pagefile detected by DCS. The zeros make it look like a manually set pagefile, and it's a very low pagefile size. But I see in your dxdiag log your Windows seem to have a "25647 MB" pagefile, so I'm a bit puzzled here...

 

Can you please show your Windows pagefile settings?

[Nealius]

14 hours ago, Flappie said:

Now, back to your pagefile: I believe BIGNEWY advised the use of automatically managed pagefile because he saw in your log a striking "2000 MB" of pagefile detected by DCS. The zeros make it look like a manually set pagefile, and it's a very low pagefile size. But I see in your dxdiag log your Windows seem to have a "25647 MB" pagefile, so I'm a bit puzzled here...

 

Can you please show your Windows pagefile settings?

 

Both my OS and DCS drives are set to a 1,000-20,000MB pagefile, but "Total page filing size for all drives" is also showing 2,000MB. I did not forget a zero in the settings, so I don't understand why Windows and/or DCS is knocking off that zero, nor why my dxdiag is adding 5647MB to it. 

 

Setting to automatic doesn't appear to change the allocated pagefile. It's still stuck at 2,000MB. Recommended appears to be 4,983MB.

Edited May 20, 2021 by Nealius

[Flappie]

OK. Then set it like this:

• initial size : 32768 MB
• max size : 32768 MB

This time, DCS should see 32 GB right away. Now see if DCS keeps crashing.

[Nealius]

On 5/20/2021 at 2:57 PM, Flappie said:

OK. Then set it like this:

• initial size : 32768 MB
• max size : 32768 MB

This time, DCS should see 32 GB right away. Now see if DCS keeps crashing.

 

I set the pagefile to automatic which is giving 48xx MB. I'll try 32768 again. So far I haven't had any heap corruption errors, but I have been religiously cleaning the fxo folder after every flight. When the heap corruption crashes occur, I have not emptied my fxo folder in two or three flights.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Nealius

[Nealius]

Still happens. Once again it happens when I fail to clean out the fxo folder between missions. It happens consistently with the P-47 over the Channel map. 

 

Obviously, "clear the fxo folder after every flight" will prevent the crashes, but this amount of tedium should not be required of the end user just to get the software to run reliably. 

 

 

Edited June 1, 2021 by Nealius