BSOD with only POE

Got the same problem here with a Creative X-Fi Titanium.

Unfortunately it seems that the latest driver I can grab from Creative is from 2010, which doesn't help much. Creative Software AutoUpdate reports I'm using 2.17.8 (Windows Device Manager reports driver date as 7/7/2010), and that there's no update to the driver itself.

I was running PoE through Steam and was attempting to take a screenshot in combat. (Bye-bye first hardcore character, *sniff*.)

Unfortunately on-board is disabled as X-Fi's EAX emulation is pretty much needed for a lot of what I do. I.. could.. swap it around but it causes other system stability problems at times with older applications.

Same problem for me. I also use an Soundblaster X-Fi Titanium. Got 3 BSOD in two days now. I guess it was always while Zoning. Can't remember the first crash. But the 2nd was while entering Church in Act 2 and the 3rd was while entering Dark Forest in Act 2. Playtime till the crashes varied but was definitely >1h.
SB Driver Version is the latest: 2.17.8
Using Windows 7 x64 if that helps to find the problem.

Hope for a quick solution.
Thx. Btw. the game is great ;-)

There's a beta driver dated: 28 Jun 2012

... available on Creative's Website for the Xi-Fi family of cards.

Some have posted that it solved their problem.

Relying on beta drivers (that cause problems with other applications) really isn't the best of solutions. PoE does need to work with the latest supported/officially released drivers.

Yes, it's stopped the crashing for now, but it's still not an elegant solution. It's a free-to-play game. Crashing like that (especially a blue screen which is synonymous with 'something dun really screwed up') is bad.

The beta driver dated 28 Jun 12 is for Windows 8 x64/x86.

The beta driver dated 12 Dec 11 is for Windows 7/Vista/XP both x64 and x86.

Most people just want to get their cards to work without BSODs, and they don't care about any concept of elegance.

Most people (I hope) are willing to fix the problem themselves, rather than sit on their hands.

Hell, my sound drivers are some hack job done by some Russian living in St. Petersburg.

I care not. They work great. :D

"

Daemonjax wrote:

Most people just want to get their cards to work without BSODs, and they don't care about any concept of elegance.

Most people (I hope) are willing to fix the problem themselves, rather than sit on their hands.

Hell, my sound drivers are some hack job done by some Russian living in St. Petersburg.

I care not. They work great. :D

It's fine for you and me, but we're talking about a free-to-play game here. The playerbase needs to have as much ease-of-access as possible to at least the camp. In my experience with the "official" creative drivers, I've seen two BSODs.

Now, it'd be much better if the game just simply gave up with a generic windows error, but the fact that it causes a BSOD is the worst kind of crash possible. This problem is bad for Path of Exile regardless of our workarounds, there needs to be some safeguard and some up-front message that at least explains what's going on.

A free player looking in for the first time won't care. If the game causes a blue-screen, they won't come back. For most retail based games, people will work with it because the money has already been spent and getting a refund is a pain. Not so with PoE's business model.

"

Freyar wrote:

It's fine for you and me, but...

Don't get me wrong, I actually don't disagree with some of your points... I just don't care, because I'm not paid to. Neither are you. ;)

I receive some measure of satisfaction by helping others. It's nice to read a 'thank you' response, but I don't expect any... that's as far as it goes for me. Passes the time when I can't actually play the game.

Anyways... beta drivers. :P

are u using a CREATIVE SOUND Device?
If using a CREATIVE X-Fi SOUND Device the BSOD System crash error PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGED AREA IS RELATED TO THE XRAM of your Sound device.
I've created a fix for this look http://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/47094
the download link is actualy disabled by Moderators but i've make the source code open for the Game Designers so they may spout out a official fix for everyone.
If u can't wait contact me i send u the fix.

"

Freyar wrote:

"

Daemonjax wrote:

Most people just want to get their cards to work without BSODs, and they don't care about any concept of elegance.

Most people (I hope) are willing to fix the problem themselves, rather than sit on their hands.

Hell, my sound drivers are some hack job done by some Russian living in St. Petersburg.

I care not. They work great. :D

It's fine for you and me, but we're talking about a free-to-play game here. The playerbase needs to have as much ease-of-access as possible to at least the camp. In my experience with the "official" creative drivers, I've seen two BSODs.

Now, it'd be much better if the game just simply gave up with a generic windows error, but the fact that it causes a BSOD is the worst kind of crash possible. This problem is bad for Path of Exile regardless of our workarounds, there needs to be some safeguard and some up-front message that at least explains what's going on.

A free player looking in for the first time won't care. If the game causes a blue-screen, they won't come back. For most retail based games, people will work with it because the money has already been spent and getting a refund is a pain. Not so with PoE's business model.

Wouldn't blame the PoE-devs here, Creative just has the worst driver-support in the world. As far as I know there was a similiar BSoD-fiasco with Unreal Tournament 3 when it was released, however Creative brought up a hotfix in that case. Never gonna buy a soundcard of them again.
That there are several private persons tinkering around with their own versions of the drivers speaks enough.

"

Daemonjax wrote:

Don't get me wrong, I actually don't disagree with some of your points... I just don't care, because I'm not paid to. Neither are you. ;)


Anyways... beta drivers. :P

Sure we aren't paid for it, but we are beta testing for stability and quality. We're volunteering our time for QA like we said we would. :P

"

tronic wrote:

are u using a CREATIVE SOUND Device?
If using a CREATIVE X-Fi SOUND Device the BSOD System crash error PAGE FAULT IN NON PAGED AREA IS RELATED TO THE XRAM of your Sound device.

There's been a lot of talk regarding XRAM's use and role with the crashing.

"

Lord_of_Error wrote:

Wouldn't blame the PoE-devs here, Creative just has the worst driver-support in the world. As far as I know there was a similiar BSoD-fiasco with Unreal Tournament 3 when it was released, however Creative brought up a hotfix in that case. Never gonna buy a soundcard of them again.
That there are several private persons tinkering around with their own versions of the drivers speaks enough.

When you've got a lot of OpenAL titles that do alright, it's hard to believe that Creative is solely to blame. Don't get me wrong, I believe Creative's application of XRAM should be stable, but there are many ways that OpenAL is used withotu causing this level of failure.

My arguments are ALL intended to improve Path of Exile as a product, and to attempt to insure that it does well at release. Sure it may be Creative's drivers as they've never been fantastic, but when you have a starting Free-to-Play game released to the public with this level of a fault/crash with an identified hardware set, then there's going to be a huge problem for GGG.