Afterburner/RTSS is crashing OCCT on some setups

Hi,

I am OCCT's developer. I have had several reports of Afterburner / Rivatuner Statistics server crashing OCCT upon startup.

The way RTSS/Afterburner hooks in Direct3d seems to be the issue. Closing afterburner and RTSS solves the issue and OCCT loads fine.

At that point in time, OCCT is only doing WPF-related stuff, and DXGI-based graphic card detection. Nothing fancy, just basic operations.

The crash occurs in D3D9.dll . It only occurs on some setups.

Can you please look into that exception (i cannot reproduce it on my computer unfortunatly), or make an exception for OCCT ? ( executable named OCCT*.exe, the * being the version).

Thanks !

Here is an example :
- <Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
- <System>
<Provider Name="Application Error" />
<EventID Qualifiers="0">1000</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>100</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2019-09-21T14:54:21.607756100Z" />
<EventRecordID>8051</EventRecordID>
<Channel>Application</Channel>
<Computer>Computer</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
- <EventData>
<Data>OCCT5.3.5.exe</Data>
<Data>5.3.5.99</Data>
<Data>5d7bf166</Data>
<Data>d3d9.dll</Data>
<Data>10.0.18362.329</Data>
<Data>1ac9a115</Data>
<Data>c0000005</Data>
<Data>00000000000ac44e</Data>
<Data>ec0</Data>
<Data>01d5708c705ee9ab</Data>
<Data>C:\Stress\OCCT5.3.5.exe</Data>
<Data>C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\d3d9.dll</Data>
<Data>cb326b65-f4e0-4c21-966d-028ca15e73df</Data>
<Data />
<Data />
</EventData>
</Event>

 

Update to 7.2.3 or clear the RTSS injection cache, Unwinder has already implemented changes.

The issue was introduced by recent windows updates to the DirectX runtime in a way that RTSS's pre 7.2.3 cache invalidation did not handle well in some cases.

I believe the cases where it could happen involved devices that could boot so fast an edge case happened where RTSS was loaded during the replacement of D3D files - this would be thanks to Microsofts startup behavior where a user was pre-logged in and RTSS was started in the background while the login screen was up and Windows Update / Trusted Installer was finishing off.

 

Hi,

Thanks for your answer, i'm glad this is sorted out already, even if i'm not personally affected.

My main problem now is that the current stable version of afterburner packages RTSS 7.2.2 - i don't know if people here have control on how releases of MSI Afterburner are made and such, but i got 3 reports already, people are putting the blame on OCCT, as identifying afterburner as the one behind the error isn't easy.

I'm crossing my fingers things will get quickly resolved in the stable version of Afterburner.

 

The don't have to use beta it works with stable 7.2.2 as well if they clear the RTSS cache.

1. opening RTSS window
2. opening settings and scrolling down to the bottom of the tab
3. click "reset cache"

 

I think you are all missing the point - how would they know RTSS is crashing a desktop, WPF-based application ? It is not natural for them (and for me, it wasn't either, spent a day or so figuring it out).

Is it because i'm using DXGI for graphic card detection, or because i'm using WPF ?

To go into RTSS and do stuff to fix it would mean you know RTSS is doing things wrong. For end users, they have installed afterburner, know nothing of RTSS, installed it because it is checked by default in Afterburner's installation program...

All they see is my app crashing at startup - and they turn on me for support Putting the blame on my application.

I personally find it strange an app fiddling with Direct3d Injection gets installed silently, and can cause such crashes to other applications.

 

We could sum up my opinion as :
* State clearly the implication of installing RTSS, and what it is used for, in the afterburner installation process
* Detect when things are messed up and display an error message if possible, instead of letting "victim" applications handle the debugging (and letting them take the reputation hit)
* Narrow your injection to games, your base target, and not desktop-based applications ( i still don't know if i got hit because i'm using DXGI or WPF ) to minimize failures

 

If your point is that i'm not knowledgeable in the whole D3D hooking process and such, then yes, you're right, that's completely true. I have no clue at all if it is feasible. I'm not part of RTSS's developers, you can take that for granted.

Yet a "sorry, this is not possible" answer would be much nicer from you You sound rather "disgraceful" in the first part of your answer (i'm struggling to find the right word here, the fact english is not my native language is reaching me i guess. Ill-tempered ? ).

I feel a clear warning that installing RTSS can make other applications unstable, any of them actually, as it will fiddle with things used everywhere is at least due (like, who would think a WPF app would get hit by RTSS injection process ? only a handful. And i didn't for a few hours, as an average dev myself, so end user likely won't).

Finally, the other two points still remains. Please do not ignore them.

 

Indeed, let's stop.

You reason under the false assumption that everyone is knowledgeable about what RTSS is doing under the hood.

That people will use your interface and "manage an exception list" when they got RTSS installed with afterburner when they just wanted to OC their shiny new toy they got for their birthday.

With such a way to see things, there's no way to have a proper discussion.

I think the main difference is that i try to see things from the end-user point of view, which will probably know nothing of all we're discussing, and only see an app crashing.

And my point of view, having wasted a day of work because of that situation which my work or code isn't responsible of in any way.

 

You make a forum post titled "Regarding OCCT Crashes with recent Windows Cumulative Updates" and Refer them to the download page with the fixed version.

If they have ignored both the RTSS upgrade prompt as well as the forum post, then they have only themselves to blame.

Another option is to stop appending the product version onto the end of the executable, this is a terrible practice and if you had left it at OCCT.exe, the problem would never have arose as RTSS already includes an exclusion profile for OCCT.exe

USERS SHOULD NOT BLINDLY CLICK YES YES YES YES: INSTALL ON A SETUP WIZARD AND THEN PASS OFF THE RESPONSIBILITY OF KNOWING WHAT THEY INSTALL ON THEIR SYSTEM.

 

Again, i don't agree, as i went again through the installation process, and nowhere was it stated what it could potentially do to my system.

Users very rarely have themselves to blame. Developers are to blame for not anticipating the problem and making their app resilient to such a situation. Or acknowledging the problem and updating their app to make it resilient once discovered.

I shouldn't have to put a warning on top of my website for some bug in another app that i'm not tied with in any way that's affecting my work.

I would be curious how many afterburner users know of RTSS or if it is installed on their computer, actually.

 

Too bad you can't ! I still think you should make it more clear to the end user, since you're bundled in Afterburner.

On my side, i have put a warning on top of my website that Afterburner/RTSS can crash OCCT among other applications due to a bug, and recommend updating or uninstalling it should they experience weird behaviour with various applications.

How else am i going to handle this ? I'm looking at 5 reports on a single day (and who knows how many crashes that were not sent for support).

 

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Didn't see the edit.

Appending the product version make sense if you're using a single-exe scenario, as i'm doing. I'm done with worthless installation processes.

Should i get clearance from developers of a software i don't know of before doing something with my own application, really ?

I definitly don't agree with the petulant tone you're using here. People use Afterburner to overclock their graphic card. They don't have to know about Afterburner installing RTSS, which is in turn using heavy D3D hooking/injection/etc, a technique that can cause issues in... 2D applications. Sorry, for a gamer, this is impossible to figure out.

 

Actually, a more correct way of managing your exclusion list would be to accomodate my new version of OCCT and use a wildcard in your exclusion list. OCCT*.exe .

Or base yourself on another property to identify executables - basing yourself on the filename is just terrible practice