PC with B580 freezes in Death Stranding

[Andrey123]

Hello, my PC with Intel ARC B580 completely freezes when I play Death Stranding. This happens with both original and Director's Cut versions from Epic Store. I use the latest drivers (32.0.101.6559), but this issue is observed for as long as I own this graphics card (for about a month), i.e. I encountered it with previous drivers too. The SSU is attached.

The way to reproduce the issue is not straightforward and 100% reliable because it freezes quite randomly. This may happen in 30 minutes, but may be in many hours. However, it only happens when I interact with in-game menus, for example, build or upgrade a structure, take an order or make a delivery, or take items from a storage. Most often it happens in the Central Region when I take resources from terrorists' storages. The game makes an unpleasant noise for a second or two, the screen goes black or simply freezes, and nothing helps but to power cycle the PC.

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Andrey123,

Thank you for posting in the community.

I would like to ask the following:

1. Dump/Log Files: You can generate and share them using this link. Need help? Reporting a bug or issue with Arc GPU? - PLEASE READ THIS FIRST! - Intel Community
2. Is this working before?
3. Any troubleshooting steps you have tried to fix this?
4. Have you tried clean installation/DDU with the latest graphics driver? If not, follow the steps here: Clean Installation of Intel® Graphics Drivers in Windows*, How to Use the Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) to Uninstall an...

Best Regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Andrey123]

Hi Dean,

thanks for your reply!

1. So far I wasn't able to get a dump when the game crashes. Probably, this is because it doesn't crash back to Windows or result in a BSOD and reboot, but just completely hangs. I tried to give it a plenty of time (a few hours), just in case the event logger needs this to write the RAM content to the disk, but with no luck. However, I see the event logger working: by some reason, it saves dumps for IntelGraphicsSoftware.Service.exe after I power cycle the PC, it also makes dumps for REDlauncher.exe when I try to launch Cyberpunk 2077 (more on that later).

2. This is a new PC, so there is not much history. But it was working OK with Ryzen 9700X's iGPU until I purchased Arc B580. Using iGPU I was able to put many hours in Control and Death Stranding (though it was a bit painful slideshow).

3. I tried to narrow down the issue but without much luck:

At first, since I use RAM with an EXPO profile, I gave it a good test using memtest86 - all good;

Then I stress-tested Arc B580 running Furmark for 3h - all good;

Then I used OCCT to stress test CPU + RAM, VRAM, Power (each for one hour long) -  also without any error reported.

4. I tried DDU and clean driver install - this didn't help.

5. (Going back to Cyberpunk 2077.) Initially, this post was about Death Stranding since I was mostly playing it. But I decided to switch to Cyberpunk for a bit, hoping that the issue was specific only to Death Stranding. However, Cyberpunk hangs like crazy! It took me a few power cycles to go thru tutorial at the very beginning on the game since it completely froze every few minutes. Though, there were also no dumps at the moments of crashes, only when I was launching the game.

6. Since the audio gets funky when both Death Stranding and Cyberpunk hangs (initially, the in-game sound distorts in some electronic-ish way, then turns into a buzzing noise, then disappears at all), I'll try to reinstall the audio driver too. Though I don't expect much, since outside of games, in Windows or on Youtube, everything works stable.

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Andrey123,

Thank you for providing this information. I'll review it internally and get back to you with the necessary details as soon as possible.

Best Regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Andrey123,

Thank you for your patience, could you please provide the screenshot of game settings for both Cyberpunk 2077 and DEATH STRANDING? This will help us replicate the issue on my end.

Additionally, are you playing Cyberpunk 2077 on the Epic Games platform?

To avoid further confusion and if possible, please create a separate thread for Cyberpunk 2077. This will allow us to troubleshoot each game individually and document the issues properly.

Best Regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[Adminiuga]

I want to report a similiar issue with Startfield. And similar to OP's issue, when it crashes, it does that weird sound for a second and then everything freezes. I don't get any dumps/BSOD, even though I've created the registry entries as per Need help? Reporting a bug or issue with Arc GPU? - PLEASE READ THIS FIRST! - Intel Community

Starfield crashes randomly within 5 minutes or less. I pretty much isolated it to the video card/drivers, because with everything the same, the IGPU runs for hours without any crashes. I'll open a separate issue and will try to get the dumps.

[Andrey123]

Attached are my graphics settings for Death Stranding.

However, as I mentioned earlier, it might be difficult to reproduce this issue since it may occur within half an hour, but may take many hours as well. Since it was not too often and predominantly while interacting with in-game menus, I actually managed to finish Death Stranding on B580. Though my SSDs report about 25 unsafe shutdowns due to hard resets.

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Adminiuga,

I appreciate your effort for sharing this issue however, to avoid further confusions I suggest creating a new thread for this.

Best Regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Andrey123,

I hope you're doing well. I wanted to follow up on my previous message regarding your inquiry. Have you had a chance to review it? If you have any questions or need further information, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'm here to help.

Best Regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Andrey123,

Thank you for getting back to me and I appreciate your efforts for providing these settings to help me investigate this further. I will reach back out to you once I have the necessary information you need.

Best Regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Andrey123,

Thank you for your patience as I investigated the issue internally. I appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

To further address the problem, could you please try the following steps?

Update Driver:

Please test with the new driver version 32.0.101.6647 to see if it resolves the issue. Here's the link for reference: Intel® Arc™ & Iris® Xe Graphics - Windows*

Test RAM:

• Use a tool like MemTest86 to check your RAM for any potential issues. This can help identify if memory is contributing to the problem. Allow MemTest86 to complete at least one full pass. This may take some time, depending on the amount of RAM and the speed of your system.
• If errors are detected, they will be displayed on the screen. If no errors are found, your RAM is likely functioning correctly.

If you have any questions or need assistance with these steps, please don't hesitate to reach out. I'm here to help and ensure we get this resolved for you.

Best Regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Andrey123,

I hope you're doing well. I just wanted to check in with you about my previous message regarding your inquiry. Have you had a chance to take a look at it? If there's anything you're unsure about or if you need more information, please feel free to reach out. I'm here to help and would be more than happy to assist with any questions you might have!

Best Regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician

[DeancR_Intel]

Hi Andrey123,

I have not heard back from you so I will close this inquiry now. If you need further assistance, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored. 

Best Regards,

Dean R.

Intel Customer Support Technician