Crash to desktop - Faulting module: ntdll.dll - Event ID 1000

[ZomboidCrasher]

Update: No more crashes since my last post here on March 22 (not from ntdll.dll at least, I had one crash due to the graphics driver - didn't like me alt-tab-ing between the game and the browser).

 

That said, to anyone stumbling upon this in the future: try opening up a cmd window as an Admin and typing " dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth " to restore Windows without reinstalling. It was either that or starting a new save (or both) that fixed it for me, it seems.

 

Last but not least, thanks to the team for the support and for their work on this game. Cheers!

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Every first time I boot up the game I get a CTD with no error - this is what shows up in Event Viewer:

Quote

Faulting application name: ProjectZomboid64.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x62225fa0
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.19041.2130, time stamp: 0xb5ced1c6
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x00000000000ff6a9
Faulting process id: 0x9f0
Faulting application start time: 0x01d94e98a7d963bb
Faulting application path: E:\Games\Project Zomboid\ProjectZomboid64.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Windows\SYSTEM32\ntdll.dll
Report Id: 7964c5cf-2ac8-4de5-b5e9-9d06dec9cbe7
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

This is my debug log (PC specs included): https://pastebin.com/AzhnW8Rn For whatever reason it shows "Memory max at 3072.0 MB" even though I have 16 GB of RAM. Maybe I am misreading the log though, idk.

 

What I tried so far: update graphics driver, reseated RAM (asked for help elsewhere, turned out I had the RAM installed in the wrong slots for Dual Channel), ran Windows Memory Diagnositc. Last night I also ran "dism /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth" after which I didn't (yet) get a CTD, but at this point I'm still not sure it's fixed.

 

My problem manifests itself only in Zomboid, no other game or app/software causes this error. My PC is newly built (in December). The problem manifests itself like this:

1. Boot up Zomboid.
2. The game will crash to desktop with no error anywhere in the first ~5 minutes, from clicking "load game" to just walking around in the game.
3. After the first crash, if I just boot up the game again I can play just fine. No slowdowns, no lag, no other crashes. It's just the first boot-up that's causing me problems.

 

I'm trying to get to the bottom of this because if the problem's not with Zomboid or some driver then it's my PC and I'd like to know and get it fixed up before my warranty expires. From what I can gather, this seems to indicate a heap corruption problem, which can be anything from a bad Windows 10 install to my RAM (or even the GPU?) being faulty.

 

Thanks for your time!

[Beard]

I am not sure if I can suggest anything else other than fully reinstalling Windows to make sure that it is not a hardware issue, since the error just means that there is a problem with the driver, meaning anything in Windows might cause that problem. If it would be a hardware issue then it is difficult to test for that as well without switching around PC components for testing.

[ZomboidCrasher]

On 3/21/2023 at 1:04 PM, EnigmaGrey said:

Note while normally this is just an out-of-date display driver, that it can also be driver conflicts between different devices or driver versions on the computer that can cause ntdll crashes. So it's not just a matter of updating drivers: sometimes you have to go through the Windows event logs and see what other devices are throwing errors around the same time.

 

Common ones are things like vibration drivers for some generic controllers or sound production and manipulation tools or USB devices. A good, quick, test is just to unplug everything that you don't need (everything but keyboard, mouse, and monitor) and just see if it works.

From what I've seen this one seems to be the only error. There's not even any warning of sorts.

 

On the other hand, I got around to sit down and play a little today and it didn't crash. I don't know whether I was just lucky or using "DISM" actually fixed something that was broken with Windows. The only other thing I changed is I started another save (first one was in Riverside and I got bored fast, this one's in West Point and it's keeping me on the edge). Point is, the game handled itself just fine despite the higher zombie population.

 

Anyway, thank you for the reply. I hope that whatever it was is gone and I'll be able to enjoy your great game.

[Beard]

Just to make sure that the ntdll is not a side effect error. Can you share your logs.zip file found in C:\Users\YourUserName\Zomboid? And also can you share the latest “hs_err_pid” file found in your main game folder “Steam\steamapps\common\ProjectZomboid”?

[ZomboidCrasher]

Thank you for the reply. I've attached the logs zip. As for "hs_err_pid", I did a search and couldn't find it. Is it something specific to the Steam version? Because I got the game from GOG.

logs.zip

[Beard]

Thanks, unfortunately there do not seem to be any errors in the logs, which makes it difficult to track down the issue. Based on the ntdll error, it seems to be driver related, at least that is what the search comes up, with.
Windows itself seems to just recommend reinstalling the specific dll file and making sure you have the latest Windows updates:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/app-crash-with-ntdlldll/9aa59f80-99a1-4f3c-b2f0-7eb72df05b2a

[ZomboidCrasher]

Update 04/15/2023: I feel like I'm going insane. Played today, didn't crash at all. I didn't even try to do anything to fix it this time. I don't know whether that means it's more likely to be a hardware or software issue at this point.

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Update. It's crashing again. Same deal, ntdll.dll. Crashing to desktop 1-2 minutes from loading the game. I'm at my wits' end here, I don't know why it worked well until now.

 

ETA: Just to reiterate, I find it weird that it only crashes the first time I boot up the game. When I start it again after crashing I can play just fine for however long I want.

[ZomboidCrasher]

That's too bad. I'm on the latest graphics driver and Windows is up to date. "DISM" should've replaced the file so if it was corrupted I'll just have to wait and see if next time I play the issue shows up. I'll check back on the thread some time this week if it's not locked by then and give an update.

[EnigmaGrey]

Note while normally this is just an out-of-date display driver, that it can also be driver conflicts between different devices or driver versions on the computer that can cause ntdll crashes. So it's not just a matter of updating drivers: sometimes you have to go through the Windows event logs and see what other devices are throwing errors around the same time.

 

Common ones are things like vibration drivers for some generic controllers or sound production and manipulation tools or USB devices. A good, quick, test is just to unplug everything that you don't need (everything but keyboard, mouse, and monitor) and just see if it works.