CTD 2-3 min in game without any logs

Age of Empires II: DE II - Report a Bug
1

:play_button: GAME INFORMATION

:backhand_index_pointing_down: These details are CRITICAL; DO NOT skip them or your issue may not be reviewed.

  • GAME BUILD #: 185872
  • GAME PLATFORM: Steam
  • OPERATING SYSTEM: Windows 10
  • Windows 10 22H2 – build 19045.7725
  • CPU: Intel Core i5-13600K
  • GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti
  • RAM: 32 GB

:play_button: ISSUE EXPERIENCED

:backhand_index_pointing_down: DESCRIBE THE ISSUE IN DETAIL (below). LIMIT TO ONE BUG PER THREAD.

Game crash to Desktop without any message nor any logs 2 to 3 minutes after launch, 100% of the time, regardless of any actions (idle in main menu, single player game, ladder…)

Actions done without any effect : verified EXE is not run as admin, mods disabled, Steam file verification, complete AoE2 reinstall, offline mode, installation on Drive C:, D: or F:, NVIDIA graphics driver reinstall, Microsoft Visual C++ 2015–2022 redistributables reinstall, Windows Defender exception done on game folder, all windows updates done, no antivirus in system, EXE launched without Steam, Overlay disabled (steam, nvidia…), Xbox Game Bar uninstalled, new aoe2 profile, profile folder deleted, Steam Cloud disabled, Steam Cloud storage emptied, Windows clean boot (all non-Microsoft services disabled), startup applications disabled, with and without Xbox account linked…

Windows Reliability Monitor : no record of the crash.
Windows Event Viewer → Application : no record of the crash

I then used AI to guide me to produce and analyze 2 dumps with ProcDump and WinDbg and here is a copy-paste of its summary :

AoE2 DE build 101.103.54800.0 repeatedly reaches an unhandled STATUS_ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION (0xC000001D) after approximately 2–3 minutes, with independent crashes occurring only 640 bytes apart inside the same region of AoE2DE_s.exe.

No normal Windows Application Error / WER crash entry is generated; the exception was only discovered by attaching ProcDump.

_First captured crash_

ProcDump: Unhandled: C000001D.ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION

WinDbg:

Exception: 0xC000001D
Type: ILLEGAL_INSTRUCTION
Module: AoE2DE_s.exe
Fault offset: AoE2DE_s+0xF77E10
Process uptime: 127 seconds
Failure hash: {c46685eb-c3cf-6ffb-e315-89eb96f55dd0}

Faulting instruction:
AoE2DE_s+0xF77E10
D5 ??

The stack was effectively empty:

RetAddr = 0000000000000000

_Second independent captured crash_

Exception: 0xC000001D
Module: AoE2DE_s.exe
Fault offset: AoE2DE_s+0xF77B90
Process uptime: 206 seconds
same failure hash:
{c46685eb-c3cf-6ffb-e315-89eb96f55dd0}

Faulting instruction:
AoE2DE_s+0xF77B90
EA ??

The two fault locations are only:
0x280 = 640 bytes
apart inside AoE2DE_s.exe.

Both crashes therefore occur in essentially the same small region of the executable.

:play_button: FREQUENCY OF ISSUE

:backhand_index_pointing_down: How often does the issue occur? CHOSE ONE; DELETE THE REST!

  • 100% of the time between 2 to 3 minutes after main menu appears

:play_button: REPRODUCTION STEPS

:backhand_index_pointing_down: List CLEAR and DETAILED STEPS we can take to reproduce the issue ourselves… Be descriptive!

Here’s the steps to reproduce the issue:

  1. Launch the game

  2. Main menu appears, any action seems to be working fine

  3. Wait 2 to 3 minutes

  4. Crash to Desktop without any message nor any logs.

:play_button: EXPECTED RESULT

:backhand_index_pointing_down: What was SUPPOSED to happen if the bug you encountered were not present?

Game working more than 3 minutes.

:play_button: IMAGE

:backhand_index_pointing_down: ALWAYS attach a PICTURE (.jpg, .png, .gif) or VIDEO (.mp4, YouTube link) that highlights the problem.

:play_button: GAME FILES (SAVE / RECORDING)

:backhand_index_pointing_down: Attach a SAVE GAME (.aoe2spgame) or GAME RECORDING (.aoe2record) of the match where you encountered the issue. Link it below if using an external file service.