Walking Dead - Game freezes, Saves lost

Hey Guys,

i bought the steam version back in Autumn 2012 and still, despite all my efforts, get te same problem over and over again:

After a randon time playing (varying between 5 and 30 minutes the whole game freezes and i have to restart my whole PC. After booting up the game again, all my saves are lost.
I tried the following solutions:

-Enabled the 3GB Switch via prompt command
-Installed latest graphic drives (Ati radeon 4850 HD)
-Ran the game in Windows XP Compatibility
-Disabled my antivirus
-veryfying file integrity
-installing it again


i searched for hours (not only in the last days but also the last few times i tried to get the game running) and found no solution or other people with the same problem. Since half a year i try to play this game And the only thing i always see is the part up till you meet clementine. Thats the furthest i could play before starting again.

Is there nay way, you could perhaps help me?
Attached is the Support tool report:

It would be great to play this game further.

Comments

  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2013
    The support tool attachment is missing.

    Is there a change your graphics card might be overheating?
  • edited April 2013
    Thanks for the quick reply.
    Sorry, i forgot the attchment - Here it is

    Overheatinmg might indeed be a problem, since it happens with other games sometimes.
    But in very other game where this happens, the pc turns itself down. Here it only freezes and sound and is stuck and "buzzing"
    And i can play Battlefield and other games without overheating :confused:

    But i will try it with manual fan speed at 100% and see if it helps.
    It would be nice if you could look at the reports. Perhaps there is someting interesting :cool:
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2013
    Have you checked if your cooling fans and heatsinks are dust free?
    Description: Lautsprecher (Realtek High Definition Audio)
    Date and Size: 3/26/2007 21:18:18, 1761696 bytes

    Updating the Realtek HDA driver is also worth a try.
  • edited April 2013
    So i tried different things at once:

    -first updating the audio drivers - it crashed just at the "connecting"-screen
    -after reboot i set the core affinity to one core only
    -in game, i turned off after effects and anti aliasing and i could play the game for almost 2 hrs straigt now.

    The lost save problem could be fixed by turning off the clud option in steam.

    So i am still not sure if the problem is solved and which solution worked but at least i can play for a good while now and keep my progress

    So, thanks to you for your tipps :-)
  • edited April 2013
    Well, today, the same problem again. Can`t play straight for 5 minutes...
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2013
    I suggest you try logging the temperatures of your GPU and CPU. Then we can see if that's the problem.

    Logging your CPU and GPU Temperatures

    CPU: Download Core Temp. Start it and activate logging in the menu under "Tools/Logging on".

    The log file created is called similar to "CT-Log [TIME][DATE].csv".

    GPU: Download GPU-Z.
    Start it, select the "sensors" tab, and activate "Log to File" at the bottom of the window.
    Choose a location for the log file.

    Zip the files and attach them to a reply in this thread.
  • edited April 2013
    Now its getting really annoying:

    Could play for 2 hrs, then it crashed. But this time, my savegame got lost again.
    Cloud was still disabled in steam - Is there any way to restore my saves? The files are still there, but the prefs.prop was created new. I googled for a fix but it didnt work.

    Anyway, here are the temperature readings. Strangely the core temp file only logged the first few minutes.

    If you could help or at least restore the save, that would be great. Im at the end of episode 3 now and dont wanna start all over again, only with the chance to lose all progress again.

    Thanks
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2013
    Yes, the 40 seconds core temp log is not really sufficient.

    The GPU Log is suspicious already though. The GPU Temperature starts at 73°C and goes up to 100°C, which is a lot. If the readings are correct your GPU Fan runs at speeds up to 9200 RPM, which must be loud. This implies that the GPU cooling is rather weak, and it is possible that overheating causes the crashes.
    Checking and improving your entire systems cooling solution is definitely worth a try.

    The broken prefs.prop is a problem, since it also stores some meta data.
    The best solution is to try the "restore previous version" feature (right click, "properties", "restore previous version") on the prefs.prop in the savegame folder ( %USERPROFILE%\Documents\Telltale Games\The Walking Dead ).
  • edited April 2013
    Sadly i dont have any backups of the prefs.prop (Windows Vista - Feature disabled)

    i tried the timestamp fix and it didn`t work. Im doing a clean reinstall of the game and try another solution i found in the "timestamp"-thread :-/

    Well, another way to spend your holidays :(

    As for the cooling, i am going to get a new rig soon, but i will see what i can do this one...and yeah, it IS loud ;-) But i manually adjusted the fan speed to 100%, so its my own fault

    Many thanks four your help :-)
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2013
    The timestamp fix (actually the timestamp is not required to be changed anymore) is not a 100% workaround anyway. It might have side effects.

    But if you .zip and upload your *.save files i can take a look at them and try to apply it.
    Please upload it to an instant filehoster and post the download link.
  • edited April 2013
    Timestamp didnt work anyway.

    Thank you so much in advance, i appreciate your work very much :)
    Hope you can do something.

    I zipped the backup of my Documents/Telltale games/Walking dead folder

    -Save 38 ist the last save i did before the crash - This one should be restored
    -Save 6 with the latest timestamp ist the new one created from scratch at episode 3 (randomized decisions)

    [URL=http://wikisend.com/download/653254/The Walking Dead - Kopie ALT.zip]The Walking Dead - Kopie ALT.zip[/URL]
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2013
    Save 38 appears to be broken indeed.

    I was able to recover save 37 using that workaround. Keep in mind, that you won't have the stats in the earlier episodes anymore, you can't rewind, and there might be other side effects.
  • edited April 2013
    Thanks, it works now :-)

    Are my story decisions still there?

    One last question: Would it help to create regular backups, like every 30 minutes, of the prefs. prop and the last few savegames? So i can be able to do the backup myself in case this happens again?

    From my understanding, the savegames aren`t recognized because of the new prefs file?
  • edited April 2013
    DjNDB wrote: »
    Save 38 appears to be broken indeed.

    I was able to recover save 37 using that workaround. Keep in mind, that you won't have the stats in the earlier episodes anymore, you can't rewind, and there might be other side effects.

    Perhaps thats why the timestamp fix dindt work
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2013
    Thanks, it works now :-)

    Are my story decisions still there?

    One last question: Would it help to create regular backups, like every 30 minutes, of the prefs. prop and the last few savegames? So i can be able to do the backup myself in case this happens again?

    From my understanding, the savegames aren`t recognized because of the new prefs file?

    I can't say for sure. People have reported that the decisions should still be there, using that workaround, but there is a chance that's not the case anymore at some point later in the game. I only found one person stating that possible problem though yet. If that happens to you, please let me know.

    Yes, backups of the prefs.prop and .save files will enable you to restore your progress.

    Exactly. The new prefs.prop is not associated with all the earlier savegames required for rewinding, and there's no proper way of doing that once the prefs.prop is lost.
    Perhaps thats why the timestamp fix dindt work

    Yes. I basically did the same thing, just with the other .save file.
  • edited April 2013
    So, just finished the Game - Sad ending :-/

    Indeed not all story decisions were imprted right.

    In the end stats, where they summed up every character, it said, that Carley was killed, although i saved her. And it also said, that she convinced me to tell the group about my crime.

    About Doug the game said i rescued him, but i didnt.

    But i can live with these if i couldjust finish the game.
    I couldn´t find any other mistakes

    So, many thanks for your help :)
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited April 2013
    Thanks for the update :)
This discussion has been closed.