Game causing system crash question.

Hello!

Thank you for replying!

I have tried playing the game in "Safe Mode" (Holding down the gift key when the computer starts) and was unsuccessful.

I get an error message that states;

"ESO cannot start because your machine's Vulkan support is either insufficient or nonexistent."

(ESO is the "Elder Scrolls Online" game.)

It then gives me the options to either "Ignore Always", "Debug", and "Crash".

And that is as far as I got with it.

•••

I am a bit reluctant to set up a second user on my machine. I remember trying to fix another issue and setting up a second user seemed to mess some of my settings up. It was probably my fault, but I am hesitant to go through that again unless it will really help.

But to be honest, I just want to see if there is a way I can get the game, which for all intents and purposes appears to be running except it is extremely well hidden, to get to show up again.

First) Thank you for responding!

Second) Not exactly what happens.

I can start up the computer WITHOUT having to put my password in.

And I can start up and play the game normally. But at certain times the game will appear to crash the Mac OS. It throws me to the computer (Mac OS) login.

(A window similar to this.)

Screen-Shot-2019-06-20-at-3.43.27-PM.jpg

I put in my password for the computer, and it reopens everything I had running at the time. (Usually the game and Safari, maybe mail as well.) Remember, I don't usually have to put my password in to use the computer normally.

The other programs come back fine. Safari reopens to the page that it was last at, etc.. But as for the game, it can ONLY be heard. If it was not for the games sound and that I can detect it in the "Activity Monitor" utility, then that there would be no indication that it is still running (It does not appear in the "Force Quit" window for example).

I can hear sounds from the game as if it is still running normally, BUT the screen is hidden.

My question is, is there anything I can do to make the games visuals appear again. Right now, I am force quitting it in the "Activity Monitor", utility and reloading back into the game. I was hoping there was a way I could bypass that and get back into it quicker.

I should also add the game is not frozen or looping a sound. It is an MMO-RPG and I can hear the actions of the other players normally.

Thanks!

Thank you for the links!

It normally does run, it just does not appear to run in "Safe Mode".

When not running the game in Macs "Safe mode", the game opens normally without the request for Vulcan or that error message I linked above.

Hello,

If I am not in "Safe Mode", the game does load normally. Apparently in "Safe Mode" Vulcan turns off, I guess? I don't know. It was suggested to me on these forums to start the game in "Safe Mode" and I was just relaying my experience. That is all.

I guess I was unclear about the issue, my fault, so I will state it again.

The game Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) can run on my machine, but...

Frequently, while playing the game, my ENTIRE Mac OS will "crash". (OK, let me explain what is exactly happening. While playing the game, and only while playing this particular game, rather frequently the entire screen will go black. Then, after a second or two, the Mac OS login screen will appear. I am calling this a system crash, but there may be a more technical term I am not aware of.)

From there I put in my computer's password and my normal desktop appears. ALSO any programs I was running at the time also reopens. BUT as for the game I can still hear it, as if it is still running, however it does not show up as open in my sidebar, my force quit window, and I can not see it on the screen. All I see is my normal desktop, with icons folders etc.

I can still hear it as if it is running, and from the background noises I can tell it is NOT in a loop or anything, but other then the sound the game is not detectable in any normal sense.

The "Activity Monitor" utility DOES show it running though.

My question is, can I get the game, that appears to be running, to not stay hidden? Can I make it reappear somehow?

Right now I am quitting it in the "Activity Monitor" utility and then reloading in, but this is time consuming and very annoying. And sometimes it just throws me right back to the Mac OS login screen again.

I hope I was clearer with the issue at hand. This whole thing is very strange and while I am comfortable using most of the Mac OS, I am not a programmer by any means. I just was curious if there was some trick I can do to make the game appear.

A console command possibly? A function in the "Activity Monitor" utility that I was not aware of? Or maybe another utility that I did not know about?

•••

To sum up, the game runs, but not very well. It often kicks me to the Mac OS login screen for reasons I am not sure about. Upon reloading, the game is in a weird semi functioning state where I can hear it, but that's about it. I was just curious if there was a way to get it to appear again.

The Mac technical forums for ESO are not really helpful. And most of the suggestions from the other Mac users, that are also experiencing this, is that to get rid of the issue, they switched to the PC client either by bootcamp, parallels, or just getting a PC.

I was hoping this forum could help me out. I know it can't be "fixed" here, but maybe the experience can be less painful?

Thanks!

Thank you!

1) I have never used the terminal app before, but I will try that out when I get a chance to log in again.

2) I downloaded Etrecheck and processed a report...

3) ...But, I take it you want me to post the report using Pastebin? I just want to check. Compared to you I am very much a novice at diagnosing issues, so a lot of this is just new territory for me.

Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Acrobat, those I know. After that it goes down hill fast. :-)

Thanks again!

I am still scratching my head on how to run it in the terminal app. (I will get it.)

But with the game running on my normal system, I made an Etrecheck report.

<script src="https://pastebin.com/embed_js/NkHjqwj5"></script>

I will post again when I get the terminal app to work like i think you want it to.

Hi,

Sorry I have been so late with my replies. It seems like every time I try to work on this, actual real life work shows up.

No. I don't think you will find anything wrong with my machine (or the ESO program itself), like I said earlier this issue ONLY happens while I am playing this particular game. ALSO, on the forums for the game there is a number of other Mac users that are having the same issues. What we think is happening is just lazy coding on the game programers part. (The suspicion is that they (ESO) don't utilize the multi core functionality very well, and it ends up with the Mac OS giving itself a "Time Out" to figuratively catch it's breath.)

I know you are probing for a "why" this is happening and how to stop it (and I appreciate that), but I don't think you will find a solution. Also this bug is going on two years old at this point and even though the game is not dead, it's dedicated Mac programmers seem to be phoning it in. There is a long list of Mac related bugs that this is just one of. And instead of fixing ANY of them we get;

“Mac Game Client

Windowed (Fullscreen) mode on Mac will now use a borderless window.”

Really I am more interested in the recovery part of it. Getting the game to "show up" again. I have resigned myself to the cause not being fixed.