Rendering device lost (May 2018)

Technical Support
1

_Edit: Posted solution!!! Top one of the list! :open_mouth: _

Inital problem: So many people searching/experiencing (for) this must’ve read through countless of topics regarding this. So did I. Sometimes the game works fine for a few weeks/months and then all of a sudden I can not play a single game without the error anymore…

I simply can’t find a solution to this and I’ve already tried the following:
(*) recommended by Blizz/Nvidia support
(**) recommended by me
(^) not sure if it worked but did increase pc performance
[X] did not fix issue

Anyone using one of these fixes let me (us) know what worked/not worked in a reply on this post please! =)

  • [:heavy_check_mark:] Solution if all below fail! Came across a forumpost that recommended setting PCI-E to gen2 in bios because PCI-E riser cable didn’t fully support gen3. I have the same cable so trying that right now (this might apply for your pcie slot as well even if you’re not using a riser cable). Seems promising: https://www.reddit.com/r/sffpc/comments/73z6xm/psa_i_think_i_have_solved_the_phanteks_shift_gpu/. I have been non-stop gaming since I added this without any rendering device lost in so, so many games!
  • [X] Reset overwatch game settings (*)
  • [X] Disable Discord overlay (^)
  • [X] Set correct XMP profile for memory (**)
  • [X] Perform DDU (clean all drivers + reinstall) (^)
  • [X] Update bios to the latest (*)
  • [X] Update chipset drivers to the latest (amd Ryzen) (*)
  • [X] Update GPU drivers (*)
  • [X] Downclock CPU (fully watercooled nowhere near max temps though, ever)
  • [X] Downclock GPU (or default clocks)
  • [X] Increased TDR (Timeout Detection and Recovery)
  • [X] Disable full-screen overlay @ overwatch.exe
  • [X] Play with all other applications closed
  • [X] Upgraded my system (was Intel 4670k + nvidia gtx 970, now Ryzen 1700 + nvidia gtx 1080 with new mobo and upgraded PSU happened on both systems fresh installs)
  • [X] Reinstalled windows
  • [X] Not really relevant but: checked latency errors with latency mon (**)
  • [X] Disabled/unplugged most extra USB devices
  • [X] Read through almost all forum posts regarding this problem and I believe I tried everything.
  • [X] I fixed some DCOM and AHCI (enhanced storage) errors. (**)
  • [X] I completely disabled my anti virus.
  • [X] I never run the game with Franz messenger client (if you have that) running alongside of it anymore. (^)
  • [X] I set my in/output sound devices to the specifics I’m using as I believe those are rendering devices as well; so comms devices for output and, in my case the Razer audio controller, not default. (**)
  • [X] Ran sfc /scannow and DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth (you might want to try reverse order) to fix some broken system files. (**)

Please Blizzard or anyone: where is the fix for this because I’m getting really desperate =(…

Thanks in advance

2 Likes
2

Hello Sapulidi,

This error can be a bit tricky to diagnose in a forum, since it can often be related to hardware or system issues. It’s uncommon that it keeps happening even after upgrading your PC, though. Did you change all the hardware components, or do you still have anything from the old computer? If that’s the case, it might have something to do with the error.

I would recommend taking your computer to a local technician in your area so they can make sure everything is fine. I’ll try to investigate to see if I can find anything else that can help you; will update this thread if I do find something.

Got feedback about the support I’m providing? Leave your comments here!

3

Hi Delmoryth! I also posted this on the other forums as I am that desperate to see if people from different regions have other findings (highly unlikely I know haha).

https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/overwatch/t/rendering-device-lost-may-2018/107676?u=sapulidi-2843

I’m currently following these pointers and hope this will fix it. I will post back once I’ve done this and if this resolves it as it might be helpful to other people who have tried all of the above already.

As for the components: since the initial occurrences I replaced my mobo twice (because of formfactor and change of cpu). The only thing that is still the same is ram and ssd. The ram might be the culprit and I will swap those out as soon as I’ve concluded it is not the gpu =)

Thanks for the reply!!

Update 1
Since I have a Ryzen with corsair vengaence Hynix ram I can not run that at 3200mhz (incompatible). After some reading someone mentioned the XMP profile. I never used that because XMP + 3200mhz setting in the bios wasn’t working.

However, I now enabled XMP and just set it to the highets frequency I could get (2933mhz). With XMP enabled my memory timings now look correct for the first time. My memory (and ssd) is the only thing I haven’t swapped out. So I will try if running a correct XMP profile (and thus correct timings… configure in the bios for anyone wondering) makes a change!

Update 2

Enabling the XMP profile with the correct memory timings seem to have solved the issue. I now played a few games without the error and even an increased fps overall =O

4

I started getting this error message about 1 week ago which is weird because i’ve had the game for almost 2 years now and haven’t had any issues. I am running an old setup of an AMD 8300 with an R9 290x 4GB on Windows 10 and for the past 2 years i didn’t have any issues until now.

I did read the forums and decided to try out a few things and it actually worked!

This is what i tried and hopefully it works for you as well.

I upgraded the radeon drivers from 17.7 to 18.4.1
enabled GPU Scaling in the radeon Display settings
ran the windows file system checker to ensure that the integrity of my files was good and after doing so, I’ve played about 10 games maybe more and the game hasn’t crashed once on either QP or Comp.

My game runs butter smooth at 60FPS on HIGH or ULTRA.

I hope this helps others.

5

Hi Wewex007!

Thanks for the additional information! I’ve had occurences these past years where updating gpu drivers and tweak some settings helped me out for a bit. The problems always came back unfortunately… I haven’t seen the gpu scaling being mentioned in the forums so that might be a new pointer for some people indeed =).

I hope it fixes it for you! Else you might want to try some of the stuff I already tried (first post) and/or check your ram timings for overall better system performance =)

Cheers!

6

Have the same issue. Started just recently. Before there - no issues for a year.

Updated BIOS, chipset drivers, all other drivers. Removed all background apps (even antivirus). Turned off anything.

What worked for me:
Found in one of the posts proposal to turn off SMT in BIOS. It turns off the hyper threads. It solved issue for me. Try

7

UPDATE

It’s back… Had a few great nights of playing overwatch. Nothing changed on my pc and now it. is. back.

I will try your suggestion now FatAvocado

8

Pls write here if worked. It might help other guys

9

This issue has appeared for me today also, I’ve reset all my hardware to stock configuration and it has not resolved the issue, trying to save an F9’d highlight causes a crash 100% of the time on my system, this may help with reproducing the issue

I have tested my system under maximum thermal and power loads using a series of benchmarks and have not encountered the issue with any of these

10

Reinstalling the game seems to have helped with at least one of the error cases, it may help you also if you have not tried it already

11

It can be gone for a few days (as it didn’t happen to me after disabling smt and not use Franz messenger app while playing) but I wouldn’t cheer too early. It can work for a week or month and then be back all of a sudden. I might try a new pcie riser cable soon.

Also I checked the overwatch game logs and ‘rendering device’ is also your audio devices. I use razer synapse on my steelseries arctis pro 5 and now use that specific device in OW audio settings instead of default. So one of these 3 changes worked for me yesterday evening…

Will update when it’s steady for a week. Will update sooner if crashes happen again. Cheers folks!

1 Like
12

Update - issue reoccured after 2 days. Turning off SMT does not fix the issue

13

in other games, if game crashes, there is that auto message report and it’s fixed, never to happen again. not in this game. happy crashanniversary! and some other games are free.

14

I am on Windows 10. Once I disabled the WINDOWS IN GAME OVERLAY doohikie entirely it began to work just fine…I notice it still has spots it will stutter for a second, but doesn’t crash now!! The crash would normally happen when the game would launch following the RECORD GAME THROUGH WINDOWS then HIT SAID BUTTON TO START ending with a CRASH, simply put.

15

I disabled SMT though I am going to enable it again as I believe (as FatAvacodo says) this doesn’t fix it. However, I’ve been in the event logs quite some time and:

  • I fixed some DCOM and AHCI (enhanced storage) errors.
  • I completely disabled my anti virus.
  • I never run the game with Franz messenger client (if you have that) running alongside of it anymore.
  • I set my in/output sound devices to the specifics I’m using as I believe those are rendering devices as well; so comms devices for output and, in my case the Razer audio controller, not default.
  • Ran sfc /scannow and DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth (you might want to try reverse order) to fix some broken system files.

One or multiple of these fixed it for the past 2 days and I am on my way to Masters (yay!). Hunt down those errors in your event log!

I am on Windows 10. Once I disabled the WINDOWS IN GAME OVERLAY doohikie entirely it began to work just fine…I notice it still has spots it will stutter for a second, but doesn’t crash now!! The crash would normally happen when the game would launch following the RECORD GAME THROUGH WINDOWS then HIT SAID BUTTON TO START ending with a CRASH, simply put.

@ShinyPants - I have my game dvr disabled for years and while it helps in most games it never fixed this particular issue for me =(. Hope it will work for you though =)

Edit: Just had 3 ‘rendering device lost’ in a row =(
Update: I disabled discord overlay and did a DDU gpu driver clean (in safe mode) and reinstalled latest gpu drivers. Am now playing mutliple matches without problems, fingers crossed.

16

Having the same problems with my Asus Strix GTX 1080 TI. doesn’t happen with my old Strix 970 at all. The only way I can get a few games in is to use GPU Tweak 2 in order to downclock GPU Boost and memory clock down to 0. Still end up getting the errors when I start a ranked game every once and a while which really sucks…

17

Have you tried repairing your game files or reinstalling from scratch?

18

Have you tried any of my latest fixes? It seemed to help a bit but I haven’t been able to test it from last Monday to Thursday as I’m on a business trip right now. Will play some next Thursday/Friday to continue testing…

@polarbear

Hi! I’ve tried that numerous times in the past =), thanks for the suggestions. I should add it to the list haha!

19

Same error. I’m wondering more or less if Blizzard is actually going to stop sinking money into the dead Overwatch League and focus putting their time maybe, JUST MAYBE, patching their game to work with the newest drivers because this is the main problem with their game.

No wonder their league is dead. People can’t even play comp without getting banned because of crap programming. Sick of being kicked and losing games because the team can’t get their crap together. I’m legit quitting this game and uninstalling because I can’t handle getting angry at getting banned because of poor quality control.

20

I am still going strong after I fixed it (setting PCI-E in bios to gen2). It is a GPU -> mobo data problem where your GPU or the slot is not able to get by (too much data?). None of my games ever presented me the issue again. So really, set your PCIE setting to gen 2 in your bios, at least try it folks!