CK3 keeps freezing my computer

[recordsforduty]

Hello everyone,

I am playing CK3 through Game Pass on my new computer.

To my despair, CK3 is the only game I am having issues with.

I had two big sessions of CK3. Each time, everything went fine during the day. I played with no problems, even quit the game and went back on it. When I returned later however, I faced weird freezes.

When I start the game, it crashes on the loading screen "initializing the game". When I keep trying, I manage to access my game but it freezes after a while. When I say freeze, Windows becomes irresponsive, and I have to reset the computer. Weirdly enough, when I manage to access the game, I can still move the mouse, hear the music playing on Spotify but I can't return to the desk or whatever.

First, I thought it came from a corrupted save, due to my Documents folder synced on OneDrive. I deactivated it, removed the whole Paradox folder and started a new game. I thought it fixed it but I just had the same problem. I also deactivated the cloud syncing in the game. But it didn't fix it.

My computer:

Windows 11 Pro, updated
Intel 12400f
4070 super
32GB ram
SSD 1 To

Temps are fine. All other games, even more demanding, run fine. For instance, I finished Frostpunk 2 without a single crash.

I attached the logs. System log is empty and I have no exceptions.txt log.

If anyone can help, I would be super grateful

Thank you

 

[AndrewT]

System Manufacturer: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd.
System Model: MS-7D98
BIOS: 1.C0 (type: UEFI)
Processor: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12400F (12 CPUs), ~2.5GHz

You may have the CPU/bios hardware issue discussed here:

Victoria 3 | 12th/13th/14th Generation Intel Processors

Hello all! An update, 12th and 13th Generation Intel Processors are related to a Crash to Desktop (CTD) happening frequently, this is related to architecture changes by Intel and specifically E-cores. We are working with Intel to address these...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

FIRST please check for an updated bios. Then please implement the “Intel Default” option in it, if present.

Good luck!

 

[Pacifist]

Are you serious? Such a problem only with your game, not with any other game. And you say this is an Intel processor problem.
P.S. I have the same problem. And I am very afraid to launch your game.

 

[AndrewT]

Are you serious? Such a problem only with your game, not with any other game. And you say this is an Intel processor problem.
P.S. I have the same problem. And I am very afraid to launch your game.

I don't joke about such matters.

This Intel CPU problem is very widely reported and affects many games and apps, not just this one - check out the end of that thread I linked. I've seen cases in this game, Cities Skylines 2, Victoria 3, Stellaris, HOI4 and EU4 alone.

If you have one of the affected Intel CPUs, that is 12th to 14th gen, this is almost certainly your problem. I urge you to seek a bios update form your system board maker.

 

[recordsforduty]

FIRST please check for an updated bios. Then please implement the “Intel Default” option in it, if present.

Good luck!

Honestly, I am not sure this is my issue. Reading the thread, I see that people encounter the issue when running the game at top speed. Plus, they get a blue screen.
I increased my pagination file. Will update today if it still happens.

 

[Pacifist]

I'm sorry for being toxic. I think I found a solution to my problem. I had deleted old saves (which was invalid for the current version of the game or mods) and my pc crashes disappeared. It is strange, but juast presence of old saves influence on stability of game a lot. I hope this information will help someone.

 

[AndrewT]

That is not known to be a cause of this problem! Let us know if the issue comes back for you.

 

[Pacifist]

That is not known to be a cause of this problem! Let us know if the issue comes back for you.

I don't have any problems anymore.

 

[HUMORCE]

I meet same issue as described in the OP, and I've only met the problem when launching CK3, I don't think it's an Intel CPU problem.

But I updated the BIOS according to the instructions now. I'll make a new reply once it reproduced.

 

[rainsinger]

Edit 3: Completely reinstalled C++ packages, did windows system checks, etc. etc... another clean reinstall of graphics drivers, and another complete nuke and reinstall of paradox launcher & CK3, same issue.... but now I found an odd correlation. If I load CK3 after startup, with only steam, discord and normal background/startup stuff running, it'll load. As soon as I have Chrome open, the initialization will crash just before completing as noted. I've monitored the system via HWi and Task manager, and I'm not seeing any 'burst' usage before it crashes, just normal fluctuation of cpu and ram, nothing approaching 100% (or 0% which would be equally odd). Could really use some suggestions/help on this... I'm going to test with other browsers open to see if it does the same thing.

Edit 2: I was wrong... it being able to play last night was apparently a fluke. Tried today and it's doing the same lock up, seemingly right before it finishes initializing, it locks up my whole system. No idea what to do at this point, short of reinstalling windows, and... uhhh... nah.

Edit: So I got an itch that I may have been missing something, so I scrubbed all the hidden folders and got rid of all remnants of the launcher as well. I then ALSO did a clean re-install of all my graphics drivers. This apparently worked. I'm assuming the launcher isn't the issue, likely something with a recent update was bouncing off the graphics drivers and locking up the system, but I can't be 100% sure. Just putting this here in case it helps anyone else. My complete process was: Remove literally EVERYTHING paradox from my system, including launcher, save folders, appdata folders and so on, then clean reinstall gpu driver package, restart a couple times, then load up the launcher, install crusader kings 3, and it played fine.

Original: Not sure what changed, but I was having no problems until a few days ago (approximately the 20th of November). I have not done any windows updates, etc. I'm also not on an intel chip, and I've done a complete clean uninstall of EVERYTHING paradox related and the game is literally locking up my computer when it gets most of the way through initializing.

 

[moritz.linus]

I have been encountering the same issue; I downloaded CK3 this last week with the Game Pass. In the beginning it wouldnt even geet past the loading screen but after enough it did and I was even able to play for a few hours ind two seperate sessions. Then tonight the Game deosnt work at all enymore tried it five or six times now. Updated my graphics driver, everything. The game would freeze my whole computer and I would have to manually restart. Its just ridicoulus that there isnt a fix or statement yet, as I saw this problem in multiple forums, happen to many people.
My processor is also AMD, so it is unrelated to the intel issue.

 

[AndrewT]

Right click on ck3.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, cap refresh rate at 60.

If those don't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here. IF dxdiag.txt fails to attach here, rename it to dxdiag.log , or zip it up.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log , exceptions.txt

 

[Lord Potence]

Hello everyone,

I am playing CK3 through Game Pass on my new computer.

To my despair, CK3 is the only game I am having issues with.

I had two big sessions of CK3. Each time, everything went fine during the day. I played with no problems, even quit the game and went back on it. When I returned later however, I faced weird freezes.

When I start the game, it crashes on the loading screen "initializing the game". When I keep trying, I manage to access my game but it freezes after a while. When I say freeze, Windows becomes irresponsive, and I have to reset the computer. Weirdly enough, when I manage to access the game, I can still move the mouse, hear the music playing on Spotify but I can't return to the desk or whatever.

First, I thought it came from a corrupted save, due to my Documents folder synced on OneDrive. I deactivated it, removed the whole Paradox folder and started a new game. I thought it fixed it but I just had the same problem. I also deactivated the cloud syncing in the game. But it didn't fix it.

My computer:

Windows 11 Pro, updated
Intel 12400f
4070 super
32GB ram
SSD 1 To

Temps are fine. All other games, even more demanding, run fine. For instance, I finished Frostpunk 2 without a single crash.

I attached the logs. System log is empty and I have no exceptions.txt log.

If anyone can help, I would be super grateful

Thank you

Hey man, don't know if you've seen it already but theres a bug report currently on revision by the devs here https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/game-crashing-after-windows-11-24h2-update.1718749/ if you want to check it regularly to be updated on our issue

 

[CutLunch]

For those who are sceptical of the bios update fix - I was getting CK3 complete system freeze/crash every couple of hours. Did a Bios update (Intel CPU motherboard) and haven't had a crash in 2 days of regular play time.

 

[Rickardus]

I'm now having the same issue, completely new PC from about a month ago now, every game fine, CK3 has frozen and locked up my entire PC three times, once I managed to get a glimpse of the CPU on task manager, and it was 100% during the event. I force quit CK3 after 3 minutes got out and it was fine.

Ryzen 9800X3D

 

[AndrewT]

For those who are sceptical of the bios update fix - I was getting CK3 complete system freeze/crash every couple of hours. Did a Bios update (Intel CPU motherboard) and haven't had a crash in 2 days of regular play time.

That will indeed fix the issue if it is the Intel 13-14 gen CPU problem. If it is the entirely separate Windows 11 24H2 problem, it will not!

I'm now having the same issue, completely new PC from about a month ago now, every game fine, CK3 has frozen and locked up my entire PC three times, once I managed to get a glimpse of the CPU on task manager, and it was 100% during the event. I force quit CK3 after 3 minutes got out and it was fine.

Ryzen 9800X3D

Are you also on Win11 24H2?

 

[USS_IOWA]

I'm now having the same issue, completely new PC from about a month ago now, every game fine, CK3 has frozen and locked up my entire PC three times, once I managed to get a glimpse of the CPU on task manager, and it was 100% during the event. I force quit CK3 after 3 minutes got out and it was fine.

Ryzen 9800X3D

Have the exact same problem, but this started only recently when I decided to play CK3 again.
In previous years everything worked fine. What I need to do?

Win 11
Ryzen 2600
16 GB ram

 

[AceKing_]

Found a fix for the windows 11 24h2 pc freezing/crashing bug, just join the windows insider program (the dev one) download the new build in your windows update and try again for me and my friends it worked

 

[Mandaroni]

Found another way (maybe simpler). Uninstall the "Windows Update KB5050009" and it worked again perfectly.

 

[Cain776]

Found another way (maybe simpler). Uninstall the "Windows Update KB5050009" and it worked again perfectly.

Can you tell me the release date for the update? I only have KB5050094