Complete Computer Freeze

[kaaresandfaer]

Integrity​

I have verified my game files (on Steam)​

Yes

I have disabled all mods​

Yes

Required​

Summary​

Complete Computer Freeze

Description​

sometimes my game fully freezes while playing and nothing works, i cannot; click out of the game, use any hotkeys (like ALT + F4, CTRL + ALT + DELETE, SHIFT + TAP) and all other programs freezes (currently only confirmed programs are discord and itunes music player)
This happens sometimes (more often when in full screen), it can at any time, sometimes while the game loads, while playing or just sitting afk in the main menu. it is not localized to mp or sp as it has happnend in both for me it happens about every 10~20 hours played, i have 80 hours playing over the last week (just got the game) and it has happened in total 5 times at this point.

i have tried to sit in such a screen in order to see if anything would come online to work again but after 15 min i gave up.

The only way to fix this is to completely shutdown the computer, by manually holding the power button.
ei. there is no solution.

Steps to reproduce​

No idea, there comes no error log when this happens.
i have:
AMD Ryzen 5 3000 6-core processor
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Ti
48 gb of ram

and usually run the game on medium graphical settings, though since this has before happened while starting up the game i dont know how helpful that is.

Game Version​

1.9.0

OS​

Windows

Additional​

Bug Type​

Crash to Desktop

Save Game​

Attachments​

Player Pain​

8

 

[Dregonoid]

Can second this. Before the .1 hotfix if i loaded into a save from the paradox launcher my computer hard freezes, if I play on a speed greater than 1 for ~1 year ingame my computer hard freezes, and after 1 year of play I could do any speed, loading,whatever. After the hotfix regardless of game speed I am finding hard freezes for increasingly greater intervalls i.e. 2 seconds, then ~5, then ~30, then ~couple min, then hard freeze. Sometimes it doesn't happen. Task manager shows nothing in CPU, RAM, Drive, or GPU in either dips or tips.

Edit: Haven't had issues with a paradox game since tyring to alt tab victoria 2

 

[rxstumpy]

Jumping on here to say I’ve experienced this too

Again no way to reproduce just randomly freezes and no error log

I’m willing to bet it’s related to this windows issue I have heard about

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Moved to tech support, this sounds like an issue caused by a recent W11 update.

 

[smile127]

Same issue here, sometimes the game freezes after a few minutes, on other occasions I can play for multiple hours without interruption.

Details:
Ryzen 5 3600 (on MSI X570)
32GB memory
RTX 3070

Update already to latest Win11, Bios, Graphics Driver as well as Samsung EVO 970 firmware for SSD.

Running out of ideas

 

[AndrewT]

Are you all on Windows 11 24H2? I'll almost guarantee it ... it is a severely broken Windows update that has caused problems across the whole gaming - indeed computer - industry.

A user has come up with another possible workaround
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/24h2-w11-update-issue-found-no-more-crashes.1728373/
Some affected users have definitely seen that help them with this issue. I'd suggest you look at this step first!

And here is another workaround someone posted:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...s-the-problem-with-computer-freezing.1774335/
Definitely worth a shot - let me know if that does help you! Note that to test it you don't actually need to use Processor Lasoo, just Affinity in Task Manager (for testing purposes anyway).

And finally, in the game settings menu switch the renderer to Vulkan.

Let us know if any of those help!

 

[kaaresandfaer]

can confirm i am on 24H2 W11

after trying the second workaround i can confirm it did not work, victoria3.exe was restrained to cores 2-9 (out of 0-11) but the bug happend to happen on startup while observing both windows, only thing that change is that now the process didnt get stuck as i got the standard windows mouse spinner as it was loading, however while observing cpu usage i could se that it "worked" in that the cores excluded did not max out on usasge but after 2 ish min cores 2-9 also calmed down.

after this i clicked into victoria 3 screen (horrible mistake) and the issue happend (no hotkeys working, ect.) and had to manually close out through power button.
only big change is that becuse other processes were running on the unaffected cores they did not crash.

will be trying workaround nr. 1 though i am afraid of messing with system (as one should)

 

[EnvyDemon]

Its frustrating that this is continuing. I have tried the registry and it works most of the time, but there is still hard freezes on loading sometimes (3 times in a row as I'm trying to see if Hail, Columbia! is actually working with 1.9 or not) but the fact that this is still not patched (by Paradox or Microsoft) is honestly getting kind of ridiculous.

Anyways, my advice to OP is to try the registry fix, I haven't crashed during games as often with that active, but beware that it doesn't seem to help with crashes during the loading screen.

 

[AndrewT]

Oh, and if you have an AMD CPU check with their support for the very chipset driver for it.

 

[EnvyDemon]

Updated CPU drivers, still having issues

 

[Ohmsquare]

I have the exact same problem since installing update 1.9. No freezes or crashes until then. No other games or earlier versions of Victoria freeze like this. No mods.

PC Details:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 8-Core Processor (latest drivers)
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (latest drivers)
• Memory: 64.0 GB RAM
• Drive: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB
• OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit 24H2, OS build 26100.4349

 

[AndrewT]

I have the exact same problem since installing update 1.9. No freezes or crashes until then. No other games or earlier versions of Victoria freeze like this. No mods.

PC Details:

• CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D 8-Core Processor (latest drivers)
• GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti (latest drivers)
• Memory: 64.0 GB RAM
• Drive: Samsung SSD 970 EVO Plus 1TB
• OS: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit 24H2, OS build 26100.4349

Have you done everything I listed in post #6 above?

And, with that AMD CPU check with them for updated chipset drivers.

Good luck!

 

[Craetus_]

I've got exact same problem. After couple of days in game, it freezes. Can not Alt+Tab or Alt+F4 or anything. Only thing I can do is restart my computer and it happend my every attempt to play after new DLC release. Now I can not play the game.


Laptop details:

• AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS
• NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop
• 32GB RAM
• Crucial P3 CT1000P3SSD8 PCI-Express 3.0 1 TB M.2 SSD
• Windows 11 Pro 24H2, 26100.4351

I have not tried the recommended solutions, I will try them later today. But right now I can not play the game.

 

[EnvyDemon]

I honestly find the fact the devs of Victoria 3/CK3 aren't addressing this issue unfortunate because this seems to be an issue with the clausewitz engine, specifically the version Victoria 3 and CK3 were made with. I fully expect this issue to be on going with EU5 sadly unless the issue is finally fixed.

My main guess right now is that this might be Windows 11 and AMD related (I previously ran the game with Windows 10 and Intel and never had an issues) and this seems to be a running theme.

 

[Black_Shade]

I honestly find the fact the devs of Victoria 3/CK3 aren't addressing this issue unfortunate because this seems to be an issue with the clausewitz engine, specifically the version Victoria 3 and CK3 were made with. I fully expect this issue to be on going with EU5 sadly unless the issue is finally fixed.

My main guess right now is that this might be Windows 11 and AMD related (I previously ran the game with Windows 10 and Intel and never had an issues) and this seems to be a running theme.

It's not a paradox problem, it's a microsoft problem. There's not much paradox can do to fix a bad service patch put out by microsoft- it impacts every game from every company.

You can buy W10 licenses for a few dollars online, if you want to play games until microsoft gets around to patching their mistake.

You might also be able to uninstall the service pack, not sure though as I ditched W11 and went back to W10 ages ago after one of the other service packs reinstalled onedrive and completely wiped my documents folder without permission.

 

[EnvyDemon]

It's not a paradox problem, it's a microsoft problem.

I have this issue, in two games. Victoria 3 and Crusader Kings 3. I do not experience this issue playing any other game. Is the problem partially on Microsoft? I don't know. I understand that 24H2 is a mess, but I'm still not sure that is the cause even. I don't believe the problem is solely on Microsoft.

You can buy W10 licenses for a few dollars online, if you want to play games until microsoft gets around to patching their mistake.

I mean, I *have* a Windows 10 computer (my old PC, which I now use as a media server) which I could theoretically use by remoting into it, but honestly, it is kind of annoying that I'd even have to do that. I don't think anyone should go through the hassle of downgrading their OS just to be able to play a game. (Honestly, I don't want to have to deal with my OS at all if I don't have to. Its the reason why I don't just use Linux)

 

[EnvyDemon]

I'm adding on that I think that is has gotten worse this version. There were periods of time where I'd go without crashing last update, but now I crash every single time I load the game.