CPU failure after 5-15 minutes of starting CK3 -> normal power button not functional + PSU shutdown required

[Supermouser]

The problem only occurs with CK3. Other CPU and GPU intensive games have been played on my machine for hours or even day-long marathons during the weekend with no problems, but CK3 specifically cannot go on for longer than 15 minutes maximum.

Specs-
CPU: AMD Ryzen 9 5950X 16-core
GPU: RTX 4070
RAM: 32 GB
PSU: 750 watts
OS: Windows 11 24H2

I have already updated my motherboard BIOs to the latest non-beta version available. I have already confirmed all my drivers are running the most up-to-date versions. I am not using multiple screens.
Every time the crash occurs, my monitor and wireless keyboard all switch off and display "no signal". Looking into my PC case, I see the red LED light on the motherboard for the CPU is lit. Using the standard power button on my PC does not shut down the machine. I have to manually flip the I/O switch on my PSU to hard-restart the PC. Because of how sudden and complete this crash is, I cannot collect any kind of crash report or analytics. The best I have managed was to download the free version of HWMonitor and run it in the background while playing CK3. During the next power up I checked HWMonitor again and found none of the temps to be outside of what should be acceptable for this hardware (I am very far from a technically savvy person, so I had to rely on others online and an irl friend to advice me on this. It is from them that I am told that the HWMonitor information is fine for my situation).

I tried one suggestion I saw where someone claimed to have found a solution by limited the cores that their CPU can use in the game, but this did not resolve the problem. I see a lot of people having a lot of similar sounding crash issues with this game, and I definitely wasted a lot of time in those threads before getting stuck after someone exclaims that they've found a solution that doesn't apply to my case. So now I can't trust myself to risk believing that any other vaguely worded issue may be the same as my own, and I'm making my own thread. I am trying to be as specific and clear as possible to avoid confusion or wasting anybody's time, so if there's some relevant information I'm leaving out let me know and I'll find it. But please if you can tell me how to provide certain information, that would also be really helpful. The overlap of people who are knowledgable enough to know all the information needed to identify the cause of a crash, and the people who aren't knowledgable enough to actually fix the issue themselves, imo is not very large. so please help me help you help me

 

[AndrewT]

OS: Windows 11 24H2

I see you have Windows 11 24H2; this can be the cause of this problem, it seems to affect this game particularly for some reason.

it is a severely broken Windows update that has caused problems across the whole gaming - indeed computer - industry.
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/game-crashing-after-windows-11-24h2-update.1718749/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-freezes-after-installing-win11-24h2.1725554/
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ws-11-24h2-with-exit-code-3221225620.1712339/

Some users found relief in various ways:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...r-installing-win11-24h2.1725554/post-30126081
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-windows-11-24h2-update.1718749/post-30159638
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...-windows-11-24h2-update.1718749/post-30062333

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!

Make sure your Nvidia driver is the latest, March 2025.

If none of that helps, switch the renderer from DirectX11 to Vulkan in the launcher-game settings menu.

Sorry about that!

 

[Supermouser]

@AndrewT I have read this exact copy-pasted response from you in at least 3 other crash threads already. I have read every link at least twice and am trying so very hard to make it clear in my main post that I would like a touch more support here, rather than being given links to posts that either are not relevant or I cannot understand.

If you think there is a specific series of steps I should try because my post describes an issue that sounds connected, please tell me using instructions a baby can understand. I'd really prefer to not have my ability to play this game conditionalized upon having some higher level of technical knowledge which I do not possess

 

[Supermouser]

Just downloaded version 1.15.0, as well as some minor windows update. The crashes continue in the exact same manner as they always have

 

[AndrewT]

As this is caused by a Windows version, I'm afraid there is a limit to how much we can simplify the steps that other users have found helped them.

To summarise as best I can:

- update Nvidia driver to March 2025
- switch renderer to Vulkan
- make the registry change detailed here

24H2 W11 update : Issue Found : No more crashes

I FINALLY FOUND AN ISSUE After doing a lot a thing, One was the good one: A registry entry as usual Add a QWORD(x64) value in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\StorPort Named HmbAllocationPolicy Value 0 (default) In fact...

forum.paradoxplaza.com

If you are not familiar with working in the registry, you may need local help

Good luck!

 

[Supermouser]

@AndrewT

- driver is updated (told you this was the case in the original post)
- Switched to Vulkan (tried this already too)
- My SSD version is the "Samsung SSD 970 EVO Pro Plus 500GB"

This is a modern NVMe SSD with DRAM, which means I should not need to make registry changes. Also, you're really, really confidently declaring both here and elsewhere that this issue is clearly caused by various issues without having nearly enough information to be making these confident assertions.

I cannot prove that the problem isn't related to Windows version, but the fact you told me confidently in a reply in another thread that this was definitely caused by my Intel CPU (which I don't have because I am using AMD) or how you told me confidently that the issue is obviously caused by my CPU temp (which is well within acceptable temp range for the kind of CPU I have) really gives me hesitancy about how seriously I should be taking your Windows update claims here. Every tech support person I've ever worked with literally could not be given enough information to make even a half-confident suggestion about how a problem might be fixed, but you're over here handing out hopium like it's candy and ignoring everyone who calls bullshit when it doesn't work out like you're saying it will. Literally the best advice here is coming from other users who are sharing solutions that they've found that worked for them.

If someone who cares enough to actually read the information I'm sharing here thinks they have the same issue, or thinks they know of a solution, or would like to know details i'm not sharing, please reply to the thread.

 

[AndrewT]

you told me confidently in a reply in another thread that this was definitely caused by my Intel CPU (which I don't have because I am using AMD)

Well, if I did that it was completely wrong of me, I am sorry. If it was one of those interwoven threads with multiple people discussing multiple problems, that can sometimes happen - I'm not as young as I used to be! Your symptom is clearly the one associated with Windows 24H2, not the one associated with the Intel CPU hardware fault - that causes random crashes, not hardware hangs.

I'm not aware of any other possible cause of this symptom (hardware hangs) with this game.

 

[Supermouser]

If it was one of those interwoven threads with multiple people discussing multiple problems, that can sometimes happen

Maybe those threads are a mess because you're reply to every technical support thread with the word 'crash' in the title with a copy-pasted reply that links to seven other threads! What did you expect to happen??

Your symptom is clearly the one associated with Windows 24H2

You get how meaningless your "clearly" is at this point right? After my 'intel cpu' was clearly the issue and then my CPU temp was clearly the issue. I cannot trust at this point that you actually know enough about what you're talking about for me to trust and put effort into seeking a solution based on anything you tell me.

I'm not aware of any other possible cause of this symptom (hardware hangs) with this game.

Then why are you here? This is a technical support forum, where users like myself ask for technical support. I'm not here asking for a link to some other thread where another user tells everybody that he solved a problem that has nothing in common with my issue. Is there anyone here who can look at what I'm sharing about my problem and apply some actual knowledge to make an attempt to determine the cause and a possible solution? I would very much like to be able to play the game I own and not be ignored and told "tough luck" when my stress relief bricks itself and my whole damn PC.

 

[AndrewT]

Your problem is caused by Windows 11 24H2's well known and documented problems. It does affect this game worse than others (even than very similar ones like Vic3), I do not know why.

The CK3 devs are aware of it, whether they can modify the game to ameliorate or prevent the problem is unknown at present.

If you don't want to try the steps other users have found that helped them, that is your right of course.


I paste in the same solution or approach to the same problem once I have evidence as to what it is, why I wouldn't do that I do not know. I do NOT just reflexively read one word and paste and move on, that is both utterly false and very insulting.

I wait until I see Windows 11 24H2 before responding in that way; if I see an Intel CPU affected by their hardware problem I'll check out the bios version and recommend the appropriate approach to that too. If I see neither then further diagnosis is required, which might be anything from a shortage of available memory to a game bug to any number of other things - for instance we had a range of antivirus apps that blocked ck3.exe from running at all recently.

Diagnosis is the job.