Critical crash occurs within seconds to a few minutes after starting the game.

[quartzsite]

Integrity​

I have verified my game files (on Steam)​

Yes

I have disabled all mods​

Yes

Required​

Summary​

Critical crash occurs within seconds to a few minutes after starting the game.

Description​

After completely removing all mods and running the game in a clean vanilla state, a fatal crash consistently occurs within seconds to a few minutes of starting any new game. I have tested multiple scenarios, and this issue happens across all playthroughs without exception.

Crashes occur particularly quickly when the game speed is set to level 5. The failure mode takes one of two forms: either the game crashes and closes immediately, or the screen freezes entirely, requiring a forced shutdown of the process (or in rare cases, the system).

Upon reviewing the error.log, I found recurring lines referencing an assertion failure involving pop needs and popneed_simple_clothing in relation to specific markets (e.g., Hanover, Annam), which appear to be the root cause of the crash.

Steps to reproduce​

1. Launch the game in a fully clean and vanilla state (no mods, no cache, clean install)

2. Start a new game

3. Select any major country (tested with Russia, USA, UK, France)

4. Do not interact or click anything

5. Set time control to speed 5

6. Observe crash occurring within a few seconds to a couple of minutes

Game Version​

1.9.3

OS​

Windows

Additional​

Bug Type​

Crash to Desktop

Save Game​

View attachment autosave.v3

Attachments​

View attachment error.log

Player Pain​

10

 

[quartzsite]

System Specs:

• CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KF
• RAM: 64GB DDR5 5800MHz
• GPU: NVIDIA RTX 4090
• Motherboard: Gigabyte Z790 AERO G

 

[PDX_Sosanna]

Moving to Tech Support (Intel issue?).

 

[AndrewT]

CPU: Intel Core i9-13900KF

Yes, You may have the CPU/bios hardware issue discussed here:
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...ration-intel-processors.1591821/post-29305331
If you haven't updated your bios recently (say, the last month) please check for an updated bios. Then please implement the “Intel Default” option in it, if present.


THEN, Right click on victoria3.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/Victoria3/pdx_settings.json .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Victoria3/crashes/ folder, attach here the latest (only!) exceptions.txt

 

[quartzsite]

Thanks to your advice and the forum link, I was able to resolve the issue by adjusting my motherboard BIOS settings.
It turns out that an undervolting feature active at low CPU temperatures was causing excessively low voltage during Victoria 3 gameplay, which led to program crashes. After updating the BIOS and disabling the undervolting function, the problem no longer occurs.


Thank you again for your helpful support, AndrewT!