Every Minute/Half minute screen freezes for 5ish seconds

[avrand6]

Hi, I've been playing EU4 since 2016. Recently I've tried to play it again, after not playing since early-ish 2022.

The game seems to freeze for 5 or so seconds every minute or so, sometimes every half minute, making the game practically unplayable. It seems to happen a bit more often when I'm moving the camera around, but it can still happen when the camera is still, and even on the main menu screen. I have a beefy enough gaming PC that I've had since Fall 2021, so I've previously played EU4 on this PC without issue. I've tried turning various graphics settings down, checking integrity of game files, and even uninstalling and reinstalling, and I can't seem to fix the issue. I've tried to research/look up the issue, but I'm at a loss, so I'm turning here for help. This isn't the classic late game slowdown, as this "stuttering" happens on brand new games and even the main menu.

Ideas and help would be greatly appreciated, I've been craving a Korea or Castile game for about a week now. Thanks!


Also, I generated the DxDiag, but idk which parts of the .txt file I should paste here.

 

[AndrewT]

Please do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "uninstall" in Steam-EU4
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/Europa Universalis IV AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV folders - In particular make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam EU4 or Documents EU4 locations, before installing again.
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add EU4.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.

Run eu4.exe directly from File Explorer (to make the settings.txt we need below) then exit it.

THEN
Right click on eu4.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.

Edit that settings.txt to say:

refreshRate=60
fullScreen=yes
borderless=no

vsync=no

Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode.


IF that doesn'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.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/Europa Universalis IV/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log .

 

[avrand6]

I followed your instructions step-by-step and the issue was not resolved. Here are the files you requested. It won't let me upload the "error.log" for some reason, it says "The uploaded file appears to be empty. Please try a different file."

 

[AndrewT]

I don't see any solid reason for this problem in those files, although you may as well update that nVidia driver to April 2024 https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us

AND unload GeForce experience if it gets loaded after that.

If that doesn't help, do you have anything overclocked on this machine? If so try undoing that.


And finally, start the game from eu4.exe directly from File Explorer, as a test - does it still happen then?

 

[avrand6]

Thanks for the help, I don't know why, but updating the Nvidia Drivers seems to have worked