Random Game Freezing

[Oxbridge]

Greetings,

Since RtP, my game freezes or stutters on semi-random days. I have an Ironman save in progress and I've tested by replaying the same months and it's always the same days, but they don't follow any pattern. I'm still able to click anywhere in the game and pull up information about counties, characters, titles, etc. but if I click on any buttons to change anything, those changes won't take effect until the freeze/stutter finishes whatever it's doing behind the scenes. Game audio still plays just fine. The only way to notice the game has stopped is watching the day counter. I've pulled up Task Manager and my CPU and RAM performance aren't spiking during these times too. I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Thank you.

 

[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

 

[Oxbridge]

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

Here ya go, thanks for helping!

I can't find exceptions.txt and system.log won't attach

 

[AndrewT]

We see Bluescreen and LiveKernelEvent entries in that dxdiag - not good! Have you seen those happen, are they related to this game or something else?

And, 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!

 

[Oxbridge]

We see Bluescreen and LiveKernelEvent entries in that dxdiag - not good! Have you seen those happen, are they related to this game or something else?

And, 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!

I do tend to get bluescreens with kernel codes when I push my PC beyond it's limits, like having Firefox open with a few extensions and running CK3 at the same time.

I have successfully updated my BIOS to the latest version and there is no Intel Default option.

I'm still having the same problem with the game. Please advise next steps. I'm grateful for your help.

 

[AndrewT]

If there was an updated bios, I'm surprised that didn't help with your problem - your symptoms do sound like the problem that fixes.

The worrying thing is that hardware problem can have damaged your CPU physically - let's hope that is not the case! Although if it is you ought to be able to get a free replacement.

Look in your Windows Event Viewer at the latest few BSoD events - is there text in there that helps us pin down the area of your problem?

 

[Oxbridge]

If there was an updated bios, I'm surprised that didn't help with your problem - your symptoms do sound like the problem that fixes.

The worrying thing is that hardware problem can have damaged your CPU physically - let's hope that is not the case! Although if it is you ought to be able to get a free replacement.

Look in your Windows Event Viewer at the latest few BSoD events - is there text in there that helps us pin down the area of your problem?

All of the BSoD events have the following text:

The system has rebooted without cleanly shutting down first. This error could be caused if the system stopped responding, crashed, or lost power unexpectedly.

 

[AndrewT]

That reads like the LiveKernelEvent events that we saw in dxdiag - they do mean that the computer was downed, crashed or rebooted. But you haven't mentioned that in relation to this game. Have you seen stuff like that happen?

I would have thought the BSoD events were separate issues though, more serious usually. Theer are none since you've had this problem except what you just quoted?

 

[Oxbridge]

That reads like the LiveKernelEvent events that we saw in dxdiag - they do mean that the computer was downed, crashed or rebooted. But you haven't mentioned that in relation to this game. Have you seen stuff like that happen?

I would have thought the BSoD events were separate issues though, more serious usually. Theer are none since you've had this problem except what you just quoted?

I only get BSoDs when I intentionally overtax my PC. If I keep background programs to a minimum, which I've been doing lately, I'm only getting the freezing/stuttering situation as mentioned above. I should add that I'm able to run other high end games without any performance issues at all, even if I keep other more prominent programs active.

 

[AndrewT]

We've had some reports of the game freezing the PC since Windows 11 24H2 was released.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/game-crashing-after-windows-11-24h2-update.1714426/

If that's what you have, can you try reverting to 23H2?

 

[Oxbridge]

We've had some reports of the game freezing the PC since Windows 11 24H2 was released.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/game-crashing-after-windows-11-24h2-update.1714426/

If that's what you have, can you try reverting to 23H2?

Unfortunately, no. Bad timing happened with the latest Windows update and needing to make space on my SSD, so I cleaned out the data from previous Windows versions and now the option to go back is greyed out.

 

[AndrewT]

Ouch! Then I guess the only options are to not play this game until QA/the devs look into this, play on another machine, or do a clean reinstall of 23H2.

Sorry about that!

 

[Oxbridge]

Ouch! Then I guess the only options are to not play this game until QA/the devs look into this, play on another machine, or do a clean reinstall of 23H2.

Sorry about that!

I'm not giving up yet. Surely there's a way to figure out exactly what 24H2 changed from 23H2 and simply change a setting somewhere to fix the problem?

 

[AndrewT]

A setting? Like in Windows? I suppose that is not impossible, but I'm no Windows tech and would have no idea where to start on that.

No doubt there are numerous changes in many areas between those two Windows versions.


The otheraffected folks in this thread

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/game-crashing-after-windows-11-24h2-update.1714426/

have started a thread in Bug Reports, you are very welcome to add your details and situation to that thread to raise its priority.

 

[Oxbridge]

A setting? Like in Windows? I suppose that is not impossible, but I'm no Windows tech and would have no idea where to start on that.

No doubt there are numerous changes in many areas between those two Windows versions.


The otheraffected folks in this thread

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/game-crashing-after-windows-11-24h2-update.1714426/

have started a thread in Bug Reports, you are very welcome to add your details and situation to that thread to raise its priority.

Sorta kinda necroing my own post here, which I think is okay to do? Anyways, I took a break from CK3 and played a different game that had a similar issue occur and the number one solution to that problem was to switch GFX renderer from DX to Vulkan. I applied the same fix to CK3 and I've been able to run games with very high stability now. Any thoughts on this? I did ask Trinexx on Discord if they plan to adopt DX12 and he said not very likely, so I'm thinking DX11 is not good anymore.