Windows PC locks up/freezes every time I play

[Tisreece]

I've played an entire campaign and it's mostly been fine, but suddenly almost every time I play the game my PC locks up. It seems to happen mostly when scrolling through character finder, clicking on various characters and in general idle (paused) gameplay. It has gradually been getting worse, with today it locking up over 6 times to the point where I can't even go a month without it locking up.

 

[AndrewT]

[14:48:23][dlc.cpp:1889]: Incorrect MOD descriptor: "mod/ugc_2217534250.mod"

While a mod shouldn't cause this, do you also see it in a campaign where no mods has ever been used?

And, is anything in this machine overclocked?

 

[Tisreece]

Machine is not overclocked and although I have subscribed to a mod from the steam workshop it is not ironman compatible so I have never actually enabled it ever, never even launched the game with it enabled.

I had a look through the Event Viewer on Windows and found there was some fault with the GPU shutting down for some unknown reason (temps and usage were fine), so I decided to reinstall my graphics driver and since then I have not had a problem. So fingers crossed that fixed the issue.

 

[satoru]

Machine is not overclocked and although I have subscribed to a mod from the steam workshop it is not ironman compatible so I have never actually enabled it ever, never even launched the game with it enabled.

I had a look through the Event Viewer on Windows and found there was some fault with the GPU shutting down for some unknown reason (temps and usage were fine), so I decided to reinstall my graphics driver and since then I have not had a problem. So fingers crossed that fixed the issue.

I'd try unsubscribing from it

If you're using ironman, you should disable steam cloud as well as that is causing issues. I'd also test if playing a game without ironman exhibits the issue

 

[DeBunkeD]

If the error you've encountered is (approximately) the following: (event ID 65) Failed with 0x57 retrieving AppModel Runtime status for package Windows. Then the fix is as easy as downloading the beta-channel update for windows (20H2). See also this thread: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/ck3-is-crashing-my-windows-pc.1416864/page-2

 

[Tisreece]

I'd try unsubscribing from it

If you're using ironman, you should disable steam cloud as well as that is causing issues. I'd also test if playing a game without ironman exhibits the issue

I initially though this myself with regards to saves, but the locking up was happening at random intervals and not during any kind of save. Either way, a driver reinstall seems to have fixed it so far as the errors seems to have been a graphics driver issue from looking through the event viewer.

If the error you've encountered is (approximately) the following: (event ID 65) Failed with 0x57 retrieving AppModel Runtime status for package Windows. Then the fix is as easy as downloading the beta-channel update for windows (20H2). See also this thread: https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/threads/ck3-is-crashing-my-windows-pc.1416864/page-2

No, the event was "faulting application name: dwm.exe" followed by an event telling the GPU to shut down entirely, reinstalling the drivers seems to have fixed the issue so far, not had any crashes or freezes since, fingers crossed it stays that way

 

[Tisreece]

Okay, looks like the issue is back. PC completely locking up again on a new save. I've attached a new error log, this time with a tonne of errors around the time of the lock up. I have completely unsubscribed from any mods this time around too.

It might be worth mentioning, I have never had a lock-up on a 1066 start date.

Additionally, after launching the game again, all of my saves are "incompatible" and no longer appear in my Save Games folder in Documents, even other campaigns I was not even playing at the time of the crash.


Edit: Looks like I also managed to get a crash dump for this one, unlike the other times I locked up

 

[satoru]

If your system is locking up then its likely a low level problem. I'd

1) run a manual full windows update
2) use DDU to uninstall your exisitng drivers and reboot

Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) download version 18.1.1.1

Download Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) Official - Remove AMD/NVIDIA/INTEL Graphics Drivers Cleanly - DDU is a driver removal utility that helps you completely uninstall AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers and packages from your system, leaving no leftovers behind, including registry keys...

www.guru3d.com

3) reinstall your drivers and reboot

Does your event viewer show any errors that would point to something specific

 

[Tisreece]

If your system is locking up then its likely a low level problem. I'd

1) run a manual full windows update
2) use DDU to uninstall your exisitng drivers and reboot

Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) download version 18.1.1.1

Download Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU) Official - Remove AMD/NVIDIA/INTEL Graphics Drivers Cleanly - DDU is a driver removal utility that helps you completely uninstall AMD/NVIDIA graphics card drivers and packages from your system, leaving no leftovers behind, including registry keys...

www.guru3d.com

3) reinstall your drivers and reboot

Does your event viewer show any errors that would point to something specific

Windows and drivers update has already been done and was the solution I tried the first time this happened.

This time around the event viewer does not appear to have any errors that point to anything specific, unlike last time. This time around though the game is producing a tonne of errors when my system locks up, and is actually producing a crash dump, which last time it did not do.

Once again though, the issue seems to have gone away and I've managed to get a good few hours on the game yesterday. The only thing I did differently was run steam in administrator mode. Though, just like last time, the issue may reappear in 4-5 days. Hopefully not though.

 

[Tisreece]

Okay so even with running Steam in administrator mode I have still got one or two crashes since I wrote that last post.

The only thing I have noticed is that the freezes typically happen when I've first loaded into a save, around the first few months. Typically, it freezes when searching through characters, whether it be flicking quickly through family members, or using the character search and flick through them. So my solution is to simply refrain from looking at too many characters in quick succession during the first few months of loading into a game.

Would be nice to get some kind of response from Paradox about this problem though.

 

[Devilcorpsdoc]

Okay so even with running Steam in administrator mode I have still got one or two crashes since I wrote that last post.

The only thing I have noticed is that the freezes typically happen when I've first loaded into a save, around the first few months. Typically, it freezes when searching through characters, whether it be flicking quickly through family members, or using the character search and flick through them. So my solution is to simply refrain from looking at too many characters in quick succession during the first few months of loading into a game.

Would be nice to get some kind of response from Paradox about this problem though.

I agree, it would be nice. Hopefully, next week's patch helps. Fingers crossed.