White screen crashes on start and Process Lasso - this worked for me

[DavidAndres]

As mentioned in the title of this post, I managed to resolve this issue for myself, but am passing along the info in case it is helpful to other folks.

For the sake of clarity, the issue I'm referring to is Elden Ring opening to a white screen and then crashing to the Desktop after five to ten seconds. This is after the initial EAC splash screen is shown.

In the Application Windows Event Log, I see this error:

Faulting application name: eldenring.exe, version: 2.0.1.0, time stamp: 0x65839fe5
Faulting module name: eldenring.exe, version: 2.0.1.0, time stamp: 0x65839fe5
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x0000000001e74c89
Faulting process id: 0x0x4A9C
Faulting application start time: 0x0x1DABE54EA842D2D
Faulting application path: C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\ELDEN RING\Game\eldenring.exe
Faulting module path: C:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\ELDEN RING\Game\eldenring.exe
Report Id: 018121d7-343a-4437-a4eb-597ad2424f6f
Faulting package full name: 
Faulting package-relative application ID: 

In the Security Event Log, I also see this Audit Failure:

Code integrity determined that the image hash of a file is not valid.  The file could be corrupt due to unauthorized modification or the invalid hash could indicate a potential disk device error.

File Name:	\Device\HarddiskVolume3\Windows\System32\eac_usermode_15875022316494.dll

I use Process Lasso, version 14.1.0.20 64-Bit specifically, which seems to come up often when folks run into this issue. You'll know if Process Lasso is the culprit here if you prevent it and its core engine from starting when Windows boots up (note two different things have startup options here), restart your computer, and then run Elden Ring. For me, this worked and is at least preferable to uninstalling Process Lasso completely, but is obviously not ideal.

I'm using Windows 11 on an AMD x79503D chipset. Process Lasso helps to force CPU affinity for games to cores that have this chipset's 3D V-Cache enabled, as on my CPU this is only true for half of them (cores 0-15, specifically). This results in better performance in most games, or at least did in the past as I've not really bothered to benchmark this in a while. The reason I'm stressing this point is that I do not want to uninstall Process Lasso, which is the solution to this issue that I've seen quoted most often.

Some notes on how I've configured Process Lasso: I have all of my games and Steam itself installed within games folders across my drives. I have a rule in Process Lasso that any time a process is run in folders matching the pattern */games/*, that process will be assigned the High Performance Game mode and its affinity will be limited to cores 0-15 (16-31 in my case don't support the 3D V-Cache). Steam itself also only uses these cores due to this rule.

What I've done to fix this is to ensure that Steam is set as follows in Process Lasso:

1. it is excluded from ProBalance, which should be the default. Process Lasso identifies it as an application that tends not to work well with the software.

2. has a CPU affinity that includes all of your cores. For me, this is 0-31, but the correct settings will differ for your chipset.

Essentially, you're looking for Process Lasso to not affect the Steam process in any way.

I suppose because Steam is the parent process that invokes Elden Ring, something about its affinity setting affects the game's runtime, and it fails EAC checks as a result. The two processes that run when I start Elden Ring, start_protected_game.exe and eldenring.exe, still use Process Lasso's High Performance Game mode and half of my cores even after the above changes, just like any other game. Using this configuration, I am able to start Elden Ring without issue.

I tried a few other things prior to focusing on Process Lasso:

• Repairing the Visual C++ Redistributable 32- and 64-bit libraries. In my case, 2022 is the latest, though I've seen 2019 get called out too.
  
• Upgrading Graphics card drivers to the latest
  
• Tried both Safe Mode with Networking and going offline in Steam, but Steam wouldn't work in the first case and the latter didn't actually work.
  
• Shutting down Process Lasso and its Governor. Note that I don't think this affected Steam's CPU affinity as it was already running at this point. For this to actually work, I believe I would have needed to restart Steam itself.
  
• Deleting temp files.
  
• Uninstalling and then downloading the entire game again
  
• Disabling Multi-Plane Overlay (MPO) as this seems to cause stuttering/flickering on NVIDIA cards (see https://nvidia.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/5157/~/after-updating-to-nvidia-game-ready-driver-461.09-or-newer%2C-some-desktop-apps)

[jeef]

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ this finally got it working for me thank you so much.

[soulgamer31br]

THANK YOU!! I tried using Process Lasso to stop ER from using my CPU's E-Cores and when the game started blank screening out of nowhere i freaked out trying to find a solution. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing man, you're a lifesaver.

Btw, how did you get Process Lasso to work properly with ER? I tried setting the CPU affinities but i think EAC stopped them from taking effect, and applying these settings to steam just broke things further

[Lors]

I disabled EAC (via rename start_protected_game.exe method), but Process Lasso affinity rules does not work at startup. The game always starts with all cores enabled and I have to manually disable it every single time after starting the game.

Any idea how to automate it?

[ernestinebrenninger]

You are a Hero. Changing the Steam.exe in Process Lasso to use all Cores fixed it for me as well. Its a Shame we cant tell the Game to use certain Cores but at least it runs now. Wonder who would need to fix this. Process Lasso or From Software. (Or Steam)

[soulgamer31br]

Originally posted by ernestinebrenninger:

You are a Hero. Changing the Steam.exe in Process Lasso to use all Cores fixed it for me as well. Its a Shame we cant tell the Game to use certain Cores but at least it runs now. Wonder who would need to fix this. Process Lasso or From Software. (Or Steam)

I think i managed to do it using this method: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3042130454

Basically, when you startup the game and the EAC loading banner comes on you have a short period where you can select the .exe of EAC itself and change it's CPU affinity, thus making the game follow the afinity you set. I did this with both easyanticheat_eos.exe and start_protected_game.exe and as far as i can tell it worked, took me a few tries (plus i think the changes only take effect once you restart the game) but the stuttering is basically gone now

[denautn]

I'm getting same blank white screen and then CTD but I don't use process lassoo. It started all of a sudden.

[soulgamer31br]

Originally posted by denautn:

I'm getting same blank white screen and then CTD but I don't use process lassoo. It started all of a sudden.

There arte lots of possible causes for it then, do you have any other apps running in the background that might interfere with the game? Stuff like MSI Afterburner for example

[DavidAndres]

Originally posted by ernestinebrenninger:

You are a Hero. Changing the Steam.exe in Process Lasso to use all Cores fixed it for me as well. Its a Shame we cant tell the Game to use certain Cores but at least it runs now. Wonder who would need to fix this. Process Lasso or From Software. (Or Steam)

I'm now realizing that affinity isn't getting set for me either.

Sadly, the advice I've seen online (https://www.reddit.com/r/joinsquad/comments/xm1tjd/process_lasso_not_able_to_change_cpu_affinityhow/) is to change affinity for Steam, which will then get inherited by the game. That just brings us right back to the original problem though.

[dark-breed]

messing around with process management at a game (specific with a tool that was never tested by microsoft) that use security functions and is connected to two other apps via some functions always produce problems.

instead of messing around with such tools, fix your systems will produce more stable results.

@davidandres
btw what is behind this link ? it contain malicious code.

[soulgamer31br]

Originally posted by DavidAndres:

Originally posted by ernestinebrenninger:

You are a Hero. Changing the Steam.exe in Process Lasso to use all Cores fixed it for me as well. Its a Shame we cant tell the Game to use certain Cores but at least it runs now. Wonder who would need to fix this. Process Lasso or From Software. (Or Steam)

I'm now realizing that affinity isn't getting set for me either.

Sadly, the advice I've seen online (https://www.reddit.com/r/joinsquad/comments/xm1tjd/process_lasso_not_able_to_change_cpu_affinityhow/) is to change affinity for Steam, which will then get inherited by the game. That just brings us right back to the original problem though.

I managed to do it by setting the affinity of the EAC processes that run before Elden Ring launches, like i said a few posts above. Try doing that and see if it works, it did for me

[DavidAndres]

Originally posted by dark-breed:

messing around with process management at a game (specific with a tool that was never tested by microsoft) that use security functions and is connected to two other apps via some functions always produce problems.

instead of messing around with such tools, fix your systems will produce more stable results.

@davidandres
btw what is behind this link ? it contain malicious code.

It is a reddit page where someone suggested using Process Lasso to set affinity for Steam itself. I think the parenthesis around the link screwed things up a bit, but I don't see signs that the site is malicious. Here is the link again: https://www.reddit.com/r/joinsquad/comments/xm1tjd/process_lasso_not_able_to_change_cpu_affinityhow/.

[sENoZ]

or you can just close PL, start elden ring then re start PL ...

[termosifone]

Thanks it worked. If I may, how did you create the rule on process lasso? So as to assign High Performance mode and its affinity for all processes in a certain folder?

[sENoZ]

Actually i found something even better.

You can keep process lasso ON, and play Elden ring. :)

So do not park core with process lasso (Elden ring.exe), but you can set anything else to default AND select high performance. Ez fix.
The same goes for any AC game and Wildlands.

[termosifone]

Ohh thanks!!

Originally posted by sENoZ:

Actually i found something even better.

You can keep process lasso ON, and play Elden ring. :)

So do not park core with process lasso (Elden ring.exe), but you can set anything else to default AND select high performance. Ez fix.
The same goes for any AC game and Wildlands.