Shader Cache files causing crash on Startup [Possible FIX in latest post]

[chromaticx]

I'm having repeated crashes of the Character Creator. It appears to have something to do with the Shader Cache files in game folder. See below for details.

[I return friendly fire]

Probably a driver or sound issue. EA is known to shove everything through the "eh" frost bite engine

[Lori37]

a BSOD is always a hardware and/or software/driver issue

[chromaticx]

I've put the game into compatibility mode for Win 7, Running it as administrator, and disabling full screen optimization. So, now, it waits to freeze when it is "compiling shaders." It never gets past that, and it always freezes at different percentages.

[DaddyC]

re-installing the game fixed it for me

[Boltergeist]

A BSOD is not an indication of problems with the game, lol

[chromaticx]

Originally posted by DaddyC:

re-installing the game fixed it for me

I uninstalled and reinstalled and it froze at 67.6% the way through "compiling shaders."

[Ehjay]

I am having similar issues, I can't get past the initial loading icon since the most recent patch. Nothing changed on my PC side of things...

I've reinstalled the game, reinstalled it on a different hard drive, deleted shaders folders and individual files, checked for GPU updates, BIOS updates, I've reinstalled windows, I've changed a million AMD Adrenaline settings, I'd set everything BIOS and GPU settings to default.

The game hard-locks my PC with a frozen screen and I'm forced to manually reboot.

This is what EA chat support told me today:
"And as I can see here you have tried all the troubleshooting so I will not waste your time in giving you any troubleshooting. In this case I would suggest you to please return the game and ask for the refund from the steam as you have purchased the game from the steam."

[ShinyWoopWoop]

I'm in the boat where it's crashing on the initial loading screen and nothing I've tried has fixed it. So I guess I'm just stuck waiting around hoping a patch 5 comes soon.

[chromaticx]

I've been troubleshooting this damn thing all evening, and I can report progress.

On the install there are 155 files in the "Shader Cache" folder. One or more cause the game to freeze or crash. I currently have 126 in the folder, and the Character creator works. That means there are still 29 that are suspect.

I would suggest, for those who are having the same problems, that you move every file in the Shader Cache folder out to another folder outside the game folder and try to run it. I did this at the beginning and it ran fine.

I've identified a problem file. 2459419382.PcDx12
When that file is in the Shader Cache folder it causes the game, on startup, to go through a progression of "compiling shader files" which doesn't happen when the file is out of the folder. Sometimes the game crashes when it "complies shader files" so this file is a culprit.

I'm still testing the other 28 suspected files.

[Ehjay]

Originally posted by chromaticx:

I've been troubleshooting this damn thing all evening, and I can report progress.

On the install there are 155 files in the "Shader Cache" folder. One or more cause the game to freeze or crash. I currently have 126 in the folder, and the Character creator works. That means there are still 29 that are suspect.

I would suggest, for those who are having the same problems, that you move every file in the Shader Cache folder out to another folder outside the game folder and try to run it. I did this at the beginning and it ran fine.

I've identified a problem file. 2459419382.PcDx12
When that file is in the Shader Cache folder it causes the game, on startup, to go through a progression of "compiling shader files" which doesn't happen when the file is out of the folder. Sometimes the game crashes when it "complies shader files" so this file is a culprit.

I'm still testing the other 28 suspected files.

I will try this tomorrow because I have tried everything else suggested online and nothing has worked. To the point where even EA support told me to get a refund. If we can prove a consistent fix, or at least consistent result, across multiple systems, hopefully we can get them to fix it. Thank you for the troubleshooting work, I wouldn't have even known how to start. I deleted the whole folder, but that didn't change anything.

[chromaticx]

All right. There's two shader cache files which cause my game to crash

4238387177.PcDx12 which is 26 mb large
and
2459419382.PcDx12 which is 205 mb large

No other Shader Cache file is larger than 10 mb. The two problem ones are the largest.

I have an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. Changing the Shader Cache size to 100 Gb in the Nvidia Control Panel had no effect on the crashing, strangely.

So, in order for me to use the character creator those two files need to stay out of the shader cache folder.

[Ehjay]

Originally posted by chromaticx:

All right. There's two shader cache files which cause my game to crash

4238387177.PcDx12 which is 26 mb large
and
2459419382.PcDx12 which is 205 mb large

No other Shader Cache file is larger than 10 mb. The two problem ones are the largest.

I have an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. Changing the Shader Cache size to 100 Gb in the Nvidia Control Panel had no effect on the crashing, strangely.

So, in order for me to use the character creator those two files need to stay out of the shader cache folder.

I have 3 of the same files, in the same folder, when I search for this one:
4238387177.PcDx12

[Ehjay]

Originally posted by chromaticx:

All right. There's two shader cache files which cause my game to crash

4238387177.PcDx12 which is 26 mb large
and
2459419382.PcDx12 which is 205 mb large

No other Shader Cache file is larger than 10 mb. The two problem ones are the largest.

I have an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. Changing the Shader Cache size to 100 Gb in the Nvidia Control Panel had no effect on the crashing, strangely.

So, in order for me to use the character creator those two files need to stay out of the shader cache folder.

I deleted both of those files and was able to get to the menu. Loading my game still crashes. Haven't tried a new game yet.

I installed the character creator via EA App. I'm going to test this shader cache theory there too.

[chromaticx]

Originally posted by ShinyWoopWoop:

I'm in the boat where it's crashing on the initial loading screen and nothing I've tried has fixed it. So I guess I'm just stuck waiting around hoping a patch 5 comes soon.

Try my fix. Those two shader cache files were really screwing up the loading process. Once I removed them, I could run the character creator.

[chromaticx]

Originally posted by Ehjay:

Originally posted by chromaticx:

All right. There's two shader cache files which cause my game to crash

4238387177.PcDx12 which is 26 mb large
and
2459419382.PcDx12 which is 205 mb large

No other Shader Cache file is larger than 10 mb. The two problem ones are the largest.

I have an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. Changing the Shader Cache size to 100 Gb in the Nvidia Control Panel had no effect on the crashing, strangely.

So, in order for me to use the character creator those two files need to stay out of the shader cache folder.

I have 3 of the same files, in the same folder, when I search for this one:
4238387177.PcDx12

I didn't think it was even possible to have three of the same filenames in the same folder.