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Run DDU and install latest display driver.
okay okay, i'll try it and come back to tell if it worked or not, ty
what i did was to close medal (an app i use to clip games) while i was playing, then never it crashed again
I, too, am having issues with the video freezing, but the audio continues. The only solution is to force close the game (Steam says that it is still running, same as OP) and restart it. Retrying yields the same results, sometimes I can play for 20-30 minutes before freezing, sometimes it's less than a minute, but it always happens at some point.
I don't have Medal or any other game recording app, I don't even have Nvidia's overlay to record gameplay enabled, so the solution offered in this thread doesn't really apply to me.
I have tried the following:
Reinstalling the game
Reinstalling my GPU driver (including wiping with DDU)
Using the DXVK mod
Manually setting a large page file on multiple SSDs
Using lower graphics settings
Probably a few other things that I'm forgetting, as I have been troubleshooting this every weekend for about a month now
Oddly enough, this is all happening on my 2nd playthrough. I was able to play through the first time with mostly no issues, just the occasional VRAM crash (lowering texture settings solved this, curse my 3080 with 10GB of VRAM), but this new issue has largely prevented me from going back through and achievement hunting. My hunch is that either something in the Nvidia driver has changed since my first playthrough, or a Windows 11 update has screwed something up, but since I'm not seeing many other threads on this specific issue, this is unlikely the culprit, and it's probably something on my end.
The only way I can consistently play the game now is on my Steam Deck (OLED model), but that's not the greatest experience at all lowest settings and 30fps, so I'd really like to figure out what's going on with my PC so that I can play the game in greater fidelity.
Has anyone else experienced this issue and found any other solutions? I'm open to just about anything at this point.
Well, something has changed in your system that has affected the game negatively. Did you use any mods the last time you played? They maybe outdated or conflicting with the game.
Try to uninstall game, and than manually delete the games folder. Install again and see if it helped.
What are the rest of your specs? CPU, RAM, PSU, CPU Cooler, etc.
Are you using an SSD, HDD, or NVMe?
Is game installed on same drive as OS? Others have reported installing game on same drive as OS fixed their issues.
Did you add any monitors or peripherals since you last played? Installed new software?
I have same GPU and didnt have any issues. Nor did I have VRAM issue or crash once. So not sure whay you would be having this issue. Unless system is heating up too much or your PSU is not adequate.
Are you OC your CPU/GPU? Put back to defaults if you are.
Here are some suggestions and ideas which may help.
Since you are on Win 11, did you use the upgrade process from Win 10? Doing the upgrade process sometimes causes issues with moving files and can cause the system file structure to become corrupt. Which in turn can cause issues with games. It is always good to do a clean install as this has fixed issues for others.
Try a clean boot. A clean boot will remove any potential conflicts with other software running in background. So disable all non essential services, programs and tasks from starting with PC. So use services (services app or system configuration app), tasks (task scheduler app, select task scheduler library), and startup items (task manager) to disable them.
Check all 3 areas. If anyone is enabled that software will run and could be causing conflicts with the game. This will also help free up system resources in general.
Did you use DDU in safe mode with internet disabled and only enabled internet again until after the display driver successfully installed? Once the display driver installs successfully, restart PC even if not prompted.
Have you tried the most recent version of DDU? Here is link. Make sure to read/follow guide if unfamiliar. Its in the link. https://www.wagnardsoft.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=5178
I would recommend to just install the driver only. No GeForce Experience or NVIDIA APP.
If you got a Windows update. Make sure it is on latest public build. No insider, preview, or optional updates. If you feel an update was an issue. You can always uninstall the update and try game again.
Disable windows game mode, game bar, and game captures. Or other screen capture software.
If you use an anti-virus, windows security, or data protection. Make exceptions to your game folders. This way it disables the scans and doesnt conflict with your games starting up and take away system resources as you are playing. Which may be causing slowdowns as well.
Make sure your motherboard's BIOS is up to date. If an update is available. Make sure to default settings before updating. Once update is done. Set the correct memory profile if supported.
You can also do an SFC (system file checker) scan. Open command prompt and type this:
sfc /scannow
It will scan and repair system files. Run it twice.
Try those suggestions. If it doesnt help let us know.
GPU: Nvidia RTX 3080
CPU: AMD 5800x
Motherboard: Gigabyte X570 AORUS Elite
RAM: G.SKILL Ripjaws 32GB DDR4 (2x 16GB) 3200MT/s
PSU: Corsair RM750x
CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-U12S
SSDs (these are my game drives):
MSI SPATIUM M480 1TB
WD_BLACK 1TB SN750
Keep in mind, I completed my first playthrough in October (according to my achievements), and only use my PC on the weekends, so there has been very little time for anything to realistically change, Whatever IS different must have been fairly severe.
Now, to answer your questions...
Did you use any mods the last time you played? - No, nor am I using any now (other than trying the DXVK mod which I removed after it did not fix the freezes)
Are you using an SSD, HDD, or NVMe? - I have been running the game on the MSI SPATIUM drive.
Is game installed on same drive as OS? - No, I will try this and report back. For future reference, my boot drive is a Samsung 860 EVO 500GB.
Did you add any monitors or peripherals since you last played? - Only a new keyboard, so I will try disconnecting it while playing since I play with a controller (8bitdo Ultimate)
Installed new software? - Other than Steam games, no
Are you OC your CPU/GPU? - No, I have never OCed these components
Since you are on Win 11, did you use the upgrade process from Win 10? - It has been a few years, but I am 90% sure that, after I upgraded from Windows 10, I did a full re-image. I am considering doing another as a last resort, but that may just be too much effort just to fix a single game.
Try a clean boot - I will try this, though I have already tried closing as many apps as possible
Did you use DDU in safe mode with internet disabled and only enabled internet again until after the display driver successfully installed? - Yes
Have you tried the most recent version of DDU? - Yes, I used the latest version.
I would recommend to just install the driver only. No GeForce Experience or NVIDIA APP. - I don't have GFE, just the Nvidia app with as many options as I could find disabled, but I could try uninstalling it.
If you got a Windows update. Make sure it is on latest public build. - I am not on any kind of early build.
Disable windows game mode, game bar, and game captures. - I will try disabling game mode and game bar, all game capture features and software are disabled.
If you use an anti-virus, windows security, or data protection. Make exceptions to your game folders. - I have Malwarebytes installed (as well as Windows Security, of course), but they are not scanning while playing nor have they ever detected or quarantined any game files, so I doubt this is the issue. I will try excluding the TLoU folder, though.
Make sure your motherboard's BIOS is up to date. - I hadn't considered this since, last I checked, a new update hadn't been released in over a year and my motherboard is fairly old, so I assumed there would not be more updates. I do see that new updates have been released, so I'll install the latest version.
You can also do an SFC (system file checker) scan. - Ran it, nothing found
I'll try a few of the suggestions and follow up.
Hey, thanks for clarifying on all that. Not many people do. Makes it easier to go thru the steps.
Our systems are very similar. Same GPU, RAM, my CPU cooler is a NH-D15, with a WD Black 1TB NVMe I use as OS and game install. So before I add anything more to try, I'll wait until you finish those suggestions. Hopefully they help out.
Its probably something small being overlooked on why its not working. Could also just be the game not being installed on same drive as OS. Others reported issues with the game when installed on another drive. Once they installed to boot drive it was ok again. I know this oddly affects some Ubisoft games as well. Dont ask me why though. GL.
Of course! I work in tech, so I know how important it is to give as much info as possible when troubleshooting. I can usually fix stuff like this on my own, but like I said, I've been fighting with this for over a month now with what little free time I have, so I'm at my wits end with it.
I have tried the following since my last post:
Uninstalled the game and re-installed to my boot drive (could have just migrated it, but decided to install fresh instead)
Unplugged new keyboard
Disable game mode
Disable game bar (this doesn't seem possible on Windows 11, as far as I can tell. I uninstalled all Xbox apps using a guide, and the game bar is still present. I did kill the process, though)
Disable game recording (this was already disabled in settings, but I disabled it in Group Policy just to be sure)
Uninstalled the Nvidia app
Excluded from both AVs
Updated BIOS
Played on lowest graphics preset (see below)
The game is still freezing with audio continuing in the background (this was particularly haunting at the beginning of the Pittsburgh chapter, so when it froze, I could just hear Hank Williams' "Alone And Forsaken" playing while the rest of the game was frozen).
I have not seen any freezes in the main menu, not even when compiling shaders. I even let it sit for about half an hour after a freeze to see if I could get it to freeze on the main menu, and it didn't.
When playing on the lowest graphics preset, it actually went a pretty long time without crashing, at least at first. I'd say a good hour or so, which is the longest I've seen other than a fresh install, though it did still end up crashing again eventually. I figured that maybe there was some graphical setting that my GPU didn't like being set high (I typically play on pretty high settings, other than texture setting as I mentioned before), but since it still crashed, that theory is pretty much debunked. Subsequent attempts crashed after a few minutes.
My CPU is pretty consistently at 90%+ while playing, which as I understand is pretty normal for this game as it's CPU heavy. I don't see any general system stability problems that you'd expect with CPU issues, and since this seems to be some kind of video/ GPU problem due to the video freezing but audio continuing and no other system issues, I doubt the high CPU utilization is the problem.
I kept an eye on my temps while playing on low, and I never saw either the CPU or GPU go much higher than 65-70C, so very likely not overheating.
I still need to try a clean boot, but picking out every optional process and service will take a while, since I'll also need to note what all I disable. Like I said, I had tried killing every unnecessary process and still saw crashes, so I'm not sure if this would be worth the effort.
I'm going to leave it for now, since I've spent the majority of my weekend fighting to get this game to be stable. Not sure how much more effort I'm really willing to put into it, which is a shame because I love this game. It's an absolute shame that the PC port is both so good as far as PC features and enhancements go, but also so unstable and buggy even almost 2 years on. Hopefully the port of Part 2 fares better.
Yea, I hear your frustration when things like this happen. So lets see if I can give a bit more guidance to where maybe you can work on it some more next weekend.
Usually when the game is still running in background with audio but no video. Its usually a GPU issue. Whether its driver, hardware, or power. Which we seem to agree here.
Also, I didnt see you mention trying the game when installed on same drive as OS? Have you done that yet? Thats quick and easy test to see if it works that way.
During the shader process the CPU is doing the majority and GPU isnt really working much. If you can get past this it maybe a sign its GPU related.
Whn you updated BIOS. DId you default settings first? After it updated, did you set the XMP profile? Have Re-Bar enabled?
If putting the game on lowest setting helped. Even for a bit. It leads me to believe it could be a power or heat issue. Our GPU's can get up to 400W power usage when playing games at higher settings.
Have you checked the GPU fans and heatsink? Could be dirty and not moving much airflow. Or have you tried playing with case door open? If internal temps are not good.
Consistently being over 90% CPU usage even after the shader process seems too much. My 9900K was around 43% usage average I'd say while playing at 1440p. It never went higher than ~62% at most on a single core.
So it def seems you have way too many processes running before even playing the game. Especially since our CPU's are almost identical in gaming. Even if you are CPU bound at 1080p it shouldnt be that high usage.
A clean boot is easy to do. When in system configuration, and services tab is selected. You can hide all Microsoft processes. Than uncheck all the boxes you see as they arent needed at all. Just dont disable the driver processes which are few and easy to spot as you can sort by name. Like NVIDIA display conainer.
You will also need to check the tasks that boot with PC, but same thing. Open task scheduler, select task scheduler library, and just disable whats in there.
The last area to check would be the startup tab in task manager. Besides the Audio service there shouldnt be anything essential in there. Do that and its a true clean boot. May seem like this is a lot but its really not.
If all the software troubleshooting doesnt work. The next step is to get a spare drive and put on a fresh install of Windows. Make sure to install all up to date drivers and chipset for the motherboard, GPU, Audio, driver, etc. Than only install Steam and the game. See how performance improves than.
If that still doesnt work it maybe your hardware. When I first built this PC, with same RAM as you. I had an issue with Red Dead Redemption 2. No matter what I did the game always crashed within a half hour of playing. Even after all the stress testing, and benching. Which it ran great on. It would always crash for RDR2 and no other games or software.
So I moved onto troubleshooting hardware and started with RAM. Sure enough, for whatever reason. There was 1 stick that just didnt want to play nice with the game. All other sticks when tested individually ran fine. So I RMA'd the kit to G.Skill. Since than I had no issues.
Even though all speeds and timings were the same. That 1 stick just didnt play nice with that 1 game. You can say I was relieved to solve the issue as crazy as it was.
So again, if all other software troubleshooting fails, even after a clean install of windows, drivers, and chipset. Its onto hardware.
With that said, I would check your RAM. GPU, and PSU. If all other options failed. If you have spare parts def swap them out and see if the problem persists.
I say dont give up. Even if you have little time. Because part 2 may have same issue. Because it uses same engine, but a bit more upgraded and may be a bit more demanding on the system. So I'd say try to get this one running before you are annoyed that Pt. 2 is also giving you issues.
As frustrating as all this is. Sometimes it just happens with PC's. Even if its just 1 game that points out a problem with it. Like RDR2 did for mine. I just built the computer and really wanted to play RDR2, so you can understand how upset I was when I ran into issues. But my stubbornness and perseverance didnt let me give up and I eventually figured it out.
If you got time next weekend, Id say give it just 1 more shot. Hopefully youll figure it out. Stay positive and stick with it and im sure youll get it to work. Let us know how it works out for you. GL.
Yea, that is why I am suggesting to others to do a clean boot. As some software like medal or razer, along with others, can cause conflicts with games.
I noticed that I didn't have DLSS available as a scaling option, despite having an RTX 3080 and KNOWING that I had used it in the past in TLoU. I knew that DLSS isn't available when using the Vulkan mod, but I was pretty sure that I wasn't running that mod because I had 1. removed it when it didn't solve the freezing, 2. completely reinstalled the game to my OS drive from scratch, and 3. hadn't re-installed the mod since. I fired up MSI Afterburner since the FPS counter for that will tell you which renderer the game is using. Sure enough, Vulkan.
I manually deleted all of the files in the root directory of the install folder and re-validated the file integrity, and when I booted back up I was back to DX12 and DLSS was available again. Recompiled shaders from the menu and it was smooth sailing from there.
I'm assuming that I had been running the game in Vulkan the whole time since the crashes started. Maybe I had tried the Vulkan mod between when I had played before and when the crashes started and forgotten about it, but that doesn't explain why the mod seemed to persist when I installed to my OS drive. If it hadn't been properly removed from the previous install location, it makes sense that it'd persist when re-installing to that location since uninstalling from Steam only removes the Steam files, leaving mods. Maybe I had re-applied the mod in my flurry of troubleshooting after re-installing to the OS drive, or maybe I had installed to the OS drive before and used the mod then, and the files were left over from that.
In hindsight, it makes sense that the Vulkan mod could cause graphics issues like video freezes, since it's translating the Direct-X API calls to Vulkan. I should have really properly validated that the mod had been removed, or just deleted the entire install folder between re-installs. Hindsight is 20/20, I suppose.
I'm planning on doing a playthrough on Grounded for fun, so I'll update if I see any more freezes. Fingers crossed.
Moral of the story: don't use the Vulkan mod! At least, not the one from Nexus Mods. It's nearly 2 years out of date anyway, and the game has had so many patches since then that it probably isn't necessary to resolve issues anymore. And if you do use it, make sure you properly remove it if you have any graphical issues. Learn from my mistakes!
Shout out to animal_PLANET for all the help and advice. Your troubleshooting steps were invaluable for ruling out possible causes. Plus, now I've got a lot more tricks to try if I have any issues in the future, and my startup tasks trimmed down which is nice :D