UPDATED -[VERIFIED FIX]BO6 Season2 BSOD, crash, PC freeze, or reboot

[Snake.Pliskin]

UPDATE 2/24/2025

THIS HAS BEEN FIXED WITH THE SEASON 2 RELOADED RELEASE.
You can ENABLE "Kernel-mode Hardware-enforced Stack Protection" and BO6 will run without crashing.

SYMPTOMS:

Everything worked fine but after the Season 2 update,
having any of the following issues trying to play BO6,
Before the loading screen or right after starting a match any of the following

• BSOD,
  
• BSOD with UNEXPECTED KERNEL TRAP error message,
  
• PC freezes and has to be manually restarted,
  
• PC reboots on its own

VERIFIED HOW TO FIX:

This fix is for windows 11 PC's (possibly some Windows 10 PC's)
you need to disable "Kernel-mode Hardware-enforced Stack Protection".

[1] Go to the Windows Security app

• Search for it in the Start menu or
  
• Select the shield icon in the taskbar's notification area or
  
• Open Windows Security from Settings or
  
• use the following shortcut: windowsdefender://coreisolation/[http//windowsdefender]

[2] Then select Device Security -> Core Isolation and turn Kernel-mode Hardware-enforced Stack Protection off. As shown by the red arrow in the following screen shot
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/6293813773907148/23D32E0D0F60F6A492EB31E0AF3A603C540777D8/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false
[3] Reboot the PC and BO6 will run as normal.

If you do not have this setting on your PC, then either your CPU does not support this feature (Found in Intel Tiger Lake/11th gen CPU's and newer) or you do not have to correct settings in your BIOS to enable this feature. (memory integrity enabled and there may also be a setting for CET Control-flow Enforcement Technology)

MORE INFO ABOUT KERNEL-MODE-HARDWARE ENFORCED STACK PROTECTION

It is funny that we must disable a modern hardware based security feature found on newer CPU's to be able to use the incompatible anti-cheat that BO6 uses.

The following is Quoted from Microsoft[support.microsoft.com]

Kernel-mode Hardware-enforced Stack Protection
Hardware enforced stack protection is a hardware-based security feature that makes it difficult for malicious programs to use low-level drivers to hijack your PC.

A driver is a piece of software that lets the operating system (Windows in this case) and a device (like a keyboard or a webcam) talk to each other. When the device wants Windows to do something, it uses the driver to send that request.

Hardware enforced stack protection works by preventing attacks that modify return addresses in kernel-mode memory to launch malicious code. This security feature requires a CPU that contains the ability to verify the return addresses of running code.

When executing code in kernel-mode, return addresses on the kernel-mode stack can be corrupted by malicious programs or drivers in order to redirect normal code execution to malicious code. On supported CPUs, the CPU maintains a second copy of valid return addresses on a read-only shadow stack that drivers cannot modify. If a return address on the regular stack has been modified, the CPU can detect this discrepancy by checking the copy of the return address on the shadow stack. When this discrepancy occurs, the computer prompts a stop error, sometimes known as a blue screen, to prevent the malicious code from executing.

Not all drivers are compatible with this security feature, as a small number of legitimate drivers engage in return address modification for non-malicious purposes. Microsoft has been engaging with numerous driver publishers to ensure that their latest drivers are compatible with hardware enforced stack protection.

You can turn hardware enforced stack protection On or Off using the toggle button.​​​​​​​

To use hardware enforced stack protection, you must have memory integrity enabled, and you must be running a CPU that supports Intel Control-Flow Enforcement Technology or AMD Shadow Stack.

What if it says I have an incompatible driver or service?

If hardware enforced stack protection fails to turn on, it might tell you that you have an incompatible device driver or service already installed. Check with the manufacturer of the device or the application publisher to see if they have an updated driver available. If they don’t have a compatible driver available, you might be able to remove the device or app that uses that incompatible driver.

Some applications might install a service instead of a driver during the application's installation and install the driver only when the application is launched. For more accurate detection of incompatible drivers, services that are known to be associated with incompatible drivers are also enumerated.

Note: If you try to install a device or app with an incompatible driver after turning on hardware enforced stack protection, you may see the same message. If so, the same advice applies - check with the device manufacturer or app publisher to see if they have an updated driver you can download, or don’t install that particular device or app until a compatible driver is available.

[Officer404]

Possibly jeopardizing device security for one game is dumb.

[AkiraJkr]

Funny how this is necessary but there's still cheaters in the game.

[Zuzaxxx]

Dont do this guys, for real. We dont have to fix sht, they are the ones who has to , and to be honest we should sue them( ofc we dont have the power to do that), but this is getting out of control, this is abuse. 80 euros for this? just give everybody a refund if they want, i would accept mine without thinking 2 times. Since the beggining i started playing cod bo6 zombies, somehow my profile gets disconencted mid game, it happened like 9-10 times , but now restarting peoples computer? are u fkng kiding me? they have no shame and a crap company

[jacky jesus]

Still crash

[ayoun]

Originally posted by jackyjesus:

Still crash

same here and my Kernal Protection is off...

[L.o.D.]

Mine was already turned off. So this does not fix it.

[senrign]

Too much to ask for a single game. Already uninstalled it.

[koepfermax]

I wouldn't call it a "[VERIFIED FIX]" if you have to disable security features just because they can't write a working anti-cheat kernel driver. The driver does something it shouldn't, and because of the security feature, the kernel notes that it has been "compromised", causing the blue screen. I don't know how this wasn't caught in any of the pre-release testing, but it's up to them to fix it, not the players to compromise the integrity of the system.

[LancerEvoX]

I aint gonna do all that for this game. If the devs arent fixing it, Im leaving it.

[Dexter ♥♥♥ Morgan]

Didn't fix it at all

[cupsize<3]

Does Activision even know about the problem?

[RgaFury]

not fixed smh

[Exodus]

DO NOT TAMPER WITH MS DEFENDER. The 'fix' mentioned here is possibly a troll. It does nothing.

[Santa]

dosent work, they bring un update out for AMD user's but not us Navidia? then tell us to turn off our safety features to play the game. Ball Sh!t
and no one has said anything about the problem. just us gamers who cant play. at least acknowledge you have stuffed up and are working on a fix so we can get back to our game

[C_Salazar]

Doesn't fix it still crashing when editing my class we just have to wait there is no proper fix yet