Hard freezing?

[Tiebarious]

Dont know whats going on but I just started playing. Only up to the supermarket with Ellie and Dina.
I am getting these random HARD freezes in game. It also happens sometimes in menu changing settings trying to figure out whats going on.
I do see my CPU usage staying at about 30-45% on HW Monitor during normal game play and during the freeze but my GPU usage on afterburner goes from 80-99% during normal gameplay to 1-7% during the hard freeze. Tried watching Task manager for any usage spikes in nothing happens thats obvious.
So no CPU changes but a hard GPU drop? Happens on ALL SETTINGS even low.

I have an i7 14700KF
RTX 4070 TI Super
32GB 4000Mhz DDR4
game is installed on SSD

[Someone7272]

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

Dont know whats going on but I just started playing. Only up to the supermarket with Ellie and Dina.
I am getting these random HARD freezes in game. It also happens sometimes in menu changing settings trying to figure out whats going on.
I do see my CPU usage staying at about 30-45% on HW Monitor during normal game play and during the freeze but my GPU usage on afterburner goes from 80-99% during normal gameplay to 1-7% during the hard freeze. Tried watching Task manager for any usage spikes in nothing happens thats obvious.
So no CPU changes but a hard GPU drop? Happens on ALL SETTINGS even low.

I have an i7 14700KF
RTX 4070 TI Super
32GB 4000Mhz DDR4
game is installed on SSD

I’m seeing this at random too. Even in areas where I know the GPU shaders have already compiled. This includes areas that have previously worked smoothly.

Check metrics for CPU and SSD storage when it happens. If you can, put them on a 2nd monitor, this will be more accurate. Cause if the entire renderer stalls, it won’t update overlayed live metrics while it’s frozen.

I’ve not been able to track a pattern for this yet, although the latest patch has improved it somewhat.

Because of its random nature, I’m leaning towards antivirus or some other type of real-time protection interfering. Do you have MalwareBytes - specifically the Anti-Ransomware module? If so, try temporarily disabling it, cause it’s known to cause issues.

[Tiebarious]

Originally posted by Someone7272:

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

Dont know whats going on but I just started playing. Only up to the supermarket with Ellie and Dina.
I am getting these random HARD freezes in game. It also happens sometimes in menu changing settings trying to figure out whats going on.
I do see my CPU usage staying at about 30-45% on HW Monitor during normal game play and during the freeze but my GPU usage on afterburner goes from 80-99% during normal gameplay to 1-7% during the hard freeze. Tried watching Task manager for any usage spikes in nothing happens thats obvious.
So no CPU changes but a hard GPU drop? Happens on ALL SETTINGS even low.

I have an i7 14700KF
RTX 4070 TI Super
32GB 4000Mhz DDR4
game is installed on SSD

I’m seeing this at random too. Even in areas where I know the GPU shaders have already compiled. This includes areas that have previously worked smoothly.

Check metrics for CPU and SSD storage when it happens. If you can, put them on a 2nd monitor, this will be more accurate. Cause if the entire renderer stalls, it won’t update overlayed live metrics while it’s frozen.

I’ve not been able to track a pattern for this yet, although the latest patch has improved it somewhat.

Because of its random nature, I’m leaning towards antivirus or some other type of real-time protection interfering. Do you have MalwareBytes - specifically the Anti-Ransomware module? If so, try temporarily disabling it, cause it’s known to cause issues.

So to check metrics would windows Resource monitor be suffice? To check the graph for bumps? I do have a second monitor which has all my after burner, hw monitor, etc open 24/7.

I do have malwarebytes, but unsure what you mean by anti-ransomware module. I have the paid version that gives you the VPN if that helps answer that question?

[Tiebarious]

Webroot is also what I use as an antivirus.

[Tiebarious]

after typing that message I did just go into protection settings on malwarebytes and have "Ransomeware protection" enabled. So youre saying disable that specific setting and see what happens in game?

[Cait Sith]

The new NVIDIA driver works great, 4070ti. Also use borderless windows, aka Fullscreen in the game menu. For some reason I get better fps with that and compared with Exclusive FS

[Tiebarious]

Originally posted by Cait Sith:

The new NVIDIA driver works great, 4070ti. Also use borderless windows, aka Fullscreen in the game menu. For some reason I get better fps with that and compared with Exclusive FS :smileduck:

unfortunately the freezing happens before and after the new driver. I will see and try the game in borderless window though.

But i feel like I just noticed a freeze just using my desktop, not currently in game. So now I am worried about it being a hardware issue too, maybe need to reseat the ram?

Or it could of just froze because I am running a full system scan on malwarebytes and webroot at the same time right now.

[Cait Sith]

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

Originally posted by Cait Sith:

The new NVIDIA driver works great, 4070ti. Also use borderless windows, aka Fullscreen in the game menu. For some reason I get better fps with that and compared with Exclusive FS

unfortunately the freezing happens before and after the new driver. I will see and try the game in borderless window though.

But i feel like I just noticed a freeze just using my desktop, not currently in game. So now I am worried about it being a hardware issue too, maybe need to reseat the ram?

Or it could of just froze because I am running a full system scan on malwarebytes and webroot at the same time right now.

Malwarebytes scan won't let you play, it's very intesive task.

[Tiebarious]

Originally posted by Cait Sith:

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

unfortunately the freezing happens before and after the new driver. I will see and try the game in borderless window though.

But i feel like I just noticed a freeze just using my desktop, not currently in game. So now I am worried about it being a hardware issue too, maybe need to reseat the ram?

Or it could of just froze because I am running a full system scan on malwarebytes and webroot at the same time right now.

Malwarebytes scan won't let you play, it's very intesive task.

nah i wasnt playing at the same time of the scan. ran the scans just to make sure the freezing wasnt from any virus or malware

[sinephase]

it's pretty rare that software will be the direct cause of hard freezing or crashes without a BSOD. If you're overclocking, or undervolting, it's best to start with reversing those changes.

[Someone7272]

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

after typing that message I did just go into protection settings on malwarebytes and have "Ransomeware protection" enabled. So youre saying disable that specific setting and see what happens in game?

Yes, if you can, try disabling MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware temporarily. Nixxes Software have said this is a known issue due to the real-time protection. Anti-Ransomware real-time protection by nature is always running, independently of manual scans.

I have this too, but I’m not allowed to disable it due to device management policy, so I can’t check from my side.

More info here:
https://support.nixxes.com/hc/en-us/articles/26563026977949-The-game-stutters-and-freezes-periodically

[Tiebarious]

Originally posted by sinephase:

it's pretty rare that software will be the direct cause of hard freezing or crashes without a BSOD. If you're overclocking, or undervolting, it's best to start with reversing those changes.

no OC just the ram in XMP on the bios to increase the speed. Otherwise its all stock. Not even OC on the bios option for my CPU

[Tiebarious]

Originally posted by Someone7272:

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

after typing that message I did just go into protection settings on malwarebytes and have "Ransomeware protection" enabled. So youre saying disable that specific setting and see what happens in game?

Yes, if you can, try disabling MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware temporarily. Nixxes Software have said this is a known issue due to the real-time protection. Anti-Ransomware real-time protection by nature is always running, independently of manual scans.

I have this too, but I’m not allowed to disable it due to device management policy, so I can’t check from my side.

More info here:
https://support.nixxes.com/hc/en-us/articles/26563026977949-The-game-stutters-and-freezes-periodically

I will disable and try that and see how it goes. I also just cleared my NVIDIA shader cache and stuff just to try that too. who knows.

[Tiebarious]

So it looks like its fixed.
I just played for an hour straight with not one freeze or slutter.
I did these multiple things and its fixed, so unsure which one did it.

1. Clear DirectX Shader Cache on all drives

-Press Windows + R, type cleanmgr, and press Enter
-Select your system drive (usually C:)
-Check DirectX Shader Cache, then click OK > Delete Files

2. Clear NVIDIA Shader Cache
-Open NVIDIA Control Panel
-Go to Manage 3D Settings > Global Settings
-Scroll to Shader Cache Size and set it to Disabled
-Restart your PC

-Delete cache files at:
C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\DXCache
C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\DXCache

-Go back to NVIDIA Control Panel 3D settings and reset Shader Cache size to unlimited.
-Restart your PC again to rebuild the shader cache

3. Disabled MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware

Will add that the computer was restarted about 3 times total in case that matters

thanks everyone for the help!

[Someone7272]

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

So it looks like its fixed.
I just played for an hour straight with not one freeze or slutter.
I did these multiple things and its fixed, so unsure which one did it.

1. Clear DirectX Shader Cache on all drives

-Press Windows + R, type cleanmgr, and press Enter
-Select your system drive (usually C:)
-Check DirectX Shader Cache, then click OK > Delete Files

2. Clear NVIDIA Shader Cache
-Open NVIDIA Control Panel
-Go to Manage 3D Settings > Global Settings
-Scroll to Shader Cache Size and set it to Disabled
-Restart your PC

-Delete cache files at:
C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\DXCache
C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\DXCache

-Go back to NVIDIA Control Panel 3D settings and reset Shader Cache size to unlimited.
-Restart your PC again to rebuild the shader cache

3. Disabled MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware

Will add that the computer was restarted about 3 times total in case that matters

thanks everyone for the help!

That’s interesting, sadly AMD does not allow increasing the shader cache size. So I presume it overwrites the oldest shaders with a first-in-first-out basis.

Out of interest, can you try turning MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware back on and see if this issue returns. Cause I’m not convinced that the long render stalls are caused by shader compiling. Your CPU is powerful enough to do this in real-time.

[Tiebarious]

Originally posted by Someone7272:

Originally posted by Tiebarious:

So it looks like its fixed.
I just played for an hour straight with not one freeze or slutter.
I did these multiple things and its fixed, so unsure which one did it.

1. Clear DirectX Shader Cache on all drives

-Press Windows + R, type cleanmgr, and press Enter
-Select your system drive (usually C:)
-Check DirectX Shader Cache, then click OK > Delete Files

2. Clear NVIDIA Shader Cache
-Open NVIDIA Control Panel
-Go to Manage 3D Settings > Global Settings
-Scroll to Shader Cache Size and set it to Disabled
-Restart your PC

-Delete cache files at:
C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\Local\NVIDIA\DXCache
C:\Users\<YourUsername>\AppData\LocalLow\NVIDIA\DXCache

-Go back to NVIDIA Control Panel 3D settings and reset Shader Cache size to unlimited.
-Restart your PC again to rebuild the shader cache

3. Disabled MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware

Will add that the computer was restarted about 3 times total in case that matters

thanks everyone for the help!

That’s interesting, sadly AMD does not allow increasing the shader cache size. So I presume it overwrites the oldest shaders with a first-in-first-out basis.

Out of interest, can you try turning MalwareBytes Anti-Ransomware back on and see if this issue returns. Cause I’m not convinced that the long render stalls are caused by shader compiling. Your CPU is powerful enough to do this in real-time.

yeah sure. I will be hoping back on again in a little bit and ill turn it on to test it and reply with the results.