PC Freezing/hanging during level load.

[Is It?]

Edit: What we DO know:

* The Windows version has no relevance to the issue. This SEEMS to be relating to a crash that happens, possibly separate from the freezing problem. It might be related but there's little evidence to support this at the moment.
* Disabling Multithreading In-Game solves the problem, but causes significant performance drops.
* Changing to Vulkan does not make a difference in relation to hardlocking. Unknown if this related to the DX error - of if the DX error is causing by something that would ALSO cause Vulkan to crash - not enough information here.
* Disabling specific CPU cores does NOT solve the problem - however it DOES seem to stop hardlocking - allowing the game process to be closed. This is gleaned from various posts across forums, and is in no way a guaranteed fix.

We know the PoE2 devs are looking at this issue as a priority, so I guess we'll just have wait and see. Official POE2 beta test thread regarding this issue: https://www.pathofexile.com/forum/view-thread/3594126

**EDIT Kapps has released a tool that could potentially help with the loading screen freezing - I have not tested this so AYOR. https://github.com/Kapps/PoEUncrasher/releases/tag/v1.2.0

Let us know in the thread if this has worked for you.

This it NOT for the DX crashes - this appears to be a separate issue.

** EDIT: I have had some good success with an app called Process Lasso. You can use this to specifically set a rule for the PoE2 process to drop to IDLE priority and un-assign 2 cores iflk the CPU usage rises above 95% for a second, and then remain at IDLE for say, 10 seconds. And then resume normal processes.

Find the tool here: https://bitsum.com/

Turn ProBalance on.

Advanced Settings:
Ignore all options except:
Lower to idle priority instead of below normal - Tick this.
Ignore all foregroud processes - UNTICK this - very important.
Change affinity during restraint: CPUs 2-(your core count - eg 15 for a 5800X3D)

Options/CPU Limiter:
Process match: pathofexilesteam.exe (change this to whatever the GGG launcher version is, if using that)
When CPU use is: 85% (experiment with this - the more powerful the CPU, the lower this can be)
For a period of: 1 seconds
Reduce by this many CPU cores: 8 (Essentially half the logical cores your CPU has - you could just put 2, but I don't see an issue with half)
For a period of: 10 seconds.

This has immediately solved the issue for me - and it even decreases load time dramatically as well. Any tool that can reduce the CPU priority and remove cores will probably work, but this can be done on a rule basis per running process.

Anyone else having this? When transitioning to new levels/towns, the PC locks up completely and I have to reboot. Done this twice now?

Maybe post specs? In case there is a commonality?

4080 Super, Ryzen 5800X3D, 48Gb DDR4. Ultrawide 21:9 @ 3440x1440

EDIT: Thanks to all for responding - as I expected, there's no real correlation in hardware specs to the cause of the issue. The PoE Forum thread is also showing exactly the same information.

[maviduman]

same problem 4080, i5 12400 32 ram , game suddenly resets my pc.

[Nate]

Same here. It happened twice both times when portaling. Idk what causes it as the game runs at 165 fps no issues with upscalers off. It freezes my PC and the only fix is to press restart on my case. I'm waiting on the devs to confirm a patch, or windows, something before I play more. It sucks but if its not going to happen soon I'll refund and buy it again when its addressed and fixed.
7600x3d
4070S
32GB ddr5 ram
Fresh install win11 3 days ago

[Stew360]

Same 5800x3d rtx 4070ti 48gb of ddr4 gskills 3600 cl16

[Zwitterion]

I had really bad performance. Crashes, big fps drops, and even blue windows screen. I changed the game folder from HDD to SSD drive, and eveything is working perfect now.

[Darl]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Teaf:

If you're freezing on loading screens and you're using Windows version 24H2, and especially if you have an AMD CPU, then it's could likely be due to an issue with Windows 24H2[learn.microsoft.com] and it affects numerous games including Path of Exile 1 and 2.

Turning off "Engine Multithreading" in-game may "fix" the problem because it stops pathofexile.exe from using all your CPU, which is what causes the system to freeze. It's a huge overkill though because you are massively reducing your frame rate by only running on 1 core.

I use BES CPU Limiter to reduce what PoE can use by a few percent so it can't hit 100% CPU, and I've not had any further issues. For BES steps if you want to try it out:

1. Download BES CPU Limiter[mion.yosei.fi].
2. Unzip it, and run the .exe.
3. Launch Path of Exile 2 and stay on the log-in screen.
4. Go back to BES, and press the "Target" button.
5. Find PathOfExileSteam.exe in the list, select it, and press the "Limit this" button.
6. Set the slider at the bottom of BES between -2% and -5% (I would recommend -5%).

The task bar icon for BES should turn into a red square, Path of Exile 2 should be coloured in orange in the list inside BES, and it should say "Foe". See here for an example[i.imgur.com]. Try anything between -2% and -5% (as mentioned I'd recommend -5% as -2% may not be enough to stop the system freeze).

There are other methods you can use if you don't want to use BES, such as setting the pathofexile.exe affinity in Windows Task Manager (through the Details tab) to use less CPU cores. You can also use something like Process Lasso to do the same thing, or reduce the maximum CPU usage of your system through Windows power options.

I tried this after crashing like 15 times today and since then not a single crash in 3 hours

[Nate]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Dualitasium:

I had really bad performance. Crashes, big fps drops, and even blue windows screen. I changed the game folder from HDD to SSD drive, and eveything is working perfect now.

I haven't used an HDD for like 5 or 6 years. Got a samsung evo 870 and its still going strong, well in a diff PC. I'm using 990 and 980 pros.

[y2k]

same issue here, what is the solution?

[Nate]

Opprinnelig skrevet av y2k:

same issue here, what is the solution?

look a few posts up, seems to be limiting your CPU. I remember space marine 2 having a similar issue. I'm waiting for a patch. I'm a patient person.

[Asterlius]

This isn't an issue at a hardware level with the CPU but instead something more like a scenario where a fully multi-threaded function is running in a permanent loop with little competition or priority. This would mean all the CPU cycles are saturated, locking the PC itself from responding to other input like calling mouse movement or shortcuts to open task manager or kill the process.

i.e. the PC isn't crashed at the hardware level but is processing computationally expensive nonsense indefinitely. At a guess, it's attempting to run a decompression task on files which don't exist or can't be resolved by the decompression, but the game function for decompressing itself has no error escapement programmed in to break free.

Short version - DirectX12 CPU logic or draw call related, check game integrity, then switch to Vulkan which works fine.

Edit: AVX instruction related?

There's a second issue btw, where returning to town never loads, this is different and related to being in a corrupted party. A server side issue there.

There's a third issue, the server can't complete the request when an item is being updated or player character object. This seems to be temporary in nature and server wide. Sometimes it crashes the server too. If the server remains up then switch areas or log out and in. This reads to me like a database file lock.

@GGG, please patch the above.

[Rhino]

wish it was on load I keep crashing during major boss fights right before I kill them

[Asterlius]

Opprinnelig skrevet av Rhino:

wish it was on load I keep crashing during major boss fights right before I kill them

Are you playing in a party and are both of you using poison based skills?

[Pecata]

The game would randomly crash when loading new areas. Same issue here, it will freeze my whole PC and have to F13 it. 9800X3D, RTX 4090, 64GB DDR5 6000 CL30, Win11 24H2. Latest drivers. PC is stable in every other game I play.

[F J U R O]

I tried verifying game files, got at least in to the game for once, just keept freezing in loading. after i got in i swapped to DLSS, DLAA, v-sync locked, default settings, Caped my FPS to my monitor and so far no crashes. Updating if it happens again.

[F J U R O]

Opprinnelig skrevet av F J U R O:

I tried verifying game files, got at least in to the game for once, just keept freezing in loading. after i got in i swapped to DLSS, DLAA, v-sync locked, default settings, Caped my FPS to my monitor and so far no crashes. Updating if it happens again.

Running a 4080S and amd 7 7800X3D

[Sabrehawk]

guys its TRASH quality control , cashgrab "beta" ...not your machines...dont listen to the fanboys...your pcs are fine....its the game.

in 3 hour i had 2 hard crashes (1 random in a level , 1 on loading in a new character to the first map, and 2 random crash to desktop with no error messages). Everything else on this machine runs perfectly fine.

3070 TI with latest drivers.