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.

[♥BlackSun♥]

I just disabled 2 cores through task manager.

Task manager -> Details, make sure game is running , You can list by Memory usage it will always be on top (unless u have crypto miner LUL ) , right click -> Set affinity -> I disable CPU 3 and CPU 4 for me, basically 2 cores.

Didn't have issues since, running DX12 latest Nvidia drivers , latest Win drivers.

[Herculys]

Originally posted by GingerBreadMan:

Originally posted by Herculys:

This freeze is caused by Windows 11 24H2 and DirectX12
Switch to vulkan engine in game and the freezes will stop.

How do you switch to Vulkan?

Options > Graphic tab > switch from DirectX 12 to vulkan

[Chris]

Maybe it's placebo, but using suggestions from previous posts:

1. Windows Control Panel > Power Options > Edit Plan Settings > Change advanced power settings > Processor power management > Maximum processor state: 99%, and

2. Pressing Enter now and then during cog loading screens.

(edit, also)

3. Task Manager > PathOfExileSteam.exe > Right-click > Go to details > Right-click > Set affinity > Disable CPU 0

Game seems better at not crashing now. (maybe)

➡️ Update/edit: Seems to work. Played for about 3 hours straight, no crashes. Disabling CPU 0 seems to have done the trick with the steps above. (just have to remember to disable it every time you launch the game)

[Skygaze]

Originally posted by Chris:

Maybe it's placebo, but using suggestions from previous posts:

1. Windows Control Panel > Power Options > Edit Plan Settings > Change advanced power settings > Processor power management > Maximum processor state: 99%, and

2. Pressing Enter now and then during cog loading screens.

Game seems better at not crashing now.

For me it was this or disabling lumen lighting, nothing else worked.

[tatusuo]

Same here, seriously looking for help 😥

[Zangooz]

Originally posted by Zangooz:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlAqhJlu_uA if anybody still having the problem

Want to add a note: this fix is directed to other people who are getting by by turning off multithreading.
I assigned 12/16 cores to the game and can keep multithreading on now.

[Lili]

Same here.

[Memorizzi]

I have played the whole weekend, updated POE2 to the latest version today and now its unplayable, pressing play on the character screen crashes my pc, the monitors inform me that there is "no signal"...wtf

[Binkles]

what does event viewer log say about your crash to desktop?

[saulohenrique56]

I have this same issue, but now is hapenning when i boot UP The game.

[Sildur]

Turning off multithreading was the only proper fix for my system, so I've modded the game to use FSR3 frame generation to make up for the performance loss. My friends and I have been playing with it since EA release and nexusmods just approved the game category / modpage: https://www.nexusmods.com/pathofexile2/mods/1
Camp/cities with all the players are still laggy but everything else works fine.
It seems like this issue is not exclusive to windows 11 24H2 though so all we can do is wait for it to be patched.
Frame generation makes it playable with multithreading set to off but it's obviously not ideal.

System:
5800x3D
RTX 4070
Win11 24H2

[Brevinlokai]

I crash randomly to desktop. Its happened about 10 times in the last 24 hours.

I've got a top of the line brand new computer with all drivers up to date.

[nerdsrule]

My game was also crashing while loading into Mawdun Quarry. What simply worked for me was, creating a new character and playing until the first camp Clearfell. Then once I was in camp, I exited to character selection and then loaded the bugged character that was stuck in Mawdun Quarry. Somehow I was able to load that character. Seems stupid but it worked. A friend recommended me this fix because it happened a lot to him in POE 1.

[YoTrainor]

Au démarrage du jeu pour moi également, impossible de démarrer.

[DeaDRaTT]

Yep, BSOD sometimes when loading in location