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.

[fantuness]

Same here, Ryzen 5700x3d, RTX 4070 Ti Super, 32Gb Ram

[JeLomun]

For me game crashes when trying to load into mawdun quarry (ACT2).. game was totally fine until then.. tried 7 times, restarted game, different options, updated game, verified integrity, etc. nothing helped.. gonna take a break of PoE2 hopefully its gonna be fixed in few days, until then no point forcing it :

[EthicalPixel]

its def not your hardware did you check "whocrashed" logs?
maybe switch off of directx 12?
change servers?
hire shaman?

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Is It?:

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

[darjidokkan]

Ok Changing Servers actually worked. No crash since then.

[Dread]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย 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 pathofexile.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.

LISTEN TO THIS GUYS. IT WORKS

[Proxylei]

Just disable external fps counter overlay.

[Teaf]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Grath:

Doesn't see the process :(

Sorry, pathofexile.exe is specific to the non-Steam version. The Steam version will be: PathOfExileSteam.exe or PathOfExile_x64Steam.exe (probably the former one, and not the latter).

[Aura]

Changing from DX12 to Vulkan fixed this issue for me, no issues at all since

[TheVenoman666]

Me too. Guys, as a temporary solution before the patch (if it is, apparently, the problem occurs even in part 1). I found such a solution, the crash is associated with multithreading, turn off the multithreading of the engine in the settings, load to the location, turn on multithreading back (to return the usual fps)

[Stay High]

โพสต์ดั้งเดิมโดย Dead2Cry:

My System to Freeze can do nothing any more only way to hold the power button to get a New Boot my Systen

Did you find a fix?

[SpaceMonkey]

same thing on 7800x3d and 4090. i'm still having a hard pc crash even after switching to vulkan dx11 and dx12. vsync locked. and DLAA

[DJKromwell]

same, first crash was loading screen from first town, hard PC crash had to manually reboot, read some advice on forums and did some tinkering, lowered settings, turned of DLSS, fps cap etc etc, that fixed the loading screen issue, played another hour, then just got a hard crash to desktop, game just froze, then exited.

not gonna play more of this and mayb even refund if this is not addressed quickly, i am so tired of developers literrally being WORSE then 20 years ago, with todays tech and ways to coordinate hardware and software issues.

[qsnoopyjr]

I have Intel-Core-i5-10600K which is better than what is in the system requirements
my CPU goes from 40% to 96% when opening maps and on loading screens.

They need to fix whatever is causing that because thats 100% increase from playing the game, all these specials effects and what not going on, and my CPU is smooth 40% during fights, but opening a map, boom 100% more CPU is used.

[uncolpo]

Same 4070 super

[Adept]

i had the same problem, changed DLSS to Default and fixed the problem, maybe it'll work for some of you