PC freezes explained and crash mitigation

[Jirina]

It's a Windows/Nvidia/GGG issue, there's nothing you can do to your PC now. Ubislop games have suffered from it for a few months now, I had it happen with Remnant 2 and now the same issue is in PoE/PoE2. You can somewhat mitigate it by disabling at least 1 core (look up Windows 11 core affinity on Google).

The freeze happens when the game suddenly uses 100% of your CPU and I mean 100% as in ALL OF IT and there are no CPU cycles left for anything else so it freezes your PC. Removing a single core from the game will spike all the other cores, but your OS will still have at least 1 core to run your computer so you can kill the process (it kinda dies on its own, but running a PC on a single core is pretty rough).

TL;DR: You have to wait for GGG/Microsoft/Nvidia to fix it. You can mitigate this by removing a CPU core from the POE process.

Edit: You can also download Process Lasso and have it set the core affinity to POE2 on launch so you don't accidentally brick your PC. Removing a single core is enough.

Btw, I could play on launch with no crashes, but it started getting worse each day. Now I can't even get into the game, switching to Vulkan/DX11 doesn't help, it's the same, maybe even worse.

[라스 알 굴]

My PC freeze too Yesterday with this game and he has reboot, It only happens to me on this game

[jagholin]

If your PC freezes like this, it's hardware/driver issue. (honestly it sounds like CPU is overheating due to high load)

Your theory about the game taking up all of CPU blocking the OS is amusing, but it's not how it works. OS scheduler is the thing that allocates CPU time to different processes, and important OS tasks always have priority(not to mention there are also interrupts).

[hare krishna]

Same here... I’ve been getting these screen freezes, especially when heading back to town. It’s the same story with the game maxing out my CPU at 100%, and the only fix so far has been a hard reset. Really hoping for a patch soon, cause even though Im loving the game and yeah, it claps on Diablo 4, I just cant make any progress like this.

[라스 알 굴]

Originally posted by jagholin:

If your PC freezes like this, it's hardware/driver issue. (honestly it sounds like CPU is overheating due to high load)

Your theory about the game taking up all of CPU blocking the OS is amusing, but it's not how it works. OS scheduler is the thing that allocates CPU time to different processes, and important OS tasks always have priority(not to mention there are also interrupts).

I have this problem only on this game and my temperatures are very good 57° for my processor

I have played much more demanding games with path tracing without problems.

[hare krishna]

Originally posted by jagholin:

If your PC freezes like this, it's hardware/driver issue. (honestly it sounds like CPU is overheating due to high load)

Your theory about the game taking up all of CPU blocking the OS is amusing, but it's not how it works. OS scheduler is the thing that allocates CPU time to different processes, and important OS tasks always have priority(not to mention there are also interrupts).

Dude, I’ve been keeping an eye on the temps, and I’m super sure this isn’t a hardware issue. I’ve got an RTX 2080 Super and a 9th Gen i7, and I’ve been running games like the new Indiana Jones just fine. Temps stay stable the whole time. This problem only happens with POE2, and specifically during loading screens. All my drivers are up to date, and honestly, if it were a hardware issue, my PC would be choking on other games of the same caliber by now.

[Jirina]

Originally posted by jagholin:

If your PC freezes like this, it's hardware/driver issue. (honestly it sounds like CPU is overheating due to high load)

Your theory about the game taking up all of CPU blocking the OS is amusing, but it's not how it works. OS scheduler is the thing that allocates CPU time to different processes, and important OS tasks always have priority(not to mention there are also interrupts).

Brother, you should not talk about something you know nothing about. It's not like me and bunch of other people didn't already go over this problem on GGG forums to figure out how to prevent the freeze. If you know nothing about it and haven't experienced the issue then you know... it's probably best if you don't comment on it. It makes people look even stupider when they out themselves like this.

[Jirina]

Originally posted by 라스 알 굴:

My PC freeze too Yesterday with this game and he has reboot, It only happens to me on this game

Use Process Lasso to take away at least 1 core, it will spike all the available core to 100%, but you can kill it without your whole system dying.

[Jirina]

Originally posted by PEDRO:

Originally posted by jagholin:

If your PC freezes like this, it's hardware/driver issue. (honestly it sounds like CPU is overheating due to high load)

Your theory about the game taking up all of CPU blocking the OS is amusing, but it's not how it works. OS scheduler is the thing that allocates CPU time to different processes, and important OS tasks always have priority(not to mention there are also interrupts).

Dude, I’ve been keeping an eye on the temps, and I’m super sure this isn’t a hardware issue. I’ve got an RTX 2080 Super and a 9th Gen i7, and I’ve been running games like the new Indiana Jones just fine. Temps stay stable the whole time. This problem only happens with POE2, and specifically during loading screens. All my drivers are up to date, and honestly, if it were a hardware issue, my PC would be choking on other games of the same caliber by now.

He doesn't know what he's talking about, use Process Lasso to take away a core and then you can at least kill the game when it freezes.

[Shiro0903]

I fixed by changing it to Vulkan and change the grafichs from high to medium, since then my CPU doesnt reach 90% or 100% anymore, it didnt freeze again or i didnt have to do the hard reset again.
Hope this helps and sorry for my broken english

[Daniel_da_Chef]

i was playing the game fine until the patch yesterday. from then on i have freezes mostly in fights where there is much going on. thy system is still responsive, i can alt tab out of it and use mouse cursor etc.

using vulkan and running on pretty good pc.

[Jirina]

Originally posted by Daniel_da_Chef:

i was playing the game fine until the patch yesterday. from then on i have freezes mostly in fights where there is much going on. thy system is still responsive, i can alt tab out of it and use mouse cursor etc.

using vulkan and running on pretty good pc.

DX11/12/Vulkan doesn't change anything. The problem happens in loading screens when the CPU goes to 100% and it just freezes your entire OS. Process Lasso or manually change CPU affinity (number of cores game is allowed to use) - remove 1 core from the game process, and the game will at least be allowed to crash when it freezes.

[Gabriel0101]

I almost give up. I tried to fix that problem form day !
Today I found this mode
POE2 Crash or Freezing Fix -Loading Screens - X3D Processors - Intel
(works for amd) Working for me so far
Previously I turned out 2 core manually but this do it in real time and can reduce it only for 5 working cores for poe 2 application

[efkel]

Its true, recommend stop 1 core in poe2. reduce to 75 % - 60% CPU .

This is the only way to fix the problem for me

[라스 알 굴]

The only way to fix the problem for me is uninstall this ♥♥♥♥ game ^^

[cinchona]

I bought a new laptop to test PoE 2. ASUS ROG Strix with an i9-14900HX: 32G and RTX 4070. Installed Steam and JUST PoE 2. Made a new character and hard froze the entire system on the first Miller boss. PoE hard locks my main rig, so I can't test on that anymore to avoid permanent damage.

Main rig:

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System Information
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Time of this report: 1/11/2025, 06:58:35
Operating System: Windows 11 Pro for Workstations 64-bit (10.0, Build 26100) (26100.ge_release.240331-1435)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
System Model: Z590 AORUS MASTER
BIOS: F10 (type: UEFI)
Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-11900K @ 3.50GHz (16 CPUs), ~3.5GHz
Memory: 32768MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 32632MB RAM
Page File: 13399MB used, 21281MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
Display Memory: 28409 MB
Dedicated Memory: 12093 MB
Shared Memory: 16316 MB
Current Mode: 1920 x 1080 (32 bit) (60Hz)
D3D9 Overlay: Not Supported
DXVA-HD: Supported
DDraw Status: Enabled
D3D Status: Enabled
AGP Status: Enabled
MPO MaxPlanes: 4

Monitor Model: XG270QG
Monitor Id: VSCF838
Native Mode: 2560 x 1440(p) (59.951Hz)
Output Type: Displayport External

Device Name: G502 HERO Gaming Mouse