The game randomly minimizes itself

[Kawaku]

I've had a really weird problem for about two weeks, when I play the game randomly minimizes, making OBS crash in the process when I stream. Note that it seems to only happen in Dark Souls II, and Dark Souls III. I tried playing other games several hours and it never happened, that's why I think my PC has a problem with those specific games.

My setup is:
Gigabyte Aorus B450 Elite
Nvidia GTX 1080
AMD Ryzen 5 3600
Corsair Vengence LPX 16Go DDR4

I decided to ask here for help because a friend has been helping me for 2 weeks to find a solution and the problem keep occuring. Here's what I already tried to do:
-I cleaned my PC of any malwares that Malwarebytes could find
-I updated all my PC drivers, that includes the CPU, GPU, even the motherboard
-I did a full clean installation of my GPU driver, by using a program that uninstalls all previous versions
-I turned off steam overlay in the game's settings in Steam
-I turned off Windows' popup notifications
-I unnistalled several unnecessary programs that could have background events
-I tried disabling the tasks bar, I read it can cause problems when using dual screens, ofc it didn't work.
-I reinstalled the games, the problem seems to occur less often, but still.
-I tried playing the game in windowed mode, in case fullscreen caused the problem, it still happened, the game didn't minimize but it still cause a 1 second freeze, still made OBS crash in the process.

I think that's about it, none of those solutions worked, I read posts on forums where people had similar problems but never quite the same and never on the same games.
I'm annoyed by this issue because it sometimes happens during boss battles, and mostly it makes OBS crash, so everytime it happens, I need to completely stop and relaunch my streams.

Some friends suggested that I should reinstall windows, but I don't want to have to do it, so I'm hoping there's a background program I don't know about I can uninstall or a solution I've missed that could fix it.

[Overcaptain]

Do you happen to have more than one monitor?

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by guns:

Do you happen to have more than one monitor?

Yes:

Originally posted by Kawaku:

-I tried disabling the tasks bar, I read it can cause problems when using dual screens, ofc it didn't work.

@OP:
If you play with KB&M, it could be that your mouse-pointer leaves your primary-screen. In Fullscreen, this will minimize the game. Not sure why OBS still crashes, when playing in windowed-mode. I'm not familiar with Streaming-software.

If my assumption is correct, you could work around this, by simply using a controller (ideally an XBOX controller for it's high compatibility). It's recommended anyways for this game, especially due to the input-lag generated by "action on double-click" or having to disable that option, everytime you launch the game, as well as the lack of KB&M input prompts.

If you want to stick to KB&M and wait for someone more OBS-savvy (edit: or perhaps there's a tool, that freezes mouse-movement in the background, while a game is in the foreground), i'll recommend this mod: https://www.nexusmods.com/darksouls2/mods/856/
Gets rid of that double-click option for good AND allows for a borderless fullscreen-window (in borderless-window /w KB&M, disabling the taskbar might actually come in handy).

[Kawaku]

I forgot to mention that I do play with a controller, I'm using a xbox series x controller if that can be a useful information. And yes I do play with dual monitors.
Maybe I should also mention that my issue started occuring after I inverted my monitors (I realized that the monitor I previously used as secondary screen had a better image), for a few days I considered the option that the problem could come from my screen but it still happened when playing on the second monitor so I swiped this option out of the equation.

I don't believe borderless windowed will help, as I mentioned in my post that the issue still occurs when playing in windowed mode. Also isn't there a risk of getting banned if using mods ?

Although, I noticed that Dark Souls 2 and 3 are my only games where the windows button doesn't work in fullscreen.

[Overcaptain]

Pretty much everyone plays with Blue Acolyte now don't they? I'd assume it depends on the mod. Anyway I'm in the same situation as you tc. Dual monitors, controller, minimizing. We might just be stuck with it.

[Kawaku]

Should I try and get my PC diagnosed by a professional at this point? Might be expensive

[Clail]

I encounter the same thing occasionally but not using more than one monitor so I don't think it's that. I've noticed when it does happen that the colors/opacity of my windows taskbar changes slightly.

Fresh installed Windows when I first encountered it years back, but it still happens. I don't know what the true cause is but it's harmless enough and only occurs playing Dark Souls 2.

Originally posted by Kawaku:

Should I try and get my PC diagnosed by a professional at this point? Might be expensive

It's the game not your computer. I would just try to play around it.

[Call Sign: Raven]

Originally posted by Kawaku:

Should I try and get my PC diagnosed by a professional at this point? Might be expensive

NO, save some money and email bandai-namco support for whatever region you live in. Since it's specific to Dark Souls 2 and 3, you really should email them for help. They're really good for game specific issues like the ones you are facing.

I also noticed that in your list of things you tried, you didn't say you just tried playing the game without OBS running. Have you tried running the game without running OBS? I know you're trying to stream, but when you introduce a third party program it can introduce new problems.

If the game runs fine by itself, it's most likely an OBS issue. It's possible that a recent update of OBS is breaking things. I would still email bandai, especially if the game does the same problem when you try it without OBS running.

[Kawaku]

Thanks, I didn't think about contacting them, I'll try doing that ^^
As for OBS, it's not the cause, the minimizing occurs as well when I play without streaming, I was only pointing the fact that when the game minimizes, OBS crashes ^^

[Call Sign: Raven]

Originally posted by Kawaku:

Thanks, I didn't think about contacting them, I'll try doing that ^^
As for OBS, it's not the cause, the minimizing occurs as well when I play without streaming, I was only pointing the fact that when the game minimizes, OBS crashes ^^

Oh, gotcha. At first I thought it was related to OBS. Hopefully you get a quick fix from Bandai!

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by Kawaku:

I don't believe borderless windowed will help, as I mentioned in my post that the issue still occurs when playing in windowed mode. Also isn't there a risk of getting banned if using mods ?

Softbans are a strange beast and this one shouldn't cause one. It's usually just "impossible stats" (like being Soul Level 1 but have all stats at 99) or changing, what the game internally calls "params". This mod doesn't do either.
As an alternative, you can also use either the tool "Borderless Gaming" or "SpecialK" (free) to force borderless-fullscreen window.

Have you tried windowed mode w/o OBS? Does it still "hang" for a bit sometimes? If not, then OBS crashing and the game hanging for a bit could be OBS-related and you could resolve your issue, by focusing on getting that fixed instead and play in windowed mode (or Borderless-fullscreen window).

The game minimizing in fullscreen, but not in windowed mode is normal behavior on dual-screen setups, when clicking on the secondary screen, so my bet is still on the other monitor being highlighted somehow.
Have you enabled controller support through Steam? By default, this also allows you to use your controller, to control the OS and use things, like the analogue-sticks, like a mouse. Perhaps that could be the cause.

[Kawaku]

I'm definitely sure that OBS is not the cause, the game crashed the same way in fullscreen and in windowed mode, and I don't believe I've ever activated controller support in steam.
The issue started happening few weeks ago, it had never happened before. The only clue that I can get is that it basically started happening when I switched from an old Xbox 360 controller to a Xbox Series X one, but I can hardly see how it could cause crashes.

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by Kawaku:

I'm definitely sure that OBS is not the cause

I know, that OBS is not the cause for the game minimizing, but perhaps you can stop it from crashing in windowed-mode and then use windowed/borderless to work around the game minimizing.

[Kawaku]

The borderless mod doesn't work ^^
I'm going to try to see if running the game as administrator fixes it, I'm surprised I haven't tried that already

[JellyPuff]

Originally posted by Kawaku:

The borderless mod doesn't work ^^

I meant using windowed/borderless, if or when you get the OBS-thing sorted out, because i have no idea how to make OBS not crash/fix the brief game freeze in windowed mode. ;)

[Kawaku]

Okay i might have found the solution!
You know how I mentionned my controller, I talked with someone about my situation and he instantly recognized the problem and told me that he had the same, and he said it's the controller's drivers that need to be updated. This matches the fact that it started happening as soon as I got my new controller.

I downloaded Xbox Accessories from microsoft store and updated my controller's drivers, now I'll see if any minimizing occurs, I'll llet you know.
If no minimizing occurs after a few days, we can consider the issue solved