Randomly freezing and crashing since new update

[Mikedot]

Recently ever since the new update dropped into MHW: IB, my game has been crashing, freezing and sometimes causing BSODs (even though I believe the BSOD thing could be unrelated) and has overall made the game a worrying experience. I am not quite sure how or why this is happening as the screen just freezes for a brief moment and then just closes back to the desktop.

There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason as to when the crashing and freezing happens, though. Sometimes it will happen in the middle of a hunt (One time I was hunting a Barioth for the Guild Palace weapons and near the tail end of a hunt when I was clutch claw attacking the monster, the game just randomly froze and crashed), another time when I was heading off toward a new quest, the game BSODd on me and another time today, when I was just talking to my housekeeper NPC, the game just froze and crash.

My PC details:

Operating System - Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
CPU - Intel Core i9 9900K @ 3.60GHz (Kaby Lake 14nm Technology)
RAM - 32.0GB
Motherboard - MSI MPG Z390 GAMING PRO CARBON (MS-7B17) (U3E1)
Monitor - AORUS AD27QD PC Monitor(2560x1440@60Hz) w/ HDR ON
GPU - 4095MB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 SUPER (MSI)
Storage - 167GB INTEL SSDSC2CW180A (SATA (SSD))
Optical Drives - No optical disk drives available
Audio - Realtek High Definition Audio

*Note that my PC has two other HDDs and one SSD where the OS is installed, but my intel SSD is where MHW: IB is currently installed on.

As you can see my PC is well above the recommended system requirements and before this update, this game was running fine. My GPU load and temps were fine and my CPU only hit around 40-60% load while the game was active. Even now, the game doesn't seem to have any load percentage problems like many other people are having but the crashing is still a huge issue.

All of my SSDs have their latest firmware installed and all of my important drivers are up to date, as well as my Windows 10 being up to date.

[eRa`]

I'm in the same boat as you. The game worked without issues before the latest patch. Now I get random freezes for about one second followed by a crash to desktop without any error message.

I tried switching various graphics options (fullscreen, DX12, etc.) to no avail.

[💀 Deadward 💀]

Check Windows Event Viewer. There should be warnings or errors in there whenever MH crashes.

[Mikedot]

Originally posted by 💀 Deadward 💀:

Check Windows Event Viewer. There should be warnings or errors in there whenever MH crashes.

Yes, I was thinking about that and will check it out when I get home.

[eRa`]

I found the following in the Event Viewer:

Faulting application name: MonsterHunterWorld.exe, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x5e27ffbf
Faulting module name: unknown, version: 0.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x00000000
Exception code: 0xc0000005
Fault offset: 0x000000016c41dd50
Faulting process id: 0x3198
Faulting application start time: 0x01d5d6c682dde906
Faulting application path: D:\Games\Steam\steamapps\common\Monster Hunter World\MonsterHunterWorld.exe
Faulting module path: unknown
Report Id: f3765755-b320-4fe7-a5e3-6b86efc26f2b
Faulting package full name:
Faulting package-relative application ID:

It looks the same for the all the crashes I had.

[TempestMK4]

I've also been having this same problem since the update. I never had any problems before this, and I've been playing since Iceborne dropped. Crashes usually happen around 20-30 minutes in, but I had one this morning about 5 seconds after I loaded into the hub world for the first time.

I'm running an AMD Ryzen 7 1800X with a 2080 graphics card in case that helps anyone. The game is pretty much unplayable since over half of my hunts get crashed out of now.

[Mikedot]

Yeah, sadly the game is currently unplayable for me right now. The crashes are so random and unpredictable that I don't want to risk doing any hunt while fearing that my progress will be lost at some point due to a crash. I also fear that the game could crash while saving and could corrupt my save file.

This is so lame because I had my goals set on collecting the Guild Palace weapons before the event ends, too.

[💀 Deadward 💀]

It's possible you have corrupted system files. Repairing Windows might fix the issue.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4026529/windows-10-using-system-file-checker

It could also be related to DEP in Windows. Try adding MHW to the exceptions.

1. Open the Start menu and click Control Panel
   
2. Browse to System Maintenance then System
   
3. In the left panel, select Advanced System Settings from the available links
   
4. You should now see the System Properties Window, which will have three sections. The top section is labeled Performance and has a Settings button. Click this button.
   
5. Select the Data Execution Prevention tab.
   
6. Select the option which reads Turn on DEP for all programs and services except those I select.
   
7. Use the Browse button to locate the executable file for the application you were trying to start when you crashed, and click Open to add it to your exceptions list.
   
8. Click Apply or OK to commit your changes.

What kind of background programs are you running while playing?

[Mikedot]

Well I tried the system file checker methods in the link and found no issues, sadly.
I also tried to use the DEP on MHW, but kept getting a message stating that it won't work on 64-Bit programs, and MHW's exe is 64-bit.

[Araziel]

For me the game randomly freezes a lot for 1 min or more. To the point when I am in game with people it disconnects me from them and I need to play solo.

[💀 Deadward 💀]

Originally posted by Mikedot:

Well I tried the system file checker methods in the link and found no issues, sadly.

Do you know what BIOS your motherboard is running? Do you have 2 or 4 sticks of RAM?

I ask because there was a beta BIOS update for your motherboard in November of last year that "Optimized for the newest single-sided 16GB and double-sided 32GB memory (2Gx8 memory chip)". Also, there have been various BIOS releases updating Microcode and improving CPU, RAM, and SSD compatibility.

[Mikedot]

Originally posted by 💀 Deadward 💀:

Originally posted by Mikedot:

Well I tried the system file checker methods in the link and found no issues, sadly.

Do you know what BIOS your motherboard is running? Do you have 2 or 4 sticks of RAM?

I ask because there was a beta BIOS update for your motherboard in November of last year that "Optimized for the newest single-sided 16GB and double-sided 32GB memory (2Gx8 memory chip)". Also, there have been various BIOS releases updating Microcode and improving CPU, RAM, and SSD compatibility.

Yes, I am using the beta BIOS update that you mentioned. The 7B17v17 (Beta Version) bios update, which I got just recently in an attempt to fix these BSODs. I also have two sticks of RAM, both 16GB totaling up to 32GB.

And since we are at it, let me go through the laundry list of stuff I have tried to do.

I have updated windows 10 with the latest patches
I have uninstalled both my Nvidia drivers and Realtek audio drivers using DDU before reinstalling the driver to the latest version.
I have ran the Windows Memory Diagnostic Test and found no issues
I have ran CHKDSK several times and found no issues
Even though I have never attempted overclocking on this PC yet, I have reset my BIOS settings to make sure that there was no overclocking set.
I updated my motherboard's firmware to the latest version.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled all Intel HDD software made for my motherboard vis MSI's official support page.
I have uninstalled and reinstalled Realtek and Nahimic software to their latest versions.

[💀 Deadward 💀]

What speed is your RAM running at? While your board supports up to 4400Mhz, the memory specification for the 9900K is 2666Mhz. If it's higher than that, bring it to 2666. You may have to manually adjust the speed if it's currently using an XMP profile.

You listed your 2070 Super as having 4095MB of VRAM, which is actually half of what it actually has. Was that a typo, or is it something to do with shared memory with the onboard Intel graphics? Thinking along those lines, do you have multiple monitors? If so, are they all plugged into your GPU, or do you have any connected to the motherboard? And finally, if they're all plugged into your GPU, have you disabled the onboard video through the BIOS?

[Mikedot]

According to NZXT CAM: My ram is currently running at 1066 MHz. I was able to manually set the RAM speed to 2666 MHz in the BIOS, but it now it shows up as 1333 MHz as its current speed according NZXT CAM.

Also the 4095MB of VRAM was what I was told from checking using Speccy. I am not exactly sure why it's only stating that it's 4095MB, but I can only assume that it's an error on Speccy's part. Looking up my VRAM using Dxdiag this time, it mentions that I have 8011MB of VRAM there.

. I am not using multiple monitors, however. I will go an check to see if my onboard video is disabled.

Also the problems I'm experiencing now are extending well past MHW at this point, since I am getting random BSODs out of nowhere.

[💀 Deadward 💀]

Originally posted by Mikedot:

According to NZXT CAM: My ram is currently running at 1066 MHz. I was able to manually set the RAM speed to 2666 MHz in the BIOS, but it now it shows up as 1333 MHz as its current speed according NZXT CAM.

Also the 4095MB of VRAM was what I was told from checking using Speccy. I am not exactly sure why it's only stating that it's 4095MB, but I can only assume that it's an error on Speccy's part. Looking up my VRAM using Dxdiag this time, it mentions that I have 8011MB of VRAM there.

. I am not using multiple monitors, however. I will go an check to see if my onboard video is disabled.

Also the problems I'm experiencing now are extending well past MHW at this point, since I am getting random BSODs out of nowhere.

It showing as 1333Mhz in CAM is fine. DDR is short for double data rate, so doubling 1333 gets you to 2666. There's technically a lot more involved, but it's fine. Different monitoring software can report it different ways.

The VRAM reporting was very likely a Speccy issue as you say.

Do you remember exactly when the BSODs started? Did you install any new programs around that time? What programs do you typically have running? For example, you mention NZXT CAM. Do you run that manually or does it start with Windows? I know it's a lot of questions. Just hoping to find a solution that doesn't involve clean booting or resetting Windows.

[Mikedot]

Well I think the BSODs started sometime during mid December of last year. I didn't think much of it at the time because it was only two instances of it happening in the entire month. It's only recently since last week that the BSODs have been happening so much to the point where I can no longer ignore the issue.

I don't recall installing anything in particular, but my Revo Uninstaller does keep track of install dates. The earlier thing that has been installed this month was Java 8 Update 241, which was on January 15th. Between then and now is when BSODs started getting out of hand.

As far as background programs, there doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary but I run NZXT CAM, Dragon Center services from MSI, cFosSpeed by MSI, Intel Rapid Storage and Chipset stuff, Java Updater Scheduler, Logitech G HUB Updater, MSI Mystic Light RGB for my motherboard, Nahimic sound enhancer provided by MSI and Realtek HD Audio services

Also thank you for taking the time to help me out with all this, even though the issues I am having aren't even related to Monster Hunter World at this point lol. I recently decided to open up my PC and clean it out to see if it could help, but it didn't seem to do much of anything. Slowly running out of ideas.