Alt-Tab Issue

[Graygan]

I've found a number of discussions about Alt-Tab issues.... but not one where this issue happens.

Occasionally when I alt-tab out, the whole game freezes and the computer won't let me go to anything else. I can't even bring up the task manager to hard crash the game. I know the computer is working in the background. I can hear notification beeps from Discord, for instance.

But... I can't do a freaking thing. Alt-tab just brings up the small screens like normal but won't actually go to them. Just always goes back to the frozen game screen.

How do I fix this game-breaking issue?

I don't have the time to actually play for hours on end. I have to do work, communicate, do other things with my computer at the same time the game is running. If I can't do that, I can't play the game.

The only solution I've found is the worst possible one... Unplug the effing computer, wait 30 seconds. Plug it back in. Restart the computer. Basically crash the whole freaking system. This is not a workable solution.

[Graygan]

Ok... Deleting all the game files except for my saves and re-downloading it seems to work.

I'm in full-screen, borderless, windowed mode. I've alt-tabbed multiple times in multiple situations, including while loading and it now seems to work.

My personal conclusion... there was likely one corrupted file somewhere that didn't really affect gameplay, but screwed everything if I alt-tabbed.

Not sure how close to the problem I am, but I am grateful that it seems to be working well now.

Thanks for everyones suggestions. I appreciate it.

[Talamarie]

Originally posted by Graygan:

Ok... Deleting all the game files except for my saves and re-downloading it seems to work.

I'm in full-screen, borderless, windowed mode. I've alt-tabbed multiple times in multiple situations, including while loading and it now seems to work.

My personal conclusion... there was likely one corrupted file somewhere that didn't really affect gameplay, but screwed everything if I alt-tabbed.

Not sure how close to the problem I am, but I am grateful that it seems to be working well now.

Thanks for everyones suggestions. I appreciate it.

Did you do that while having mods or not ?

[Graygan]

Originally posted by Talamarie:

Originally posted by Graygan:

Ok... Deleting all the game files except for my saves and re-downloading it seems to work.

I'm in full-screen, borderless, windowed mode. I've alt-tabbed multiple times in multiple situations, including while loading and it now seems to work.

My personal conclusion... there was likely one corrupted file somewhere that didn't really affect gameplay, but screwed everything if I alt-tabbed.

Not sure how close to the problem I am, but I am grateful that it seems to be working well now.

Thanks for everyones suggestions. I appreciate it.

Did you do that while having mods or not ?

No mods. I've yet to finish the game in vanilla. That's why I was trying again after all this time. Hoping that most of the bugs were fixed, especially the game-breaking ones.

[KamikazeKnifer]

Dude. Two things. First, you got unnecessarily defensive and snappy over Grifta's comment. He said "a lot" should be "a few," meaning "a few games have this issue with alt-tabbing," not that *you* have "played a few games." Put the brakes on the hate train. Second, your issue was fixed because you switched to fullscreen borderless windowed mode as recommended by several people, not because you deleted and re-installed the game.

[Dixon Sider]

if you sign out of your PC user (spam CTL ALT DEL) then cancel the sign out before it finishes it will exit the game and it wont make you reboot. Then Borderless windowed fixes this so you can alt tab

[=[NK]= Col. Jack O'Neil]

Press alt ctrl delete, task manager. Then windows and tab will bring up different windows (windows 10), and drag the task manager to a new tab then close pathfinder

[CatPasswd]

I too am constantly having this problem. However, I have multiple monitors, and I am able to use ALT-Space + M, then the right arrow to grab the window behind the game and drag to another monitor.

This is helpful because I have moved my taskbar to a secondary monitor, and can right-click to open task manager there. It's still hidden behind the game though, so I have to use the trick above to move the window somewhere that I can see it, and finally kill the game.

I can confirm that the computer is not locked up, and other programs continue working while the game is having a siezure - even other games (Eve Online) running windowed on a different screen.

[dwarner]

I’ve had alt-tab issues with other games, specifically CIV VI. With any memory heavy game it will sometimes be a problem. May also be related to Windows 100% disk issue.

I find it helps speed/smooth things up to keep total saves under thirty or so. If you get stuck in alt-tab you can just Cntrl-alt-del then sign out instead of restarting.

[Alheira de Mirandela]

Originally posted by CatPasswd:

I too am constantly having this problem. However, I have multiple monitors, and I am able to use ALT-Space + M, then the right arrow to grab the window behind the game and drag to another monitor.

This is helpful because I have moved my taskbar to a secondary monitor, and can right-click to open task manager there. It's still hidden behind the game though, so I have to use the trick above to move the window somewhere that I can see it, and finally kill the game.

I can confirm that the computer is not locked up, and other programs continue working while the game is having a siezure - even other games (Eve Online) running windowed on a different screen.

Do you have the game on borderless mode? I was having problems with alt-tabbing in exclusive fullscreen mode, and changing it to borderless fixed it.

[jnichola]

Originally posted by Graygan:

...The only solution I've found is the worst possible one... Unplug the effing computer, wait 30 seconds. Plug it back in. Restart the computer. Basically crash the whole freaking system. This is not a workable solution....

If you accidentally alt+tab during the aforementioned times when its buggy, don't hard reset, instead you can use key commands.

control+alt+delete, you will receive a menu, select task manager. At this point it will revert to the locked up Pathfinder screen but the task manager will be running in the background. Hit the 'K' key (kingmaker) and then delete, and it will end the process with out having to do a hard reboot, which could be harmful to your hardware.

Hope this helps.

[DakotaThrice]

Originally posted by Graygan:

Nice to know someone out there thinks that I have just "a few" games. I dont' suppose I could get you to try convincing my wife?

Send her to my profile, that should do the job.

[Tolure]

Note: For those who have this issue and are using windows 10. I was able to get to other windows by usings [windows key] tab and moving the game to a new desktop instance. Then I could switch to the desktop instance that did not have the game and use Task Manager to close the game and restart. Very very annoying bug.

[mcwaffles2003]

Originally posted by Graygan:

Here, when I do the alt-tab it brings up the thumbnail choices like normal, but won't actually bring up the other choices if I choose it. When I try to hard shut-down the program from atl-tab, that doesn't work. When I "choose" something else... the task manager, for instance... it's not hidden behind the frozen game where you can still click on things in the task manager without seeing them. etc.

I'm having the same problem. In the event of this kind of freeze the best solution I have found is Window+Tab -> open a 2nd desktop -> task manager on desktop 2 -> force close pathfinder