PC | Game Keeps Freezing my PC When Loading Locations

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Xypha#3760 wrote:

Ok, Maybe its too soon to say i resolved this issue... but... i have a distinctly different experience now in load screens.

Under what i did to fix below and a link to talk of it is all the crap i went through to get here lol, what a ride.

ok, so 24H2 contains a change to the HMB caching of ssd's and their functions.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2489852/some-western-digital-ssds-cause-windows-11-to-crash-after-2024-update.html

My SSD is not mentioned, and in fact it has a built in cache, but.... i went on disabled it anyway as per the fix suggested in the link, upon doing so, all the stuttering that often lead to a full system lock in loading maps has seemingly stopped, like not just the freeze, but the stutters it would do everyother load.
Now ngl, ive thought ive fixed the issue before, but.. this one feels diff, its noticeble, like alot.

note i did a firmware upgrade today on my adata ssd and it made no diff till i did the below. as a result of all of this too, this is my first fix since a full fresh install of win11 with updates applied and basicly steam and poe first things after so not much else in play at this time.

if you cant be bothered with the link,
got to regedit
enter this key in the top bar = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\stornvme\Parameters\Device.
Edit or add DWORD32 key HMBAllocationPolicy, enter the value 0.
Restart your system, and hopefully it works for you and im not juts delusional after weeks of troubleshooting, reinstalling windows, flashing bios, changing vm states, virus checking, rootkit checking, author checking. different ram, moving ssd to alternat m.2 on the chipset, updating and downgrading chipsets. turning tpms off and on, wiping htem (am now an expert on the funtaionality of tpms, btw there is a prob atm for amd getting the intermediate certficates in this patch much the same as we had in 2022)

anyway pray to kuduku this is the one that sticks.


Soz for the info, im hoping a dev can look at this too. but a summary of what it is your changing so you can not stress, and well, just know cuz its important to understand what you are changing in the registry when you do it.

The HMB allocation policy determines how much memory a device can use from the Host Memory Buffer (HMB). The policy can allocate the device's minimum size, preferred size, or no memory at all. The device can use the HMB memory as it chooses, but it must ensure that there is no data loss or corruption if the power is lost or the device is removed unexpectedly.
Here are some things to know about HMB allocation:

HMB
HMB is a feature that allows SSDs to use some of the DRAM on a PC system instead of requiring the SSD to have its own DRAM. HMB uses the DMA (Direct Memory Access) of PCI Express.

HMB allocation
The HMB allocation policy can allocate as much as the device's preferred size, as little as the device's minimum size, or no memory at all.
HMB size
Modern SSDs typically allocate 64 MB of HMB, with a maximum of 100 MB under Windows.
HMB efficiency
For the most efficient use of memory, use 64 bit data types for HMB.
HMB and performance
HMB works well with cheaper drives because they rarely need a lot of mapping headroom. The general perception is that the performance will be on par with DRAM devices.

Hope this helps

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Bozallite#0325 wrote:

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Xypha#3760 wrote:

Ok, Maybe its too soon to say i resolved this issue... but... i have a distinctly different experience now in load screens.

Under what i did to fix below and a link to talk of it is all the crap i went through to get here lol, what a ride.

ok, so 24H2 contains a change to the HMB caching of ssd's and their functions.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/2489852/some-western-digital-ssds-cause-windows-11-to-crash-after-2024-update.html

My SSD is not mentioned, and in fact it has a built in cache, but.... i went on disabled it anyway as per the fix suggested in the link, upon doing so, all the stuttering that often lead to a full system lock in loading maps has seemingly stopped, like not just the freeze, but the stutters it would do everyother load.
Now ngl, ive thought ive fixed the issue before, but.. this one feels diff, its noticeble, like alot.

note i did a firmware upgrade today on my adata ssd and it made no diff till i did the below. as a result of all of this too, this is my first fix since a full fresh install of win11 with updates applied and basicly steam and poe first things after so not much else in play at this time.

if you cant be bothered with the link,
got to regedit
enter this key in the top bar = HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\stornvme\Parameters\Device.
Edit or add DWORD32 key HMBAllocationPolicy, enter the value 0.
Restart your system, and hopefully it works for you and im not juts delusional after weeks of troubleshooting, reinstalling windows, flashing bios, changing vm states, virus checking, rootkit checking, author checking. different ram, moving ssd to alternat m.2 on the chipset, updating and downgrading chipsets. turning tpms off and on, wiping htem (am now an expert on the funtaionality of tpms, btw there is a prob atm for amd getting the intermediate certficates in this patch much the same as we had in 2022)

anyway pray to kuduku this is the one that sticks.


Soz for the info, im hoping a dev can look at this too. but a summary of what it is your changing so you can not stress, and well, just know cuz its important to understand what you are changing in the registry when you do it.

The HMB allocation policy determines how much memory a device can use from the Host Memory Buffer (HMB). The policy can allocate the device's minimum size, preferred size, or no memory at all. The device can use the HMB memory as it chooses, but it must ensure that there is no data loss or corruption if the power is lost or the device is removed unexpectedly.
Here are some things to know about HMB allocation:

HMB
HMB is a feature that allows SSDs to use some of the DRAM on a PC system instead of requiring the SSD to have its own DRAM. HMB uses the DMA (Direct Memory Access) of PCI Express.

HMB allocation
The HMB allocation policy can allocate as much as the device's preferred size, as little as the device's minimum size, or no memory at all.
HMB size
Modern SSDs typically allocate 64 MB of HMB, with a maximum of 100 MB under Windows.
HMB efficiency
For the most efficient use of memory, use 64 bit data types for HMB.
HMB and performance
HMB works well with cheaper drives because they rarely need a lot of mapping headroom. The general perception is that the performance will be on par with DRAM devices.

Hope this helps

This didn't work for me. Updated graphics drivers, updated windows, updated samsung nvme ssd firmware, disabled HMB in windows like said in post, still said it was enabled in samsung magician even after restarting multiple times. Game still crashes randomly loading in, loading to new zones.

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Bozallite#0325 wrote:

It crashed again after doing all that. Don't think it's HMB unless my drive is different somehow, also in samsung magician when i still had it installed it said HMB no reported issues.

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Bozallite#0325 wrote:

I wonder if it has something to do with ryzen cpus specifically. The OP is using a 5600X, another guy is using a 5700X3D, I'm using a 3600XT.

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Xypha#3760 wrote:

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Bozallite#0325 wrote:

I wonder if it has something to do with ryzen cpus specifically. The OP is using a 5600X, another guy is using a 5700X3D, I'm using a 3600XT.

I do believe this is a factor too (im 5800X), i have had 1 smaller crash since the change on HMB, it was definately affecting it and improved it, but there might be a reason for that.

24h2 also borked up the amd scep intermediate certificates retrieval for the ftpm. i would not be surprised if many of you had an error for it in the event log. this one, is a fix via amd/ms i believe, though i have heard ppl accidently fixing this as an issue 2 years ago when the certificates last expired when they reseat cpus... im not there yet, but im close ><.

the HMB connection tho, well, ftpm borrows dram for the keys.. shared resource with the HMB. I suspect security issues are being triggered. but ngl im pretty over it.
if i do still get persistant crashes, (only one since, and it was not as hardlocked but still needed a reboot) im next disabling TPM and secure boot. then after that, re-seating cpu and cmos clearing. beyond that I'm all out of ideas bar yeeting my pc off a cliff and sulking about maybe missing poe 2.

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Xypha#3760 wrote:

OK, since the last post, ive just disabled secure boot and the ftpm in bios as well as TME .its the only other thing i can see in event lag next to network adapter lso.
no crash yet, will post if it does.

just note if you use bitlocker encryption its more complicated process to disable the ftpm, don't just do it, you will need the encryption keys, you have to decrypt in windows security first (toggle it off and wait for the progress bar) and obviously, this makes the system less secure but eh, i wanna game lol.