POE 2 Complete PC Freeze while loading screen

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_entryway_#1533 wrote:

Does this happen on the standalone version of the game too or is this just a Steam version issue?

Happens on both.

I clean installed 23H2 had spent at least 40 hours trying to fix this shit.

Well played devs. Keep being silent.

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SpaceChief#3328 wrote:

Yeah I think I'm done for now.

I was fortunate enough to be a direct invitee, but the coin-toss anxiety of "Will my system hard lock" every time I go to town is just too much to go past the 60 hours I've tried to troubleshoot and tolerate it for.

I've tried everything, including the tools our wonderful community has managed to hammer out on extremely short notice, and my own troubleshooting as a 15+ year Point of Sale Sys Admin.

My dxdiag has been submitted via DM the day it was asked of us. Thank you very, very much for the invite and hard work getting everything launched, especially the server insanity on launch day itself. Y'all handled it gracefully and openly with the community, and I can't wait to come back when this is fixed.

I'm gonna go find something interesting to try in PoE1 for now.

I'd like to update my own post. After the most recent patch I decided to give troubleshooting a second stop after PoE2 froze again.

THE ONLY CHANGE I HAVE MADE was to allow the PoE2 appdata directory through windows defender and shut off windowed game optimizations in display settings. That's it.

I noticed that directory C:\Users\(your username)\AppData\Roaming\Path of Exile 2, specifically the ShaderCacheVulkan and ShaderCacheDX12, was being scanned by windows defender any time a scene change would have to load in.

I've gone three days now without rebooting or a crash while on Vulkan.

I did NOT delete the precache in any instance.
I did NOT roll back Windows 11 to 23H2, I am still on 24.
I did NOT reinstall PoE2 or PoE1.
I did NOT set affinity for cores, use a recovery tool someone made, or anything else.

YRMV, but this did the trick for me SO FAR.

EDIT: I DID turn on secure boot in BIOS but Im 99.9999% sure that has fuck all to do with this bug and didn't bother mentioning it as a troubleshooting step for that reason.

I'm in endgame now and I had 5 hard lockups in 20 minutes trying to go back to acts/cities where i missed some bosses, just to complete it all.

This happened with most of the 'fixes' people mention.

- run nothing but the game
- affinity I deselected cpu 0/1/2
- disabled Nvidia and steam overlay
- Tried DirectX12/Vulkan and even DX11.
- Multithreading I cannot disable, I will go from 160+ fps to 25.

Everything is on latest drivers and versions. This is only an issue with POE2.

running a 5800X3D, 32GB RAM, 4080 Super.

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StragusPoE#7529 wrote:

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Cainrith#2807 wrote:

How does Linux also get this Windows bug then?

There is a PoE bug where the loading freezes (on Windows/Linux/whatever). There's also a Windows bug where the whole operating system goes down (which is something no user land software should ever be able to cause). Does the PoE bug lead to the Windows bug? Maybe, it's quite possible. They may also be two unrelated bugs.

No. The exact same bug also causes the exact same problem on Linux, but Linux, being the more stable one (no need to discuss this, I won't even touch Win 11 and Win 10 barely works well enough) allows options to save the OS. Honestly speaking as Linux compatibility of games and programs increases and SteamOS launches we will see a massive decrease in Windows users.

The PoE2 code tries to use things it should not be using, and throws a fit(endless requests and resource hogs) when it is not allowed to. Windows simply freezes because it (normally) allows programs installed in it to use the resources available to it. That's why you can stop the freezing by limiting the number of cores the game can access to.

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StragusPoE#7529 wrote:

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Cainrith#2807 wrote:

"any power cut to a computer is damaging the hardware"

It does. This is literally one of the very first things you learn in electrical and computer engineering. Being a programmer does not make you an engineer, so I don't know why you have added that info there as if it would mean something.

If you are interested you can educate yourself by using the spoilered portion of the previous post as a starter.

All right! Hey people, don't ever turn off your computer. Turning off your computer is damaging your hardware, so said Cainrith in a forum post.

(It's not like people are yanking on the cable when their OS becomes unresponsive, the motherboard is shutting down gracefully with a 3 seconds power button press.)

"Hey people, don't ever turn off your computer." Yes do not ever turn off your computer without allowing it to complete the shutdown process. This is literally one of the first things you learn about them. Do not ever shutdown an electrical device without going through the full shutdown process specified.

That "graceful shutdown" is a failsafe. A failsafe is not a feature. In this case the power button shutdown mechanism is designed as a failsafe for situations where the OS or system becomes unresponsive. It is not intended to be the primary or routine method for shutting down a PC. Using it frequently undermines the purpose of a controlled shutdown process. If that process was not needed then it would not be put in there. It protects the hardware, and saves the parts from unnecessary shortenings of component lifespan.

Furthermore, I ask anyone who sees this message to please give a negative review for Path of Exile 2 on Steam.

If they release another set of patch notes with balance changes first before addressing this ... I am going to lose my mind

If they release another set of patch notes with balance changes first before addressing this ... I am going to lose my mind

Here, my PC freezes completely. The only solution was using Vulkan on Windows with everything set to low. On Linux, using Vulkan allows me to increase the settings without freezing. (Specs: 7800X3D and 4080)

I've been experiencing this problem since launch. I tried a clean installation with 23H2, and guess what? No more freezing! For me, 24H2 was the issue.

It's mind-boggling to see such a serious issue remain unresolved for so long, especially since it poses a danger to the hardware.

I've never seen anything like this in 25 years of gaming. Steam should display a warning on the store page.

I tried adding the Windows Defender exclusion and no difference. Game hard lock crashed when loading into an area.