Crashing on PC on load or 5 minutes into game

Hello,

I bought in December. Attempted to plat in Jan. Loaded into character choice at start, then first crash & total system freeze. Tried to load up game multiple times and froze at splash screen gears logo. I wiped & reloaded Windows 11, re-downloaded game, crashed upon load just as before. Yesterday, I loaded up before I was about done playing for night (if it locks up, at least I was about to shutdown anyway.). It let me select character & load game, which was just after escaping the hanging. Played to the point went into first destination & it froze at load / translation screen.

If it was crash to desktop that would be one thing, but my entire system is harmful to everything else. I tried to email support, but they told me not offering email support. Links sent my to PoE1. Had to find my own way here.

I’ve never played a GGG game before. Steam would not refund even though playtime is <1 hour due to purchase longer than 2 weeks ago. Game is literally unplayable. I have read known issues, tech troubleshooting, YouTube videos, articles.. nothing seems to fix issue for anyone. Some of the “fixes’ are quite extreme modifications or installing untrusted software.

here are system basics:
X870e Asus Crosshair Hero
AMD 9800X3D
64 GB RAM Gskil CL30 6000Mhz
ASUS NVIDIA TUF 4090
Win 11 Home, all latest patches & drivers as of Jan 16th 2025

Other information:
8k Samsung TV but render 4k out of GPU. Tv Upscales
Cooling is a bequiet Light Loop 2 and 6 x 140mm be quiet light wings
Other games CPU runs 30% and 50c, GPU 100% and 70c.
I’ve stress tested my machine many different ways. It’s not hardware, software, or temps.

What do I do? Are the early access benefits even going to be deliverable if I can’t even play the game?