Game crash (image freezing, sound and game still running)

[Mekc]

I'll throw out my 2 cents again: if you have it working, don't upgrade the GPU drivers again until there is a reason to do so. I've used the drivers I'm using now since 2016 without issue. Monster Hunter World had a minor issue at one point, which was later patched out, and I rolled back to the 385.69 as soon as it was corrected. Rock-solid version for my system.

Yeah, the only problem is with some games like Apex Legends that lose almost 2x FPS (70 vs 140) if you compare 385/399 vs 441.

How do you make Windows 10 NOT update your GPU drivers? (I found my answer: by having Windows 7 )

At first I used the solution with registry edit, but Windows updated drivers again. The only solution I found so far is just turning off ALL updates for 1 month (with a button in windows update screen)

 

[SigilFey]

Yeah, the only problem is with some games like Apex Legends that lose almost 2x FPS (70 vs 140) if you compare 385/399 vs 441.

And that would be a perfect example of when you would want to update. There's a specific reason to install said version for said game. Exactly.

I'm referring to the belief that it's best to have every single thing on the computer completely up-to-date at all times. That's actually one of the worst things you can do if gaming is the primary focus for that machine. Most updates are either:

• super-exclusive, affecting only specific hardware for specific programs (and I may not even have either).
• security-based things that are as likely to introduce problems as do almost nothing else. (Windows updates are notorious for this.)
• optimization for recent games (again, which I may not even have) at the expense of backwards compatibility with older titles. Again, it does nothing for me but potentially introduce problems.

How do you make Windows 10 NOT update your GPU drivers? (I found my answer: by having Windows 7 )

It's not so easy on WIn 7, either. Basically, when I build or buy a new PC, one of the first things I do is manually "reconfigure" Windows. Some of it is hidden functionality that can be done through the Admin Command Prompt, I manually edit a few Registry entries, disable certain services through msconfig and services.msc, then physically move and rename "Update" .exe's and .dll's so that Windows is prevented from..."correcting" my "mistakes".

After that, it's pretty smooth sailing until I do something stupid and need to reinstall Windows.

 

[Turhral]

Hi there peeps, posting a possible fix for the issue. Had the same one with many other games (Not in Witcher 3 personally), so was frustrated, until I found a fix!

Simply, underclock the GPU Core Clock and Memory Clock by a bit. For me -25 fixed every "screen frozen, game running" issues in every game I played. Simply use MSI Afterburner to do it. You can safely close it afterwards, but you'll have to re-underclock everytime you restart your computer.

Hope it helps!

 

[SigilFey]

Hi there peeps, posting a possible fix for the issue. Had the same one with many other games (Not in Witcher 3 personally), so was frustrated, until I found a fix!

Simply, underclock the GPU Core Clock and Memory Clock by a bit. For me -25 fixed every "screen frozen, game running" issues in every game I played. Simply use MSI Afterburner to do it. You can safely close it afterwards, but you'll have to re-underclock everytime you restart your computer.

Hope it helps!

This is a workaround that should be relatively low-risk for now, but either overclocking or underclocking a system should never be necessary to "fix" an issue. Needing your hardware to run above or below default clock speeds to maintain stability is indicative of a hardware issue somewhere in the system. (That doesn't necessarily mean that one's system is about to explode, but it could mean that it has damage to the mobo, the wrong frequency of RAM installed, improperly seated hardware or power connections, etc.)

Alternatively, you may want to have your PSU checked out. It might be possible that it's either faulty, or just barely enough power for your system, with little to no overhead.

 

[Turhral]

This is a workaround that should be relatively low-risk for now, but either overclocking or underclocking a system should never be necessary to "fix" an issue. Needing your hardware to run above or below default clock speeds to maintain stability is indicative of a hardware issue somewhere in the system. (That doesn't necessarily mean that one's system is about to explode, but it could mean that it has damage to the mobo, the wrong frequency of RAM installed, improperly seated hardware or power connections, etc.)

Alternatively, you may want to have your PSU checked out. It might be possible that it's either faulty, or just barely enough power for your system, with little to no overhead.

Since this is a second-hand PC, the PSU being faulty is a possibility, though I highly doubt it as after reading through the web, it seems to be a problem that happens only to people with a GTX series GPU. Or at least, 90% of the reported issues have a GTX card.

And, yes, having to underclock or overclock to fix something probably means something is wrong, but it is the best most of us can do (sadly we don't have spare parts just lying around) and will use it for the meantime.

 

[SigilFey]

Since this is a second-hand PC, the PSU being faulty is a possibility, though I highly doubt it as after reading through the web, it seems to be a problem that happens only to people with a GTX series GPU. Or at least, 90% of the reported issues have a GTX card.

That's a bit broad. GTX makes up a huge part of Nvidia's product line, and they are higher-end versions of cards. Which make / model are you using? (Using a GTX here, and my last 3 video cards have been GTX models. I've never once had an issue that required me to adjust the clocks / voltage.)

And, yes, having to underclock or overclock to fix something probably means something is wrong, but it is the best most of us can do (sadly we don't have spare parts just lying around) and will use it for the meantime.

Oh -- no -- there's no need to spend anything big (or anything at all if you're not afraid to open the case). As it's second-hand, you know it's run up to this point, so everything should be mostly solid. Most shops will charge perhaps $50 to take a look inside, run a diagnostic, and figure out exactly what's going on.

But, it's relatively easy and low-risk to cover the basics oneself:

1. Power down the system, ensure the PSU is switched off in the back, and turn off the power to your surge protector. Press and hold the main power button on your system (5-10 seconds). You'll hear the system "blink" on and off. This discharges the motherboard. Remove all the cables and stuff from the back.
2. If you don't have a static guard, leave the actual power cable plugged in (to ensure it's grounded), and be sure that the system is on either a plastic or wooden surface.
3. Open the side panel, and systematically check all components on the mobo. Just start in the upper left or something, and go connection by connection. Make sure the plastic joining bits for wires are securely "snapped" into their place. Be sure to check the connections at both ends -- where they attach to the mobo and where they attach to the components.
4. Same for the GPU and RAM. Press gently but firmly on each part (being sure to avoid touching either the metal parts or the silicon chips). Put a little more force into it than you may be comfortable with. My rule-of-thumb is "just enough pressure that you see the motherboard barely begin to flex, by a tiny amount". If you hear a decided, mechanical "click" -- that means that the component was not fully seated.
5. Lay the system down so that you can look as edge-on to the mobo as possible. Pay attention to the CPU plate / cooling tower and/or liquid cooling unit where it attaches to the actual CPU. Look to see if anything seems like it's at a funny angle. These things should be incredibly straight angles where they attach to the mobo itself. (If this looks incorrect, I do NOT recommend fiddling with it unless you're comfortable working with the hardware. [Or willing to watch some videos to learn how and being super careful.] CPUs are very fragile. It's easy to snap off pins if you're not familiar with them.) <--- This might be a definite "needs to go into the shop" thing.
6. If all looks good, put the system back together, plug everything back in, and start it up.
7. If things still don't work properly at defaults, grab a free monitoring program. I like GPU-Z, myslef. Leave it running in the background while running a game that's giving you issues. It will create a log file at the end that will identify not only when something was going goofy, but also which components were affected and exactly what the problem was (heat, voltage, file system, etc.).

By doing that stuff above, pretty much anyone can get a general idea of what's going on and seek help on those specific issues, if needed.

 

[next-aros]

Did anyone ever figure this out? I've Tried underclocking GPU, reverting to older drivers (it seemed to crash even faster), completely reinstalled the game, tried setting different framerate limits. Nothing works. It's still crashing for me.

 

[Osaqwer]

Having the same problem here.. although we are in 2020!
Has anyone found a fix yet?

 

[SigilFey]

In general, this issue will be system-specific. The game works just fine as long as the PC is in good shape. If you're encountering a freeze / hang, the problem will be somewhere in your system config:

• It could be the Operating System -- especially if you're using a version of Windows that was upgraded from a prior version.
• It could be audio / video drivers.
• It could be a 3rd-party program interfering (aggressive anti-virus is notorious for this).
• It could be Windows Security interfering if the game is installed in a protected directory, like the default Program Files or Program Files(x86).
• It could be your audio settings. (Through Windows / Control Panels...not through the in-game settings.) Adjusting your audio Sample Rate to the following may help:
  
  
  
  
  
• It could be instability caused by overclocking / underclocking. If experiencing an issue, always return all clock speeds and voltage for all hardware to their defaults while troubleshooting.
• It could be a hardware issue. Improperly seated components can cause issues. Also, a damaged or under-powered PSU is not always obvious, but can have severe impacts on stability.
• It could be a result of mods, whether using them now, or having ever used them in the past. Once the game is saved with mods running, it will leave reference data in that save file that cannot ever be removed. Removing a mod can cause significant issues. Only way to fix that is to roll back to save file made before that mod was originally installed, or returning the game to a 100% vanilla state and beginning a brand new game, Geralt Level 1.

_______________


If a PC ever hangs / crashes without an error being displayed, it's indicative of an issue that lies outside of the game itself. Games (or any other program) cannot crash or hang a computer itself -- they can only crash or hang the program -- which will return an error code (even if the error code states "Unknown"). If your PC ever hangs / crashes without an error being displayed, that means that there is a more deeply-rooted issue with the hardware / OS configuration that is being manifested by the game or program.

Did anyone ever figure this out? I've Tried underclocking GPU, reverting to older drivers (it seemed to crash even faster), completely reinstalled the game, tried setting different framerate limits. Nothing works. It's still crashing for me.

Very importantly, altering clock frequency or voltage settings is never a solution to an issue. It might serve as a workaround, but it always indicates that there is a more significant problem with the system itself. Having the game become more unstable after you underclocked it is good! That's what one would expect to see. I'd say that means that the cause is more likely hardware / OS settings or 3rd-party software.

Having the same problem here.. although we are in 2020!
Has anyone found a fix yet?

Work on TW3 is long-since concluded. Any issues that remain will need to be handled individually. You can troubleshoot here, or feel free to send a ticket into CDPR Support, including a dxdiag using the 64-bit option.


_______________


If anyone does want to troubleshoot here, we'll need info: system specs, OS version, what sort of anti-virus, firewalls, etc. you may be using, any tweaking you've done, and so forth. Impossible to just guess what it could be. If you have a heavily modded game, please take the issue to the modding boards, as that's most likely both the cause and solution.

What I can promise you is that the game works just fine in vanilla. I've personally installed it and played it on 4 separate PCs without issues. Any instability, hanging, or crashing will be caused by something about your system. It's just a matter of figuring it out.

 

[Osaqwer]

I found the fix:
Just uninstall it (Keep a copy of your savegame) then reinstall it in an HDD drive
I had installed it on SSd but it was freezing all time
So I uninstalled it and reinstalled it in an external HDD hard drive and now it's working perfectly!

 

[SigilFey]

I found the fix:
Just uninstall it (Keep a copy of your savegame) then reinstall it in an HDD drive
I had installed it on SSd but it was freezing all time
So I uninstalled it and reinstalled it in an external HDD hard drive and now it's working perfectly!

Sounds like a problem with the SSD itself, or possibly the file system. I've been running the game on my SSD since release without issues.

Did you add the SSD recently, perhaps? Or, is Windows installed on an HDD drive? Just following up, because this is definitely a game you want to run from an SSD, if possible. Load times from main menu to in-game play will be cut down to about 10 seconds. Quickloads will be almost instantaneous.

 

[Mi_Hau]

From few month i fighting with same issuse in my all games i got also GTX and i find on event log gpu crashes so i contact with nvidia suport live chat and guy told me that i have to unistall all gpu drivers by DDU and he gave me dedicated for my card drivers ( the newest but specially for that GPU) na said to custom install and to check clear driver install. Also be said to me with option choose on NVIDIA settings. I was playing about 6h maybe more and everything is fine no crashes and also video is more sHarpness i think my trouble od over. Do if someone still got this problem check event log and if u find some dont identificated error with name will suspected gpu just copy that log and contact support NVIDIA its just 10-15 min waiting for consultant and he do job for you i Hope it will help someone on 2020.05.28
Bless yaa children of rivia

 

[gnoder]

Does anyone else have any other suggestions for this? I also have the same issue with game freezing, but audio continues in the background. I have an RTX 2070 so can't roll back the drivers to 399 or something older as some have suggested.

Thanks!

 

[devivre]

Does anyone else have any other suggestions for this? I also have the same issue with game freezing, but audio continues in the background. I have an RTX 2070 so can't roll back the drivers to 399 or something older as some have suggested.

Thanks!

According to this thread:

POSSIBLE FIX FOR WITCHER 3 FREEZING! (read inside)

Okay guys, I had this problem and I found a fix. Of course it may not work for you, but I saw it work for at least 5 people. THE BUG: game freezes (becomes a still picture), sound continues, game goes on (you can still hear the scene). Then it crashes. Usually happens in cutscenes, but can...

forums.cdprojektred.com

„Setting Borderless Window, V-sync on and HBAO+ to SSAO“ might help.

Other than that, I‘d recommend contacting Nvidia support, if none of their rtx drivers work well enough with the game.

 

[gnoder]

According to this thread:

POSSIBLE FIX FOR WITCHER 3 FREEZING! (read inside)

Okay guys, I had this problem and I found a fix. Of course it may not work for you, but I saw it work for at least 5 people. THE BUG: game freezes (becomes a still picture), sound continues, game goes on (you can still hear the scene). Then it crashes. Usually happens in cutscenes, but can...

forums.cdprojektred.com

„Setting Borderless Window, V-sync on and HBAO+ to SSAO“ might help.

Other than that, I‘d recommend contacting Nvidia support, if none of their rtx drivers work well enough with the game.

I will try with those settings and if not contact Nvidia. Thanks!

Post automatically merged: May 30, 2020

Tried those settings, and it still ran into the freezing issue. Although, it did allow the game to run longer than before.

 

[SigilFey]

I will try with those settings and if not contact Nvidia. Thanks!

Post automatically merged: May 30, 2020

Tried those settings, and it still ran into the freezing issue. Although, it did allow the game to run longer than before.

Hm. This sounds like it's either drivers, file-system, or hardware. Can you list your specs, OS version, etc.

Most common culprits for system hangs are going to be heat / voltage, a file system error, or a 3rd-party program like anti-virus introducing a conflict the PC cannot resolve. (Even though "only one game" may cause such an issue on your PC, it's not possible for a program to hang or hard-crash a PC like you're seeing. A program can only hang or crash itself. Whenever you lose control of your PC altogether, that means the issue exists in the drivers, APIs, OS, BIOS, or hardware. The program in question are simply manifesting the deeper issue. And TW3 is a huge, aggressive, power-hungry program. I wouldn't be surprised that only games like this, or similarly heavy-weight titles like ArmA or Total War, will be the programs that push a PC into it's problem zone.)

 

[gnoder]

Hm. This sounds like it's either drivers, file-system, or hardware. Can you list your specs, OS version, etc.

Most common culprits for system hangs are going to be heat / voltage, a file system error, or a 3rd-party program like anti-virus introducing a conflict the PC cannot resolve. (Even though "only one game" may cause such an issue on your PC, it's not possible for a program to hang or hard-crash a PC like you're seeing. A program can only hang or crash itself. Whenever you lose control of your PC altogether, that means the issue exists in the drivers, APIs, OS, BIOS, or hardware. The program in question are simply manifesting the deeper issue. And TW3 is a huge, aggressive, power-hungry program. I wouldn't be surprised that only games like this, or similarly heavy-weight titles like ArmA or Total War, will be the programs that push a PC into it's problem zone.)

PC SPECS:
OS: Windows 10 Home
Version: 10.0.18363
Processor: AMD RYZEN 7 2700X Eight Core Processor, 3700MHZ
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH
RAM: 16GB
GFX: NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070

not sure what other information you need, but thought this was a good start.

 

[SigilFey]

PC SPECS:
OS: Windows 10 Home
Version: 10.0.18363
Processor: AMD RYZEN 7 2700X Eight Core Processor, 3700MHZ
Motherboard: MSI B450M PRO-VDH
RAM: 16GB
GFX: NVIDIA GEFORCE RTX 2070

not sure what other information you need, but thought this was a good start.

That's what we're going for -- a place to start!

And looking at this, everything looks pretty good. One thing that popped up right away and got numerous hits was the MSI B450M PRO-VDH mobo V1 vs. V2 vs. V2 (2nd edition). Apparently, MSI was being a bit naughty in that department and shaved some rather important heatsinks off of the board design. (This, sadly, is quite typical of mass-producers "budget" motherboard designers. Release a model that's actually quite solid [V1]...then start shaving off features for subsequent models without re-branding it [V2 and V2 2nd Ed.] Now, I can't say for certain this is the issue or even a factor, but it's the only thing I could find that would line up with the specific issue you're seeing based on your specs. And it does make sense.)

On the upside, if this is the issue, it should be fairly easy to detect. Try playing the game at 720p, 30 FPS locked, and monitor your gameplay with a free utility like GPU-Z, which I strongly recommend. (Remember, this is not supposed to be the solution, this is to test if heat / voltage is the problem.) That should take the game down to a performance level that should show performance maxing out at the 40%-60% mark on average. If you receive the hanging / crashing in this case, we can be reasonably sure it's probably not heat / voltage. Either way, GPU-Z should create a log file that detects any wierdness, when, and where it occurred.

If that initial test goes well for, say, 1 hour of continuous gameplay, raise the FPS cap to 60. Then try 1080p at 30 FPS, followed by 1080p at 60 FPS. Try to see where the instability starts to happen more frequently, and look for any patterns. We'll see what we'll see.

 

[gnoder]

That's what we're going for -- a place to start!

And looking at this, everything looks pretty good. One thing that popped up right away and got numerous hits was the MSI B450M PRO-VDH mobo V1 vs. V2 vs. V2 (2nd edition). Apparently, MSI was being a bit naughty in that department and shaved some rather important heatsinks off of the board design. (This, sadly, is quite typical of mass-producers "budget" motherboard designers. Release a model that's actually quite solid [V1]...then start shaving off features for subsequent models without re-branding it [V2 and V2 2nd Ed.] Now, I can't say for certain this is the issue or even a factor, but it's the only thing I could find that would line up with the specific issue you're seeing based on your specs. And it does make sense.)

On the upside, if this is the issue, it should be fairly easy to detect. Try playing the game at 720p, 30 FPS locked, and monitor your gameplay with a free utility like GPU-Z, which I strongly recommend. (Remember, this is not supposed to be the solution, this is to test if heat / voltage is the problem.) That should take the game down to a performance level that should show performance maxing out at the 40%-60% mark on average. If you receive the hanging / crashing in this case, we can be reasonably sure it's probably not heat / voltage. Either way, GPU-Z should create a log file that detects any wierdness, when, and where it occurred.

If that initial test goes well for, say, 1 hour of continuous gameplay, raise the FPS cap to 60. Then try 1080p at 30 FPS, followed by 1080p at 60 FPS. Try to see where the instability starts to happen more frequently, and look for any patterns. We'll see what we'll see.

Just tried as suggested by capping FPS to 30 and i can say that i was able to run the game smoothly without changing any settings for over an hour. Will try capping FPS to 60 and try again later, but I assume this proves that it is a heat/voltage issue? What can I do if capping FPS at 60 causes problems?

 

[gnoder]

I tried playing with capping FPS at 60, and I did notice it take a higher load on my GPU. After about 30-40 minutes it eventually led to the similar crash with video frozen but audio still running. Any suggestions? Should I try underclocking to improve temperatures, etc.?