Witcher 3 GOTY Edition Crashes at Menu\UI or Loading screens

[l0rd_rayden]

Hi I bought the Witcher 3 GOTY edition and started playing it. I just started and have reached the Griffin killing quest. Though pretty much every time I load a UI menu like inventory or Shop with merchant or Sometimes the loading scene after a cutscene, game suddenly gets stuck and then only audio is there for sometime and then crashes to the desktop. I have attached the crashinfo files here (changed the extension to txt).

I am playing on the lowest setting (card is GTX 870M) and have closed the Geforce Experience application, also I am not using any mods.
Also based on some steam forums I have changed the value of [ResourceLoading/Decompression] -> MaxRequests to 20 from 32. Still no help.

Any help here is appreciated. This frequent crash ruining the experience.
P.S: I love this franchise enough to buy the W3 and W3 GOTY in GOG and Steam separately.

 

[devivre]

What CPU do you have (usually with this card you should need to run the game on lowest settings). Also you could open GeForce experience and select the recommended settings for Witcher 3.

Installing redistributables could be worth a try too: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30679

And you can verify/repair the game via GOG or Steam.

Also on Notebooks it can sometimes be a good idea to check the heat development while playing (for example with the free software speedfan) and make sure the computer doesn‘t get too hot.

CDPR support can be reached here: https://en.cdprojektred.com/contact-support/

 

[SigilFey]

Also, using any mods, or have you ever used any in the past?

 

[l0rd_rayden]

Hey guys thanks for the quick response. I use i7 4810MQ quad core CPU. Mine is an MSI custom built laptop (old though). No, I have never used any mods in the past. Also I formatted my entire drive and reinstalled the OS and the game again yesterday and tried. Still nothing. I tried with the NVidia optimized settings and this issue was there hence I lowered the settings. The interesting point is I have played the game full (GOG) in the past with no issues at all at optimal settings and some more. This is the first time this happened. I thought may be due to improved graphics and added enhancements in the GOTY.

 

[SigilFey]

Did you install / repair the Microsoft Redistributables, as @devivre posts above? Especially if you recently reinstalled the OS, it's best to do the whole shebang:
DirectX 11 / 12
DirectX 9.c
Visual Studio 2010 - present (x86 and x64 of each version)
Visual C++ 2010 - present (x86 and x64 of each version)
.NET Framework
XNA Framework

A startup issue like you're seeing is normally a result of something in that mess being missing / borked / conflicted.

Another idea is you video drivers. If using anything other than Nvidia Reference directly from nvidia.com, go grab those and install them using the CLEAN installation option. If you already have them, try rolling back to a prior version.

 

[l0rd_rayden]

Hi SigilFey,

Yes I did install the redistributable update. I have DX 12, I have the XNA and .NET frameworks and other mentioned runtimes as well too as I develop on those. The problem is not on game startup. I am able to play the game perfectly fine. No lag or anything. The problem is only when there Menu like Meditatio, Inventory are loaded and kept for some time in there. Or when the game loads after a cut scene. Only those times I have this issue. Otherwise its perfectly fine. Thats what confusing me.

 

[SigilFey]

Hm. Is the game installed anywhere under Program Files or Program Files(x86)?

Have you set the Permissions of the ...\Documents\The Witcher 3\... folder to "Everyone"?

What about the driver situation?

 

[l0rd_rayden]

Hi tried three dirver versions. The default one, Latest one and Latest -1 version. I install al my drivers through Nvidia Experience except then initial one which I downloaded from NVidia web site. The game I tried installing in Program Files(x86) (thats wherer Steam is). That was throwing this error. Then I reinstalled it in D:\ . Still the same error.

As for the permissions, System, Admins and My own account has full permissions. Not everyone. I am trying it now and let you know.

 

[SigilFey]

1.) Just FYI, don't install to Program Files / (x86). Protected directories. Trouble for games at times. I didn't word that thought effectively above.

2.) Drivers seem good. You might want to uninstall Geforce Experience and see if that has any effect. Also, disable any overlay features through Steam while playing the game. Maybe try playing it in offline mode.

3.) If the Permissions setting for the Documents folder doesn't effect it, try verifying the integrity of the cache at that point. Not a lot of hope for this, since you've already tried reinstalling it.

4.) Last thing I can think of is manually moving all of your saved games out of the ...\Documents\The Witcher 3\gamesaves... directory and seeing if beginning a new game rectifies it. If one of the changes above corrected the issue, it's possible that it's still baked into your save files.

Aside from that, I'd contact Tech Support directly. This is definitely a particular issue.