POE 2 Complete PC Freeze while loading screen

same here, done everything and still freezing...

GGG where are u with this problem ??!!

Congrats to the devs on a successful launch. Maybe they’ll fix this issue in 2025 since the studio is about to go on Christmas break

Yeah, it's really unfortunate. Absolutely killed my enthusiasm for the game right out the gate. We're a week down the line and I've still been unable to complete Act 1. First few days, I'd try to persevere, using a few of the suggested fixes in here, and eek out a few 1-2 hour sessions, etc. But I'm now frequently experiencing these hard freezes either on initial login to the game, or the very first loading screen/transition following.

It's just got fatiguing, tbh. Will wait until there is some more formal/official acknowledgement/fix.

Real shame, as I was thoroughly enjoying what I was playing and otherwise getting very decent performance outside of this hard lock issue.

GPU: RTX 4070
CPU: i7 8700k
RAM: 32GB (DDR4, 3200Mhz)
OS: Windows 11 Pro, 242H

WARNING: It's not safe to play PoE 2 right now, it's gonna fry your PC in some areas of the game, like in the ACT 2 Caravan, the game is not optimized at all and I'm not willing to risk my PC just to play a game!

GGG should make a statement addressing this issue.

Also bump.

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luizdoc#0279 wrote:

WARNING: It's not safe to play PoE 2 right now, it's gonna fry your PC in some areas of the game, like in the ACT 2 Caravan, the game is not optimized at all and I'm not willing to risk my PC just to play a game!

Hm... In act2 i have worst freez ever. Even after affinity 3cores. Smash my PC without acces to all cores.. After that i dont wanna risk my bran new PC.

I can simply recommend turning off multithreading before every teleport or map transition. It went from complete freeze every 1-3 transitions (basically I couldn't play) to ZERO freezes with this method. It sucks, it's not a fix, but it's a workaround, and it completely works (at least for me).

Also, when the game starts, I uncheck processor 0 and 1 in the task manager. But without multithreading, the game doesn't freeze.

This is just sad... impossible to play, I have not been able to do the Ultimatum because I always crash, 100% the game is bad optimized, because depending on the Ultimatum room my fps drop as low as 8fps, with a 5900X and a 3080 Suprim X. I think there are CPU related problems and RAM leak problems. This is just sad, since it only affects a number of people, not everyone I guess.

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Thurifer#4345 wrote:

I can simply recommend turning off multithreading before every teleport or map transition. It went from complete freeze every 1-3 transitions (basically I couldn't play) to ZERO freezes with this method. It sucks, it's not a fix, but it's a workaround, and it completely works (at least for me).

Also, when the game starts, I uncheck processor 0 and 1 in the task manager. But without multithreading, the game doesn't freeze.

Dsnt work. I have Freez even when i fight with boss or sellin stuff 2 trader.

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chrisEm119#1403 wrote:

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Marackone#0765 wrote:

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chrisEm119#1403 wrote:

Can confirm that disabling SMT gave me 5 hours of smooth gameplay - the longest I’ve ever seen, but by far the worst crash.

Did you disable it virtually via process lasso or in BIOS ? BIOS did not help me either.

Bios. I draw the line at downloading third party software. So the lasso option is not on the table for me. The latest crash removed my video output on the reboot, had to restart and unplug everything to get it back so I’m just done.

Disabling BIOS won't work because the game uses 100% CPU at the loading screen, causing Windows to freeze. To resolve this issue, you can adjust the CPU affinity through Task Manager:

Open Task Manager.

Locate the game's process.

Right-click on it and select Set Affinity.

Uncheck one core for the game.

This workaround should prevent the game from freezing your system, although you might experience a slight decrease in FPS, depending on the number of CPU cores you have. For example, with a 5800X3D CPU, the game uses about 25% CPU in-game but spikes to 100% during loading. Disabling one core can stop the game from freezing, though crashes may still occur during loading, they won't lock up your system.