ESO locking up my system

badmojo · March 2015

Since the latest patch my game will freeze after a while. The screen locks, a bit of ambient audio is still playing, I can't alt-f4 to close down, I can alt-tab but nothing will take control of the screen away from ESO. I can't end the task because I can't get to the task manager. Everything in the background seems to be fine, it's just being blocked by the crashed eso. I'm forced to restart my PC in order to get rid of ESO. Sometimes when I try to close ESO from the task bar it will start another instance of ESO, but like everything else, it's blocked out by the crashed one.

Windows 8.1 64bit
NA server
fullscreen
happens everywhere (cyrodiil and pve zones)

Palidon · March 2015

badmojo wrote: »

Since the latest patch my game will freeze after a while. The screen locks, a bit of ambient audio is still playing, I can't alt-f4 to close down, I can alt-tab but nothing will take control of the screen away from ESO. I can't end the task because I can't get to the task manager. Everything in the background seems to be fine, it's just being blocked by the crashed eso. I'm forced to restart my PC in order to get rid of ESO. Sometimes when I try to close ESO from the task bar it will start another instance of ESO, but like everything else, it's blocked out by the crashed one.

Windows 8.1 64bit
NA server
fullscreen
happens everywhere (cyrodiil and pve zones)

It has nothing to do with your system. The fault is on ZOS's end and good luck if you think anything will change. There are several threads addressing this issue since 1.6 and before. I have yet to see ZOS respond to any of the threads posted since the 1.6 release and there are several of them. The Cyrodiil lag and freeze issue has been going on since the start of the game in March of 2014. 1.6 now has brought with it game freezes in the PvE zones as well on a more constant basis. For me prior to 1.6 I never experienced game freezes in PvE just PvP at peak times. Since 1.6 I have been experiencing at least two game freezes during a play session in the PvE zones with the music still playing in the background as I task manager out and restart the game. Most of my game freezes are in the City of Mournhold in Deshaan for some reason since 1.6. They have happened getting a daily pledge, while I was in the bank, going to the Way Shrine etc. Random and never expected. Heck yesterday I was looking at my journal at the Mournhold Way Shrine and the game froze.

Romo · March 2015

Getting a "game freeze" also with the need to task manager out.

The Task Manager has the "Not Responding" indication, and the Memory load is at 3K+.

Usually in town (Wayrest, Mornhold, etc).

Win 8.1, all drivers/updates are up-to-date. No mods ever used. Devil's Canyon, 16G mem, 780Ti, SSD etc...

Zallnessa_ESO · March 2015

This has happened to me once in a while since launch. Today, just today, is another story. So far three times today. I start a fight and my graphics freeze. Then the game either locks up my system and I need to shut it down or graphics are down but I can still hear game play..and I die.

I can understand if it happens ONCE in a while but this is getting on my last nerve. Such a pain in the arse.

1ne2woBe · March 2015

Happened to me yesterday. Game just froze, but I could here background audio, and that audio would loop every 5 seconds. LOL

I was however able to cnt-alt-del to end the process.

Warraxx · March 2015

happens to me as well. in and out of cyrodiil...

ZOS_MollyH · March 2015

Please be sure that if you are experiencing freezes and crashes as described that you submit a support ticket to customer service for one of our support agents to help troubleshoot your specific issue! If you include a game consultant report, this will allow our agents to help diagnose the specific cause of your crashing and help keep you in game long enough to enjoy it!

Game Consultant captures technical information that can be vital to troubleshooting hardware issues and generates a report. It is a specialized diagnostic tool designed to identify issues that may affect the play experience in The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited. Please attach a copy of the Game Consultant report to any technical support request.

Here is how to find and use it:
•Click on the golden cog icon in the top right corner of the game launcher.
•Under SETTINGS - LAUNCHER, select the ABOUT tab. This tab includes the current launcher version, minimum specifications, and information about Game Consultant.
•Click the Game Consultant button beneath the tool description.
•A new window will pop up. When it does, click Run Tests. This may take a few minutes.
•When the test is complete, a new window will pop up saying "Success!" The report saves itself as a text file called Report.txt in the My Documents folder.
•To retrieve the file, click the Open Report Location button on the Game Consultant window, or click Open Report to simply view it.

Check out ESO Help channel for a step-by-step video on how to use The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited Game Consultant:

http://youtu.be/3fNqpZE_4rs

Game Consultant is also available for direct download at the following links (add the link in a browser and press Run):

PC http://goo.gl/IqHMne

Nadijeh · March 2015

Yeah my game keeps locking up randomly, it seems to happen when I am crouching/sneaking but it could be a coincidence. Either way, it's annoying and never used to happen.

esob16_ESO115 · March 2015

I hadn't experienced this until just now when it happened twice in 10 minutes.

Cathrin · March 2015

Same issues here. Game freezes and I cannot even kill it with the task manager.
In the past I only had this in PvP, but today it happened in PvE.

ottobot · March 2015

EDIT:
It seems that changing your UserSettings.txt (Found in C:\Users\yourname\Elder Scrolls Online\live) to render with OpenGL will fix the issue, however I noticed an extreme drop (nearly 30) in FPS.

Look for the line that says "SET GraphicsDriver.7 "D3D11" and change it to "OPENGL"

Having the same issue as well.

At any random interval ESO will:

Self-minimize while remaining fullscreen (ie, it will act like i've alt+tabbed to desktop, but desktop will be non-interactable, while still displaying ESO's cursor.) I can still hear ESO's sound while this is happening. I have to Ctrl+Shift+Esc to task manager and use the keyboard to end ESO.exe

or

Completely black screen, no cursor, sometimes I can hear sound, sometimes not. I have to ctrl+alt+delete and log off to fix this one.

I have run the repair tool twice to no avail.
I have made no hardware or software changes since 1.6, and this problem didnt exist prior.
As far as I can tell there are no known or noticable catalysts for this behavior.
There is never an ESO error dialog box.

Specs:
Windows 8.1 Pro x64
FX-6300 @4.5gHz
Asus M5A99X LE R2.0
Sapphire R9-290 Vapor-X
16gb Vengence 1600
PCP&C Silencer MKIII 850w
Running 5760x1080 Resolution

I will be submitting a ticket with the Game Consultant results, and I suggest EVERYONE who is experiencing this issue does the same, I fear it may be the only way to help them fix it, if they know what's broken.

RVikary · March 2015

Well, I have the same problems discussed and just sent this report the mod talked about. Anybody else? I do hope they can find out where the problem is because I wish I could play far longer than what I have been able.

aronothub17_ESO · March 2015

mine does the same, you dont have to restart just control alt delete pull up task manager and deal with the crash report that is in the background from the crashed game

badmojo · March 2015

aronothub17_ESO wrote: »

mine does the same, you dont have to restart just control alt delete pull up task manager and deal with the crash report that is in the background from the crashed game

I can't click on end task if I can't see the task manager.

Cathrin · March 2015

badmojo wrote: »

aronothub17_ESO wrote: »

mine does the same, you dont have to restart just control alt delete pull up task manager and deal with the crash report that is in the background from the crashed game

I can't click on end task if I can't see the task manager.

If you alt-ctrl-del and choose task manager, you can hover ofer the task manager in the task bar. It will then be visible. you now have to use tabulator and arrow keys to mark eso then hit del to kill the process.

Mephiston87 · May 2015

Cathrin wrote: »

badmojo wrote: »

aronothub17_ESO wrote: »

mine does the same, you dont have to restart just control alt delete pull up task manager and deal with the crash report that is in the background from the crashed game

I can't click on end task if I can't see the task manager.

badmojo wrote: »

aronothub17_ESO wrote: »

mine does the same, you dont have to restart just control alt delete pull up task manager and deal with the crash report that is in the background from the crashed game

I can't click on end task if I can't see the task manager.

If you alt-ctrl-del and choose task manager, you can hover ofer the task manager in the task bar. It will then be visible. you now have to use tabulator and arrow keys to mark eso then hit del to kill the process.

says access denied, when trying to kill the process. mines stuck using %100 of my PC and i cant manually kill it. trying to get norton to completely mark it as a virus so it will remove the game but even its struggling to do it, as soon as i goto the ESO directory i get a endless load cycle.

leisuretime_ESO · July 2015

This is a repeated issue...random freeze during game play. Anyone got some answers here, this happens about 20 minutes or so into the game. Iv'e gotta kill my pc through task manager. This really didn't' become an issue until after I created an Alt, is there a connection with this? This is killing the gameplay immersion.

CossackHD · July 2015

Try locking your FPS at 60. Default highest FPS is 100 and it resulted in stability problems on my friend's powerful PC. There is a line in the usersettings file which lets you chose minimal frame time (in seconds). Default 0.01. Devide 1 by 60 and you get 60 FPS frame time -> use it in the config file.
As for the system lock: I always keep the "processes" tab open in the task manager and whenever PC gets stuck in a fullscreen application I press "Ctrl+Shift+Esc" -> E -> "Delete" -> "Enter". This will stop first found process with "E" at the beginning of it's name (ESO.exe). Very useful when you can't switch windows. The "E" can be any other letter. "T" works when TESV.exe (Skyrim) gets stuck.

danovic · July 2015

Same here can only play 5 to 15 minutes without it crashing to desktop with eso still running in background have to open task manager and close it to restart. Happens mostly in craglorn. Never had this problem before the previous patch.

CossackHD · July 2015

Mephiston87 wrote: »

Cathrin wrote: »

badmojo wrote: »

aronothub17_ESO wrote: »

mine does the same, you dont have to restart just control alt delete pull up task manager and deal with the crash report that is in the background from the crashed game

I can't click on end task if I can't see the task manager.

badmojo wrote: »

aronothub17_ESO wrote: »

mine does the same, you dont have to restart just control alt delete pull up task manager and deal with the crash report that is in the background from the crashed game

I can't click on end task if I can't see the task manager.

If you alt-ctrl-del and choose task manager, you can hover ofer the task manager in the task bar. It will then be visible. you now have to use tabulator and arrow keys to mark eso then hit del to kill the process.

says access denied, when trying to kill the process. mines stuck using %100 of my PC and i cant manually kill it. trying to get norton to completely mark it as a virus so it will remove the game but even its struggling to do it, as soon as i goto the ESO directory i get a endless load cycle.

A complicated solution I used once with some other game:
There's a program called KillProcess. You can add eso.exe to the list of processes which will be automatically terminated by that program. Set shortcut key combination for KillProcess in shortcut properties (for example CTRL+ALT+K). Keep KillProcess of while playing ESO because otherwise it will obviously shut the game down. Once the game stucks, press your KillProcess shortcut key combination (CTRL+ALT+K) - this will start KP and and it will terminate ESO.

Buck · July 2015

I'm getting this a lot more lately as well. It doesn't matter where I am in the world or what I'm doing. It's all random lag spikes, my char running off and I can't get control back, or the game simply crashes or just freezes up. Sometimes I can get right back in the game after closing it through task manager, and other times it's locking my system and I can't do anything but reboot.

I've tried every setting, new drivers and reverted back to old drivers, and nothing makes a difference. I can max out settings or go completely minimum settings and the same issues come up no matter what I'm doing... but not all the time. My systems is a few years too old now but I do get very decent FPS and it actually runs better than it ever did because of all the tweaks and settings I've messed with trying to figure this out. My internet connection is horribly slow but I know that's not the issue because I've been playing since beta and these issues are seemingly random and have just gotten worse.

If I had to guess (not a tech) I'd say there's still a memory leak and they never really addressed it. It's all I see maxing out in task manager when this happens. /shrug idk but it's made me play a lot less and ponder why I still sub.

CossackHD · July 2015

Try capping your FPS. Too high FPS causes stability problems - I can confirm.

Developers can add max fps option in the menu and set it to 60 as default, not 100 as it is now.

Sim-E · September 2015

eso is totally unplayable. I get locked up every ten min while in game. I can't do anything but restart my system. I've tried everything anyone's thought off. At this point I can't stand it and want a refund . 80.00 for the game, over 15 a month sub, and crown store purchases. I want a real answer. A freeze every ten min is insane .