Game freezes on login after patch

SilverBride · March 2023

Raevenglass wrote: »

I did what someone above mentioned. Left frozen login screen up then shut down and reopened the launcher. Second login worked great. Original frozen screen timed out.

*shrug*

That was me, and it still works, but I have to do that every time.

Atalle · March 2023

Raevenglass wrote: »

I did what someone above mentioned. Left frozen login screen up then shut down and reopened the launcher. Second login worked great. Original frozen screen timed out.

*shrug*

This worked for me.

BaalMelqartu · March 2023

I also let it sit on an inactive load screen for 3 hours this time. Finally got an error message and then was able to log in. Scared as all hell this will be an everytime thing. *crosses fingers*

SilverBride · March 2023

It seems my problem WAS my graphics driver.

When I checked earlier today and told device manager to update my graphics driver it said it was up to date. I finally got smart and went directly to NVIDIA's website and found that there really was a new driver available. I installed it and everything is working fine again.

logan68 · March 2023

e

Atalle wrote: »

Raevenglass wrote: »

I did what someone above mentioned. Left frozen login screen up then shut down and reopened the launcher. Second login worked great. Original frozen screen timed out.

*shrug*

This worked for me.

Tis worked for me...i will restart my sub...i hope it doesnt stay this way I also updated my AMD drivers to make sure it wasnt them.

ESO_Nightingale · March 2023

I'm not surprised we've got another buggy launch. A bit disappointed though.

SilverBride · March 2023

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

I'm not surprised we've got another buggy launch. A bit disappointed though.

It's not buggy if the problem is on the consumer's end. In some of our cases the issue was graphics drivers that needed updated. That is not a problem with the patch but rather our own systems.

dannv · March 2023

SilverBride wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

I'm not surprised we've got another buggy launch. A bit disappointed though.

It's not buggy if the problem is on the consumer's end. In some of our cases the issue was graphics drivers that needed updated. That is not a problem with the patch but rather our own systems.

I disagree. If it worked Monday and failed to work after a patch on Tuesday, that's the game publisher's fault. I've updated my video drivers and done the rest of the troubleshooting and it still doesn't work. They broke it, they need to fix it and they need to compensate everyone who is paying for ESO plus and can't play. (I have ESO plus on 2 accounts.)

SilverBride · March 2023

dannv wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

I'm not surprised we've got another buggy launch. A bit disappointed though.

It's not buggy if the problem is on the consumer's end. In some of our cases the issue was graphics drivers that needed updated. That is not a problem with the patch but rather our own systems.

I disagree. If it worked Monday and failed to work after a patch on Tuesday, that's the game publisher's fault. I've updated my video drivers and done the rest of the troubleshooting and it still doesn't work. They broke it, they need to fix it and they need to compensate everyone who is paying for ESO plus and can't play. (I have ESO plus on 2 accounts.)

It's not the game publisher's fault if the consumers failed to keep their drivers up to date.

There may be more going on for those that didn't have the problem fixed by new drivers but we don't know that it was an error with the patch.

EDIT: Before I updated my driver I found a workaround that helped some of us get into the game. Give it a try and see if it helps until a permanent solution is found.

Open launcher and start game.
When game freezes shut down the launcher but keep the frozen game up.
Reopen the launcher and start another game.
Once in game shut down the frozen game.

dannv · March 2023

SilverBride wrote: »

dannv wrote: »

SilverBride wrote: »

ESO_Nightingale wrote: »

I'm not surprised we've got another buggy launch. A bit disappointed though.

It's not buggy if the problem is on the consumer's end. In some of our cases the issue was graphics drivers that needed updated. That is not a problem with the patch but rather our own systems.

I disagree. If it worked Monday and failed to work after a patch on Tuesday, that's the game publisher's fault. I've updated my video drivers and done the rest of the troubleshooting and it still doesn't work. They broke it, they need to fix it and they need to compensate everyone who is paying for ESO plus and can't play. (I have ESO plus on 2 accounts.)

It's not the game publisher's fault if the consumers failed to keep their drivers up to date.

There may be more going on for those that didn't have the problem fixed by new drivers but we don't know that it was an error with the patch.

EDIT: Before I updated my driver I found a workaround that helped some of us get into the game. Give it a try and see if it helps until a permanent solution is found.

Open launcher and start game.
When game freezes shut down the launcher but keep the frozen game up.
Reopen the launcher and start another game.
Once in game shut down the frozen game.

First, if they make a change and that kills the game for customers, it's their fault. Game was fine Monday, they made changes and killed it. That's their fault.

ASs to your work around, my game doesn't freeze. It comes up to the Bethesda splash screen and drops to desktop. There's no freeze.

I even tried removing the ESO folder from My Docs and letting it create a new one and that didn't help either.

dannv · March 2023

Well, I found a fix, at least for me. I renamed my c:\ESO\The Elder Scrolls Online\Game sub folder to Game.old and then copied the Game sub folder from a working computer into my ESO directory. Game now works fine with all of my settings and add-ons. So, it looks to me like something in the Game subfolder is getting corrupted during installation of the patch for some players.

SilverBride · March 2023

@dannv

Whether it's the patch or not I'm glad you found a way to play. I hope all the information from players about what worked for them helps to figure out what is going on and find solutions.

dannv · March 2023

SilverBride wrote: »

@dannv

Whether it's the patch or not I'm glad you found a way to play. I hope all the information from players about what worked for them helps to figure out what is going on and find solutions.

Agreed. I wish there was a way to let people download just the game sub folder and see if that fixes things. That would likely tell the devs a great deal.

Ebonator · March 2023

I'm playing on the non-steam client. Reinstalled the game Sunday. No add-ons. After the latest patch the game opens up when I click play then crashed to the desktop as soon as I see the first logo. No errors are given.

I've tried repairing and reinstalling numerous times with no success

RybenUK · March 2023

Not getting any errors at all. The Bethesda Name comes up (usually all of it, sometimes only part) and then it drops to desktop.

This is the client log, all of it, from my last login....

Im exactly the same, right down to whats contained in the logs. No crash, just gets to logos and dumps me back to desktop with no indication of what happened. My first attempt yesterday night I even managed to get to the login screen briefly with new artwork and heard a few seconds of music then it crashed. Now though its just to the Bethesda logo and no futher.

Even wasted an evening and did a full uninstall and download and reinstall tonight and same result, so no idea what is causing this.

Raised ticket and supplied required information but we`ll see. Only installed last week for first time in ages and was playing without issues with addons(and was considering possibly an ESO+ sub)... until patch. Really frustrating considering I`ve just done a clean install and it still has the same thing happen. No addons, drivers updated, running as admin etc as per normal trouble shooting.

Whatever is included in the update is conflicting with something that wasnt there before the update.

Ebonator wrote: »

I'm playing on the non-steam client. Reinstalled the game Sunday. No add-ons. After the latest patch the game opens up when I click play then crashed to the desktop as soon as I see the first logo. No errors are given.

I've tried repairing and reinstalling numerous times with no success

At least its not just me then..

SilverBride · March 2023

@ZOS_Kevin Are there any updates on what may be going on?

Ebonator · March 2023

Going on 3 days now with this. Any words on a fix?

RybenUK · March 2023

Ebonator wrote: »

Going on 3 days now with this. Any words on a fix?

Well just had an update from ticket and support team. They asked me to create a spare windows login account, switch to that and try it from there and I got in with no issues, from both launcher and .exe. Past the intro logos, to the login screen and into game itself.

Not sure if this is the only way to access game at this time or if they are narrowing down the issue and can sort it on main login but fingers crossed.

Winthryth · March 2023

I am having this problem too. Get to login screen and after about 5 seconds crash to desktop with no warning. I have an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU. Other people who are having this problem, what GPU do you have?

RybenUK · March 2023

Winthryth wrote: »

I am having this problem too. Get to login screen and after about 5 seconds crash to desktop with no warning. I have an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU. Other people who are having this problem, what GPU do you have?

Im on Nvidia, but its looking more like a Windows account issue possibly - something on my normal account is causing the crash when starting the game - creating another spare Windows account and running the game from that, allows me to play with no issues.

SekaiXD · March 2023

Logged in for the first time today after the update and had the frozen screen with no error messages. Updated Nvidia driver and reinstalled game. Worked.

Winthryth · March 2023

RybenUK wrote: »

Winthryth wrote: »

I am having this problem too. Get to login screen and after about 5 seconds crash to desktop with no warning. I have an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT GPU. Other people who are having this problem, what GPU do you have?

Im on Nvidia, but its looking more like a Windows account issue possibly - something on my normal account is causing the crash when starting the game - creating another spare Windows account and running the game from that, allows me to play with no issues.

I followed your advice and created a new local Window's users. That user can login. I would suggest everyone having issue also try this as a temporary solution.

Ebonator · March 2023

I created a new windows account and was able to load the game and log in, afterwards I switched back to my normal account and the game launched and I was able to play like normal!

ZOS_Kevin · March 2023

Just to follow up here. We are still investigating. This is impacting a small number of users, but in different ways, so its taking some time to pinpoint a general cause. But through many of the comments here and what we've gotten through customer service, we have identified the following as possible fixes.

Updating GPU drivers
Reinstalling the game
Making sure your operating system is up to date
Using the patcher repair tool
Some users have left the loading screen to go for some time before they were able to get in (taking awhile for some players to load shaders and such)
Disable add-ons
Disable 3rd party tools like RazerChroma (this sounds odd, but some players have gotten in once they closed/deleted chroma.

Lastly, if your are still experiencing issues, please contact customer service and provide your DxDiag file. In order to provide your DxDiag, please follow the steps in this article. The team is using those to try and find common threads.

dannv · March 2023

Well, I gave this info to ZOS, but it doesn't appear that they want to pass it on. So, here's how i fixed my installation.

Go to your Elder Scrolls Online folder (I run from C:\ESO, but you're may be under Program Files. In that folder, rename the Game subfolder to game.old (or whatever you want, so long as it isn't game anymore. Then you need a clean installation of the game. This is best as a clean, working installation from another PC. Copy the game folder from the working installation to your folder to replace the Game folder you renamed. My game worked first try and had all my add-ons and settings. It is my guess that something in the patch process is corrupting something in the Game folder when it patches.

Note the game folder is a couple hundred meg, so is easy to copy. You don't need to copy all the rest of the assets.

old_scopie1945 · March 2023

As I described in #28 I could get into the game in some sort of fashion. I decided to do my writs over a period of about an hour or so. During this time it seemed to settle itself. The problem seems to be sorted and I have had no problems getting into the game so far. BTW cheers Kevin for your efforts.

Winthryth · March 2023

I was able to solve my issue. ESO kept crashing when I was running RivaTuner Statistics, to monitor fps. Once I adjusted RivaTuner's run mode from High to Low, I was able to login and keep the fsp counter.

Braggar · March 12

Nope suggestions how to fix the launch problems, don´t work. Game Launcher refuse to cooperate. The game is not accessible. And if this keeps up, I simply uninstall the game. Haha fed up of those never ending problems, with ESO during the years. It just get´s boring.

SilverPaws · March 12

Any fixes yet?

ZOS_Bill · March 12

We are closing this discussion since it is over one year old and the issue being discussed has since been resolved. For those having freezing issues after Update 41, please see the following thread linked below.

PC/Mac Update 41 Known Issues