Crashing/Freezing When Loading Characters or Zone

pandazooka · January 20

ESO crashes or freezes either when it's loading my characters after logging in, or when it tries to load into a zone after I select a character to play. What typically happens is the animation of the spinning ouroboros gets "choppy" and eventually freezes. My PC stops responding to input except for mouse movement, the but cursor moves very slowly and repeats the last movement. Sometimes the game will exit after several minutes being frozen, and the launcher will pop-up a message that the game failed to launch. Often my PC just becomes unresponsive and I have to reboot it. If I launch the game again, it's as though I started the game up for the first time, so it gives me all the accessibility/UELA/TOS prompts, and plays the opening cinematic after logging in.

I've tried all the suggestions on this page: https://help.elderscrollsonline.com/#en/answer/28049 but the issue persists.

PC specs:
Windows 11 24H2
GeForce driver 566.36
i5 9600K
RTX 2070
32GB RAM
2x 1TB SSD

ZOS_Phoenix · January 20

@pandazooka

If you have already tried those steps, then we would recommend opening a ticket with our support team here so that they can take a closer look at the cause of the crashing.

zbysour · January 22

Same problem after update to 24H2. Fortunately rollback was available.

PC specs:
Windows 11 24H2
GeForce driver 566.36
i5 9600K
RTX 3070
16GB RAM
1TB SSD

Traybair_ESO · January 24

I am experiencing the same problem!

PC specs:
Windows 11 24H2
GeForce driver 566.36
i5 9600K
RTX 2060 Super
16GB RAM
1TB SSD

rjmx · March 6

I've had similar problems for weeks now, to the point where I was unable to play ESO without rolling back the 24H2 update. Today, however, I got a bright idea: I run F-Secure antivirus, and its DeepGuard product has caused problems with games before, albeit with a crash dialog to show it blocked it (which I didn't get with ESO). So I turned it off, and ESO works again.
I have no idea why this didn't surface before the 24H2 update, but I blame Microsoft anyway (just because).
Even if you're not running F-Secure, perhaps something in your antivirus product is causing the problem?

enzoisadog · June 3

This just started happening to me today, anyone figure out how to fix it?

Raz415 · June 3

I'm having the exact same problem! Wonderfully described

I'm using a GeForce 1660 and Ryzen 5 3400G.

I tried updating my video driver to no avail.

I have the same WIndows version, I will try to roll back

LE: Uninstalling the last two Windows updates has completely fixed the problem for me. I'm still on 24H2, but it's an older version. I paused Windows update for 5 weeks now.

method__01 · June 4

same probs here too.updated nvidia drivers,went to back to older,re installed ,nothing is working
game goes from 30 to 100% CPU use when i just walk or goto stations for writs
when i switch toon ,game froze 2 times today-no respond ,only cursor was moving and had to shut down from power button

def something isnt working and must be checked asap

Raz415 · June 4

Update: initially my problem was fixed by uninstalling two Windows updates. Afterwards I have decided to update my processor driver and I got the same problem again.

method__01 · June 4

this prob was in the PTS also- crashed outside Sunport and 100% CPU usage but at least i was able to shut game down from task manager,now PC completely freezes and cant do anything
why this serious prob went on live?cant be then only one ive had it

S_Northman · June 4

W11 24H2
Intel Core i9
nVidia RTX 4070

I had random problems too for a few weeks when switching between two characters. sometimes it works fine, and sometimes I have different issues
https://forums.elderscrollsonline.com/en/discussion/674956/reload-ui-bug-after-last-patch-befor-game-update-45#latest
- either I have a 'reload UI' error when the new character is loaded, with various error messages (but I'm able to reload the UI and continue to play)
- either I'm ejected from the server with an unknown error, returns to the login window, and I have to log in again
- either the game crashes (but not the PC)
- either the PC crashes and reboots

Since the last ESO update 46, I have these kinds of issues too randomly when teleporting from one area to another.
And when the PC / game don't crash and I have only the UI errors, the error is worse than before. Any of the keyboard key doesn't work in the UI, impossible to reload UI from the UI error window (pressing E or R for instance). Even the ESC key doesn't work.
I have to use the command line /reloadui in the console

I wonder if the UI errors when switching characters and the crashes when changing zones are not different aspects of the same issue. Basically something doesn't load correctly.

As it's random and sometimes it works perfectly, I think this not an issue with the game installation, and there is no need to repair or reinstall the game.

Seems that ESO doesn't like the combination 24H2 / nvidia, and it's even worse with a core i9.

Nocturne Saint · June 4

same here, so who are we going to have to wait on to fix this? bethesda or ms?

enzoisadog · June 4

@ZOS_Kevin can you help us out here?

krayphysh · June 4

Same here. Freezes after logging in. My entire PC freezes, I have to reboot by holding the power button in. After 10-12 hard reboots, it "may" load...

enzoisadog · June 4

krayphysh wrote: »

Same here. Freezes after logging in. My entire PC freezes, I have to reboot by holding the power button in. After 10-12 hard reboots, it "may" load...

Yes same here,I've already tried several troubleshooting steps, including running the game as administrator, launching it without the launcher, repairing the installation, reinstalling the last windows update, reinstalling the game, and removing all addons and nothing seemed to help. I literally just had bought ESO plus. wow

Nocturne Saint · June 5

So no word on this issue from Bethesda?

enzoisadog · June 5

Nocturne Saint wrote: »

So no word on this issue from Bethesda?

Just the usual generic responses in the support ticket. I've sent them like four different logs they asked for, and they even had me create a new Windows user—none of it worked.

UPDATE: When I turned my PC on today I had a windows update
- 2025-04 Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 24H2 for x64 (KB5056579) Successfully installed on 06/05/2025

I was able to log in and out about 4 times and didn't freeze at all, if I do freeze again I will update you guys.

Raz415 · June 6

Thanks for posting!!!

The new update has made it so that my computer doesn't freeze up completely anymore. The loading screen still takes ages and my game has seizures randomly and when there are a lot of players on screen which never happened before, but now I can at least log in for the daily reward. Doing the endeavors is too much of a pain and I don't like how much the game is straining my CPU, so I won't be playing until it gets better.

I had to turn on "Get the newest updates as soon as they are available" to be able to download the update you mentioned.

Now I have fully updated driver and the latest Windows update and the result is better, but still not good.

method__01 · June 6

enzoisadog wrote: »

Nocturne Saint wrote: »

So no word on this issue from Bethesda?

Just the usual generic responses in the support ticket. I've sent them like four different logs they asked for, and they even had me create a new Windows user—none of it worked.

UPDATE: When I turned my PC on today I had a windows update
- 2025-04 Cumulative Update Preview for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 24H2 for x64 (KB5056579) Successfully installed on 06/05/2025

I was able to log in and out about 4 times and didn't freeze at all, if I do freeze again I will update you guys.

thats really good news ,installing now

edit: no much difference than before,still getting frame drops -a lot- when running or riding

Nocturne Saint · June 6

latest optional cumulated update for windows 11 fix the issue for me, its optional so you will have to run windows update and install it, unless you want to wait, but this was not a net framework update. i don't remember the exact name, but if you run windows update you will be able to install it.

method__01 · June 6

Nocturne Saint wrote: »

latest optional cumulated update for windows 11 fix the issue for me, its optional so you will have to run windows update and install it, unless you want to wait, but this was not a net framework update. i don't remember the exact name, but if you run windows update you will be able to install it.

unfortunately i do have all installed ,game still freezes -actually it froze 5 min ago again

enzoisadog · June 6

Welp, it didn’t last long. Just tried logging in again and my PC froze at the character load screen, same as before. So unfortunately, whatever improvement I saw earlier was only temporary. Still having the issue.

UPDATE: I checked windows update again and there was this update "Security intelligence update for Microsoft Defender Antivirus – KB2267602 (version 1.429.391.0) – Current Channel (broad)" Will see if this helps with the freezing

UPDATE 2: The "Security intelligence" update didn't help

TheDefenestrator · June 7

Confirming issues in this thread including complete pc crashing. A friend of mine gets booted out of discord on attempting to launch the game.

Raz415 · June 7

enzoisadog wrote: »

Welp, it didn’t last long. Just tried logging in again and my PC froze at the character load screen, same as before. So unfortunately, whatever improvement I saw earlier was only temporary. Still having the issue.

UPDATE: I checked windows update again and there was this update "Security intelligence update for Microsoft Defender Antivirus – KB2267602 (version 1.429.391.0) – Current Channel (broad)" Will see if this helps with the freezing

UPDATE 2: The "Security intelligence" update didn't help

Same, yesterday I had to reset my PC too.

method__01 · June 7

ehm,can we get,idont know,,like support for our issue here? its 5 days after patch and so far ,we got nothing
why do i have to play with 20 fps and wait 2-3 min for area load or else pc freezes?

derkesthaib16_ESO · June 7

Without addons the game seems to run alright for me now, with (some) addons I get the same symptoms as the OP.

enzoisadog · June 8

derkesthaib16_ESO wrote: »

Without addons the game seems to run alright for me now, with (some) addons I get the same symptoms as the OP.

I’ve already gone through all the troubleshooting steps possible—clean reinstall, driver updates, removing addons, renaming the live folder, even creating a new Windows user. Nothing has fixed it so far.

method__01 · June 8

i'll just leave this here.....

derkesthaib16_ESO · June 8

enzoisadog wrote: »

derkesthaib16_ESO wrote: »

Without addons the game seems to run alright for me now, with (some) addons I get the same symptoms as the OP.

I’ve already gone through all the troubleshooting steps possible—clean reinstall, driver updates, removing addons, renaming the live folder, even creating a new Windows user. Nothing has fixed it so far.

Sorry to hear that.

I thought I would post it, perhaps it could be helpful to someone.

Madara90 · June 8

enzoisadog wrote: »

derkesthaib16_ESO wrote: »

Without addons the game seems to run alright for me now, with (some) addons I get the same symptoms as the OP.

I’ve already gone through all the troubleshooting steps possible—clean reinstall, driver updates, removing addons, renaming the live folder, even creating a new Windows user. Nothing has fixed it so far.

try going into your ESO folder in documents, live, then open usersettings.txt search and replace these:

SET RequestedNumJobThreads "0"

SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "0"

Raz415 · June 8

Aw man, I had high hopes for a while there.

Disabling all addons made the game less choppy, but it my computer still needed a hard reset after a few minutes.

These config changes seems to help even more, with the loading screen being pretty much normal now. However, the game still froze and the PC needed a hard reset after a few minutes.

At least I could get my daily reward today...