Hey everyone,

I’ve been trying everything I can think of to get Elder Scrolls Online running properly, and I’m officially burnt out. I’m hoping someone here might have a clue. Here’s a detailed rundown of everything I’ve tried so far:

1. Addons / UI

Removed all addons and tried running the game completely vanilla. (Reinstalled addons in batches, ensuring they were fully updated just to see if it changed anything)

Tried running with a fresh Live folder and deleted UserSettings.txt and ShaderCooked.txt.

Even after updating addons, some in-game elements (like HarvestMap icons) weren’t displaying properly until after a few crashes or resets.

2. Drivers / GPU

Updated all drivers: GPU (clean install with DDU), sound, BIOS, and Windows updates.

Installed the latest NVIDIA Studio Driver after clean uninstall.

Reseated GPU and checked all cable connections, including HDMI.

Disabled all overlays: Steam, NVIDIA, Discord, Xbox Game Bar.

Ran FurMark stress test → no crashes or artifacts.

3. Settings / Launch Options

Ran in Safe Graphics Mode.

Tweaked launch options: -dx11 -safe -fullscreen 0 -preferMaximizedWindow 1.

Tweaked UserSettings.txt:

SET MaxCoresToUse.4 "4"
SET RequestedNumJobThreads "8"
SET RequestedNumWorkerThreads "8"

Tried launching ESO in both DirectX 11 and DirectX 12 modes.

4. Audio / Peripheral Checks

Disabled extra audio drivers.

Ensured only one active playback device (headset or speakers).

Not using a controller — strictly keyboard and mouse.

5. System Checks

Ran Windows Memory Diagnostic → no errors.

Checked temperatures and hardware seating.

Disabled Hyper-V, Windows Game Mode, and Game Bar.

Disabled VPNs, DNS-related programs, and other background software that could hook the game.

Tweaked CPU power plan (max processor state to 99%).

6. Repair / Reinstall Efforts

Ran the ESO repair tool multiple times.

Deleted ESO folders from Documents\Elder Scrolls Online (backed up SavedVariables).

Reinstalled ESO client folder through repair.

Did a full uninstall and completely wiped the client folder for a fresh install.

7. Other Troubleshooting

Ran DISM and SFC scans.

Used Tweaking.com Windows Repair Tool → fixed multiple issues, some access denied items noted.

Checked Event Viewer for faulting modules → nothing conclusive for ESO crashes.

Confirmed ESO is the only program crashing, all other games and stress tests run fine.

8. Current Status

Game still crashes after a few minutes, even fully vanilla.

Longest session before crash: 2 Hours after reinstalling VC++ modules, after leaving everything off for an entire night and coming back the following morning, started right back to crashing ~10 minutes

Zenimax Launcher catches the crash but never logs it.

ESO sometimes works temporarily after using repair tools, DISM, and Tweaking.com, but crashes eventually.

9. Reddit Community Feedback / Things I’ve Tried

Unplugged and replugged every cable, including GPU.

Checked for conflicts with MSI Afterburner / RTSS → not installed.

Tested running on regular monitor instead of big-screen TV → no difference.

Tried Safe Graphics, windowed mode, and different DirectX options.



At this point, I’m out of ideas. I’m wondering if anyone has seen something like this where ESO is literally the only program crashing, and if so:

Could it be something left over in my user profile (Documents / AppData / registry)?

Any reliable way to check for corrupted per-user settings that might crash the game?

Could something simple be causing this, like leftover shader cache or registry entries?

I’m about ready to try a completely new Windows user to see if it fixes the issue, but I wanted to ask the community first in case there’s a less nuclear option.

Any guidance or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I’m really hoping there’s a fix short of redownloading the game for the third time..

Thanks in advance.

PS

I'm losing my godforsaken mind lmao