The game freezes for 5 seconds! CPU usage jumps to 100% SEASON 10! Windows 11 24h2 cause this problem!

Bug Report
1

I’ve been looking through old problems before and many people had this problem and found many solutions. I’ve played almost all seasons and I didn’t have this problem before. Now, when playing online or offline, the game stops for about 5 seconds occasionally and hangs up every now and then. It’s very frustrating and makes me not want to play, its unplayable now. I will now write what I’ve done so far to fix it.

  • Change graphics to low
  • vsync on and off cap 60, in nivida control panel too
  • d2r.exe priority high
  • Graphics drivers updated
  • Checked temperatures with hwmonitor, all good
  • Checked the disk and ram problem, is fine
  • Checked the game files and everything is fine
  • I cleaned the computer, checked the pastes, everything is fine
  • nothing helped
  • My Spec is Intel i3 8100, 32gb DDR4, Nvidia Geforce 2070

And when the game freezes for 5 seconds, I noticed in the manager that the processor usage is up to 100%. I recently replaced the thermal paste, I checked today if I connected everything correctly and everything is ok. I don’t have this problem in Diablo 4 or Path of Exile. I hope for a patch or a solution to the problem in another way because I would like to play my favorite game.

Please help quickly, best regards Mateusz.

PS. Many people reposting or reply old problem now, it seems that the problem is back…very sad, i hope for quick fix.

PS. 2 First time frezze and crash today…

PS. 3 I set the nvidia control panel, program settings for diablo 2 ressurected and i set “Maximum number of frames displayed for the background application” to 30 fps minimum. And now if i have freeze in game I press the windows key and the problem disappears. I have the game set to full screen. Here’s the problem, I hope someone can help me, I’m getting closer to solving the problem, I hope Blizzard reads this and patches this issue.

PS. 4 Today the screen froze permanently while loading game for the first time and second in game, I had to restart’s my computer. Please blizzard where are you ?!

When it freezes I click the windows button to minimize and the problem goes away. It’s a bit annoying but I can’t do anything about it now.

Also the diablo 2 r taskbar icon is broken in season 10.

Today the game froze again a few times and I had to manually restart my computer. I also noticed a lot of problems logging into battlenet in the game on the EU, US and Asia server no problems.

I am still investigating the issue and even the old graphic design has this problem, let blizzard fix it because I don’t want to ruin my computer because of it…

Another freez on server Asia, and I had to restart my computer again…please fix this because it can cause serious damage to computers.

I also noticed that this problem often appears right after entering the map through the portal or when logging into the game. I would play offline, but this problem occurs there too.

I asked a friend who is currently playing d2r and he says he has the same problem.

23.03.2025

Today I formatted the disk and reinstalled the system, reinstalled game and blocked Windows Update and it didn’t help…

26.03.2025

Many people write to me that the problem is with the latest Windows 11 24H2 update, previously I had 23H2 or 22H2 and everything worked fine. I’ll check it out soon and get back to you. I found this - https://www.reddit.com/r/windowsinsiders/comments/1i82s38/windows_11_24h2_build_261202992_freezing_randomly/?rdt=57798

28.03.2025

Today I installed windows 11 23h2 build 22631.3085 and everything works fine and I blocked windows update. The problem is with windows 11 24h2. Solved for me.

1 Like
2

Dear Mati. be advised that i3 8100 is not quite a CPU ment for gaming… it’s a low end CPU dedicated mostly for small home-office machines, it’s unlikely to keep the recommended 2,8GHz on four cores at all times as minimum requirements of the game suggest. it may have 2,8GHz on turbo frequency, but let’s be honest how long this “turbo” lasts… until pc begins to overheat…

Now You also mentioned You’ve replaced the thermal paste… what was the paste you replaced to? Grizzly Kryonaut? if so than please take into consideration that 8 out of 10 Sellers on Allegro sell chineese knock-offs (podróby) of the said thermal paste, that not only don’t meet the Kryonaut guaranteed results but also perform far worse than lower ranked competition…

I personally had to give my PC to a PC service company to task them to put the paste ( because they do stress tests after putting the paste on plus they have firm and relaible sources of the paste, and don’t have to wage counterfiet wars with allegro sellers… and those are a words of a man that couples his own pcs and used to maintain them for over 20 years… seriously it’s time to let the professionals do it…

on a side note season just started and the game servers are heavily occupied so the game is likely to boot you to offline gaming, however freezes and PC crashes are a thing on your side not the game servers

Old Nvidia cards were poolry equipped with vram… this game despite what it says on minimum requiremets actually requires around 8GB vram to play on mid to low custom settings in fullHD.
don’t expect the ram load bar to be full in the lobby ( ultra settings) and the game to run smoothly…

Best regards
and I hope you manage to solve it…
Lechu

3

@Leslaw … a 8th Gen i3 is more than enough to handle D2R.

3 Likes
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nah don’t think so the requirements state clearly four core 2,8GHz processor

that’s a steep requirement right there most modern CPUs meet the criteria only in turbo mode… and we all know turbo lasts only few seconds until CPU heats up… the problem of the OP is that he most likely got a counterfiet thermal paste, replaced the original and now complains everything crashes… if that is the case let him go to a dedicated PC service ( look even i gave up on thermal paste changes myself it’s just too much of a hassle now that only kryonaut us the only available product out there… and even it has more counterfiets than actual product on the market) i’d likely get that toplamp 40 somethning paste since it’s better than kryonaut… but it’s nowhere to be found…
and don’t tell me 8100 is a good processor for gamig… i had one of those in a tablet and i can tell you it’s not good 4 gaming even with external gpu mounted via m.2 nvme to PCI-Ex16 adapter the bottle neck was always the 2 physical cores CPU.

5

The i3 8100 is a 4 core 3.6 Ghz base-clocked CPU, meaning it only goes higher.

Even an i5-2500k is enough with 4 cores and a 3.3 GHz base clock.

Or my i7-950. 4 cores. 8 with HT. 3.07 Ghz base. The game runs perfectly fine.

2 Likes
6

3,6 GHz is only in turbo so it’s not a 3,6GHz processor!

Look it runs fine even on my q9650 4x 3.0GHz

that’s not the point… the point is as i said he has a couterfiet instead of new thermal paste he might as well put cotton pillow under the cooler and the effect would be the same…

7

The i3 8100 has no turbo feature. It’s 3.6 GHz. Fixed.

Anyway … a bad or wrong system assembly could cause behavior.

1 Like
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all iCore processors have Turbo feature it’s a part of their design

NVM just checked the specifications you’re right…

10

don’t have to i checked the 8100 specs and it said stock clock 3,6GHz…

the problem has to be the way he put on the paste or the paste itself
( as in a counterfiet)

@DrDisaster dunno which country You’re from however this pancho guy is fro the same one I’m from and i know the realia in my country… 8/10 thermal paste sellers on the most popular online trade site (in my country) are countefiets at least for Grizzly kryonaut which is the only suitlable and commonly available thermal paste for 8gen cpus…
since they all but require 12W/mK

11

There is another option regarding assembly problems i can think off. Had that once with a friend’s PC years ago. He somehow managed to mount the cooler so that is only touched the CPU on an edge and not the entire surface. Once that was fixed the system ran fine.

Also see this post:
D2r lagging continuously after 3/11 server crash

So it’s might not his fault …

12

this guy only speaks of lagging but not of game crashes and system freezes…

this is definetly a fault on the OP’s side the game has hickups as i’ve said ladder started so ocasional stutter or booting to main menu or offline may occour but not pc crash…

1 Like
13

Time for an upgrade.

14

Hi there, I do have the same problem as you when I run 2 instances. I can play few minutes or just few seconds and my pc freeze and I saw my cpu usage at 100% or almost.
The only thing I can do is reboot my pc.

My build: 13600k with 4080 and 32gb DDR5

@panczo

2 Likes
15

Dont troll me about processor i play diablo 4 and PoE 2 Easy…
and I didn’t have these problems in previous seasons, and I don’t have this problem in any other game, but here even offline there is a problem, like many people have…I have Grizzly thermal paste is very good, changed on the graphics card too and it’s ok, better performance now after the change, the problem is on the game side and many people have this problem not fixed for 2 years…

People write that the problem is even on the old version of diablo 2 from 2000, so the problem is on the side of blizzard and servers or something. - https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo2/comments/1ine5t3/diablo_2_2000_freezing_for_up_to_5_seconds/

1 Like
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Well then these “many people” never came here to tell about it since this is the first time ever hearing about such a behavior of D2R.

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People write that the problem is even on the old version of diablo 2 from 2000, so the problem is on the side of blizzard and servers or something. - https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo2/comments/1ine5t3/diablo_2_2000_freezing_for_up_to_5_seconds/

18

The first answer to this necro thread is the reason why systems stutter:
CPU overheats → CPU halts processing until it cooled a bit → repeat to infinity or until system crash.

19

As I wrote earlier, when I click the windows key and minimize the game during this freeze, it automatically hangs up and the game works normally. I can play like this, but it’s annoying. I hope Blizzard fixes it or I find a way and fix it myself or with someone’s help.

1 Like
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You said yourself that the game runs @ 30 fps when minimized. This way system load is cut in half. So?

Try playing with max 30 fps and report back.

Or get a tool that tells you how hot your CPU is. Anythng above 70 C is bad.

21

Temperature is ok 44 now i checked on hwmonitor, I’m playing in a window mode now and the problem seems to be gone or it freezes very rarely.

Edit, No, it’s the same though, I go back to full screen. I don’t think I’ll do anything, I wrote a thicket to Blizzard, I’m waiting for an answer.

I’ve gone back to original settings in the nvidia control panel because that doesn’t change anything. When it freezes I click the windows button to minimize and the problem goes away. It’s a bit annoying but I can’t do anything about it now.

1 Like