Fix the freaking GAME FREEZING ALL THE TIME

[UnReLeNT-1978]

Hey Snake. Here’s a quote in which I describe the process of fixing the issue if you’re interested.

@UnReLeNT-1978

The performance issues have been a real pain. If you’re interested in tweaking your settings a bit I have a previous post in which I explained how to set it up. This is the post:

@Game regularly freezes

Just a quick update if anyone is having intermittent freezing issues. I completely solved this issue by doing the following:

In your graphics card settings, navigate to where your specific app settings are. Pick Diablo 3. Change these:

Negative LOD Bias - Clamp
Texture Filtering -Trilinear optimization - On
Vertical Sync - Use 3D application settings
Pre Rendered Frames - 1
Max Frame Rate - (Change to match your monitor’s max Hz)
Preferred Refresh Rate - (Change to match your monitor’s max Hz)

In-Game:
Vertical Sync - On
Max Foreground FPS - (Change to match your monitor’s max Hz)

All other settings just use default

The issue is related to framerate and is solved by syncing max frame rate with your monitor’s refresh rate.

So for the record, the drawback of syncing your frames to your refresh rate will be that in those high load times you will see a very slight but bearable input delay. If you want a hard solve this is totally worth it.

You’ll also want to do the following:

Power Management Mode: Max Performance
Texture Filtering - Quality: High Performance
Threaded Optimization: On
Texture Filtering - Anisotropic Sample Optimization: On

Now I mind you that if you put your in game settings to relatively low and adjust the majority of these settings, you’ll see a very nice increase in performance and a decrease in the problems you’re experiencing. In particular, settings which put more strain on your graphics card might not need to be lowered, and you can hover over the settings in game for an explanation of that, in fact. As you said, the problem is mainly caused by the high amount of calculations.

You can also optionally open task manager, right click on the Diablo Process, and set priority to High which might help with the calculation strain.

Lastly, you can actually possibly leave Negative LOD Bias on (allow) instead of Clamp and leave [Vertical Sync] Off, and all of those settings very possibly might eliminate the problem without causing the input delay.

Also, if you play in full screen make sure your [Background FPS] is at least around 20 so when you minimize then maximize you don’t experience any issues, which seem to manifest if this is too low.

Give it a try if you need a solve with aforementioned issues. Hope this helps.

Here’s a quote from another post about a different method:

@SilverFox-1996

When will Fmodex64.dll be updated? Is located in “…/ Battlenet / Diablo III / x64 folder”. I have had freezing issue with Diablo3 off and on lasting about 5 seconds each time. Errors in D3Debug file “FMOD Error sound not ready in 200ms”.

Fix I used was to replace the Blizzard file. I shouldn’t have to do such in order to play D3. Video options set to lowest or off. Sound option set to 32bit, high definition, stereo, sound off, music off. I did a clean Win10 Pro installed. Updated to version 2004, build 19041.508. Drivers updated. Older computer i7-4790k (not overclocked), MSI z97 Gaming 5 motherboard, Corsair Vengeance Pro DDR3 2400 16gb ram, MSI RX 580, Samsung 850 EVO M.2 250gb.

Documented in Blizzard D3 forum threads July 2020.

[Known Technical Support Issues - [Updated June 21, 2020!]](https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/d3/t/known-technical-support-issues-updated-june-21-2020/48)
[Main Thread] Windows 19041 - Freezing for 5-10 seconds

INSTALLED by Blizzard
File description: FMOD Ex SoundSystem
Company: Firelight Technologies
File version: 0.434.20
Date created: 10/6/2020 5:16pm
Size: 949 KB

SUGGESTED replacement by forum poster
File description: FMOD Ex SoundSystem
Company: Firelight Technologies
File version: 0.44.23
Date created: 2/28/2019 10:11pm
Size: 1.39 MB

@foureight84-1430

DIT 2: Replacing the fmodex64.dll will disable game sound. Make sure you backup the original fmodex64.dll (rename it to fmodex64.bak). It’s worth not having the game freeze every few minutes though.

EDIT 3: I reenabled my Realtek onboard audio and installed the latest drivers from Asus (December 2019) and tested the original fmodex64.dll and the game still freezes. It’s definitely not my driver. For now i’m going back to using that 3rd party fmodex64.dll

Here’s the file I used:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MUhzqQIR_YVn7xKQ7WhKj8gTgnc3G-hg/view?usp=sharing

Rename the fmodex64.dll to “fmodex64.dll.new” and move it to the Diablo 3 x64 folder.

EDIT 1: played 4 hours, no freeze issue

EDIT 2: I haven’t used third party (no T-Hud, addons, or filters). This is first I have had to replace/modify a Blizzard file. Blizzard has known about this issue for months. I had thought freezing may of been due to keyboard - mouse. Thought when slightly touching keyboard CTRL button, Win button, Shift button, Spacebar. No keyboard or mouse software installed. EVGA TORQ X3 mouse and Logitech K120 keyboard. Have Mediacom ISP with 200 down / 20 up service. ARRIS 6183 modem, TP-LINK Archer C9 router, CAT6 wired modem to router, CAT6 wired router to computer. I have had had off and on performance, freezing, latency issues over the years with Diablo3.

Note: I had power cycled modem/router/computer, had set port forwarding in router, ran memory test, checked temps, clean installed Win10Pro, updated drivers, set secondary service to automatic, no extra programs installed, had Discord voice chat running (no overlay), had Norton Security running.

EDIT 3: Current Win10Pro version 20H2, build 19042.546 (Insiders Fast Lane). Of the freezing issues posted on tech support forums, it seems most had Realtek audio chip. Most had old Realtek drivers installed. Realtek is no longer supported as it used to be. The MSI z97 Gaming 5 board which I use has Realtek® ALC1150 Codec. MSI support website latest driver update is for 2017 audio driver (6.0.1.8010). I didn’t install Realtek. I clean Win10Pro with HD audio (10.0.19041.264). Of course, the computer hardware I have is dated. I have some freezes but not as often. I haven’t been running Discord voice chat as much. I run without Discord overlay.

EDIT 4: For those with older CPU and older GPU. Go discord settings, then appearance, turn off hardware acceleration.