[Main Thread] Windows 19041 - Freezing for 5-10 seconds

I’m here to report that my game is experiencing this same issue now with Windows 10 OS Build: 19042.630

Intention of my post is not to troubleshoot the problem as I see many other users confirming with technical data their issue. I’m just reporting another computer system that this should push this issue to QA/Development resolution in the Diablo 3 product.

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you should see if your problem is the same as the topic, I saw several people reporting stuttering issues here without knowing if it was caused by the reason alleged in the topic.

in my case, replacing the file fmodex64.dll the problem is solved.

rkz,

Did you replace that file with one from another Blizzard game and use the batch file posted previously to launch the game? I’m about to mess with it when I get home.

I experienced this freezing issue last season and consequently stopped playing so as to preserve my HC character. Skipped probably 3 months worth of play.

Played this weekend without issue, but experienced the same freeze problem today, VERY luckily did not die and lose everything.

I’d love to know if this is seriously a bug the devs are trying to resolve. This isn’t a new issue, it’s been a known problem for months.

Just some honestly and communication would be nice here – can we seriously expect a solution? If so, when?

Freezes still occuring. Just had a 10sec freeze on HC normal rift Tier 16. Hopefully Blizzard can fix it soon. We are all potential customers for diablo 4 :slight_smile:

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Bump. I tried all that they suggested and it is not fixed. Same issue of 5-10 sec stop on the screen, but the game is still running.

Heyyyy Blizzard fix this already please. Not fun to get killed during the lock up happened multiple times today. Started this season with this freezing issue never had major issues before. Very widespread needs fixed immediately. Thank god I don’t play HC or I’d have lost my character no less than twice. Only reason not more is usually it unfreezes with both of my cheat deaths proc’d yay?

I tried everything. Updating drivers, replacing fmodex.dll, disabling alternate soundcards, lowering details in game to lowest possible etc etc. nothing helps. Funny thing is I do not even care if the game has sound because I play with Discord all the time. Any group meta is impossible, HC is impossible.

I looked at it in system monitor, and during freeze there’s no spike on CPU/GPU, not in Diablo or any background process. It’s just everything freezing for ~8-10 sec, and then goes back to life (but my characted is usually dead, or other people in the party are dead because I play support and lagged out).

The only common thing I see is that it happens to people who were forced to upgrade to new Windows version. Should I run old Windows version in a VM just to run Diablo? :wink: Anyone tried this setup?

Keep in mind if you replace fmodex64.dll, you need to do so with the Battle.net launcher already open. You’ll also need to replace that file each time after you open the launcher because it scans for changes upon opening and will re download the offending .dll file. The .bat file instructions posted above make it a bit easier.

I find it extremely irritating that no one from Blizzard will even respond to this thread any longer. Tell us we’re screwed. Tell us this is still on your agenda. Anything. Please!

3 Likes

Another bump.
Wanted to rant how it lost me 3 full bounty runs, but people here losing HC toons. Jesus.

Fix. Your. Game. People are losing dozens if not hundreds of hours because of this.

Hey mate!

thanks for the fix.

i did replace the original file, renamed it and all. then i created the .bat file. but where do i put it? i tried doubleclicking it, and nothing happened, and when i tried launching D3 via the battlenet it updated and i ended up with a new fmodex64.dll

so i must be doing something wrong

Open Notepad and copy/paste the text of that .bat file posted above. Change the directories if yours are different. Go File>Save As and name it whateveryouwant.bat. After you save it, it should have a little gear icon.

After you open the Battle.net app, it will scan and patch so give it a second. Right click the bat file and select “Run as administrator”. That will replace the file, but it won’t launch the game. There won’t be any popup or anything, it just replaces the file silently. Hit play and you should be good. Do that every time you open Battle.net and want to play Diablo. Leave sound on in game. There should be no sounds whatsoever, if you hear game sound, it didn’t work.

I can post more detail later if needed, I’m at work for the next 8 hours.

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I was angry when writing my original post, but the idea about VM sticked with me. Today I installed fresh Win 10 inside VMWare Client, disabled all sound devices for vm (just in case), and installed only Diablo 3/battle.net.

Initial impressions: I am able to run game full screen at 30-50 fps. Far from smooth, but playable. Didn’t see any freeze so far. Unfortunately I can’t give more than 12 GB mem to VM and can’t put it on SSD (too small), so this is what I am stuck with. Will give few extra gigs to it once my just ordered 64 GB memory arrives :wink:

Anyway, it is sad that Blizzard can’t handle this issue.

Having to resort to running this in a VM is pretty damn sad. Luckily, replacing the .dll before every play session works for me. If I had to use a VM, I’d just quit altogether. Maybe that’s Blizzard’s goal, get us to stop playing D3 so they don’t have to bother with it anymore. Yeah, well, maybe I won’t bother with D4 either.

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This method doesn’t work. At least for me.

Blizzard in my eyes fell to the level of an indie company, which since the summer of 2020 has not been able to solve this problem.

An update on VM path - you need ultra beefy hw to run this in groups. We tried pushing some 130+ yesterday and fps was down to ~5 inside big pulls :frowning:

Come on. The game is currently not playable. After the disaster with Diablo Immortal you shouldn’t upset any more loyal fans and potential customers of Diablo 4. Do your job and fix this damn bug!

Ok, I think I found the solution that really works but is pretty hardcore.

  1. You have to replace fmodex64.dll with different one, as already described (you can use version from SC2 or HoTS). This has to be done every time you launch the game bacause Blizzard launcher keep patching it back.

  2. Disable all sound output devices in your machine. This step is new, worked from a guy from my clan and so far seems to work for me. Bad thing is if you like listening to music in background or use Discord you need separate PC for that (I am using my laptop).

The trick is to do BOTH 1 and 2. Just replacing fmodex64.dll did not work for me, also only disabling sound devices was not enough.

While I am not a HC player, this has now started affecting me, I originally thought it was a graphics driver problem but found out through google searching that its a sound problem? I am getting all of the same issues as folks above, the “FMOD Error sound not ready in 200ms” three times in a row on my d3debug.txt. I have a realtek sound driver from around 2019, and the website has nothing newer. When are we getting a fix?

Still no answer to this? This is starting to be a joke guys. Game is not playable and I wouldn’t touch HC at this point. How about an update blue.

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