Had 2 freezes on HC today. They are still happening.
Constant freezes here. Also having issues when playing in groups where I canāt see items in my inventory and icons disappear making it painfully slow to do anything in town.
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Realtek drivers for the most part are no longer being updated. A tech support forum poster still using 2014 Realtek sound driver. My motherboard MSI Gaming 5 last Realtek was 2017 (Version 6.0.1.8010). When I clean install, I just let Microsoft install compatible not Realtek.
As for Fmodex64.dll, friends are replacing with file from Starcraft2 or WoW, to circumvent freezing due to sound error. Of course they have to renew change each time before starting D3. When I reported such to tech support, he reported that they are still gathering information. Note: I have WIn10Pro 20H2, 19042.662. I turned off hardware acceleration for WIn10, discord, and Edge. System info is i7-4790k (not overclocked), water cooled, MSI Gaming 5, 16gb ram, M.2 SSD, RX 580, DVD, extra case fans. Yes, old processor yet is good enough for 8 year game.
There is so much data provided to Blizzard months ago, they stated that themselves. The problem is not going away and is worse.
I play HC and only HC. 5 or my 7 RIPās are due to this issue. Game freezes, comes back and boom dead. And the FMOD error appears in my D3 log.
It is making me want to turn away from the game until you fix it.
I tried the original work around by replacing the FMOD64.dll file. This worked, but running that .bat it automatically updates the file. It opens Battle Net App, then updates, you can see the date change and that is even with me marking the file āRead Onlyā.
Help
Turn off damage numbers.
Blizzard is incompetent when it comes to storing data for machines and for server infrastructure. Itās the case across all of their games and they canāt seem to figure it out. Bad company thatās bad at everything.
There seems to be several of us with MSI motherboards. Is this a common denominator for everyone?
Ah snap, there you go. Leviathan had his death in HC due to this damn freeze that i am still getting. I am not a HC player and never been fan of it, but man if i died to this freeeze ? I would be so pissed at blizzard.
Just as a data point, I have an MSI B450 tomahawk max and do not have the issue. My 11 year old DFI didnāt either.
One thing Iāve noticed is that it seems mostly to effect nVidia gpus, but that might just be that they were on top so long almost everyone has them, therefore skewing the data sample.
FWIW both the rigs I mentioned that donāt have this problem are amd gpu (at the time I bought for the price they were best value in mid range). Come to think of it my 10 year old HP laptop with amd switchable graphics also doesnāt have the issue (but only pulls 30 fps these days).
Updating to Win 10 2004 hurt my fps until I realized that the D3 fps limiter is bugged for some people, and it was limiting me to half the setting. Ever since disabling that it has been clear sailing.
Does anyone have this issue with AMD GPU? I wonder if something about how nVidia drivers are interacting with the sound file is causing issues?
I feel for everyone that is dealing with this issue and hope the extra data can help somehow, even though it is ridiculous this issue has taken this long for Blizzard to resolve.
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Yes. My wife has this issue and sheās currrently running a Radeon RX 580. Her motherboard is an Asus Crosshair VI Hero. She had no issues whatsoever until updating to Win10 2004.
I have a RTX 2070 Super. Motherboard is an MSi MEG Ace X570. No issues on Win10 1909. After being āupgradedā to 2004, boom, this issue appears. Luckily, neither of us cares about in game sound, so replacing the FMOD file with the workaround above works. Old FMOD version that D3 uses combined with Win10 2004/20H2 is the issue. I have no doubt.
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Actually I guess others in the thread did mention amd gpus also.
I agree it seems like the fmod combined with windows 10 2004 broke something for many users.
I didnāt read the thread thoroughly so I apologize if this is repeating info. I tried turning down graphics and turning off audio. At GR106 that caused my game to repeatedly freeze. When I maxed out graphics and audio settings (even full volume) the freezing stopped. I ran this way for about 12 GRs 100 through 108 and no freezes or crashes, which I was plagued with throughout last week.
If someone with the same freezing issues could test it and post back here what they find. Running Windows 10 version 2004 with nVidia 2080 on Ryzen 2700X (aurous X470 w/ on-board audio)
Well i tried something different today went to the d3 icon on destop . Right click go down to (restore previous version). choose the tab compatibility and i choose win7 which is what i upgraded from to win 10 and i havnt frooze yet.
Update still no freeze 4 days later. 12/3
update 12/16 started freeze in a big way today 4-6 freezes per pub gr
with this fmodex64 freez the game all the time, but when i replace it with freez are gone, thanks mate
Just died again on hardcore with my DH because of this freeze.
I had very good items and spend a lot of time on it.
What is going on in this company? Either fix it or dont sell the game anymore!
Playing without sound is not an option.
3 Likes
I will test it; why not 
Well. Lost my second HC character this season due to freeze. After a few days of depression, self reflection, and contemplation, I am ready to get hurt again.
I saw someone earlier posted about straight up disabling all sound output on their computer. Iām going to try that. Iāll report my findings. Godspeed.
Nope. Still froze. Was able to escape death this time though.
Fix your game, Blizzard!
1 Like
Why not just do the FMOD fix? You lose sound in the game but atleast you donāt lose your HC toon.
My bro and I have experienced this issue for a little over a year now due to Blizzards incompetence. Thankfully because of the community we have a work around.
I personally donāt care about sound anyways, even in WoW I have it disabled and just have Discord and music in the background.
I honesty canāt believe that Blizzard canāt just update the FMOD.DLL within the game folder with a patch. It doesnāt require any certification or license, its just a straight up newer version of the DLL that supports Microsoftās audio changes to Windows.
6 Likes
gawd, I finally caved in and used the FMOD workaround. Works like a charm. No more freezes, no more choppy gameplay on certain tile sets. This is pathetic. I am also realizing how much sound adds to the experience for me when pushing. The audio cues can be really helpful and itās a bit of an adjustment. I dig listening to tunes when I am grinding keys or low GRs, but it is really sad that this many people have to resort to completely losing sound to make the game playable.
FIX THE DLL!
6 Likes
You mean ārestore to previous versionā, not ārunā¦ā.
Both my exe files that are named Diablo III just start Battlenet (I have no desktop shortcut). Same for you when you use the desktop shortcut?
Edit: Applied win7 compatibility mode to both the main exe file and the launcher. Played a GR and the issue still persists. I donāt know if the game was launched with compatibility, though, as Iām forced to run it from Battlenet.