Forgive me if this is a little wordy, but I want to provide all the relevant info upfront to try and cut down on the “but have you tried…” responses. [And now that I’ve just finished typing it all out, I highly recommend that you move onto the next thread and skip this one unless you’re a dev. This is pretty long and dry reading]
I bought a new gaming rig a few months ago. Specs as follows:
Asus Prime 690-P
Intel i5-13600KF
4x32gig Kingston Fury DDR5 sticks (128 total)
GeForce RTX 4070ti
1TB SSD (for the OS) and 2 supplementary HDDs for everything else
I bought and installed D4 not long after I got this rig. Everything was perfect and there wasn’t a single hiccup for months… until this week when season 2 started. As soon as that launch patch downloaded and installed, it’s been a trainwreck. Here’s the symptoms and behavior, and what I’ve done thus far to try and stop it.
To be perfectly clear, let it be known that I did not install, download, or update any other software, at all, in at least the month prior to this starting, nor did I change any settings of anything, anywhere. The only changes that I can think of anywhere on my PC (and believe me, I’ve thought long and hard on this) was the season 2 patch, and an update to the Battlenet launcher that came maybe 2-3 weeks prior (if memory serves).
The season 2 patch DL’d and installed. I launched the game. I played normally and with no issue for about two hours. Then while standing in one of the main towns with the blacksmith window open as I was comparing gear stats and deciding what to salvage and what to maybe save, the game closed and gave me the Fenris window. I didn’t think much of it because, hey, brand new season, things are going to be a little wonky. I just assumed server density or something. Maybe a minor code gremlin that would be ironed out in the next day or two. So I fired the game back up, and played for somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour. I know this because I had gone through one potion, and had used a second. Then again, while at a blacksmith in one of the major towns, the same thing happened. Game suddenly closed and I got the Fenris window. Twice in a row? Okay, I’ll be helpful and actually type something in the box this time. While typing… the whole OS went down in a blaze of glory and I got the first of many (I would soon learn) blue screens of death. The error code on my BSOD was something about a kernel exception.
I restarted my PC. Everything worked fine through the BIOS/UEFI stage, but when I got to my Win 11 login screen, it BSOD’d again after about a second. This cycle continued a few more times until the magical Windows detect-a-problem invoked and it gave me the option to start in safe mode or attempt a repair or whatever because it detected Windows hadn’t started correctly several times in a row. I opted for safe mode so I could poke around and investigate. Look at some error logs and all that. When rebooting into safe mode… I BSOD’d again at the login screen. Uh oh, that’s not good.
At this point, I was thinking something hardware-related was the issue. It is, after all, a relatively new rig, so I reasoned that maybe it had been just long enough for some hardware component that initially worked, but had some hidden problems, to finally hit the critical point and start failing spectacularly. The first thing I checked was my RAM. I should mention that the actual stopcodes and errors on my BSOD’s were inconsistent and a total revolving door of stated reasons. Everything from kernel exceptions and interrupts to unresolved memory addresses to K Mode exceptions. It was all over the place, so I mostly just ignored them and decided to check everything, linearly and systematically. So the first thing I did was throw a standalone bootable version of Memtest86+ on a flash drive and put my RAM through the paces. I let that run for a few hours as it doesn’t ever end and just runs perpetually until stopped. It found zero issues with my RAM sticks.
After that, I decided the next order of business was getting back into the OS so I could work natively and not with bootable flash drive utility apps. I went with the tried-n-true option of “turning it off and back on again.” In this case, that meant doing a complete SSD wipe and re-install of the OS. After I had Win 11 installed fresh, I decided to stress test the OS itself and give it some time, thinking that maybe the fresh OS install had resolved the issue. I updated all the core OS stuff, and my drivers, then I went incrementally over the span of two days, installing one of my usual apps at a time, and then giving the PC a few hours of use. Everything was perfect and not a single hiccup. That is, not until I installed Bnet and D4 again. It played perfectly for about 90 minutes, just long enough to lull me into a false sense of security. Then boom… once again while standing at a blacksmith with the vendor tab open, game crash and the Fenris window… but not a BSOD at OS level. Restarted the game. Same thing… played fine for about an hour or so, then crashed while at a blacksmith. At this point, I shut D4 and Bnet down, and ran the scan and repair utility. Nothing out of the ordinary was found, and no repairing was done. I decided to go back to checking my hardware for malfunctions. Having already checked the RAM sticks themselves, I decided to check the DIMM slots. I pulled all my sticks out and ran them, one at a time, in single stick configuration in the A2 slot. No issues. I then progressed to dual configuration, which on my MOBO is A2 and B2. No issues. I then ran them in all four slots, in every configuration possible, so that every stick was in every slot at least once. No issues at all, ever, so I have concluded that my RAM sticks and my DIMM slots are all fine.
At this point, I decided that maybe one of my HDDs might be failing and causing some sort of cascading destruction wave across my system. I disconnected both of them and left only my SSD up and running. I reinstalled Bnet and D4 on my SSD and gave that a go. Again, about 45 minutes of everything being perfect, then a crash and the Fenris window. This time, it also triggered a BSOD. At this point, I reasoned that maybe the SSD was the issue, so I disconnected the SSD, sacrificed one of my HDDs and turned it into a bootable OS HDD, and re-installed Windows on it. Then Bnet and D4. And would you believe it… same thing. About 45-60 minutes of everything being great and perfect, then the game crash and Fenris window. And then about a minute later, a BSOD.
I could only think of one more thing to try. I setup all my hardware back in the usual configuration, and then did a complete wipe of my OS, and reinstalled windows. Then Bnet and Diablo 4. However, this time, I did one new thing. I reset my CMOS before launching for the first time. And glory be to almighty Cthulhu, the game ran, hiccup free, for a whopping 4 hours or so. I actually got through an entire session and logged off normally for the first time in days. Yesterday morning, I played again. The game crashed after about two hours, but no BSOD. And this time, not at a blacksmith.
Just while I was out and about in the open world. Frustrated, I just walked away. I came back to it last night and fired it up. Again, it played fine for about 45 minutes, then game crash without BSOD, this time in a dungeon. Every restart after… which was about 6-7 in total last night… I’d play perfectly for anywhere from 15 minutes to an hour, and then get a random game crash and that horrible Fenris window. It never tripped a system-level BSOD though.
I honestly don’t know what’s going on. The only issue this PC is having is Diablo 4. I’ve installed D2R and D3 at various stages along the way of this troubleshooting journey, and neither of those gave me any hassle at all, even after hours. It’s literally just D4. And the frustrating thing is that this game was working perfectly for months, and there were no changes at all made on my end. The fact that everything was great until the moment that season 2 started and the patch for it downloaded is one heck of a flashing neon sign. It’s mighty hard to ignore and not draw some common sense conclusions. Especially when I literally shut everything else down to try and give D4 every chance to run. Every background process and supplementary app that isn’t vital to the core OS is nuked, and D4 still goes belly-up after that 45(ish) minutes, give or take. But outside of D4, this PC runs like a gem and I have no issues with anything else.
I’ve done 8 complete OS wipes and reinstalls this week. I’ve nuked Bnet and Diablo 4 a few times and done fresh installs of them on top of fresh OS installs. I’ve checked them with the scan and repair tool and verified them. I’ve checked my own hardware extensively and ruled all my equipment out. At this point, I simply must conclude that the season 2 patch introduced something that wasn’t there before, that is not playing well with something in my hardware. But not immediately… only after a good chunk of time elapses. And, let’s be honest… this is more than a “me” issue because none of my hardware is exactly obscure or some fringe company / chipset. This is all fairly run-of-the-mill gear that tons of other folks are going to have in their rigs.
And one last note… yes, at many stages of this process, I tried running the game many different ways. I’ve launched from the D4 launcher, I’ve launched from the Bnet launcher, and I’ve launched through the GeForce experience. I’ve launched in all those ways as administrator and as not administrator. And I’ve mixed and matched with various windowed/full screen modes. And with different resolutions. And with different graphics options. And various “accelerated” modes on and off. I’ve tinkered with all my BIOS/UEFI options as far as overclocking and all that.
End result, no matter what I do, D4 season 2 has a flaw at its core that presents in almost the exact same way every single time. The only thing I can offer is that it seems to be something that is (temporarily) resolved if I reset my CMOS. I’ve done that three times now, and each time has allowed me to play for at least 4 hours after doing it without any trouble… until the next time I log in, then it’s back to usual. And I highly suspect it’s also some weird gremlin that has something to do with either blacksmith’s specifically, or vendors in general (although, that pattern has broken the last few times I’ve attempted to play, so I’m not as sure about that anymore.)
I’m not here to poo-poo on Blizzard. There are more appropriate places where that can be done. I don’t want my money back. I’m not whining about a “bad game” or whatever. It’s fine and fun when I can play it and I’m happy to do so… if I can. My only intent here is to bring my personal experience and current issue to the attention of someone and hope that the info I have provided (although lengthy) may help some dev with way more knowledge than myself identify what the issue is and get it fixed for me and, I assume, probably more than a couple other people.