Anyone else lock up launching OW2?

Same issue, but my game won’t open even after 15 minutes or more. I have to exit overwatch or battlenet.exe in task menager or restart my pc :confused:

My troubleshooting was almost identical to yours, and I got the same results, apart from with diminished in game performance (usually solid 190fps down to 50/60 with spikes)

Hey everyone,

Thank you for reporting these sudden issues with delayed launching. This behavior with the client is commonly caused by outdated antivirus software, so be sure that you’ve fully updated security software you have installed. If that doesn’t work, try temporarily removing the security software, then reboot your computer and retest.

Note: Some security programs may be difficult to uninstall. ESET maintains a comprehensive list of common antivirus uninstallation tools on their website.

intel i7-6700k , gtx 1070
bitdefender anti virus free - updated
window defender
windows 10 home / 22h2

This is my exact situation ive updated all drivers, installed fresh windows, thought my PC was bad so bought a new SSD. put the game through exceptions in my antivirus nothings helped.

This started for me just a couple of days ago also. The problem appears to be with CrashMailer_64.exe. If I delete Overwatch/retail/ErrorReporting/x64/CrashMailer_64.exe and hit “Play”, the game launches immediately and plays fine. Unfortunately, the next time I start battle.net, it restores CrashMailer_64.exe and the problem returns so I continuously have to delete it before playing.

2 Likes

Ohkay that fixed it for me but exactly like how many times can i keep deleting it… why is this happening

Been having the issue for a couple days now. Tried uninstalling, scan and repairing files. Nothing has worked

i5-9400F
GTX 1660
Bit Defender Free

The problem does actually seem to be tied to the games interaction with security software, or at least Bit Defender. Uninstalled/Reinstalled antivirus and the game initially booted up fine however after updating Bit Defender post reinstall the issue has resumed and the game takes several minutes to boot during which the entire pc is basically locked.

There is definitely a problem with Bitdefender right now. Turning off Bitdefender exploit detection fixes the problem for me. I found this on r/Bitdefender by OCDGamer90

Try Turning Off Exploit Detection Under Advanced Threat Defense If You Have Issues Loading Programs

I recently had issues with the latest version of Bitdefender Antivirus Free (Build 26.0.34.145) where my games would take too long to startup. After some troubleshooting, I realized Bitdefender was the cause of my laggy loading issues. I disabled Bitdefender and my games ran fine after that. Then I narrowed it down to the Advanced Threat Defense portion. And then narrowed it further to the Exploit Detection. Apparently, this detection portion caused my games to take forever to load. If you turn that off, your games should load normally.

Hopefully, this information helps someone out there.

This has been posted on the Bitdefender forum as well, so hopefully it will get fixed. The thread is called ‘BD Update within the last 24 hours = unable to play any games’

5 Likes

I reinstalled windows today to see if that fixes it. it’s definitely something with the game.

So bitdefender free is the damn culprit!!! THANK YOU

uninstalled the antivirus and just switched to Windows defender + malwarebytes. I experienced the same treatment few years ago even with Kaspersky. I’m done with third party antiviruses meddling with my games like that.

1 Like

Thank you all so much for the info!!! I just started using Bitdefender recently, too! Had no clue this could be the cause of it, I’ll keep an eye on that thread that was mentioned a few posts up and thank you again everyone for chiming in. Really appreciate it! <3

This fixed the issue

I just saw this on the BitDefender thread:

[Alexandru_BD] admin

1:01PM community.bitdefender com /en/discussion/comment/322478/#Comment_322478

Hi,

Just following up on this, I have to ask everyone encountering this problem to get in touch with the Support teams, as more information is required for troubleshooting and we also need to keep count of all reports in case the development teams need to step in.

You can use the below link and simply choose from the available contact channels to reach our engineers:

bitdefender com/consumer/support/help/

Thank you for your patience and understanding.

Regards

Gonna try the bitDefender thing. I have found a workaround to get it to launch faster*, launch the game then restart windows explorer in task manager. loads up as soon as it restarts.

I use BitDefender and this info helped me solve the issue. I added Overwatch.exe AND the CrashMailer_64.exe to my antivirus exceptions list. Game opens fine now.

I just tried adding Overwatch.exe and CrashMailer_64.ex to the antivirus exceptions list but it didn’t help. It still take 3+ minutes for the game to start.

Adding exceptions in Bitdefender’s Advanced Thread Defense doesn’t have any effect. Disabling Exploit detection from Protection->Advanced Thread Defense->Settings worked for me.