Byfron causes Crashes for many users

Bug Report
1

The Bug:
Since the release of Overwatch 2, several players have reported that the game crashes after 1-5 minutes which was also the case for myself.

It makes no difference whether you are at the main menu or in-game, the game crashes without any freezes or error messages, and you are sent directly to the desktop as if you had clicked Alt + F4.

Here’s a thread about these crashes with over 8000 views and 200 comments, to which no mod or dev has answered yet, which is the most active thread in the “Technical Support” section:
[Main Thread] Overwatch 2 crashes after a couple of minutes

Potential Fixes didn’t work:
Changing the graphics settings has no effect on whether or not the crash occurs.

Additionally, the following “bug fixes” did not prevent these crashes:

  • Updated the Nvidia Experience driver
  • Set energy settings to High Performance Mode
  • Removed a rzchromasdk64.dll which seems to cause issues for other people
  • Disabled Fullscreen Optimization for Overwatch.exe
  • Disabled Firewall
  • Closed and disabled all Antivirus programs
  • Using “–tank_WorkerThreadCount 2 -thread 2” as Overwatch parameter
  • Disabled Xbox Game Bar and Nvidia Experience Overlay
  • Windows Hardware GPU Scheduling On/Off
  • Windows Game Mode On/Off
  • Disconnecting all Secondary Monitors
  • Toggling off GSync/FreeSync - in all manner of combinations.
  • Taking the Graphics Card out and putting another one back in (to rule out vendor-related driver issues)
  • Setting the Graphics Card to Quiet Mode (basically, underclocking the GPU to make sure it isn’t overheating, though it never goes above 65C in OW2)
  • FSR Off/On
  • Different Nvidia Reflex Settings (Off, On, On + Boost)
  • Uninstalling as much 3rd party software as possible: Nvidia Broadcast, SteelSeries GG, Logitech Capture, Razer related software
  • Disconnecting as many USB Peripherals as possible (Webcam, Audio Interface, MIDI Controllers, USB Headset, etc.)
  • Using a new Gaming Router
  • Switching between Ethernet and WiFi
  • Turning off XMP for the RAM
  • Taking all of the RAM out and putting in a different set of DIMMs

What is causing the Crash:
I came upon the following post after doing some research:
[Main Thread] Overwatch 2 crashes after a couple of minutes - #180 by SoftPaws-21141 - Technical Support - Overwatch Forums

Overwatch 2 uses a new anti-reverse engineering protection known as “Byfron.”
But because that protection is so new, it seems to cause many “false positives” for some users.

The crash happens because “Byfron” seems to flag you as “illegally” modifying the game and as a result crashes your game after 1-5 minutes. It also seems like Byfron bans your “SID” which is the main reason you can’t play anymore without crashing.

How to fix the Crash:
Numerous forum members have reported that the following workaround actually fixes the crash:

  1. [Main Thread] Overwatch 2 crashes after a couple of minutes - #131 by duxe-21793 - Technical Support - Overwatch Forums
  2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1SKLajP7Es

These 2 “Fixes” above are merely a side effect of the “real fix” tho.

The “Real Fix”:
To really get around the crash you have to change your “SID” everytime you restart Overwatch, which is also why so many users can play again after creating a new windows user account, as that also changes your “SID” as a side effect.

You can find the “SID” in your REGISTRY and searching for “EDID” Id which can be found at “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Enum\DISPLAY”.

That ID can be changed with any SID or EDID changer found on the internet.
If you need a YouTube Tutorial take a look at this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fImvgWayI0

This actually worked for me and many other users that had the same Crash Bug as me.

Why does this work?
As already mentioned, Byfron falsely bans your “SID” and crashes your game.
With changing your “SID” you can get around that ban and play again.

TL;DR:
Byfron appears to falsely flag users, bans their SID, and crashes the game after 1-5 minutes. To fix the crash you have to change your SID in the registry which then allows you to get yourself “Byfron unbanned”.

That is to say, OW Devs please fix your Byfron Anti Tamper protection, it has bugs and crashes the game for hundred if not thousand users by mistake.

9 Likes
2

Has anyone tried this “fix” yet?

1 Like
3

Me and a few friends of mine that had the same issue, worked for all of us.
You have to change the SID everytime you start playing tho.

4

did you manually do it or used a program?

5

Using a program, there are plenty out there.

6

just tried it game still crashes after few mins unfortunately.

7

which for example did you use?

8

Change it every time wow, I thought change it once, why every time?

9

Cuz byfron blocks you everytime :slight_smile:

10

yeap, I tried all of them and none worked for me… yesterday I did a new clean windows installation, installed the game, and played for around 10 minutes until the game crashed :slight_smile:

1 Like
11

Well you will need a different fix then

12

What the…? So this is proposital? Why blizzard WHYYY i really don’t understand why they had make this.

In my case i use external monitor connected to HDMI since my laptop screen has broken, i think should not work

13

You fixed my game thank you

14

No problem mate, glad it worked :slight_smile:

15

Assuming Blizzard still has yet to address this issue? I checked the known bug issues section and still don’t see anything regarding this. I’m tired of my game crashing and my ranks depleting because they wanna crash my game for no reason.

2 Likes
16

A reply I got was “nope its clearly your graphics card overheating” when its not. It never goes above standard temps when playing this.

1 Like
17

Honestly, I feel as though this company cannot take accountability for anything. From our perspectives, they release a broken game and then proceed to do nothing about it. It would appear that they are just doing a money grab and running. I shouldn’t have to make another user or anything on my computer for a game to work. It has almost been a month since launch and this is still an issue. While people are still spending money on the game, they’re not really going to care, it would seem. As for myself, Blizzard won’t get my money until I’m able to play the game without issue. Even then, I’ll likely wait to make sure nothing else pops up from there end that hinders my gameplay.

1 Like
18

Well lets hope they will fix it at some point. if you want to fix it permanently upgrade to windows 11 or reset your pc.

1 Like
20

Win11 is already what I’m running. I’m not resetting my computer entirely for one singular game. I just won’t play it.

But yes, hopefully they fix it because this is ridiculous.

2 Likes
21

Yes same for me, resetting would work but i dont want to go through that process just to fix one game :slight_smile:

2 Likes