A lot of frustration here in forum. I feel it, too. Before getting to my specific details, please forgive my need to thank you all for your time, efforts, and sharing so much here to help solve our similar issues. We all want to fix this and play WoW again. Thank you Elocin for your efforts. I don’t think anyone means to shoot the messenger, especially another player who is volunteering personal time & energy to us. True, the number of players in this single forum is not huge, but cumulatively, the number of players reporting similar issues scattered across other forum topics might add up to something worth escalating for investigation. I don’t know how the Blizzard process for these things works or what numbers trigger action.
Like others reporting here, my freezing and crashing issues begain with mid-April patches/updates and escalated with 11.1.5 patch. I’m prevented from entering world to play WoW. WoW is my only issue. I’ve got two differences from what’s being reported in this forum topic, which seems to rule out two causes in my case. (1) I’ve removed any trace of addons from my pc (2) My Intel Core i7 7700 CPU @3.6GHz and Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 should rule out any Intel chip issues associated with the more recent 13th/14th gen. I’ve never used overclocking.
My system exceeds WoW minimum requirements and meets the recommended one: Alienware Aurora pc, GeForce GTX 1070 dedicated 8GB graphics, 16 GB RAM, & Intel Core i7 7700 CPU @3.6GHz. NVMe primary drive with Bnet installed, 2nd 1TB HDD independent of any connection to WoW, and 1TB Crucial X6 external SSD for only WoW game files via fast USB port. Monitor is Single Asus VG248 LCD. Hardwired with no Wi-Fi enabled (ever) An unshared pc.
WoW freezes at either the game loading screen, the Enter World screen, or the the loading screen for my character freezes. Freezes either abruptly or eventually lead to WoW closing. Either with no error message or eventually with a hanging white transparent screen displaying the Windows "app is not responding"message. Freezing point might occur with normal screen elements displayed and active, or before all loaded and active. If I get to a progress bar, it might be at empty state or as far as 90% before freezing.
My freezing & crashing with the earlier April patches and fixes got increasing worse. The April 19th 11.1. 5 update seems to prevent me from entering game. I cannot play WoW now. I do not have an Intel processor from generations (13, 14, or 15) with BIOS setting issues. I’ve never overclocked my pc.
I’ve done the following so far:
- The usual…restarted PC (maybe a 100 times in last weeks).
- Ran Scan & Repair repeatedly on the game files at logical points while doing this stuff.
- Removed all WoW addons completely from pc.
- Checked for virus, malware, etc, using every scan level and tool from Norton (also game .exe permissions).
- Ensured that Windows 10, all drivers, all software, and apps were updated to most recent versions. Tested that all pc hardware components were running normally.
- Tested most recent and previous drivers for my GeForce GTX 1070 graphics card in clean installs from Nvidia.
- Tested WoW graphics settings, including default graphics & all levels from 1 to 6 for settings.
- Tested specific detailed/advanced graphics settings. Also disabled vs enabled features. Did this based on researching recommendations from Nvidia, Blizzard, WoW Tech Forums, Dell, internet gaming & technical website.
- Disabled all overlays in WoW, Discord, Nvidia, GeForce, or other apps.
- Tested with Accelerated graphics both enabled & disabled.
- Did steps with both VPN set at On and at Off.
- Uninstalled & reinstalled the game at least 4 times. Following the uninstall, removed any remaining WoW folders/files from game files location on PC, restarted PC, and followed with clean reinstalls each time. I’ve also uninstalled & reinstalled the Battlenet app (which opens & runs normally).
- Tried alternate startup from the .exe in the retail folder. A day ago I was stunned & briefly elated to actually Enter World doing this. I froze shortly after & have been shut out since then.
Gwenaelle, Tankutanku, Fujimi, and others. Thank you so much for your considerable time and efforts in trying to isolate, and solve this problem & share your observations for the benefit of all. I confess to rarely reading WoW forums. This issue is the 1st that has driven me to post anything, but have had no need 'til now. This is my 3rd post on same issue in different threads. GL to us all!