[2023] Random freezing, need some tech help please.

Odd how the cap is at 60hz, and that is all your desktop is at, yet the framerate shows in there at 144 as you say.

What actual fps do you see in the game itself?


Please report the temperatures of your CPU and video (GPU)
1/ before starting the game up and
2/ after say 10 minutes' play.
If your PC's vendor has given you no way of reading temperatures, install
SPEEDFAN http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php  

76c is getting up there, but not quite to the point where problems usually start - 80c. Does it never get to 80?

But probably best to try to reduce that anyway.
Clean out all air vents it has (compressed air cans are good for this). Make sure airflow to them is not blocked by anything like walls, books or whatever.
If that doesn't drop the temps enough, you probably have a faulty fan or a heatsink/thermal paste problem. You may need professional help at that point.  

With all that effort, what temps did you see then?

But I agree that freezing the whole system in 60 seconds is very unlikely to be overheating. Can you see any relevant ERROR or WARNING entries in Windows event Viewer just before the freeze?

Please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here please.

Speccy - Free Download

Download Speccy - the System Information tool www.ccleaner.com  

The only thing that stands out to me in there is having both the McAfee and Windows defender AV active at the same time. Make sure ck3.exe is in all the McAfee exceptions lists, and it is not doing realtime scans of the game's Documents folders.

And that ck3.exe is in the Apps ALlowed Through list in WD-Ransomware.


Assuming that doesn't help, I do not know what it is in this machine that is doing this with our game, I'm sorry to say.  

McAfee is still registered as being an active AV app AND firewall!

Firewall
Firewall Enabled
Display Name McAfee Firewall

Antivirus
Windows Defender
Antivirus Enabled
Virus Signature Database Up to date
McAfee VirusScan
Antivirus Enabled
Virus Signature Database Up to date

AV apps are often deliberately made hard to completely uninstall, as that is what some malware tries to do. You might use Ccleaner and Revo Uninstaller to remove it completely if you don't want it.

Arkayne said: I’m tempted to buy the Steam version for $20 and take a chance that it’ll run.

If it does not, you can get a refund from them as long as it shows less than 2 hours' play time in the Steam client.  

Arkayne said: Ironically I've started having problems with the Xbox app, it's refusing to download games and giving me errors in regards to install locations so I just uninstalled it. I'll try giving Steam's CK3 version a try instead and I'll update this thread after a few days of testing.

I'll be interested ... I'd say the gamepass/Xbox infrastructure on Windows is more temperamental than Steam, but OTOH it's hard to see how that could lead to a hardware freeze!