[2021] Game keeps freezing every 5-10 mins, then after 5 mins its playable again.

Does it also affect CK2, HOI4, EU4 and Stellaris?

During the freeze, what do you see in Task Manager - Performance? Or is the whole machine hung, you can't even alt-tab out?

I see you have had crashes in Xcom, Xcom 2, Dropbox, Handbrake and even NVDisplay.Container.exe - would you say you are having general problems in this machine?  

Please do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "uninstall" in Steam-CK3
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/CK3 AND Documents/Paradox/CK3 folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add CK3.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.
- start the game with no mods active and test

In particular make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam CK3 or Documents CK3 locations, before installing again.

If that doesn't help:

- If GeForce Experience is loaded, unload it - any different?

- What if you exit the Steam app entirely and run ck3.exe directly from File Explorer - any different?

- If you have any overclocking enabled, please disable it while we work on this.  

Rezimodos said: But with Geforce experince it seems like it works. It hasn't frozen for 30 minutes now. New record.

Rezimodos said: So it still freezes in Steam with Geforce experience on and off

Rezimodos said: It still freezes for 10 minutes, and then after freezing for 2-3 minutes it starts again.

So unloading GeForce Experience helped for a while, but no longer?

If so I have frankly no idea what could be causing this for you. It smells of a graphics card/driver issue but if that were so why only this game?

Make a new Windows user profile on this machine and try it under that - any difference?  

I have to say I'm pretty much out of ideas on this one. Basically it has to be hardware or Windows, AFAICS. Why just this game I cannot imagine, no matter what the cause.

How do you feel about a Windows Reset, or even a clean wipe and reinstall?