[2022] Game freezing (very) quickly after startup

No obvious cause in those file. Was there no error.log for us?

Edit that pdx_settings.txt file and find the renderer line. Change it to be like this:

"renderer"={
version=0
value="OpenGL"
}

Does that make any difference?  

That error log looks bad, apart from anything else do you have old save games still there? Can you try moving them elsewhere then start a new test campaign please?  

I know you've done a Windows reinstall already, but bear with me if you will.

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

- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "uninstall" in Steam-CK3
- unsubscribe from ALL mods in the Steam Workshop for this game
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/CK3 AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/CK3 folders
In particular make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam CK3 or Documents CK3 locations, before installing again.

- 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 with a new campaign, BEFORE restoring nay save game files.

If there are still issues let's see those logs yet again please!  

Well, a completely different error log now - it only mentions the sound system in fact. So that clean reinstall did something!

Are you hearing anything happen in audio in sync with the problem, as you describe it in your OP here?  

Run Task manager and go into Performance. Then run the game up in windowed mode; what do you see happen in TM when the problem starts happening?  

I'm pretty sure that CPU drop is a consequence of the problem rather than a cause of it.

Which leaves us no wiser as you why this is happening to you! The fact it happened before and after a clean Windows reinstall does tend to point to hardware, but I can't imagine what sort of thing could cause that!

In the Windows search box enter msconfig. Go to Boot-Advanced; if number of processors it ticked there, untick it, save and reboot.

Unload GeForce Experience before starting the game.

If those don't help, please install and run the free utility Speccy. Send its output to a text file and attach that here, thanks.  

I mean right click on it in your Windows taskbar and select Exit or Quit.

A few Windows updates are stalled there, if you run Update does it find anything to apply?

Lots of utilities and apps running, but nothing I've seen cause problems to our games before.

I have a feeling this is hardware-related but I haven't seen anythign to back that up, not even which general area it might be. We eliminated DirectX 11 but that's about it ... and why apparently only this game?

Do you have Imperator, if so dos that have the same problem? It's the only other one of our games that's quite similar to this one.  

Dnomyar96 said: The most recent crash from CK3 only had a single line in the error log:

If there's nothing there, nor in dxdiag.txt referencing either game, that again starts to look like a hardware issue - or at least an issue from outside the game, which the game of course cannot log.

Do you see any ERROR or WARNING entries in the Windows Event Viewer in the few minutes leading up to these crashes?  

Me either, I have to say! We've exceeded my knowledge and experience of the internals of Windows I'm afraid.

I found this article on that message:

The application-specific permission settings do not grant Local Activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID - Microsoft Q&A

Microsoft Q&A is the best place to get answers to all your technical questions on Microsoft products and services. Community. Forum. docs.microsoft.com
It seems to say it's likely cosmetic - do you only get that message just before these crashes, or elsewhere in the WEV?