Apex hangs forever on the loading screen after the intro

Body:

Hi all,

Posting here because the EA support form won't submit for me, and I've run out of things to try.

THE PROBLEM

Apex Legends (Steam) never reaches the main menu. The EA Anti-Cheat "verifying game environment" splash completes normally, r5apex_dx12.exe starts, the intro animation plays, and then the game freezes on the loading screen (the APEX LEGENDS splash with the spinner), forever. No error dialog, no crash, no log entry. I left it for more than 10 minutes.

Also tried launching from the EA app instead of Steam. It fails too.

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE WHILE HUNG

CPU: one thread pegged at 100% continuously

GPU 3D usage: about 1.6% (the last frame is frozen, nothing renders)

Working set: plateaus at about 3.6 GB and stops growing

C:\ProgramData\Origin\Logs\r5apex_dx12_194908_OnlineActivation_Log.html is never written after the hang, so the game never reaches EA SDK initialization

MY SYSTEM

Windows 11 25H2, build 26200.9457 (in-place repair install already done)

CPU i5-13600KF, 32 GB DDR4-3600 (XMP)

GPU AMD Radeon RX 9070, driver 26.7.1 (32.0.31035.1003)

No third-party AV (Huorong uninstalled), no accelerator (NetEase UU uninstalled)

Apex build v3.0.4.24 (R5pc_r5-310_J24_CL11700487_FSv31_0_2026_10_23), EAAC 1.0.16371190

WHAT I HAVE RULED OUT (with evidence)

Game files: Steam verify integrity, zero errors

OS files: sfc /scannow clean, chkdsk clean, plus a full Windows in-place repair install

RAM: Windows Memory Diagnostic, no errors

GPU driver and D3D12: on the same machine and the same driver, Forza Horizon 6 (DX12) runs at 55-63% GPU usage and is perfectly playable, while Apex stays at 1.6%. So the GPU stack is fine.

EAAC install: reinstalled, driver loads, service starts

Third-party hooks: Huorong and NetEase UU uninstalled, HVCI (Memory Integrity) disabled, all shader caches cleared

Proxy and environment variables: no proxy vars in user or system environment, WinINET and WinHTTP both direct, no proxy keys in EA, Origin, Steam or game configs

Steam and EA app: both work, EA app is signed in

Tried GPU drivers 26.9.1 and 26.7.1, windowed mode, -nosound, deleting Saved Games\Respawn\Apex, and restarting Steam from a clean environment