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i0nviz's avatar
i0nviz
11 months ago
Solved

(PC) Unable to load game since yesterday, or maybe Tuesday

The game is stuck at the loading splash screen with the spinning wheel and Bangalore + Lifeline

If I disconnect my network cable, it gives me the "unable to connect to ea servers" message and once I reconnect the cable i can list the data centers, and see their pings.

Yesterday night I had the same issue, and I suspect  that this has started after the update for this event. Last time I have played was Sunday or Monday.

I have already tried:

- repairing the game files

- reinstalling the whole game (on Steam)

- updated my Radeon drivers

- connecting my PC directly on the cable modem to bypass the firewall/router

Ryzen 7700

Radeon 7900XTX

Windows 11

Steam platform

  • i0nviz's avatar
    i0nviz
    11 months ago

    Well well well !! I was finally able to "solve" (sort of) the issue !!! I am unsure if it is on my end, or on EA's end though. But I have a very very interesting lead. I've done a Wireshark trace and noticed some funny TLS handshake errors (many many tls handshake warning close notify).


    The issue is (I think) tied to an expired TLS certificate somewhere in between EA and my computer (and other computers in the household, and other people online as well). My computer has the latest Windows updates (Win11), as well as my daughter's (Win10) but we are both unable to play with the exact same symptom.


    To test my theory, I've set the date back 1 month (March 3rd) on my computer. Loaded t he game, bam. it worked !! Then I've set the date back to today (April 3rd) and restarted the game ... it won't load : infinite spinning circle again. I've tried setting my date back one day at a time, and the first date that the game fails to load is March 25. If I set my computer back to March 24, the game loads and I can play online.

    Once the game is loaded, I can set the date back to today, and I can play just fine. It is only a check during inital loading.

    So. EA, can you please fix your certificate issue, or please tell us which certificates are required on our computers to make the game load properly?

    TLDR: the issue is most likely an expired/revoked TLS certificate issue. Set your PC date back to a date BEFORE March 25 2024 and it will connect.

18 Replies

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  • GlobalShock's avatar
    GlobalShock
    11 months ago

    Hey @i0nviz 

    This seems to be happening to a lot of players and i believe it's the recent EA security updates are what's causing those random issues.

    Even someone i know posted today a similar thing, when he tried to load into the game it just displays " unable to connect to ea servers ".

    But when he checked his EA account, it displayed a ban/suspension with no reason.

    Try to go to your EA web-page and see if you have an active ban with no reason just to make sure.

  • AverageApexEnju's avatar
    AverageApexEnju
    11 months ago

    faced the same problem
    after the event update, he doesn’t go anywhere, not even to the shooting range

    most of my friends have the same problem

  • i0nviz's avatar
    i0nviz
    11 months ago

    I have tried different DNS, and even tethering to my cell phone with a different provider than my internet but the issue persists.

  • GlobalShock's avatar
    GlobalShock
    11 months ago
    @i0nviz wrote:

    I have tried different DNS, and even tethering to my cell phone with a different provider than my internet but the issue persists.

    Switching to a different DNS or using a mobile connection is unlikely to resolve the issue, as many countries have internet and phone internet services provided by the same provider with the same IP pool.

    You can try using Windscribe VPN to see if it helps. It's free, all you need to do is create an account, verify it, then log in, connect to the nearest server close to your country, and load Apex.

    Let me know if this resolves the issue for you, as it has been a solution for a few people experiencing similar issues.

    Why Windscribe VPN? Because it offers IKEv2/Wireguard Protocol, which can be very helpful in diagnosing internet problems like these.

  • i0nviz's avatar
    i0nviz
    11 months ago

    My ISP and my cell phone provider are 2 very different companies.  They connect to other carriers through different backbone providers (Telia and Cogent in this case). The network path is very different.

    Different DNS might change some results if some data is cached for a long time. I usually use my own DNS but I have a filter on it for some hosts, so I tried my ISP's my cell's company, Google's and Cloudflare's DNS servers which seem to all resolve hosts to the same IPs so caching was not the issue.

    I won't be using the VPN but thanks for the suggestion.

  • i0nviz's avatar
    i0nviz
    11 months ago

    Well well well !! I was finally able to "solve" (sort of) the issue !!! I am unsure if it is on my end, or on EA's end though. But I have a very very interesting lead. I've done a Wireshark trace and noticed some funny TLS handshake errors (many many tls handshake warning close notify).


    The issue is (I think) tied to an expired TLS certificate somewhere in between EA and my computer (and other computers in the household, and other people online as well). My computer has the latest Windows updates (Win11), as well as my daughter's (Win10) but we are both unable to play with the exact same symptom.


    To test my theory, I've set the date back 1 month (March 3rd) on my computer. Loaded t he game, bam. it worked !! Then I've set the date back to today (April 3rd) and restarted the game ... it won't load : infinite spinning circle again. I've tried setting my date back one day at a time, and the first date that the game fails to load is March 25. If I set my computer back to March 24, the game loads and I can play online.

    Once the game is loaded, I can set the date back to today, and I can play just fine. It is only a check during inital loading.

    So. EA, can you please fix your certificate issue, or please tell us which certificates are required on our computers to make the game load properly?

    TLDR: the issue is most likely an expired/revoked TLS certificate issue. Set your PC date back to a date BEFORE March 25 2024 and it will connect.

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