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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.

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  • i0nviz's avatar
    i0nviz
    11 months ago

    Here are 2 Wireshark screenshots showing what I have found.

    I have masked a part of the data.ea.com FQDN as I am unsure if this is user specific or not. I am only highlighting a single server, but the behavior is the same for other EA servers that the game tries to contact when it fails.

    Hopefully this finds the right person at EA in order to really fix the issue.

    This one here shows the game failing to contact the EA server properly. You can see the Alert Close Notify on the TLS handshake

    And here is how the traffic is smoothly flowing between my computer and EA's server when the date is rolled back to March 4. See how there is "Application Data" packets. These packets are not there when the date is today.

  • N0_NameDefined's avatar
    N0_NameDefined
    11 months ago

    this solution only worked for a short term i tried changing the date again but it is not solved. What seems weird about this issue is that I'm having a similar issue in PUBG as well as it doesn't let me get into a game saying connection timeout. Im not sure if these 2 issues are related though..

  • i0nviz's avatar
    i0nviz
    11 months ago

    @N0_NameDefined 

    Yeah I've found out yesterday that you need yo keep the old date during the whole gaming session, or else it will break randomly during a game (or after a game).

    I was able to play for 5 hours straight yesterday without any issue using a rolled back date.

  • N0_NameDefined's avatar
    N0_NameDefined
    11 months ago

    Update: I was going through yt trying to find a solution, there were tutorials for the fix on ps5 by changing the language to uk eng, so I changed my pc language to uk eng and it seems to be working, I was able to get into the game I tested if the error appears again but it hasn't yet for me

  • rail_hail's avatar
    rail_hail
    11 months ago

    This doesn’t work for me. my game still crashes without an error log not to long after i opened the game

  • i0nviz's avatar
    i0nviz
    11 months ago

    @EA_Barryis the information in this post useful to the EA team ? I mean, The problem has been going on for 17 days. It would be great if someone from EA acknowledged something.

    I have not been able to complete the Maggie challenges because my game has been broken for most part of her challenges being available so I won't be able to get the reward skin for completing all 6 character unlocks ...

    Thanks

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