Forum Discussion

OJSU's avatar
OJSU
New Rookie
4 months ago

Battlefield 5 Slow Startup and Long Loading Time

Update (Edited: 06-08-2025):
Even BF6's open beta loads fine on the same PC—just 50 seconds from clicking "Play" to reaching the main menu.

Update (Edited: 30-07-2025):

Performed a clean reinstall of Windows 11 and the game still takes over two minutes to load. A friend of mine with a different setup is experiencing the same issue. I suspect the problem is related to the anti-cheat or the game itself.

I’ve attached a screen recording to this forum post showing the problem, including an on-screen stopwatch and Task Manager for reference.

Original Post:

For EA Staff & Devs
Bug Report ID: 6ad91d36-9f32-4e49-98f0-e1c42c510896
Help Case ID: #215668482

I recently updated the BIOS and Windows on my laptop. Everything seemed to be running smoothly—until I noticed that launching BF5 now takes significantly longer than it used to. Only BF5 is affected, I timed it with a stopwatch and the startup consistently takes around 2.5 minutes. The other games' load time from pressing play till it enters full-screen are:

BF3 = 12 Seconds
BF4 = 16 Seconds
BF1 = 40 Seconds

Issue description:

  • After clicking Play in the EA App, the EA Anti-Cheat launches and initializes normally.
  • Once the Anti-Cheat finishes, there's a 30-33 second delay before the game window appears.
  • The game remains in small window and shows a black screen for another 50-60 seconds.
  • Eventually, the game maximizes into a full-screen window and loads the title screen.
  • Once fully open, the game runs fine, except it loads map extremely slowly as well.

Here's what I've tried so far:

  • Confirmed that Windows and NVIDIA drivers are fully up to date.
  • Repaired, reinstalled, and cleared the cache for both the EA App and BF5.
  • Ran both the EA App and BF5 with administrator privilege and in offline + clean boot.
  • Ran both the EA App and BF5 on a different SSD, ensure SSD firmware are up to date.
  • Performed a reinstall of the NVIDIA driver using DDU; cleared DirectX and NVIDIA GL caches.
  • Reinstalled Windows using the "Fix problems with Windows Update" in-place upgrade.
  • Reset BIOS to default settings, did a CMOS reset too.

Unfortunately, none of these steps have resolved the issue, and I’m starting to run out of ideas. Has anyone else experienced this? I’d appreciate any tips or suggestions.

For reference (especially if any DICE developers are reading this), here’s the BIOS update I installed:

https://support.hp.com/nz-en/drivers/swdetails/omen-by-hp-16.1-inch-gaming-laptop-16-k0000/model/2101129710/swItemId/ob-348379-1

I’ve also attached my DxDiag file to this post in case it’s helpful.

8 Replies

  • I'll join in here. I updated BIOS on my MSI Z790 Tomahawk the other day (while also changing graphics card from a 4070 to a 9070XT).

    Game now takes a very long time to load.

    Surely there must be something we can do to fix this? I don't want to roll back the BIOS update.

  • RetroBitPixel's avatar
    RetroBitPixel
    Rising Adventurer
    27 days ago

    I'm experiencing the same issue after updating the BIOS of my MSI Z690-A to version 7D25v1M.

  • OJSU's avatar
    OJSU
    New Rookie
    3 months ago

    Rolling back the BIOS was my first thought as well, but that’s unfortunately not possible. HP introduced a firmware lock in 2024 on their laptops that prevents any BIOS rollback unless the device is sent to an HP service centre. That would take about a month in my case, and I rely on this laptop for work, so it’s not a viable option. 

    The EA Help advisor handling my case told me the DICE team was aware of this issue and would respond to my post. It’s now been a month and a half, and there’s been no reply or communication from them at all. 

    At this point, it feels like EA & DICE has simply chosen to ignore their customers.

  • Amarict's avatar
    Amarict
    Seasoned Novice
    3 months ago

    So I decided to try rolling back the BIOS to the version it was prior, understanding the risks involved with messing with BIOS firmware of course. I'm glad to say that Battlefield V opens much faster again.

    The BIOS version that messed things up was from this page 

    https://www.asus.com/motherboards-components/motherboards/prime/prime-z790-a-wifi/helpdesk_bios?model2Name=PRIME-Z790-A-WIFI

    It was version 1820. I don't have much else to say though, good luck fellas!

     

  • ZHSLOL's avatar
    ZHSLOL
    Seasoned Newcomer
    3 months ago

    I have the same issue, and it only happens with Battlefield V, where it takes five minutes to boot up. I don't have the same issue with any other games, and I want to play Battlefield V, not Battlefield "5 minutes to boot up". (Although they can both be referred to as Battlefield V)

  • OJSU's avatar
    OJSU
    New Rookie
    3 months ago

    I recommend opening a case with EA Help and give them your PC’s DxDiag file. The more cases they receive, the more likely they are to actually do something about it. I’ve told all my friends with the same issue to do the same.

    Also, it would help if you could like the main post.

    For some baffling reason, EA hasn’t implemented an “I have the same issue” button like Gaijin has on War Thunder’s bug report forum, and instead uses post likes to gauge how many users are affected.

  • Amarict's avatar
    Amarict
    Seasoned Novice
    3 months ago

    Just wanted to post and let you know, I've been playing a lot of BFV lately, I updated my BIOS yesterday, and suddenly it takes MUCH longer to load up the game, and load into game servers, exactly as you described. You are not alone.

  • I've been having this issue since the servers went down the other week, it was fine up until then. I thought the servers were the problem and that's why it was taking so long to load that night. I've deleted the game, settings folder, Ea app, cache and reinstalled it all, deleted anticheat, reinstalled, repaired and updated... still the same issue with loading as you described. 

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