Hello all - I recently bought DAI on Steam and have been playing it on and off throughout the last week. I have faced the recurring issue that Inquisition crashes mid-game: my computer freezes entirely and I have to restart. Previously, it had happened intermittently and while I might have to reboot my computer a couple of times in a play session, I'd be able to eventually go for a few hours without a crash. Today though, it has consistently crashed within five minutes of starting gameplay, about ten times so far. Each time the computer freezes entirely and I have to do a hard reboot.Here are my computer specs https://hastebin.com/esayidiwaj.makefileI have already disabled the steam in-game overlay, done a clean reboot to disable any other overlays, turned off windows security real-time scanning, added an exclusion for the Dragon Age Inquisition folder in Windows Security, turned off McAfee WebAdvisor in Chrome, uninstalled my AMD drivers entirely before reinstalling to 20.4.2, and set the game to start in compability mode for Windows 8. Nothing makes a difference, the game continues to crash. I am not sure what else to do at this point to make the game playable. Are there any suggestions? I meet minimum specs - my computer has two graphics cards (Intel and AMD) and both an SSD and HDD. DAI is installed on the SSD right now.

@Fred_vdp Most likely. I can't imagine most people installing random apps like that lol. But, what surprises me the most is the graphics card, which according to poweruptech, is like 6 years old. I do wonder if using an older driver might work? As DAI came out 6 years ago. It could just be a driver issue, freezing up the PC? Back then, AMD wasn't a titan as it is now.@Armagedon98 You certainly have an older laptop. I am not familiar with integrated graphics much. But, I know now they are pretty decent (a gamer colleague of mine games using an integrated one). I am wondering if trying to use the integrated graphics could work(?) Otherwise, I wonder if rolling back the drivers for the AMD graphics card may work better in this case, as your laptop is older. Not sure if that would be the wisest solution though.

Also, the AMD cards WILL freeze your games if you do not update the drivers. I had the exact same problem with Ubisoft's Watchdogs 2. But once I updated the drivers, all was well and it never froze again.

What AV and anti-malware software do you use? That can have an impact as well.

Could you list your specs using pcpartpicker? I'd like to see how similar/dissimilar it is to my build. It could help. Plus any AV/Antimalware.

@Fred_vdp Indeed. Hopefully the OP can let us know if it works or not.

Inquisition Freezes Entire PC, Unplayable after Attempted Fixes

15 Replies

Fred_vdp
Hero+
6 years ago
The DxDiag shows Intel graphics as the primary display adapter. EA's games don't always switch to the dedicated GPU. If you haven't already, make sure you're forcing the game to run on the AMD Radeon GPU.

More info here:

https://www.amd.com/en/support/kb/faq/dh-017
Midevil_Chaos
Seasoned Veteran
6 years ago
Also, the AMD cards WILL freeze your games if you do not update the drivers. I had the exact same problem with Ubisoft's Watchdogs 2. But once I updated the drivers, all was well and it never froze again.
Armagedon98
6 years ago
Ok! So I attempted to switch the graphics card in AMD per the link you provided. Unfortunately, my version of AMD Adrenalin doesn't contain the "Switchable Graphics" feature anymore - see the attached screenshot. I did some quick googling and it looks like they removed that function from recent updates to the application.
Another thread online discussed using graphics settings, under the display settings on windows, to specify graphics chips for certain applications. I used that to specify my "High Performance" graphics chip - the AMD R9 - for DAI, see the second attached screenshot.
I was really hoping that would fix the issue. Unfortunately, I just booted the game up twice and had two subsequent hard freezes within five minutes of gameplay. The problem is persisting unabated.
Any other ideas?
Midevil_Chaos
Seasoned Veteran
6 years ago
What AV and anti-malware software do you use? That can have an impact as well.
Fred_vdp
Hero+
6 years ago
The Radeon software screenshot shows that a new driver is ready to install. I'd say give it a shot, preferably as a clean installation when the option presents itself.

@Midevil_Chaos wrote:

Also, the AMD cards WILL freeze your games if you do not update the drivers.

Not as a rule. There are cases where a game runs better if you roll back to an older version.

There are older drivers for this GPU on the AMD website, but unfortunately they don't go back as far as the game's release.
Armagedon98
6 years ago
Ok so I updated AMD to 20.7.2. As you suggested, I did a clean install - I completely uninstalled AMD, then reinstalled it at 20.7.2. I also realized I forgot to include I play with an Xbox One controller and bluetooth headphones. Thinking those may play some role, I just tried playing the game using keyboard and mouse and without headphones but unfortunately, it still crashed on me three times in a row.
Is there anything else I can do? I'm really disappointed I haven't been able to get this working, given my rig meets the minimum - and most of the recommended - specs for the game.
Fred_vdp
Hero+
6 years ago
You could repair the game in Origin (right click the game to find the option). On Steam this is called "verify integrity of game files", which is somewhere in the properties. This will check your game files against the database and fix corrupt files.

It's also a possibility that the game behaves unpredictably on laptop hardware. BioWare used to include a disclaimer in their system requirements saying that laptop GPUs are not supported. They didn't do that with DAI, though.

If you suspect the GPU is at fault, you could send a bug report to AMD and they can have a look at it.
Midevil_Chaos
Seasoned Veteran
6 years ago
Could you list your specs using pcpartpicker? I'd like to see how similar/dissimilar it is to my build. It could help. Plus any AV/Antimalware.
Fred_vdp
Hero+
6 years ago
@Midevil_Chaos wrote:

Could you list your specs using pcpartpicker? I'd like to see how similar/dissimilar it is to my build. It could help. Plus any AV/Antimalware.

The OP mentions McAfee web advisor in Chrome, but I wonder, does this come with a regular antivirus program as well?

A clean boot could help point to interference by third party applications: https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/faq/how-to-clean-boot-your-pc/
Armagedon98
6 years ago
I can build my laptop on pcpartspicker if it's helpful but my laptop is the lenovo ideapad y700 with all the original parts - I haven't updated or changed anything out. https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/ideapad-y700-series/Ideapad-Y700-15/p/88IPY700618

I did a clean boot before my original post and it didn't seem to help. As you can see in the attached screenshot, I've left most programs disabled at startup, aside from a password manager program.
I just went through the list of applications under "Add or Remove Programs" and saw that McAfee Web Advisor was installed on my computer. I uninstalled it. The only other AV program I have is SuperAntiSpyware, but real-time detection is turned off for that. I also verified the game files through steam and it found no issues.
Just booted the game up again and still had it freeze, requiring a hard reboot.