Can't join Cross Play lobbies - Error Code PM7
@jenny_a_m
Posted this on the Technical Issues session, but will post here too, just in case anyone is having the same issue(s)..
I play on Steam - Champions Edition version.
It's been happening for a while now - happened a few weeks ago, then it was ok again and then it started to happen again this week - and every time I open the game, I get stuck on this screen:
The only way for me to get through this screen is if I:
- close the game.
- set Steam to Offline Mode.
- open the game.
- after I'm in the game main menu, I set Steam to Online Mode again.
- in the game, I click on 'Retry Connection'
Then I can play normally, BUT.. I just could NOT join any cross play lobby this weekend - I kept getting this error:
If I would turn cross play OFF, then I can join online lobbies just fine, but I'm racing only against Steam players - which obviously reduces the available public lobbies and the total number of drivers.
I already did the following:
- Checked the game's files integrity
- Uninstalled, then reinstalled the game, from scratch (even deleting all of the files under "C:\Users\[USERNAME]\Documents\My Games\F1 22", to make sure the game would be reinstalled with its default/original configs
- Reinstalled Steam itself
- Checked my internet speed (it's all normal and with pretty good ping, download and upload speeds)
- Checked my antivirus (Avast!) for permissions and/or blocked apps
- Checked Windows Firewall settings
- Did a DNS Flush
Everything else is working just fine on my computer - I can download/upload files, live stream (which I do on Twitch, almost daily), play other games online, both on Steam (like GTA V, PUBG and Ring Of Elysium, for example) and on other platforms (like Rocket League through Epic Games, for example).
The problem only happens on F1 22.
SOLUTION, I believe..
The problem IS related to AVAST! (anti virus) and to solve the issue you need to turn the SHIELDS OFF (that's why also uninstalling the AV solves the problem as well - but simply turning the shields on/off is a better option) - here's how to do it:
- Right-click the Avast! tray icon:
- Hover the mouse over the 'Avast shields control' option and then left-click the 'Disable permanently' option:
- You should see a 'Component stop' blue screen asking "Are you sure you want to stop all shields?" - just click on "Ok, Stop":
- Then you should see a Windows Security popup screen - that's ok:
- Now you're ok to join Cross Play lobbies just fine again.
- When you're done playing, just turn the shields back on by right-clicking on the Avast! tray icon again, hovering the mouse over the 'Avast shields control' option and then left-clicking the 'Enable all shields' option (the number of shields may vary according to how many you have installed):
I also tried to turn off the shields manually and separately to try and isolate the 'problematic one', but it didn't work.
It only worked when I did according to the step-by-step process above.
Hope this helps, BUT I also hope EA can do something to avoid the cross play lobbies being blocked by Avast! - it was working fine until about 3 weeks ago, right until Patch 1.14 was released, so I believe it was something on that patch - I had NO Avast! updates since then (so it was not Avast!'s fault)..
@jenny_a_m
@ScarDuck14
