ME3 crashing just after authenticating DLC (possible Retaliation bug?)

having exactly the same problem EA has not been able to resolv the issue and had pushed me to email support....unhappy...i have never heard anything from them since.....the game is still broken.

Same for me, I've had a little success with the "unplug your lan cable" trick but honestly I'm done with bioware, just recently 'somehow' had my swtor account compromised, six virus scanners and three malware scanners turn up clean, support suggested I may have downloaded an email attatchment. AN EMAIL ATTACHMENT in 2014, who doesn't know about that antiquated technique.

So this makes a DLC bug they created rendering most of us unable to play ME3 multiplayer, and now the whole "tried to blame the customer" angle on compromised data/account security for SWTOR. Time for me to walk away.

I am having this issue on the Xbox 360. I will go through what I have had so far. 

Three days ago I was playing in the afternoon and I got disconnected from a game. I just turned my Xbox off out of frustration.

I came back that evening at around 11 pm and turned my Xbox on. I loaded Mass Effect 3 until it got to the menu and within 2 seconds the game froze. I repeated this process several times in different ways and with both discs with the same result. I even started off by deleting my hard drive install of ME 3 to see if perhaps there was some form of corruption, because it was very similar to a read error on a hard drive the way it froze at exactly the same spot Here is where it gets interesting for me. I have two Xbox 360s due to my obsession with Mass Effect 3. My other one has a bad optical drive that basically failed a little over a year ago, but I was able to get it to work somewhat toward the end of last year and I was able to get it to install ME3 on the hard drive which, in turn, allows me to load the game so long as the disc is initially recognized. This allowed me to load up Mass Effect on my second Xbox360. Here is the funny part: it did the same thing on my second box. It locked up again at the menu screen. 

I went and played another game for a few hours (which also led me to further determine that there was nothing wrong with my Xbox) until my internet connection had a problem at 3 am. I called and confirmed and Mediacom was doing maintenance in the area. More problems for troubleshooting because now it could have been a network issue because they said it had been ongoing for a few hours and I could only assume that perhaps it wasn't just an acute problem with my network. I decided to give it a rest until the next day. 

The next day I went back out during the afternoon to see if it would load. Sometimes problems do resolve themselves. It didn't. It still froze on startup. I decided to get online and look for solutions. I tried several things like unplugging the network cable. This did allow me to load into Mass Effect 3 and go into the options to look for things, but it didn't solve my problem (I did everything in the Mass Effect 3 - Freezing on "Checking Downloadable Content" Xbox 360 -

I got online and went to my N7HQ profile and found a note:

Your EA/Origin account needs to be updated. Re-sync your online profile(s) to fix this problem.

I found this to be odd. Perhaps the disconnect from EA initially caused this. Perhaps the network maintenance from Mediacom caused this. Either way if I click re-sync your online profile(s) it does nothing. The error is still there. Considering the game froze every time at the moment the game is validating and syncing the DLC and EA profile seems to indicate that perhaps the synchronization is the problem. I believe the Retaliation pack is also related to the N7HQ as it brought it about from what I read. The workaround I have at this point is to have a completely separate flash drive with Retaliation installed on it and I load up and then plug the flash drive in after it verifies the DLC. This works, but it still presents me with a problem. I still have to host or quick join games. 

I've tried a few different things to try to get the Xbox to re-sync and get rid of the error on my profile. Nothing has been successful yet, but I feel that would fix my problem. I have heard from a friend that he had a similar problem (after I already diagnosed everything) and he just said it went away after a couple of months. 

If anyone has some insight into synchronizing my account I will give it a try. I will probably open a support ticket soon, because it is a pain to put this flash drive in the front of my Xbox every time. It's also a pain to limit my options for joining games. 

I took my second Xbox up to a work location with another network and tried to log that one on to the network with the DLC installed. It still locked up. I did not uninstall the DLC to test that as well as I figured the same work around would not affect it, but I have reconsidered that diagnostically it was important to make it login and go into multiplayer as perhaps that would have synced my account. 

Either way my issue is still unresolved and I am still booting into Mass Effect 3 from two different Xboxes with the same procedure of having the DLC on a flash drive that I plug in after it checks for content. This is the only way it will not lock up on me. 

I have to either host a game or quick join to join anything. If I want to join a friend then they have to setup some obscure public game with a private setting and then set it public while I am searching to force me to join the game. Of course, I ended up having other difficulties after joining the game the last time because I was disconnected from EA servers (imagine that) and then subsequently my Xbox locked up again and I have not tried this method again to verify if this works consistently. I just had the pleasure of wasting 20 minutes, not receiving any points toward my challenges because EA doesn't update the information until the game ends, and losing several pieces of gear. 

Edit: I would also like to note that the EA chat support has no audible cues to let me know a technician is there, but I should sit there and watch the screen until they get back. If I am waiting while I am at work I have other things to do and may not see it come up. I just waited 30 minutes waiting for someone who disconnected fairly quickly. Now I am going through the process again. It's sad, too, because this seems to be a common enough problem for people on Live to already be aware of it happening to other people. I have mentioned it to a few people with whom I have played and they already knew about it and had suggestions. This support is awful. 

Edit: I finally talked with someone on chat. I will try not to be disparaging, but they advised me to clear my cache after I asked them to read this post. I have already cleared my cache, but even if that wasn't clear I didn't see how that could be a likely issue with more than one Xbox. He or she clearly had no reasonable suggestions and was copying and pasting answers. Now I am being referred to "have someone call" me back. Maybe I can get someone competent on the phone and not a seat warmer.

Just an update. I never got a callback. The link the associate gave me was useless. I took my Xbox to yet another network (actually my other Xbox this time) and tried it with my retaliation trick to get the game load and connected completely to multiplayer. 

I dashboarded and tried to boot Mass Effect with Retaliation and of course it froze on me again. There is still no resolution to my problem. 

There is no customer available solution, it was explained to me that it was a bug that BIOWARE themselves has to fix and they pulled the ME3 team to work on ME4 and some unknown project. What this tells me is they've taken on the standard EA bug fixing approach, where they used to fix things with patches (Jade Empire got patches when a bug was found up to two years after they had finished it) they now just move on to the next project.

I wish you luck X-Box guy, I've abandoned ship.

Yeah, that is pretty much what I have gathered too. Some friends have said they have had it or know someone who had it and it just took time to fix itself. About 2 months from what I have gathered so maybe my prison sentence is soon to be over. 

So, just another update. I still have the problem, but I have some more hope for those experiencing a similar issue. 

A friend of mine was also familiar with this issue and I advised him I could not join friends' games because of it. I had to host. He told me try joining a game from the main menu after plugging the Retaliation back in and I should be able to accept a request to join a game. It worked! 

However, I locked up the first time I tried to do it because I went to the main menu from multiplayer and that probably made it check my DLC again and connect again. I had to restart my Xbox before attempting it. I should have just dashboarded. I would have had to take out the DLC again before loading up but it would have prevented the freeze. 

Either way if anyone is searching for help on this matter this is what I have so far. It's unfortunate that Bioware isn't devoting any time to this game any more. 

I am having this same problem on 360, and the only workaround I've found so far is to delete and re-download retaliation each time I want to play. EA support was not helpful. 

See above where I point out a slight workaround to this. Install retaliation on a USB drive. Plug it in after it checks for DLC at the main menu. You can accept invites to friends' games at this point also. You cannot if you go into multiplayer as it will take you back to the main menu momentarily to check and it will freeze as if you came to the menu with Retaliation installed. If you go into multiplayer you will have to host or quick join a random game.