Game Freezes on startup

After a 2-3 month long hiatus from the game I decided to install 3.4.1 because KMC got an update, after going through the routine install I found that I couldn't play the game, it would freeze a second or so after starting up, getting stuck on the splash screen. I tried troubleshooting it by reading through the FAQ and following the steps to no avail. I eventually gave up and decided to play my 3.2.5 install to find that it had the exact same issue(I did not alter my files since the last time I played). After deleting all files, and uninstalling/reinstalling EFT I tried again but came across the exact same problem.

Things Tried:

• I have tried reinstalling the .net requirements
• Tried updating my drivers
• Tried changing the install location of both EFT and SPT to a different drive
• Checked my drive for errors
• Checked my memory for errors
• Disabled antivirus
• Ran as administrator
• Tride disabling Nvidia overlay
• Tried removing temp files via the launcher
• Tried checking for windows updates
• Tried disabling fullscreen optimizations
• Tried reinstalling .net requirements.
• Tried Enabling Ram Cleaner.

One thing to note is that some of the steps on the FAQ pertaining to the issue seem to be out of date, specifically for steps 2 and 4, like trying to whitelist the module.dll, as there is no modules folder in the 3.4.1 install of AKI(or any file named module.dll. Also there is no folder for EFT in the documents folder, even when playing through an official EFT match first.

The server gui doesn't give any errors.

I did notice that watching the task manager a second separate instance of tarkov opens then closes right before the game freezes. I never watched the task manager when playing on older versions so I'm not sure if this is related or not.

I'm at an absolute loss here, nothing like this has ever happened before! Weird thing is, is that sometimes the game will startup like normal, but it has about a 0.01% of actually happening, sometimes the game crashes after a bit sometimes it doesn't. Very random.

So far the only fix is to constantly launch/end task via task manager till it works.

MAJOR UPDATE:

I seem to have found another fix for this bug. I have to manually delete my .ini settings files for EFT every time I quit the game for it to launch again without freezing. It seems the game only launches perfectly when it has to regenerate it's setting ini files.

It's a really terrible solution since I have to redo all of my settings every time I play, but it seems to work every time I tried it(6x in a row).

I still have no idea why deleting the .ini files even works. They aren't set to read-only, and they aren't corrupted.

Notes:

• Leaving the in-game settings untouched after doing this fix will still cause the game to freeze when relaunching
• Setting the .ini files to read-only does nothing and still leads to freezing on relaunching
• Leaving the server up after successfully launching then proceeding to relaunch the game still causes freezing.
• Changing the Settings folder that contain the .ini files to NOT be read only does not work as it reverts immedietly.
• Live EFT does not share this issue.
• Restarting my PC then playing the game heavily reduces the chance of a crash without having deleted the .ini files after previously playing
• No other game installed on my C drive has any sort of issues.
• I was forced to update windows in the period between my last playthrough and now when I started experiencing problems. But if a windows update was a problem then there would be many more people with similar issues.

I do have .net core 3.1 installed for a Kerbal Space Program mod, could it be causing an issue?

The settings .ini files are now located(for me) in C:\Users\*yourusername*\AppData\Roaming\Battlestate Games\Escape from Tarkov\Settings

Quote from _HEELS_

Just got home and tried your suggestion. Holy cow it worked! SP launched fine. I changed some settings and then exited. Tried to relaunch without going back in to delete the live eft settings folder and it locked up.

So something in the live eft settings folder is crashing SP at launch.

Alright at least there's a better fix than restarting the computer or constantly ending the task via the task manager til it works!!!!!

Odd that we're both experiencing this problem but practically nobody else has it. Weird AF, but glad it worked for you!!!!

Hopefully this will get some actual support once the weekend comes around.

Quote from _HEELS_

I agree it’s weird. Wonder if it’s something obscure certain players share with their setup? You play on an ultrawide by chance?

Nope, I play in 1920x1080

ANOTHER MAJOR UPDATE!!:

After scouring the official EFT forum I found a post from 2018 where a user was describing a similar problem for Live EFT, he also mentioned he tried alt+tabbing after launching and that it only worked for him 5% of the time. I decided to give it a try just to see and it works.

After hitting start on the launcher then hitting alt+tab and giving the game time to load I get literally no freezing! It works 100% of the time for me!!!

This just raises further questions though. Like why does deleting the .ini's work on it's own, but alt-tabbing the game at launch can bypass the issues with the .ini files?!

This is still not an ideal "fix"(better than deleting the .ini files every time) especially since

A. This never happened a few months back on 3.2.5, but randomly started happening a few weeks ago when I got back into SPT.

B. Practically nobody else is having this issue/this shouldn't be happening

New list of things that I have tried to do but failed to work:

• Deleting the .ini files, then letting official tarkov generate them, then playing and restarting spt still causes the issue.
• Checked for Windows updates, found one and installed it, issue still persists.
• Tried editing my .ini files to what someone else has for 3.4.1, but freezing still happens.

If requested I can DM individuals my .ini files(via google drive link).

Minor update:

With the help of gopher#4809 from the SPT discord, him and I have narrowed down the problem to the game.ini and sound.ini files being the culprits. Deleting either/both of them let's the game launch without freezing. So maybe it's something to do with how SPT reads these .ini's that got messed up on my and _HEELS_ computers.

Seriously if anyone can offer help at all PLEASE DO SO.

Problem went away for a short bit, then came back?

I didn't touch the game last night, I had kind of given up with trying to further troubleshoot since I didn't know what else to look at/do. Well today I wanted to try using the Windows Event Viewer to see if it would tell me what other files were causing the freeze issue, or to at least double-confirm the problematic ones, but when I started/restarted the game it stopped freezing.

"What great luck!" I thought to myself, and I tried it 4 more times all of which never froze up. I started writing this post, and when I was about finished I checked the game again just to be sure, aaaaaand now it's back to freezing up. All the old "fixes" still work so nothings changed.

I literally haven't touched the game/game files since Thursday when I figured out what files were causing the issue, and that alt+tabbing bypassed the freezing with the .ini files. Why did it just all of the sudden work, then go back to freezing?

No windows updates were installed(I already did that on Wednesday). I haven't touched my drivers/non got updated aside from me updating my graphics drivers(that was on Tuesday).

**Another thing noted about trying to use event viewer is that since my game never crashed an event was never created, and after looking through all the types of logs the freezing is not noted either. To my knowledge there isn't a way to force it to look at a specific .exe

Minor Update(again):

Well after finishing this post, which took a bit, I tried starting the game again and it launched successfully. Really weird, so I tried launching again and it froze like usual. I decided to try waiting 5 minutes between launching the game(not closing the launcher or server) after having just played. And oddly enough it works, 100% of the time.

Alright so here's a compiled list of everything that works so far:

• Deleting the game.ini and/or the sound.ini files
• Pressing Alt+Tab when starting via the launcher
• Waiting 5 minutes in between play sessions, then starting via the launcher

The first 2 I can see being connected to an issue with the said .ini files, but why TF does the last "fix" work???? I don't really see how it could be connected to a .ini issue.

I already tried reinstalling on my D: drive, then when that didn't work I reinstalled back onto my C: drive, but I'll give it another shot. I don't think I removed the appdata folder when I did it, so I'll try that.

Also another thing to note is my Official EFT doesn't give me the same issue, I can start it up and play it just fine.

Also Also the Alt+Tab fix I found was from a post back in 2018, there aren't any other mentions of doing so(at least as a fix for an issue) that I can find after that year.

Valens This time I made sure to hunt down any and all files related to SPT and EFT on ANY drive and deleted them. I then installed SPT manually(didn't see your comment on using the installer). The issue still occurs. My "fixes" from above still work for me.

Currently testing the installer

UPDATE:

Installer also doesn't fix it, still freezes on startup, all of my "fixes" still work.

Why doesn't my official EFT have any issues then?