Launching PSO2 freezes computer

[Karen Erra]

Hello everyone, I hope someone around here can help me.

A friend of mine has a huge problem when launching PSO2.
Whenever she tries to start PSO2, the game is freezing the PC, leaving no other choice then CTRL+ALT+DEL it and either log off Windows or in the worst case, restart the whole computer. I thought maybe the PSO2 tweaker is responsible for the issue, but even with the normal game launcher, this problem is happening.
There is also always a gameguard error occuring at the start of the game, I don't know if that is related?
My friend is currently connected via VPN to me, because of her own ISP, she's not able to play the game at all, ever since the awesome DDoS... -.-
I don't think the VPN is the reason, because I had other people connecting it and trying to launch PSO2 and for them it's perfectly fine.

Also offering some system specs here (sorry I don't have the exact specs atm):
Intel Core i5 Socket 1150 CPU
8 GB RAM DDR3
Nvidia GTX650 1GB DDR5
1 TB Hard Drive
Windows 8 64 Bit

I'm fresh out of ideas why this is happening.

If anyone knows a solution or something we could try, please let me know!

Thanks in advance for any advice and help.

[Lumpen Thingy]

try any registry cleaners like ccleaner and such? I had people that had similar problems and that seemed to help for whatever reason.

[Karen Erra]

I don't think she tried that already. Might try that out later. It's just such a random error and only with PSO2. Can't quite see any reasoning behind it.

[Helvetica Standard]

1. gameguard is shit. It has a problem with nearly everything, including your antivirus. You'll have to learn to live with it.
2. Gameguard might be having issues with an app on your friend's PC or it might have malware (hence why Lumpen suggested cleaning your system.)
Do this as well, just to be safe:
open command prompt
type: sfc /scannow

[Karen Erra]

1. gameguard is shit. It has a problem with nearly everything, including your antivirus. You'll have to learn to live with it.
2. Gameguard might be having issues with an app on your friend's PC or it might have malware (hence why Lumpen suggested cleaning your system.)
Do this as well, just to be safe:
open command prompt
type: sfc /scannow

Yeah I know, GG is a piece of crap. Do you think it would be worth a try to disable the AV for once? I think she uses Norton or something.
She also deleted the complete gameguard folder to redownload it but that did not help at all..
I thought about the sfc command too, but since this only happens when launching PSO2, I didn't think it would do much. But yeah I'm glad for any advice, gonna try it.

[Sp-24]

This is definitely an issue with nPro. I haven't been able to run PSO2 on my laptop with Win7 at all after one of the Gameguard updates over a year ago, and then another one made it unplayable on XP as well.

No idea if there is any fix for that. I had to start playing on my PC since then.

[Karen Erra]

Hmm I wonder if it would help to replace the original GG files with the files from a working computer like mine? I guess would be worth a try. Man but why has Gameguard to be so bad -.-

[Karen Erra]

We basically tried everything to get it to work again. Redownloading gameguard, checking files, even reinstalling and repatching the game. And I'm really really out of ideas what to do.

Additional info on the error:My friend is able to connect to the PSO2.jp website with my VPN - but when she starts the game she gets a server timeout error and the game freezes together with the computer.

Does anybody else have any idea what else we could do? :/

[Chdata]

Not just GG is shit, Norton's a pretty bad antivirus too. At least I've had lotsa compatibility issues with it before.

[Stealthcmc1974]

Not just GG is shit, Norton's a pretty bad antivirus too. At least I've had lotsa compatibility issues with it before.

I use Avast. Much better alternative to Norton and plays nice with PSO2 and GG, at least for me. Even if Norton isn't what is causing it, I'd still swap Norton for Avast.

Also, has your friend tried using the Proxy Server to connect instead of VPN?