Starting the game causes PC to completely lock up

[Baelius]

Specs:
Intel i5-4670k @ 3.4ghz
8gb RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760
Windows 7 64-bit

I'm having this problem where the game pretty much locks up the PC as the game window is opening or sometime after the Sega logo in the opening (rarely the latter). It started happening right after I missed that windows update restart notification, and it shut down while I was in the middle of Chaotic Border Break (I think this was the name?). I don't think it's a problem with any of my hardware, PSO2 is fairly easy to run at maxed settings and was working fine with them for several days before this started happening. All drivers are the latest versions too.

What I've tried so far:
-Tried starting the game in windowed, fullscreen, virtual fullscreen, and at minimum graphical settings.
-Tried launching the game through the regular launcher and the tweaker.
-Reinstalling the game, reinstalling drivers.
-Launching the game without any patches.
-A lot of file checks.
-Had GameGuard reupdate through the tweaker.
-Launching the game with and without the intros.
-Replaced the launcher and other .exe files

No matter what I do, my PC just locks up entirely right as the window opens up. Once or twice, the Sega logo part did show up, but afterwards the NVIDIA and the game intro won't start at all. Can't alt-tab, open up task manager, or anything. No sound at all, and it always ends in a black screen or a window with a black screen depending on fullscreen or windowed setting. I had to hit the restart button each time on the PC.

I started playing last year and I'd like to get back into this soon, so any help would be appreciated, thanks.

[Eyce_Theon]

I am having essentially the same problem. It started sometime during the preupdate before Episode 2, but has varied in intensity; sometimes it freezes the whole PC for a few minutes then works again for a bit, letting me close the process and continue using my PC. Other times it's an immediate freeze. This can occur as early as having the loader open, or as late as being in the game's lobby. It's seemingly triggered by trying to load a file, as twice in a row it froze when walking up to an NPC (right as they would greet you with a voice clip) then unfroze minutes later, successfully saying their hello.


My specs:
AMD Phenom II X4 B450 processor 3.10 GHz
4GB ram
Nvidia GeForce GTX 460
Windows 7 64bit

What I tried in addition to OP's list:
Tested RAM
System Restore
Replaced Harddrive
Reinstalled OS completely

I'm baffled here, since I tried it on a fresh install and am still having trouble. The only extra tidbit is, trouble only started after I started using Tweaker, and persisted afterwards regardless if Tweaker was involved or not. I did a complete uninstall and official-download reinstall (pre-OS wipe) and still had freezing. After my OS reinstall, I used Tweaker to download the game's files (forgot to back them up) and the first time loading the game launcher, I froze again.

I just don't know.

[Baelius]

Well I really have no idea what's wrong at this point. Updates haven't changed anything at all, I have UAC and firewall turned off. I don't know if it's something that GameGuard doesn't like but it shouldn't lock up my PC like this.

[Aeris]

Really donno how to fix that issue but did you make sure that your ram/gpu/cpu is underclocked from a safety issue or look at your storage drive smart status, also is the issue been happening to any other games you play on the computer?

[Baelius]

I'm not seeing any changes in RAM, GPU, or CPU, and everything seems to be working fine from what I can see in the SMART status.

This problem's been only been limited to PSO2 as far as I know. The only games I've been playing recently are Team Fortress 2 and Borderlands 2, and I'm able to run both at their highest settings at 60+ fps consistently, so I'm doubtful the problem is with the hardware.

Just tried removing the gameguard entries in the registry, still no luck.

[Baelius]

Am I out of luck here? Not sure how to troubleshoot something if the first thing PSO2 does is crash my PC.

[Shirokami]

Got this problem, began with the last update.

[Link1275]

Try lowering your graphic settings, or using the tweaker to remove the opening videos.

[Baelius]

Try lowering your graphic settings, or using the tweaker to remove the opening videos.

I've tried both of these a while back, neither really changed anything.

[Sp-24]

I have no idea what causes this, but my money is on Gameguard. I had this problem for half a year, if not longer, and still don't know how to fix it.

The only bypass for this problem that I could think of is installing a clean x86 Windows XP on a separate drive and playing PSO2 from there.