WoW often locks up - new info, still not fixed

Hey! I’ve been having a really annoying issue lately, WoW freezes randomly and then comes back. With the most recent one the Windows prompt with “Program not responding” came up (this is new, usually it just freezes), WoW disappeared (from the taskbar as well) and then just popped back to life, I wasn’t disconnected (nearly died as I was in combat with a mob when it crashed) and otherwise fine. These things happen somewhat often, a few times an hour, and don’t seem to depend on the zone. Happened in Orgrimmar, Azsuna and just now Nazmir.

Temperatures are fine, <60C on both CPU and GPU (HWMonitor). Tried rebooting, removing addons, reinstalled the game, Scan and Repair, nothing helped. All my drivers are up to date, so is Windows itself.

I’m running Windows 10 Home 64bit
32GB RAM 2400Mhz (stock speeds)
i7-8700K (stock speeds)
RTX2080 (stock speeds)
the game is on a 7200RPM HDD that has over 250GB free on it.

This issue is brand new, I just got back into the game after a short break, last time I played I think 8.3 had just come out. This doesn’t happen any other time, neither during normal system utilization nor in other games. Can I get some help please?

EDIT: okay so I launched WoW, it didn’t even start up, I only heard the login screen music, my PC bluescreened with “DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION”, and after reboot I got a notification from Windows saying “Application has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware. Application Wow.exe has been blocked from accessing Graphics hardware.”

UPDATE:

I got an SSD, it’s a SATA III M.2 120GB ADATA, works great and there are extreme improvements in loading times everywhere. This SSD is dedicated to WoW, it’s the only thing installed on it. Problem is, crashes came back for vengeance. I can now fairly consistently reproduce the type of bluescreen mentioned in the EDIT, after hitting Play there’s a 1-2 second time window where if I alt tab out of the game, WoW crashes twice within 15 secs, first time with just a black screen (music starts playing), second time locking up the entire system followed by a blue screen 5-6 seconds later. The crashes I was experiencing in the original post still happen, sometimes accompanied by a BSOD, and still seemingly at random, sometimes standing around in the Chamber of Heart, sometimes doing legacy dungeons, sometimes in PvP, there’s no rhyme or reason and it doesn’t seem to be tied to a zone or action. I now have collected the crash dumps for both WoW and the BSOD, here’s what they look like:

WoW crash
Version=1
EventType=D3DDRED2
EventTime=132354194585764967
Consent=1
UploadTime=132354194586432928
ReportStatus=268435456
ReportIdentifier=09713859-8024-4129-814c-3498e3ae7f92
Wow64Host=34404
OriginalFilename=WoW.exe
AppSessionGuid=00001124-0002-0017-0f13-7e2f7037d601
TargetAppId=W:0006d2106ebba5dca802337391afd385c83200000000!0000e7d35e43d84d12c87fbfa2e71f6392dcc323353b!Wow.exe
TargetAppVer=2020//04//28:22:05:30!2b6112f!Wow.exe
BootId=4294967295
TargetAsId=1990
UserImpactVector=269488400
IsFatal=4294967295
EtwNonCollectReason=1
Response.BucketId=02bb64a03d57f96d057baf0d5e37d3dc
Response.BucketTable=5
Response.LegacyBucketId=1548023368882050012
Response.type=4
Sig[0].Name=GpuManufacturer
Sig[0].Value=VEN_10DE
Sig[1].Name=GpuDriverVersion
Sig[1].Value=26.21.14.4614
Sig[2].Name=DeviceRemovedReason
Sig[2].Value=0x887A0006
Sig[3].Name=DeviceExecutionState
Sig[3].Value=7
Sig[4].Name=AppName
Sig[4].Value=Wow.exe
Sig[5].Name=AppVer
Sig[5].Value=8.3.0.34220
DynamicSig[1].Name=OS Version
DynamicSig[1].Value=10.0.18363.2.0.0.768.101
DynamicSig[2].Name=Locale ID
DynamicSig[2].Value=1033
State[0].Key=Transport.DoneStage1
State[0].Value=1
ProcessMetadata[0].Key=d3ddredDataPresent
ProcessMetadata[0].Value=0
OsInfo[0].Key=vermaj
OsInfo[0].Value=10
OsInfo[1].Key=vermin
OsInfo[1].Value=0
OsInfo[2].Key=verbld
OsInfo[2].Value=18363
OsInfo[3].Key=ubr
OsInfo[3].Value=836
OsInfo[4].Key=versp
OsInfo[4].Value=0
OsInfo[5].Key=arch
OsInfo[5].Value=9
OsInfo[6].Key=lcid
OsInfo[6].Value=1033
OsInfo[7].Key=geoid
OsInfo[7].Value=200
OsInfo[8].Key=sku
OsInfo[8].Value=101
OsInfo[9].Key=domain
OsInfo[9].Value=0
OsInfo[10].Key=prodsuite
OsInfo[10].Value=768
OsInfo[11].Key=ntprodtype
OsInfo[11].Value=1
OsInfo[12].Key=platid
OsInfo[12].Value=10
OsInfo[13].Key=sr
OsInfo[13].Value=0
OsInfo[14].Key=tmsi
OsInfo[14].Value=78905
OsInfo[15].Key=osinsty
OsInfo[15].Value=2
OsInfo[16].Key=iever
OsInfo[16].Value=11.836.18362.0-11.0.190
OsInfo[17].Key=portos
OsInfo[17].Value=0
OsInfo[18].Key=ram
OsInfo[18].Value=32698
OsInfo[19].Key=svolsz
OsInfo[19].Value=111
OsInfo[20].Key=wimbt
OsInfo[20].Value=0
OsInfo[21].Key=blddt
OsInfo[21].Value=190318
OsInfo[22].Key=bldtm
OsInfo[22].Value=1202
OsInfo[23].Key=bldbrch
OsInfo[23].Value=19h1_release
OsInfo[24].Key=bldchk
OsInfo[24].Value=0
OsInfo[25].Key=wpvermaj
OsInfo[25].Value=0
OsInfo[26].Key=wpvermin
OsInfo[26].Value=0
OsInfo[27].Key=wpbuildmaj
OsInfo[27].Value=0
OsInfo[28].Key=wpbuildmin
OsInfo[28].Value=0
OsInfo[29].Key=osver
OsInfo[29].Value=10.0.18362.836.amd64fre.19h1_release.190318-1202
OsInfo[30].Key=buildflightid
OsInfo[31].Key=edition
OsInfo[31].Value=Core
OsInfo[32].Key=ring
OsInfo[32].Value=Retail
OsInfo[33].Key=expid
OsInfo[34].Key=containerid
OsInfo[35].Key=containertype
OsInfo[36].Key=edu
OsInfo[36].Value=0
FriendlyEventName=D3DDRED2
ConsentKey=D3DDRED2
AppName=World of Warcraft
AppPath=E:\World of Warcraft\_retail_\Wow.exe
ReportDescription=D3D12 Device Removed Extended Data
ApplicationIdentity=00000000000000000000000000000000
MetadataHash=140902669

And here’s the Windows BSOD memory dump crash analysis, which also says there’s corrupted items in RAM:

Windows MEMORY.DMP analyzed with WinDBG
*******************************************************************************
*                                                                             *
*                        Bugcheck Analysis                                    *
*                                                                             *
*******************************************************************************

DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION (133)
The DPC watchdog detected a prolonged run time at an IRQL of DISPATCH_LEVEL
or above.
Arguments:
Arg1: 0000000000000000, A single DPC or ISR exceeded its time allotment. The offending
	component can usually be identified with a stack trace.
Arg2: 0000000000000501, The DPC time count (in ticks).
Arg3: 0000000000000500, The DPC time allotment (in ticks).
Arg4: fffff80713573358, cast to nt!DPC_WATCHDOG_GLOBAL_TRIAGE_BLOCK, which contains
	additional information regarding this single DPC timeout

Debugging Details:
------------------

KEY_VALUES_STRING: 1

    Key  : Analysis.CPU.Sec
    Value: 2

    Key  : Analysis.DebugAnalysisProvider.CPP
    Value: Create: 8007007e on ERISUNIVERSE

    Key  : Analysis.DebugData
    Value: CreateObject

    Key  : Analysis.DebugModel
    Value: CreateObject

    Key  : Analysis.Elapsed.Sec
    Value: 14

    Key  : Analysis.Memory.CommitPeak.Mb
    Value: 71

    Key  : Analysis.System
    Value: CreateObject


BUGCHECK_CODE:  133

BUGCHECK_P1: 0

BUGCHECK_P2: 501

BUGCHECK_P3: 500

BUGCHECK_P4: fffff80713573358

DPC_TIMEOUT_TYPE:  SINGLE_DPC_TIMEOUT_EXCEEDED

BLACKBOXBSD: 1 (!blackboxbsd)


BLACKBOXNTFS: 1 (!blackboxntfs)


BLACKBOXPNP: 1 (!blackboxpnp)


BLACKBOXWINLOGON: 1

PROCESS_NAME:  System

BAD_PAGES_DETECTED: 4f

STACK_TEXT:  
ffff8180`1a431b08 fffff807`1323d82d : 00000000`00000133 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000501 00000000`00000500 : nt!KeBugCheckEx
ffff8180`1a431b10 fffff807`130b90a7 : 00008760`1651106a ffff8180`1a460180 00000000`00000286 ffffda87`5662f5c0 : nt!KeAccumulateTicks+0x1815bd
ffff8180`1a431b70 fffff807`12f5f291 : 00000000`00000000 ffffb409`c12d5400 ffffda87`5662f640 ffffb409`c12d54b0 : nt!KeClockInterruptNotify+0xc07
ffff8180`1a431f30 fffff807`1302cc75 : ffffb409`c12d5400 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 ffff8d31`a9bb9144 : hal!HalpTimerClockIpiRoutine+0x21
ffff8180`1a431f60 fffff807`131c3e1a : ffffda87`5662f640 ffffb409`c12d5400 00000000`00000000 ffffb409`c12d5400 : nt!KiCallInterruptServiceRoutine+0xa5
ffff8180`1a431fb0 fffff807`131c4387 : ffffb409`c280a1a0 ffffb409`c280a1a0 ffffb409`cd572e20 fffff807`131c4394 : nt!KiInterruptSubDispatchNoLockNoEtw+0xfa
ffffda87`5662f5c0 fffff807`130b5239 : ffffffff`ffffffd2 fffff807`135ab460 00000000`00000010 00000000`00000246 : nt!KiInterruptDispatchNoLockNoEtw+0x37
ffffda87`5662f750 fffff807`135ab465 : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000001 00000000`00000000 000000d0`83b419af : nt!KeYieldProcessorEx+0x19
ffffda87`5662f780 fffff807`135aa5c5 : 00000000`209abb47 ffff8180`1a460180 ffffb409`cd572e20 00000000`00000000 : nt!IopLiveDumpProcessCorralStateChange+0x2d
ffffda87`5662f7b0 fffff807`130c115a : ffff8180`1a462f80 00000000`00000001 ffffda87`5662f7a8 00000000`00000000 : nt!IopLiveDumpCorralDpc+0x55
ffffda87`5662f7f0 fffff807`130c07af : 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiExecuteAllDpcs+0x30a
ffffda87`5662f930 fffff807`131c5ebe : ffffffff`00000000 ffff8180`1a460180 ffff8180`1a471340 ffffb409`c285c040 : nt!KiRetireDpcList+0x1ef
ffffda87`5662fb60 00000000`00000000 : ffffda87`56630000 ffffda87`56629000 00000000`00000000 00000000`00000000 : nt!KiIdleLoop+0x7e


SYMBOL_NAME:  PAGE_NOT_ZERO

MODULE_NAME: Unknown_Module

IMAGE_NAME:  Unknown_Image

STACK_COMMAND:  .thread ; .cxr ; kb

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID:  PAGE_NOT_ZERO_0x133

OS_VERSION:  10.0.18362.1

BUILDLAB_STR:  19h1_release

OSPLATFORM_TYPE:  x64

OSNAME:  Windows 10

FAILURE_ID_HASH:  {3efeed4a-76b5-e0aa-7d5d-829aa8b8ea19}

Followup:     MachineOwner
---------

 *** Memory manager detected 79 instance(s) of page corruption, target is likely to have memory corruption.

I have run a Memory Check with mdsched and it found no issues. I really need help with this, it’s very weird and a bit scary. I still have no issues in other games, Blizzard or otherwise, and apart from when WoW is involved I experience no crashes or lockups whatsoever.

If I have understood right that error basically means driver is taking too long to do something on hardware level. I would start doing a full clean reinstall of your GPU drivers (you can use DDU to do this) and see if that helps.

It also could be indication of a hardware failure (most likely GPU in this case).

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A little over the top considering OP just said they don’t have the issue across the board (in other games or applications).

But yeah, drivers would be a priority. Updating your Windows may also help.

Also WoW is designed more for SSDs than regular HDDs even if they are at 7200 RPM.

Shadowlands at a mimimun now requires an SSD (you can probably still play with a regular HDD, but assets will take a while to load in and longer loading screens).

So it’s something to keep in mind. I’m not saying it’s your issue here, but it still could be playing some role.

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I mean… seems unlikely since it’s just a few months since I got it and I don’t have any issue outside of WoW, and didn’t have this issue within WoW until I got back in the game a week or so ago.

I will do a driver reinstall, see if that helps me. Thanks for the reply!

Welp right now I can’t really get an SSD, and assets do take a bit to load already when I first start the game, some 10-15 secs to load all the menus and such, but it doesn’t really bother me that much. I will however look into buying an SSD for Shadowlands. Thanks for the reply!

Yeah, SSD would be huge upgrade when you can get it. I strongly recommend getting one, too. :slight_smile:

Unlikely, but possible - easiest to start the troubleshooting from the drivers like I mentioned. Bluescreens generally point to either to driver issue or actual physical hardware being broken (and causing the said driver issues if the computer works for most part). The exact error code might give more information and there are some tools which help to analyze them, too.

In my experience GPU malfunction can get worse overtime. It is not always instant “it broke, won’t boot” though that obviously happens, too. New hardware can fail, too, if something was missed in the factory checks. Anecdotally it feels that the hardware either fails within first couple months of use or when they have reached the end of life anyways.

I have had two broken GPUs myself: One degraded over time from the initial problems showing up only in a single game until artifacts were visible even when booting the computer. Second time computer didn’t start at all until I removed the GPU.

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I have an ssd and I get random freezes up for a few weeks now to the point where it says "program not responding and I have to restart WoW. Very nice if you’re in the middle of a fight.

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So after playing for quite a bit, the freezes seem to be gone after the GPU driver reinstall. I recommend this to others who’ve had issues, I went 10+ hours of continuous gameplay without any freezes. Thank you!

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Good to hear you managed to solve the problem :slight_smile:

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