DAI freezes in Redcliffe Village

[MistressMiles]

I've just discovered this game for the first time thanks to Epic Games and I'm loving it. I've had ZERO problems playing the game for now 35 hours. However, upon reaching the village of Redcliffe my game freezes (game is completely hung and I have to force quit) when I enter the area by the story teller.

I've found MANY posts about this exact problem in this exact area and tried all the things suggested (which I'll list below) but nothing has solved it. I'm hoping there is a fix that I haven't found because I really love this game so far and would love to explore this village.

First, my computer is more than up to specs:

Device PC Laptop
Processor: 11th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-11800H @ 2.30GHz (16 CPUs), ~2.3GHz
System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor

Operating System: Windows 11 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 22631) (22621.ni_release.220506-1250)
Installed RAM 64.0 GB (63.7 GB usable)
Memory: 65534MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 65238MB RAM
Page File: 21611MB used, 53354MB available
DirectX Version: DirectX 12
User DPI Setting: 120 DPI (125 percent)
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
Miracast: Available, with HDCP
DirectX Database Version: 1.5.5

Card name: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Device Problem Code: No Problem
Display Memory: 38614 MB
Dedicated Memory: 5996 MB
Shared Memory: 32618 MB

Driver: 5/12/2024

So far I have:

• I checked and all my graphic drivers are up to date. 
• Updated all Windows files.
• Added DAI to exceptions on antivirus/firewall
• Tried the game windowed
• Changed resolution to 1920 x 1080 on both 60 hz and 240 hz
• Tried turning on Optimization for windowed games in pc settings
• Tried the game with graphics set to lowest
• Turned off Vsync
• Tried playing with no other background programs running
• Repaired the game through EA twice
• Tried entering Redcliffe through the rock area by the healer (I can enter and interact with the healer but as soon as I leave the hut the game freezes again)
• Turned off in-game overlay of EA app
• Uninstalled and reinstalled game

What else can I try?

[holger1405]

@MistressMiles 

Please create a DxDiag in text file format and post it with your next reply. You can do that with the "Choose file" button at the bottom right corner of the reply window. 

Also look at your Reliability monitor:
1. Press the Windows key and "R" at the same time.
2. Copy and paste "perfmon /rel" (without the quotes) in the new Window > hit “ENTER”
3. Look if it has entries for the game executable or EA app. > If yes double click at the last entry for the game executable or EA app, copy the info and save it to a text file.

[MistressMiles]

DxDiag attached. There was no way to copy and paste the reliability report so I made a screenshot. There were no additional messages in the control panel with more information other than it stopped working.

[holger1405]

@MistressMiles 

• Follow this manual to the letter to cleanly uninstall all NVIDIA driver components.
• Install the graphics driver > Go online.
• Test.

[MistressMiles]

Yes, I tried this already after finding it in another post about the same issue. It didn't fix the problem.

[EA_Shepard]

@MistressMiles Hey, following up on this one as its been a few days. Have you been able to play past Redcliff?

[MistressMiles]

Nope, no solution has been found. I've cleared all of the Hinterlands except Redcliffe, which I cannot enter.

[MistressMiles]

Now as seems to happen with everyone who got stuck in Redcliffe in the past, my game freezes entering Skyhold as well. This bug is YEARS old. I can't believe there is no solution for it yet. I hope the new game is more stable.

[EA_Shepard]

@MistressMiles There has not been an update for the game itself in a long time. We are coming up on ten years, so there will be quite a few bugs players run into that aren't resolved. 

I see many threads on Redcliff, so there are a lot of steps players have posted. One thing that is common is when an update is pushed, current saved data is still corrupted in some way. I recently finished a playthrough and had no issues in that area, so the game itself is not the issue. 

This may be savefiles, DLC, content, bad updates, etc. I looked into this error and none of the reports had a common "reason why it was crashing.

Have you started any other saves and encountered the same result?

Have you removed the save folder to the desktop and tested it?

Have you reloaded a save prior to the crash happening?

Are there any Mods installed for the game?

Have you tested the game on another PC?

[MistressMiles]

Yeah I started a new game. I’m almost to Redcliffe village so I’ll let you know soon!