Larian Studios Forums Baldur's Gate III Baldur's Gate III - Technical & Gameplay Problems BG3 shutting down PC entirely

My PC has started to randomly power off whilst playing BG3, and often doing something completely mundane like talking to an NPC, sorting my stash or loading a saved game.

I have to switch the PSU off and leave it for a few seconds and back on again to even get the power button to work again. This is in DX11 mode but same thing happens in Vulkan.

Strange thing is it's only BG3. I've tried Cyberpunk and Diablo 4 both on ultra settings and I can play them without triggering a single crash.

I've used afterburner to verify my CPU does not go above 80 or anywhere near 100% usage when these crashes happen, GPU is chilling in the 60s

I've run repeated stress tests in cinemark and Heaven to try to trigger the issue, will not trigger. I work from home 3 days a week and my PC can be on all day with no crashes whatsoever.
1 keep the PC clean and well ventilated, all my drivers are up to date. GPU driver installed fresh with DDU in safe mode to remove older drivers before. Nothing is overclocked in BIOS.

Specs:
AMD RYZEN 7 5800X
GTX 3060 TI
32GB DDR4
850w Coolermaster 80 Gold rated PSU
AData XPG Gammix 1TB NVME Gen4 (OS installed here)
Crucial MX500 2Tb (Game installed here)

I'm concerned if this keeps up I'll do some damage to my components.

Tomorrow I'II try taking it to bits and reassembling (not sure this is the issue) and swapping out the PSU for a Corsair 850w one. I really think this a BG3 issue that's going untreated though, and not my PC hardware. I'm seeing scattered posts across Reddit, Steam and Linus Tech Tips with people having the same issue.

you've already found the problem... it's most likely your PSU. got a spare you can test with?

Today is now tomorrow and before taking it apart I'm testing the
RAM with Memtest86 (currently on pass 3 no errors found).
If the RAM is fine I'll use crystal Disk to test the SSDs next, then if they are okay I'II completely delete BG3 and reinstall from scratch. I have previously verified the file integrity through steam and it found no issues, even cleared the cache in the APPDATA Larian folder.

Something I'm not seeing here and disassembly / new PSU is last resort will update when I finish testing on whether I can get it working.

Not entirely sure but I think Saving/Loading may be a trigger in there’s critical system error as I can usually replicate it by repeatedly quick loading/going to game main menu and loading.

Not sure why these crashes would only happen during BG3 sessions though if it is the PSU - I’d surely be getting them elsewhere too especially whilst stress testing or playing other intensive games?

I don't agree with the other commenter about it being the PSU; an 850W PSU should handle those specs easily. There are dozens of things it could be,though, and going through each and every one will take tons of time. That said, one could e.g. start with downclocking the CPU, GPU and GPU's VRAM and system RAM, move the game to the other SSD and then seeing if it still continues to do it or not. If the issue disappears, then proceed to turn only one of those things back the way it was at a time and seeing when it begins to crash again.

First I would make sure that this is only a BG3 issue by putting in a couple of full sessions on at least two other games.

If it turns out to be happening with others games then I would physically check inside the case to make sure that fans (including the PSU fan) are working and that heat-sinks aren't clogged up.

If it does turn out to be just BG3 then I would make a careful note of where and when the crashes happen and how long I had been playing for. If you can reproduce a crash either by time and place or by length of game play then send a report to Larian.

100% not their PSU, im having the EXACT same problems, even after deleting the game and all the files in app data every few hours my screen starts freezing and my computer needs a total restart to get back into working condition again.

Like....Jesus Christ this game is already a bug-riddled hot mess already that made me unable to finish act 3 due to how broken it is and now ontop of that its completely ruined my GPU?

A quick google search will tell you that there are lots of people whose systems have also been permanently damaged by this buggy mess and it pisses me off that now im going to need to spend a ridiculous amount of money buying new parts for my system all because Larian decided that they had to beat the starfield release and pushed this bug-filled mess they call a game out way before it was ready.

I have some issues too. The game starts to slow down and then characters start disappearing quickly with their ears and weapons left in the air with nothing else. Something is VERY wrong. It did not destroy my GPU thankfully, but something is scuffed here.

If your system is powering off (as opposed to getting a blue/black screen of death, which usually indicates a driver fault) then the problem isn't with Baldur's Gate 3, it just happens to have pushed your system hard enough to expose a hardware problem.

First thing to check should be temperatures; install HWInfo or some other tool that lets you monitor temperatures and see how hot your system is getting after a while (you may need to use GPU software to get the GPU temperature). You'll want to double check what your hardware's tolerances are, but in general you don't want a modern CPU going over 90ºC, GPUs can usually handle a bit more, but ideally you want them cooling to below 70ºC if the cooling is doing it's job. But again, check specs for your specific parts as some do just run hotter and that's fine.

If you think your system is getting too hot, then as Beechams says check your system isn't clogged with dust and the fans are running. HWInfo and other monitoring tools can tell you what your fan speeds are like, but unless you only have two fans (one for CPU and one System fan) it probably won't be able to give you speeds for them all, so you need to check air is flowing as expected.

If it's not the temperature, then the next to check would be any overclocking you (or your system provider) might have done; this is much more complicated, but overclocking (and undervolting) can lead to instability that can cause sudden restarts when a CPU/GPU fault occurs as a result. You'd need to check what the default speeds are for your CPU, GPU and RAM so you can compare to what they're reporting as, to see if they've been altered. If something has, try putting it to default and see if that solves the problem; this may require you to poke around in BIOS settings.

Only if none of this helps would I assume a faulty PSU; though in my experience a faulty PSU will usually fail randomly or soon after startup, rather than waiting until you put it under load.

Okay so after a day or so of testing various components with benchmarking tools this is what I discovered:

Prime95, Cinebench, Heaven Benchmark, Memtest86 and monitoring with HWInfo64, HWMonitor, Afterburner and even CrystalDisk for checking SSDs - none of which crashed my Pc during testing and none that showed any signs of corrupt memory or temp spikes.

I was on the cusp of changing the PSU, when I noted that the voltages looked fine in HWMonitor and never send to fluctuate throughout testing, so to me looked stable.

I decided in a 3 hour session of Diablo 4, but this went by without a hitch and did not crash the PC.

Stupid I know, but as a last resort before ripping everything out I decided to delete BG3 completely (excluding saves that I backed up), and reinstall it.

As I booted up steam before I uninstalled BG3 I did notice a small patch (after the major one downloaded) but I deleted the install all the same and then started the download over.

Whilst I did this I cast my mind back to the time of the last shutdown/crash and trawled through the event viewer log. I found immediately before the “6008 error the system shut down was unexpected” (created when I booted up the PC after the crash) that there were 3 entries of a particular registry key requesting local activation permission for the COM Server application with CLSID xxx and APPID xxx that permission was not granted.

I took a hell Mary and decided once BG3 (if this was involved any way) reinstalled I’d create a desktop shortcut and always right click and run as administrator.

I’ve now had 2 5 hour sessions with no crashes, leading me to believe:

The delete and fresh reinstall could have fixed it.
The “run as administrator” could have fixed it.
The random Larian update could have fixed it.
It may not be fixed and will reappear later.

Either way I wanted to update you guys. I haven’t replaced anything yet but as a reward (even though it didn’t need it) I cleaned the PC and all fan blades today to keep it happy.

I’ll let you know if it happens again, if it doesn’t I hope what I’ve wrote helps one of you also having the issue.

i assume you have a vpn or firewall in place and it sounds like the issue was your network which would make some sence if you also have a tick in cross saves

anyway glad you got it sorted

I had this in EA. Could barely get past character creator.

I also had no problems with cyberpunk, horizon zero dawn and other demanding games at the time. Disco Elysium on the other hand was equally unplayable.

It was definitely hardware for me, but a new PSU didn’t do the job. Eventually, I’m afraid to say, I upgraded everything, but my system was getting on a bit anyway. Hopefully you don’t have to go that far. Good luck.

Having the same issue. I swear its bg3. This started after the latest update. I have
*SPECS*

Intel i7-13700K

Corsair iCUE H150i RGB ELITE 360 Liquid Cooler

ASRock Z790 Steel Legend WiFi

Corsair Vengeance RGB 64 GB (4 x 16 GB) DDR5-5600
CL36 Memory

Rtx 3080 evga

Lian Li 011 Dynamic EVO ATX Mid Tower Case (Black)

Asus ROG THOR 1200P 1200 W 80+ Platinum Power Supply

Every other game works fine, no crashes etc. I also ran a stress test called OCCT for 30mins. And unistalled and reinstalled.

This game turns off my computer when i engage in dialoge or go to fast in some actions with my controller.

I have the same issue.

I have a very similar system with the poster above, jedi97yey. If someone finds a solution please post it, also OP please let us know if your issue has not reemerged.

Personally, I tried everything systemwise before finding this post (and the other in steamcommunity) including replacing my PSU (with my old one) as I was convinced it was my PC's issue. I have not tried SinisterCP's solutions (reinstall/run as admin) as I am afraid that if I start the game I may damage my PC.

Had the same issue. Ryen 7800x3d, rtx 4070, 850w psu. When I loaded this a save or entered a video, randomly, oops PC shuts off. Cpu temps high but ok on overlay so if the spike happened it was fast. No GPU temp issues.

Solution was to go into overclock settings in bios and put a max on the temp for the chip. I put it at 65 no issues now. I'll try 75 or 85 maybe after a few weeks. System seems to be limiting clock speed on cpu to keep it in check. Performance impact negligible.

Others I have read achieve the same by limiting the wattage on their CPUs in bios or by enabling eco mode on certain motherboard/cpus.

I tried eco mode in ryzen master. It did not work. Only bios did for me.

This leads me to believe something going on with game causing cpu drawing too much power and/or hitting high temp. Probably the former as there did not seem to be any metallic smell and all other temps were great.

I just wanted to let you all know the issue still has not resolved, it’s completely random for me and I’ve not played much to test it as I’ve been in process of moving this week - the last time I booted up the game it shutdown my PC simply loading a quick save.

Frustrating, I’m changing out a couple of components this weekend - PSU for an ATX 3.0 model same wattage (850w) and a new WiFi card not that either of them are a problem anyway as other games have been fine, even cyberpunk which I would go as far to say if it was a cpu/GPU issue that should show similar issues.

I honestly think with this many of us having the issue it has to be something to do with how the game is optimised that Larian need to fix on their end. It’s heartbreaking because I’d really like to play this game and now I can’t.

I am having the same issue and my power supply has been replaced and it happens exclusively when playing this game, but not randomly (It crashes when I walk over certain spots or long rest, but thats a whole other tale). I totally agree though, the game is unplayable like this and that is really annoying

It's definitely a BG3 issue and I am confident that Larian will eventually fix it. It seems that we are all experiencing the same crash, and it's a critical one - very unlikely that all of our PSUs are suddently faulty. If you haven't done already, please submit a bug report.

Personally, I followed Kbottt's advice above and my issue has improved/resolved.

MY TEMPORARY FIX:

At the beginning I was getting this crash after 30 minutes to 1.5 hours of gameplay. It was happening during dialogue, combat or even character creation. It happened thrice before I started tinkering with solutions, including updating drivers, lowering gpu voltage (alt+z), reinstalling game and changing my PSU entirely. In total I think it happened around 12 times before I stopped trying. In order to protect my PC.

A few days ago I tried Kbott's solution - went to bios and put a power limit to my CPU (also I disabled all stock "overclock" configurations since I have a gaming z170 mobo). After doing that I was able to have an 8 hour session, before I had another crash. Originally, I was rarely passing the one hour mark so I was/am hopeful that this can be a temporary fix. I then went back to the bios and undervolted the cpu even more (basically I chose the highest power limit possible) and since then I had 3, long, uninterrupted sessions. I will edit this post if I encounter a crash again, but for now the game is playable.

More detail:

Similar to Kbott above, my cpu temps were and are fine on the overlay - so if a spike is happening it is very fast. I have a 12700k and the Be Quiet Dark Rock Pro 4 which is considered one of most effective cpu coolers, so if the issue is actually temp-related I don't think that upgrading/changing your hardware will help. Furthermore, even with the most extreme undervolting option I saw no/negligible performance loss, I am steadily at 60 (frame limit) frames in 4k. However, I also loaded my ultra-modded skyrim installation and the fps reduction was ridiculous, so if this fix works for you too, you should expect that you will have to go back to the bios and change the values for other demanding games or work. Finally, I also removed the power limit of my GPU a few days in and the crash did not reappear, so I suppose it is unrelated to the gpu.

Still happening for me and it happens whenever I do certain actions in game. Walking across the bridge between Emerald Grove and The Blighted Village, Walking around the area South of the Blighted Village, talking to the goblins outside the Blighted Village, talking to Karlach the first time in the wilderness, walking into the goblin camp west of the Blighted Village, and after taking a long rest (I usually see the auto save right before the crash).

I can reliably recreate this crash every time by doing any of these actions and even making a new character it will still happen.

I have tried adjusting every setting that is suggested, tried both DirectX and Vulkan, bypassing the launcher, and grasped at every straw I could find anywhere and am at the end of my rope. I am not sure if this is a problem because I am running an AMD chipset, but temperature monitoring is fine and as mentioned above the power supply has been replaced all on a 5 month old computer so I am certain it is not hardware failure at this point. I have sent a bug report and some requested files in to the automated reply, but honestly I dont have any faith whatsoever that they'll even be seen by a human much less addressed.

At this point I am disgusted and disappointed customer because I can't even ask for a refund at this point all I can do is wish the game worked

I have the same issue with BG3 and with Starfield on my new installed GeForce rtx 3060 but when I replace it with my old GeForce gtx 1650, the game runs (bad of course because of crap video card) without PC shutting down. I believe this is because my old cpu Intel 3770 doesn't generate enough juice to feed my rtx 3060. My 700w psu is more than enough for my system