Multiplayer in Steam & Xbox Game Pass PC App doesn't work.

[lethoric]

Greetings,

I'm quite frustrated with this game as I was very excited to play with my nephew and his parents.  

I started off on Windows 11, playing through the Xbox Game Pass PC app as I have Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.  Not only could I not join their game, but I couldn't host a game... it would just kick me out almost immediately after joining or setting up a hosted game.   I checked EVERY where and tried Every suggestion provided... even ensured that my Xbox App was property connected in general for Multiplayer play.  Nothing worked.

So, I did a fresh installation of Windows 10, and tried again... with a nice fresh installation of windows, Xbox App, updated drivers of all peripherals and graphics card... tried again as the only game installed on my PC and nothing... Still booted me from both being a Host, and even trying to join their game.

From what I read, I would have better luck with the Steam version... so... since most of my gaming library is already on Steam, I went and purchased the game.  Same problem.  Logged into Xbox with my ID, and tried Hosting a Game / joining a game, and immediately crashed to desktop.

But here is the kicker... I can play solo no problem.  But that's not why I purchased or wanted to play the game.  Grounded is advertised as having an excellent multiplayer experience, and even the story evolves around all 4 players being in the game... though you can play solo, it's really a multiplayer experience... and well, it's failing horribly in my experience.  I have wasted hours trying to trouble shoot and tried different platforms, with no avail... 

I'm running a high end system, Asus ROG Strix Z590-E Gaming Wifi, Intel 11th Gen i7 11700k, 32 Gig's DDR4, EVGA 3090 Geforce card.  

[lethoric]

I want to add that I did further research in the Teredo tunneling protocol, and mine is working perfectly fine from all accounts via the xbox app.

[lethoric]

Okay, 

So, just wanted to check to see if there were any issues if I ran the game via my gaming laptop (Alienware X17 M1, 3080 GeForce mobile, 32 gigs ram, i9 processor), and it worked in multiplayer perfectly fine.

All main network settings were set up the same between both systems, and the only thing I can see which is different between the two is my Laptop is currently on Geforce Drivers 512.98, while my desktop is updated to the latest 517.48 drivers.  So not sure if for my case, it's a driver issue with Geforce... which would be confusing since the game does run in single player mode on my desktop perfectly fine.  But so far, it's the only thing I can think that is different between the two.

Well, there is 1 other item... my Laptop is running over WiFi 6E, where my desktop is through a 2.5 Gig ethernet cable directly connected to the router.  But they both have the same protocols installed.

[lethoric]

I downgraded my drivers from 517.48 to 512.95 on my Desktop and that did not resolve the issue.  

I'm running out of ideas of what it could be.

[lethoric]

I'm running out of ideas.

I tried it on my Streaming Desktop, and it works perfectly fine.  Windows 10 installation, Intel i5, Ethernet 2.5Gig, 32 gigs ram, 3070ti Geforce card.  I even matched up the services to see if anything was different and they both closely matched with the few motherboard specific differences.   Teredo Protocal / Xbox services are running on all 3 systems perfectly fine.

I even disabled overlays for discord and xbox app to see if it was some sort of overlay issue  But I can't for the life of me figure out why it's crashing on my Primary PC with a fresh installation of windows and updated drivers.  

[lethoric]

I think I fixed it... 

So, just out of pure chance, I decided to do another full reinstallation of my Gaming Rig... and so far, I haven't had any issues what so ever.

What did I do differently? I installed the most basic device drivers to get the ethernet connection working so Windows could get as much drivers as it could... Once I new what was left, I compared it to what my MoBo manufacturer suggests, and there are 4 packages I did not install this time.

DRV_GNA_Intel_ADL_TP_W10_64_V3001363_20210811R
DRV_RST_Intel_RKL_TP_W10_64_V183611016_20210924R

Also, when I logged into windows while setting up, I did not import any of my previous settings from the cloud.  So not sure if there was some sort of settings that could have caused this issue (which still confuses me as all my other devices can play this game already).   

But if this doesn't help, I can't explain what happened for have it to work all of a sudden on my 2nd fresh installation of my Gaming Rig.  I'm going to take it and go.