world and server loading stuck at 0% screen

whenever I load a world (in single player), the screen stops becomes unresponsive after the loading world building terrain screen. I am left with a screen saying 0% and the game will need to be closed giving me the standard crash message in the launcher. When connecting to a server, the same thing happens except for it doesn't load the building terrain text ot the 0% screen (it's stuck at loading world).

I've looked for a solution and there is only a thread where the person asking for a solution hasn't provided sufficient information.

Pls help.