Fatshark created and released the first-person action video game Warhammer 40000: Darktide. The game’s beta release for PC pre-buyers is already available, and the Xbox One S and X versions will follow soon. Several players have complained that ever since installing the beta update, Darktide’s PC version repeatedly crashes during startup.
If you are experiencing the same problem, you may use these troubleshooting instructions to have it resolved. There could be a number of factors at play when a PC game fails to launch or crashes on start-up. Fortunately, we’ve provided a few solutions that should prove useful. Crashing, lagging, stuttering, decreases in framerate, etc., are now commonplace in nearly every PC game. With time, each of these can be fixed or patched up.
Reasons for WH40K Crashing and Lag
For several reasons, including incompatibilities with the PC, old system software, an old game version, unneeded third-party apps, starting program troubles, and more, many PC gamers are experiencing the crashing startup issue in Warhammer 40K Darktide. However, it’s possible that the impacted players won’t learn what is actually causing it. Before following the guide, it is recommended that you check over the following list of reasons.
- Incompatibilities with the PC specs
- The game version is old
- The game launcher is old
- Old graphic drivers
- Faulty network drivers
- Admin rights missing
- Fullscreen Optimizations
- Issues related to DirectX
- Background Apps and Processes
- Blocking of software by antivirus or firewall
- Technical difficulties with a startup app
- Incompatibility with Microsoft’s Visual C++ Redistributable,
- Issues with overclocking
- Problems with overlay applications
How to Fix Warhammer 40K Darktide Crash and Launch Issues
Now that you have a better idea of what could be going on, you can dive into the troubleshooting section down below for crashes in Warhammer 40k. Each of the below solutions can be implemented independently until the underlying issue is resolved. Your computer’s software or hardware could be at fault for the crashes, or there could be a conflict between game files. Accordingly, read on for some effective fixes.
- Verify Integrity of Game Files: Missing data might cause performance issues, frame rate drops, and even game crashes. Using Steam, you may check if the game files were downloaded and installed correctly.
- Make sure your graphics driver and other software are up to date: Visit the manufacturer’s website for your graphics card to ensure you have the latest up-to-date drivers installed on your computer. Dedicated drivers for certain games are not uncommon. Installing a prior driver version may help if the current one does not address the issue. Keep in mind that only the final driver release for your video card should be installed, as beta versions may include dangerous bugs.
- Reduce the Game’s Graphical Settings: When you’re inside Darktide, make sure to look in the corner to your right. Pushing a button should take you to the menu where you can select “video” from the list of available options. Once you’re in the video settings, you need to take the following steps. Stop everything you’re doing and try if it helps by turning everything down or off completely. In this situation, you should gradually tweak the settings until you reach optimal results. Many times, a combination of variables leads to an accident.
- Window Type
Switch the Window type to “Fullscreen”. This will automatically boost the performance because the PC will have to take care of less stuff in the rear compared to when you use “windowed mode” or “windowed borderless”.
- FOV (Vertical)
The field of view at its maximum setting places a heavy burden on your computer in comparison to lower settings. This is because the game cannot support this option and thus does not provide it. Strive for the optimal point.
- Upscaling
In this case, you should disable everything, as upscaling consumes a lot of power for very little benefit. However, you can try activating AMD FSR 1.0 if you’re running an AMD or NVIDIA GTX graphics card. Putting it on Performance mode can provide you substantial increases to your framerate and stability if you have one of those GPUs.
- Ray Tracing
In addition, ray tracing uses a substantial amount of extra computing power. Only PCs with top-of-the-line specifications can normally have that setting active. In this specific case, though, disabling it may result in fewer crashes and a more consistent frame rate.
If your GPU doesn’t support Ray Tracing, you won’t be able to access those settings.
- Graphical Settings
Although “low” is a level no one ever wants to play at, it may be the best choice you have. Darktide doesn’t appear much changed when you switch between low, medium, and high settings. As a result, we advise dialing down all settings to optimize performance and FPS. Slowly increasing the settings if you notice an improvement.
- Advanced Graphical Settings
There is a common perception that the improvements in quality brought about by modern graphics hardware are unnecessary and even irritating. Some of these options can really worsen the experience that you intend to have, namely Depth of Field, Bloom, and Motion Blur. You should turn it all off. Just to restate the point: Darktide’s crashing and framerate stuttering can be tested after turning off all options or reducing them as low as possible. If it fixed the problem, you might try to gradually up the settings to see if you run into the same issues.
- Disable Shadowplay from GeForce Experience: Shadowplay, which is used by the vast majority of gamers to record in-progress action or short clips for immediate playback will no longer be available after it is disabled in the Geforce Experience. In-game overlays are especially problematic for newer games. This could cause framerate drops or even a game crash. Maybe turning it off was all you needed to do to solve the issue.
- Incompatibilities with the PC Specs: You should be good to go with the installation and launch of the game once you’ve ensured that your PC meets Darktide‘s requirements. Visit the support or discussion forums to get your questions answered. If you don’t have the required hardware, you’ll need to upgrade your PC before you can play the game. You can expand your computer in a variety of ways, from buying a new gaming PC to installing more memory.
- Blocking of Software by Antivirus or Firewall: Firewalls and other anti-virus software scan your system’s data for malicious code at regular intervals and quarantine or delete any files it finds. Firewalls can prevent you and your friends from playing Darktide if they mistake the game for malicious software. We need to make sure that the firewall is not causing any issues for your game.
- Faulty Network Driver: The functionality of your computer’s network is ensured by the network drivers. Therefore, if you are experiencing network issues, it is most likely that the network driver is at fault, and a connection error will be generated in the event that the driver is absent, out-of-date, or damaged.
- Background Apps and Processes: Many other applications may be running in the background while we play the game, causing Warhammer 40K connection troubles. This is especially true when the browsing and chatting software are both open.
- Run the Game using Administrator Rights: Without the appropriate administrative access, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide risks being denied the tools it needs to do its job. In this instance, it’s best to launch the game with administrative privileges. Give Darktide.exe, which can be found in the binaries folder of the game’s installation folder administrative privileges so that it can be executed as administrator before you launch Warhammer 40,000: Darktide.
- Disable Fullscreen Optimizations: You may be able to resolve compatibility difficulties on some computers by disabling full-screen optimizations made by the system for your game application file. Even if full-screen optimization is disabled by default, you should double-check that it is indeed disabled.
- Check for Game Update: To make sure there isn’t an out-of-date game version preventing the game from starting, you should also check for the update on your end via the Steam client. The game may crash for a variety of reasons if you’re using an out-of-date patch.
- Modify Power Management Options: If you want to get the most out of your PC for gaming, you need to switch to the high-performance power option from the usual balanced power mode, which Windows uses to conserve battery life while providing adequate performance for most users’ everyday needs. But the power-hungry games and apps need the high-performance mode, which delivers jaw-dropping performance at the expense of battery life.
- Repair/Reinstall Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime: Ensure that you manually reinstall Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables on your Windows PC if it isn’t already installed there.
- Clean Boot: Numerous customers have reported that reverting to a clean boot after experiencing system boot problems has resolved the issue. These processes are always active and use a significant portion of the computer’s resources.
- High Worker Threads Count: If you have a CPU with a high thread count and are experiencing crashes, try decreasing the “Worker Threads” setting and see if it helps. Particularly if you’re experiencing frequent problems during missions, reducing the “Worker Threads” should help. Using the Darktide launcher, you can alter its settings. For instance, try lowering it to 6 and seeing if it helps the situation.
- Disable Overclocking: Computers with overclocked CPUs or GPUs might occasionally experience bottleneck issues due to hardware conflicts. In order to determine the root cause of the crashing problem, it is best to temporarily disable or reset the overclocked CPU/GPU to the factory settings. Overclocked CPUs and GPUs on PCs can be fine-tuned with any number of third-party utilities, like MSI Afterburner, Riva Tuner, AMD Ryzen Master, EVGA Precision X, etc.
- Adjust Virtual Memory: Virtual Memory is the feature that pools together RAM and temporary space on a hard drive for use. If you’re running low on RAM and your virtual memory size isn’t adequate, you’ll need to raise it. In most cases, a virtual memory boost of three times the amount of physical RAM is optimal.
- Check for Windows Updates: There is a good probability that your installation of Windows has become sufficiently out of date or corrupt. If you’re experiencing similar issues, checking for Windows updates may help. Please update immediately if it is accessible. The most recent updates to any piece of software almost typically include patches for known issues as well as enhancements to various aspects of the program.
- Modify the DLSS Settings: If you are using an NVIDIA RTX GPU and suffering random crashes during gameplay, it is possible that your DLSS settings are to blame. You could try toggling DLSS on and off to see if that helps your Darktide issue. Please enable Nvidia DLSS and Frame Generation in the performance menu of the Video settings if you are using an NVIDIA RTX 4090 or 4080 graphics card.
That was all of this guide on how to fix Warhammer 40K Darktide crashing at startup, won’t start, and not launching issues. We will make sure to follow the story and update this article as needed. For more content related to Warhammer 40K Darktide, click on this link. Thank you for reading this article.
