Black screen and crash at startup are two of the most common issues with games and it seems the latest title with the problems is Ghostrunner. Released today, the game is cyberpunk themed, action, solo, and incredibly difficult due to one shot kill. Ghostrunner black screen usually occurs when the graphics card is under strain; while the Ghostrunner crash at startup has a wide range of causes. Stick around and we will help you fix both the problems with the game.
Before we proceed with the solutions ensure that your system meets the minimum requirements to play the game, specifically the OS, graphics card, processor, and memory.
Fix Ghostrunner Black Screen Crash
New games are released to run on the latest version of Windows and graphics card drivers. If your these software are outdated it can lead to crash at startup and Ghostrunner black screen. Windows recently released the 2004 update, it also has an improved version of DirectX 12. Ensure that the Windows is up-to-date and you have installed the recent graphics card driver. With that said and since the game supports Windows 7 and 8.1, try running the game on Windows 7 compatibly mode.
You can set the compatibility mode, by right-clicking on the desktop shortcut of the game or the .exe of the game. Go to wherever you have installed the game and right-click on the game executable, select Properties, go to the Compatibility tab, and check Run this program in compatibility mode for and select Windows 7. While you are at the game properties menu, check the box Run this program as an administrator. If that fails, try running it with 8.1.
A quick fix that has worked to resolve black screen problems with games is to Alt + Tab out of the game and return to the game again. If that does not work, try restarting the game completely.
Another cause of Ghostrunner black screen and resolution problems is the fullscreen mode. Fullscreen mode consumes more resources and therefore can cause problems. Try disabling it from the menu. Currently, the game is already experiencing an issue with missing fullscreen. In order to disable the fullscreen, go to game Settings > Video.
When updating the driver software do it manually. Download the software from the official website and perform a clean install. AMD users can also do the same. If the error started after updating the driver, the driver might be bugged, which is sometimes the case. As such, revert the update. You may also use a third-party software to uninstall the current driver and reinstall the new so there is no conflict.
Third-party programs can also cause all sorts of problems with Ghostrunner, disable everything except the essentials and run the game. If it works, enable each software at a time to weed out the problematic software.
Finally, if nothing has worked, try lowering the graphics settings of the game. We hope the above solutions have resolved the Ghostrunner black screen problem. If the problem still persists, scroll below for solutions to the Ghostrunner crash at startup, you can try those solutions as well, more often than not, crash and black screen have common causes.
Fix Ghostrunner Crash at Startup, Not Launching, and Won’t Start
If you’ve run into the Ghostrunner crash at startup or the game isn’t starting, there could be several reasons such as:
- Your system does not meet the requirements to play Ghostrunner.
- You are trying to play the demo version or in other words the game is not updated.
- Your operating system is not updated.
- Microsoft Redistributable Libraries are corrupt, not installed, or there is a problem with them.
- Game files are corrupted or not installed properly.
- Fullscreen mode is consuming too much resources.
- Outdated graphics card drivers
- Overlay of software such as Steam, Discord, and GeForce Experience can also cause crash in games.
- Ghostrunner is not whitelisted in your respective antivirus or the Windows Defender.
- A problem with the hard driver or not using a SSD can slow the system leading to crash. Another possible hardware problem could be overheating caused due to hardware acceleration such as overclocking.
Before you start with the solutions, I suggest you disable the antivirus momentarily or whitelist the game in your antivirus software. Also, ensure that the game is running with admin permission. After you have performed the two things and the Ghostrunner crash at startup still occurs, here are the solutions you can try.
Another thing you should do is, delete all the folders associated with the demo of the game before you begin installation, especially the demo folder in Documents – Ghostrunner_Demo. Here are the rest of the solutions.
Verify Integrity of Game Files on Steam
Depending on the launcher you are using to play the game, the process is similar. Steam offers a feature to scan and replace any corrupt files of the game. Here are the steps you can follow.
- Launch the Steam client
- From the LIBRARY, right-click on Ghostrunner and select Properties
- Go to LOCAL FILES and click on VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES…
Set Launch Option on Steam for Windowed Mode
- Launch the Steam client
- Go to Libraries and locate Ghostrunner. Right-click on the game and select Properties
- Click on the General tab and click on SET LAUNCH OPTIONS
- In the field type or paste -windowed –noborder
- Press Ok and exit
- Restart the system and check if the Ghostrunner crash at startup still occurs.
Update the Graphics Drivers
Although an outdated graphics card driver causes the most crashes, you should keep all drivers and software updated on the system. This includes the OS, audio drivers, motherboards, processors, etc.
So, first update the graphics card drivers and check if Ghostrunner crashes on startup or in-game. Nvidia recently released Game Ready Driver. Download and install the software. If the problem persists, update everything from OS to audio drivers and check again.
Terminate Unnecessary Applications
With so many games, third-party software that forcefully inject themselves between operations cause crash in the game. Hence, the first thing we must do to resolve the Ghostrunner crashing on startup or failed to launch error is suspend all unnecessary programs and then launch the game. Here are the steps you can follow.
- Press Windows Key + R and type msconfig, hit Enter
- Go to the Services tab
- Check Hide all Microsoft services
- Now, click Disable all
- Go to the Startup tab and click on Open Task Manager
- Disable one task at a time and restart the system.
Try launching the game, check if the error still occurs.
Disable Steam Overlay
If the game crashes right after the intro video, the cause of the problem can be the Steam Overlay. This feature has been known to act up with some games. You can resolve the error by disabling the Steam Overlay. Launch Steam client. Click on Library and right-click on Ghostrunner. Select Properties and uncheck Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.
Close Steam and check if the in-game crash or Ghostrunner crash at startup still occurs.
Disable or Remove GeForce Experience / MSI Afterburner
Sometimes third-party software can tune the GPU settings that does not pair with the game leading to the error. By simply disabling the software, you can resolve the errors. You can uninstall the programs to disable them or simply disable them from the Task Manager. Disable the programs via any method that suits you. Once done, try playing the game and check if the error still appears.
Disable Shader Cache
For Nvidia users, you can disable the Shader Cache which is known to crash games. Here are the steps to disable Shader Cache from the Nvidia Control panel.
- Right-click on Desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel
- Expand 3D Settings > Manage 3D settings > Program Settings
- Click Add and select Ghostrunner
- Under Specify the settings for this program, locate Shader Cache and select Off.
Check if the Ghostrunner Game Crashes at Startup, Crashes Mid-game, and other performance errors still occur. If they do, try the next fix.
Remove Bad Sectors from the HHD
If you have bad sectors on your HDD, it could also be causing the crash. Although you could correct the corruption in the file system via CHKDSK on Command Prompt, here is a simple alternative.
- Right-click on C drive or the partition where you have installed the game and the launcher.
- Select Properties and go to Tools
- Click on Check and follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process. Try playing the game.
- After the process completes, the window will auto-exit.
Now, try playing the game and check if Ghostrunner crashing error still occurs.
Modify Discord Settings
The in-game overlay and the hardware acceleration of Discord is also known to cause crash in games. So, if you have the software installed and running disable the overlay and hardware acceleration. Here are the steps you can follow.
- Launch the Discord app and click on User Settings
- Click on Voice & Video in the left menu
- Locate Advanced by scrolling down and click
- Next, disable OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco System, Inc. and Enable Quality of Service High Packet Priority
- Go to Overlay and disable it
- Go to Advanced anddisable Hardware Acceleration.
Installing Microsoft Visual C++ 2015
Here are the steps you can follow.
- Press Windows + R and type appwiz.cpl, hit Enter
- Locate Microsoft Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable. Right-click on it and select Uninstall
- Reboot the system and try to play the game. If it still crashes proceed to install Visual C++
- Download and install both the x86 and x64 versions
- Restart the system.
Hopefully, the above solutions have resolved the Ghostrunner crashing at startup, won’t launch problem, and black screen with the game. Let us know in the comments if you have better solutions.