PC crashing upon startup

[sophiekibi]

Begging for help here. I’ve been waiting ten years for this game, and I’m unable to play it.

Downloaded the game on Thursday. Played all night Thursday night. On Friday, I decided that the graphics weren’t what I wanted, so I was going to update my GPU and CPU. Ever since, I’ve been unable to play. Every time I launch the game, it crashes my whole PC. The farthest I’ve gotten was to the companion preview, then shutdown. Here’s all I’ve done to try and fix this:

- upgraded PSU
- upgraded cooling system (max temp during launch was 69C)
- updated drivers
- updated windows
- updated BIOS
- flashed BIOS
- turned on Secure Boot
- uninstalled and reinstalled the game
- verified files through steam
- launched in windowed mode


PSU is MSI 850w
GPU is Radeon RX6750 XT
CPU is Ryzen 9 5900X

I just don’t know what else to do. I just want to play the game. I’ve seen a couple other people having this issue, but haven’t seen anyone able to help. If anyone has any suggestions, they’re greatly appreciated!!

[BadPsychic]

I had very similar issues after upgrading my CPU on the weekend. After the upgrade, the game would either hang or crash to desktop right after launch. I found that the only way I could get into the game at all was by deleting the settings files. Then I was able to get into the game, but it would still crash after 15 mins or so of play. After doing that for a few times, it went back to crashing at startup.

I started looking around for any additional cache files I could delete, and eventually found some at %localappdata%\BioWare\Dragon Age The Veilguard\cache

After deleting all the files in that folder (yesterday afternoon), I haven't had a single crash! Just to be sure, I clear the folder out every time prior to starting the game.

[Kiya]

Originally posted by BadPsychic:

I had very similar issues after upgrading my CPU on the weekend. After the upgrade, the game would either hang or crash to desktop right after launch. I found that the only way I could get into the game at all was by deleting the settings files. Then I was able to get into the game, but it would still crash after 15 mins or so of play. After doing that for a few times, it went back to crashing at startup.

I started looking around for any additional cache files I could delete, and eventually found some at %localappdata%\BioWare\Dragon Age The Veilguard\cache

After deleting all the files in that folder (yesterday afternoon), I haven't had a single crash! Just to be sure, I clear the folder out every time prior to starting the game.

Just posting so that I can find this post again if someone else posts with the same problems.

Or if it starts happening to me.

[Mr2ndHalf]

Many of the issues I've seen with the PC crashes (myself included) happen with the 40 Series and higher GPUs (and their equivalents). Something with power and heat spikes caused by something wrong in the games' coding. Hoping the upcoming patch addresses it so I can finally play the game, or else I'll be going for a refund and just get it on Xbox

[CeeKay2k]

Originally posted by Mr2ndHalf:

Many of the issues I've seen with the PC crashes (myself included) happen with the 40 Series and higher GPUs (and their equivalents). Something with power and heat spikes caused by something wrong in the games' coding. Hoping the upcoming patch addresses it so I can finally play the game, or else I'll be going for a refund and just get it on Xbox

There is definitly something wrong with that game. It cooks CPUs. I got 12700k and 4080 and I never had any issues with any game. I changed my CPU fan settings and limited frames to 100 on my 120hz LG Oled, this solved it.

[Mr2ndHalf]

Originally posted by CeeKay2k:

Originally posted by Mr2ndHalf:

Many of the issues I've seen with the PC crashes (myself included) happen with the 40 Series and higher GPUs (and their equivalents). Something with power and heat spikes caused by something wrong in the games' coding. Hoping the upcoming patch addresses it so I can finally play the game, or else I'll be going for a refund and just get it on Xbox

There is definitly something wrong with that game. It cooks CPUs. I got 12700k and 4080 and I never had any issues with any game. I changed my CPU fan settings and limited frames to 100 on my 120hz LG Oled, this solved it.

Capping my frames to 60 didn't fix it. I had switched my cpu fan from standard to turbo in my bios menu, but that didn't really improve it much (all these were adjusted on Nov 1), so wondering if I need to crank the cpu fans to 100 and mess with my case fan in/out flows.
I have 12700k and 4060 running on a 144hz LG Ultrawide

[sophiekibi]

Originally posted by sophiekibi:

Begging for help here. I’ve been waiting ten years for this game, and I’m unable to play it.

Downloaded the game on Thursday. Played all night Thursday night. On Friday, I decided that the graphics weren’t what I wanted, so I was going to update my GPU and CPU. Ever since, I’ve been unable to play. Every time I launch the game, it crashes my whole PC. The farthest I’ve gotten was to the companion preview, then shutdown. Here’s all I’ve done to try and fix this:

- upgraded PSU
- upgraded cooling system (max temp during launch was 69C)
- updated drivers
- updated windows
- updated BIOS
- flashed BIOS
- turned on Secure Boot
- uninstalled and reinstalled the game
- verified files through steam
- launched in windowed mode


PSU is MSI 850w
GPU is Radeon RX6750 XT
CPU is Ryzen 9 5900X

I just don’t know what else to do. I just want to play the game. I’ve seen a couple other people having this issue, but haven’t seen anyone able to help. If anyone has any suggestions, they’re greatly appreciated!!

Wanted to update everyone in case anyone else has this problem- after 8 trips to microcenter, we discovered my new CPU was defected. They got me a new one, and I’m playing the game again! Thank you to everyone who offered advice!

[Lonetac]

Originally posted by BadPsychic:

I had very similar issues after upgrading my CPU on the weekend. After the upgrade, the game would either hang or crash to desktop right after launch. I found that the only way I could get into the game at all was by deleting the settings files. Then I was able to get into the game, but it would still crash after 15 mins or so of play. After doing that for a few times, it went back to crashing at startup.

I started looking around for any additional cache files I could delete, and eventually found some at %localappdata%\BioWare\Dragon Age The Veilguard\cache

After deleting all the files in that folder (yesterday afternoon), I haven't had a single crash! Just to be sure, I clear the folder out every time prior to starting the game.

How is this still a thing? Worked for me, thank you.

Yes, I necro'd this thread because this answer solved my problems and is still relevant, regardless to the OP's original issue. Glad he got that sorted!