How to Fix Dragon Age: Origins (Ultimate Fix Guide)

If you are having problems when you are launching the game or if the game doesn't start, if you are getting PhysX errors, if you are having problems with Dragon Age: Origins, you can follow this guide and solve your problems.

What is this guide and how to use it?

This is a guide I created to fix the problems people have been having with the game Dragon Age: Origins.

You can see the specific error/problem titles on the right side as a list, if you know what is your problem you can jump straight to it.

If you don't know what the hell is going on you can go to the last title at the end of the guide for an extensive general list of things to do.

! IMPORTANT !

Do NOT forget that if at any stage you are prompted to restart your computer please do it and follow each step one by one, do not try to launch multiple programs at once.

Please perform each step without skipping anything even if it means repeating something you have done before. This is to ensure that you have done everything correctly and because some steps must be performed in a specific order.

First and foremost, regardless of your problems you should do these immediately:

- Close Dragon Age: Origins
- Go to your Steam Library
- Right click on Dragon Age:Origins - Ultimate Edition
- Click on Properties
- Go to Local files tab
- Click on Verify Integrity of Game Cache.

It will scan your game files and automatically restore if there are any corrupted files. You can do this with any game you have on Steam.

Press Enter to continue ! Joking; just continue reading :)

PhysX Error

When you click Play on the launcher, nothing happens or you get an error about PhysX.

To fix this you must follow these steps.

1.
- Exit Steam completely
- Close the game
- Uninstall your current Physx
- Go to this page:

 http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx_system_software.html

Download and install it.

( This is the latest version of PhysX. )
PhysX is a physics engine designed by Nvidia and is used by games such as Dragon Age.

2.
- Go to this page:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/physx-9.13.0604-legacy-driver.html

Download and install it.

This is its legacy drivers; in other words this is what old games need to use because they were developed earlier and therefore for older versions. This is a one time only install.

Your game should now work properly. If you still get PhysX errors you might need to restart your computer.

DirectX Error; d3dx9_XY.dll Not Found Error

You are getting a DirectX error, d3dx9_XY.dll Not Found Error, Bad Image error or this

C:\Windows\system32\d3dx9_36.dll is either not designated to run on 
Windows or it contains an error.  Try installing the program again using
the original installation media or contact your system administrator or
the software vendor for support.

To fix all of them please follow these steps:

You should install the latest DirectX.

To do that,

- Go to

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

This is the latest version of DirectX.
Download and install it.

I have installed it but it didn't work, I am still getting the same error.

Then there is something wrong going on during your installation and you should follow these steps.

- Exit Steam completely
- Close the game

If your operating system is 32-bit
- Go to

C:\Windows\system32

If your operating system is 64-bit
- Go to

C:\Windows\SysWOW64

and rename

" d3dx9_XY.dll " to " d3dx9_XY.dll.backup "

Now go to this webpage and download and install the latest version of DirectX

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35

It should work now.

No DLCs; I can't see any DLCs

You cannot see any of your DLCs even though you bought the Ultimate Edition.

To fix this please follow these steps:

- Exit Steam completely.
- Close the game
- Go to this folder

  \Steam\SteamApps\common\Dragon Age Ultimate Edition\redist

and run these files in this order

DAUServiceSetup_Steam.exe
DAOU_UpdateAddinsXML_Steam.exe

It should work now.

If it still doesn't work:

You normally don't need to register anything if you want to play it on Steam but sometimes you might give it a try ;)

Please go to the guide below and jump to ' Promotional and Exclusive Items ' title and follow the instructions:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=299681983
Bonus: You can also unlock some exclusive promotional items that were made available to all the players for free by following those instructions.

Try launching the game again.

Note: It is reported that if you have old save file(s) in your documents it might be causing the problem. Please try to transfer your old save file(s) to another location if you want to make a backup of them or delete them entirely and try again.

*old save file(s) = save files which were left from a previous installment of the game

Party Members No Longer Following

Party members are no longer following, they just stand there and do nothing. Please help me because this is frustrating.

To fix this,

Press 'H' to toggle party movement again.

'H' is the default key for this, if you have changed it you can go to your settings and find your designated key for this action.

Frequent random crashes

If you are experiencing frequent crashes randomly and not at a specific point in the game, you can try setting the affinity of the game executable to use only one core.

To do that, follow these instructions:

- Launch Dragon Age: Origins
- Press Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open your Task Manager (if it doesn't work immediately, try using Alt+Tab to go to another active window)
- Find ' DAOrigins.exe ' in the list (if you are using Windows 8, go to your Details tab to see it)
- Right click on it
- Choose 'Set affinity'
- Leave only one of your cores ticked and untick the rest of them
- Click Ok .

You will have to do this each time you launch the game.

If you don't want to repeat this every time you launch the game you can follow these instructions:

- close the game
- go to

   \Steam\SteamApps\common\Dragon Age Ultimate Edition\bin_ship

- right click on ' DAOrigins.exe '
- select ' Send to ' and ' Desktop (create a shortcut) '
- go back to your Desktop and right click on that shortcut
- select ' Properties '
- delete everything you see in the ' Target ' line
- copy and paste this there

C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /C start /affinity 1 DAOrigins.exe

- click Apply and click Ok

You can now use this shortcut to launch your game and it will automatically set the affinity of the executable to use only one core.

How to update your system (I don't know what's going on but the game doesn't work)

It might be because your system is not up to date or maybe your system is not strong enough to run the game, to figure out what is going on please follow these steps.

! IMPORTANT !

Do NOT forget that if at any stage you are prompted to restart your computer please do it and follow each step one by one, do not try to launch multiple programs at once.

Please perform each step without skipping anything even if it means repeating something you have done before. This is to ensure that you have done everything correctly and because some steps must be performed in a specific order.

First of all:

- Close Dragon Age: Origins
- Go to your Steam Library,
- Right click on Dragon Age:Origins - Ultimate Edition ,
- Click on Properties,
- Go to Local files tab,
- Click on Verify Integrity of Game Cache.

It will scan your game files and automatically restore if there are any corrupted files. You can do this with any game you have on Steam.

• - Do you know your system specifications?
  
  

  NO

  If you don't know your system, you can't know for sure what you have in your hands and it makes things a bit harder to solve your problems.
  

  If you don't know how to see your computer specifications you can find them by following these steps:
  
  - Click on Start (assuming your operating system is Windows)
  - Type " dxdiag.exe " (without quotation marks)
  - Right click on " dxdiag.exe "
  - Select " Run as Administrator "
  
  It might ask you whether you want to verify the digital signatures online, say No.
  

  What is " dxdiag.exe " ?

  It is DirectX Diagnostic Tool and it basically just diagnoses your system and detects whatever hardware and software you have.
  It is a tool of DirectX which is why it is named 'dxdiag.exe' ; "dx" for DirectX and "diag" for Diagnostic.
  
  verified source: Microsoft[windows.microsoft.com]
  It is simple and harmless.

  
  

  YES

  Is your system above the minimum requirements for the game?
  

  System requirements of Dragon Age: Origins:
  Minimum: 
  OS: Windows XP (SP3) or Windows Vista (SP1) or Windows 7 
  Processor: Intel Core 2 Single 1.6 Ghz Processor (or equivalent) or AMD 64 2.0 GHz Processor (or equivalent) 
  Memory: 1GB (1.5 GB Vista and Windows 7) 
  Graphics: ATI Radeon X850 256MB or NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB or greater (Windows Vista: Radeon X1550 256 MB or NVidia GeForce 7600GT 256MB) 
  DirectX®: DirectX (November 2007) 
  Hard Drive: 20 GB HD space 
  Sound: Direct X Compatible Sound Card
   
  Recommended: 
  OS: Windows XP (SP3) or Windows Vista (SP1) or Windows 7 
  Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 Ghz or AMD Phenom II X2 Dual-Core 2.7 Ghz Processor or equivalent 
  Memory: 2 GB (3GB Vista and Windows 7) 
  Graphics: ATI 3850 512 MB or NVidia 8800GTS 512MB or greater 
  DirectX®: DirectX (November 2007) 
  Hard Drive: 20 GB HD space 
  Sound: Direct X Compatible Sound Card 
  © 2010 Electronics Arts Inc. All rights reserved
  

  
  You can proceed to the next step.
  
  
• - Are your drivers up to date ?
  
  AMD Drivers[support.amd.com]
  
  Nvidia Drivers[www.nvidia.com]
  
  * Some Beta drivers might not be stable enough for some games, please try the latest stable version first and if that doesn't work try the Beta drivers.
  
  
• - Is your DirectX up to date?
  Go back to DirectX title on the right to see how to update your DirectX.
  
  
• - Is your PhysX up to date ?
  Go back to PhysX title on the right to see how to update your PhysX.
  
  Note: You might be using an AMD graphics card but some games still require you to install PhysX software. It might still work with some games but the only diifference would be that it would run on your CPU instead of your GPU.
  
  ;tl, dr Install it even if you have an AMD GPU.
  
  

• Have you tried refreshing your Steam files yet?

  
  There appears to be a problem with the recent updates of Steam interfering with this game.
  If you have tried the above solutions and it didn't solve your problem about the launcher, please follow the instructions below to refresh your Steam files:
  
  https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=3134-TIAL-4638
  
  

• - Incompatibilities:

  
  Dragon Age: Origins has compatibilty issues with the software Xfire. If you have that sofware installed and none of the above steps solved your problems; you should uninstall Xfire software and try launching the game.
  
  The game does not have any issues with Windows XP (SP3), Windows Vista (SP1), Windows 7 and Windows 8.1; it runs on those Operating Systems without any problems.
  
  Be advised that Steam does not support Mac OS for this game.
  
  
• - Is it working now ?
  
  

  YES

  Great!
  
  

  NO

  Ask for help in the discussions.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Thanks a lot for reading my guide!

I hope I could have helped you even a little bit.

As always, enjoy your gaming and have a wonderful day!

- Prentice

[MrPancetita]

For me the fix was just to turn off the "Frame-buffer effects"

[tofucutterdnd]

Originally I just turned the texture settings to medium but here are the things I did to address the game crashes.
1. Use Nvidia graphics overlay. You'll have to add the daorigins.exe to make setting changes. My settings: RTX Dynamic Vibrance intensity 15, Saturation boost 90; Low Latency Mode Ultra; OpenGL GDI Compatibility performance, Vulkan/OpenGL Present Method Prefer layered on DXGI Swapchain, Power Management Mode Prefer maximum performance; Texture filtering negative LOD Clamp, Vertical Sync Fast

2. Use 4gb_patch.zip fix. Strangely I had 2 folders for Dragon Age installation folder from previous format wipe of Windows, so make sure you have the right folder.

3. There is a mem leak fix for 32/64 here: https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonage/mods/6435
The DXVK fix seemed to have done it for me. You can also try to run the daorigins.exe without the GOG or EA overlay to see if it works for you.

System specs: AMD 5950x, 128 GB DDR3, 2 TB SSD, Nvidia 4070 ti super, Windows 10 x64

[tofucutterdnd]

I saw where users were having issues with this game so I gave it a go. Loaded EA gaming client and the game loaded. System AMD Ryzen 5950x, Nvidia 4070 ti super, 128 GB DDR3, NVMe drive. Everything worked fine with max settings at 2k until you make it to the Ostagar encampment & cross the bridge cause the game to crash. The fix for me was to lower the texture settings in the video from high to medium. After that the game ran fine.

[straightener]

I thought the above fixed things for me, but now it simply won't load any saves. Just tries for about 3 seconds and then crashes. This game needs a remaster with more content.

[titanic_teepot]

Ignore previous comment, I have managed to get it to run on 1 core, now just legit freezes rather than self terminating. Have to force a log out on my system to close it when it does. Think im just giving up.

[titanic_teepot]

So I have the LAA installed, and i am still getting crashes, I see your post about the core change, but every single time I try that via task manager and switch the game from all cores to just 1 the entire fucking system locks up and I have to power cycle my system. I am running windows 11. If anyone has a work around let me know, at this point I'm considering just buying a whole ass Xbox to replay it.

[Alizard]

Вылетает игра во время загрузки. Я только пришла в остогар 2 разных персонажа, и одна проблема, просто вылет без ошибок. Что делать? установить минимальные текстуры?

[Mommies N Area]

How do I fix the game crashing I made a new save after installing patch and then the game shits the bed when i go to Alistar in Ostegar

[caidicus]

I have no idea what my error is, because it crashes before I can read what it even says. I click on "Launch", in Steam, I get the launcher type program pop up with configure and such on it, click configure and it crashes. I click on "Play game", and it crashes.

[Bri]

hi . im having trouble with launching the game itself. you see, i can launch the start menu but i cannot get the full game to launch when i click play because it says "error game already running" even though there its not i even checked task manager. if anyone could help me resolve this issue to get the full game to launch that would be great, because another thing to mention is that i just brought this game yesterday. i have the 4gb patch installed too.