Note: If you’re having trouble installing the game, try these troubleshooting steps to complete the installation of Elden Ring. After investigating this issue, it turns out that this problem might occur due to several different causes (on both PC and consoles). Here’s a list of potential culprits that might ultimately be causing this problem: Now that we went over every potential issue that might be responsible for this issue, let’s move on to the actual fixes. Below you’ll find a collection of methods that other users have successfully used to force Elden Ring into launching.
1. Update Steam Client
According to a lot of Elder Ring players, the reason why you might be unable to launch the game is that you’re using an outdated Steam client version. This typically happens if you previously disabled the auto-update function of Steam. Keep in mind that Steam is now fully capable to update itself without any user intervention, but in reality, this doesn’t always happen. This seems to be a glitch that typically occurs with Windows 10. Fortunately, you can get Steam to update automatically by simply restarting the app. You can also force the store to update by going to the ribbon bar at the top and clicking on Steam > Check for Steam Client Updates. If updating using the instructions above didn’t work, chances are you’re dealing with some kind of corruption associated with Steam. Follow the steps below on uninstalling the Steam app and then downloading the latest version: In case the same problem still occurs when you try to install a game, move down to the next method below.
2. Force Steam to open with admin access
If you attempt to launch Elden Ring through Steam, you can also expect to encounter this problem due to a permission issue. This scenario has been confirmed by a lot of Steam users and it’s typically resolved by forcing the main Steam executable to open with admin rights. If this scenario is applicable and you want to give this fix a try, right-click on the Stream executable inside the folder where you installed it (or you can simply right-click an executable) and click on Run as Administrator from the newly appeared context menu. Note: If you see the UAC (User Account Control) prompt, click Yes to grant admin access. After you do this, launch Elden Ring once again through Steam and see if the problem is now fixed. In case the game launches just fine now, but you want to avoid doing the steps above every time you open Elden Ring, follow the steps below to force to reconfigure the executable to run with admin access every time: If Elden Ring still doesn’t launch despite the fact that you reconfigured the admin permissions, move down to the next method below.
3. Whitelist Steam Launcher + Elden Ring Executable
If the methods so far didn’t allow you to launch Elden Ring normally, the next thing you should do is investigate an interference caused by a firewall component. Looking at user reports, this is pretty common among Elden Ring players. If you’re on an older Steam build and you refuse to update, you should expect to notice that Steam connections are blocked – this can happen with both a 3rd party firewall solution or with Windows Firewall. Important: Whatever you do, don’t run multiple firewall components at the same time. Choose one and uninstall the other. Note: If you’re using a 3rd party suite be advised that the steps of establishing a whitelist rule for Steam will vary. If Windows Firewall is the default suite, follow the instructions below to whitelist Steam launcher plus the used ports and ensure that Elden Ring is not prohibited from connecting to the game servers: If the same kind of issue is still occurring, move down to the next method below.
4. Verify Elden Ring game files on Steam
If none of the methods above have allowed you to launch Elden Ring from Steam, you should start troubleshooting against a potential corruption issue. As it turns out, this error could be caused by some corrupted files located inside the game installation folder. Note: This is mostly signaled to occur in situations where the initial game installation or the day 1 patch download was interrupted by a network inconsistency. Fortunately, Steam includes a way to check the integrity check of the game installation folder. If any files are missing or corrupted, they will be reacquired or replaced with healthy equivalents. Here are the steps on how to verify the integrity of the Elden Ring game files: If this method didn’t fix the issue in your case, move down to the next potential fix below.
5. Update GPU Drivers
As it turns out, an outdated GPU driver or a missing physics module can also prevent your PC from rendering Elden Ring. As it turns out, the game is not currently very good at giving you an error that will bring you closer to fixing the issue. If you launch Elder Ring from Steam and nothing happens, assume it’s due an outdated or partially corrupted GPU drivers that are missing some key dependencies that are actively used by the game. You should be able to fix the issue by updating the GPU drivers + the physics module that is handling the in-game physics. If this scenario is applicable and you haven’t updated your GPU drivers in a while, follow the instructions below for instructions to uninstall the current GPU drivers and reinstall the latest versions before attempting to launch Elder Ring once again: Note: If Device Manager was not able to find a new GPU driver version, you should resort to using the proprietary software provided by your graphics card manufacturer to update your current graphics drivers. Here’s a list of software that you will need to use based on your GPU manufacturer: GeForce Experience – Nvidia Adrenalin – AMD Intel Driver – Intel If the same kind of issue is still occurring even or you already had your GPU drivers up to date, move down to the next method below.
6. Install the missing DirectX dependencies
Keep in mind that Elden Ring uses the very latest DirectX 12 dependencies. And it’s important to understand that some of these required dependencies (if you choose to use DirectX 12 are not included by default with Windows 10 or Windows 11. So in order to address this potential issue, you’ll need to ensure that you have the latest public release of DirectX 12. Several affected users that we’re also dealing with issues when launching Elden Ring have reported that the problem was finally fixed after they ran the DirectX End-User Runtime Web installer and installed every missing DirectX iteration on their computer. Here’s how to start deploying the DirectX End-User Runtime Web installer on your PC and fix the starting issues with Elden Ring: If the problem is still occurring, move down to the next method below.
7. Run Elden Ring in Clean Boot Mode
Keep in mind that if you’re using a low-end PC, there’s also the chance that you’ll see this problem appearing because the game doesn’t have enough free system resources to render the game. As mentioned above, the fact that FromSoftware doesn’t have an error that properly allows players to troubleshoot the issue makes this issue much more frustrating. Besides insufficient available system resources, another potential problem that might cause launch issues with Elden Ring is a scenario in which a system resource optimizing tool or even an optical burning software is conflicting with the Steam installation. Since there are a lot of potential culprits (processes and startup items) that might be responsible for this problem, the best course of action would be to go for a clean boot procedure. A clean boot operation will force your Windows to boot up without any type of 3rd party interference (only required startup services and processes will be permitted to run). If achieving a clean boot state doesn’t fix the issue, move down to the next potential fix below.
8. Disable Overlay program (if applicable)
If you’re still unable to launch Elden Ring despite following all the other methods above and you’re always using an overlay feature to count your FPS, it’s possible that the rendering of the game is inhibited by the program enforcing the overlay. This problem is confirmed to occur on both Windows 10 and Windows 11. Another likely possibility is a scenario in which the problem is being caused by two conflicting overlay tools – in this case, you should be able to fix the problem by disabling the non-essential in-game overlay or by uninstalling this tool altogether. In most cases, the problem is either produced by Discord’s in-game overlay or by the overlay feature found inside Nvidia Experience. If you have Nvidia Experience overlay or a Discord overlay enabled, follow sub-guide 1 or sub-guide 2 to disable the in-game overlay function that’s currently active in order to stop the conflict. In case you’re using a dedicated overlay tool that you’re not actively using, you can follow the third sub guide in order to get rid of it.
Disabling Nvidia Overlay
If you’re using the overlay technology from Nvidia Experience, follow the instructions below to disable in-Game Overlay. Here’s what you need to do:
Disabling Discord Overlay
If you’re using Discord’s Overlay, you will need to access the User settings and disable the overlay feature from the Overlay tab. Here’s what you need to do:
Uninstalling the Screen Overlay feature
In the event that you have an overlay feature installed (different from Discord or Nvidia Experience) and you have no use for it, you can simply uninstall it to eliminate the possibility of a conflict. Here’s what you need to do to uninstall the potentially conflicting overlay tool: In case you didn’t have an overlay feature or disabling (or uninstalling it) didn’t work in your case, move down to the next method below.
9. Uninstall MSI Afterburner and/or RTSS (if applicable)
If you are using MSI Afterburner and Rivatuner (RTSS), keep in mind that these two GPU-based features are very likely to cause the game to crash at every attempted startup. There is no official explanation from FromSoftware yet, but the community suspects that the current game version is not fully compatible with RTSS. Note: MSI Afterburner is a program that allows you to overclock your GPU directly from the software, and Rivatuner is a freeware overclocking and hardware monitoring program for Nvidia video cards but also has limited support for AMD video cards. It’s important to understand that both of these apps don’t have a turn-off option – the only way to turn off the apps is to close them from the Task Manager. Press the CTRL + Shift + ESC buttons to open the Task Manager, then search the MSI Afterburner process and close it. Important: The Rivatuner program should close at the same time as the MSI Afterburner. In case it doesn’t, end the process manually. When you’re done with that, Elden Ring once again and see if the problem is now fixed. If this method is still not resolved or you aren’t using overclocking solutions like Afterburner or RTTS, move down to the next potential fix below.
10. Uninstall Epic Games launcher
If you’re experiencing this issue while attempting to launch the game from Steam, ensure that you don’t have the Epic Games launcher installed. According to a lot of issues, the launch of Elden Ring via Steam is somehow inhibited while the Epic Games Launcher is also running in the background. Most likely, this problem will be patched in the next major patch from FromSoftware, but until then, the only course of action is to disable or uninstall the Epic Launcher. Start by ensuring that the Epic Games launcher is not running in the background before attempting to launch Elden Ring once again. If the same kind of problem is still occurring, follow the instructions below to uninstall the Epic Games launcher:
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