Fix: Fallout 4 Crash on Startup

Fallout 4 crashes immediately upon launch. This issue has persisted for a while now and there may be many different reasons behind this. Users report that after they deleted some specific files/folder, the problem went away only to return again after some time. Therefore it is recommended to troubleshoot the problem at its core and not resort to temporary methods.

Solution 1: Disabling the anti-virus

Anti-viruses are known to conflict with various Steam games. To make sure that your antivirus isn’t doing the same, either disable your antivirus or add Steam in the whitelist. After performing the required steps, right-click on Steam and chose ‘Run as administrator’.

Solution 2: Updating your graphics drivers

Because Steam keeps rolling new updates every once in a while for its game, it is advised to keep your graphic card up-to-date all the time. However, there is one instance where updating your Nvidia drivers will start causing problems for Fallout 4 and cause it to crash. The driver updates are labeled as 358.91, 358.87 and 358.50. If you have any of these versions, you should downgrade back to 355.98.

To check the version of your Nvidia, follow the following steps.

1. Right-click on your desktop and select Nvidia configuration panel.
2. Browse over to ‘help’ and then ‘system information’. Here the version of Nvidia driver will be listed.
   
   Or if you are having difficulty in this method, try the one listed below.
3. Press the ⊞ Win(windows) + R key to bring up the run window.
4. In the dialogue bar, type ‘dxdiag’.
5. Chose the display tab and you will be able to see the version.

If your version isn’t correct, you can head here and search for 355.98. Download the driver and install it.

Furthermore, if you have an AMD driver you can update it using this link.

Solution 3: Changing some options

In some cases, Fallout 4 might be crashing because of some settings. Here is a checklist for you to ensure that a problem like this isn’t interfering with your game.

• Set the game resolution the same as your desktop resolution.
• Run in windowed and borderless window
• Run-on high performance in your battery/power settings.
• Uncheck Enable Intro Video.
• Uncheck Enable God rays.

Solution 4: Mouse acceleration issue

This issue is very common according to the players and we have a very simple fix for it.

1. Browse to C:\Users\username\Documents\My Games\Fallout4,
2. Locate ‘Fallout4config’ and open it.
3. Change iPresentinterval =1 to iPresentinterval =0. Do the same with ‘Fallout4prefs’ and ‘bForceIgnoreSmoothness’.
   
4. Save changes and close the window.

Then follow the following instruction to verify the integrity of game files.

1. Restart your computer and relaunch Steam.
2. Head over to the library section and right-click on the game which is giving you problems.
3. Click on its properties and select the local files tab.
4. Click the verify integrity of the game files button and Steam will verify that game in a few minutes.

Solution 5: Disabling Steam Cloud

It is possible that the steam cloud is interfering with certain elements of the game and preventing it from launching properly. Therefore, in this step, we will be completely disabling the steam cloud. For that:

1. Open Steam and navigate to the Steam Library.
2. Right–click on the Fallout 4 icon and select “Properties” from the list.

   

3. Select the Updates tab and uncheck the “Enable Steam Cloud Synchronization” option.
4. Click Close and restart your computer.
5. Open Steam, launch Fallout 4 and check to see if the issue persists.

Solution 6: Deleting Documents

In some cases, the saved game files might be corrupted. If the saved games files are corrupted they can prevent the game from launching properly.

1. Open file explorer and click on “Documents.
2. Navigate to the Fallout 4 saved games folder and delete everything inside it.
3. Restart your computer, run steam and launch Fallout 4.
4. Check to see if the issue persists.

Solution 7: Deleting files and re-downloading

If the methods listed above don’t work for you, we can try deleting some files and re-downloading them through Steam itself.

1. Open your Steam client and head over to the library tab.
2. Locate Fallout 4. Right-click on it and select uninstall.
3. An option of ‘delete local content’ will pop-up. Click ‘Yes’ and the uninstallation will proceed.
4. Close the Steam client and delete any mods or remaining files of Fallout4 that still remain.
5. Restart your computer and re-install Steam through the client.