How to Fix “Code: FH301” Error in Forza Horizon 5?

Some Windows gamers are reporting that they always get the FH301 error while attempting to play Forza Horizon. This problem is confirmed to occur with Forza Horizon 3, Forza Horizon 4, and Forza Horizon 5 on both Windows 10 and Windows 11.

After we’ve investigated this particular issue, it turns out that the problem is always related to Windows’s inability to identify the latest available GPU version for a dedicated graphics card.

This problem is exclusively reported to occur for Nvidia and AMD, but not for Intel integrated GPUs.

Now that you are aware of the reason why the FH301 error might occur when attempting to play Forza Horizon, let’s get to the actual fix.

Update GPU drivers via dedicated GPU utility

This issue pretty much re-confirmed what every avid gamer already knew – Control Panel is completely useless when it comes to identifying a new version for your graphics card driver.

This is probably the reason why the game refuses to start. The game warns you that your GPU drivers are outdated, but Windows doesn’t recognize that a new graphics driver version is needed.

Fortunately, this is an issue that you can easily resolve by using the dedicated updating utilities (Nvidia Experience or AMD Adrenalin) to ensure that you have the latest GPU drivers installed.

Depending on if you’re on NVIDIA’s or AMD’s ecosystem, follow one of the sub-guides below to update the GPU drivers to the latest versions available.

Updating the GPU drivers on Nvidia

Before updating your current driver, you should first take the time to uninstall your current drivers and make sure they are replaced with generic equivalents. This will save the day in those situations where the FH301 error is occurring due to driver file corruption.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Press Windows key + R to open up a Run dialog box. Next, type ‘appwiz.cpl’ inside the text box and press Enter to open up the Programs and Features menu.

   

2. Once you’re inside the Programs and Features menu, scroll down through the list of applications and click on Publisher to order all your installed programs based on their publisher.

   

3. Once you manage to order the programs accordingly, find all the entries published by NVIDIA Corporation.
4. Next, right-click on every NVIDIA item and choose Uninstall from the context menu.

   

5. Proceed to uninstall every Nvidia driver, then restart your computer. This is necessary in order to allow the generic drivers to kick in.
6. Once the next startup is complete, visit the official download page of GeForce Experience and click on the Download Now button to begin the download of the updating utility.

   

7. Follow the remaining instructions to install Nvidia Experience and click Yes to grant admin access when prompted to do so.
8. Once the utility is installed, open it and install the recommended drivers from the Drivers Page.

   

9. Once the driver is installed, you will be prompted to restart in order to finalize the changes. Reboot as instructed.
10. After the next startup is complete, launch Forza Horizon once again and see if the fh301 error is now fixed.

Updating the GPU drivers on AMD

If you’re using an AMD GPU, the first thing you should do (before trying to update) is to use the AMD Cleanup utility to remove the current dedicated graphics card driver and ensure that every remnant file is also deleted.

After you do so, you can download the latest GPU version using the Auto-Detect utility powered by AMD Adrenalin.

Here’s what you need to do to update your AMD GPU drivers:

1. First things first, open your default browser and visit the official download page of the AMD Cleanup Utility.
2. Once the download is complete, right-click on the AMD Cleanup Utility executable and choose Run as administrator from the context menu that just appeared.
3. At the confirmation prompt, click Yes to grant admin access and boot your PC in Safe Mode.

   

   Note: This tool will start by uninstalling your current AMD drivers first, next scan for every remnant file like registry entries and driver store signatures. It’s entirely automated, so you won’t be required to search and uninstall every file manually. If possible, you should run this in safe mode.

4. At the second prompt, click on Ok to start the AMD cleanup process (the process will run in the background).

   

   Note: During this operation, you can expect your display to start flickering quite severely before turning black for a few seconds. This is absolutely normal, so don’t freak out when this happens.

5. Once the operation is complete, click on Finish to restart your computer and make the transition to the generic drivers.
6. After your PC boots back up, visit the official link for the AMD Auto-Detect and Install Graphics utility.
7. Once you’re inside the correct page, scroll down to the Auto-Detect and Install Radeon Graphics Drivers for Windows and click on Download Now.
   

   

8. Once the download is complete, double-click on the executable and follow the on-screen prompts to install Radeon Adrenalin.

   

   Note: You can change the default destination folder if you want, but this is not recommended.

9. After the download is complete, AMD Adrenalin should automatically launch itself and start scanning if you have the latest versions of the compatible AMD graphics drivers. Wait patiently until the scan is complete.

   

10. Once the utility successfully detects your system configuration and the driver that needs to be installed, click on Install to start the driver updating process.

    

    Note: If you are prompted to install both the Recommended and Optional driver, install both.

11. At the end of this procedure, you will be prompted to accept the EULA (End User License Agreement) – when you see this prompt, click I Agree to complete the procedure.
12. Restart your PC to complete the process, then launch Forza Horizon once again and see if the problem is now fixed.