Crashing upon startup (PC)
Are you shutting down all non-essential programs before launching the game? Things like anti-virus, firewalls, overlays from graphics tweaking or monitoring programs, as well as chat programs, have all been known to cause issues
There is a known issue with the ASUS Sonic Studio Virtual Mixer that can cause a crash on startup; if applicable, try disabling or uninstalling the program.
Try verifying local files: in the Steam library, right click on the game and select Properties, switch to the Local Files tab and then click on the 'Verify Integrity of Game Files...' button.
With the GOG version, in the (optional) Galaxy client, select the game, then the settings icon at the top right (beside the Play button) and under Manage Installation select 'Verify / Repair'.
In the launcher, try switching between DirectX 11 and Vulkan, as applicable, to see if that gets the game to start.
Try exiting out of the Steam client, or Galaxy for the GOG version, and starting the game directly from the '..\SteamApps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\bin' folder, by right clicking the executable (bg3.exe for Vulkan, or bg3_dx11.exe) and running as administrator.
Try right clicking the executable, select Properties, switch to the Compatibility tab and check off the 'Override high DPI scaling behavior' option (set it to Application), run as administrator and disable fullscreen optimization, and maybe set a Win 7 or 8 compatibility mode. In Windows 7, check off the option to 'Disable display scaling on high DPI settings', disable desktop composition and run as administrator.
Try right clicking and holding on the bg3_dx11.exe / bg3.exe executable, then hold Shift down, release the right mouse button and select Run as administrator, continuing to hold Shift until the splash screen comes up. Holding Shift prevents the game from taking focus when loading, and can avoid certain resolution or DirectX/Vulkan issues. Holding Shift when starting the game from the launcher may do the same thing.
If the game gives a VC related dll error when starting from the executable, try installing the 2019 Visual C++ redistributable (64bit), or the latest 2022 release. In the Control Panel, Programs and Features, try right clicking the MS VC++ 2015-2019/2022 redistributable entries (32 bit and 64) and select Uninstall and then Repair. If that does not help, repeat the process but continue with the uninstall, reboot and then try installing from the redistributable installer.
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\SteamApps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist\
C:\Program Files (x86)\GalaxyClient\Dependencies\__redist
https://support.microsoft.com/en-ca/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads
If you are using a program such as Process Lasso to adjust the core affinity for games (for example to have games and system processes run on different cores), try disabling it to restore the default (all cores). One report stated a conflict with Process Lasso's 'core engine' being on, even with the settings for the game restored to default.
Check for updated graphics drivers, and Windows updates in general.
Try updating the Vulkan Runtime. Normally this is included with graphics drivers, but manual updates have been reported to fix a couple of crashing issues. The Runtime installer can be downloaded from this site.
Do you have any mods installed, or were you using any in previous game versions, especially any UI related? If so, try completely removing them (check the 'Mods' and 'Public' folders in the '..\SteamApps\common\Baldurs Gate 3\Data' folder, etc; if present, both folders are safe to delete).
With patch 9, the game uses the local AppData folder for the current user account: 'C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3'. For compatibility, the first time the game starts in patch 9 it copies the profiles and configuration files over from the Documents folder, but that may mean copying the old mods there, as well. If you didn't already check this, the easiest way to get to that folder would be to copy the following line into the location bar in Explorer and hit Enter: %LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\Mods
Are you getting a data mismatch error in the launcher? If so, it would have created a log file listing any files in the install folder which are not expected, as well as files in the Mods folder. To check this, if applicable, copy the following line into the location bar in Explorer and hit Enter: %LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Launcher\Cache Then look for a text file named steam_4.1.1.2154614_alteredFiles.txt (or similarly, starting with 'galaxy_', for the GOG version).
If this is not a new installation,try browsing to the 'C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\LevelCache' folder and delete the contents. A corrupt file there can cause problems when saving or loading. The easiest way to get there would be to copy the following line into the location bar in Explorer and hit Enter: %LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur's Gate 3\LevelCache
You also may want to run a crash analysis. If you check the Event Viewer, does that give an error code or 'Faulting Module' file name that might help identify the cause of the crash? Click Start (or WinKey-R), then type ""event viewer"" into the search box. In Windows 10, 'event' should bring up 'View event logs'. After starting the Event Viewer, expand 'Windows Logs' in the left column and select 'Application'. In the center column, look for a recent error for the game (maybe sort by Date and Time, or search for 'bg3') Lastly, check the information under the 'General' tab below the list of events, starting with ""Faulting application name...""
If applicable, disable Steam cloud support either globally (in the client click on the Steam menu and select Settings, and then Cloud) or just for this game (in the library right click BG3 and select Properties, then switch to the General tab and check the Steam Cloud section). Alternately, exit out of the Steam client, or Galaxy for the GOG version, and just start the game directly from the executable when required.
Next, try browsing to the 'C:\Users\<UserName>\AppData\Local\Larian Studios' folder and rename the 'Baldur's Gate 3' subfolder. The easiest way to get there would be to copy the line following line into the location bar in Explorer and hit Enter: %LocalAppData%\Larian Studios
This folder contains the saved games, configuration files and a level cache folder. Deleting or renaming it will get the game to recreate it on startup; playing the game from a different Windows user account would effectively do the same thing. With Steam/Galaxy running and cloud support enabled, the client would just download the cloud copy of your existing profile.
If you played in patch 6 or earlier and still have those profiles and saves, also browse to the '..\Documents\Larian Studios' folder and rename the 'Baldur's Gate 3' subfolder there, so patch 9 does not copy the game's earlier Documents folder to the local AppData folder as part of the startup procedure if there is no existing local AppData folder. If you do not wish to keep your old saves, you could also just delete the folder entirely. After that, see if you can start the game. If so, check that you can start a new game and save/load. If not, delete the new BG3 folder and extract the replacement folder from the download below into your '..\Local\Larian Studios' folder, to see if that will let you start the game.
The graphicSettings.lsx file is set to 1280x720 Windowed mode and Very Low quality preset, which you can change in the options (manually, or hit autodetect) if this gets the game working. If the game still crashes, delete the replacement BG3 folder and (if you have any saves that you wish to keep) rename the original back again (as well as in the Documents folder, if applicable).
Try doing a clean boot and then test the game. Click Start, or hit WinKey-R, type in msconfig and hit enter; in the General tab, click Selective Startup, uncheck Load startup items (if required) and leave Load system services and Use original boot configuration options checked. Next, click on the Services tab, check the box to Hide all Microsoft services, then click the Disable All button (maybe make a note of which are currently enabled/disabled), then click OK and reboot the computer. Run msconfig again to switch back to the normal boot configuration.
Hopefully with trying out the steps above you will be able to start the game without crashing. If you are still experiencing the issue, there are a couple of files that you can send us that will allow us to have a deeper look. The first being the dxdiag report.
Simply press WinKey-R, type in dxdiag and hit enter, then when it finishes loading click on the 'Save All Information...' button and save the report somewhere handy to send to us.
Secondly, we will need the crash dump. Check the '..\Baldurs Gate 3\bin' folder for the gold.log file, and if there are any CrashDump files being created there (or in '..\bin\db\attachments'), please send us those as well.
PC