The new massively multiplayer online survival game Lost Ark has been enjoying fairly positive early reviews from gamers and game reviewers alike, but some users have reported issues with the game crashing, not launching or freezing on startup.
This guide will explain why the game won’t launch, what you can do to fix it and how to report your issue if you’ve run into problems with the game that you can’t solve yourself.
Why Is Lost ARK Not Launching?
- Check Graphic Card Compatibility
If you’ve been trying to launch the game and it won’t open, a possible cause is that your Windows video card settings are not supported by Lost Ark. To fix this, follow these steps:
- Close all running applications, including any background programs.
- Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete on your keyboard.
- Select Start Task Manager.
- Once there, click on the Processes tab at the top of the window. Find lostarkgame.exe in the list of processes and highlight it by clicking once on it with your mouse or by pressing F5 on your keyboard. Right-click on the highlighted process and select End task.
- Wait for Lost Ark to close completely before continuing launching again.
- Use Steam To Troubleshoot Issues
If Lost Ark won’t launch, try launching it from Steam first. If that doesn’t work, there could be a problem with your game installation. To find out, launch Steam and navigate to Library > Games. Right-click on Lost Ark and select Properties. Verify that your game is correctly installed by clicking on the Installed Content tab. After verifying the installation status, restart your computer and try launching Lost Ark again from its executable file (.exe).
- Reinstall DirectX
Check to make sure DirectX is installed properly. You can reinstall DirectX by following these steps. First, open Programs and Features from Control Panel, select View Installed Updates, find DirectX on the list of available updates, right-click on it and choose Uninstall. Follow any on-screen prompts to finish removing DirectX completely. Once that’s done, restart your computer and check to see if Lost Ark launches now.
- Update Windows
A common issue with Lost Ark is a Windows Update that needs to be updated. To fix this, run Windows Update and install any updates that are available. If it’s been a long time since your last update, you may need to allow some additional time for your system to complete the latest round of updates before launching Lost Ark. When complete, restart your PC and try running Lost Ark again.
- Clean Out Your Hard Drive
The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure your computer has enough memory and hard drive space available. In general, you should have at least 8GB of RAM and 100GB of free hard drive space. Some common reasons why the game might not launch are that it’s too old or unsupported by your operating system (for Windows), corrupted files, an invalid serial key, a corrupted installation, or OS conflict.
- Disable Antivirus Software
Check to see if you have antivirus software enabled. If you do, disable it and try running the game again. You can also try disabling hardware acceleration or upgrading your graphics card drivers to see if this fixes your problem.