Posting this after two days of scouring the internet for a solution to my display driver crashes and helping someone in Discord who couldn’t get past the intro movie. If one of these fixes helps you, great! If it doesn’t, feel free to contact me through Discord (Garrulous#7782) and I’ll do my best to troubleshoot with you. Oh and this is for PC. Sorry Mac brothers, I can’t help you.
Without further ado:
- Update your video card drivers.
- Update your Civ6 mods / uninstall your Civ6 mods (lots of good mods, the uninstall is really just to test).
- Validate your Steam install (note: if you get 3 files need to be replaced, that happens to everyone. It likely isn’t the culprit).
- Run Windows Update. I know I know, but maybe there’s another driver that needs updating like your monitor drivers.
- Uninstall and reinstall the game.
- Run an antivirus check with Windows Defender or another antivirus program (unlikely to reveal something directly screwing with Civ6 but including just in case).
- Make sure Onedrive or some other cloud back-up isn’t backing up your Documents folder. This messes with the files in the ‘Sid Meier’s Civilization VI’ folder contained in Documents\My Games and can cause a ton of issues. If you really need to put your game saves in the cloud, do it manually.
- Run DXSETUP. This can be found by searching for it on your computer, or, if you’re a Steam user, going to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist\DirectX\June2010\ and running DXSETUP.
- Repair vcredist. For Steam users, this can be found at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist\vcredist\. There should be two folders, 2012 and 2015. Go into each and run vcredist_x64. You may get an error that a newer version is installed – if that happens, no big deal, you’re likely up to date.
- Let Civ6 create a new settings folder. Go to Documents\My Games\ and rename the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI folder to something else (like ‘oldSid Meier’s Civilization VI’). Now boot up the game and see if it is fixed. Sometimes these files get corrupted, apparently, and cause all sorts of shenanigans. Note that your saved games will be in the old one and you’ll need to copy them over if this fixes your issue. If this doesn’t work, you can exit the game, delete the newly created folder and remove the “old” from the old folder to restore everything.
- Lower your graphics and memory usage settings in the game to Medium. If you have a beefy computer, this may fix things for a while but odds are something else on this list is the culprit.
- Underclock your graphics card. Same as what I just said: a temporary fix to an underlying problem, though in this case there is a slight chance your graphics card really is overheating. Clean your computer, you filthy animal.
- Change your game to Full Screen, then set your resolution to whatever it is normally and refresh rate to 48hz. I don’t know about this one, seems like another “you have a problem elsewhere” fix, but there is a guy out there who swore it is the only way his game would run.
- Isolate the Civ6 folders from Windows Defender / your Antivirus. I really don’t recommend doing this, since it leaves a gaping hole in your computer for nefarious crap.
If you find a fix that isn’t on the list, let me know and I’ll get it added. Happy Civving!
Without further ado:
- Update your video card drivers.
- Update your Civ6 mods / uninstall your Civ6 mods (lots of good mods, the uninstall is really just to test).
- Validate your Steam install (note: if you get 3 files need to be replaced, that happens to everyone. It likely isn’t the culprit).
- Run Windows Update. I know I know, but maybe there’s another driver that needs updating like your monitor drivers.
- Uninstall and reinstall the game.
- Run an antivirus check with Windows Defender or another antivirus program (unlikely to reveal something directly screwing with Civ6 but including just in case).
- Make sure Onedrive or some other cloud back-up isn’t backing up your Documents folder. This messes with the files in the ‘Sid Meier’s Civilization VI’ folder contained in Documents\My Games and can cause a ton of issues. If you really need to put your game saves in the cloud, do it manually.
- Run DXSETUP. This can be found by searching for it on your computer, or, if you’re a Steam user, going to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist\DirectX\June2010\ and running DXSETUP.
- Repair vcredist. For Steam users, this can be found at C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Steamworks Shared\_CommonRedist\vcredist\. There should be two folders, 2012 and 2015. Go into each and run vcredist_x64. You may get an error that a newer version is installed – if that happens, no big deal, you’re likely up to date.
- Let Civ6 create a new settings folder. Go to Documents\My Games\ and rename the Sid Meier’s Civilization VI folder to something else (like ‘oldSid Meier’s Civilization VI’). Now boot up the game and see if it is fixed. Sometimes these files get corrupted, apparently, and cause all sorts of shenanigans. Note that your saved games will be in the old one and you’ll need to copy them over if this fixes your issue. If this doesn’t work, you can exit the game, delete the newly created folder and remove the “old” from the old folder to restore everything.
- Lower your graphics and memory usage settings in the game to Medium. If you have a beefy computer, this may fix things for a while but odds are something else on this list is the culprit.
- Underclock your graphics card. Same as what I just said: a temporary fix to an underlying problem, though in this case there is a slight chance your graphics card really is overheating. Clean your computer, you filthy animal.
- Change your game to Full Screen, then set your resolution to whatever it is normally and refresh rate to 48hz. I don’t know about this one, seems like another “you have a problem elsewhere” fix, but there is a guy out there who swore it is the only way his game would run.
- Isolate the Civ6 folders from Windows Defender / your Antivirus. I really don’t recommend doing this, since it leaves a gaping hole in your computer for nefarious crap.
If you find a fix that isn’t on the list, let me know and I’ll get it added. Happy Civving!
