On November 15, 2022, Unreal Engine released the 5.1 version. If you’re still using the old version, you may encounter a crashing issue while launching the game. If you’re experiencing the Unreal Engine crashing problem, here are some troubleshooting tips for you to fix the problem.

  1. Update your Unreal Engine 5
  2. Update your graphics drivers
  3. Verify the integrity of game files
  4. Perform a clean reboot
  5. Reconfigure the registry settings
  6. Fix corrupt system files
  7. Reinstall your game

Before we proceed, please check this post here to make sure that your computer build meets the minimum requirements of Unreal Engine. If it does, restart your computer to fix some random bugs or flush the buffer. Then start the troubleshooting tips from the top down. (Please note that the following screenshots are taken on Windows 11, but the instructions work on Windows 10 as well.)

1. Update your Unreal Engine 5

Unreal Engine 5.1 is now available on Epic Games, with new features and enhancements released. If you haven’t yet updated your game, some bugs may prevent you from running the game properly. Therefore, follow the steps below to update your Unreal Engine.

  1. Open the Epic Games Launcher, click Unreal Engine from the left panel, then select the Library tab.
  2. Click the yellow plus button next to Engine Versions to check for updates.
  3. When you see Unreal Engine 5.1, download and install it.

Once complete, check if the new Unreal Engine version runs properly on your computer. If it still crashes, move on to the next tip.

2. Update your graphics drivers

When Unreal Engine keeps crashing, one of the first things you should do is to update your graphics card driver, since an up-to-date graphics driver always ensures the best gaming performance and fewer bugs.

To update your display card driver, here’s what you can do:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and X at the same time, select Device Manager.
  2. Double-click to expand the category Display adapters. Then right-click your graphic card driver and click Update driver (the name of the device can be different on your computer).
  3. Then click Search automatically for updated driver software.
  4. Wait for Windows to find the latest driver available for you.
  5. When the driver update is done, restart your computer for the change to take effect.
  6. Then check and see if the problem is fixed.

Sometimes Windows may tell you that “the best drivers for your device are already installed”. However, it’s not always accurate since Microsoft doesn’t have access to all the newly released drivers for your devices.

Therefore, if Device Manager doesn’t find you the latest Graphics driver, we recommend using Driver Techie to scan and repair outdated, corrupt, or missing drivers. It works in most cases where you have a driver-related issue. You can download Driver Techie by Clicking Here or following the guide below.

To use Driver Techie to find you the latest Graphics driver:

  1. Download and install Driver Techie, then launch it.
  2. Click Scan Now.
  3. After the scan, select all the drivers you need to update and click Update All (for Pro subscribers), and all your drivers will be updated automatically. (Please note that you can only update the driver one at a time if you use a free version. To see how to manually update the drivers one by one, please check this post.)

Driver Techie involves the direct human review of the driver database by our engineers, which ensures you always have the safest and latest device drivers. You can rest assured that all your device drivers are in good hands.

Furthermore, if you’ve subscribed to Driver Techie Pro, and need our technical support to help with the Unreal Engine crashing issue, please feel free to contact <support@drivertechie.com>.

3. Verify the integrity of game files

If your Unreal Engine 5 is still crashing, make sure that the game files are functioning properly. If the game files are corrupted, you will not be able to play the game properly and will experience crashing issues. It is therefore necessary to verify the integrity of game files and to repair them if they are damaged/missing. Here are the steps:

  1. Open the Epic Games Launcher, click Unreal Engine from the left panel, then select the Library tab.
  2. Click the arrow icon next to the Launch button on the UE version, and select Verify.
  3. Wait for UE5 to scan and verify the integrity of game files.
  4. Once done, re-launch your UE5.

Now, check if your UE runs properly. If the crash issue persists, then proceed with the next fix.

4. Perform a clean reboot

Sometimes third-party software conflicts can cause your Unreal Engine to crash, and multiple programs automatically running at startup may consume the system resources and internet data without your knowledge. In this case, we recommend a clean boot environment for your UE5.

To do a clean reboot:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R together to invoke the Run prompt. Type MSConfig and press Enter.
  2. From the top menu, select the Services tab, check Hide all Microsoft services, and then click Disable all.
  3. Now, click the Startup tab from the top menu and click Open Task Manager. Click each of the tasks and click Disable.
  4. Now, back to the System Configuration page and click the OK button to reboot your computer.
  5. Once rebooted, re-launch your Modern Warfare.

Now, check if the problem persists. If UE5 still crashes, try the next troubleshooting tip.

5. Reconfigure the registry settings

Sometimes Unreal Engine can crash due to incorrect TDR settings. TDR, short for Timeout Detection and Recovery, can reset your graphics card and your GPU if they’re not working properly on your computer. To check if this is the case, follow the steps below and set the TDR recovery level to 0.

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time to invoke the Run prompt. Then, type regedit and press Enter to open Registry Editor.
  2. Click File and select Export.
  3. Choose the location where you want to save the backup file, type a name as you like, and then click Save.
  4. Go back to the Registry Editor, then navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers

  5. Right-click the blank space, move your cursor to New and click QWORD (64-bit) Value from the expanded menu.
  6. Rename the new value as TdrLevel.
  7. Double-click TdrLevel and set it to 0, then click OK.
  8. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer for changes to take effect.

Now you can try launching Unreal Engine and check if the crashing problem persists. If so, please continue with the next tip.

6. Fix corrupt system files

In some cases, UE5 keeps crashing due to corrupt/missing system files. Hence, we recommend you run the SFC and DISM commands, as they can repair the system files so that Unreal Engine will be able to launch properly.

Here are the steps:

  1. On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R together to invoke the Run prompt, type cmd and press Shift, Ctrl, and Enter together to open the Command Prompt as an administrator.
  2. Paste the following command line and press the Enter key, Windows will automatically detect and repair files that went corrupted.
    SFC /scannow

Once SFC finishes, check if there’s any issue found and fixed. If you get further instructions from the results, perform it as well. (Please do not close the Command prompt.) After that, paste the following lines in the Command prompt to run the DISM scan.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth


If RestoreHealth ends with errors, you can try the following command. Please note that this will take you up to 2 hours to complete.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /StartComponentCleanup

If RestoreHealth gives you Error: 0x800F081F, restart your computer and invoke the command prompt again, then run the following command.

DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /AnalyzeComponentStore

Once done, restart your computer for changes to take effect. Next, launch your UE5 to see if it still crashes. If so, you will only have to reinstall the game (as well as the Epic Games launcher).

7. Reinstall the game

If all the above methods fail to fix the UE5 crashing issue, then doing a clean reinstall would be suggested. Please note that you should back up your projects before doing this. After that, uninstall the game and then reinstall it on Epic Games.

To uninstall Unreal Engine completely:

  1. Open the Epic Games Launcher, click Unreal Engine from the left panel, then select the Library tab.
  2. Click the arrow icon next to the Launch button on the UE version, and select Remove.
  3. Navigate to the following location: C:\Program Files (x86)\Epic Games\Launcher, if you see the UE folder, delete it.

Once complete, go back to Epic Games and download the new version of Unreal Engine. It should be working now.

Conclusion

If your Unreal Engine goes crashing, make sure that your computer has the required hardware components. If so, restart your computer to see if it helps. If not, check for Unreal Engine updates, and graphics driver updates as well. Furthermore, repair the corrupt game files if necessary. In addition to that, corrupt system files can also cause UE to crash, so the SFC command is strongly recommended in such cases.

Sometimes UE can be interfered with by some apps, so you can try a clean reboot. And we have introduced an advanced troubleshooting tip for you, which needs you to make changes to your registry settings. If nothing works, then you can consider reinstalling the game completely.

Hopefully, one of the tips above will sort out the UE crashing issue for you. If you have any follow-up questions, please let us know in the comments.