Hogwarts Legacy Crashes on Startup Fix Guide

With Hogwarts Legacy now available through Steam, it seems some players are having trouble starting the game. Specifically, they aren’t able to get past the epilepsy warning at the beginning, just after booting. Others get stuck when compiling shaders. If Hogwarts Legacy crashes on startup for you, there are a few potential fixes to try, though not all work for all players, and you may even find that submitting a bug report is all that can be done. 

How to Potentially Fix Hogwarts Legacy Crashing on Startup

Close and Restart Steam

The very first bit of troubleshooting to try if Hogwarts Legacy crashes on startup is to close Steam completely by exiting the application, and ending it via Task Manager just to be sure. Restart Steam and relaunch the game.

Update Steam 

The next step is to make sure the Steam application is up to date. This should automatically happen every time you start Steam, but sometimes it doesn’t. Check Steam’s latest version by going to the following in the Steam Client on your computer:

• Steam (upper left corner).
• Check for Steam Client Updates.

The client will automatically check for updates and download them if any are available. If you’re up to date, the dialog box will say, “Your Steam Client is already up-to-date.”

Verify Hogwarts Legacy Game Files

With that taken care of, verify the integrity of the Hogwarts Legacy game files by: 

• Going to your Steam library.
• Right-clicking on Hogwarts Legacy.
• Clicking Properties.
• Local Files.
• Verify integrity of game files.

Of course, it’s worth noting that Hogwarts Legacy needs to be installed for this option to appear. If new files need to be downloaded, those will be added to your download queue in Steam. With that done, try to launch the game again. If it crashes, give Steam a restart (or completely end the app via Task Manager and restart) again for good measure.

Update GPU Drivers

One possible solution to a crash that’s easy to overlook is updating your GPU drivers. Both Nvidia and AMD often release new drivers to support new game releases. Be sure these are up to date by downloading them from the appropriate locations: Nvidia and AMD. 

Other Potential Fix Options

Other options for crashes include: 

• Running Hogwarts Legacy as an administrator.
• Checking your firewall and anti-virus settings. These could be interfering with Steam or Hogwarts Legacy potentially.
• Restarting or hard-restarting your computer. 
• Running Hogwarts Legacy via a desktop icon or .exe file (which some players have confirmed has helped).

Uninstall and Reinstall Hogwarts Legacy

As a last-ditch effort, uninstall and reinstall Hogwarts Legacy, no small task with its 85GB file size.

Submit a Bug Report

If you still can’t play, make sure to submit a bug report to Warner Bros. Games, so the Hogwarts Legacy development and support teams have as much information on the issue as possible. 

Hopefully, one of these fixes worked for you. Hogwarts Legacy crashing on startup or just thereafter isn’t the only bug afflicting PC players in the game’s early access period, unfortunately. It’s likely a launch day patch will rectify some of these issues video memory, crashes, and frame rates. If you’re getting a black screen error, try these potential solutions.