Baldur’s Gate 3 startup crashes rarely have one single cause. Larian’s support page lists a dozen fixes, from closing overlays and the ASUS Sonic Studio Virtual Mixer to switching between Vulkan and DirectX 11, deleting old mods or renaming the AppData profile folder. Which one actually got the game running on your PC?
Video: “Baldur’s Gate 3: Launch Trailer”, official Larian Studios channel (@LarianStudios), August 3, 2023. Launch trailer, not a troubleshooting video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuCfkgaaa08
What Larian’s support page suggests (read on November 11, 2026):
- Close non-essential programs (anti-virus, firewall, overlays, monitoring and chat apps); disable or uninstall the ASUS Sonic Studio Virtual Mixer, a known startup-crash cause; turn off Process Lasso core affinity.
- Verify the game files on Steam or GOG Galaxy.
- Switch between Vulkan and DirectX 11 in the launcher, or start bg3.exe (Vulkan) or bg3_dx11.exe (DX11) from the bin folder as administrator, holding Shift until the splash screen.
- VC DLL error: repair or reinstall the 64-bit Visual C++ redistributable; update graphics drivers, Windows and the Vulkan Runtime.
- Delete old mods (Mods and Public folders in Data, and %LocalAppData%\Larian Studios\Baldur’s Gate 3\Mods), clear LevelCache, then rename the AppData profile folder (back up your saves).
- Larian does not tie startup crashes to a specific patch and lists no affected hardware.
Questions for players:
- What happens exactly: the game closes instantly, crashes on the Larian launcher, before the main menu, or shows a VC DLL or data mismatch error? Since when (a game hotfix, a Windows update, a new driver)?
- Vulkan or DirectX 11: which one works on your PC, and did you notice a performance difference?
- Was it a mod? Which one, and did you use a mod manager?
- Which overlay or background app was the culprit for you (Discord, MSI Afterburner, RivaTuner, ASUS software, an antivirus)?
- Did you have to rename the AppData folder, and did Steam Cloud bring your saves back afterwards?
Please share your Windows version, CPU, graphics card and driver version, Steam or GOG, and what fixed it. Do not post account details or full DxDiag reports publicly.
Guide: Larian’s official fixes for Baldur’s Gate 3 startup crashes, step by step: https://tricknfix.com/articles/baldurs-gate-3-crash-on-startup-pc-larian-official-fixes-vulkan-dx11-mods-appdata/
Windows 11: #windows-11 (https://tricknfix.com/tags/windows-11/)
Source: Larian Studios Support, “Crashing upon startup (PC)”, read November 11, 2026: https://larian.com/support/faqs/crashing-upon-startup-pc_59
Image: official Baldur’s Gate 3 screenshot from Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1086940/Baldurs_Gate_3/), © Larian Studios / Wizards of the Coast
French version of this discussion: https://tricknfix.com/fr/sujet/baldur-s-gate-3-plante-au-demarrage-sur-pc-vulkan-ou-directx-11-vieux-mod-overlay-ou-asus-sonic-studio-qu-est-ce-qui-a-marche-chez-vous-0fca814be5/