SWTOR Crashing While Playing Guide

In Star Wars: The Old Republic, or really any other game, there’s a whole bunch of things that can cause your game to crash, or to exit to desktop. Other times, the game will freeze or crash at a specific cutscene.

While the only way to properly figure out why your game is crashing is to take a fine-tuned look at your computer’s hardware and software, here’s a list of steps you can try taking to see if they help! If you are having trouble with a specific cutscene, try each step, then try the cutscene, and see if it helps. If not, move on the to the next one. Good luck!

Quick note: This guide is not about the game crashing before you ever even get it open, but many of these steps may still help.

1. Are you getting an error message?

If you are getting ANY kind of error message, it can be really useful to figure out what is wrong.

If you get the blue screen of death, this means you likely have something wrong with your computer itself – the error code will be at the very bottom. You can quickly take a picture with your phone when it pops up so you don’t forget what code it was.

Sometimes you’ll get a popup with an error code.

Unfortunately a lot of the time you just get the generic crash message which is not very useful.

You can click View Report Details which may or may not have some useful information!

Often, the game will just crash with no error message at all. If that happens, and it’s not happening often, just restart the game!

2. Turn Down Your Graphics As Low As Possible

The game has certain requirements to run on certain graphic levels – and doesn’t always default to the lowest settings. If you are able to at least open the game, you can go to the preferences (symbol of a cog on the bottom left of the Character Select screen), and set the Graphics Quality Preset to low. Make sure to then click apply on the bottom right, and click Keep Changes on the popup. This was a really common fix back in the day, but less players report it working these days to fix crashes, but it’s very easy to try.

You can also try setting the frame rate to 30 instead of the default of 60.

3. Repair Your Launcher / Verify Your Games Files

If your games files are not 100% correct, your game may have all kinds of issues. You can easily check if your game’s files are up to date when you do not have the game running – this does not fix crashes for everyone, but players do often report it helped them!

To repair your game files, there are two different methods – choose the Steam option if you play the game through Steam, choose the SWTOR.com if you just log into the game from the file you downloaded originally on SWTOR.com (properly called the Direct download launcher).

Steam

If you are using Steam, you’ll first need to exit the game if you have it open in its broken state – you may not be able to Quit Game like you normally would. Use ALT+TAB on your keyboard to open your windows programs, and while holding down ALT, tap TAB until Steam is highlighted. Once you are in Steam instead of SWTOR, you can click the button to force stop the game.

While SWTOR is not running, right-click your Star Wars: The Old Republic game in the Steam app and choose Properties.

In the popup window, choose Installed Files on the left. Then click the “Verify integrity of game files” button. This will compare the SWTOR files on your computer to the ones on the server – if any got broken, jumbled or missing while your game patched, it will re-download them and replace them. The % percentage of “Verifying integrity of files…” will jump around up and down from 1% to 100% to 12%, just let it run until it says “All xxx files successfully validated”.

You can then try closing the Properties window, and clicking “Play” to launch the game and see if it fixed things. You will likely need to re-accept the “End User License Agreement” by scrolling down all the way and choosing Accept, then the “Rules of Conduct, Privacy Policy, & Terms of Use” by scrolling down all the way, checking the two boxes, then clicking Accept.

If that fixed things, you’re good to go! You do not need to go to Step 2. (This is often what fixes it for me.)

SWTOR.com

Click the Settings cog on the Launcher. It’s located on the bottom left of the launcher.

Click the Repair button on the Settings screen, then click Save.

The Repair button is clickable if you are logged into the launcher and it has detected an error.

This often looks like it’s trying to re-download and re-install the entire game – it’s just going through all your files and checking them, let it run.

If that fixed things, you’re good to go! You do not need to go to Step 2. (This is often what fixes it for me.)

4. Update Drivers

Your Graphics Drivers are what allow your computer to work with your graphics card – they are a downloadable software file that often needs to be up to date, just like Windows updates itself over time. If they are not up to date it can cause all kinds of wierd issues.

Make sure to use your graphic card’s actual software to update your drivers – rather than whatever may have come by default with your computer. For example, if you have an HP computer, it may have a default piece of software that checks for drivers… but it may be out of date compared to the Nvidia or AMD graphics card software which is straight from the source.

Nvidia

Close any games or programs you have running. Leaving your internet browser open is usually fine.

Go to your Windows Start Menu. In the search bar for Windows, search for “GeForce”. You are likely looking for something called “GeForce Experience”.

It may force you to log in. Go through the steps of logging in if needed.

Click “Drivers” on the top left.

Click “Check for Updates” on the top right.

Click “Download” the green button on the top right. Let it download, then preparing package, then choose the green “Express Installation” button once it is finished. Let it prepare and install, it may take a bit of time. Your monitor may change colors, go black, change resolutions, and eventually return to normal.

If that fixed things, you’re good to go! You do not need to go to Step 3. (Graphic Drivers not being up to date is a common issue for SWTOR players.)

AMD

(I’m sorry, I don’t have AMD so I can’t show the steps, but AMD has a guide on their website.)

5. Delete your client_settings.ini file

This is a step that can sometimes help players who feel they have tried all the other steps.

After you have fully updated your drivers and turned down your game’ssettings to their lowest option, you can delelete the initial settings of your game to force your game to make a new basic graphics setting file, based on your up to date drivers or based on your computer’s current settings.

To delete this file, you need to find your SWTOR folder in your computer. For most people, if you go to Windows Explorer, and copy paste this into the bar a the top, it will find it automatically.

%localappdata%\swtor\swtor\settings

In there, delete the file called client_settings.ini while the game is not open. The next time you open the game, it will automatically create a new .ini file which might help.

6. Clean Boot

This is a step for players who really want to troubleshoot. A “clean boot” starts Windows with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs, so that you can determine whether a background program is interfering with your game or program.

Microsoft How to perform a clean boot guide

After you restart the computer, you’ll have a clean boot environment. If you couldn’t run SWTOR before you performed the clean boot, try to run SWTOR again. If SWTOR runs correctly while in a clean boot environment, then your problem was caused by interference from another app or service. You can then find out which app or service is causing the issue by following the other steps in the guide until you’ve figured out which one is causing you problems with SWTOR.

7. Uninstall and Reinstall

For some players, for some reason, only uninstalling and reinstalling the game fixed it for them.

Another option is, if you are playing through Steam, you can try playing through SWTOR.com instead, and the other way around. It only takes about 3 hours for the average user to donwload and install the game from scratch.

8. Stop Tabbing Out While Loading In / Windowed Fullscreen

This is a bit of a wierd one, but tabbing out while loading into the game or loading into a planet can often cause issues or cause the game to crash, even for me! It is apparently even more likely to happen if you alt tab or tab out when using Fullscrene mode, the default. This only applies if you crash while loading between areas or planets or into the game.

Once in-game, set the game to “Fullscreen (Windowed)” in the dropdown on the Graphics page of Preferences menu. The only time you want to set your game to Fullscreen is if it is really struggling to run, and it would be better for you to look things up on your phone instead of tabbing out.

9. Run a Antivirus / Malware Scan

If you at any point accidentally downloaded a virus, it may secretly be using your computer’s resources for nefarious deeds – which means your computer has less resources to run SWTOR or any other program.

Windows offers a free one that should be installed by default. Search for Windows Security in your windows bar. Under Virus & threat protection, you can run a Quick scan.

Malwarebytes offers a FREE scan of your computer. It is smart to use at least two different scanners, one might pick up what another does not.

Click the Free Download button, it will automatically download, and then run the MBSetup.exe file from your downloads folder.

Once it opens, just run the scan!

Post on EA Answers HQ / Reddit

If you have tried every step above, you will want to ask for help from other players.

To get the best help you can with your issues, you’ll want to write down and post:

1. Any erorr messages you’ve seen or where it is crashing
2. Every step you’ve taken to try and fix it (you can use the list above!)
3. And include a DxDiag (this is a log file that shares information about your computer system for troubleshooting) and even better if you have the SWTOR error log from the crash.

Then post it on…

• I would recommend to start by requesting help from other players on the SWTOR Subreddit. This is my go-to as players are often hanging around here reading threads and may be able to help.
• The second is to go to the EA Answers HQ area for SWTOR. Even free-to-play and preferred players can post on these help forums. However, there is no official staff there any regular players do not hang out here, only volunteers who may or may not be available.
• Lastly, you have post on the official forums. I would post in the New Player Help section.
• You can technically try contacting support@swtor.com but you may get mized results, so I recommend starting with one of the community options first!

Here is a template you can use – please make sure to edit it to fit your situation! This will help you waste less time so players don’t ask you about steps you may have already taken.

Hello! My game is crashing and I am trying to see if the community can help me find out why.  

This is what is happening in-game when the game crashes: xxxxxx  

This is my error message after it crashes:  

I have tried these things...  

• Turned down my graphics as low as possible in-game  
• Repaired my Launcher / Verified my Games Files in [Steam/the original launcher]  
• Updated my Drivers to version XXXXXX  
• I have deleted my client_settings.ini file and restarted the game  
• I have performed a Clean Boot and the game still won't run  

Here is the text in my new client_settings.ini file:

xxxx

Here is the link to my DxDiag file: xxxxx  

These are my computer specs:  

• Graphics Card: xxxx  
• Motherboard: xxxx  
• CPU: xxxx  
• [Windows 10/ Windows 11]  

Thank you for any ideas.

Other Causes

Really strange stuff can cause your compute not to work as expected, and there’s no way any guide or individual can help you solve your strange issues if they aren’t easily fixed with the above, which is why having those logs is really useful.

Check your RAM

I was having frequent crashes to Blue Screen a while ago. It ended up being that one of the RAM sticks in my computer had failed but my computer didn’t know! If you are having a RAM issue, this is often the CHEAPEST AND EASIEST part of your computer to fix and replace – it’s a great beginner project if you have never opened up your computer before as your RAM is just sticks you pop in and pop out – no special skills needed. This can also help fix a lot of lag you may experience if your RAM is broken!

The first step to testing your RAM is to use the free and already installed Windows Memory Diagnostic. Just type Run the Windows Memory Diagnostic in your windows search bar and follow the instructions. However, this may not produce any errors, even if there is something wrong.

The second step is to run something called MemTest86. It’s a little scarier if you’re not familiar with computers, but still very easy. You will need a bootable USB stick (most are bootable) and download the free MemTest86 files onto your USB stick following the site’s instructions. Here is a video tutorial! And here is how to boot the computer to run memtest86. It will run a really long series of tests that can take up to eight hours – but if you get a FAIL at any point, there is a good chance there is something majorly wrong with your RAM sticks.

If you only have two sticks fo ram, you would replace them in a matching pair. I foudn only one of mine was broken, but it is better to keep pairs together. If you have 4 sticks, you can run the test additional times and find out if just one set is broken by literally just removing 2 sticks at a time and running the memtest86 again.

If your RAM has failed, I highly recommend using PC Part Picker to help you pick some new RAM!

PS Did you know the inside of your computer does need to be cleaned? If your graphics card is too dusty, or your fan is full of dust, your graphics card will be getting too hot and won’t be able to do its job well. How to clean your computer. It’s unlikely that this is the issue, but it is possible, and was actually the cause of my pink-orange square back in 2012 back near when the game launched!

Check Your Computer Storage

This is unlikely to be the problem, but worth a try.

Go to your Windows Start Menu. In the search bar for Windows, search for “File Explorer”.

Right-click the drive your SWTOR game is installed on in the menu on the left – this will likely be “Local Disk (C:)” and choose Properties.

If your Used Space is a large chunk of your drive, compared to your Free Space, you may need to go uninstall some other games or delete some files to give your computer more space.

Even More Failures

• I was having an issue like this, in my case it seems like the controller iwas plugging in was somehow causing some kind of issue and when I replaced it all was good.  – Reddit
• I was having crashes quite often with SWTOR – like it would freeze up my PC and force a hard reboot. I tried all kinds of fixes, but in the end it turned out that turning off “Automatic Tuning” (overclocking) in GeForce Experience was the solution.  – Reddit
• So, I’m not fully sure if it’s your situation but in mine I was crashing via the steam version of swtor, I verified and reinstalled, nothing, the only thing that fixed it was reinstalling the game via the SWTOR launcher – Reddit
• User was using HP Computer Software to check their drivers, and that software was unofurntately 2 years out of date compared to the newest graphic card drivers – EA Answer HQ
• Sometimes can be caused by 3rd party overlay, like Steam Overlay – EA Answer HQ
• Power Supply at 600 watts was too low for playing SWTOR. – EA Answers HQ
• User needed a BIOS update for their Motherboard to get the newest AMD drivers – EA Answers HQ
• Malware may have been the culprit, though on a laptop and still suttering – Reddit