SWTOR Pink and Orange Square or Rectangle Covering Screen Fix

If you load up your Star Wars: The Old Republic game and encounter a large rectangle/diamond shaped pink or orange gradient or the entire screen is covered in pink and orange (occasionally an aqua color), this means there is something wrong with your game’s graphics or your computer’s graphics. The good news is there are some easy steps you can take that might fix it!

This visual bug is most commonly seen on the Character Select screen. Players have all kinds of funny names for this error including:

• Pink square / rectangle / diamond / octagon
• Pink thingy
• Rotating or spinning pink square
• Pink screen, Orange screen or Pink/Orange screen
• Character Select Screen is pink

1. Repair Your Launcher / Verify Your Games Files

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.)

2. 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.

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.)

3. Delete Diskcachearena file

Your “Diskcachearena” file is your game’s cache file, and when it is deleted, a new version is created the next time you launch the game.

While the game is not open, go to your Windows Start Menu. In the search bar for Windows, search for “File Explorer”.

You will need to navigate through your files until you find SWTOR’s “Diskcachearena” file. Once it is deleted, you may need to follow the steps above to repair your game again.

For Steam, my Diskcachearena file was located in:

C:\Steam\steamapps\common\Star Wars – The Old Republic\swtor\

For the SWTOR.com launcher, the Diskcachearena file might be located in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\BioWare\Star Wars-The Old Republic\swtor

This is a solution many other players share with others when they are having the pink-orange square issue.

4. Stop Tabbing Out While Loading In / Windowed Fullscreen

You can try pressing the ALT+ENTER key a few times when you see the pink-orange screen, which will sometimes fix it. This sometimes happens if you tab out while loading in.

I don’t know if this still applies, but a few years ago, a reddit users suggested:

“This usually happens if you alt-tab while it’s loading and you use fullscreen mode. Either don’t tab out during loading or use fullscreen windowed mode to prevent it happening”

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.

5. Check Your Computer Storage

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

6. Clean Your Computer

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!

7. Post on EA Answers HQ / Reddit

If you have tried every step above, go to the EA Answers HQ area for SWTOR. Even free-to-play and preferred players can post on these help forums. Post your issue, every step you’ve taken to fix it, and include a DxDiag (this is a log file that shares information about your computer system for troubleshooting).

Anther place you can also request help is is the SWTOR Subreddit.