Game Crashes within 30 seconds of starting game

Hello Mike,

Thank you for sharing your detailed report and the crash logs. Based on the information you’ve provided and our review of the logs, we noticed the following error appearing at the time of the crash:

SharpDX.SharpDXException: DXGI_ERROR_DEVICE_REMOVED

This error occurs when Windows or the NVIDIA driver forces a reset of the graphics card during rendering.

To resolve this, please try the following steps:

1. Reinstall or Switch GPU Drivers

• Perform a clean reinstall of your GPU drivers using the DDU (Display Driver Uninstaller) tool.
• Try switching between Game Ready and Studio drivers to see which provides better stability.

2. Adjust GPU Stability

• If your GPU is factory overclocked, try lowering the clock speeds slightly or reducing the power limit using NVIDIA Control Panel or MSI Afterburner.
• This can help prevent driver resets that trigger DXGI errors.

3. Change Game Display Settings

• Run the game in Window or Fullscreen Window mode instead of Fullscreen (Options > Display > Window Mode).
• Keep Anti-Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering disabled (as you’ve already tried).

Please let us know if switching drivers or adjusting GPU settings helps reduce or eliminate the crashes. If the issue still occurs after these steps, please share a fresh log file from the next crash so we can continue investigating.

Kind Regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

I have tried the game ready and studio drivers. I ran the DDU and reinstalled, tried Full Screen, Full Screen windowed and Windowed mode. They all behave exactly the same. I also tried different 16:9 screen resolutions.

Still the same behavior.

It also generates a Minidump file. Not sure if that is helpful to you or not.

New logs attached

Hello Mike,

Thank you very much for sending the updated logs. That file helped confirm the issue more clearly.

From our review, the crash is still caused by the same DirectX device removal. This means the graphics driver is forcibly resetting the GPU while the game is issuing rendering commands.

The steps below can help resolving this issue;

Disable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS)

Windows 11 enables this by default on newer GPUs, but it can interfere with DirectX 11 command handling.

• Go to Settings → System → Display → Graphics → Default graphics settings → Advanced graphics settings drop-down
• Turn off “Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling”
• Restart your PC and test again.

Force DirectX 11 Initialization

Even though the game already uses DX11, adding the flag ensures it initializes cleanly:

• In Steam, right-click Space Engineers → Properties → General → Launch Options
• Add -force-dx11

Disable Asynchronous and Deferred Rendering

This simplifies the render path and avoids race conditions seen in your logs.

• Open SpaceEngineers.cfg in ..\AppData\Roaming\SpaceEngineers folder
• Find or add the following lines:
  <AsyncRendering>false</AsyncRendering>
  <DeferredRendering>false</DeferredRendering>
• Save the file and restart the game.

Reduce GPU Power Load

Transient power dips can trigger driver resets.

• In NVIDIA Control Panel → Manage 3D Settings, set Power Management Mode to “Prefer maximum performance.”
• (Optional) In MSI Afterburner, lower the Power Limit by about 10–15%.

Reinstall DirectX and Visual C++ Redistributables

These ensure SharpDX and VRage components link correctly.

• Download and run the DirectX End-User Runtime Installer
• Reinstall Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables (2015–2022).

Check Physical GPU Installation (rare but worth confirming)

Since this is a new PC build, please also make sure the graphics card is:

• Properly seated in the PCIe slot (remove and reinsert if needed).
• Connected with all required power cables from the PSU.
• Not sagging or flexing under its own weight (consider a GPU support bracket if needed).
• Running with stable power supply — use a single power cable per 12V rail if your PSU supports it.
  A loose PCIe connection or unstable power delivery can occasionally cause Windows to “remove” the GPU device during heavy 3D load, triggering the same error.

If the crash still occurs after these steps, please share the latest Minidump (.mdmp) files and logs. That will allow us to pinpoint exactly where the GPU call failed.

Thank you again for your detailed reports and patience while we investigate this further.

Kind Regards,

Keen Software House: QA Department

Nope, no luck.

Hardware Accelerated GPU was already turned off

Force DX 11

New values in JSON file (note: your values looked very different from the structure of the .cfg file, but I did add them anyway)

Set Prefer Maximum Performance

I am NOT an overclocker. Never have been, but I tried MSI as well. No luck.

Direct X reinsatll told me I already had the latest driver.

I have been trying with the "First Jump" scenerio. It starts fine and the cut scene runs with no issues. Then the game switches to first person mode inside the ship. Within 1 to 5 seconds, the entire system will hang for about 3 to 5 seconds. Then, the GPU graph for 3D in task manager, spikes to 100% while I get the error message. It happens every time.

Here are the latest log and tmp files.

Hello Engineer,

Even though some time has passed, we would like to follow up on your thread.

We understand that you have already tried the available workarounds, and we truly appreciate the time you’ve spent helping us narrow down the issue.

While a permanent solution has not yet been found, your report has been added to our internal investigation ticket, so we are marking this issue as Reported.

Thank you again for your patience and detailed feedback — it is genuinely valuable to us.

Kind Regards,

Ludmila Danilchenko

Head of Space Engineers QA Department