When starting and running video games on Windows, a Fatal D3D Error may occur. There are reports online about its appearance not only in old toys, but also in the latest projects such as Street Fighter 6 and Resident Evil 4 Remake. The error message contains information about the game component that failed, as well as a code in brackets (22, 25, 26, etc.).
What is D3D?
D3D is an abbreviation for Direct3D; a low-level API that is used by graphics applications to render primitives or to perform parallel operations using a compute shader. There are different versions of Direct3D: 9, 10, 11 and 12. Detailed information about the API can be found on the official Microsoft website.
Reasons for Fatal D3D Error
Fatal D3D Error can be encountered if:
- The graphics drivers for the video card are outdated;
- Windows OS is missing critical updates;
- The video card has been overclocked;
- Application files are damaged.
The error appears only in DirectX applications, i.e. it will not be available in Vulkan and OpenGL games.
How to fix Fatal D3D Error?
There are four ways to resolve the Fatal D3D Error:
- Updating graphics card drivers: Modern – and even some classic games – require up-to-date graphics drivers on your computer. Download a pack of fresh video drivers from the official website of AMD, NVIDIA or INTEL and install them. Installation is carried out semi-automatically – no instructions are required.
- Installing pending Windows updates: Windows applications may experience DirectX errors if certain updates are missing from your system. Go to “Settings” (WIN+I) → “Windows Update” and click on “Check for updates”. If new updates are found in the Microsoft catalog, the update will begin. Restarting the PC in this case is normal.
- Resetting video card overclocking: Unstable video card overclocking can cause errors in DirectX applications. If you increased the frequencies of the GPU and video card memory, reset them to factory values and check for the error.
- Reinstalling the application: The game files you are launching may have been damaged, for example during the initial installation or installation of modifications. A complete reinstallation of the game is one possible solution.
If Fatal D3D Error occurs when launching any DirectX game/application, even after following the above steps, you should seek technical assistance. There may be something wrong with the video card itself.
