Frequent crashes during missions

Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Technical Support
1

Issue Type (Required):

Crash - During Play

Issue Description (Required):

Starting yesterday I have started having frequent crashes during missions, it immedietly shuts down Darktide and hits me with the desktop. No “Darktide stopped working” or somesuch, just straight to desktop and the crash log.
I’ve only played expeditions so I can’t definitively say it that it would also happen during normal missions as well, but I would assume so.
I’ve had similar crashes to this previously but those were always few and far between.

Yesterday while observing RAM and VRAM usage I observed both continually climbing during gameplay. Usually they would fluctuate but while playing it would, for example, hit 8 gb VRAM usage in the Mourningstar, plateau, then once in a mission continually climb until eventual crash, even if exiting the mission and going back to the hub, the VRAM and RAM usage during the mission is now the new “baseline” or whatever you’d call it.

Looking through Event Viewer I am finding “Event 1001, Windows Error Reporting” that line up with the crashes, and digging through WATCHDOG .dmp files it is reporting process_name “dwm.exe” and “Module_name: dxgkrnl”.
And looking into the Darktide crash dump
Is it related? I am no programmer but it felt worth mentioning.

Event viewer:
Fault bucket , type 0
Event Name: LiveKernelEvent
Response: Not available
Cab Id: 0

Problem signature:
P1: 193
P2: 80e
P3: ffff840cc67770c0
P4: ffffc20055acbd70
P5: 0
P6: 10_0_26200
P7: 0_0
P8: 768_1
P9:
P10:

Darktide crash dump:
PROCESS_NAME: Darktide.exe

READ_ADDRESS: 0000000000000000

ERROR_CODE: (NTSTATUS) 0xc0000005 - The instruction at 0x%p referenced memory at 0x%p. The memory could not be %s.

EXCEPTION_CODE_STR: c0000005

EXCEPTION_PARAMETER1: 0000000000000000

EXCEPTION_PARAMETER2: 0000000000000000

SYMBOL_NAME: Darktide+53d39b

MODULE_NAME: Darktide

IMAGE_NAME: Darktide.exe

FAILURE_BUCKET_ID: INVALID_POINTER_READ_c0000005_Darktide.exe!Unknown

The VRAM issue seems like it has been fixed today. The RAM usage climbing issue seems to remain, albeit much slower than yesterday. It’s still giving the same event ID, though. GPU usage seems to be a lot higher than usual, even with DLSS and FG, not sure if it has any relevance but mentioning it anyway.

As for things I’ve tried:
Disabling cloud saving and deleted the appdata Darktide folder, verified files.
Uninstalling and redownloaded Darktide.
Deleted the NVIDIA shader cache, restarted pc, then set it to unlimited (previously it was set to default).
Updated and done a clean install of the latest NVIDIA driver.
Updated Windows to the latest version.
Ran the Windows System File Checker, DISM.exe /Online /Cleanup-image /Restorehealth and sfc /scannow. I did note that it did repair something during it related to bluetooth. Probably not relevant I’m guessing.
Disabled all background programs and any overlays that could be interfering with the game.
Ran Windows Memory Diagnostic, no issues detected.

Sorry for the wall of text. Thank you.

[PC] Do You Use Mods? (Optional):

No, I don’t use mods

Reproduction Rate (Required):

Often (<75%)

Platform (Required):

PC - Steam

[PC] Crash Report (Optional):

GUID: 5abd6d88-dfef-40c0-a73a-1a39f5f4e026
Log File:
Info Type:

[Engine Error]: Access violation (0xc0000005) in build 57a47fe1b65efd09b188a31a8ec011df2e5b0509
accessing address 0000000000000000 from 00007FF61969D39B

GUID: c42b8ae2-b487-4e73-b2cc-8369eaa533bc
Log File:
Info Type:

[Engine Error]: Access violation (0xc0000005) in build 57a47fe1b65efd09b188a31a8ec011df2e5b0509
accessing address 0000000000000000 from 00007FF71EABD39B

GUID: 1ee28f9f-1b1e-4472-b641-4dbdb14bda9f
Log File:
Info Type:

[Engine Error]: Access violation (0xc0000005) in build 57a47fe1b65efd09b188a31a8ec011df2e5b0509
accessing address 0000000000000000 from 00007FF608E9D39B

[PC] Upload Console Log & darktide_launcher.log (Optional):

darktide_launcher.log (215 KB)console-2026-06-24-15.33.11-5abd6d88-dfef-40c0-a73a-1a39f5f4e026.log (604 KB)console-2026-06-24-10.52.09-c42b8ae2-b487-4e73-b2cc-8369eaa533bc.log (568 KB)console-2026-06-24-10.06.50-a4360356-135f-4f4c-9575-c7f967ec126f.log (712 KB)

2

Sorry to hear this @asphyxia

You’ve already tried a lot of things we suggest in these cases, hmm.

Something that may be worth looking into, is checking your motherboard manufacturer’s website for any available BIOS update. Darktide is very CPU-intensive - and outdates BIOS will very often result in instability. With firmware updates, we do advise caution and to do so at your own risk.

Another suggest, is to try switching to our Experimental Build.

This Darktide build version includes subtle changes that we trial, some of which focus on stability and performance - so I’m hoping that you may have a more positive experience using it.

To do so:

  1. Open the Steam client
  2. Right-click Darktide in your Steam library
  3. Select ‘Properties’
  4. Select ‘Betas’
  5. Enter the password cTYPtKTsfMDsLHAV
  6. Select ‘Check Code’
  7. Select the ‘None’ dropdown, and experimental - Experimental Builds should now be within the list
  8. Select experimental - Experimental Builds
  9. Close the pop-up window
  10. A download should now start

Please let me know how things go!

3

I will give the experimental build and get back to you! While consistent it varies in the amount of time before it occurs. Anything in particular to keep an eye out for and observe that would be helpful? In case I forgot something in the initial post.

4

Nice, thanks! They are non-descript Access Violation crashes so it’s difficult really. Perhaps keep an eye on any background applications/processes e.g. overlays or Anti-Virus perhaps just in case something is hooking in, or firing off in the background and conflicting.

Otherwise, instability could still be being caused by outdated BIOS and CPU strain perhaps.

5

Sadly I have to report that it does still do the sudden crash even experimental build. It’s not a huge sample size but it did seem to take longer before the crash happened though. I did one expedition fine and then it crashed during the second. Could just be coincidence ofc though!

GUID: 64049bbc-5aff-4ed2-85e0-6f5323945397
Log File:
Info Type:

[Engine Error]: Access violation (0xc0000005) in build 57a47fe1b65efd09b188a31a8ec011df2e5b0509

accessing address 0000000000000000 from 00007FF6B746D39B

console-2026-06-26-11.47.31-64049bbc-5aff-4ed2-85e0-6f5323945397.log (1.1 MB)

6

Ah okay :frowning: still an Access Violation, with little go on, unfortunately.

Did you check for any available BIOS update?

Otherwise, I can only think to perhaps try a Windows OS repair/install, but I appreciate this is quite a length to go to, and I can’t guarantee it will resolve the issue.

7

I have not yet tried updating BIOS but it’s getting to that point! I was always told that if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, regarding BIOS. But it’s definitely worth a shot!

Could an unstable underwolt cause Access Violations? The underwolt has held for years but maybe something about expeditions and something in the new update pushes it to an edge case, or would it affect more things than Darktide if that was the case?

Worth asking since it’s related-ish to BIOS and all!

8

That’s fair! I’m never too keen to suggest BIOS updates, given the severity should it go wrong - but it has definitely helped in the past in many cases for Ryzen CPU’s.

The undervolt could be worth testing, just in case! At this stage, I’m scratching my head at what else we can try :thinking:

9

Sadly I have to report that the crashes are still happening. Will try out the BIOS update today.

A bit of a weird question, since I’m not a programmer and all, but - could the issue be caused by assets in the game doing something wonky? Normal missions seem mostly fine, but I’ve noticed that the crashes typically happens during expeditions when someone has called in the support valkyrie thing, the one that hovers around the map blowing stuff up.
Could it be related or is it just mad ramblings at this point? :sweat_smile:
Technically I’ve also pressed W at some point before the crashes, so correlation ≠ causation and all that.

10

Ah ok :frowning: let me know if a BIOS update helps!

That’s possible - though usually it would produce a more specific lua error code, or an engine crash. Whereas Access Violation type crashes tend to be external conflicts e.g. Anti-Virus, or system-related issues e.g. drivers, BIOS, broken Windows OS etc.

11

I’m also having the same issue with expeditions. I can play regular missions and mortis trials just fine but when a friend and I are playing expeditions we both crash at the exact same time near the end of the mission.

The last two missions we’ve played we crashed right near the end. No option to rejoin the mission after relaunching which makes me think the whole lobby crashed, not just the two of us.

12

Aye I only ever have it happen to me in expeditions it seems. I played 3 normal missions without issue before crashing in an expedition. I wish I could ask the other players in the game what happened right as the crash happens, but since it’s a hard crash I cannot go in the “previous mossion” to add them. Unless it’s the whole lobby crashing since both of you did, but surely there’d be more reports and forum threads then?

Not that that would help us ofc but it could perhaps help a dev in the right direction.

13

Noted, thanks both!

If anyone can provide a console log from a crash toward the end of an expedition, for comparison, that would be great to help our developers investigate.

https://support.fatshark.se/hc/en-us/articles/360017633918--PC-How-to-Provide-a-Crash-Report-Console-Log-Launcher-Log-or-user-settings-config

Thanks in advance!

14

Sure thing. Additional info for this log - prior to the crash i joined an expedition halfway through (it was one of those with five zones instead of three) and was able to play it to it’s completion. Afterwards I queued into another one. I don’t remember if it was already in progress or I was put into a ready up lobby, but maybe you are able to tell from the logs. That time it crashed during the door holdout event in zone 2/3. Zone 1/3 door holdout event was fine. Before those two expeditions games I played two or three regular missions with the event modifier thing without any hiccups.
console-2026-06-28-16.10.01-641411dc-88dc-4683-af52-a68f03b85df3.log (3.1 MB)

Don’t know if any of it is relevant to the crashes, just giving as much context as possible.

15

I can’t speak for Impaler, but the initial logs this person posted in this thread seemed to be having similar issues. It seems they eventually ended up with a different error but two of the initial logs, at least to my untrained eye, seem very similar looking towards the crash: Game crashes suddenly and I'm not sure why
Specifically console-2026-06-25-20.44.29-954bcbe9-5ab8-46fb-8134-7c1b7130110f.log and console-2026-06-25-19.44.48-76090a79-0271-4611-9339-65d97286ad66.log

16

Are the two logs attached yours? or from the other person?

They show a non-descript Access Violation, which are unfortunately tricky for to pinpoint the exact cause of. For these, our best recommendation is try our general crash solutions here:

https://support.fatshark.se/hc/en-us/articles/7709661288733--PC-How-to-Resolve-Crashes-in-Darktide

17

My bad, in trying to give more context I probably just made things more confusing lol, sorry!
First one is mine Frequent crashes during missions - #14 by asphyxia . The other two in the post after are not mine.

18

No problem :slight_smile: have checked, and it’s still a non-descript Access Violation occurring. Did you get a chance to attempt a BIOS update?

Otherwise, have you tried lowering your work threads? To do this, please see the article linked above, which includes steps for this - as well as other solutions that could be worth trying.

19

As of today I have the latest stable BIOS update, chipset drivers, audio drivers, Windows updates, GPU drivers etc. So we’ll see in a bit if it still crashes.

I’m a bit unsure regarding the Reinstall the “Visual C++ 2019 Redistributables” part though. I am actually missing some of those C++ versions (or whatever the correct term would be). Should I manually download the ones I am missing?

c plus more like c minus
c plus more like c minus952×793 143 KB

20

Ah okay, this issue is a stubborn one! :frowning:

Darktide relies on the Visual C++ 2019 Redistributables, and a broken installation may result in an unstable experience.

  1. Uninstall the Visual C++ 2019 Redistributables
  2. Reinstall the Visual C++ 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2022 Redistributables: Latest Supported Visual C++ Redistributable Downloads | Microsoft Learn
    • You may be prompted with an option to repair, as opposed to install. In which case, you may proceed with the option to repair