"Error: Failed to create graphics device. Exiting."

[photai]

"The graphics card detected does not support Shader Model 3.0. EU4 requires at least Shader Model 3.0 to work properly."

this is my first time running into this problem despite having played eu4 an hour before the error occurred without any problem. all of my drivers are up-to-date and I've already tried reinstalling EU4 which did not work. what else can I do?

 

[AndrewT]

Please do a full **clean** re-install:

- move any valued save games elsewhere
- "uninstall" in Steam-EU4
- manually delete both the Steam/SteamApps/common/EU4 AND Documents/Paradox Interactive/EU4 folders
- re-install game in Steam, run a Steam Verify when done.
- add EU4.exe to the exceptions list of your antivirus app; ESPECIALLY if you have Windows Defender, add it to the Ransomware "Apps Allowed Through" list.
- start the game with no mods active and test

In particular make sure there are no files or folders left under either the Steam EU4 or Documents EU4 locations, before installing again.


IF that doesn't help:
DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/EU4/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/EU4/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log .

 

[photai]

Hi, doing the full clean re-install helped. Thanks!

 

[samthemadman]

First of all, sorry if this post might be a bit long, but I'd like to describe what happened in detail and try to get to the bottom of the issue.

The same thing happened to me almost at the same time! around 3:30 AM. I just started playing like a week ago without issues. Really got hooked with the game and I like it a lot.

I was playing as ironman ottomans until 1522, about to finish war preparation vs venice, just attaching a fleet of 60 ships of all types except barques, with 2 generals into one stack with one general as leader. I was cycling through the next and previous units to find all the ships I wanted to attach, and maybe clicked to fast and didn't pay attention when attaching and unattaching things. The goal was one big stack with no lose ships that could get lost.
I tried moving the ships, then it crashed with that exact shader error, which I though was very odd. Also steam closed, which is not supposed to happen.

First thing I looked for was graphics drivers (outdated 18d), I got a new update and tried relaunching the game, it worked for less than a minute, I looked around, clicked some diplomacy windows and sent some spies, that worked, but then I tried moving the fleet again, and it crashed again. So my bet is, that is has to do something with 2 generals being attached to each other and/or "too many" units, attached in "the wrong way" in a fleet. I included a save file so you can do some research on this issue, since it seems to be related from what I can tell.

I restarted my PC, verified files (success), tried again, However this time, my screen turned black, I had a "device removed" sound and I had to hard reset my PC. I haven't had to do that in years. Every other game lets me terminate the process.

But I didn't give up that easily. I tried again, this time managed to get task manager running after the crash, but it didn't show ANY processes that I could terminate or tabs. All it said was high RAM usage, 86% of RAM used.

Being the madman that I am, I tried again because I really wanted to see the resource monitor, but I couldn't get into task manager that time and called it a night.

I never tried starting a new game, because I really wanted to continue where it crashed.

Resource monitor after the crashes showed rather normal graphics card temperature (61°) and RAM usage. (2.5/16GB used)
I just tried doing the full reinstall, it looked promising, because I was able to start a new game, but I still can't reload my save file. It was loading for 3 minutes, then the screen turned black for 10 seconds, my game crashed and also steam closed alongside EU4. I never gave you permission to close my steam.

As much as I like it, there are some things that seem shady about this game.
- The game seems to use a lot of resources and has occasional sound stutters for me, which is odd, because it shouldn't.
- These crashes remind me of the 90s, I'm almost surprised I haven't seen a bluescreen yet.
- The part about windows defender confuses me.
What part of EU4 requires ransomware'ish code? Closing steam on every crash? I also noticed the game and even the launcher are moving my mouse to fixed points sometimes.
This is a useless feature and you should not be surprised that this causes security issues.

Excuse my french, consider me part of an angry mob. Hoping to make you smile even though I'm ranting.
I even had to make a new account because I couldn't resend my validation.

However I added it to exceptions and hope it might prevent corrupted saves in the future. Will try reloading my save with the exception one last time now.
I started writing and don't want to lose it due to reboot.

I guess I have to start over, but I'll keep the save around in case you find a fix for this latest wave of corrupted saves. I'm pretty sure the two of us are not alone.

EDIT: I was able to reload the save now, but as soon as I move the fleet, the game freezes, but RAM usage is normal. (~15%)
I relaunched the game, and tried to continue from the main menu. In the main menu it shows the correct date, but while loaing, it says "1st jan 1".
Also this time the ram usage was 97.7% when I force quit the game.

 

[AndrewT]

The part about windows defender confuses me.
What part of EU4 requires ransomware'ish code?

As with our other games, it writes its user files to the Windows User Documents folder, which is specifically protected by the Windows Defender Ransomware function.

Closing steam on every crash?

This game does not close Steam with every crash. Believe me we'd know well before now if that were so!

I also noticed the game and even the launcher are moving my mouse to fixed points sometimes.
This is a useless feature and you should not be surprised that this causes security issues.

That is not a feature in the game, but either a bug or some Windows/hardware issue you have, I suspect, which might also be involved in your original problem.


DXDIAG is a program you run from the Windows search box on the task bar. After running it will open a window and start collecting info with a progress bar in the lower-left corner. When it completes click the 'save all information' button and save it to a file then attach that file here.

Please attach here your Documents/Paradox Interactive/EU4/settings.txt and pdx_settings.txt .
From your Documents/Paradox Interactive/EU4/logs/ folder, attach here system.log , error.log .

 

[crismac]

I am having this same issue after downloading the patch and buying Origins. Hopefully, this will work.

Unfortunately, this did not work for me. All drivers are up to date on my 3080 card windows 10 up to date as well.

 

[crismac]

Ok got lucky and found the problem. I changed the display mode-graphic setting to windowed or windowed(fullscreen) instead of fullscreen. Reloaded ten times doesn't show up anymore. I hope this saves lots of time for someone who experiences this issue.

 

[greyfeather games]

Ok got lucky and found the problem. I changed the display mode-graphic setting to windowed or windowed(fullscreen) instead of fullscreen. Reloaded ten times doesn't show up anymore. I hope this saves lots of time for someone who experiences this issue.

Ahhhh. You sir have solved my problem. It should have been the first thing I did because I know Paradox really really doesn't like people having a second screen. I went through this with Stellaris, and Prison Architect (when Paradox took it over). For a company that makes such great, complicated games you would think they could figure this issue out. Then again... they refuse to let us use wasd the "right" way so.... its whatever.

Edit: this also stopped my game crashing every time I alt-tab

 

[crismac]

Glad it helped. Yes, I had a similar issue quite a few years ago on this same issue the Fullscreen - windowed thing.

I did a clean install (had music mod issues) and it reverted back to fullscreen mode. Hence why I forgot about it.

 

[AndrewT]

If you set eu4.exe to "disable fullScreen optimisation" you should be able to run it in fullScreen okay.

 

[anvulpis]

Hello,

For the first time while playing my favorite game, I've encountered an issue. I've played on a computer with this configuration before. The method suggested in the first message (complete reinstallation with deletion of all files) did not resolve the issue.


I'm attaching all the necessary files and hoping for your help.

Thank you.

 

[AndrewT]

Please don't reopen old threads like this. The game has changed a lot in 3 years. And, yours is very likely a different problem, especially as what fixed them did not fix you.


From that error log and dxdiag, you have a problem with your Nvidia driver and it is 2 years old:

- uninstall it https://developer.nvidia.com/cleanup-tool
- reboot
- install June 2024 https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
- reboot again
- in GeForce experience is now running, unload it
- now try the game.

Good luck!