How to fix Dota Underlords crashing on Windows 10?

Have you tried Dota Underlords, the new free-to-play strategy video game from Valve Corporation? It started as Dota Auto Chess, a mode for Dota 2, which was published earlier this year in January. In this game, you hire a crew, arm them properly, and battle against other Underlords. The winner gets to rule White Spire. Dota Underlords has quickly gained popularity, and developers have been busy releasing big updates.

What if Dota Underlords randomly crashes on Windows 10? Is there a fix? That’s what we’ll be discussing in this post. As it turns out, not everyone is enjoying the game with a section of players complaining that the game crashes during launch. Others say that the game won’t even launch using the Steam client. While the updates are supposed to fix bugs and improve the game, you might want to try some of the workarounds below as you wait for more updates.

How to Fix Dota Underlords Crashes When Launching

Normally, any new software that’s released to the public encounters an array of errors on PCs. Below, we take a look at some of the most common problems and how you can resolve them.

Solution 1: Run Steam as an Administrator

Steam may fail to function properly in standard mode. For this reason, try giving the Steam client administrative access to see if it resolves the problem. Here’s a guide on how to run Steam as an administrator:

1. If Steam is running, right-click its icon in the Notification area and select “Exit”.
2. Now, go to your desktop, right-click on the “Steam” icon, and select “Run as administrator”.
3. If you get a prompt from User Account Control, click “Yes”.
4. Launch Steam and try to run Dota Underlords again to check if it launches this time.

If you’re still getting the same error, then the problem lies elsewhere. Try the solutions below, and hopefully, one of them works for you.

Solution 2: Update Dota Underlords

Developers are aware of the concerns reported by players and are addressing the issues. Several updates have already been released to try to fix the crashing issue. So, be sure to update your game using the Steam client or directly from the official website of Valve Corporation.

Solution 3: Update Your Video Driver

The graphics system plays a significant part in most applications on your computer, especially video games. For this reason, you need to ensure that you’re running the latest version of the graphics driver installed on your computer. In previous Windows versions, one had to manually install new device driver updates. But in Windows 10, the drivers are automatically updated with every Windows update. However, Windows updates don’t always guarantee to install the latest and correct driver versions.

That’s why you need a reliable and efficient third-party tool like Auslogics Driver Updater. The program checks your system to detect outdated, missing, broken, or incompatible device drivers and then searches online for the latest driver versions. The thing is, the tool only installs the official drivers directly from the manufacturers’ websites. Plus, only drivers that are compatible with your system are installed. This eliminates the risk of running into incompatibility issues.

Most importantly, before installing the new drivers, Auslogics Driver Updater creates a backup of your old drivers just in case you need to restore them later. The advantage of using this program is that you don’t need to know the types of drivers that are installed on your system since it automatically installs all of the available device drivers.

After installing the new driver updates, restart your machine and relaunch Dota Underlords to check if the crash issue has been resolved. If not, keep trying the solutions below.

Solution 4: Verify the Integrity of Game Files

Is Dota Underlords crashing after the new update? It could be that the new updates corrupted your game files or created some type of conflicts with the old files. To rule out this possibility, you need to verify the integrity of the game files on Steam.

Here’s the procedure:

1. Launch “Steam” from your desktop.
2. Select the “LIBRARY” tab, and locate Dota Underlords.
3. Right-click on your game, and click on “Properties”.
4. Move to the “LOCAL FILES” tab, and click on the “VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES” button. This operation replaces corrupted game files with new ones.

Once the process is complete, relaunch Dota Underlords and check if it still crashes after launching.

Solution 5: Install All Pending Windows Updates

In some ways, Windows is known to start acting up if Windows updates have been paused for a long time. Windows updates are released periodically to fix bugs and improve user experience. Since it might be difficult to pinpoint the source of the error that causes Dota Underlords to crash, you need to rule out all possibilities, which implies installing the latest Windows updates.

Normally, Windows 10 automatically installs updates, unless you defer them. Just to be sure, you can run Windows Update to check if there are any pending updates. Here’s how:

1. Press the Windows Key, type in “Updates” (no quotes), and click on “Windows Update settings”.
2. In the “Settings” app, click on “Check for updates” and let Windows search for new updates. If there are pending updates, Windows will automatically download and install them.
3. After the process is complete, restart your computer and check if the Dota Underlords crashing on Windows 10 issue has been resolved.

If the problem persists, move to the next solution.

Solution 6: Restart Your PC in a Clean Boot Environment

Usually, when Windows boots, several programs start automatically and run in the background. It could be that these background apps, including your antivirus program, are interfering with the game and preventing it from launching properly. To identify whether one of your programs is responsible for the constant game crashes, you need to perform a clean startup on your computer.

Here is the guide:

Be sure to sign in to your administrator account for this procedure to work.

1. Type msconfig in the search box on your taskbar. Alternatively, press the Windows Key, type msconfig and hit “Enter”. This opens System Configuration.
2. Select the “Services” tab and check the “Hide all Microsoft services” option.
3. Next, select the “Disable all” button.
4. Now, go to the “Startup” tab, and click on the “Open Task Manager” link. This operation opens “Task Manager” with the “Startup” tab selected by default.
5. Select each startup item one by one, and click “Disable”.
6. After disabling all the startup items, exit “Task Manager”.
7. In the “System Configuration” window, select “OK” and then restart your machine.

Your computer restarts in the clean boot environment where only minimal drivers and default Windows processes are running. Now, try to relaunch Dota Underlords to check if it still crashes. If it doesn’t, it means that one of your programs or apps is causing the problem. To identify the problematic program, open System Configuration again and enable the services one by one while restarting your computer each time. Do the same for the startup items until you find the culprit.

Once you’ve isolated the problematic process, application or service, you can disable it or uninstall it from your machine. To uninstall a program, follow these steps:

1. Access the Quick Link Menu using the Win + X keyboard shortcut, and select “Apps and Features”.
2. Look for the problematic app or program in the list of apps and features, and click on it to highlight it.
3. Click “Uninstall” and then select “Uninstall” again.

Now, once you’ve removed the program or app, check if the game runs smoothly. If it does, it seems you’ve resolved your issue and it is time to start Windows normally again. To do so, follow the guide below:

1. Press the Windows Key, start typing msconfig and select “System Configuration” from the results.
2. Select the “General” tab, and choose “Normal Startup”.
3. Move to the “Services” tab, uncheck “Hide all Microsoft services” and click on “Enable all”.
4. Move to the “Startup” tab, and select “Open Task Manager”.
5. Enable all the startup programs that you want to start automatically when Windows boots.
6. Restart your computer.

Solution 7: Run Dota Underlords in Compatibility Mode

The game crash could also be triggered due to compatibility issues. If that’s the case, try running the game in compatibility mode to check if it resolves the crashing issue. Here’s how to proceed:

1. Find your game’s icon on the desktop, right-click on it and select “Properties”.
2. Select the “Compatibility” tab, and choose the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” option.
3. In the drop-down list, select “Windows 98/Windows Me”. If this option doesn’t work, try the other Windows versions until you find one that works.

Note that this process might not work with newer games that require more advanced features to function properly.

Solution 8: Reinstall Dota Underlords and Steam

If the game keeps crashing even after trying the solutions above, reinstalling it might just work for you. When you remove the program, you delete all of its data too. Downloading the game afresh installs new files that are in good working condition.

To remove Steam and Dota Underlords from your machine, follow these simple steps:

1. Press the Windows Key, type “Control Panel” (without quotes) an d press “Enter”.
2. Open the “Uninstall a program” link, and look for “Steam” in the list of programs and features.
3. Right-click on “Steam” and select “Uninstall”.
4. Go to the official Steam website and download and install the Steam client. Likewise, go to the official Valve website and download and install Dota Underlords.

This should resolve the crashing issue on your Windows 10 device.

Solution 9: Scan Your Computer for Viruses

Generally, when a game crashes, freezes, or hangs during launch or play, chances are high that your PC is infected by malware or a virus. Malware is capable of deleting or corrupting system files or game files, and this could lead to various errors, including the game crashing issue. To fix this, it’s important to install a reliable anti-malware tool like Auslogics Anti-Malware. This is a powerful security tool with advanced definitions that are developed to identify any form of malware, including entities camouflaged as .exe files or browser extensions.

Running regular scans on your computer ensures that your PC is safe from attackers and that your system runs uninterrupted. If you use Windows Defender, you should run a scan to check whether you’ve been infected. Here’s how:

1. Press the Windows Key and type in “Windows Security” (without quotes) in the search box.
2. Hit “Enter” and open “Virus & threat protection”.
3. Choose “Scan options”, click on “Full scan” and then select “Scan now”. For a deeper scan, choose “Windows Defender Offline scan” and click “Scan now”. This process will restart Windows and initiate the scan.

Were you able to fix the Dota Underlords crashing on Windows 10 issue? Discuss your experiences in the comments section below.