[Solved] “Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost”

By gaurav Updated September 27, 2022

Have you faced an error that says, “Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost” when playing certain games? This error mainly occurs while playing games that are built using Unreal Engine.

As reported by users, this issue generally arises when your GPU or hardware components aren’t in sync with the Unreal Engine. In this article, we will talk about all the possible fixes that will help you solve this problem.

How to Fix “Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost” Error

While there isn’t an exact fix for this error, lots of users have posted several methods that were able to fix this issue in the Unreal Engine Forums. You can try each of them one by one until you find a solution that works for you.

Here are the most effective solutions for the “Unreal Engine is exiting due to D3D device being lost” Error.

Disable NVIDIA GeForce Battery Boost Option

Do you only experience this error when you run out of battery charge or when you unplug your charger from your laptop? If so, then there may be a chance that NVIDIA is using the battery boost feature to increase your laptop’s performance. In that case, turning off the battery boost feature may solve your problem.

To disable Battery Boost in NVIDIA GeForce Experience:

Open the NVIDIA GeForce Experience application on your PC, and go to Settings.
Click on the General tab, scroll down till you see Battery Boost, then disable.
Now, close the application and relaunch your game.

Check if that solved your issue. If you’re still getting errors when you play the game, try this next method.

Stop Overclocking Your GPU

Overclocking your GPU makes your gaming experience better by increasing the computing power of your GPU. It is used by almost every gamer when they want to boost their frame rates, and while it increases your gaming performance, it can also cause your GPU to overheat and potentially crash games and other programs.

So, if you’re facing this issue when playing games that are developed using Unreal Engine, chances are; it is caused by GPU overclocking. This issue can be easily fixed by disabling GPU overclocking when you receive such errors.

If disabling overclocking doesn’t fix the error, you can try underclocking your GPU as well.

Change Default Graphics Processor

With the dedicated GPU, you’ll have two GPUs connected to your PC. As dedicated GPUs aren’t powerful enough to handle large graphics, it may be causing this error to show up when you’re playing the game. In that case, switching your default GPU to your graphics card will fix this error.

To change your default graphics processor:

Click on the small arrow from the right corner of the Taskbar to bring up the system tray and open NVIDIA Control Panel.
Once the NVIDIA Control Panel opens, select Manage 3D settings from the sidebar.
Select the Global Settings tab, click on the dropdown menu under Preferred graphics processor and select High-performance NVIDIA processor.
Click Apply, then restart your PC.
Once the restart is completed, relaunch the game.

See if you’re still facing the error after relaunching the game. If it still shows, move on to the next method.

Update Your Graphics Driver

A faulty driver update or an outdated driver can also cause this error to show up. It is important that your graphics drivers are up-to-date and without any corrupt files to ensure an error-free gaming experience.

To update graphics drivers as well as all other drivers on your PC, follow these steps:

Press Windows Key + X and select Device Manager.
Expand the Display Adapters section.
Select your Graphics driver and select the Update driver option.

Follow the same for both graphics cards if you have a dedicated and integrated Graphics card.
Select Search automatically for drivers.

Reinstall Your Current Drivers Using DDU

First, you need to uninstall all the current drivers on your PC. As we’re not sure which drivers are causing this error, it is best if you manually update all of them.

To uninstall all the current drivers on your PC, follow these steps:

Download and extract the latest DDU application by going through this website.
Now, reboot your PC into safe mode and run the DDU application.
Click on the Clean and restart option. This will uninstall all your current drivers from your PC, then reboot your PC.

Now that you’ve uninstalled all the drivers, it is time we install the latest drivers for all programs and hardware.

To install the latest drivers for your PC:

After your computer is done rebooting, right-click on the Start menu and select Device Manager.
Double right-click on any empty space and select Scan for hardware changes.
This should download and install all the latest drivers for your PC automatically. However, you may also need to check Windows Update just to be sure.

For a dedicated Graphics Driver, go to your manufacturer’s website and download the latest drivers from there. After the download is complete, install the driver and restart your PC.

After rebooting your PC, relaunch the game and see if the error is gone. If the error still persists, you can move on to the next method.

Disable Full-Screen Mode in Games

Some users have reported that playing games in full-screen mode also causes this error, and switching to windowed mode actually solved it. While there isn’t a clear explanation for why this works, you can try switching to windowed mode and see if it fixes the problem for you. After all, it only takes a few clicks to switch to windowed mode.

Update Windows, Steam as Well as Unreal Engine

It is important that your Windows and programs are up-to-date. And your Steam Client, as well as Unreal Engine doesn’t have any corrupted files in their directory. In most cases, your Windows will automatically download all the missing updates when you boot your PC, and the programs will automatically update when you launch them.

However, in case you’ve turned off the automatic updates or if they don’t update automatically, you can update them manually as well. Here are the steps to update your Windows, Steam, and Unreal Engine application.

Update Your Windows

Open the Start menu on your PC, then click on the Settings icon.
From the sidebar, select the Windows Update tab.
Now, click on the Check for updates button.

This will check for any missing updates and download them if you have any. After the download is complete, install them, and you should be good to go.

Update the Steam Client App

Open the Steam client app on your PC.
From the menu bar, click on Steam from the top-left corner and select the Check for Steam Client Updates option.

Steam will now download the updates and install them once it is complete.

Update Unreal Engine

Open the Epic Games launcher on your PC
Select the Unreal Engine tab.
Under the Library tab, click on the Add versions button located next to Engine Versions.
Choose the version you want to install and click on the Install button.

The download will start shortly after this, and once it is downloaded and installed, the new version will be installed on your computer.