Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II is a third-person shooter hack-and-slash game developed by Saber Interactive and published by Focus Entertainment. Released on September 9, 2024, for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S, it is a highly anticipated sequel to Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine. However, shortly after its release on PC, players reported various technical issues, including game crashes, launch failures, and general unresponsiveness.
Experiencing crashes or problems launching games on PC has become a common frustration for gamers, regardless of whether the title is part of a major franchise or an indie project. These issues are often caused by in-game bugs, performance hiccups, or system incompatibilities. As Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine II is a fresh release, it’s expected that developers will take some time to roll out patches and updates to address these technical problems and improve game stability.
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What are the Reasons for Space Marine 2 Crashing?
There are several potential causes for Space Marine 2 crashing or failing to launch on your PC. These can include temporary system glitches, hardware compatibility issues, outdated game patches, or corrupted game files. Additionally, having an old graphics driver, an outdated operating system, or missing key components like DirectX and Visual C++ Redistributables can also trigger crashes. Other common causes include Steam overlay conflicts, background apps interfering with game performance, or general system resource limitations.
We’ve compiled a list of solutions to help troubleshoot these issues. Be sure to go through each fix methodically until the problem is resolved. Let’s dive into the steps to get your game up and running smoothly.
1. Restart the PC
We suggest you restart your PC manually before attempting other solutions to refresh temporary glitches or cache data issues that might be causing conflicts while launching games. Restarting your PC is a simple workaround that can often help resolve the issue. If this doesn’t work, you can try following the next set of methods.
2. Check the System Requirements
To ensure you can run the Space Marine 2 game on your system without any issues, it’s important to check if your hardware and software meet the minimum system requirements. Incompatibility with your system can result in problems while launching the game. Below are the minimum system requirements for Space Marine 2 that you can review to ensure compatibility.
Minimum System Requirements:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 (1903 min)/11 64-bit
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X / Intel Core i5-8600K
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics: 6 GB VRAM, AMD Radeon RX 580 / Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 75 GB available space
- Additional Notes: SSD required. 30 FPS in 1920×1080 with “Low” preset.
Recommended System Requirements:
- Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
- OS: Windows 10 (1903 min)/11 64-bit
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 7 5800X / Intel Core i7-12700
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: 8 GB VRAM, AMD Radeon RX 6800 XT / Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070
- DirectX: Version 12
- Storage: 75 GB available space
- Additional Notes: SSD required. 60 FPS in 1920×1080 with the “Ultra” preset.
3. Run Space Marine 2 as an Administrator
Ensure you run the Space Marine 2 (exe) application as an administrator on the PC by following the steps below to check whether the problem has been fixed. Without having the system admin’s permission, you might experience multiple issues with the program launching on the PC.
- Go to the installed game directory on the PC.
- Right-click on the Space Marine 2.exe application file.
- Click on Properties > Click on the Compatibility tab.
- Enable the Run this program as an administrator checkbox.
- Once done, click on Apply and then OK to save changes.
4. Update Space Marine 2
It’s highly recommended that the game updates are checked and the update option set for the Steam client is set to ensure there is no issue with the outdated game patch version.
- Open the Steam client > Go to Library.
- Right-click on Space Marine 2 from the list.
- Click on Manage > Select Properties.
- Now, click on the Updates tab.
- Click on Automatic Updates.
- Once enabled, the game will update automatically whenever the latest version is available.
5. Verify and Repair the Game Files
There’s a chance that your game files might become corrupted or go missing due to unexpected issues, which can lead to launch problems on your PC. To resolve this, you should verify and repair the game files. Here’s how to do it on both Steam and Epic Games:
For Steam:
- Launch Steam and go to your Library.
- Right-click on Space Marine 2 from the game list.
- Select Properties > Go to Local Files.
- Click on Verify Integrity of Game Files.
- Wait for the process to complete, then restart your PC to apply changes.
For Epic Games:
- Open the Epic Games Launcher and go to your Library.
- Find Space Marine 2 and click the three dots next to the game title.
- Select Manage.
- Click on Verify under the “Verify Files” section.
- Once the verification is complete, restart your PC.
These steps should help ensure that any corrupted or missing files are repaired, allowing the game to launch properly.
6. Turn Off the Steam Overlay
Here are instructions for disabling the Steam in-game overlay feature manually for the Space Marine 2 game directly in the Steam client. This will help prevent any potential conflicts with the game’s launch. In-game overlay apps or functions can sometimes cause startup crashes on the PC. To turn it off:
- Open the Steam client > Go to Library.
- Right-click on Space Marine 2.
- Now, click on Properties.
- Turn Off the Enable Steam Overlay while in-game option from the GENERAL tab.
- Once done, you can try launching the game to check for the issue.
7. Check for Graphics Driver Updates
An outdated or corrupted graphics card driver can trigger multiple issues with the game crashing or launching on the system. Checking for the graphics driver update is recommended by following the steps below.
- Press the Win+X keys > Click on Device Manager from the list.
- Double-click on Display adapters.
- Right-click on the dedicated graphics card that you’re currently using.
- Click on Update driver > Choose Search automatically for drivers.
- If the latest update is available, it’ll automatically download & install the latest version.
- Once done, restart the computer to apply changes immediately.
Alternatively, you can manually download the latest graphics driver version and install it on the PC via the official website. Download the graphics driver file for your graphics card model and manufacturer.
8. Close Background Apps
Unnecessary background running tasks or programs can eat up a lot of system resources like CPU or Memory usage, reducing system performance. Hence, startup crashing, lagging, and issues with not loading often appear. Close all the third-party unnecessary background running tasks completely. To do this:
- Press the Ctrl+Shift+Esc keys to open up Task Manager on the PC.
- Now, click on the Processes tab > Click to select the unnecessary task. [CPU/Memory consuming task]
- Click on End Task to close it.
- Do the same steps for other unnecessary third-party tasks, too.
- Once done, restart your system to apply changes.
9. Disable Fullscreen Optimizations
It’s better to manually disable the fullscreen optimizations on the Windows system by following the steps below. This will avoid fullscreen display-related conflicts.
- Right-click on the Space Marine 2 application on your PC.
- Select Properties > Click on the Compatibility tab.
- Click on Disable fullscreen optimizations to select it.
- Once done, click on Apply > Select OK to save changes.
10. Update Windows
Sometimes, issues with outdated system software can also cause conflicts with system performances, especially in multiplayer games or resource-heavy programs. You should always update the system software on your device to maintain stable performance. To do that:
- Press the Win+I keys to open Windows Settings.
- Click on Update & Security > Click on Check for updates under Windows Update.
- If there is a new update available, hit Download and Install.
- Wait for the system to update and reboot the PC.
11. Turn Off the Antivirus Protection
You should also manually turn off the antivirus protection on the PC to avoid any aggressive blocking issues with the game application.
- Press the Win+I keys to open Windows Settings.
- Click on Update & Security > Click on Windows Security from the left pane.
- Now, click on the Open Windows Security button.
- Go to Virus & Threat Protection.
- Click on Manage Settings.
- Just Turn Off the Real-time Protection toggle.
- If prompted, click on Yes to proceed further.
- Finally, you can check for the game crashing issue.
Please Note: If you’re using any other third-party antivirus program on your PC, manually turn off the real-time protection feature.
12. Perform a Clean Boot
According to multiple reports, certain third-party programs always run in the background during Windows boot. Therefore, performing a clean boot and disabling conflicting startup apps is crucial for better performance.
- Press the Win+R keys to open the Run dialogue box.
- Now, type msconfig and hit Enter to open System Configuration.
- Go to the Services tab > Set Hide all Microsoft services to Enable.
- Click on Disable all > Click on Apply and OK to save changes.
- Now, go to the Startup tab > Click on Open Task Manager.
- Click on the Startup tab from Task Manager.
- Make sure to click on the task with a higher startup impact.
- Once selected, click on Disable to turn it off.
- Do the same steps for each program that has a higher startup impact.
- Finally, make sure to restart your computer to apply changes.
13. Update DirectX and VCRedist
You can try installing the latest version of DirectX and Visual C++ Redistributables application on your PC. An outdated version of either of these can lead to problems with program launching and conflicts with system processes. To do this, follow the steps below:
- Visit the official Microsoft website and download the latest DirectX installer version.
- Run the installer and install DirectX completely.
- Next, visit the official Microsoft website.
- Download and Install the latest Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime on the PC.
- Once done, reboot the PC to apply changes.
14. Contact Support
If none of the methods worked for you, contact Support for Space Marine 2 for further assistance. You should create a support ticket to get a better resolution. Submitting a support ticket will help developers investigate the issue further. Additionally, you can try following the @Focus Entertainment Twitter handle to understand better the issues the affected players face.
We hope that this guide has been helpful to you. If you have any further queries, please feel free to comment below. To avoid issues while launching the game “Space Marine 2” on your system, checking whether your hardware and software meet the minimum system requirements is crucial. Failing to meet these requirements can cause compatibility problems. To ensure compatibility, review the minimum system requirements for “Space Marine 2” below.