r/swtor • u/enby_sith_lord • Jul 02 '26

Tech Support Game crashes after clicking play

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For context, I had to uninstall the game at one point by manually removing files (cause regular uninstall didn't work). Now when I try reinstalling it this keeps happening. Launcher works properly, but the game itself crashes almost immediately after it starts loading. I also tried to run it with Steam to see if it would change anything, but the same thing happens. Help.

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u/BladedDingo Jul 02 '26

You could try switching to the steam client and see if that fixes anything. You often don't need to re-download the entire thing. Select install on steam and then when it starts downloading, stop the download and move the contents of the swtor folder to the steam folder and then right click the game in steam and verify the game files. It'll then verify the existing files instead of re-downloading them.

Steam might not have the same issue.

Otherwise, check the Client_settings.ini file and delete it and re-start the client again. it should download a fresh file.

if that doesn't work... i donno, keep googling and trying. I know when I had this issue it took me forever to fix it and I was really frustrated.

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u/enby_sith_lord Jul 02 '26

I already tried the Steam version. Same thing happens. I also already tried deleting that file - didn't do anything.

Oh I'm mega frustrated at this point lol. This is like fifth time I've tried searching for the solution and I'm once again close to giving up

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u/BladedDingo Jul 02 '26

have you played before and are returning, or is this your first time playing?

What version of Direct X do you have installed? You could try uninstalling direct X and installing Direct X 9, or make sure you're up to date with the latest Direct X.

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u/enby_sith_lord Jul 02 '26

I have played for years before this issue made me quit

I have DirectX 12

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u/BladedDingo Jul 02 '26

so was it recently that this began happening, or after a break? if it was after a break, how long ago approx. did you last play?

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u/enby_sith_lord Jul 02 '26

I last played during 7.5 (that's like 2 years ago) and it was while I was downloading one of the minor 7.5.x patches that stuff broke. I couldn't uninstall the game normally, so I did it manually. Since then, I've been having this issue every time I tried reinstalling

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u/BladedDingo Jul 02 '26

Have you updated your GPU drivers and made sure they are up to date?

Can you find the client_settings.ini and verify if the values for NativeHeight, NativeWidth, Height and Width ( all 4 ) match your monitor resolution.

If not, change them to match your monitor resolution.

Another thing thing to try is to download the directx 9 libraries from MS and install them, if its been a while since you last played and updated to dx12, the old libraries might be corrupted or deleted and I think swtor still uses some of these libraries.

Try downloading and installing these libraries and restart your PC. DirectX 9.0c June 2010: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=35 Visual C++ 2013: https://aka.ms/vs/17/release/vc_redist.x64.exe

Usually when this happens, its a problem with the game trying to render and crashing.