[2023] Stellaris doesn't start anymore

In your reinstalls, did you make 100% sure there are no files or folders left under either the GoG Stellaris or Documents GoG locations, before installing again?

If you run stellaris.exe from File Explorer does the same thing happen?


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

The game is crashing with a Windows error c0000374 , which seems to mean "heap corruption", ie a game bug. But we know that is not the case or everyone would get it!

What if you make a new Window suser on this machine and log into it with that, and install the gam ethere - does the same thing happen?

And can you test on any other machine you might have access to?  

Yes, there are other reports of crashes while launching or playing. To my memory none had that Windows error c0000374 , so I still think yours is unique.

You are right to say it is not impossible there is a game bug that only manifests itself on your machine, but that would not be my go-to diagnosis; after all if that is the case it would be best posted in Bug Reports not here, AND QA and/or the developers would have to duplicate the issue to be able to fix it. Which seems pretty unlikely in the circumstances!

IOW your best hope of a fix is that it is NOT a game bug but some issue on your machine or Windows installation.
What if you make a new Window suser on this machine and log into it with that, and install the gam ethere - does the same thing happen?

And can you test on any other machine you might have access to?  

PROACEX1 said: Just a quick bump @matt_mills @AndrewT I am encountering the same issue as Breli. Sometime post 3.6 this started occurring and I have not yet been able to launch the game without a CTD.

No mods
Vanilla install running 3.7.4 (fc72)
Launcher is 2023.5-rc



Error indicates the same exception code as mentioned:

Faulting application name: stellaris.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x6422f656
Faulting module name: ntdll.dll, version: 10.0.22621.1485, time stamp: 0xb7f0154a
Exception code: 0xc0000374
Fault offset: 0x000000000010be19

Are you also on the GoG edition?

Have you done as Matt Mills asked, re the dump file?


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

Right click on stellaris.exe , properties, compatibility. Tick "disable fullScreen optimisations" untick every other box in that dialog, Apply and exit.
Then in the launcher Game Settings menu, select fullScreen display mode, Vsync off, then cap the refresh rate at 60.

If that doesn't help, what happens if you run stellaris.exe directly from File Explorer? Any error show then?  

That should not at all be necessary - the game is developed under Win10 and 11 after all!  

Mod errors in that log; please disable ALL mods while we work on this.

Dragazhar said: Crashed after opening Stellaris.exe properties and ticking Disable fullscreen optimizations in Compatibility tab and going in the launcher to change to fullscreen. turn Vsync off and cap framerate

That pdx_settings.txt shows borderless, try fullSCreen there. Any better? After that can we get a new pdx_settings.txt AND the settings.txt , thanks.

Dragazhar said: bypassing the launcher and running the .exe file as admin directly still gets this crash.

That can cause problems all of its own. What if you do this without stellaris.exe running as admin ?

And you may as well update that nVidia driver to the latest https://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us