Does this look familiar? When you are going to run a program, or play a game on Steam, you must feel annoyed to always see errors as below:
- Failed to initialize Direct3D
Make sure you have at least DirectX 9.0c installed, have drivers for your graphics card and have not disabled 3D acceleration - Failed initialize Direct3D with current settings
- Cannot initialize Direct3D device
- Direct3D unable to create device, set display mode
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How Do I Fix Failed to initialize Direct3D?
Fortunately, there are solutions to fix this problem. Below are the 3 solutions to fix the error Failed to initialize Direct3D. Try these fixes!
- Check your DirectX version and update it if necessary
- Update your graphics card driver
- Reinstall Visual C++ Redistributables
What is Direct3D and Why does the error Failed to initialize Direct3D occur?
Direct3D, which belongs to a part of DirectX, is a graphics application programming interface for Windows, which is used to render the three-dimensional graphics in applications or games like Call of Duty, Tomb Raider, etc. Direct3D uses the hardware acceleration if it is available on the graphics card, and allows the hardware acceleration of the 3D rendering pipeline.
Why does this problem happen? There are various reasons for this problem, and the possible causes can be the old DirectX version, the missing or outdated video drivers, or the missing DLL files in your program file.
You can try the following solutions to fix it easily and quickly!
Solution 1: Check your DirectX version and update it if necessary
As then error message suggested, you can first of all, check the DirectX version in your computer to see if it meets the minimum requirement (DirectX 9.0c and later). If it’s older than the required version, you’ll need to update and install the latest DirectX in your Windows.
How to check the DirectX version in Windows?
Follow the instructions below to check the DirectX version:
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key + R at the same time to invoke the Run box.
2) Type dxdiag and click OK.
3) In the System tab, you will see the DirectX version as the screenshot shows.
4) Click the Display tab, in the DirectX Features section, check if Direct3D is enabled. If not, click to enable it.
If it’s DirectX 9.0c and later, it seems the DirectX version is not the problem, and you can try Solution 2 to fix the problem.
If the DirectX version is older than DirectX 9.0c, you’ll need to upgrade it to the latest version then.
How to upgrade the DirectX version?
You could use the Windows Update to update your DirectX to the latest available version. Apply the latest service pack or platform update which may be offered to your system. So you can update the Windows system to install the latest DirectX in your computer.
Solution 2: Update your graphics card driver
If you know for sure that the DirectX version meets the requirement and the Direct3D has enabled in your computer, it’s probably because of the graphics card driver issue. If the video driver in your computer is missing or out of date, it can result in this problem and stop running the application or game. You can try to update the graphics card driver to fix the error.
There are two ways to update the graphics drivers.
Way 1 – Manually update your graphics card driver
Way 2 – Automatically update your graphics card driver (recommended)
Way 1- Manually update your graphics card driver
You can go to the manufacturer’s website of your graphics card, find the exact graphics card driver for your graphics adapter, and install it in your Windows.
You’ll need some computer skills and patience to update your drivers this way. You need to know for sure the right the driver online that matches with your Windows OS, download it and install it step by step.
Way 2 – Automatically update your graphics card driver (recommended)
If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to update the graphics card driver manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.
With Driver Easy, you don’t have to search and find what drivers needed in your PC, nor to update drivers step by step. It can considerably help with almost all the issues related to drivers.
Furthermore, you can update your graphics card drivers automatically with either the FREE or Pro version of Driver Easy. It only takes 2 simple clicks with the Pro version (and you will get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee).
1) Download and install Driver Easy.
2) Run Driver Easy and click Scan Now. Then Driver Easy will scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
3) Click the Update button next to the driver name to download and install the correct driver (you can do that with the FREE version). Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the problem drivers (you can do that with Pro version, and you will be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All).
4) After updating driver, restart your PC, and open your game/application to see if it works now.
Solution 3: Reinstall Visual C++ Redistributables
To fix Failed to initialize Direct3D error, you can also try to reinstall the Visual C++ Redistributables packages in your computer. It may lack of the .dll files in the program files, so reinstalling the Visual C++ Redistributables can download the missing dll files in your computer, and the problem can be solved.
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key
+ R at the same time.
2) Type appwiz.cpl in the Run box, and click OK.
3) You’ll see all the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable packages installed in your computer. Right click the one you want to uninstall, and click Uninstall, then follow the wizard to uninstall it.
4) After uninstalling, go to the Windows download website to download the corresponding Visual C++ Redistributable packages.
5) Run the downloaded file, and follow the wizard to install it in your computer.
6) After reinstallation, restart the computer and try to open the program that gives the error.
These are the best 3 solutions to fix Failed to initialize Direct3D in your Windows. If you have any questions or need any help, feel free to comment below and we’ll see what more we can do to help.
My name is PaRa Mu Dita, a web Master, web Developer and Adventurer. Doing work for last 2 years and Running A lot of Techno Sites.