Horizon Zero Dawn has finally launched on PC after enjoying three years of PlayStation 4 exclusivity. However, Horizon Zero Dawn PC users report errors and issues like save game errors, BSOD crashes, crashes at launch, missing d3d12.dll, Anisotropic Filter not working, Disk Write Error, missing executable, and more. Here I have compiled a list of errors and issues with the game along with their fixes and workarounds.
Also, see our fixes for:
- Horizon Forbidden West Save Error
- Horizon Forbidden West Crash On PC
- Horizon Forbidden West Low FPS And Stuttering
Horizon Zero Dawn Stuttering, Crash, And Fixes That’ll Help
Horizon Zero Dawn is finally out of PC and the game brings an opportunity for PC gamers to enjoy the game at a level of fidelity that’s impossible on the PlayStation 4. Of course, the game’s optimization isn’t perfect, so check out our Horizon Zero Dawn PC tweaks guide on how to get 60 FPS and boost performance.
Also, the PC version of the game is facing errors and issues like save game error, crashing with the Blue screen of death (BSOD), crash at startup, Missing d3d12.dll, No Audio, Anisotropic Filter not working, Disk Write Error, and more.
The following are all of the Horizon Zero Dawn errors and issues that PC users are experiencing, along with their fixes and workarounds.
Save Game Error Fix
Horizon Zero Dawn PC players report the Save Game error, which stops them from playing it. This Save Game error also made an appearance in Horizon Forbidden West. There are multiple reasons behind the Horizon Zero Dawn save game error and here are the fixes.
Fix #1 – The first fix for the Save Game error is quite easy. Give Steam and Horizon Zero Dawn’s executable admin rights to fix the save game error. To do that, right-click Steam’s exe > properties > Compatibility tab > check “run this program as an administrator” > apply the changes.
- Right-click Horizon Zero Dawn in your Steam library > Manage > Browse local files.
- A new Explorer window will open with game files.
- right-click Horizon Zero Dawn’s executable > properties > Compatibility tab.
- Check “Run this program as an administrator” and apply changes.
- Play Horizon Zero Dawn and the save game error is fixed.
Fix #2 – If you have enabled OneDrive backup for the Documents folder, it’s causing the Save Game error. Disable the OneDrive backup and the Save Game error will be fixed.
- Right-click the OneDrive icon in the Taskbar
- Go to Settings > Sync and Backup > Manage Backup
- Turn off the backup for the Documents folder
- Click “Save Changes”
- Play Horizon Zero Dawn and your progress will be saved.
Fix #3 – For some PC users disabling the OneDrive back for the Documents folder won’t fix Horizon Zero Dawn’s save game error. PC users have to make changes in Windows Registry to fix the error.
- Press the Windows + R buttons
- Type regedit and press Enter
- Windows Registry Editor will open up.
- Navigate to the “Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\User Shell Folders” path.
- You will find the path to the Documents Folder is “C:\Users\YourUsername\OneDrive\Documents”.
- Right-click the file that has the “C:\Users\YourUsername\OneDrive\Documents” path
- click on Modify
- Change the path to C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents and press Ok
- Change it for every file that has OneDrive in its path.
- Navigate to the “Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Shell Folders” path in Registry Editor.
- Find the file named “Personal” and the path to the Documents folder will again be “C:\Users\YourUsername\OneDrive\Documents”.
- Modify the path to “C:\Users\YourUsername\Documents” and press OK.
- Launch Horizon Forbidden West and Save error is fixed.
Fix #4 – I fixed Horizon Zero Dawn’s save game error, by disabling the Controlled Folder Access. Controlled Folder Access is a Windows Security feature that restricts access to certain folders. Disable Controlled Folder Access to fix Horizon Zero Dawn’s save game error.
- Open Windows Settings > Privacy & Security > Windows Security > Virus & Threat Protection.
- Click “Manage Ransomware Protection” under “Ransomware Protection”.
- Turn off “Controlled Folder Access”
- Play Horizon Zero Dawn and the save game error is fixed.
For some players, Bitdefender is the issue. Allow it through your safe file protection and the save game error will be fixed.
Fix #5 -Some Horizon Zero Dawn PC players are experiencing the save game error due to spelling mistakes or using language in Windows other than English. The UserName and Document folder should be spelled in English. Manually rename the folder in English or switch to the English language in Windows settings to fix the save game error.
Fix #6 -Download the SysInternals Process Monitor from Microsoft. Run this program, launch Horizon Zero Dawn, and wait until you get the Save Game error. Once that happens, pause capture in Process Monitor and then, filter to include only Horizon exe and file operations that are not successful.
- Look for an entry that is failing to create a save game.
- This entry will have random characters instead of your UserName.
- Copy these random characters, run the elevated command prompt then go to the C:\Users folder.
- Run mklink /D “paste the copied user name” i.e C:\Users\YourGoodUserName.
- This will fix the Save game error.
Anisotropic Filter Fix
Anisotropic Filtering is a graphical option in Horizon Zero Dawn that didn’t work as intended at launch. According to players, even if they enable it, it makes no difference in-game. This is because it’s a bug and can be fixed by forcing 16x Anisotropic Filtering through the driver.
- Open Nvidia Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings > Select Horizon Zero Dawn from the list.
- Set “Anisotropic Filtering” to “16x” and apply the settings.
- Now the Anisotropic Filter options will work with Horizon Zero Dawn as intended.
Driver Out Of Date Fix
According to PC players, they have installed the latest GPU drivers and are still getting the “Driver out of date” error. To fix this reinstall the latest GPU driver but, do a clean installation and the error will be fixed.
Disk Write Error Fix
Disk Write Error is allowing players to either download the game or update the game. There are multiple reasons for this particular error, and the following are the fixes.
Fix #1 – Right-click on Steam.exe > “Properties” > “Compatibility” tab > check “Run this program as an administrator”. Apply the setting and the error should be resolved.
Fix #2 – Open CMD and run it as an administrator. Use the following commands and press enter after each of them.
diskpart
list disk
select disk # (# is the number of the hard drive in which the game is installed)
attributes disk clear readonly.
Fix #3 – Go to Steam/logs/content_log. Scroll down and look for “failed to write”. Open the file and it has paths to some corrupted files. Follow the path and delete these files and the game will install.
Fix #4 – Steam Download Cache is causing the Disk Write Error when you download or update Horizon Zero Dawn. Clear the Steam Download cache to fix the error. Open Steam settings > Downloads > click on “Clear Cache”.
BSOD Crash Fix
PC users report Horizon Zero Dawn crashes with Blue Screen of Death while caching shaders when the game is launched. The following fix resolves the BSOD crash.
Horizon Zero Dawn’s BSOD crash is due to the Virtual Memory(Paging File). The default Virtual memory size isn’t enough for the game. Fix the BSOD crash by increasing the paging file, ideally, double the current Windows setting.
- Open Windows Settings > About > Advanced System Settings
- Click “Settings” under Performance > go to the Advanced tab in Performance Options
- Click on “Change” under Virtual memory
- Uncheck “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”
- Select the drive with at least 32 GB of available space
- Check the Custom size option.
- Input ‘16,384’ for the Initial size and ‘32,768’ for the Maximum size and press OK.
- Restart your PC and the BSOD crash is fixed for Horizon Zero Dawn while caching shaders.
Crash Fix
Players report Horizon Zero Dawn is crashing randomly on their PCs. There are multiple reasons for the game to crash and the following fixes will resolve these in-game crashes.
Fix #1 – One fix for this issue is to run Horizon Zero Dawn as an administrator.
- Right-click Horizon Zero Dawn in your Steam library > Manage > Browse Local Files.
- A new explorer window will open containing game files.
- Right-click “HorizonZeroDawn.exe” > properties > Compatibility tab.
- Check “run this program as an administrator”.
- Apply the changes, play Horizon Zero Dawn, and it won’t crash.
Fix #2 – In the in-game display settings, select Fullscreen instead of Borderless. It will only fix the Horizon Zero Dawn crashing issue but, will also give you a boost in FPS. A bug is degrading the game’s performance if played in Borderless.
Fix #3 – Disable in-game overlays, like Steam overlay, Discord overlay, or GeForce Experience overlay, to fix Horizon Zero Dawn’s crashes.
If you have installed GeForce Experience with the Nvidia Driver, its in-game overlay is enabled by default. Open GeForce experience > click on the Gear icon next to your username > General > turn off the “IN-GAME Overlay” options.
To disable Discord overlay, open User settings > go to the Game Overlay tab > turn off the “Enable In-game overlay” options.
To disable Steam overlay, open Steam > settings > In-game > uncheck “Enable the Steam overlay while in-game.”
Fix #4 – Most graphics cards from Nvidia AIB partners, like GIGABYTE or Zotac, are factory overclocked or have higher GPU and Memory clocks compared to reference models. This is the reason Horizon Zero Dawn is crashing randomly in-game. Enable the Debug Mode and the graphics card will use Nvidia’s recommended GPU and Memory clocks, fixing the in-game crashes. Open the Nvidia Control Panel > Help > Debug Mode.
Fix #5 – If you are playing Horizon Zero Dawn at an unlocked or higher Fram Rate, it’s crashing the game. The higher the FPS, the more load will be on the CPU and GPU. Limit the game’s max FPS to reduce the CPU and GPU load and Horizon Zero Dawn’s in-game crashes will be fixed. I recommend that you use the Nvidia Control Panel, as in-game FPS limiters often cause bad frame pacing.
- Open the Nvidia Control Panel.
- Click “Manage 3D Settings” and open the Program Settings tab.
- Select Dragon’s Dogma 2 from the drop-down menu.
- Scroll down, enable Max Frame Rate, and set a value.
Note: Unless you use a Freesync or G.sync display, your Max Frame Limit should be 1/2, 1/3rd, or 1/4th of your monitor’s refresh rate. Otherwise, the game will feel jittery.
Game Not Launching, Crash At Startup Fix
According to players, Horizon Zero Dawn is crashing at startup. The following are the fixes and workarounds to fix Horizon Zero Dawn’s crash at startup issue.
Fix #1 – If you play Horizon Zero Dawn on an old CPU, ensure it supports the AVX instruction set. If it doesn’t, you won’t be able to play the game and need to upgrade your CPU or wait for the devs to roll out a patch to fix it.
Fix #2 – If you are trying to run Horizon Zero Dawn on Windows 7, you are out of luck. The game requires Windows 10 due to DirectX 12 requirements. Upgrade your OS to Win 10 to play the game.
Fix #3 – You might be missing or have corrupt game files, which crashes Horizon Zero Dawn at startup. Verify game files and Steam will automatically download the missing files if any. This should fix the issue with the game.
- Right-click Horizon Zero Dawn in your Steam Library > Properties > Installed Files tab.
- Click the “Verify Integrity of game files” button.
- Steam will scan and download any missing or corrupt game files.
- Launch Horizon Zero Dawn and it won’t crash at startup.
Fix #4 – Right-click Horizon Zero Dawn in your Steam Library > Manage > Browse Local Files. A new Explorer window will open. Double-click “HorizonZeroDawn.exe” to start the game. Chances are you’ll get an error similar to the following:
The program can’t start because mfc140.dll is missing
This error occurs due to missing or corrupt Visual C++ components, which crashes Horizon Zero Dawn at startup. Install or repair Visual C++ Redistributables to fix the error.
- Open the Steam library and type Steamworks in the search bar.
- Right-click Steamworks Common redistributables > Manage > Browse local files.
- A new window will open.
- Go to _CommonRedist\vcredist
- There are folders with names in years starting from 2010.
- Open each folder and run the VC_redis, both x64 and x86 versions.
- Install or repair Visual C++ Redistributables and restart your PC.
Fix #5– Your anti-virus/Windows Defender is why Horizon Zero Dawn is crashing at startup. Either disable the anti-virus or exclude the game’s install folder from it, I recommend the latter. After that, right-click Horizon Zero Dawn in your Steam Library > Properties > Installed Files tab. Click the “Verify Integrity of game files” button.
Fix #6– If your Windows OS isn’t updated, update it to the latest build. Games require a certain Windows 10 build to run properly. If you use an outdated Windows 10 or 11 build, it crashes Horizon Zero Dawn at launch. Open Windows Settings > Windows Update > click “Check for updates” > download all available updates.
Stuttering Fix
Stuttering is an issue that almost all PC players are experiencing. This Horizon Zero Dawn stuttering issue is related to the in-game v.sync and its frame pacing. To fix this stuttering issue, disable in-game v.sync and close the game.
Open Nvidia Control Panel > Manage 3D Settings > Program Settings > Select Horizon Zero Dawn from the list. Set “Vertical sync” to “On” and apply this setting. Launch the game and the stuttering will be fixed in Horizon Zero Dawn.
If the game continues to stutter, set “Vertical sync” to “Fast”. In-game v.sync will remain disabled and display mode should be set to Fullscreen. This will not only fix stuttering but, will also boost FPS if players have a decent enough CPU and GPU.
Missing Executable Fix
PC users report the following error and can’t play Horizon Zero Dawn.
“E:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Horizon Zero Dawn\HorizonZeroDawn.exe” not found
Your anti-virus software has quarantined the executable. Third-party anti-virus software like DeepGuard often falsely detect game executables as malware and quarantine them. To fix the error, either disable the anti-virus or exclude the game’s install folder from it, I recommend the latter. After that, right-click Horizon Zero Dawn in your Steam Library > Properties > Installed Files tab. Click the “Verify Integrity of game files” button.
Missing d3d12.dll Fix
If you are playing the game on Windows 7 then you are probably getting this error at launch. Unfortunately, this game requires Windows 10 to run due to certain DirectX 12 requirements. Upgrade your OS to play the game.
No Audio Fix
Players are experiencing an issue with Horizon Zero Dawn where they don’t get any audio during cutscenes. This might be because players are using virtual surround sound headphones. Set the audio to stereo and the issue will be fixed.
Another fix would be to open Settings > System > Sound > Sound Control Panel. A new window will open, click once on your active audio device > Properties > Advanced tab. Select “24bit 48000 Hz” and apply it. This will fix the no audio issue and other audio issues with Horizon Zero Dawn.
How To Skip Intro
PC users don’t want to see the intro videos whenever they launch the game. Fortunately, there is a way that skips the intro videos.
Go to your Steam library and right-click on Horizon Zero Dawn > properties > click “Set launch options”. Type “-nosplash” and press “OK”. Now whenever players launch Horizon Zero Dawn, intro movies will be skipped.
That is all for our Horizon Zero Dawn fixes for errors and issues like Save Game error, Anisotropic Filter not working, Missing d3d12.dll, stuttering, disk write error, and more. If you are facing errors and issues with other PC games or your PC then also see our hub for commonly occurring PC errors and their fixes.
