ReShade Causing Game Crash / Anti-Cheat Block (RESHADE_GAME_CRASH)
What is this error?
ReShade post-processing injector causing games to crash on launch or being blocked by anti-cheat software.
Common causes
- anti-cheat blocks DLL injection (ReShade)
- ReShade incompatible with game's renderer
- ReShade version mismatch
- conflicting with other overlay software
- wrong API selected during ReShade install
How to fix it
- Remove ReShade for anti-cheat games
- select correct API (DX11/DX12/Vulkan)
- update ReShade
- remove conflicting overlays
Too many steps? Crashless can diagnose this automatically — checks your drivers, temps, VRAM, and 400+ known error patterns.
Get free AI diagnosis Detailed analysis
ReShade is a popular graphics post-processing injector for better visuals, but it causes crashes and anti-cheat blocks in many games.
Anti-cheat games (Valorant, Fortnite, Apex, PUBG, Destiny 2): ReShade is BLOCKED. It injects DLLs which anti-cheat treats as a potential cheat. Remove it entirely for these games.
For non-anti-cheat games:
- Make sure you selected the correct graphics API during ReShade installation — DX9, DX10/11, DX12, OpenGL, or Vulkan. Selecting the wrong one causes instant crashes
- Update ReShade to the latest version from reshade.me
- Disable other overlay software (GeForce Experience, Discord overlay) — they can conflict with ReShade's injection
- If a game crashes after adding ReShade, delete the injected DLLs from the game folder: dxgi.dll, d3d11.dll, d3d9.dll, or opengl32.dll (whichever you installed)
- Some games need 'Network' addon support unchecked during installation
- For Vulkan ReShade, check that no conflicting Vulkan layers are registered
- Use ReShade's built-in uninstaller to cleanly remove it before trying a fresh install
When to seek help
If this error keeps happening after trying the fixes above, it may point to a deeper hardware or system issue. Consider professional help if:
- The crash occurs across multiple games or applications
- You see the same error after a clean Windows install
- Your PC is less than a year old (could be a warranty issue)
- You smell burning or hear unusual sounds from your PC
Or let Crashless do the deep analysis for you -- our AI checks drivers, temps, event logs, and 400+ known patterns automatically.
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