Apex Legends — How to Fix "Crash on startup"

Apex closes immediately when launching, crashes when loading into the lobby, or exits suddenly during matchmaking.

A damaged Easy Anti-Cheat service, missing certificate, or an anti-cheat file blocked by security software — EAC is required for Apex to launch and stay connected.

Overclocked hardware including factory overclocks, which Respawn’s own troubleshooting guide tells players to disable.

Old or aggressive launch options left over from older performance guides, which can create problems after updates.

Open the Apex Legends install folder, find the EasyAntiCheat folder and run EasyAntiCheat_Setup.exe as administrator. Select Apex Legends and choose Repair Service, or uninstall and reinstall the service. Restart before launching. If the tool will not open, your antivirus is blocking it — add the game and EAC folders to the allowlist first.

Remove everything from the Launch Options box and start normally. If you want a cap, add only +fps_max 120 first, then add or remove one command at a time.

Discord, Steam, GeForce Experience, MSI Afterburner, RivaTuner, OBS, Razer Synapse and Chroma are all named in EA’s community troubleshooting guide. Also try disabling fullscreen optimizations on r5apex.exe.

Disable CPU and GPU overclocks, including factory OC modes. Also add Apex and the EA app to your firewall exceptions, and let Windows manage the page file with the game, launcher and page file all on the same drive.

Launch the game, open Task Manager, go to Details, find the Easy Anti-Cheat process and set priority to Low. It is an odd fix but one of the most reported — and it must be redone each launch.

Reach the lobby and complete one match. Launching successfully but crashing in the lobby usually still points at anti-cheat or an overlay rather than at graphics settings.

Steam refunds within 14 days of purchase and under 2 hours of playtime, and documented technical faults are sometimes accepted past that. Microsoft Store and Epic follow similar rules with store-specific exception paths.

Attach crash logs, a DxDiag and the steps you already tried. A denied refund can sometimes be overturned when you can show the game is genuinely unplayable rather than simply disliked.

If the failure follows an anti-cheat ban or a modified online client, no store will refund it. That is a separate category from a game that will not run.