Alan Wake(2010) Completely blocked by Windows(Or Graphics Card?)

[Carlos_C]

Tried to play Alan Wake earlier today and not only does the game freeze up instantly after loading up, it seems that Windows itself is blocking the Application. I'm not sure how much of this is a GPU issue or a Windows Issue.

System:
CPU: Intel Core i9 9900KF

GPU: Intel Arc A770 LE 16gb

Motherboard Vendor & BIOS Version: Asus Rog STRIX Z390-F, BIOS Version: 2004

Memory: 64gb DDR4 3600mhz RAM

Operating System: Windows 10 Home 22H2

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello Carlos_C

Thank you for posting on the Intel® ARC™ Graphics Communities. I know getting this type of error when trying to play a game can be concerning. I will be happy to help with this issue.

As a first approach and in order to discard any possible driver corruption issue, I would recommend uninstalling the current driver using Display Driver Uninstaller, once uninstalled download and install the latest driver version 31.0.101.4887.

Another recommendation will be to force the OS to use the dGPU on your system since you are using an i9-9900KF processor there should not be an issue for the OS to use the Arc GPU since it is the only one installed but you can try to force it by following the instruction in this article:

How To Set the Default GPU for Applications and Games

Along with the above instructions, please make sure the game is running as administrator and if the issue continues to happen, please let us know the distribution service the game was downloaded from.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[Carlos_C]

Hello Hugo, thanks for getting back to me.

Unfortunately, even after updating to driver 31.0.101.4887 and running AlanWake.exe as an administrator(both with and without compatibility with older versions of windows), the game still gets blocked by Windows. Even made an exception in Windows Defender for the Application and also added it to Graphics options. Still doesn't work.

Some information I forgot to add:
1. Rebar is enabled in BIOS

2. The game is being launched from Steam.

3.Windows 10 Home 22H2

4. Doesn't matter what in-game settings I choose, the game simply does not run.

I'm just gonna give up on this one, but here's my SSU data and my Windows Notifications if you need it. Thank you for your help!

[Carlos_C]

Hello Hugo and thank you for your response. I have Updated my driver to 31.0.101.4887 and have Forced my Windows 10 to use the GPU when launching Alan Wake, and have also tried running the game as an administrator(with windows compatibility on/off). Unfortunately, none of these steps worked and the game still crashes.

Here is some extra information I left out:

1. ReBAR is enabled in BIOS

2. I am launching the game from steam

3. I am using Windows 10 home version 22H2

it's unfortunate that I was unable to get the game to work, and while I have given up on it for now, I will try to see if other games are still comapatible as I know that a lot of DX9 and DX8 games are still not supported fully.

Thank you for your help.

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello Carlos_C

Thank you for the information. Just to make sure when updating the driver, did you use Display Driver Uninstaller(DDU) as recommended in our previous post? It is important to use DDU in case this might be a graphics driver issue, at the moment it seems more related to the OS itself but using DDU might help. Another recommendation is to completely uninstall the game from your system and reinstall it to ensure there are no corrupted files that might cause the issue.

We are more than willing to continue assisting on this one in case you want to continue troubleshooting the issue, so if you have the chance to complete the above steps let us know the results.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[Carlos_C]

Hello Hugo and thank you for responding.

Yes, I used DDU to uninstall the previous driver, rebooted, then installed 31.0.101.4887. After that, I rebooted again and Uninstalled/Reinstalled Alan Wake from Steam and repeated the process(run as admin, run with legacy windows compatibility, etc).

Windows/A770 GPU continues to block the game.

As a last ditch effort, I installed Alan Wake on a machine that has an nVidia Graphics card to see if it was indeed the graphics card. The game booted up with no problems. So unfortunately this still leaves me uncertain as to whether it is a Windows Issue or a GPU Issue.

The specs of the other machine(I do not own this machine, it belongs to a family member):

i9 13900k

nVidia RTX 4080 OC 16gb, played on 1440p

32gb GDDR5 RAM @5600mhz

Windows 11 Home 23H2

Could just be that my machine is too old for Arc(even though I have reBAR on).

Anyways, I really appreciate your help with this. Thank you very much and I still think you guys are doing good work with these drivers!

[miyagi90]

Hey there, 

i think i have the same issue.

The game boots up, i can start a new game, the intro sequence starts but the moment i get to play the game it crashes to desktop with no error message. 

Im on Driver 31.0.101.4887, rebar is active, Win 10 22H2 (19045.3570) and every other driver is up to date.

Im pretty sure its a driver/gpu issue.

[inquisitivedev]

That's intel Arc drivers which blocked Alan Wake 1 to render any frames. I used DDU, restarted PC and able to open Alan Wake after first cinematic regardless of it's 2-3 FPS. Then, I installed latest Arc drivers (31.0.101.4792) instead of latest WHQL, which I uninstalled via DDU. 

Unfortunately, until intel devs fix this game, we won't able to play it on ARC GPUs.

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello Carlos_C

Thank you for letting us know. Even though your system does not meet the recommended requirements as outlined in this link, if you have Resizable BAR enabled and if other games are working fine there should not be an issue, as well since it seems @miyagi90 is also getting a similar type of crash this issue might be more related to a driver/game problem.

Let us check this further and we will let you know once we have more information.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[annoisolpxe_ime]

I use INTEL ARC A750 and have the same problem, only with Alan Wake.

[hellforge]

The same Problem comes up with Arc  A770. Neither Alan Wake nor Alan Wake American Nightmare are supported by Intel Cards. Bad Timing with the Release of Alan Wake 2. ^^

[miyagi90]

This problem still persists.

[Hugo_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello everyone, @Carlos_C

We were working on releasing a fix for the crashing problem when trying to play Alan Wake and we want to let you know that the fix was implemented in our latest driver 31.0.101.5074. Please update to the latest version and let us know if you are now able to play the game.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.

[Carlos_C]

Hello Hugo,

As of Driver 31.0.101.5074, Alan wake now launches properly on my Arc A770 LE 16gb!

Unfortunately, this also comes with bad news: Alan Wake's American Nightmare is unaffected by this fix and still crashes after choosing a game mode.

However, that's another thread for another day. Now that this issue is fixed. I will mark this as the accepted solution.

Again, thanks to EVERYONE in the Driver team for all their hard work!

[Hugo_Intel]

Hello Carlos_C

Thank you for your feedback, good to know the game is now working fine from your side. As you mentioned if there is a similar issue with Alan Wake's American Nightmare a new thread to report the issue will be needed since that is a standalone DLC/game so feel free to open a new one and we will be more than willing to assist.

Since this issue is now resolved we will be closing this thread and we want to thank you for taking the time to report this issue and for your support.

Best Regards,

Hugo O.

Intel Customer Support Technician.