Dirt Rally crashes on startup

[Pepijn]

What can I say, I've installed the game from steam, press play, it briefly shows a black screen and exists. I tried the DXVK workaround with no effect. Drivers are up to date and working for some other games. (but so far the track record isn't great) Note this is the 2015 game, not version 2. The older Dirt 3 does work. I've attached the game bug checklist and Intel System Support Utility report.

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @Pepijn  

Thank you for posting on the Intel® communities.  

I am sorry to hear what is happening with your Intel® Arc™ A770 Graphics, I will gladly assist you here. 

Perform a clean installation of your graphics drivers, using the latest graphics driver. 

Also, update your BIOS version 0807 to the latest version 1410 to make sure your system is up to date. 

Please, let us know if the issue persists after these steps. 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Pepijn]

Hi Jocelyn,

I have tried your suggestion of updating the bios and doing a clean installation of the latest drivers, which unfortunately did not have any effect. The game still boots into a black screen and then exits.

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @Pepijn  

Thank you for the information provided. 

1. Does this issue happen with other games? 
2. Provide us with a new Intel® SSU report to investigate further: 

Note: Make sure to mark the box that says "everything" before pressing the Scan button. After that, click on "Next>" and select "Save" and then, attach the .txt file. 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Pepijn]

Hi Jocelyn,

I'm not much of a gamer but as mentioned the older Dirt 3 works fine, as does Witcher 3. Trackmania (2020) did *not* work but was fixed by using DXVK.

Please find attached the new SSU report. Note that the BIOS version you mentioned is a beta that has all sorts of disclaimers, so I've used the latest release version 1223.

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @Pepijn  

Thank you for the information provided. 

I will proceed to do some research, as soon as I have updates, I will post them here. 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Jocelyn_Intel · Accepted solution]

Hello, @Pepijn  

Thank you for your time. 

We tested the game and it works fine.  

Make sure you have disabled the integrated graphics and test it again. Please let us know the results. 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Pepijn]

Dear Jocelyn,

Thanks for taking the time to test this game.

First I disable the integrated graphics in device manager, after which the entire system became very glitchy. Steam didn't even show properly but I managed to start the game from big picture mode. However, it ran at less than 1fps.

Then I decided to reboot and Windows didn't start at all! It just showed the spinny thing and played the tune, but nothing changed. Then I had to boot into safe mode to enable integrated graphics again.

Back in windows, I went into graphics settings and changed the game from automatic (performance) to manually selecting performance. Now the game starts and runs normally.

But boy was that an unpleasant experience. This card just can't run as the only card it seems? When I disabled the card in the bios, the entire system wont start. When I tell Linux to only use dedicated graphics, everything is super glitchy. And now when I tell windows to use only dedicated graphics, it also fails to start.

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @Pepijn  

Thank you for the information provided. I am sorry to hear that you had inconveniences in the process. 

Could you please provide with a new Intel® SSU report so I can investigate more? 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Pepijn]

Hi Jocelyn,

No problem of course here is another SSU report

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @Pepijn  

Thank you for the information provided.  

Let me do some more research. As soon as I have updates, I will post them here. 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @Pepijn  

Thank you for your time. 

The Intel® Arc™ A770 Graphics card should work without issues when the integrated graphics are disabled at BIOS level (not just OS level). Actually, disabling it at OS level but not in BIOS might generate issues with lingering drivers or registry entries.  

For that reason, we suggest you to disable the integrated graphics from BIOS, run DDU in Safe mode to completely uninstall 3rd party graphics drivers, and then, try again testing the system. 

Also, we noticed in your Intel® SSU report, errors pertaining to "Virtual Secure Mode (VSM) is not initialized", please be aware that Arc GPUs don't support virtualization (you can verify this in this article), we suggest you to disable VSM in BIOS as well. 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Pepijn]

Dear Jocelyn,

Last time I tried disabling the integrated graphics in the BIOS there was no video output at all. It would not even POST, showing a "video error" LED on the motherboard, so I could not even get into the BIOS and had to reset the CMOS settings in order to even access the BIOS. So starting in safe mode is not an option.

I will however disable VMS as you suggested.

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @Pepijn  

Thank you for the information provided. 

Try disabling VSM in BIOS and let us know the results. 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Pepijn]

The only related setting I can find is SR-IOV which is already disabled.

Anyway, the game works now, and I'm not sure how much we can gain by completely disabling the integrated graphics.

It seems to cause more issues than it's worth.

BTW I just got a new beta driver, but it still does the thing where the software says REBAR is not available while it's definitely enabled in the BIOS.

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @Pepijn  

It's great to hear that the game is working fine now.  

For your second inquiry, please submit a new thread describing this issue since the original issue is different from the second one. 

We will proceed to close this thread now as per your request. If you need any additional assistance regarding the original issue, please submit a new question as this thread will no longer be monitored.  

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician. 

[Jocelyn_Intel]

Hello, @Pepijn. 

I just wanted to provide you with this article that is related to your second issue, I hope it helps you: Intel® Arc™ Control Software Shows Resizable BAR as “General-Not-Supported” 

If you require more assistance, then you can submit a new thread so we can provide more personalized support. 

Have a nice day. 

Best regards,  

Jocelyn M.   

Intel Customer Support Technician.