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6 Tips to Fix Honkai Star Rail Launch Issues

Honkai Star Rail‘s gorgeous open world and fast-paced combat offers an engaging anime-style RPG experience. However, up to 27% of players report frustrating launch issues including crashing, freezing and black screens according to miHoYo‘s public player surveys.

As an avid Honkai gamer and PC enthusiast, I‘ve uncovered reliable solutions to get Honkai Star Rail running flawlessly on your system. Below are 6 tips ranging from quick fixes like updating graphics drivers, to in-depth troubleshooting steps for identifying root causes of crashes or optimization glitches.

1. Check You Meet Minimum System Requirements

Carefully verify your Windows PC or laptop meets Honkai Star Rail‘s published minimum system requirements – especially CPU, RAM and GPU which heavily impact performance.

Honkai Star Rail Minimum Requirements:

  • Windows 7 64-bit or newer
  • Intel Core i5-7500 / Ryzen 3 2200G
  • 8GB RAM
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 6GB / Radeon RX580 8GB
  • 50GB storage space

Recommended Specs for 60 FPS High Settings:

  • Windows 10 64-bit
  • Intel Core i7-8700 / Ryzen 5 3600
  • 16GB RAM
  • NVIDIA RTX 2060 SUPER 8GB / Radeon 5700 XT 8GB

If your PC falls below either threshold, Honkai may refuse to launch correctly or suffer lag, freezes and crashes – even on lowest settings with resolution scaling disabled.

Upgrading aging components like adding RAM brings immediate performance dividends according to Popular Hardware Magazine‘s benchmarks:

"In Honkai Star Rail testing, doubling RAM capacity from 8GB to 16GB delivered over 25% higher average and 99th percentile frame rates with dips below 60 FPS drastically reduced."

Likewise installing a modern mid-range GPU like Nvidia‘s RTX 3060 Ti or AMD‘s Radeon 6700 XT slashes loading times by 37% while eliminating stuttering issues per Toms Hardware analysis.

So if game crashes or fails to open on older hardware, consider affordable upgrades giving Honkai Star Rail room to breathe!

2. Add Honkai to Your Antivirus Exclusion List

Overprotective antivirus or ransomware protection tools occasionally misidentify games or launchers as malware – blocking execution with false positives.

Whitelisting Honkai Star Rail within Windows Security avoids these conflicts:

Steps to Add Exclusion in Windows Security:

  1. Open Windows Security > Virus & Threat Protection > Manage Ransomware Protection
  2. Toggle ‘Control Folder Access‘ to off
  3. Click ‘Allow an app through Controlled Folder Access
  4. Click ‘Add an Allowed App‘
  5. Browse to Honkai installation folder:
    • Epic Games Launcher > Honkai Star Rail > Live > Binaries > Win64
  6. Select Honkai.exe then click Add
  7. Turn Ransomware Protection back on
[Example screenshots of adding exception to Controlled Folder Access]

This prevents Defender from scanning or blocking Honkai game files causing crashes or launch failures.

Most other antivirus solutions like Avast offer similar exception list capabilities – refer to their documentation for precise exclusion steps.

3. Update Nvidia or AMD Graphics Drivers

According to troubleshooting statistics gathered on Honkai Star Rail‘s issue tracker, roughly 19% of crashes stem from outdated graphics card drivers.

Newer Game Ready drivers enhance performance, fix specific game bugs and boost stability. Always keep GPU drivers fully updated through GeForce Experience or Radeon Software:

Updating Nvidia GPU Drivers:

  1. Download GeForce Experience
  2. Open GeForce Experience and click Drivers tab
  3. Check for updates to your Nvidia GPU drivers
  4. Click Download and Express Install the latest driver

Or for AMD Graphics Cards:

  1. Install Radeon Software
  2. In Radeon Software select Updates from the top
  3. Check for new optional or recommended driver releases
  4. Click Install Now to update your AMD GPU drivers

Impact of Upgrading Graphics Drivers:

Per khronokernel‘s testing, switching from launch drivers to the latest Game Ready drivers boosted Honkai Star Rail frame rates by 11% and slashed stuttering by 66% on a RTX 3060 Ti.

So don‘t hesitate updating GPU drivers through GeForce Experience or Radeon Software to eliminate random crashing or optimizations issues in Honkai.

4. Close Unnecessary Background Apps

Too many programs eating CPU and RAM resources inevitably slows Honkai Star Rail loading, causes lag spikes or graphics glitches during gameplay.

Always shutdown unnecessary apps before launching the game. Top offenders hogging precious system memory include:

  • Web Browsers – especially with multiple tabs open
  • Discord, TeamSpeak and chat clients
  • OBS, StreamLabs, XSplit
  • Wallpaper Engine
  • RGB lighting utilities
  • Hardware monitors like CPU-Z, GPU-Z or HWiNFO
  • Game launchers like Steam, Epic Games, GOG Galaxy

Testing by Hardware Unboxed reveals having Discord and Chrome open while playing Honkai Star Rail cut frame rates by 15% over standalone game performance.

So closing other apps lets your CPU and RAM focus on delivering buttery smooth anime chaos. Only background services essential for proper gameplay operation like graphics drivers and input software should remain running.

5. Scan & Repair Honkai Through Epic Games Launcher

Corrupted data or missing files due to incomplete updates also generally manifest as sudden crashes when launching or random freezes during gaming sessions.

Luckily verifying and repairing Honkai Star Rail installation via Epic Games automatically restores any damaged content:

Steps to Repair Honkai Star Rail

  1. Close Honkai Star Rail if currently running
  2. Open Epic Games Launcher and click the 3 dots beside Honkai‘s name
  3. Select Verify/Repair
  4. Wait for 100% completion

This scanning procedure identifies and reobtains missing game files, clearing cached data fixes strange launch issues occurring after patch deployments.

6. Clean Reinstall as Final Measure

If you still encounter constant crashes, failure to open or other serious symptoms, completely reinstalling Honkai as a last resort often resolves gremlins.

How to Reinstall Honkai Star Rail:

  1. Backup Saves – Epic Games Launcher > Honkai Star Rail > Settings > Manage Installation > Copy Save Files
  2. Uninstall Current Version – Epic Games Launcher > Library > 3 Dot Menu > Uninstall
  3. Reboot PC
  4. Reinstall Fresh Copy – Epic Games Store > Search Honkai Star Rail > Install
  5. Apply Backed Up Saves

This nuke and pave approach wipes all aging cached data and starts Honkai with clean config files helping maximize stability. Plan for extended initial shader compilation causing temporary stuttering until caches rebuild over subsequent gaming sessions.

Further Troubleshooting Support

Hopefully these 6 tips let you successfully run Honkai Star Rail without crashes, lag or fails to launch. But if problems persist beyond traditional solutions, contact Honkai‘s customer support team providing DXDiag system info and game logs outlining issues.

The vibrant Honkai community forums are another knowledgeable resource for troubleshooting advice when stumped by complicated technical quandaries or bottlenecking to achieve higher frame rates.

Let me know in the comments section if further assistance is required getting Honkai Star Rail running brilliantly on your system!