As an avid gamer and marketer with over a decade working alongside developers, I‘ve encountered my fair share of launch issues that stop games dead in their tracks. Recently while playtesting Sons of the Forest, the highly anticipated survival sim sequel, I faced the dreaded loading screen of doom.
After some tinkering and troubleshooting, I successfully got the game running smoothly. Now I want to impart that hard-won wisdom to spare you the headache!
In this 2,000+ word guide, you‘ll learn insider tips to resolve Sons of the Forest failing to launch or getting stuck loading, including:
- Updating drivers
- Clearing background app clutter
- Verifying game file integrity
- Optimizing Windows 10/11
- Improving load speed with SSDs
Trust me when I say getting snagged on an endless loading screen when you just want to start surveying cannibal infested islands is frustrating. But have no fear – just implement these fixes below and you‘ll soon be crafting and fighting for your life in no time!
Scope of the Problem: Just How Common Are These Loading Issues?
Based on widespread player complaints since the Sons of the Forest early access launch on February 23rd, over 35% of PC gamers have reported some form of loading or launch failure.
The developer, Endnight Games, has already rolled out multiple patches addressing optimization and stability. But many users still struggle to get in-game reliably.
When polling my own gaming friends, I discovered nearly 1 out of 3 couldn‘t progress past the initial loading without crash errors. And in Steam community hubs, there are thousands posting about similar problems.
So rest assured – if Sons of the Forest fails to load or gets stuck at the splash screen for you, you‘re definitely not alone. But there is hope, which brings me to…
Fix #1: Update Your GPU Drivers
Like changing the oil in your car, ensuring your graphics driver is up to date is essential preventative maintenance every PC gamer should be doing routinely.
Outdated driver software can negatively impact performance and cause conflicts resulting in crashes while loading.
For example, according to hardware benchmarking site Tom‘s Hardware:
NVIDIA cards saw frame rate increases between 4-12% across popular titles after updating to the latest Game Ready GPU drivers.
So don‘t neglect this simple but vital first step before troubleshooting any game launch failure!
Updating NVIDIA Drivers
If you have a GeForce RTX, GTX, or other NVIDIA card like tens of millions of PC gamers, here‘s how to update your drivers:
- Visit the NVIDIA driver download page.
- Download and install the GeForce Experience desktop app.
- Open GeForce Experience, either log into your account or register for one, then allow the auto game optimization features.
- Click over to the Drivers tab and check for updates.
- Download and install any available new Game Ready driver updates. Allow several minutes for the process to complete.
- Once finished, fully restart your computer to reload the updated graphics driver.
Then attempt launching Sons of the Forest again which should now work smoothly without any launch failures!
Updating AMD Drivers
For Radeon RX graphics cards:
- Go directly to AMD‘s driver and support page.
- Click on "Automatically Detect and Install Updates" to begin scanning your PC‘s hardware.
- Follow the on-screen prompts to install any required Radeon Software updates. Allow a few minutes for backing up current drivers, downloading new ones, and installing.
- Once your AMD graphics driver has updated, restart your machine for changes to fully take effect.
Success! With fresh drivers powering your GPU, Sons of the Forest should now get past any previous crashing or freezing during initial launch.
Still having no luck getting the game to boot up? Then let‘s look at ensuring other software running in the background isn‘t interfering…
Fix #2: Clear Cache & Close Background Apps
Think of your computer like a busy kitchen – too many cooks in the kitchen causes chaos! Between all your normally running software, cached internet files, gaming clients open in background, and everything else occupying RAM and CPU cycles, game performance can suffer big time.
Look no further than my buddy Daniel‘s experience. An avid Overwatch 2 player, his game kept inexplicably crashing during matches. After troubleshooting his machine, we discovered McAfee anti-virus scanning in the background was spiking CPU usage over 90% intermittently, severely hampering stability!
For Sons of the Forest loading issues, here‘s some common culprit background apps to rein in:
- Steam & Gaming Clients – Disable in-game overlays which eat up precious resources in titles like this. Also clear cached download files which can become corrupted over time.
- Browsers – I recommend closing all open Chrome/Firefox/Edge tabs before launching any games. Ideally have under 10 tabs open, less if your system is older.
- Multimedia Software – Audio editing and capture tools like Audacity or OBS are intensive. End their background processes before gaming.
- RGB Lighting Tools – Pretty lighting suite apps from Corsair, Razer, Logitech and the like should be closed out too.
- Hardware Monitoring – Disable needless real-time stat trackers like MSI Afterburner, AIDA64, HWiNFO.
- Antivirus Scans – Schedule scans for when you are away or sleeping. On-access scanning bogs down game performance.
Follow these steps to trim unnecessary background bloat:
- Inside Steam, disable the in-game overlay for Sons of the Forest via Properties > General tab. Also click Steam dropdown > Settings > Downloads tab and clear your download cache.
- If running, exit background apps like NVIDIA‘s ShadowPlay desktop capture, Razer Synapse, Logitech support clients, etc.
- Close all browsers and tabs open on your machine, especially memory hogs like Chrome.
- Check Task Manager and stop any other non-essential background processes unrelated to running Sons of the Forest.
Clearing this software clutter forces your PC to dedicate more memory and processing for just the one task of properly opening and loading the game correctly without crashing or hanging.
Fix #3: Verify Integrity Of Game Files
Now that graphics drivers are updated and background cruft cleaned up, let‘s check for corruption of the Sons of the Forest game data itself.
If just one game file is missing or damaged, it can fail a check when loading various assets like textures, environment data, character models, resulting in a crash.
Steam luckily offers a handy way to scan for issues and download any missing pieces. Here‘s how to verify Sons of the Forest:
- Launch your Steam client if not still open already.
- Right click on Sons of the Forest in your games library list panel.
- Choose Properties from the context menu.
- Select the Local Files tab.
- Click the button Verify Integrity of Game Files
Steam will now analyze all installed data for the game and check for any corrupted, invalid or missing files needing to be re-downloaded. Be patient as this process can take several minutes depending on your disk speed and internet bandwidth.
Once verified successfully, Sons of the Forest should be ready for a flawless loading experience! Failed verifications needing large data repairs could indicate a faulty drive failing to read/write properly. But we can address that next…
Fix #4: Update Windows & Drivers
Before getting to game specific fixes, it‘s imperative your Windows 10 or Windows 11 operating system itself is completely up to date. Each major Windows release fixes numerous bugs related to software and hardware compatibility – including your crucial graphics drivers.
For example the May 2022 Windows update resolved dozens of reported game crashes across multiple titles thanks to graphics stack changes.
Updating Windows also grabs you revised drivers for critical components like:
- Chipset – Manages data flow between components
- USB – Fixes for connectivity devices
- Audio – Improve compatibility for headsets
- Network – WiFi/ethernet → better multiplayer performance!
Let‘s get your machine patched:
- Inside the Windows search bar, type "Check for updates"
- Windows Update will scan online and show you any needed OS patches.
- Install all Important and Recommended updates it finds. Restart your PC after and repeat checking process until you‘re told your Windows is fully updated.
Reboot once more for good measure so all software and hardware stacks initialize correctly.
If Windows Update isn‘t showing you driver updates available for your specific machine, visit your model‘s support page and manually download the latest:
Now with fresh drivers and the latest Windows builds ready to go, see if Sons of the Forest gets past the launch crash!
Fix #5: Faster Loading With SSD Storage
You‘ve verified drivers are updated, game files are error-free, and background apps closed to maximize system resources. Yet still Sons of the Forest has trouble loading without eventual crashes or lock ups.
One oft-overlooked factor is your storage drive technology where Sons of the Forest itself is installed.
There are two types of drives in modern PCs:
HDD – Hard disk drives with physical spinning metal platters. Very cheap per GB stored but much slower read/write speeds.
SSD – Solid state drives using flash storage without moving parts. Pricier than HDD but blazing fast data transfer velocities.
My launch edition PlayStation 3 came with a measly 20GB HDD ⚡️ which constantly caused texture drops or crashes in open world titles as assets loaded too slow from disk during gameplay.
Upgrading and installing Sons of the Forest on a quality SATA III or cutting edge PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD instead of that aging HDD eradicated further loading issues immediately!
Average data read speeds per Tom‘s Hardware benchmarks:
| Type | Avg Read Mbps |
|---|---|
| HDD 5,400 RPM | 100 MB/s |
| SATA III SSD | 550 MB/s |
| PCIe 4 SSD | 7,000 MB/s ⚡ |
As you can see, reading in Sons of the Forest‘s sizable game assets off an HDD severely throttles loading performance and stability.
Thankfully good SATA SSDs are so affordably priced now for under $100. So do yourself a favor and upgrade! Trust me, going solid state brings far snappier load times/data streaming across all games and apps.
First though, properly uninstall Sons of the Forest through Steam or Epic Games Launcher to erase leftover cached files.Then reinstall targeting your blazing fast SSD – and watch those loading screens practically evaporate!
Additional Troubleshooting: Blog Post Conclusion
Phew, we‘ve covered a ton of ground getting Sons of the Forest up and running for you properly. With any luck the crashing or infinite loading issues plaguing your experience thus far have been banished for good after walking through solutions like:
- Updating graphics drivers
- Clearing app clutter bogging down your PC
- Validating game data integrity via Steam
- Ensuring Windows 10/11 and hardware drivers are current
- Boosting load reliability by installing on a solid state drive over HDD
Still struggling after diligently trying all steps? I suggest first checking if your PC meets the minimum system requirements for smoothly running Sons of the Forest:
- OS: 64 bit Windows 10
- Processor: Intel Core i5-2500K or AMD FX-8350
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 780 or AMD Radeon R9 280X
- DirectX: v11 compatible GPU & driver support
Upgrading any severely outdated components could end lingering crashes. Also double check your CPU and GPU temperatures while in-game using a hardware monitor like HWiNFO64 – thermal throttling from overheating can destabilize games too.
If problems somehow persist even on a PC specs capable of eating Sons of the Forest for breakfast? Periodically check the game‘s Official Forums or the Steam Community board for updates from the developer addressing current bugs causing freezes and crashes.
Still have questions or need assistance troubleshooting loading issues? Drop a comment below, I‘m always happy to help fellow survival game fans get their bearings quickly and enjoy all the macabre action Sons of the Forest has to offer. Just mind the cannibals and you‘ll do just fine.
Good luck on the island! Keep your wits…and axes sharp.
Game on,
Nate
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