Civilization VI just launched, and while many of you are one-more-turning into the small hours, many, it seems, are struggling with a couple of nasty bugs. Reports of problems playing the game are especially common since the weekend. If that’s you, hopefully we can help.
Is Civilization VI worth enduring these bugs to play? Find out in our review.
General fixes
There are a couple of steps you can take to fix most issues on most games.
- First, double-check your system meets the minimum requirements to run the game. Remember, Civ 6 doesn’t support 32-bit operating systems.
- Second, ensure Civ 6 has been correctly installed on your machine. Right-click the game in your Steam library and select ‘Properties’. Click on the ‘Local Files’ tab, and then on ‘Verify integrity of game cache’.
- Third, update your graphics card drivers. You can get the latest Nvidia drivers here, and the latest AMD drivers here.
Civ 6 hangs or crashes on loading screen, or takes a very long time to load
This seems to be one of the most common issues since the weekend. Fortunately, it has a fairly simple fix; reports both on Reddit and CivFanatics indicate the problem is with Windows Defender.
Start by adding an exclusion for your Civ 6 folder. In Windows 10, from the start menu, go to ‘Settings’, then ‘Update & Security’, then ‘Windows Defender’. Click ‘Add an Exclusion’, and then ‘Exclude a Folder’. Navigate to your Civ 6 folder and select it. This way you can keep Windows Defender running but tell it to stop doing whatever it’s doing to Civ 6. If this doesn’t work, try excluding your entire Steam folder.
Another possible fix is to allow Civ 6 through Windows Firewall. Use Cortana to search for Windows Firewall and click ‘Allow an app through Windows Firewall’, then scroll down the following list until you see Civ 6. If you’restillhaving issues, you can try disabling Windows Defender altogether, but this should be a last resort.
Sound issues
Some players are reporting sound problems, including crackling noises, desynchronisation, sound running too fast or simply not playing at all. Try lowering your sound quality: go to ‘Settings’ in the main menu, click the ‘Sound’ tab, and lower the sound quality to 16-bit.
Missing .dll files
Programs like games use instructions contained in dynamic-link library (.dll) files to call on other files to do certain things. If you’re missing some, the quickest fix is to ensure all the likely parts of your system are up to date.
Start by reinstalling or updating DirectX. You should also perform a check for updates via ‘Windows Update’ in the ‘Settings’ menu. Restart your computer once you’ve done this.
If that hasn’t worked, you can find and replace the missing .dll file manually. The error message should specify which file you’re missing, so copy/paste it into Google and run a search. The results should offer a replacement to download, most likely from dll-files.com, which also offers a client promising a one-click fix.
Hopefully these suggestions should fix the most common errors until Firaxis can patch them permanently. Let us know if you’re still having problems!