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Driver San Francisco

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Fix Launch Issues

By Thompson

This is a guide dedicated to troubleshoot Driver San Francisco issues, such as black screens, crashing, and compatibility.

Award

Created by

Thompson
Offline

Category: Achievements, Characters, Classes, Co-op, Crafting, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Loot, Maps or Levels, Modding or Configuration, Multiplayer, Secrets, Story or Lore, Trading, Walkthroughs, Weapons, Workshop

Posted

Updated

3 Aug, 2021 @ 12:26pm

22 Jun @ 3:33pm

1,841	Unique Visitors
27	Current Favorites

Guide Index

Overview

Step 1 - Install

Step 2 - No Launch Fix

Step 3 - Redistributables

Minimum Hardware Requirements

Comments

Step 1 - Install

If you have sailed the seas, and installed the game - you can skip this step.

First you'll need to install Driver San Francisco from Steam or Ubisoft Connect. If you bought it on Steam, the game is tied to the Ubisoft Connect client, and requires a Ubisoft Account to start.

Step 2 - No Launch Fix

Locate the Driver.exe file. On steam, its inside -

C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Driver San Francisco
or
C:\Program Files (x86)\Ubisoft\Ubisoft Game Launcher\games\Driver San Francisco

To fix the launching issues: Right-click on driver.exe, go to "Properties," then the "Compatibility" tab. Check the box "Disable full-screen optimisations". Make sure you clicked "Apply". Then OK. You may also try "Run in 640x480" and "Run as an administrator" if this fails. Compatibility mode for Windows 7" may help.

Exit any application that uses an overlay, or screen recorder in game. Such as, Discord overlay, OBS, Reshade, RivaTuner, MSI Afterburner Statistics, Fraps, NVIDIA overlay, AMD overlay, even Windows Night Light. (steam overlay and ubisoft overlay is fine)

Step 3 - Redistributables

You need Microsoft's official Visual C++ Redistributables to ensure the game can communicate with Windows properly. To make it easier, here is a pack which includes all the Redistributables:

https://www.techpowerup.com/download/visual-c-redistributable-runtime-package-all-in-one/

Run the .bat file, and it installs all the Redistributables from the pack.

Minimum Hardware Requirements

OS: Windows XP SP3
CPU: Dual Core @2.6GHz
GPU: Direct x9 Capable - 256 MB - Shader 4.0
RAM: 1 GB
Space: 10 GB

12 Comments

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DevilMcSheep 11 Sep, 2022 @ 11:34pm

"Your version of Uplay is too old to connect to the Uplay servers. If the problem persists, please contact Ubisorf Support."

Ice 12 Aug, 2022 @ 11:05am

Absoluteley nothing happens when launching this game, no black screen, no white screen, just nothing except an exe in my task manager that eats 30% of my CPU. This is with all the fixes mentioned here, any other way to fix this?

who 3 Feb, 2022 @ 2:45am

never seen any of the issues mentioned. the game still works fine other than it not connecting to ubisoft servers

Prey 20 Jan, 2022 @ 7:05am

You are correct on that, it is an issue (so some extent) with the legacy username system. The issue is that the new Ubisoft Connect sends incorrect user data when you launch DSF- so the authentication fails.

The fix I spoke of in the last post does however allow you to join the Ubisoft servers again, otherwise I wouldn't mention it.

What I am curious about is why it didn't launch, I guess it's hard to know the technical reason behind that.

Thompson [author] 19 Jan, 2022 @ 3:35pm

it used to work fine until about 2017, then it wouldn't launch for me anymore. its likely that legacy usernames (accounts made prior 2014) have trouble connecting with the new connect launcher.

and yes, there are other ways to play online, but this way you can use ubisoft's servers and play with randoms.

Prey 19 Jan, 2022 @ 1:35pm

Must admit I didn't know the game didn't launch anymore. I just press "PLAY" and it starts, even with the newest version of Ubisoft Connect. Have been for the duration this guide has been out.

But it is clear some people had issues so I respect a workaround.

There are also ways to play online without downgrading to Uplay or using Virtual LAN software, however that's a topic for another day.

地表最強のk8君 18 Jan, 2022 @ 7:06am

thx a lot！

OREO 16 Jan, 2022 @ 6:48am

dunno what prevented launching back then, but on Win11 it launched without a prob! Thx fpr the guide!

✪ st1ckzz ♡ 21 Sep, 2021 @ 8:30am

Big thx, after 1 month it's still work

OREO 14 Aug, 2021 @ 2:44pm

Done. Same issue.

Restarted PC and cleaned temps after previous run.
Opened Notepad as Admin now + combined with your tutorial (that is step 4)

Nah. Now it's just says "Driver.exe stopped working".

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