Hey — your uncle and I have been sorting out your new Windows install. Fortnite keeps crashing when it loads in, so here are a few quick tests to run in order. None of them can hurt the PC. After each one, jot down what happened and send it back to your uncle.
What we already know
Rocket League runs perfectly — so the PC itself is basically healthy.
Fortnite crashes every time it loads in.
We already checked the memory speed RULED OUT ✓ — it still crashed, so it's not that.
✅ Everything below is safe. You're just reading a report, repairing game files, and changing one Fortnite setting. Nothing here can break anything.
1
Find out what's actually crashing
This tells us the exact cause instead of guessing. Most important step.
Do this one first
Press the Windows key, type Reliability Monitor, and open “View reliability history.”
You'll see a chart with days. Find a red ✖ circle on a day/time you played Fortnite and clicked to crash.
Click that red ✖. At the bottom, find the Fortnite crash row and click “View technical details.”
Look for the “Faulting Module Name” — write down that name. Use the table below to see what it points to.
If the name contains…
It probably means
nvlddmkm / nvwgf2
Graphics card driver
EasyAntiCheat / EAC
Fortnite's anti-cheat
FortniteClient / Unreal
The game files themselves
ntdll / MEMORY
Memory-related
Write down: the “Faulting Module Name” (or snap a photo of the details screen).
2
Repair the game files
A fresh install sometimes downloads a broken file. This checks and fixes them.
Open the Epic Games Launcher.
Go to Library, find Fortnite, and click the ⋯ (three dots) on it.
Click Manage, then click Verify.
Wait for it to finish (it may take a while), then try launching Fortnite.
Write down: Did it still crash after verifying? Yes / No.
3
Force Fortnite to use “DirectX 11”
Fortnite defaults to DirectX 12, which crashes a lot on your type of graphics card. This forces the safer mode.
In the Epic Games Launcher, click Settings (bottom-left corner).
Scroll down and click to expand Fortnite.
Check the box “Additional Command Line Arguments.”
In the box that appears, type exactly:
-dx11
Launch Fortnite.
If it loads without crashing 🎉 — that was the problem! Go into the game's Video Settings and set Rendering Mode to Performance (runs best on your card).
Write down: Did -dx11 let it load, or still crash?
4
Only if 1–3 didn't fix it: move Fortnite to the fast drive
Fortnite is installed on the big slow hard drive. When a match loads, it grabs a ton of files at once — and the slow drive can choke and crash. Moving it to the fast drive (SSD) can fix that.
Skip this if something above already worked
In the Epic Games Launcher → Library → click the ⋯ on Fortnite → Uninstall.
Click Install again on Fortnite. When it asks where to install, pick the drive that is NOT the 2 TB one — choose the smaller SSD (the same drive Windows is on, usually C:).
Let it download (it's a big download, so give it time), then launch and test.
Heads up: this re-downloads the whole game. Only do it if the first three steps didn't help. Write down: did moving it to the SSD stop the crashing?
📋 Send this back to your uncle
Fill in your answers below, then tap Copy and paste it into a message.