How to Fix Silent Hill 2 Not Launching/Crashing With Ease

Silent Hill 2 Not Launching/Crashing/Black Screen

“Silent Hill 2 won’t launch on Steam when using DirectX 12. Hi everyone! I purchased the deluxe edition of the game on Steam and when I press start to play nothing happens. I didn’t experience crashes or else like other players online: it just won’t start.”reddit.com

Silent Hill 2 is a classic and popular horror game published by Konami. It is known for its horror atmosphere, full of themes of exploration and challenge. However, many users are experiencing Silent Hill 2 not launching and are unable to start this game like the user above.

Various reasons can lead to Silent Hill 2 crashing/not launching. Listed below are some proven workarounds we collected from related forums, and you can try them one by one to check if they work for you.

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How to Fix if Silent Hill 2 Crashes on Startup/Not Launching

Fix 1. Change the Launch Options

Changing the DirectX version via Steam game launch options is the first way you can try to resolve Silent Hill 2 black screen/crashes. Here are the major steps.

Step 1. On Steam, go to the Library section.

Step 2. Right-click Silent Hill 2 and choose Properties.

Step 3. Under the LAUNCH OPTIONS section, type -dx11 and then close the window. Now you can launch the game and check if it runs smoothly. If not, you can try to change the launch options to -d3d11 or -dx12 and check if it works.

Fix 2. Disable Steam Overlay

Steam Overlay provides you with a wealth of tools and features to enhance your gaming experience. However, it may cause the game not to launch or crash. Disabling Steam Overlay is a good solution to this problem.

Step 1. On Steam, hit the Steam icon in the upper left corner and choose Settings.

Step 2. In the new window, go to the In Game tab, and then turn off the Enable the Steam overlay while in-game feature.

Additionally, if you have other overlay apps like GeForce Experience running, you can go to those apps’ settings to disable the overlay.

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Fix 3. Update/Disable Integrated Graphic Card Driver

Updating the integrated graphics driver or disabling the integrated graphics card is also a solution that has proven to be effective in resolving the Silent Hill 2 not launching issue. For example, if you are using an Intel display card, you can go to its official website to download and install the latest driver. Or, you can right-click the Start button, choose Device Manager, and then disable your integrated display card.

Fix 4. Verify the Integrity of the Game Files

Corrupted or missing game files in the game installation directory may cause the game to crash. In this case, you can verify the integrity of the game files to check and repair these damaged data.

Step 1. On Steam Library, right-click Silent Hill 2 and choose Properties.

Step 2. Navigate to the Installed Files tab and then click the Verify integrity of game files button from the right panel.

Step 3. Wait until the repair process is completed. Then launch the game and verify if the problem persists.

Moreover, some users on Reddit found that deleting the GFXSettings.SHProto-Win64-Shipping.xml, PersistentData.sav, and PlayerProfile.sav files solved the Silent Hill 2 not launching issue. You can go to the Silent Hill 2 save file location to find and delete these files.

Fix 5. Update to Windows 11 24H2

Windows 11 24H2 has been rolled out for all users. As users verified, the Silent Hill 2 not launching issue does not occur in this version. So, if your computer meets the system requirements of Windows 11 24H2, you can update to this version and verify if it helps.

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Fix 6. Reinstall Silent Hill 2 in Another Disk

Although it is unclear what causes it, many users said that reinstalling Silent Hill 2 to an SSD with faster read and write speeds or another partition of the current disk solved the problem of the game not being able to start. So, you can give it a try.

Bottom Line

Now you should not be worried about how to fix Silent Hill 2 crashes on a Windows PC. Just implement the approaches we outlined above.