ARK: Survival Ascended has seen steady users on Steam for quite some time, and it’s not surprising why the developer has been frequently releasing new updates for the game. Despite the frequent updates, it seems that there are still lots of reports about ARK: Survival Ascended crashing, either upon launching the game or while players have been enjoying the fun mid-game. These are known issues and there are also several workarounds and fixes that you can try to fix the problems.
Why Does ARK: Survival Ascended Crash?
There are several reasons why you’re currently having some crashing issues with ARK: Survival Ascended. Some of the most common reasons are related to compatibility issues with your PC and ARK: Survival Ascended. At the same time, corrupted game files, outdated versions of the game, obsolete graphics drivers, and the security level of your PC may be the cause of these crashing issues. In addition, outdated Windows files and drivers may also trigger the crashing problems while launching or playing ARK: Survival Ascended.
So, what can you do to address and get rid of these ARK: Survival Ascended issues? Let’s get started.
Check the System Requirements
The first step we need to do is ensure that your PC is capable of running ARK: Survival Ascended. Low-end hardware or not meeting the minimum system requirements is one of the main reasons why your game is crashing. We recommend that you upgrade your hardware to meet the minimum requirements of ARK: Survival Ascended.
To know more about the ARK: Survival Ascended system requirements, check out the details below.
Minimum System Requirements:
- OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 2600X, Intel Core i7-6800K
- Memory: 16 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 5600 XT, NVIDIA GeForce 1080
- DirectX: Version 12
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 70 GB available space
- Additional Notes: SSD Required
Recommended System Requirements:
- OS: Windows 10/11 with updates
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 3600X, Intel i5-10600K
- Memory: 32 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD Radeon RX 6800, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080
- DirectX: Version 12
- Network: Broadband Internet connection
- Storage: 70 GB available space
- Additional Notes: SSD Required
Get the Latest Game Update
Assuming that you meet the required hardware to play ARK: Survival Ascended, the next thing you need to check is the game version. Make sure that you have the latest version of ARK: Survival Ascended.
To get the latest update, make sure that your computer is connected to the internet. Next, launch the game on Steam, and it should trigger the update download functionality of the Steam launcher. If there’s a new patch for ARK: Survival Ascended, simply wait for Steam to finish the downloading and installation process.
Get the Latest Drivers
It is important that your computer must have the required driver update to ensure that it can accommodate the process that is required by ARK: Survival Ascended. If you have an outdated driver, don’t be surprised if your game is crashing.
In this case, you must download and install the latest update on your computer. Some of the most important updates that you must have are for your GPU, DirectX, and Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables. There may be some drivers that are needed by ARK: Survival Ascended, but those are the most common drivers needed to run the game.
We highly recommend using Driver Booster to automatically download all of your computer’s outdated drivers. This tool will ensure that you have the correct drivers needed by your PC. In addition, this will save you time searching for the correct driver updates.
Here’s how you can easily update your drivers using this software:
- Download and install Driver Booster for free.
- Run the application and click the Scan button. This will scan your computer and check for all outdated drivers.
- Once the scanning is complete, you can manually update each driver or simply click the Update Now button.
- Wait until the update process is complete. If an on-screen prompt is required, simply follow the instructions.
- After the successful update, restart your computer.
Keep in mind that your computer may also restart several times, depending on the drivers that need to be updated. Don’t worry, all of these restarts and updates are safe.
Disable Steam Overlay
Disabling the Steam overlay may fix the crashing issues while playing ARK: Survival Ascended and can increase the overall performance. We personally disable the Steam overlay while we play ARK: Survival Ascended since we don’t use the Steam client while in-game. However, please keep in mind that there are reports that disabling Steam overlay causes some crashing issues on some games.
There’s nothing wrong in trying, so here’s the exact process on how to disable Steam overlay:
- First, open Steam.
- Go to “Settings” and click on the “In Game” tab option on the left side.
- Toggle off the “Enable the Steam overlay while in-game” option.
That’s it. Pretty simple, right? Please note that the process above will turn off the Steam overlay on all of your Steam games. If you want to only disable it on ARK: Survival Ascended, you can do the following:
- Launch Steam.
- Click on the “Library” tab and search for ARK: Survival Ascended on the left side.
- Right-click ARK: Survival Ascended and select “Properties…” option.
- In the “General” tab, toggle off the “Enable the Steam overlay while in-game” option.
Now, the Steam overlay will no longer be accessible while playing ARK: Survival Ascended.
Check for Corrupted Game Files
Since we are using a Windows operating system, it’s not surprising to see some files unexpectedly facing some corruption. In this case, we recommend that you verify the game integrity of ARK: Survival Ascended. Thankfully, Steam has a built-in tool that can verify the game files needed by ARK: Survival Ascended.
To verify that you have all the ARK: Survival Ascended files, follow these steps:
- Step 1: Launch Steam
- Step 2: Go to the “Library” section
- Step 3: Look for ARK: Survival Ascended on the left side and right-click then select the “Properties…” option
- Step 4: Go to the “Installed Files” tab.
- Step 5: Click the “Verify integrity of game files” button.
All you have to do is wait until Steam completes its verification process. In case there are missing or corrupted files, you don’t have to do anything because Steam will automatically download or fix those corrupted files.
Terminate Unwanted Background-Running Services/Applications
Windows OS is known for running unwanted programs and services in its background, and each program that is running in the background consumes memories. Since you are running ARK: Survival Ascended and you don’t want any other application to take this memory, it is recommended to terminate and close these unwanted processes.
You can close these unwanted services by opening your Task Manager. In the “Processes” tab, you can select and terminate those programs that are not needed while playing ARK: Survival Ascended.
If you’re unsure about these unwanted services and programs, Driver Booster has a built-in feature called Game Boost that allows users to automatically terminate and optimize the system services for a better gaming experience. Make sure to take advantage of that feature!
Uninstall/Reinstall ARK: Survival Ascended
There are lots of things happening in the background during the initial installation process of ARK: Survival Ascended. While the default installer on Steam does the job of removing the installation, there are still some residual files that are being left from the previous installation. If you want to perform a clean ARK: Survival Ascended installation, you should also remove the registry records of ARK: Survival Ascended. You can manually do that, but if you’re not familiar with the Windows registry, then we recommend using IObit Uninstaller to perform a clean uninstall.
Once the game is uninstalled, simply download and reinstall ARK: Survival Ascended using the Steam client. After the successful installation, check if you still encounter those annoying crashes.
Reach Out the Support
Assuming that you have done all the suggested workarounds above and still getting the crashing issues, we recommend that you directly reach out to the official support team of ARK: Survival Ascended. You can do that by visiting the official developer or publisher’s website or using the community of ARK: Survival Ascended on Steam.
