FIXED: Ark Low Level Fatal Error [2023]

The famous hit survival game Ark Survival Evolved comes with many issues due to its unoptimized nature. The low-level fatal error is also an error that is pretty difficult to diagnose due to the various reasons it can occur. The low-level fatal error is a commonly occurring error in the community, mostly caused due to incomplete or corrupted game files. However, various kinds of reasons are reported for this particular error type, ranging from gaming overlays, graphic drivers, and modded content, to name a few.

The Ark low-level data error says, “Unreal Engine is exiting due to the D3D device being lost.

Ark Low Level Fatal Error — Ark Low-Level Fatal Error (eXputer)

Key Takeaways

Here are all the methods through which you can fix the error.

Verify the integrity of game files.
Reduce in-game graphics settings.
Disable overlays.
Disable Nvidia automatic game optimization.
Remove mods.
Switch to older rendering API.
Update graphics drivers or reinstall them.
Reinstall the entire game.

Verify Integrity Of Game Files

The most well-known issue that players come across when they encounter the Ark low-level fatal error is corrupted or missing game files during the installation/ downloading of the game. So, you have to just simply re-download the missing game files or corrupted files by simply verifying the integrity of the game files.

Here’s a guide to help you verify your game files if you don’t know how to.

Reduce In-Game Graphics

If you are playing Ark Survival on a lower-end system, then you might be encountering the Ark low-level fatal error due to running a game that is very demanding for your system to handle. Lowering your graphics settings will ensure that your system can handle Ark survival and does not crash due to having a weaker gaming system. You can easily reduce the in-game settings by following these simple steps.

Launch Ark Survival Evolved on Steam or Epic Games launcher>Go to settings>Select the graphics quality option and change the graphics quality to low.

Disable Overlays

Overlays are widely known as problematic in the gaming community as they are famously known to cause major issues like stuttering, crashing, and freezing despite offering various useful features during gaming. Several gaming overlays may cause your game to run into low-level fatal errors, and it is absolutely necessary to disable these overlays in order to ensure that you are not encountering low-level fatal errors in Ark due to a gaming overlay.

Here are all the methods required to disable the most used overlays on pc.

Disable The Nvidia Game Optimization

Another commonly reported issue among the players is that using the game optimization feature leads to a low-level fatal error. Nvidia GeForce Experience has, by default, enabled the option to optimize newly installed/added games into your PC by tweaking the game files and settings.

Open the Nvidia GeForce Experience>click the settings icon on the top right side of the window beside the account name.
Opening Nvidia GeForce Experience Settings. (image taken by eXputer)
Move over to the “Games and apps” section and disable the ”Automatically optimize newly added games and applications” option.
Turned off the Automatically Optimize newly added games and applications option in Nvidia GeForce Experience. (image copyrighted by eXputer)

Precaution: Doing this will also disable any optimizations made by NVIDIA to all of your other games as well.

Modded Content

Several cases have also surfaced in which players have reported that due to the presence of some mods, the game has been known to give low-level fatal error. So, ensure that you have all the mods removed the next time you launch the game to see if the problem originates from the mods applied to the game. If the issue turns out to be the mods installed on your PC, then you may have to troubleshoot the exact mod that is triggering the error.

Rendering Issues

Another issue players encounter regularly is crashes due to compatibility problems with the rendering mode of the game. By running the game on DirectX 11, you may constantly experience crashes due to your graphic card experiencing hardware or software issues. Your best bet would be to try running the game on an older rendering API like DirectX 10. If your game runs successfully on older API, then it means that it’s specifically a problem relating to your drivers or the game settings. Here is how you change your rendering API to DirectX 10.

When you are trying to launch the game, a window will pop up.
From the list of launch options, select Launch Ark “(Direct X 10, low-end graphics).”
Alternatively, you can also choose the different launch options to see if it fixes the issue.

My Opinion: I highly recommend using this fix as it also worked for games such as Psychonauts 2, that have similar engine in the community.

Update your Drivers

If your game is encountering the “runtime Direct 3d device is being lost” error while running into a low-level fatal error, then your graphics card is crashing due to, most likely, a software issue. The easiest method to fix this issue is to update your graphics driver to the latest version, or in case updating doesn’t work, re-install your graphics driver to see if the issue is fixed.

Here is a guide on how to update your drivers that we’ve already.

Re-installing the Game

If you have successfully applied all the methods listed above and have not seen any improvement in solving the ark low-level fatal error, then it is most likely a result of a faulty game that you are encountering a low-level fatal error. Hence, you have to simply uninstall and re-install the whole game from scratch.

My Thoughts

Even after being one of the popular survival featuring tech and prehistoric elements with stunning graphics, It still suffers from certain issues and setbacks that must be fixed. I hope the devs are actively working on it. However, until these issues are officially fixed permanently by the devs, this guide will be your best workaround to keep you going in your Ark Adventure.

Anyhow, If the issue still persists. You can visit Ark Support to report any error or get technical support.

FAQs

How can I fix Ark’s low-level fatal error?

You can try updating your graphics driver, as it is known as one of the most effective fixes.

Why does the low-level fatal error occur?

There can be a number of reasons for the low-level fatal error to occur. It can occur due to corrupted or deleted game files or outdated graphics drivers.