Diablo 3 was unable to initialize D3D click OK to retry

Hello. This has been happening every so often since I first purchased the game two weeks ago. I would say that every fourth to fifth time I launch the game, “Diablo 3 was unable to initialize D3D, click OK to retry” pops up. When I click ok, the game proceeds to load to the character select screen, but it’s very annoying and I’ve been unable to fix it despite resetting all in-game settings and updating drivers. Any help would be appreciated.

Hey Wolf,

If you are running Razer products you will want to turn off the Chroma option in Synapse for Diablo 3. Let’s also launch Diablo 3 in windowed mode.
Click the Blizzard Icon on the Blizzard app.
Select Settings.
Click Game Settings.
Check the Additional command lines arguments box under Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls.
Type -Displaymode 0 in the box and click Done.

If these do not work, let’s a get a ticket sent to our Technical Support with system files so they can take a look. Make sure you include a list of troubleshooting steps you’ve already done.

2 Likes

Actually just setting it to Windowed (fullscreen) mode in the video settings in-game solved it. Thanks!

I get this too, every time I start the game. I found that when you click the “Start” button from the Blizzard launcher and the D3 graphic shows up, if you click on that, you won’t get the message. It seems like the OS isn’t giving the program focus, resulting in something in the background or the OS preventing D3 from initializing Direct 3D.

The alternative is to play windowed fullscreen. But I prefer playing fullscreen, and this is annoying. I just have to remember to click the graphic each time I start the game.

It has nothing to do with Razer, since I don’t have any Razer products on my computer.

I don’t have any Razer products. I have the Diablo III Special Edition mouse from Steel Series. I’ve had any problems with it.

The problem started for me after my laptop was updated from Windows 7 Pro to Windows 10 Pro. I thought Diablo III wasn’t compatible…

I’ll have to change the “location” of the game file - trying to reinstall directly from the Game DVD and just do a fresh install - along with entering the Authentication Key.

I haven’t found a fix yet…

Any tips before I try that would be appreciated.

The game tries to launch, but I get THIS error code EVERY time (about it being unable to initialize D3D - whatever that means).

Thanks in advance.

Ehud,

Diablo 3 is compatible with Windows 10 so that is not an issue and the mouse should not be one either. If you go to reinstall make sure you are reinstalling from the launcher so that you have the most up to date client. Installing from the disk tends not to work. You also should have the CD key already added to your battle.net account.
With a D3D error you also need to make sure the drivers for your graphics card(s) are fully updated. You will want to go to the individual manufacturers websites to grab those updates.

If it continues let’s go ahead and put in a ticket with our tech support reps so they can take a look at system files and see what is going on. TimberWolf, I recommend you do the same thing.
You can put a ticket in by following this link here, make sure you include system files, a detailed description of what is going on and a list of any troubleshooting steps you’ve taken.