Hello, I’m looking to play WoW Classic later this month. After installing the game whenever I try to put the game in windowed mode, it flickers between windowed and full screen then the error “World of Warcraft was unable to start up 3D acceleration.” and the game closes out after.
I’ve googled this error a bit, and tried some other solutions (Updated graphics card, changing monitor resolution size and changing it back, disabling fullscreen optimizations, updating DirectX) but none seem to be working.
Any ideas on how to fix this?
Can you create a DXDiag system report. We can see what shows up there. I have seen one other report of this.
The second section of page has DXDiag report instructions - we don’t require the MSinfo report.
That will be a wall of text. If you have issues pasting on the Forum here go ahead and put it up on pastebin.com. Provide the link code portion of the URL - example below.
When you updated your drivers did you do a clean install of the drivers?
If not lets go ahead and do a clean install. download DDU from the site below. Note you will need your windows password not the pin. Run the program and follow the prompts. After it has finished reinstall the Nvidia drivers
Along with what Northernlite suggested you are running the Redstone 4 version of Windows. There are two more recent versions - Redstone 5 and the new 19H1 (1903) versions. Let’s get Windows right up to date.
Type Update in the windows search box. Click on Check for Updates. The next screen that opens will be the update pane. It will likely say “You’re up to date”. Ignore that untruth then click the button below labeled - Check for Updates
Now be warned that will start updating everything. It will take some time. Once it is done continue to click the button until you truly have no updates.
Note - The 19H1 (1903) update is on a staggered release. It is possible it may not be available to your machine as yet. If that is the case we will download then install.
Okaaay, doing that update took a fair amount of time, sorry it took so long to get back to you guys.
I’ve done what Northernlite has recommended to do, and the same thing is happening.
I fully updated Windows via the link you provided, and I didn’t see any updates happening when I clicked check for updates, I saw two netframework updates (I believe), one before the massive Windows update, and one after.
Unfortunately, I’m still getting unable to start up 3d acceleration when I try to put WoW Classic in Windowed mode.
Things are right up to date there. I suspect this may be a bug of sorts. You may need keep things on Fullscreen “Windowed” until it is sorted out. I would report over on the Classic forums - Support and Bug report:
Thank you for your help. I’m not able to create a new topic over there, I’m guessing because I’m not currently subscribed to the game. I will see about playing it full screen when the game comes out.
You may find the game plays better in Full Screen - Windowed mode. Microsoft is heading in that direction these days. I simply use the Windows key to bring up the taskbar - or the Windows key + D key to tab straight to desktop.
So, I went strolling through some of the posts in the WoW Classic Support and Bug report forum and I came across this post by Aggrend - CLASSIC-Crashes When enabling VSync
I disabled Discords overlay feature and… the game runs fine in windowed mode now, no crashes. I’m not sure what the relation is between the two programs, but if anyone else is having this issue, you can try suggesting this as well.
I just finished reading that post - was over on Classic catching up on support things. Good to see Ryley.
Wow actually hates any overlay. Discord - Afterburner - Rivatuner - DVR things you name it. There is even a support page warning of issues with a long list of overlays.
Just to confirm, there is a known bug with WoW Classic and overlays that causes it to throw the “Unable to start 3d acceleration” error any time the gfx sub-system is restarted. The workaround in the meantime, like you discovered, is to just disable any overlays.
The second section of page has DXDiag report instructions - we don’t require the MSinfo report.
That will be a wall of text. If you have issues pasting on the Forum here go ahead and put it up on pastebin.com. Provide the link code portion of the URL - example below.
I have tried all the suggestions above, including disabling the GForce Exp Overlay as well as making sure Discord’s overlay is also off(even tried with Discord completely closed)
