BF6 won’t launch (black window, no error)
Hello,
After performing a clean reinstall of Windows 11 and graphics drivers, I’m unable to launch Battlefield 6 via Steam. When I click Play, the EA App opens briefly, a small black window appears, and then nothing happens — there’s no error message, no crash report, and the process simply terminates.
Steps I’ve already taken:
- Performed a full DDU driver clean and reinstalled the latest NVIDIA Game Ready driver (581.42, RTX 4080).
- Verified game files in Steam.
- Repaired EA App integration (Steam → EA App handoff).
- Manually reinstalled EA Anti-Cheat via command prompt.
- Cleared DirectX shader cache and NVIDIA cache folders.
- Renamed the Documents\Battlefield 6 folder to regenerate configs.
- Forced DirectX 11 launch using the flag -RenderDevice.Dx11Enable 1.
- Launched both Steam and EA App as Administrator.
Current behaviour:
- Game opens a small black box (window), then silently closes.
- No visible errors in the EA App or Steam.
- Nothing unusual logged in Event Viewer (just “Application Hang” with Battlefield6.exe).
System specs:
- Windows 11 Pro, build 26100
- Intel i9-9900K
- NVIDIA RTX 4080 (driver 581.42 WHQL)
- 32 GB RAM
- Game installed on NVMe SSD
- Steam and EA App are both up to date
Would appreciate any suggestions — particularly regarding EA Anti-Cheat re-registration, DX12 shader rebuild, or EA App startup dependencies that could cause a silent hang.
Thanks in advance for any help,
After days of troubleshooting, I finally got Battlefield 6 working. Posting this in case it helps anyone else stuck at the splash screen or black window stage.
System Summary
- Windows 11 Pro 25H2 (Build 26100.6725, clean install)
- Gigabyte Z390 AORUS ELITE-CF (BIOS updated from F9 → F12c)
- NVIDIA 581.42 driver (clean install using DDU)
- Game installed on secondary SSD (G:)
- Multiple internal drives: mix of SSDs and HDDs
Symptoms
- Game would open a black window and hang before the EA splash screen.
- EA AntiCheat failed to register as an installed service (SC query returned Error 1060).
- NVIDIA App install also failed repeatedly (Error 0x80004005).
What Didn’t Work
- Reinstalling BF6, EA App, Steam
- Reinstalling NVIDIA drivers (normal and DDU)
- Re-registering EA AntiCheat manually
- Repairing Windows with DISM / SFC
- BIOS Secure Boot toggles
- Removing Razer services
The Real Cause
It turned out my data drives were BitLocker-encrypted and one was part of a degraded Storage Pool. EA AntiCheat could not initialise properly because of how Windows mounts protected or virtualised volumes.The Fix
- Fully decrypted all drives using manage-bde -status and waited until 0.0% Encrypted across the board.
- Deleted the legacy Storage Pool under Settings → System → Storage → Advanced → Storage Spaces.
- Clean-installed Windows 11 25H2 from USB (GPT, Secure Boot ON).
- Updated BIOS (Gigabyte F12c, June 2025).
- Installed only chipset and GPU drivers, then Battlefield 6.
Game launched immediately after that.
Takeaway
If you’ve tried everything else and BF6 still won’t launch:- Check for BitLocker encryption or Storage Spaces on any drive.
- Decrypt and remove them before reinstalling the game.
- Keep Secure Boot on, but ensure all drives use GPT, not MBR.
