Investigation Report

System Information

Platform: Windows 11 (Laptop)

CPU: Intel Core i5-10300H (4 Cores / 8 Threads)

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 Ti

NVIDIA Driver Version: 592.27 (Latest branch)

CPU Configuration: Completely stock. No overclocking, undervolting, Intel XTU, ThrottleStop, or BIOS tuning.

Problem Description

The game consistently crashes during gameplay and, more recently, while compiling shaders after deleting the shader cache.

The crash behavior is unusual:

• The game freezes first.
• The game window then disappears.
• FC26.exe continues running in Task Manager after the game window has closed.
• The process does not terminate cleanly, indicating the application hangs rather than exiting normally.

This is not a standard desktop crash where the process exits immediately.

Timeline of Investigation

Current Crash Behaviour

Current observed sequence:

1. Launch FC 26.
2. Game starts normally.
3. If shader cache has been deleted, the game begins "Compiling Shaders."
4. The game freezes.
5. The game window disappears.
6. FC26.exe remains running in Task Manager.

This behavior occurs consistently.

Troubleshooting Performed

Graphics Driver

Current NVIDIA Driver:

592.27

I have not yet rolled back because I wanted to gather more evidence before changing drivers.

Shader Cache

Following EA Support recommendations:

Deleted:

Documents\EA SPORTS FC 26

and

AppData\Local\EA SPORTS FC 26

The game correctly started recompiling shaders on the next launch.

However, it still crashed during shader compilation.

DirectX Shader Cache

Cleared through Windows Temporary Files.

No improvement.

Overclocking

None.

CPU is running completely at factory settings.

System has:

• No overclock
• No undervolt
• No Intel XTU
• No ThrottleStop
• No BIOS tuning

Therefore the recommendation regarding PBO, Curve Optimizer, or undervolting does not apply to this system.

Event Viewer Findings

Startup Event

Immediately after launching FC 26:

Source:

EA Javelin Anticheat

Event ID:

1000

Message:

Failed setting up pipe server

Despite this error, the game continues launching.

Crash Event

After the game freezes and exits:

Source:

EA Javelin Anticheat

Event ID:

1000

Message:

ExitType: 95 (267)

This event occurs immediately after the crash.

Additional Observations

One important observation:

The crash is not an immediate application termination.

Instead:

• the rendering freezes,
• the window disappears,
• but FC26.exe remains alive in Task Manager.

This suggests the game is hanging instead of shutting down normally.

Community Reports

While investigating this issue, I found numerous EA Forum and Reddit threads where PC players report similar symptoms, including:

• Random crashes without error messages.
• Game freezing before closing.
• Crashes after recent updates.
• Reinstalling Windows, GPU drivers, EA App, and AntiCheat not resolving the issue.
• Various hardware configurations affected (Intel, AMD, NVIDIA, desktops, laptops).

Because of the number of similar reports, I do not believe this is isolated to my hardware.

EA Support Suggestions Already Tried

Based on feedback from EA:

✔ Deleted FC shader cache

✔ Cleared DirectX shader cache

✔ Confirmed CPU is not overclocked

What Makes This Issue Unusual

The following combination seems significant:

• FC26.exe survives after the game window disappears.
• EA Javelin logs:
  • Failed setting up pipe server
  • ExitType: 95 (267)
• Crash occurs even after rebuilding all shaders.
• Thermal throttling has been completely resolved.
• CPU is running stock settings.
• Multiple community members appear to be experiencing similar crash behavior.

Request

Could someone from the development or anti-cheat team please investigate the following?

1. Whether "Failed setting up pipe server" from EA Javelin is expected or indicates a problem.
2. What internal meaning "ExitType: 95 (267)" represents.
3. Whether this matches any known issue with FC 26 on NVIDIA Driver 592.27.
4. Whether there are known issues involving shader compilation, DirectX 12, or EA Javelin causing the game process to remain alive after the game window closes.
5. Whether additional logging, crash dump collection, or a debug build would help identify the root cause.

I am happy to provide:

• DxDiag
• MSInfo32
• Event Viewer logs
• Reliability Monitor logs
• Crash dumps
• ProcDump captures
• Any additional diagnostics requested by the development team.