FC 26 (Steam) closes to desktop after connecting to EA servers, offline works
Hi everyone,
I'm on PC (Steam). EA SPORTS FC 26 launches normally and I can play offline without any problems. But whenever the game connects to EA servers, it closes as soon as I press "Start" on the screen after "Connecting to EA Servers". There's no error message, no crash window, and no crash report. Windows Event Viewer has no Application Error entry for FC26.exe either. The game just exits quietly to the desktop, every single time.
System
- Laptop: Acer Nitro 5 AN517-41
- CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H (with Radeon integrated graphics)
- GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 Laptop GPU
- RAM: 32 GB
- OS: Windows 10 Pro 22H2 (build 19045.6456)
- Secure Boot: On, BIOS mode UEFI
- ISP: Turkcell Superonline (Turkey)
What I have already tried (none of it helped)
- Verified game files in Steam (all 677 files validated)
- Repaired the game in the EA app
- Cleared the EA app cache with EA App Recovery
- Uninstalled and reinstalled EA AntiCheat using the installer in the game folder
- Changed DNS to 1.1.1.1 / 8.8.8.8 and ran ipconfig /flushdns
- Connected through mobile data (phone hotspot) instead of home internet. It still closes at the same point, so it doesn't look like an ISP problem.
- Disabled all overlays (NVIDIA, EA app, Steam, Discord)
- Set FC26.exe to "High performance" (RTX 3060) in Windows graphics settings
- Checked environment variables (no GAME_DATA_DIR)
- Turned off voice chat in fcsetup.ini
- Deleted the online cache files in %LOCALAPPDATA%\EA SPORTS FC 26 (mainmenuconfig.json, which was 0 bytes, plus the filesystemcache, umcache and twinkle folders)
- Moved the settings folder so the game would create a new profile
- Logged out of the EA app, logged back in, and checked that my Steam account is linked to the correct EA account
- No third-party antivirus installed (only Windows Defender)
My questions
- Is this a known issue, and is a fix planned?
- Could something on my EA account (restriction, pending terms, region, Steam link) be making the game exit when it enters the online menu?
- Are there any logs I can collect and share to help find the cause?
My DxDiag is attached.
EA ID: [desert_eagle84]
Thanks in advance for any help.
I found a solution to my FC 26 launch/crash issue and wanted to share it in case it helps other players experiencing the same problem.
My problem was that FC 26 worked normally in offline mode, but whenever the game tried to connect to the EA servers during startup, it would crash to desktop without any error message.
I discovered that Memory Integrity was disabled in Windows Security.
What I did:
I searched for Windows Security from the Windows taskbar search.
I opened Core Isolation under Windows Security.
I opened Core Isolation Details.
I turned Memory Integrity on.
Windows showed some incompatible drivers/files that were preventing Memory Integrity from being enabled. I removed those files.
I restarted the computer.
After restarting, I launched FC 26 again.
The game connected to the EA servers successfully and no longer crashed. It now starts and runs normally.
This seems to indicate that the problem was related to Windows Core Isolation/Memory Integrity being disabled, possibly because of incompatible drivers that were preventing it from being enabled.
Before this, I had already tried repairing/reinstalling EA AntiCheat, rolling back Windows updates, changing DNS, reinstalling the EA App, and several other troubleshooting steps, but none of them solved the problem.
I hope this helps anyone experiencing the same FC 26 + EA AntiCheat crash.
