NFS Hot Pursuit Remastered - fails to launch

I've got a fully-patched Win 11 system and NFS Hot Pursuit Remastered fails to launch intermittently. When it does, I get the error:

"Failed to launch game. An error on our end caused the launch to fail. Try again a little later."

NFS: HOT PURSUIT REMASTERED - CRASH REPORT (Steam AppID 1328660)Executable: NFS11Remastered.exe (protected build NFS11Remastered_prot.exe) - Steam + EA App

CRASH SIGNATURE (Windows Event ID 1000):

Most recent: today 12:06:11

Faulting app: NFS11Remastered.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x613f368c

Faulting module: NFS11Remastered.exe, version: 1.0.0.0, time stamp: 0x613f368c

Exception code: 0xc0000005 (ACCESS_VIOLATION)

Fault offset: 0x00000000000d4d85

Path: D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered\NFS11Remastered.exe

BEHAVIOR: Crash to desktop during startup (before main menu), ~1-2s after launch.

INTERMITTENT - some launches succeed, most fail with the IDENTICAL fault offset.

Fault is inside the game's own protected executable.

DEBUGGER (WinDbg/cdb): protected exe loads Core\Activation64.dll (EA anti-tamper), then loops loading imagehlp.dll (PE checksum) + AppxDeploymentClient.dll before terminating. Crash is in the anti-tamper / integrity-check path, NOT render/audio.

SYSTEM:

OS: Microsoft Windows 11 Pro (build 10.0.26100)

CPU: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-12900KS

GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 (driver 32.0.16.1062, 2026-06-10)

RAM: 64 GB

ALREADY TRIED (no effect): Steam file verification (passed); reinstalled/moved drive; EA App reinstall + admin; GPU driver update; all DirectX redists present; deleted config + save (fresh state); disabled Steam/EA overlays (no 3rd-party overlays); disabled HID game controller; removed Windows update KB5095093; forced stereo 48kHz audio; Win8 compat + disabled fullscreen optimizations. Identical crash throughout.

Please help, it's quite frustrating to not be able to play a game I've purchased.

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