The issue mainly occurs when the application or game runs on an integrated GPU instead of a dedicated one, much slower than the dedicated graphics card. For instance, when you run the application, OpenGL will give commands to a dedicated graphics card. However, if the application is running on an iGPU, the process won’t be completed, and the application will be closed immediately with this error message. Before moving down to the methods, ensure that you have minimum system requirements to run the application/game showing you this error message.
1. Enable OpenGL from Video Settings (if applicable)
Some applications and games allow users to enable or disable OpenGL. If you are getting this error on an application that allows users to enable OpenGL, make sure to do that because it will help fix the error.
2. Customize the application to use a Dedicated GPU driver
Integrated GPUs cannot provide a better performance as compared to dedicated GPUs. If the causing application is running on an integrated GPU, it will give a much lower performance than the CPU, which can result in this error message. Hence, to fix this, customize your application to run with a dedicated GPU. Follow the steps:
3. Roll back your graphics driver
Before we move on to reinstalling the graphics driver, it is recommended to see if you can roll back the graphics driver or not. Since this error occurs after updating to the latest graphics driver, roll-backing the graphics drivers to the older version can fix this error. To roll back the graphics driver:
4. Check if your Graphics Card supports OpenGL
This error is mainly seen on computers that either doesn’t have a discrete GPU or have a very old graphics card. If one of the situations is applied to your case, then you need to make sure that OpenGL supports your dedicated graphics card. If you don’t have a graphics card, it will be hard for you to avoid this error. In this case, we recommend you consider buying the latest GPU, which should support OpenGL. To check the OpenGL version, follow the steps:
5. Clean Install the Graphics Driver with DDU
According to the error message, there is a problem with the display driver. Hence, we can start by reinstalling the driver. In the error message, a problem with the display driver refers to the corrupted, faulty, and outdated graphics driver. Corrupted drivers can be caused by malware, while the faulty driver can be installed through the official or not official website. If your drivers are affected by any of these problems, OpenGL can detect it on the driver, which causes applications to close instantly. Therefore, it is necessary to reinstall the graphics driver from the official website. To reinstall the driver, we prefer to use DDU, known as Display Driver Uninstaller, an application to uninstall the driver, along with clearing its registry files. To reinstall the driver:
6. Clean install of Microsoft Visual C++
Microsoft Visual C++ is a compiler that helps C++ applications to run properly. OpenGL uses Microsoft Visual C++ to operate. Therefore, it is possible that this error can be the result of not having Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable. Hence, try installing by following the steps:
7. Reinstall the app/game causing the issue
If the error is not fixed, the problem must be in your application showing you this error message for no reason. It can be due to the corrupted OpenGL DLL files, which can be replaced by reinstalling the application. To reinstall the application:
8. Do a Clean installation of Windows
If the error persists, the final solution is to reinstall your Windows. You can also try resetting or restoring your Windows to a previous state if you have created a restore point before encountering this error. To clean install Windows, visit How to Install Windows.
