How To Fix Early PC Issues With 'Mass Effect: Andromeda'

Those on the EA or Origin Access programs were treated to an early trial of Mass Effect: Andromeda this week. However, PC players experienced a few issues that prompted EA to create a small troubleshooting page.

At the top of the list is a problem that involves a black screen at start-up. Bioware’s engineers narrowed down the solution to something completely unrelated to the game: the Corsair Utility Engine. You’ll need to uninstall Corsair’s software and then launch the game again in order for it to work properly. There’s also an issue with a black screen appearing when you Alt-Tab from the game to another program. If this happens, press the Alt-Enter keys to switch the game to Windowed mode. You can also change the in-game settings so that you play the game in Windowed or Borderless Window mode.

If, for some reason, the game doesn’t launch and yet it shows up on your Task Manager, you’ll need to check your firewall or antivirus programs. You have to whitelist the game’s “ActivationUI.exe” program, which is located in the game’s “Core” folder. There’s also another problem where your character is stuck in an animation and won’t respond to commands. You can try one of three things to solve the problem: switch between Combat and Exploration mode; jump; or toggle your scanner on and off. If the problem still persists, you’ll need to save and restart the game. Sometimes your character can also get stuck in place, but this is easily fixed by fast-traveling to a different location.

Those utilizing the game’s high dynamic range (HDR) feature might also experience some strange graphics changes. In this case, you can press Alt-Tab to switch programs and then return to the game. If you’re using an AMD GPU, you can also resolve the issue by turning HDR off and then back on again in your Radeon settings.

Speaking of HDR, Nvidia uploaded a new video that shows off the PC version in HDR coupled with native 4K resolution using its latest GPU. The game also supports Nvidia’s Ansel technology, so you can take and manipulate your favorite screenshots from the game.

As expected, the game will include a Day One patch, and Ian Frazier, the game’s lead designer, confirmed that the patch is already included in the trial builds on Xbox One and PC. We’re bound to get the full details of the patch on launch day, which is March 21.