Can't launch E:D on old hardware - any tips?

[Rip_Steakface]

I would like to run Elite: Dangerous on an old gaming laptop of mine. I'd happily accept lowest details and bad framerate. However, I was surprised to find out the game doesn't launch at all. I can start the game on steam, but as soon as I click "play" on the FDev launcher, nothing happens other than the "play" button changing color (as if it was loading) for a few seconds before reverting to its previous clickable state. The first time I did so, I also got one of those "collecting system data and sending them to FDev" messages.
Picking Horizons instead of Odyssey makes no difference.

Here are my system specs:

Intel Core i5-4210H CPU @ 2.90 GHz
8 GB RAM
NVidia Geforce GTX 950m (capable of DirectX11)
Win 10 Home 64 Bit
350 GB available space

Here are the official system requirements according to Steam:

• OS *: Windows 7 (SP1+)/8.1/10 64bit.
• Processor: Intel i5-4590 / AMD FX 8350.
• Memory: 8 GB RAM.
• Graphics: NVIDIA Geforce GTX 780 / AMD R9 280x (3 GB VRAM)
• DirectX: Version 11.
• Storage: 75 GB available space.

I suppose my mobile graphics card is quite a bit weaker than the 780, and there might be some minimal diffeence between my i5 and the one listed. But should this really prevent the game from launching at all?

My questions to you:

• Do you see anything about my system that's so outdated it could prevent Elite from launching?
• Can you think of workarounds for my problem or do you have general tips on how to launch/play Elite on old hardware?

Thank you!

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Picking Horizons Legacy might work better? The minimum requirements stated for Horizons Live / Odyssey are "optimistic" at the very least, but you should be able to run Legacy with that.

(Of course, separate account progress, so you might not want to)

 

[o2thaZ]

Add another potato.
All jokes aside, it's really time to move on to another laptop for the game and use your old one as a 2nd screen.

 

[mtfatboy3006]

I'm guessing 8 GB is the maximum RAM your system can handle, but if you can upgrade it, you might try that. If it isn't launching at all, I would suspect RAM is the culprit. If you aren't running the Nvidia app, you can try installing that or a RAM scrubbing app to clear background apps out of the system memory when you launch the game, but I doubt that would do the trick.

 

[anShpan]

+1 for RAM. I was running Odyssey for some time on Xeon E5-1650v2 32GB, then tried 16GB, got 3-4 random crashes during same evening, returned to 32 and those gone.

 

[Archvillain]

I can get Odyssey running on my 12-year-old laptop with no graphics card, just integrated graphics (Intel HD Graphics 4000):

Intel Core i7-3520M CPU @ 2.90GHz
16Gb RAM
Windows 10 Pro

My account is direct with FDev, not Steam/Valve, not sure if that means the launcher is meaningfully different

HOWEVER... Elite Launcher eventually assumes that I can't run it When the startup process reaches the point of compiling planetary shaders (which depends on graphics card) it sits there frozen for so long that the launcher fires off the Crash Reporter to inform FDev of the crash. But it hasn't crashed, it's just reeally slow. Like 30-minutes-to-compile-shaders slow. But you have a graphics card so if you can somehow get yours to load until that point you should blast through it a lot quicker than mine.

Heh, in the crash reporter, where it requests a desciption I send the following message:

THERE IS NO CRASH! This Crash Reporter jumps the gun ...but quite understandably because when launching Elite on this ancient laptop from 2013, Elite grinds to a halt for 30 minutes trying to process planetary shaders. Crash Reporter assumes it must have crashed, but leave it alone for long enough and it'll eventually crawl over the finish line, battered and bloodied but functional.

(Don't worry, I have a real computer to play the game on, I'm just out of town right now with this laptop.)



If you haven't already, try installing and running Legacy Horizons

 

[Neilski]

The minimum requirements stated for Horizons Live / Odyssey are "optimistic" at the very least

Yeah I think "optimistic" is very generous
Personally, I'd probably go with "untrue".

• Do you see anything about my system that's so outdated it could prevent Elite from launching?
• Can you think of workarounds for my problem or do you have general tips on how to launch/play Elite on old hardware?

No, to question 1, though as others say it's likely to run badly if you get it working. Workarounds would depend on understanding the problem.
You might learn something from the logs - bit of a long shot but maybe worth a punt.
However, they are scattered all over the place (heaven knows why): see https://customersupport.frontier.co...-AppConfig-Client-Log-Update-Log-Game-Folder- for some tips on how to find them.

 

[robbyp]

Go to ebay and buy something better would be my suggestion

 

[CMDR Lefty Jackson]

I'm running Odessey, prior Horizons, on a really old system...

Win 7 Home Premium
i5-2500K 3.3Ghz
16GB
GTX 1060 6GB
HDD 500GB

I originally bought through Steam in 2018, came back a few eeeks ago, but Steam said basically....no.

I couldn't use Steam because of no support for Win 7, and Steam insists it won't run on Win 7 which is a complete lie, so I managed to redownload from Frontier, who says it WILL run on Win 7. If you can buy directly from the developer, do it. It saves the developer money and doesn't support crappy third party thieves like Steam.

(I can't even install Steam now, which is no loss cause Steam sucks, and no Discord either! And Discord really sucks!)

It runs just fine.

 

[Rip_Steakface]

Thanks for all the input, guys! I followed your advice and tried to launch Legacy Horizons - which the launcher refused to download. I then tried to verify files - which the launcher also refused to do. This makes me think that the launcher might have a problem with my system, or vice versa
I'll check out the Min-ED launcher. But if that doesn't do the job, I'll probably just move on and consider some new hardware.

 

[CMDR Lefty Jackson]

If you can, try downloading from Frontier and running that version. I'd uninstall previous versions, just in case. Sometimes overwriting can be problematic.

Worth a shot before spending cash.

I suspect you are having an issue with Steam-related products, even though you are running Win 10.

Hardware related? My first thought is not enough RAM.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

if you are satisfied with legacy mode and you can't justify buying a newer pc, I would seriously consider picking up a 2nd hand PS4 or Xbox.

as far as gaming machines go you won't come even close to those for the money and elite horizons (legacy,) runs pretty well on them
as a guide I saw a PS4 pro with games and 2 pads for £95 for sale the other day.

 

[varonica]

Intel Core i5-4210H CPU @ 2.90 GHz
8 GB RAM
NVidia Geforce GTX 950m (capable of DirectX11)
Win 10 Home 64 Bit
350 GB available space

I ran pre-Odyssey Horizons on a 970m, this was a long time ago now, 10 years maybe? There have been significant upgrades just in Horizons, planet generation system etc since then, wouldn't have even tried to run Odyssey. Yeah the legacy version may work because that still has the old planetary generation system in place, but there's no stepping stone from there to Odyssey.