UE crashes Low-End PC on startup Right after Installation

So I just downloaded and installed UE 4.21 on my PC, which though is WAY below official requirements (CPU: Intel i3 3240 @ 3.40 GHz; RAM: 4GB DDR3 ; Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce GT 620 ; PC; Dell Inspiron 660s ; OS: Windows 8.1), I’ll have to stick with it till… understandably very long. The only thing I can hope to change is double the RAM that I have to 8GB.
Now, to the problem. I installed UE 4.21 (it took 2 days, FYI), and I double clicked on launch. The initialization went SLOOOOWLY up to hundred (and since I knew I was taking too big of a risk for my weak system, I had the Task Manager on just in case), and suddenly the number of Unreal programs running went up to two, and my PC froze. Just froze. Then came a blue screen with an error code “DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION” (without the Quotation marks, obviously), and the system rebooted. I searched online a lot for this, but it seems no one had this error pop up the first time they tried to open UE 4.21, so SOMEONE PLEASE FIND ME A SOLUTION TO THIS THAT DOES NOT INCLUDE OR CONSIST OF “Upgrade your system man or just dump your idea into the bin forever.” PLEASE.

Would appreciate a reply which is possible to implement for a fifteen year old.

EDIT: Now, it has happened for two times in a row, and in the last few seconds before it freezes and DPC_WATCHDOG_VIOLATION comes, the RAM wasn’t being used to the extent where it’ll freeze or even lag (Task Manager sure is very helpful in such cases), and the CPU has also seen worse days than this, so what exactly is causing the crash??? All the Internet could tell me was that the crash is happening “due to hardware incompatibility.” :confused:

Hi, When I started out I was using a CPU that is 8 years old and a really low spec video card (still using the CPU). The specs are indeed on the low side but it should still work. Ideally a little more RAM, I think 8GB is recommended, but it should be ok.

Unreal does take a long time to open projects if you’re not running off an SSD but the crash is something else.

It is probably more likely windows 8.1 and it is no longer supported any more by Microsoft (Support ended 9th January 2018, just checked) but I wouldn’t guarantee Windows 10 would solve the issue.

The card or rather chipset is made by a company called NVidia. It was a pretty reasonable card in its day but is now quite old (6 years or so)

Truthfully, I can’t say if it would handle 4.21 but it might work ok with older versions (4.15 for example)

It being a laptop, as far as I can gather, you are going to struggle to do anything with it other than increase the RAM. You can’t replace the video card.

Others are having issues with windows 8.1 too and that is probably the most likely issue. Try installing an older version of the Unreal Engine and it may work

Thanks a lot, BeeGeeDee. Another Question: is my Graphics Card enough for UE 4? I don’t know anything descriptive about my Graphics Card, other than the name. You see, I’m new to this sector of Computer Tech; I was mostly interested in gaming till a few years ago. Thanks again for the help!

You could increase your power by changing to linux, then put unreal on…?

It’s not a laptop; it’s a PC. As far as changing the video card goes, I CAN change it, but money isn’t an affordable thing for a fifteen-year-old.
:frowning:

Changing the OS to Linux would make it more powerful…?
Sorry, please explain it to me; if I find it useful, I can try it. Anyway, thanks!

It wouldn’t make it more powerful. It may get around issues of compatibility with Windows 8.1.

Fair enough. I googled the model and it came up laptop.