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General Protection Fault - Fix

By Ghozt

So, you just got Borderlands, waited for the 10 gigabytes to finish installing, with possible DLC being installed as well. You go to launch the game for the first time, and what happens? BOOM! GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT! GAME CRASHES BEFORE IT EVEN LAUNCHES! Here's the fix.

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Created by

Ghozt
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Category: Modding or Configuration, Walkthroughs

Languages: English

Posted

Updated

4 Jul, 2015 @ 10:24am

6 Apr, 2019 @ 10:34pm

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Guide Index

Overview

Introduction

The Fix

The Reason

Conclusion

Comments

Introduction

So, you just got Borderlands, waited for the 10 gigabytes to finish installing, with possible DLC being installed as well. You go to launch the game for the first time, and what happens?

BOOM! GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT! GAME CRASHES BEFORE IT EVEN LAUNCHES!

Here's the fix.

The Fix

Hello, I'm Ghozt and I'm probably just like you. Bought Borderlands, with possible DLC, waited for the 10+ gigabytes to install, went to launch the game and,
BOOM! GENERAL PROTECTION FAULT! GAME CRASHES BEFORE IT EVEN LAUNCHES!
Well, I emailed a support ticket to 2K, the publishers of the game, and they emailed me back the fix. They know exactly how to fix this problem, so i don't know why 2K and Gearbox haven't put this single file in as an update or something.

Here's the fix:

Fix A:

(NVIDIA Graphic Users)
1. Go to NVIDIA's website at http://www.nvidia.com/content/global/global.php
2. Hover on the dropdown tab DRIVERS > then click All NVIDIA Drivers
3. Scroll down the page a little & find the section called Beta, Older drivers and more
4. Click on NVIDIA PhysX System Software
5. Click the download button & follow the on-screen instructions
6. Go back to Steam > then to your Game Library > then launch Borderlands

Fix B:

(AMD & Intel Graphic Users)
1. Go to your Game Library > then right-click your Borderlands game
2. Select Properties > then go to the Local Files tab > then click Browse Local Files
3. Open the Binaries folder in your local game files
4. Make a copy of cudart.dll > rename the copy of cudart.dll as physxcudart_20.dll
5. Check to see that you have both the cudart.dll and physxcudart_20.dll files
6. Go back to Steam > then to your Game Library > then launch Borderlands

The Reason

The reason for the General Protection Fault, is that the physxcudart_20.dll file is a very important file that the game needs to run with NVIDIA, a physx engine that helps make graphics, lighting and shadows look great. When you play the console version of the game, it is already included in the game files, due to Sony and Microsoft having the latest NVIDIA technology on their consoles. However, if you don't have an NVIDIA graphics card, like me, you don't have this software pre-installed and can't install it due to not having the NVIDIA catalyst to hold the software. So the General Protection Fault occurs.

Conclusion

I hope this guide helped fix the problem for you, as it did me. If not, then try sending a support ticket to 2K at http://support.2k.com/hc/en-us/requests/new.

Good luck and happy gaming!

42 Comments

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Ghozt [author] 26 May @ 5:47pm

Thank you for the additional info Quaeryth!

Quaeryth 25 May @ 1:47pm

In case anyone else runs into it, I was playing on Linux (Debian) with integrated Intel graphics, but stopped playing on that computer for a couple of months. Came back to it, and started getting the general protection fault (only one line/level in the error/stack trace).

What wound up being the problem was using Proton Hotfix as the compatibility tool. I switched from that to the Proton 9.0-4 option, which required another software download, but after that I could load into the game without issue. To change that:

(Properties -> Compatibility -> [check] Force the use... -> Proton 9.0-4)
- In your library game list, right click on Borderlands GOTY
- Open the Properties
- Select the Compatibility tab on the left
- Check the box next to "Force the use of a specific Steam Play compatibility tool"
- Make sure that Proton 9.0-4 is selected in the drop down list

If that still doesn't work, try other versions. Again, I'm on Debian 12 (bookworm), and that did the trick for me. Good luck!

Raiden V 3 May @ 9:58am

fix b work for me in 2025
thx a lot

carlo 8 Oct, 2023 @ 12:04pm

work for me, thx

mingoesovaaaa 14 Jun, 2020 @ 11:12pm

The last fix worked for me, playing on win 10,,,
I delated the previous saved games, but kept the "profile.bin" file, unchecked the "steam-cloud" in the game propieties, play a while, closed the game, then reactivate the steam cloud and works just fine!

My issue began when i was trying to copy a saved game file from the Borderlands enhanced edition to the original version saved game folder. The problem was that even when reinstalling the game at the time the game started the steam cloud uploaded the corrrupted files i was tryng to load.

But now its working, clean slate

Sincerely 7 Apr, 2019 @ 9:43pm

Can confirm unsolvable issues on 1809 but none whatsoever on 1709

Ghozt [author] 6 Apr, 2019 @ 10:34pm

@huangzh.pku // Thanks for letting me know!

huangzh.pku 6 Apr, 2019 @ 2:03pm

Hey, I'm here to tell that the fix didn't work for the windows10 (1809) and will even cause the system crash during booting. Obviously the files kernel32.dll and ntdll.dll only works under win10 1803. The problem in win10(1809) still exists and I would say that for the win10(1809), you should NEVER adopt the fix. I wonder if there any other way to fix it. I will try to send a support ticket.

AkiraJkr 5 Apr, 2019 @ 11:44pm

Just to tell ya, using dxcpl seems to help making the game work. But it runs like absolute molasses, so I gave up, apparently, the minimum definitely is DX11. Looks like low-end players that played the original can't try the remaster now.

Ghozt [author] 5 Apr, 2019 @ 9:45pm

@AkiraJkr // It looks like one of the files are missing but it's not showing which one. The original game was missing the "physxcudart_20.dll" file. This error seems to be caused by a similar issue. I'm looking into it right now.

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