Penumbra: Overture crashes/returns to the desktop after launching and displaying a black screen for a couple of seconds?

Crashes can occur for many reasons, here are the most common ones.


1. You do not meet the minimum system requirements
Graphics: ATI Radeon 8500/NVIDIA GeForce3(GeForce4MX not supported).
Audio: Basically any audio card able to output stereo sound in Windows.

See related article on Requirements to get a full list of computer specifications.


2. Your drivers are not up to date.
The drivers for your video and/or audio card needs to be updated, visit the manufacture to download the latest version.

See related articles on how to find out what video card you have & what audio card you have.
See related articles for a list on common manufactures of video/audio cards and their websites.


3. You do not have the latest patch.
Make sure you have the latest patch of Penumbra: Overture.