Your game launcher loads fine. Then the frame drops hit. CPU usage shoots to 100% and stays there. Seconds later the crash reporter appears — “low-level fatal error” or “GPU crash dump triggered”. You’re not alone. Thousands of players face this exact pattern.
The common assumption? The game is badly optimized and hogging CPU cycles. That’s only half right. The real culprit is something more specific: aggressive real-time shader compilation that overwhelms the processor, combined with a corrupt shader cache that turns a heavy load into a crash. The fixes are known but rarely presented in the right order. This guide gives you the sequence that actually stops the crashes.
Why Star Wars Zero Company Pegs the CPU at 100%
Star Wars Zero Company runs on Unreal Engine. Modern Unreal titles compile shaders when you first launch. But this game does something different — it recompiles shaders during gameplay, not just at startup. Every time a new effect, particle, or lighting scenario appears, the CPU gets hit with a batch of compilation tasks. On a clean install that process is manageable. With a corrupted cache? The same shader gets compiled repeatedy, loops, and eats every core.
The crash reporter shows up because one of these threads times out or overruns available memory. The “low-level fatal error” is the engine throwing its hands up when a shader fails to compile during an active frame.
A corrupted DirectX Shader Cache is the single most common cause. Windows stores this cache in %AppData%\Local\Temp\DXCachecodecodecodecodecodecode and related folders. When files there get corrupted — often from a crash mid-compilation — the engine retrys and retrys, driving CPU to 100% until it crashes again.
That’s also why clearing that cache fixes the problem for most people. The first launch after clearing it takes longer — the shaders have to be rebuilt from scratch — but the process is clean and the crashes stop.
The Fixes That Actually Work: A Sequence, Not a Scatler Gun
Most guides throw 15 steps at you. That overlooks something critical: the order matters. Here’s the sequence that resolves the 100% CPU crash for the majority of players.
Step 1: Clear the Shader Cache First
Open Windows Disk Cleanup (cleanmgr.execodecodecodecodecodecode). Select the drive where Windows is installed. Scroll down and check “DirectX Shader Cache”. Hit OK. This clears the cached files that are likely corrupted.
Do this before anything else. Updating drivers or verifying game files while a corrupt shader cache exists is like swapping tires on a car with a blown engine — the root issue remains.
After the cache clears, restart your PC. Then launch the game. The first load will take 2–3 minutes longer. That is normal. Do not interrupt it. Let the shaders rebuild fully.
Step 2: Increase Virtual Memory
Star Wars Zero Company is memory-hungry during compilation. If your paging file is too small — Windows sets it automatically, often at just 1–2 GB — the game runs out of virtual address space during heavy shader loads.
Search for “Advanced system settings”. Under Performance → Advanced → Virtual memory, change the paging file to “Custom size”. Set initial and maximum size to 16 GB (16384 MB). Apply and restart.
A 16 GB paging file is not excessive. The game will use what it needs. On 8 GB RAM systems, this step alone stops the crash reporter from appearing.
Step 3: Update GPU Drivers — But Do It Cleanly
Nvidia, AMD, and Intel all released drivers specifically targeting Star Wars Zero Company performance. Use Nvidia’s 537.58 or later, AMD’s 23.11.1 or later.
Do not just update via Windows Device Manager — that often installs generic drivers. Go to the manufacturer’s site, download the full installer, and run it. Select “Clean Installation” if available (Nvidia) or “Factory Reset” (AMD). This clears any remnants of previous drivers that could conflict with the game’s compilation calls.
Step 4: Disable All Overlays
Steam overlay, Discord overlay, Xbox Game Bar, Nvidia GeForce Experience overlay — turn them all off. Overlays inject code into the rendering pipeline. When the engine is compiling shaders and an overlay tries to hook into the same GPU context, you get a collision. That collision appears as a “GPU crash dump triggered” error.
On Steam: right-click the game → Properties → General → uncheck “Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game”. Same for Discord: User Settings → Game Overlay → toggle off. For Game Bar: Settings → Gaming → Game Bar → turn off.
Step 5: Set the Game to Use Your Dedicated GPU
Laptop users: the game sometimes defaults to the integrated Intel GPU. That GPU cannot handle shader compilation for a modern game. The result is immediate 100% CPU on the integrated chip and a crash.
Go to Settings → System → Display → Graphics. Find Star Wars Zero Company in the list. If it’s not there, add it by browsing to the .execodecodecodecodecodecode. Click Options → High Performance. Restart the game.
Step 6: Launch Options as a Diagnostic Tool
If the game still crashes after steps 1–5, try forcing a different rendering path. Right-click the game in Steam → Properties → General → Launch Options. Type -dx11codecodecodecodecodecode and try launching. Some systems handle DirectX 11 better for this title.
If that does not work, replace - dx11codecodecodecodecodecode with - windowed -nobordercodecodecodecodecodecode. This runs the game in borderless windowed mode, which bypasses fullscreen optimizations that can interfere with shader compilation.
The One Counterargument: Underpowered Hardware
A vocal minority insists the problem is simple: your CPU is too weak. The game needs at least an Intel i5-10400 or AMD Ryzen 5 3600, they say. If you have an i3 or a Ryzen 3, you’ll see 100% CPU and crashes no matter what you try.
That argument has one piece of truth — older quad-core CPUs without hyperthreading do struggle. But it collapses when you look at the data. Players with i9-13900K and RTX 4090 report the exact same crash reporter. A machine that costs $3,000 does not have an underpowered CPU. The issue is software, not hardware.
The shader cache corruption and the engine’s behavior around it affect all CPUs equally. High-end systems recover faster and may crash less, but the crash happens on them too. If it were purely a hardware limitation, a top-tier CPU would never see 100% usage and a crash. It does. So the fix is on the software side — which is why clearing the cache and increasing virtual memory works even on mid-range machines.
Frequently Asked Questions
One More Thing: The Future of Shader Compilation
The root cause here is a design trade-off. Star Wars Zero Company prioritizes fast loading screens. To achieve that, it defers some shader work to runtime. Many modern games do this — but they handle failures more gracefully. This game does not. A damaged cache brings the whole session down.
Some players have found partial relief by forcing the game to use only physical cores via Task Manager affinity (disabling hyperthreading cores). That is a band-aid, not a fix. The real solution will come when the developers move shader compilation to an explicit pre-compile step that can be monitored and retried without crashing. Until then, the cache-clearing and virtual-memory adjustments are the only reliable way to keep the crash reporter silent.
Why does Star Wars Zero Company use 100% CPU even when nothing is happening on screen?
The game preloads and compiles shaders for nearby areas in the background while you are standing still. This background compilation uses all available CPU cores. It is not a bug — it is how the engine works — but a corrupted cache makes it loop endlessly, causing the crash.
I cleared my shader cache and still crash. What next?
Run System File Checker. Open Command Prompt as administrator and type `sfc/scannow`. Follow that with `DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth`. Corruption in Windows system files can prevent the DirectX runtime from handling new shader compilations.
Will reducing graphics settings fix the 100% CPU usage?
No. CPU usage from shader compilation is independent of texture or resolution settings. Lowering graphics only reduces GPU load. It does not reduce the number of shader compilation jobs the CPU must process.
Do I need to reinstall the game?
Rarely. Only if the game files themselves are corrupted to the point that file verification cannot repair them. Even then, try a full Steam file verification first (Properties → Installed Files → Verify integrity of game files). Reinstallation should be a last resort.
Is there an official fix from the developer?
The developers have acknowledged the issue and are working on a patch that prioritizes shader compilation during loading screens rather than during gameplay. As of now, no permanent client-side fix exists beyond the manual steps listed above.
