Troubleshooting
Generally try to first launch the vanilla game (i.e. not Northstar) if you encounter any issue and see if it also occurs there as well. Some problems can occur when the vanilla game was never launched before using Northstar.
A lot of problems around the game failing to communicate with Origin can also be prevented by launching Origin before Northstar should you encounter any issues in that regard.
Also note that some solutions described below can also apply to the base game, like issues caused by 10th+ gen Intel CPUs.

LSX Authentication Challenge failed
If the usual workaround of restarting Origin/rebooting or running the vanilla game first and then Northstar don’t work, try the following:
- First and foremost, double check that you are logged in on Origin. Titanfall will not run if you are not connected to EA servers first (and neither will Titanfall + Northstar).
- Run the game with Origin/Steam instead of starting NorthstarLauncher.exe (important)
- Sign out and exit Origin, then start Northstar. It will prompt you for a login, hopefully fixing it if nothing else worked
- Start normal Titanfall 2 and then Northstar (ONLY WORKS SOMETIMES)

Failed to load the tier0.dll
This error is usually caused by running the
NorthstarLauncher.exe
in the wrong location, such as extracting the zip it came with directly in your Downloads folder and running it there.- Default Steam Location:
%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Steam\steamapps\common\Titanfall2\
- Default Origin Location:
%ProgramFiles(x86)%\Origin Games\Titanfall2\
If it still appears after trying the fix above: It's possible that you may have corrupted or missing game files
- First check
\bin\x64\_retail\
and check if you have these files

bin folder
- If you dont have them verify your game on steam/origin/ea
Make sure you updated Northstar to version v1.4.0 or higher as this version features changes that address this problem.

Engine Error: File corruption detected. Please repair or re-install the game.
Don't panic! This warning seems to be caused by Origin and none of your files are actually corrupted. If you get this warning after launching the game try the following steps, closing the game before and launching it again after:
- Make sure you got the newest version of Northstar. In particular, v1.4.0 or higher have this problem fixed.
- Restart Origin Also check task manager that all Origin processes are gone before restarting it (even if you have the Steam version)
- Restart your PC
- Start Northstar with Origin already open
- Start Northstar with Origin fully closed.
- Start vanilla game and see if this works. If vanilla doesn't work either, check this thread on EA forums
- Verify game files via Steam/Origin (depending on where you own the game)
- Check Github issues if anyone else is experiencing this problem. Maybe current release has a bug.
If you followed all these steps and even launching the vanilla version of the game doesn't work, your final option is to fully remove the game and reinstall it.
Then checking if vanilla works before reinstalling Northstar.
You are probably using EA Desktop app and it sets up game installations with no write permissions contrary to Origin.
- Launch EA Desktop and the game as admin once so that it can copy that file.
- 1.Copy
C:\WINDOWS\system32\wsock32.dll
to your Desktop / Temporary folder. - 2.Rename the copied file to
wsock32.org.dll
. - 3.Move
wsock32.org.dll
intoTitanfall2/bin/x64_retail/
. - 4.Delete the copied
wsock32.org.dll
from your Desktop / Temporary folder.
Do NOT make any changes in
system32
, just copy the file.- 1.Locate your
Titanfall2
folder - 2.Right click it and go
Properties > Security
- 3.Give yourself write permissions

Newer Intel CPU error: Data Center: Searching...
On newer Intel CPUs you might see a message like this
"Contacting Respawn servers.../Data Center: Searching..."
If you are seeing this in the main menu of TF|2 and have a 10th or 11th generation Intel CPU this is a bug which has a simple fix:
In the Windows Start menu on the bottom left search for "Edit the system environment variables" and open the program. In the "advanced" tab click on "Environment Variables..." near the bottom.
In System Variables (not user variables) click "New..." and add a new system variable where the variable name is
OPENSSL_ia32cap
and the value is ~0x200000200000000
. Make sure to click OK to apply the changes. Finally restart your device and you should be good to go.If you're on Linux, you can set the appropriate environment variable via
env OPENSSL_ia32cap=~0x20000000 %command%
.Note: This issue is not exclusive to Northstar client but also affects the vanilla version, so if you only get it on Northstar there might be a different problem at hand as well. In fact it's not even unique to Titanfall 2 either.
Go to your
Titanfall2
directory. From there go to the R2Northstar
and delete enabledmods.json
. This file stores information about which mods are enabled and disabled. By deleting this file Northstar will fall back to the default (all mods enabled) and re-create the file appropriately.If you get this error you can fix it by installing vcredist 2015-2022. If it does not work install the 2013 version
- Double click on the server name in rapid succession.
- Alternatively, click on the server you want to join, and click "join".
- Clicking on no server but clicking "join" will attempt to connect you to the very first server, which is usually full
Go to Mods at the bottom of your screen on the main menu, then click Authentication Agreement and accept
- Navigate to your Titanfall2 directory then open
- Open
R2Northstar\mods\Northstar.Client\mod\cfg\autoexec_ns_client.cfg
- And change the ` to one of the F keys (for example
F1
/F2
) (Note: Only ~ or F1-12 work) - This should fix it- Restart game!
- Please remove conflicting mods such as
better.serverbrowser
and reinstall Northstar core mods (those that start withNorthstar.
/ are in the NorthstarMods repository / included in the release zip).\ - Try deleting
enabledmods.json
inside the R2Northstar folder as well. - Otherwise pay attention in console for your errors if you know what you're doing.
Adding
-northstar
will start Northstar when launching from your launcher
Adding -vanilla
will start the normal game when you have Northstar installed- For Steam
Your library > Right click TF|2 > Properties > Launch Options > -northstar or -vanilla
- For Origin
Your library > Right click TF|2 > Game Properties > Advanced Launch Options > Command Line Arguments > -northstar or -vanilla
If your error says
Access Violation | Attempted to read from 0x00000000
specifically DO NOT post just THAT.
The real error is most likely slightly higher. Please post that in issues or the discordCampaign is not supported in Northstar yet, but you could do one of these "fixes"
- 1.Doing
ns_auth_allow_insecure 1
in the console - 2.Adding
-vanilla
to your launch options
- 1.Close the game
- 2.Open task manager
- 3.End Origin (everything origin related)
- 4.Launch Origin as admin
- 5.
- 6.See if that fixed it

Engine Error: Could't Initialize Sound
If message contains:
AUDCLNT_E_DEVICE_IN_USE
- 1.Go to Windows Search Bar, type
mmsys.cpl
, press enter. - 2.Make sure you selected the right audio device as default (your headset or speakers usually).
- 3.If it still does not work, disable exclusive mode on your default device:
- 4.Restart your computer.
This issue could also be caused if you use some sort of audio wrapper to control volume and stuff like Voicemeter Banana. The above fix was tested with Voicemeter Banana.
You need to launch Northstar via Titanfall2 with
-northstar
passed as argument. To do this, go go to Steam/Origin (depending on where you bought the game), navigate to the settings where you can set launch arguments for Titanfall2. Add -northstar
so that it launches Northstar instead. Launch the game via Steam/Origin.The following command will reset all your loadouts and levels!
Open console in-game in main menu, type in
ns_resetpersistence
and press enter. Close console again and click on "Launch Northstar". All your stuff should now be reset.The default install location for EA App
C:\Program Files\EA Games\Titanfall2
is not writeable by non-admin processes. This messes with Northstar trying to write log files as well as mod-managers trying to install mods.Therefore the recommended solution is to move the install to another location (can even be on the same drive). This prevents the non-admin issue and as such should solve the issue of Northstar being unable to write logs and failing.
See also https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-move-pc-games-to-a-different-hard-drive (scroll down to "EA: Move the Folder and Reinstall")
Last modified 2mo ago