6 Ways to Fix the Overwatch 2 “Your Rendering Device Has Been Lost” Error

Many players report the “Your rendering device has been lost” error message crashes Overwatch 2. An OW2 player reported that error in a Reddit post as follows: “Hey, after this new update, I keep receiving this error that crashes me to desktop in Overwatch 2. It states that my rendering device has been lost.” This TDR (timeout detection recovery) error randomly and frequently crashes Overwatch 2 on players’ PCs. This is how you can fix the Overwatch 2 “Your rendering device has been lost” error on a Windows PC.

Read also: 7 Ways to Fix Overwatch 2 Not Launching on a Windows PC

Turn on Game Mode and Set High Graphics Performance

This potential solution for the “Your rendering device has been lost” error involves adjusting a few options in Settings. Applying it will set Overwatch 2 to run in a higher-performance graphics mode and enable Game Mode to turn off background apps. This is how you can turn on Game Mode and set the high-performance graphics.

1. To activate the search tool, press the Windows logo + S keyboard key combination.
2. Type in a game mode search phrase.
3. Select Game Mode settings in the search results.
4. Click the Game Mode option to turn it on if disabled.
   
   

   The Game Mode option

5. Next, click Graphics settings (or Graphics).
6. Select Desktop app within the drop-down menu.
7. Press Browse to select the Overwatch 2 EXE file in its installation folder.
   
   

   The High performance radio button

8. To add the selected game to the app list, click the Add button.
9. Click the Overwatch 2 game added and Options.
10. Select High performance > Save to set the graphical preference.

Delete the Overwatch Data Folder

Some players say they’ve been able to fix the “Your rendering device has been lost” error by erasing the Overwatch data folder. Applying this potential fix resets the game’s graphical settings to default. Try deleting the Overwatch data folder like this:

1. Open File Explorer and the This PC > Documents folder.
2. Right-click the Overwatch folder in the Documents directory to select Delete.
   
   

   The Delete option

3. Open your Blizzard client software.
4. Click Play for your Overwatch 2 game. Then exit the game shortly afterwards.

In addition, you can also stop the graphical settings from automatically changing after going through the steps above. To do this, return to the Documents directory and open the regenerated Overwatch folder from there. Open the Settings subfolder, right-click the Settings_v0 file, and select the Properties option. Select the Read-only attribute setting, and click the Apply > OK buttons.

Run a System File Check Scan

The System File Checker is a command-line tool that scans for and repairs corrupted Windows files. Blizzard confirms that corrupted system files can be a potential cause for the Overwatch 2 “Your rendering device has been lost” error. So, try running a System File Checker scan in the Command Prompt by going through the steps on this Microsoft help page.

The System File Checker command

Roll Back Your PC’s Graphics Driver

Many Overwatch 2 players confirm installing old (not new) graphics drivers can fix the “Your rendering device has been lost” error. For example, an Overwatch 2 player said on Reddit: “What worked for me was reverting my drivers to an older version, I did 2018 for Nvidia. That fixed it for me.” This highlights that this error can occur because of buggy new graphics drivers. If a new graphics driver has recently been installed on your PC, try rolling back to the previous one like this.

1. Right-click the Start taskbar button to select and open Device Manager.
2. Expand Display adapters by double-clicking that category. 
3. Next, right-click your graphics adapter to select Properties > Driver.
4. Click the Roll Back Driver option if you can.
   
   

   The Roll Back Driver option

5. Now select a listed reason for rolling back the driver and click Yes.
6. Restart your PC when prompted to do so.

If the Roll Back Driver button is greyed out, there isn’t a previous driver stored. However, you can still manually download old drivers for graphics cards from the AMD and NVIDIA sites, which is something other players have done to resolve this gaming issue. To do this, select your graphics card on the AMD or NVIDIA driver download sites. Click the View more versions or Previous Drivers link on the driver download page for your card to select a more recent older driver to download from there.

Undo GPU Overclocking (or Underclocking)

Have you applied any graphics card overclocking or underclocking on your PC? If you have, your overclocking could be causing the “Your rendering device has been lost” error. Try resetting your overclocking by restoring all default speed settings. To do this, look for and select a reset option within your overclocking software. For example, MSI Afterburner has a circular arrow button you can click on to restore default configuration settings.

The MSI Afterburner software

Clean Boot Windows

Finally, try performing the clean boot troubleshooting method to disable third-party background programs and services from starting with Windows. Blizzard recommends users do this to close background programs that could be interfering (conflicting) with Overwatch 2. This Microsoft page includes guidelines for how users can apply a clean boot in Windows 11/10.

The Startup tab

Other Possible Ways to Fix the Overwatch 2 “Your Rendering Device has Been Lost” Error

There are more ways you might be able to fix the Overwatch 2 “Your rendering device has been lost” error beyond those covered above. These are some extra potential fixes you can try applying if necessary.

• Start the SysMen service and set it to an Automatic startup.
• Reinstall your Overwatch 2 game.
• Update the driver for your PC’s graphics card if the one installed is old. This Blizzard page includes instructions for updating graphical drivers.
• Repair the Overwatch 2 game files by clicking Scan and Repair in the Battle.net software.

The Overwatch 2 “Your rendering device has been lost” error can be a tricky gaming issue to fix. There are variable potential solutions but no surefire way to fix this game error. However, some players have resolved this Overwatch 2 crashing error by applying the possible fixes above.