Forza Horizon 6 FHC00 / FHC01 Crash Error Codes on PC

What are Forza Horizon 6 FHC and FH error codes?

Forza Horizon 6 uses a structured error code system. Codes starting with FHC (FHC00, FHC01) signal a critical engine or graphics-pipeline crash that closes the game to desktop, while codes starting with FH1xx, FH2xx, FH3xx, and FH4xx identify the specific subsystem that failed — graphics driver, ray tracing pipeline, shader compiler, storage, or anti-cheat. Knowing which code you hit determines the fix.

The game launched on May 5, 2026 for PC (Steam, Microsoft Store, Game Pass) and Xbox Series X|S. The PC version uses DirectX 12 Ultimate with hardware ray tracing as a baseline feature, which is the source of most FHC-class crashes on launch-week drivers.

When does it occur?

• On first launch right after the splash screen (FHC00)
• After a few minutes of free-roam driving, usually near dense forest or city areas (FHC01)
• When loading a saved game or rejoining a Horizon Open session
• After Windows resumes from sleep with the game still running
• Immediately when toggling ray tracing on in the Graphics menu
• After installing a new Game Pass / Microsoft Store update

Common causes

• Outdated NVIDIA or AMD driver — Forza Horizon 6 requires NVIDIA 576.xx or AMD Adrenalin 26.4.2 or newer; older drivers crash at the shader-warmup stage
• Ray tracing on unsupported hardware — RTX 20 series and RX 6600 / 6500 XT trigger FH202 because they fail the DXR 1.1 feature-level check the game enforces
• Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling (HAGS) disabled — FH6's frame pacer assumes HAGS is on; it crashes the D3D12 device when off
• Corrupt shader cache — Half-built shader cache from an interrupted first launch causes FHC00 repeatedly until cleared
• Anti-cheat (EasyAntiCheat) service not running — Triggers FH401 immediately on launch
• Conflicting overlays — MSI Afterburner / RivaTuner, Discord overlay, and GeForce Experience FrameView all interfere with the DX12 swap chain
• VRAM exhaustion at Extreme preset — 8 GB cards hit FHC01 in dense biomes with ray tracing on; the game does not auto-downgrade textures

Step-by-step fixes

1. Identify your code — FHC00 = device/driver init failure; FHC01 = device-removed during gameplay; FH101 = shader compile fail; FH201/202/203 = ray tracing pipeline; FH204/205/206 = DLSS/FSR upscaler; FH302 = storage/IO; FH401 = anti-cheat. Match your code to the relevant fix below before trying others.

1. Update your GPU driver — NVIDIA users: install Game Ready driver 576.80 or newer from [nvidia.com/drivers](https://nvidia.com/drivers). AMD users: install Adrenalin 26.4.2 or newer from [amd.com/support](https://amd.com/support). Choose "Factory Reset" / "Clean install" during setup. This resolves most FHC00 cases.

1. Enable Hardware-Accelerated GPU Scheduling — Settings > System > Display > Graphics > Default graphics settings > toggle Hardware-accelerated GPU scheduling to On, then restart Windows. Required for FH6's frame pacer.

1. Disable ray tracing if you hit FH201, FH202, or FH203 — In FH6: Settings > Graphics > scroll to Ray Tracing and set the three sliders (Reflections, Shadows, GI) to Off. RTX 20 series and Radeon RX 6600/6500 lack the required DXR 1.1 feature level for FH6's pipeline.

1. Clear the shader cache — Close the game. Navigate to %LOCALAPPDATA%\Microsoft\ForzaHorizon6 (Microsoft Store) or %LOCALAPPDATA%\ForzaHorizon6 (Steam) and delete the ShaderCache folder. Relaunch — first boot will rebuild the cache (3-5 minutes) and FHC00 typically clears.

1. Disable all in-game overlays — Turn off the GeForce Experience overlay (Alt+Z > Settings > In-game overlay off), Discord overlay (User Settings > Game Overlay > off), Steam overlay (Settings > In Game > uncheck Enable Steam Overlay), and close MSI Afterburner / RivaTuner Statistics Server entirely. These are the top cause of FHC01 mid-session.

1. Lower textures to High and disable Frame Generation on 8 GB cards — In Graphics settings, set Texture Quality to High (not Extreme), set Frame Generation to Off, and cap Render Resolution at 1440p with DLSS Quality / FSR Quality. This prevents the VRAM-spike FHC01 on RTX 4060 / 4070 8 GB and RX 7600.

1. Repair EasyAntiCheat for FH401 — Navigate to the FH6 install folder (right-click in Steam > Manage > Browse local files, or in Xbox app > ... > Manage > Files), open _CommonRedist\EasyAntiCheat\ and run EasyAntiCheat_EOS_Setup.exe. Choose Forza Horizon 6 from the dropdown and click Repair Service. Then run the game as administrator.

If it still doesn't work

If you still hit FHC01 after applying every step, monitor your GPU with HWiNFO64 during a 5-minute drive — if VRAM allocation peaks above 95% of physical VRAM or GPU temperature exceeds 85°C, the crash is thermal/VRAM-related and you need lower settings, not more drivers. Forza Horizon 6 is the first FH title with mandatory hardware ray tracing in the engine, so older RTX 20 series and entry-level RDNA2 cards may simply not be supported at any setting.

Check the official issues tracker at [support.forzamotorsport.net](https://support.forzamotorsport.net) and the pinned megathread on [r/ForzaHorizon](https://reddit.com/r/ForzaHorizon) for community-verified workarounds tied to your specific code. If the crash produces a Windows Event Viewer entry, open Event Viewer > Windows Logs > Application and search for "ForzaHorizon6" — the faulting module name (e.g., nvwgf2umx.dll, amdxc64.dll, d3d12core.dll) points at the exact subsystem to roll back or update.