5 Ways to Fix Bluestacks Engine Won’t Start

Bluestacks is undoubtedly one of the best cloud-based Android emulators for Windows and Mac users. For those who don’t know, Bluestacks lets you run Android games and apps on your computer. However, as things went, the Android emulator app wasn’t so smooth. While stable for the most part, using Bluestacks has been known to have a lot of issues, which is very annoying. Bluestacks Engine does not initiate such issues.

Trying to open the apps gives the error “You can try restarting the engine or your PC”, but restarting them has absolutely no effect. There are many culprits that can cause errors, including inherent bugs in specific versions of Bluestacks, limitations imposed by antivirus software, and more.

Below are all the known solutions to the “Unable to start engine” error in Bluestacks with step-by-step instructions.

Contents of this article

• How to fix Bluestacks engine won’t start?
• Method 1: Switch to DirectX and increase the number of CPU cores and allocated RAM
• Method 2: Run Bluestacks in compatibility mode and grant full security access
• Method 3: Turn on Virtualization
• Method 4: Uninstall Bluestacks and reinstall in Safe Mode
• Method 5: Revert to a previous Windows version

How to fix Bluestacks engine won’t start ?

As mentioned earlier, there are several reasons why the Bluestacks engine won’t start. Therefore, no one shoe fits all, and each user/computer solution is unique. Try all the solutions below one by one, and after each solution, run Bluestacks to check if the problem is resolved.

Try temporarily disabling your antivirus software (Windows Defender by default) before you move on to more advanced solutions. Every third-party application, especially Bluestacks, is always under the watch of antivirus software, resulting in software conflicts; these conflicts can adversely affect the performance of the application and cause some problems.

The method of disabling antivirus applications is unique for each application. However, most can be disabled by right-clicking the icon in the system tray and selecting the appropriate option.

If disabling your antivirus does solve the problem, switch to another antivirus or add Bluestacks to its list of exceptions. If not, then we have 5 more solutions for you to try.

Method 1: Switch to DirectX and increase the number of CPU cores and allocated RAM

Solution for Bluestacks engine not starting : Bluestacks is primarily an Android game emulator. So, as we all know, toggling its graphics mode is an easy fix for the engine not starting problem. Bluestacks runs using OpenGL by default , but can also run via DirectX. The option to toggle is available in the Bluestacks settings.

If just changing the graphics mode doesn’t work, you can always increase the amount of CPU cores and RAM allocated to Bluestacks and give it more power to run.

1. Launch Bluestacksby double-clicking its desktop shortcut icon or searching for the application in the Windows search bar (Windows key + S) .

If you get the “engine failed to start” error message again, ignore it for now.

2. Click the Bluestacks menu button (three horizontal dashes or a down arrow with a horizontal dash in some previous versions) located in the upper right corner of the application window (next to the resize and close buttons ).
3. From the drop-down menu that appears, click Settings.
4. Switch to the EngineSettings pane by clicking Options on the left side of the Settings window.
5. Under Graphics Renderer, clickthe radio button next to DirectX.
6. A message “Checking DirectX Compatibility”will appear at the top of the screen , followed by another message asking you to “Restart Bluestacks to start in DirectX”.
7. Click the ” Save ” button first, then click the “Restart Now”button in the next dialog .

Bluestacks will now launch using DirectX, hopefully the bugs you encountered will be resolved. However, if switching to DirectX graphics mode doesn’t work, try increasing the amount of cores and RAM allocated to Bluestacks.

Repeat steps 1 to 5 of the above procedure and switch to DirectX . Adjust the RAM (MB) slider to the Recommended Memory value (if not set by default) before clicking the Save button. Now, click Save , then Restart Now .

If you go back and the Bluestacks engine still won’t start , then change the number of CPU cores Bluestacks is allowed to use. Increase the number of CPU cores by 1 and reboot. If you continue to get errors, keep increasing the number of cores by 1 until you find the sweet spot. You can also adjust the Memory (MB) slider each time you increase the number of CPU cores to find the perfect combination.

Method 2: Run Bluestacks in compatibility mode and grant full security access

Solution for Bluestacks engine not starting : Bluestacks also most likely does not have the required security permissions to run on your computer. Security settings may have changed after the latest Windows update or application update. Grant Bluestacks full control:

1. Right-click on the desktop shortcut icon for Bluestacks and select Open file locationfrom the context menu . If you don’t have the appropriate shortcut icon, head to C:ProgramDataBlueStacksClient in File Explorer .
2. Locate the Bluestacks.exefile, right-clickit, and select Properties . (or select the file by left-clicking and pressing Alt+Enter)
3. Switch to the Securitytab of the Properties window, and click the Edit button consistent with the permissions you want to change, click Edit.
4. First, select your username from the list of users displayed under Groups or Usernames , then under permissions for * username* , check the box in the Allow column for Full Control.
5. Click Applyto save the changes, and then click OK toexit.

See if you can fix the Bluestacks engine not starting issue. If not, you can also run Bluestacks in Compatibility Mode for another Windows version if you’re only getting errors after updating to Windows 10. to this end:

1. Right-clickon the shortcut icon for Bluestacks and select Properties .
2. Check “Run this program in compatibility mode:” in the Compatibilitytab .
3. Select the appropriate Windows versionto run Bluestacks compatible with, then click Apply  , then OK .

Method 3: Turn on Virtualization

How to fix Bluestacks engine won’t start? At its core, Bluestacks is a virtualized application. Certain chipsets from Intel and AMD employ virtualization technology that increases their performance when using any virtualization software such as Bluestacks. This technology helps such software to run more smoothly and without any stress.

Enabling virtualization has reportedly resolved Bluestacks engine issues that some users have been unable to start. Although not all systems are equipped with this technology, you need to check it out before proceeding with this method.

Check if your Intel system supports Virtualization Technology:

1. Visit the following page, download the Intel® Processor Identification Utilityin your preferred web browser , and click the Download button on the left (under Available Downloads).

Depending on your internet speed, the file will download in seconds or minutes .

2. After downloading, click on the installation file and follow the on-screen prompts/instructions to install the Intel Processor Identification Utilityon your computer .
3. After installation open the Utilities application and expand the CPU Technology section by clicking the + icon.

(At startup, a user account control will appear asking you to allow the application to make changes to your system. Click Yes to continue.)

4. Scan the list of CPU technologies for Intel® Virtualization Technology(usually the first item in the list). If your system supports the technology, there will be a loud check to the left of it (or a yes next to it).

Check if your AMD system supports virtualization:

1. Open the following page in your preferred browser to download the AMD Virtualization Technology and Microsoft Hyper-V System Compatibility Check Utility to downloadthe required files.
2. Click on the downloaded .exe file and follow the instructions to install it.
3. Open the application to check whether your system supports virtualization technology. If so, you will receive the following message “The system is Hyper-V compatible“.

If your Intel or AMD system supports Virtualization Technology, follow the steps below to enable it. If not, skip to the next method.

1. Virtualization can be enabled from the BIOS menu, for which you need to reboot/restart the computer.
2. Click the Start button or press the Windows key on your keyboard, click Power Options, and then select Restart.
3. When your computer manufacturer’s logo appears, repeatedly press one of the following keys to enter the BIOS– Esc, Del, F12, F10, or F8. Each manufacturer’s BIOS key is unique, so check the documentation that came with your computer or perform a simple Google search to find your BIOS key.

NOTE: Some manufacturers also include a small message in one of the screen corners when their logo appears (eg: “Press Esc to enter BIOS”), so be aware of this.

4. Once in the BIOS menu, use the arrow keys to navigate to Virtualization Technology or Intel Virtualization Technology or Intel VT for Direct I/O or any similar option and press Enter to enableit.
5. Savethe changed settings and exit the BIOS.

The computer will now restart automatically, once it does, check to see if you can fix the Bluestacks engine not starting issue.

Method 4: Uninstall Bluestacks and reinstall in Safe Mode

Solution for Bluestacks engine not starting: If none of the above methods work, the problem may be an inherent bug in the application itself. In this case, you need to uninstall the current version and replace it with the latest version of Bluestacks.

1. We will first kill any Bluestacks processes that may be running in the background.
2. If you have Bluestacks open, close it by clicking the X buttonin the upper right corner, then right-click the Bluestacks icon on the system tray and select Exit. If for some reason this doesn’t work, open the Task Manager (Ctrl + Shift + Esc), find all Bluestacks processes and services and end them (right click > End Task).
3. As a precaution, we will also delete all temporary files on the computer. To do this, type %temp%in the Run command box ( Windows key + R ) or in the start search barand press Enter.
4. In the following file explorer window, press ctrl+Ato select all items, then press shift+delto delete them permanently. If you get any prompts asking for administrative permissions, grant them. Skip files that cannot be deleted.
5. Instead of following the usual route of removing the app, we will use the official Bluestacks uninstaller to remove all traces of it from the computer so that we can perform a clean install later.
6. Click on the link below BSTCleaner to download the Bluestacks uninstalltool. Run the application after downloading to remove Bluestacks from your computer and all its files. Grant any permissions it asks for. Click the OK buttonon the final screen when done .
7. Alternatively, remove Bluestacks via Windows Settings (Settings > System > Apps & Features. Click Bluestacks and select Uninstall), then manually delete the folder under the appropriate path:

C:Program Files (x86)BlueStacks or C:Program FilesBlueStacks

C:ProgramDataBlueStacks

8. Now it’s time to reinstall Bluestacks. Go to Download Bluestacksand download the latest version of the app.
9. We will install the application after booting into safe mode.
10. After Window starts in safe mode, go to the folder where you downloaded the Bluestacks installation file (Downloads)and run it. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation.
11. Now that we have reinstalled Bluestacks, we can turn off Safe Modeand boot normally.
12. Open Run, type msconfig, and press Enter. In the Boot tab, uncheck the box next to Safe mode, then click OK.
13. Finally, restart your computerand run Bluestacks to check if the problem is resolved.

Method 5: Revert to a previous Windows version

How to fix Bluestacks engine won’t start? Occasionally, a new Windows update may be incompatible with Bluestacks, causing the engine to fail to start issues. Try to recall if the problem started after your most recent Windows update. If so, you can either wait for Microsoft to roll out a new update and hope they fix the problem, or revert to the last update that didn’t cause the engine startup error.

1. Launch Windows Settingsby clicking the Start button, then the gear icon . (or press Windows key + I to launch Setup directly).
2. Click Update & Security.
3. Find RecoverySettings in the left panel and click it.
4. Click the Get Started buttonunder Return to a previous version of Windows 10 . Follow the on-screen instructions that follow to revert to the previous OS version.

Unfortunately, if it’s been more than 10 days since you last updated Windows, “Getting Started” will be grayed out and you won’t be able to recover. Then, your only option is to wait for the new update to roll out.

We hope this article was helpful for you to troubleshoot the Bluestacks Engine not starting issue. However, if you still have any questions about this tutorial, feel free to ask in the comments section.