Why does my Minecraft launcher keep crashing when I press play?

Question

Whenever I press play on my Minecraft launcher it starts to load, then goes back to the launcher.

This is what it tells me:

[14:43:45] [Client thread/INFO]: Setting user: ropen908
[14:43:45] [Client thread/INFO]: (Session ID is token:dfacc43356b54812936c84cb46be1b1f:5312a93994b5476983f7d0ea5f4060c0)
[14:43:48] [Client thread/INFO]: LWJGL Version: 2.9.1
[14:43:52] [Client thread/INFO]: Reloading ResourceManager: Default
#
# A fatal error has been detected by the Java Runtime Environment:
#
#  EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (0xc0000005) at pc=0x000007fee37cc475, pid=10208, tid=8952
#
# JRE version: Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (8.0_25-b18) (build 1.8.0_25-b18)
# Java VM: Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (25.25-b02 mixed mode windows-amd64 compressed oops)
# Problematic frame:
# C  [ig4icd64.dll+0x30c475]
#
# Failed to write core dump. Minidumps are not enabled by default on client versions of Windows
#
# An error report file with more information is saved as:
# C:\Users\David\AppData\Roaming\.minecraft\hs_err_pid10208.log
#
# If you would like to submit a bug report, please visit:
#   http://bugreport.sun.com/bugreport/crash.jsp
# The crash happened outside the Java Virtual Machine in native code.
# See problematic frame for where to report the bug.
#
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM warning: Using incremental CMS is deprecated and will likely be removed in a future release

Answer 1

Java could be corrupted. A fix for this:

1. Press Windows Key + X.
2. Select Programs and Features.
3. Press F3 key. In the Search box on the top right corner, type “Java”
4. Right click “Java Runtime Environment” from the Search Results, select Uninstall option.
5. Follow the on-screen wizard and then reboot your PC.
6. Reinstall Java from here

---

This could also arise due to conflicts with the User Account Control (UAC), a security feature in Microsoft Windows. You could try disabling UAC:

For Windows 8.1/ 8:

1. Press Windows Key.
2. Type “Control Panel” in the Search Box.
3. Click the Apps icon.
4. Open that from the Search Results.
5. Click User Accounts and Family Safety | User Accounts.
6. Click “Change User Account Control settings” link.
7. Move the slidebar to the extreme bottom, i.e. Never Notify.
8. Click the OK button.

For Earlier Versions of Windows:

1. Click the Start button.
2. Type “Change user account control settings” in the Search Box.
3. Open that from the Search Results.
4. Refer Steps # 7-8 from Windows 8.1/ 8 user’s paragraph.

If you need more info, or don't have Windows 8, go to the original article.