Can these crashes be related to DX? I mean my card (gtx 275) can only work with dx 10 and minimum reqs state dx 11. What do you think? Plus my laptop has gf 730m which is generaly worse than gtx 275 but supports dx 11

Any word on any fixes for this yet???

I got rid of Galaxy entirely, i do have the files downloaded from the website when i used Galaxy the oath was C:\GOG Games\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, ive tried deleteing everything and doing the manual now im getting an error whilst trying to install '-3 checksum error'

Anything on this, got my Hard Copy today and getting the same issues. Re-installing again, just trying to find some work around.

First day of game release, my game would work, but would freeze the image with sound still going on in background after anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes of play, had to force quit the game using task manager. Next day, game would NOT even launch.

It would flash up on the screen for a second, then there was an icon in the taskbar for witcher 3, like it was minimized, I click it, came up for 1 second, then minimized again. Again, had to force quit through task manager.

Tried rolling back Nvidia drivers, and still no dice.

I deleted 2 files:

user.settings
user.settings.bak

located here:

C:\Users\MY WINDOWS ACCOUNT NAME\Documents\The Witcher 3

And BAM, now the game loads, but I had to re-do all my settings. I put everything back, including Full Screen Mode in the graphics options. Quit the game, then tried to re-launch.

Same problem, all over again. Icon in the taskbar like it's minimized, and clicking it just pops it up for one second, then minimized again, can NOT play it.

Again,
I deleted 2 files:

user.settings
user.settings.bak

located here:

C:\Users\MY WINDOWS ACCOUNT NAME\Documents\The Witcher 3

And the game works again, and I re-did all my settings except one:

I left it set to Borderless INSTEAD of changing it to Full Screen in the graphics options.

Played COMPLETELY Crash/Freeze free for over 2 hours last night, and it still works just fine today.

Maybe that will help,
worth a try.

Okay, mine turned out to be graphics driver, had to update to get it to start working.

make sure that your card supports DX11, that was the case with me. Gtx 275 has dx10

I have spent several more hours still without success of getting past the black screen.

Per above suggestion. My game does not even load enough to have created user files, so that did not work.
I installed all Windows Updates along with included Intel update.
I disabled UAC
I re-installed a third time double checking that I installed Game & Patch as Administrator
I reinstalled Galaxy, had it verify files
I uninstalled Galaxy content again and this time it at least both services removed properly from cmd.
I made sure the PhysX Engine was set to the 850M and not the Intel 5000 HD

STILL BLACK SCREEN on load! :-/

I'm glad I didn't rely on solely on PC platform to play this because 3 days in and having it unplayable is quite frustrating.

I had / did that, but I had to go directly to my Graphics Card's properties and do the update on my driver. Even so, as you said, the game is not PC friendly, had a number of crashes and freezes.

Thanks, I've done that too. I'm either showing no updates or have the latest, if the 'Game Ready' driver through NVidia is to be the latest.

I guess, I'm awaiting some confirmation if it's an 850M / processor problem, or if there's something else wrong with the game internally related to specs.

Still fails in exactly the same way for me with the 1.03 patch applied. :-(

Yep, not that I expected differently for me, but 1.03 didn't fix it.

Did isolate the problem though!! The NVidia Driver!!

I rolled it back, which was the 9/2014 release and the game at least launched. It loaded and was playable. For how long I don't know because it played like a chuggy, hideous mess, but clearly something in the driver is impairing load.

I don't know what that means now since something is needed either from CD Projekt Red or NVidia to fix this, but at least it narrowed it down.

I updated the driver back to the new one and sure enough back to the black screen problem. :(

I don't know why but i have the same problem EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (3221225477), tried to uninstall gog Galaxy... didn't work, but when i reinstall nvidia's newest driver (clean installation) and open directly from exe-file (located in istallation location :\The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt\bin) the game works perfectly. Only problem is that i have 560gtx sli and sli is disabled when you perform clean installation and if you do anything with configurations or restart the computer the game doesn't work anymore, so this is why i can't get full potential from the game. This might work with others too. So basically reinstall graphic drivers and start from the exe-file every time you want to play . Hope this works for someone else.

Patch 1.03 completely fixed the issue for me.

hey i had the same Problem and "solved" it today accidently.
I have a Notebook with 2 graphic Cards. The main Intel graphic Card which is directly "clipped" to the gpu and a nvidia graphic Card ( gtx880m) which is switched by the Intel Card when needed ( when a game with Special requirements is running). I have checked several Scenarios today and got to the Point , that the Intel Card doesnt Switch to nvidia at all. This Problem occurs only with witcher 3. Other games are runnning with nvidias gtx.
It also doesnt matter if i Change the options in the nvidia Panel to nvidia Card or the Intel Card. It also doesnt matter if i set the nvidia Card as the standart one and Change therefore also the 3d preferences. Witcher 3 will nevertheless be started by low Intel Card.
Think projekt red are the only one who might solve this Problem or nvidia...
For myself i´ll give up ( spend around 20h , even updated bios..)and wait for an patch.
As far as i know projekt red said that Notebooks wouldnt be supported officially....