Wandering around the forum I found this post: https://forums.factorio.com/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=72503

In it posila suggested adding --dxgi-blit-model to the Launch Options in Steam.

I figured what the hay and tried it. It worked!

I guess unless something reverts on a future game launch (fingers ...

I've always played the stable branch but wanted to try the new features so I switched my Steam Launch Properties to Experimental.

The intro music would begin but the splash would not come up. Instead I would get a crash/lock and the error dialog.

I switched to 0.17.63 and experienced the same. So ...