Games Keep Crashing on PC? 12 Fixes That Work

ByAlex Carter
Illustration of a gamer looking at a frozen game on a monitor with an error message, next to a gaming PC

A game that closes without warning ruins a session. A game that freezes the whole PC is worse. Both problems usually have a clear cause. Work through the fixes in order, from the quick checks to the deeper ones. Test the game after each fix. Stop when the crashes stop. That way you know which step actually helped.

This guide covers crashes to desktop, freezes that force a restart, and games that close during loading or mid-match. If your game only stutters but keeps running, read our stuttering guide instead. If the crash comes with an nvlddmkm Event ID 153 error, skip to the note near the end of this guide.

Topics

Identify the crash pattern

The pattern points at the cause. Answer these questions before you change anything.

  • Does only one game crash, or do many games crash? One game points at that game’s files, settings, or a mod. Many games point at drivers, heat, RAM, or the GPU.
  • When does it crash? On launch, during loading, or after 10 to 30 minutes of play? Launch crashes often mean missing files or runtimes. Crashes after a while of play often mean heat or an unstable overclock.
  • Does the screen go black and recover, or does the PC freeze or restart? A black screen that recovers can be a driver crash. A full restart can be power, heat, or hardware.
  • Did the crashes start after a change? A new driver, a Windows update, a new overclock, or a new mod narrows the search fast. Undo the most recent change first.

Write down any error message word for word. Search that exact message on the game’s support pages later if the general fixes here do not work.

Quick checks first

Start here. These steps take minutes and fix a surprising number of crashes.

  1. Restart your PC. Do not just close and reopen the game. A restart clears stuck processes and temporary driver states.
  2. Close heavy background programs. Browsers with many tabs, recording software, and downloads compete for RAM and CPU.
  3. Check that the game is actually updated. Launchers sometimes leave a pending update that blocks a clean start.
  4. Check that Windows is not mid-update. An update running in the background can stall a game or restart the PC.
  5. Remove mods and custom content, then test the unmodded game. If the crashes stop, add mods back one at a time.
  6. Check the game’s minimum requirements against your PC. A game that needs more RAM or a newer GPU than you have will not run stably, no matter how many fixes you try.

If the game still crashes, move on. Do not skip ahead to hardware tests before trying the driver and file checks below.

Update or clean install your GPU driver

Outdated or corrupt GPU drivers are the most common cause of game crashes. Update first. Clean install only if the normal update does not help.

  1. Download the latest driver from your GPU maker’s official site: NVIDIA or AMD. Pick your exact GPU model and your Windows version.
  2. Install it and restart your PC.
  3. Test the game.

If crashes continue, or if they started right after a driver update, do a clean install:

  1. Download the new driver first, before you remove the old one.
  2. Boot into Safe Mode and run Display Driver Uninstaller (DDU). Select GPU, then your GPU brand, then Clean and restart.
  3. After the restart, install the driver you downloaded. In the NVIDIA installer, choose Custom (Advanced) and tick Perform a clean installation.
  4. Restart again and test the game.

If the newest driver is the problem, roll back to the previous driver version that worked. Download it from the GPU maker’s official archive and install it the same way.

For the full step by step process, see our guide: How to Clean Install GPU Drivers with DDU.

Verify the game files

A single corrupt or missing file can crash a game at the same spot every time. Verifying files checks the installed game against the launcher’s copy and replaces anything broken.

On Steam:

  1. Open your Library.
  2. Right-click the game and choose Properties.
  3. Open the Installed Files tab.
  4. Click Verify integrity of game files.
  5. Wait for it to finish, then launch the game.

Steam may report that one or more files failed to verify. Steam’s own guidance says this is normal for most games, because those are local configuration files that should not be replaced. You can safely ignore that message.

Other launchers have the same idea under different names. Epic Games uses Verify in the game’s menu. Battle.net uses Scan and Repair. Ubisoft Connect and the EA app have repair options in the game’s settings. Use whichever launcher owns the crashing game.

If verification finds nothing and crashes continue, reinstall the game as a last resort for that title. A fresh install rules out file damage that verification missed.

Turn off overlays and background apps

Overlays inject themselves into the game to draw menus, chat, or frame counters. When an overlay conflicts with a game, the game can crash on launch or mid-match. The same applies to capture tools and GPU tuning apps running in the background.

Turn these off one group at a time and test after each group:

  • Discord overlay
  • Steam overlay
  • Xbox Game Bar
  • GeForce Experience or NVIDIA app overlay
  • MSI Afterburner and RivaTuner
  • Recording and streaming software

To test cleanly, close the overlay app completely, not just its on-screen panel. If the crashes stop, update that app to its latest version before turning it back on. An outdated overlay is a common repeat offender.

If you still suspect a background program, run a clean boot. A clean boot starts Windows with a minimal set of drivers and startup programs, so you can tell whether background software is causing the fault. Microsoft’s clean boot guidance uses System Configuration (msconfig): hide all Microsoft services, disable the rest, disable startup items in Task Manager, restart, and test. If the game runs fine in a clean boot, re-enable items in small groups until the crash returns. That identifies the conflicting program. Restore normal startup when you finish testing.

Reset any overclock to stock speeds

An overclock that survives benchmarks can still crash games. Games load the GPU and CPU in uneven bursts, and a borderline overclock fails under exactly that kind of load.

  1. Open your GPU tuning tool and reset the GPU to its default clocks. Remove any custom voltage curve.
  2. If you overclocked the CPU or RAM in the BIOS, reset those to stock settings too. Load the BIOS defaults if you are unsure what you changed.
  3. Test the game at stock speeds.

If the crashes stop at stock speeds, the overclock was unstable. That is useful information, not a failure. A stable overclock is one that survives your actual games, not just a short stress test. Support guidance from game publishers makes the same point: reset overclocked components to manufacturer specifications to stop crashes.

Do not raise voltages to chase stability unless you know what you are doing. Extra voltage adds heat, and heat causes its own crashes.

Check for overheating

Heat is a quiet cause of crashes. A GPU or CPU that gets too hot will throttle first, then crash the game or shut the PC down to protect itself. Crashes that appear after 10 to 30 minutes of play, but never in menus, are a classic heat symptom.

  1. Check airflow. Make sure intake and exhaust fans are not blocked by a wall, a desk panel, or dust.
  2. Clean dust from fan filters and heatsinks with short bursts of compressed air. Hold fans still while you blow them out so they do not spin up.
  3. Check that all fans actually spin under load. A dead case fan or GPU fan is easy to miss.
  4. Monitor temperatures while you play. Watch the GPU and CPU readings during a gaming session, not just in menus.

For a detailed walkthrough of checking GPU temperatures and what the readings mean, see our guide: How to Check GPU Temperature.

If temperatures are high and cleaning does not help, check fan curves in your GPU software or BIOS. A fan curve that stays quiet until the GPU is already hot is a common factory default. Raising the fan speed earlier is a safe, free fix.

Do not open the GPU or repaste it unless you are comfortable with hardware work and you accept the risk. Cleaning and airflow fixes solve most heat crashes without touching the card.

Repair DirectX and Visual C++ runtimes

Many games depend on shared Windows components: DirectX libraries and Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributables. If one of those is damaged or missing, the game may crash on launch or show a missing DLL error.

Do not download single DLL files from random websites. Those files are a known malware risk, and a mismatched file can cause stranger errors than the one you started with. Install the full runtime from Microsoft instead.

  1. If the error names a D3DX, XAudio, or XInput DLL, install the DirectX End-User Runtime from Microsoft’s official download site. This adds the legacy side-by-side libraries that older games expect, without replacing modern DirectX.
  2. For Visual C++ errors, open Settings, then Apps, and find the Microsoft Visual C++ entries. For each one, choose Modify, then Repair.
  3. If the game has a Redist or Prerequisites folder, or a Repair button in its launcher, run those installers. They install the exact runtimes that game was built against.
  4. Restart your PC and test the game.

A 32-bit game needs the x86 Visual C++ package even on 64-bit Windows. Install both x86 and x64 packages when the game’s requirements do not say which one it needs.

Update Windows and check system files

A damaged Windows component can crash any game. Work through these in order.

  1. Install pending Windows updates. Open Settings, then Windows Update, and install everything offered. Restart.
  2. Run System File Checker. Open Command Prompt as administrator and type:
sfc /scannow

Press Enter and wait for it to reach 100 percent. Microsoft’s System File Checker scans protected system files and replaces incorrect versions with correct ones.

  1. If SFC reports corruption it could not fix, run the DISM repair first, then run SFC again:
DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth

Wait for it to finish, restart, then run sfc /scannow again.

If Windows itself is unstable, with crashes outside games too, stop here and consider a Windows repair install or a clean install after backing up your files. Game fixes will not rescue a broken Windows install.

Test your RAM

Faulty RAM causes random crashes. The randomness is the clue. If different games crash at different times with different errors, and you have ruled out drivers and heat, test the memory.

  1. Save your work and close all programs.
  2. Press Windows key + R, type mdsched.exe, and press Enter.
  3. Choose Restart now and check for problems.
  4. Let Windows Memory Diagnostic run. The PC restarts again when it finishes, and the result appears after you sign in.
  5. If the result reports errors, test one RAM stick at a time if you have more than one. This finds the faulty stick.

Faulty RAM is a hardware problem. No driver update or settings change fixes a bad stick. Replace it. If the PC is under warranty, the diagnostic result is useful evidence for a claim.

Check your storage drive

Games installed on a failing drive crash when the game tries to read damaged sectors. Slow loading, textures that pop in late, and crashes at the same loading screen can all point at storage.

  1. Check free space. Keep at least 10 to 15 percent of the drive free. A nearly full drive leaves no room for updates, shader caches, and temporary files.
  2. Check the drive’s health with your drive maker’s official tool, or with CrystalDiskInfo. Look for warnings, not just the headline percentage.
  3. Run a disk check. Open Command Prompt as administrator and type:
chkdsk C: /f

Replace C: with the drive letter the game is installed on. Confirm with Y if asked, then restart so the check can run.

  1. If the drive reports errors, back up your saves and important files first, then move the game to a healthy drive and test.

If many programs besides games also fail to load files, treat the drive as suspect and replace it. A dying drive gets worse, not better.

Lower settings and test one game at a time

If the game crashes only at high settings, the problem may be load, not corruption. High settings raise power draw, heat, and VRAM use all at once.

  1. Drop the preset one step, from Ultra to High or High to Medium.
  2. Turn off ray tracing first. It is the heaviest single setting in most games.
  3. Cap the frame rate at your monitor’s refresh rate. An uncapped frame rate pushes the GPU to full load even in menus.
  4. Test for a full session before changing anything else.

Test one game at a time and one change at a time. Changing drivers, settings, and overlays all at once leaves you guessing about which change helped. If the crashes stop only at low settings on a PC that meets the recommended requirements, go back to the heat and driver sections. Something else is wrong.

For settings that help stability without hurting how the game looks too much, see our guide: PC Graphics Settings Explained. For a related problem where games run slowly instead of crashing, see: How to Fix Game Stuttering on PC.

When to suspect hardware

Software fixes cover most crashes. Suspect hardware when:

  • Many different games crash, and every software fix in this guide has been tried.
  • The PC restarts or shuts down by itself, not just the game closing.
  • Crashes follow a pattern tied to load, like heavy scenes or long sessions, even at low settings and stock clocks.
  • Windows Memory Diagnostic reports errors, or the drive reports warnings.

A note on one specific error: if Event Viewer shows nvlddmkm Event ID 153 alongside the crash, the driver stopped responding. Our dedicated guide covers that error in depth, including the DDU process and driver rollback: How to Fix nvlddmkm Event ID 153.

For suspected hardware, the safe order is: test RAM, test storage, check temperatures and power, then get the PC checked by a repair shop if you cannot isolate the part. Do not keep pushing an unstable PC. Repeated hard shutdowns risk corrupting files and, on a failing drive, losing data.

Frequently asked questions

Why do my games keep crashing but other programs work fine?

Games stress the GPU, CPU, RAM, and storage at the same time in ways that browsers and office apps do not. A borderline driver, an unstable overclock, or a hot GPU can pass light use and fail only in games. That is why the driver, heat, and overclock checks come early in this guide.

Why does only one game crash?

One crashing game usually means that game’s files, settings, mods, or runtimes. Verify that game’s files, remove its mods, and check its own support pages for known issues. If every other game runs fine, your drivers and hardware are probably healthy.

Should I reinstall Windows to fix game crashes?

No, not first. Reinstalling Windows is a last resort. Work through drivers, game files, overlays, overclocks, heat, runtimes, system files, RAM, and storage first. Reinstall Windows only if Windows itself is unstable or if every other fix has failed and you have backed up your files.

Can outdated drivers really crash games?

Yes. GPU drivers translate game code into work your graphics card can run. A corrupt or outdated driver can fail on a new game or a new game update. Updating the driver, or clean installing it when an update does not help, is the single most useful crash fix.

Do I need to buy new hardware if games crash?

Not usually. Most crashes are software: drivers, files, overlays, overclocks, or runtimes. Buy hardware only after testing points at a specific part, such as faulty RAM, a failing drive, or a GPU that overheats after cleaning and airflow fixes.

Why does my game crash after 30 minutes but not at the start?

Crashes that arrive after a while of play often mean heat buildup or an unstable overclock that fails under sustained load. Check temperatures during a full session and reset any overclock to stock speeds to test.

Sources

  • Steam game file verification steps and the note on files that fail to verify: The Windows Club, How to Verify the Integrity of Game Files on PC – https://www.thewindowsclub.com/how-to-verify-the-integrity-of-the-game-files-on-pc
  • Overclock reset advice and game file verification steps: WB Games Support, PC Troubleshooting (Steam) – https://portkeygamessupport.wbgames.com/hc/en-us/articles/10765467342099-PC-Troubleshooting-Steam
  • Overlay and runtime repair steps: Big Fish Games Support, PC Basic PC (Windows) Troubleshooting Guide – https://bfgentertainment.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/44216253547924-PC-Basic-PC-Windows-Troubleshooting-Guide
  • Display Driver Uninstaller in Safe Mode and clean driver install steps: Informatec Digital, How to Use DDU Correctly in Windows 10 and 11 – https://informatecdigital.com/en/How-to-use-DDU-correctly-in-Windows-10-and-11/
  • Legacy DirectX libraries and the warning against single DLL downloads: DisplayCard Repair, Old Games Crashing, Black Screen or Graphics Glitches on Your GPU? – https://www.displaycard-repair.com/blog/gpu-old-games-crash-black-screen-graphics-glitches-directx-compatibility-guide/
  • Visual C++ redistributable versions and matching the package to the app: Windows Forum, DirectX 11 Initialization Failed on Windows 11 – https://windowsforum.com/news/directx-11-initialization-failed-on-windows-11-check-gpu-feature-levels-drivers-and-legacy-libraries.449935/
  • Windows Memory Diagnostic steps (mdsched.exe): Microsoft Learn, Run Diagnostics to Check Your System for Memory Problems – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/technet-magazine/ff700221(v=msdn.10)
  • System File Checker (sfc /scannow) syntax and behavior: Microsoft Learn, Description of System File Checker (Sfc.exe) – https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/installing-updates-features-roles/system-file-checker
  • Clean boot method (msconfig, hide Microsoft services, disable startup items): TechDows, How to Run Any Troubleshooter on Windows 10 and 11 – https://techdows.com/how-to-run-any-troubleshooter-on-windows-10-and-11.html

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Alex Carter is the editor of MyPCGames, a PC gaming and technology publication covering the games and hardware we actually use. Coverage areas: PC gaming guides and best settings, FPS and Windows optimization, PC hardware (GPU, CPU, RAM, SSD) and gaming tech troubleshooting. Editorial standards: settings and fixes are tested before publishing, sponsored content is always disclosed, and mistakes are corrected openly. For editorial feedback, corrections or review requests, reach us via the Contact page.

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