What Causes Games to Crash?
When you purchase a new game, you want to fully experience it and have it run smoothly without any issues. However, sometimes your games may unexpectedly crash. As the Techcolic team, we’ve compiled a guide on What Causes Games to Crash? where we explore the common reasons behind game crashes on your computer and provide the best solutions to fix them.
What Causes Games to Crash?
Insufficient Hardware Specifications
At first glance, this might seem like a simple reason, but people sometimes forget to compare their hardware specifications with a game’s minimum requirements.
When purchasing games from stores like Steam, always check the system requirements section. If the necessary information isn’t available in the store, you can also visit the game’s official website. If your hardware doesn’t meet the game’s system requirements, you might need to upgrade your computer.
Overclocking
Overclocking is when users run their systems at higher speeds than the manufacturer recommends to boost performance. Although overclocking isn’t as popular as it once was, many gamers still overclock their CPUs to gain performance advantages.
With adequate cooling, CPU overclocking can yield good results. However, this doesn’t guarantee that everything will work flawlessly. If you experience system instability or game crashes, you may need to reset your processor to its default settings.
In-Game Settings
Most modern games have specialized graphic settings that allow you to adjust performance. Although games typically start with settings suitable for your hardware, issues can still arise.
You can prevent these issues by accessing the video settings section in your game and lowering the settings. Try reducing each graphic setting one step at a time and test the performance until the crashes stop. Repeat this process until you find the right balance between performance and graphic quality.
Power Supply Unit (PSU)
Game crashes on your computer can also occur due to issues with the power supply unit (PSU). This typically happens when the graphics card demands more power than the current PSU can provide. To fix this, you may need to upgrade to a better PSU that can supply sufficient power.
However, before replacing the PSU, ensure that the graphics card and the inside of the computer are clean. Dust buildup can increase the temperature inside the computer, putting additional stress on the CPU and graphics card, which might lead to system crashes.
Drivers
Games can also crash due to driver-related issues. For instance, graphics card drivers need to be as up-to-date as the game itself.
To update your graphics card drivers, visit the manufacturer’s website and download the latest version of the driver. Additionally, check to ensure that your Windows operating system is also up to date.
Slow or Unstable Internet Connection
Game crashes during online gameplay can also stem from network issues such as delays in communication between the game client and remote servers. Therefore, ensure that your internet connection speed is suitable for gaming.
A VPN connection can be another contributing factor to game crashes. If the VPN server experiences interruptions or the VPN client fails to provide a stable connection, this situation may arise. Additionally, playing on distant game servers while using a VPN can exacerbate latency issues. To prevent game crashes related to internet issues, you may consider avoiding the use of VPN altogether.
Digital Rights Management (DRM)
In some cases, DRM can impose additional strain on system resources during authentication processes. Typically, what causes your game to crash is the state of the DRM client or remote server.
If your game offers an offline play option, you may need to utilize it. This will prevent DRM from continuously checking for suspicious activity in the game or account with the remote server.
Game Mode
If you’re using a Windows operating system, enabling Game Mode can help prevent crashes. Enabling Game Mode optimizes your computer for games by limiting other activities.
To enable Game Mode in Windows:
- Go to Settings.
- Navigate to Gaming > Game Mode section.
Antivirus Program
Another issue that could constantly cause your games to crash is antivirus programs. These programs typically scan for suspicious files actively in the background.
Sometimes, when a harmless file is mistakenly identified as dangerous and quarantined, it can lead to your game crashing. To prevent this, you can lower the file scanning level or disable it entirely while playing games.
Open Applications Running in the Background
Ensuring that no other software is running while gaming is crucial. You may need applications like Discord for voice chat, but beyond that, it’s beneficial to have nothing else taxing the computer.
Aside from closing other applications while gaming, ensure that you don’t have too many tabs open in your browser. Each open browser tab consumes a significant amount of your RAM.
Have you ever experienced crashes in your games? How did you resolve the issue? Don’t forget to share your thoughts on what causes games to crash in the comments section below, dear techcolic.com readers.