The latest entry in the long-running Call of Duty franchise is suffering a little bit of a rocky launch on some platforms. Although the PS4 version of the game appears to be mostly safe for the moment, PC and Xbox One X users are encountering a variety of Modern Warfare crashing bugs. Here’s what we know about the situation and a few potential fixes for you to try.
How to fix Modern Warfare PC crashing in-game
Some PC players are encountering an issue that sees their game crash to desktop during gameplay. This has been reported to occur in both the campaign and in competitive multiplayer; you’ll know it’s happening when the game display turns black, then the application closes itself without providing any kind of error code. This makes the issue hard to track, as there’s no means of narrowing it down or reporting it to the developers precisely. It has been speculated, however, to be caused by a sudden spike in GPU usage.
There’s no currently known fix, unfortunately, but Activision is likely already looking into it as reports continue to come in.
How to fix Modern Warfare PC crashing at startup
A portion of PC users are having trouble even reaching gameplay, though, in this instance, there does appear to be a known fix. The problem seems to be triggered by interference from additional background applications that are running alongside the game. Killing unnecessary background apps reportedly allows Modern Warfare to run unimpeded, so here’s what to do on Windows 10.
- Click the search box in the taskbar; it’s at the bottom left of your screen
- Type in “task manager”
- Click on the “Task Manager” application that appears
- Within the Task Manager app, click on any other application that isn’t currently required
- Click “End Task” and then repeat for as many applications as required
AutoHotkey is a known culprit, though disabling programs like antivirus could also help. If successful, you’ll need to repeat the process each time you reset your PC and want to play Modern Warfare again
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How to fix Modern Warfare Xbox One X crashing
There are reports that Modern Warfare crashes are occurring specifically on Xbox One X consoles. Original Xbox One and Xbox One S systems appear to be unaffected, though in a tweet Call of Duty: Modern Warfare developer Infinity Ward has confirmed that they’re looking into the issue.
We are seeing a small number of Xbox One X players experience crashes with Modern Warfare. We are already working on a fix. Thanks for your patience and feedback. We will keep you posted.
— Infinity Ward (@InfinityWard) October 25, 2019
A couple of potential crash fixes have already been uncovered by internet sleuths, though your mileage with these may vary. Firstly, one potential fix is to disable cross-platform play via the in-game settings menu.
How to disable cross-play in Modern Warfare
- Boot up Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on you affected Xbox One X console
- Navigate to “Multiplayer” from the main menu
- Once in the multiplayer menu, press start (three horizontal lines) to bring up the options screen
- Press RB three times to reach the “Account” tab
- The “Crossplay” option will already be highlighted and set to “Enabled;” toggle this setting to “Disabled”
This will prevent matchmaking with players on platforms other than Xbox and is said to have resolved the crashing issue for some players.
If you set your region to New Zealand in order to play Modern Warfare early, switching back to your legitimate location now that the game is out worldwide could also be a solution to the problem.
How to change your Xbox profile location
- Boot up your Xbox One X console
- Press the Xbox button on your controller to open the guide
- Navigate to System > Settings > System > Language & location
- Revert to your actual location by selecting it from the list, then opt to restart your console
- Boot up Modern Warfare and hopefully, you should no longer experience crashing
If neither of those solutions works, the developers are confirmed to be investigating the issue and so a Modern Warfare patch should soon be on the way.
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