Modern Warfare 2 Crashing on PC [How to Fix]

Is your Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 on PC crashing constantly while you’re playing with your friends? Is it suddenly coming up with an “Application Has Unexpectedly Stopped Working” error?

It can be quite frustrating if you can’t play the game properly after spending around $70 for it! While Infinity Ward did give us some hope that these bugs will be fixed in the upcoming patch updates, there’s no assurance.

It’s good to stay one step ahead and take measures of your own to tackle this MW2 crashing issue. So, without further delay, let’s take a look at the steps you can take to eliminate the CoD Modern Warfare 2 crashing issues on your PC!

How to fix Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 crashing on PC?

There are several errors that cause these crashes in CoD Modern Warfare 2 and even more solutions that users have reported to work.

The mid-game crashes on PC take place for various reasons. It can happen while you’re in the middle of a mission, or in a lobby with your friends.

Turn off Parallax Effects

The Parallax effect is added in games to provide a 3D touch to the graphical aspects in the game. While it’s not that uncommon in games, it has seemed to be an issue with the Cod MW2.

parallax effects Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

To turn off Parallax effects, firstly navigate to the Interface menu in the game. Scroll down until you come across the Parallax Effects option.

Toggle the button to turn it off and continue playing the game. If that doesn’t stop the game from crashing, move on to the next one!

Change Video Memory Scaling

Your game may be crashing if your GPU’s VRAM isn’t too high and you have background applications running as well.

Video Memory Scaling Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Using up the maximum potential of your VRAM is obviously good for the game, but it can cause the game to crash if it’s depriving other applications off of it. That’s why, you can tune the VRAM-usage down to eliminate game crashes.

Go to the Quality tab of the Graphics menu in the game. Scroll down to the “Video Memory Scale” feature and decrease its value by 10 or 15.

This will make the game use up relatively lesser of your GPU’s VRAM and hopefully, prevent further crashes.

Update Graphics Card Driver

You’ve probably already tried this fix, but since there are frequent and regular updates on graphics drivers, it’s good to make sure that all your drivers are installed and updated properly.

AMD Graphics Driver Update Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2
AMD Graphics Driver Update

If you’re using AMD, you can open the AMD Radeon Software by pressing “Alt + R” on your keyboard and that will show if you have any updates pending.

GeForce Experience can be a user-friendly and convenient software for NVidia gamers for graphics driver updates and additional features.

Restart Shaders Optimization

While this may seem like a pretty basic fix, it can be extremely impactful. You probably noticed that shaders were installed when you first opened the game.  

Restart Shaders Optimization Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Reinstalling shaders may work as a form of repair by clearing out the existing shaders cache, removing any faulty elements and implementing the shaders all over again.

You can find the “Restart Shaders Optimization” once you scroll down in the Display tab of the Graphics menu.  

Click on it and then restart the game to ensure that shaders are reinstalled and reinstated in the game properly.

If your game’s still going off randomly, the problem may be with its compatibility in your system or the installation files.

Repair/Verify Game Files

Repairing or verifying game files will come in handy as the game system will go through all the installation files, looking for a faulty element and resolve the issue.

Faulty installation files can be a big reason for your Modern Warfare 2 crashing randomly and it’s important to remove them from the system.

If you got your game in Battle.net, move to the CoD MW2 game tab and click on the “Settings” icon present just beside the Play button.

Battlenet scan and repair Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

From the options that appear, select “Scan and Repair” for Battle.net to start resolving any improperly installed game file.

In case you have CoD Modern Warfare 2 in Steam, right-click on the game from the game library and open Properties.

Steam verify game file Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

In the Local Files tab, click on “Verify Integrity of Game Files” to start the process of repair and resolve!

Remove tuned weapon attachments from weapons

While I haven’t personally seen a game crash for this specific reason yet, tuned weapon attachments apparently are also causing crashes in-game.

It’s good to be precautious and stay on the safe side; so, just for now, try not to use the weapon tunings that you’ve unlocked and remove any you’ve equipped in order to avoid further crashes!

Disable Full-Screen Optimization

Similar to Minecraft, the Full-Screen optimization is also a concerning issue in Call of Duty MW2.

Disabling full-screen optimization will improve the compatibility of the game with your system and hopefully do something about the crashing error.

compatibility settings Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Browse to the drive where you installed Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and open the game file. Navigate to the .exe application of the game, which should be named “cod”.

Right click on the application and open Properties menu.

Move to the “Compatibility” section and tick the “Disable Fullscreen Optimization” feature.

While you’re at it, enable the “Run as Administration” feature as well. Click on “Apply” and fingers crossed, your game should stop crashing from now!

Limit Number of People in the Party

Too many people in the party can cause the game to crash pretty frequently.

As of now, it’s ideal to have a maximum of 3 players in a party while you’re queuing for a game.

This is one of the more annoying bugs yet, especially for gamers who play in a large group; hopefully, the devs can find a solution to it soon enough!

Refrain from making changes while Queuing and in Kill-Cam

Quite obviously, this solution mainly refers to Multiplayer game modes, whether you’re playing alone or with your friends.

Never change or modify your class when you’re looking for a game in Multiplayer mode. When you’re queuing for a game and start customizing your class, it may lead to your game crashing at that instant.  

Only modify your classes and loadout when you’re just idly sitting in the lobby and not queuing for a TDM or Capture the Flag.

Killcam Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2

Furthermore, when you’re in the Kill-Cam in any Multiplayer mode, don’t change your loadout at that time. This can lead to your game crashing as well.

Wait till the Kill-Cam is over or skip it altogether and change your loadout for the next time you respawn to avoid crashing issues.

Reinstall the Game

This is our last resort, in case any of the above methods haven’t worked for you so far.

Reinstalling the game will do a better job than just repairing/verifying the game files, as the problem may also lie in the installation process of the additional software.

Go to Control Panel and open the “Uninstall a Program” option.

Once you find Call of Duty MW2 in the list of installed applications, right-click and uninstall the game. Make sure you’ve removed all the existing games files from your system too.

After that, reinstall the game from Battle.net or Steam and try to ensure there are no network or external interruptions during the installation. Hopefully, this should be able to fix the crashing issue once and for all.

Wrapping Up

If none of the methods have worked for you, don’t lose hope! Keep your patience and definitely don’t refund!

Since the game is still in its launch period, there will be loads of bugs; however, not being able to play properly after spending so much money can also be quite infuriating.

On a side note, the Special Ops mode in CoD Modern Warfare 2 has been reported to have caused the least amount of crashes; so, you can spend quality time playing the new mode with your friends before the patch updates come in!

Infinity Ward are seriously looking into it and I’m positive that the upcoming patch updates will come with solutions for these frustrating bugs and you can finally have a proper taste of this legendary game.

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