Dark Souls 3 keeps crashing on your computer? This is quite frustrating, but you’re not the only one. The good news is, you can fix Dark Souls 3 crashing quite easily. This post puts together the possible solutions for you.
How to fix Dark Souls 3 crashing
Here are solutions to fix Dark Souls 3 crashing on PC. You shouldn’t have to try them all; just work your way down the list until everything’s working again.
- Disable overlays for your game
- Run in Windowed mode
- Update your video driver
- Set game options to LOW
- Verify Integrity of Game Files
Fix 1: Disable overlays for your game
If there is any overlay software running when you play Dark Souls 3, it may cause game crashing on startup or freezing. It’s normal to use overlays for Steam games, but some games could be incompatible with overlay software.
Try disabling overlays for Dark Souls 3 and see if your game stops crashing.
Fix 2: Run in Windowed mode
If you play Dark Souls 3 in Fullscreen mode, it may crash to your desktop. In this case, you can fix your game crashing problem by switching to Windowed mode.
You can go to the game options and change to Windowed mode, then re-launch your game to see if it works.
If, unfortunately, you can’t access the game options, try modify the settings in the GraphicsConfig file.
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time to open the Run box.
2) Type %appdata% and press Enter.
3) Open DarkSouls3 folder.
4) Open GraphicsConfig.xml with notepad. Then change
<config><ScreenMode>FULLSCREEN</ScreenMode>
to
<config><ScreenMode>WINDOWED</ScreenMode>
5) Save your change and restart your game.
Your problem still persists, don’t worry. There are other solutions.
Fix 3: Update your video driver
Many players have reported that the graphics card driver may be the culprit to the crashing issue, and updating the graphics driver helps resolve the problem. So you should update your graphics card driver to the latest version.
You can update your graphics card driver by navigating to graphics manufacturer website, find the latest version for your video card, then download and install it. This requires time and computer skills.
If you don’t have the time or patience, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.
Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to risk downloading and installing the wrong driver, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing.
You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version it takes just 2 clicks:
1) Download and install Driver Easy.
2) Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
3) Click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system (this requires the Pro version – you’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All).
4) Once your driver has been updated, restart your computer.
Now launch Dark Souls 3 and see if it works.
Fix 4: Set game options to LOW
If your game options are set High, this requires much more system resources and so Dark Souls 3 may crash. In that case, you should set game options to LOW so as to stop your game crashing.
Be sure to set the resolution to the same resolution of your monitor. Also set Effects quality, Shadow quality, and Light quality to LOW.
If you can’t access the in-game settings, try this:
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time to open the Run box.
2) Type %appdata% and press Enter.
3) Open DarkSouls3 folder.
4) Open GraphicsConfig.xml with notepad.
5) Change the game effect settings to Low, especially for Effects quality, Shadow quality, and Light quality.
6) Save your file changes and restart your game.
Then play your game to see if it works properly.
Still no luck? Don’t give up hope. There’s one more thing to try.
Fix 5: Verify Integrity of Game Files
You can try verifying integrity of game files in Steam app if games crash. Here’s how to do it:
1) Open Steam in your computer, and log into your Steam account.
2) Click Library > Games.
3) Right click on Dark Souls 3, and click Properties.
4) Click the Local files tab, and click Verify Integrity Of Game Files.
5) Steam will check your game files and fix any detected problems. Follow the on-screen instructions to finish the process.
6) Restart Steam, and open Dark Souls 3 to play.
There you go. Hope this post comes in handy if Dark Souls 3 crashes on your computer. Should you have any questions, feel free to leave us a comment below.