Random freezes in Warzone can ruin your chances at countless wins and standoffs. And you may be looking for troubleshooting tips and steps. In this post, we’ve got you covered. We’ll help you pinpoint what is locking you up and with the list of methods listed below, you’ll be able to enjoy and play Warzone without interruptions.
Try these fixes:
You may not need to try them all; simply work your way down the list until you find the one that works.
- Make sure your computer meets the system requirements
- Repair your game files
- Update your Windows
- Update your graphics driver
- Disable fullscreen optimizations
- Turn off Windows Game Mode
- Turn off background apps
- Make sure your computer is not overheating
1. Make sure your computer meets the system requirements
In general, Call of Duty: Warzone has rather high requirements for your computer, especially when compared to other games. So if your Warzone freezes a lot, one of the first things you need to check is whether your computer meets the minimum system requirements for the game. If your machine is below or just at the requirements, you may need to upgrade your hardware for COD Warzone to run smoothly.
Here are the requirements for your reference:
Minimum | Recommended | |
OS | Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update) | Windows 10 64 Bit (latest update) or Windows 11 64 Bit (latest update) |
Processor | Intel Core i3-6100 / Core i5-2500K or AMD Ryzen™ 3 1200 | Intel Core i5-6600K / Core i7-4770 or AMD Ryzen 5 1400 |
Memory | 8 GB RAM | 12 GB RAM |
Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 or AMD Radeon RX 470 – DirectX 12.0 compatible system | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580 – DirectX 12.0 compatible system or Intel Arc A770 |
DirectX | Version 12 | Version 12 |
Storage | 125 GB available space | 125 GB available space |
Internet | Broadband Internet connection | Broadband Internet connection |
If you’re not sure how to check your computer specs, you can press the Windows key and the R key on your computer at the same time, then type msinfo32 to check your system specs in detail:
When you’re sure that your machine meets the system requirements to run the game, but COD Warzone still crashes, please move on to the other fixes below.
2. Repair your game files
Corrupted and damaged game files can cause a wide variety of problems and errors, and the freezes in COD Warzone could be one of it. To see if this is your case, you can use the built-in repair tool to verify and repair your game files.
On Steam:
- Launch Steam.
- In the LIBRARY, right-click on COD Warzone and select Properties from the drop-down menu.
- Select the Installed Files tab and click on the Verified integrity of game files button.
- Steam will verify the game’s files – this process may take several minutes.
On Battle.net:
- Open your Battle.net desktop app.
- Click the icon of your game. Then click the cogwheel next to the Play button and select Scan and Repair.
- Then click Begin scan. This process may take under 3 minutes, or even half an hour, depending on how many files the tools need to repair.
When the process is finished, launch COD Warzone. If the game freezeing problem persists, try the next fix below.
3. Update your Windows
If your system isn’t updated regularly, there could be compatibility issues that can cause freezes in COD Warzone. To make sure that you have the latest available updates installed:
On Windows 10:
- On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and I at the same time to open Windows Settings. Then click Update & Security.
- Click Check for updates. Windows will start searching for available updates. If there are any, Windows will automatically download and install the updates.
On Windows 11:
- On your keyboard, hit the Windows key, then type check for updates, then click Check for updates.
- Click Check for updates, and Windows will scan for any available updates.
- If there are available updates, Windows will automatically download them for you. Restart your computer for the update to take effect if needed.
- If there are no available updates, you’ll see You’re up to date like this.
Then try your COD Warzone again to see if it still freezes. If the problem remains, please move on to the next fix.
4. Update your graphics driver
Your graphics driver is an essential piece of software that lets your system communicate with the graphics card. If it is outdated, it would cause noticeable performance problems. Therefore, when you experience random freezes when playing Warzone, you should make sure your graphics driver is up-to-date.
To update your graphics driver, you can either do it manually via the Device Manager or head to the manufacturer’s driver download page (NVIDIA / AMD) to download and install the exact driver for your system. Or you can use an automatic driver updater such as Driver Easy. With Driver Easy, you don’t need to waste your time hunting for driver updates as it will take care of the busy work for you.
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 mistakes when installing.
You can update your drivers automatically with either the 7 days free trial or the Pro version of Driver Easy. It takes just 2 clicks, and you get full support and a 30-day money-back guarantee with the Pro version:
- Download and install Driver Easy.
- Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
- Click the Activate & Update button next to the flagged device to automatically download and install the correct version of this driver.
Or 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 (You’ll need the Pro version for this – when you select Update All, you’ll get a prompt to upgrade. If you’re not prepared to purchase the Pro version yet, Driver Easy provides a 7-day trial at no cost, granting access to all Pro features like fast downloads and easy installation. No charges will occur until after your 7-day trial period ends.) - After updating, restart your computer to take effect.
After updating drivers, restart your PC and launch Warzone to test the gameplay. If your game still randomly freezes, proceed to the next fix.
5. Disable fullscreen optimizations
Many gamers found that there are certain CPU demanding games that are particularly affected by performance issues when enabling fullscreen optimizations. Although Warzone might not be one of them, you can actually attempt to disable fullscreen optimizations to check if this helps improve your gaming experience:
- Open your Battle.net desktop app.
- Click the icon of COD Warzone. Then click the cogwheel next to the Play button and select Show in Explorer.
- Open the folder Call of Duty Modern Warfare. From there, scroll down and find ModernWarfare.exe. Make sure you right-click it and select Properties.
- Select the Compatibility tab. Check the box Disable fullscreen optimizations. Then click Change High DPI settings.
- Check the box Override high DPI scaling behavior. Then click OK.
- Click Apply > OK.
After applying the changes, play your game. If this didn’t give you any luck, don’t worry. Below are some other fixes for you to try.
6. Turn off Windows Game Mode
Game Mode is a feature in Windows 10 and Windows 11 to make gaming a much better experience. But there have been quite a few reports that Windows Game Mode has been causing a lot of problems with some major titles, including Call of Duty: Warzone. To reduce the chances of game freezes occurring, you’re supposed to disable Windows 10 Game Mode. Below are the instructions on how to do this.
- On your keyboard, press the Windows + I keys simultaneously to open Settings.
- Click Gaming.
- Select Game Mode. Then click the toggle to turn Game Mode Off.
On Windows 11:
- On your keyboard, press the Windows + I keys simultaneously to open Settings.
- Select Gaming, and Game Mode.
- Toggle the Game Mode to Off.
If that didn’t seem to mitigate the problem with freezes in COD Warzone, move on to the next solution.
7. Turn off background apps
You may not know that many apps run in the background at all times – even the ones you never use! They use a portion of your system resources, making your machine run a little bit slower. And this may result in poorer programs performance. To avoid game interruptions, you can attempt to disable background apps while playing Warzone:
- On your keyboard, press the Windows key and X at the same time to select Task Manager.
- Select each resource-hogging application and click End Task to close them one by one.
After you’ve done this, play Warzone and you should be able to have an enjoyable gaming experience without encountering random freezes.
If you’re still having the freezing issue, give repairing system files a try and see if it does the trick.
8. Make sure your computer is not overheating
Game crashing is also likely related to an overheating computer environment, especially if your computer crashes too when you’re playing other games, or using other resource-hungry software programs like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.
If you can feel the heat on your computer case or on your computer itself, or you can hear the fan(s) running very loud when you play COD Warzone, you need a cooler environment for your machine to make sure that your computer doesn’t crash because of the heat.
You can usually use free tools like HWMonitor or AIDA64 to tell whether your computer CPU, the CPU core, and the GPU are running too hot.
Here is a detailed post with more detailed information if your computer is overheating and how you can do about it: How to Know Your CPU Overheating and How to Fix It
Hope this post helped! Feel free to leave us a comment below if you have any suggestions or questions. We’ll get back to you ASAP.