Call of Duty: Modern Warfare randomly freezes on PC when you’re enjoying a furious battle, and you have no idea how to fix it? Don’t worry. Here is a full list of fixes to help you out.
8 Fixes for Modern Warfare Freezing:
You may not try them all, just work from the top down until you find the one that works for you.
- Check Modern Warfare’s minimum system requirements
- Avoid PC overheating
- Close background applications
- Update your graphics driver
- Scan and repair game files
- Change in-game graphics settings
- Disable in-game overlay
- Reinstall Modern Warfare
Fix 1 – Check Modern Warfare’s minimum system requirements
To troubleshoot the Modern Warfare freezing issue, the very first step is checking your PC specs. If it doesn’t meet the minimum system requirements for the game, freezing issues are no surprise, and the only solution is to upgrade your PC components.
Here are the minimum specs needed to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare:
| Operating System | Windows 7 64-Bit (SP1) or Windows 10 64-Bit |
| Processor | Intel Core i3-4340 or AMD FX-6300 |
| Memory | 8GB RAM |
| Video | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670 / GeForce GTX 1650 or Radeon HD 7950 |
| Sound Card | DirectX Compatible |
To know your PC specs, you can follow the steps below. If you’ve confirmed your rig is powerful enough, simply jump to Fix 2.
How to check your PC specs:
1) On your keyboard, type the Windows logo key and R at the same time. Then, in the Run box, type dxdiag and click OK.
2) Check the information about your operating system, processor and memory.
3) Select the Display tab to see the video card’s information.
4) Select the Sound tab to view the sound card’s information.
5) Click Exit.
If your computer is above the required level to run Modern Warfare, move on to the second fix.
Fix 2 – Avoid PC overheating
Modern Warfare is a graphic-intensive application that will put load on your CPU and GPU. When these component overheats, the computer will stop functioning to protect the hardware from physical damage, and thus your game freezes.
To avoid this, you should clean the dust regularly and make sure your cooling system is up and running.
If your game just freezes without any overheating symptoms, check the fix below.
Fix 3 – Close background applications
When programs running in the background interfere with Modern Warfare or consume too much resource, freezing issues will occur. So before you start a match, try to shut down all unnecessary background applications. Here’s how to do this:
1) Right-click the taskbar and click Task Manager.
2) Right-click the application you want to close and click End task.
Launch Modern Warfare to test if it runs smoothly enough to complete a match. If not, head towards Fix 4.
Fix 4 – Update your graphics driver
If your graphics driver is faulty or outdated, you may run into various gaming issues such as freezes, lags and crashes. To enjoy the optimal performance of an AAA game like Modern Warfare, you should always have the latest graphics driver installed.
There are mainly two ways to update the graphics driver: manually or automatically.
Option 1 – Download and install the driver manually
Graphics card manufacturers keep releasing new drivers to fix incompatibility issues with games. If you want to get them by yourself, you may spend some time searching and installing.
1) Download the latest and correct drivers from the manufacturer’s websites such as:
2) Open the downloaded file and follow the on-screen instruction to install the driver manually.
Option 2 – Automatically update the graphics driver
If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to update the graphics driver manually, 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 the Update button next to the flagged graphics driver to automatically download the correct version of that driver, then you can manually install it (you can do this with the FREE version).
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).
If you need assistance, please contact Driver Easy’s support team at support@drivereasy.com.
If the freezing problem persists after you install the latest graphics driver, try the next fix.
Fix 5 – Scan and repair game files
Missing or corrupted game files are also common culprits of game crashes or freezes, but it’s not difficult to repair them.
Here are the steps:
1) Open the Battle.net app, and click Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on the left pane.
2) Click Options and select Scan and Repair.
3) Click Begin Scan.
This will automatically scan and repair any missing or corrupted game files. After the process completes, relaunch Modern Warfare and check for the issue. If this doesn’t help, go for the next fix.
Fix 6 – Change in-game graphics settings
Many players will maximize the in-game settings for the best experience, but that could overload your GPU and increase the risk of freezing. Lowering the graphics may make your game more fluid.
1) Launch Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and enter the Options menu.
2) Select the Graphics tab. Then, click Display Mode and select Fullscreen from the drop-down menu.
3) Disable Sync Every Frame (V-Sync).
4) Scroll down to the Details & Textures tab, and configure the settings as below:
- Texture Resolution: Medium or Low
- Texture Filter Anisotropic: Low
- Particle Quality: Low
- Bullet Impacts and Sprays: Disabled
- Tessellation: Disabled
5) Click Apply Settings.
These settings are expected to balance your game performance and visual quality. You could gradually increase the settings to test which combination works the best and won’t trigger critical problems. If the lower settings don’t work, try Reset tab to Default.
If Modern Warfare still freezes no matter how you change the settings, turn to the next method.
Fix 7 – Disable in-game overlay
Many gamers reported the overlay feature would lead to Modern Warfare freezing. So you should disable it on GeForce Experience and Discord to solve your problem.
On GeForce Experience
1) Run GeForce Experience.
2) Click the cogwheel icon at the upper right corner.
3) Toggle off In-game overlay.
On Discord
1) Run Discord, and click the cogwheel icon at the bottom of the left pane.
2) Select the Overlay tab on the left pane, and toggle off Enable in-game overlay.
If you want to disable the overlay feature just for Modern Warfare, navigate to the Games tab on the left pane, and click the computer icon next to Modern Warfare to toggle off overplay.
Launch Modern Warfare to see if the freezing issue disappears. If things don’t get any better after you turn off the overlay, check out the last fix.
Fix 8 – Reinstall Modern Warfare
If none of the preceding solutions resolves Modern Warfare freezing, try reinstalling the game as a last resort.
1) Run Battle.net application, and click Call of Duty: Modern Warfare on the left pane.
2) Select Options and click Uninstall Game.
3) Download the latest version of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and install the game again.
Hopefully one of the fixes helps and you’re able to enjoy Modern Warfare again. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave a comment below.
