Borderlands 3 keeps crashing on your PC? Don’t worry… Although it’s incredibly frustrating, you’re definitely not the only person to experience this problem. Thousands of players have recently reported the very same issue. More importantly, you should be able to fix it pretty easily…
Try these fixes
Here’s a list of fixes that have resolved this problem for other Borderlands 3 players. You don’t have to try them all. Just work your way through the list until you find the one that does the trick for you.
- Update your graphics driver
- Install the latest game patch
- Perform a Windows Update
- Modify the graphics settings in the game
- Stop overclocking
- Verify the game file
- Add Borderland 3 to the exception list of your 3rd party antivirus software
- Perform a clean boot
- Reinstall the game
Fix 1: Update your graphics driver
Graphics card manufacturers like Nvidia, AMD and Intel constantly release new graphics drivers to fix bugs and improve the gaming performance and experience.
If the graphics driver on your PC is outdated or corrupted, you may not be able to enjoy the optimal gaming experience, and sometimes you may run into the Borderlands 3 crash issue.
To fix this issue, the first thing you should do is update your graphics driver. There are two ways that you can update your graphics driver:
Manual driver update – You can update your graphics drivers manually by going to the manufacturer’s website for your graphics card, and searching for the most recent correct driver. Be sure to choose only drivers that are compatible with your Windows version.
Automatic driver update – If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to update your video and monitor drivers manually, you can, instead, do it automatically with Driver Easy.
Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for your exact graphics cards, and your Windows version, and it will download and install them correctly:
- Download and install Driver Easy.
- Run Driver Easy and click Scan Now. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
- Click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system.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 need the Pro version of Driver Easy to do this, so you’ll be prompted to upgrade.
Don’t worry; it comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you don’t like it you can get a full refund, no questions asked.
(Alternatively if you’re comfortable manually installing drivers, you can click ‘Update’ next to each flagged device in the free version to automatically download the correct driver. Once it’s downloaded, you can manually install it.)
Fix 2: Install the latest game patch
Gearbox Software (the developer of Borderlands 3) releases regular game patches to fix bugs and improve gaming performance. It’s possible that a recent patch has caused the game crash issue, and that a new patch is required to fix it.
If a patch is available, just download and install it to see if it can fix the crash issue; if there’s no patches available, or if the issue persists after you installed the latest patch, try the next fix, below.
Fix 3: Perform a Windows Update
According to Gearbox Software, to ensure compatibility, you will need to update your Microsoft C++ redistributables and .NET Framework. If your PC is running on Windows 10, you just need to perform a Windows Update. Here’s how to do it:
- 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 updates available, Windows will automatically download and install the updates.
If there are no updates related to MS Visual C++ or .NET Framework, you can download their installation files via the links below on your own and manually install them on your PC.
Visual C++ Redistributable 2013:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=40784
Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=30653
After installing Microsoft Visual C++ 2013 and Microsoft .NET Framework, you need to restart Windows. Then launch Borderlands 3 to see if this issue persists. If not, congratulations, you’ve resolved this issue! If this issue reappears, try the next fix, below.
Fix 4: Modify the graphics settings in the game
If your PC fails to meet the recommended system requirements for Borderlands 3, you should use a reduced settings profile for graphics related features, because higher settings will increase the workload for your PC, which may even lead to game crash issue.
According to the players who successfully fixed this issue, here’re some tips you can try:
- Use Fullscreen instead of Windowed Borderless
- Turn off VSync
- Set your frame cap to whatever your monitor refresh rate is set to
Launch the game again in a reduced settings to see it it crashes or not. If the game still crashes, try the next fix, below.
Fix 5: Stop overclocking
Many players would like to overclock the CPU or turbo boost the graphics card to gain a better FPS. However, overclocking usually crashes the game. To prevent game crashes, you should reset the CPU or the graphics card to the manufacturer specifications.
Some players reported that the game may crash when they’re using MSI Afterburner or Zotac Firestorm. So if you’ve enabled MSI Afterburner or Zotac Firestorm, try disabling them to see if this issue persists. If not, try the next fix, below.
Fix 6: Verify the game file
The game crash issue can also be triggered by the faulty game files. To fix this issue, you need to verify the game files. Here is how to do it:
- In Epic Game Launcher, navigate to your Library. Click the cog icon on the lower-right corner of Borderlands 3.
- Click Verify to start verifying the game files.
Launch Borderlands 3 after verifying the game file to see if this fix works. If not, try the next fix, below.
Fix 7: Add Borderland 3 as an exception to your 3rd party antivirus software
This issue may also be caused by your third-party antivirus application. Since the third-party antivirus application hooks very deep into your system, it may interfere with Borderlands 3.
Since Borderlands 3 consumes a lot of memory and CPU usage when you’re playing a game, many third-party antivirus application may regard it as a potential threat and Borderlands 3 may not run as expected. You can try adding Borderlands 3 as an exception to your third-party antivirus application.
Fix 8: Perform a clean boot
You may need to perform a clean boot if the Borderlands 3 crashing issue persists. The clean boot is a troubleshooting technique that allows you to manually disable startups and services so that you can find out the problematic software that makes your game keep crashing. Once you find it out, just uninstall it, and then the this issue will be solved. Here’s how to do it:
- On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time to open the Run Dialog. Type msconfig and press Enter to open the System Configuration window.
- Navigate to the Services tab, check Hide all Microsoft services and then click Disable all.
- Select the Startup tab and click Open Task Manager.
- On the Startup tab in Task Manager, for each startup item, select the item and then click Disabled.
- Go back to the System Configuration window and click OK.
- Click Restart to restart your PC.
Restart your PC and run Borderlands 3 to check whether the problem reappears. If not, you need to open the System Configuration window again to enable services and applications one by one until you find the problematic software. After enabling each services, you need to restart your PC to apply the changes.
Once you find out the problematic software that make the game keep crashing, you need to uninstall it to avoid game crashing issues in the future.
Fix 9: Reinstall the game
If none of the fixes above works for you, you may need to try reinstalling the game to see if it would crash again. Normally, Borderlands 3 won’t crash after you reinstall it.
Hopefully, one of the fixes above helped you resolve this issue. If you have any suggestions or questions on this issue, you’re more than welcome to leave us a comment below. Thanks for reading!