[Fixed] Starfield Freezing or Crashing on PC

If you’re experiencing issues with Starfield crashing or freezing on your Windows computer, don’t worry, you’re not alone. Here are some of the most effective fixes that have helped many other games with the same problem, and we suggest you try them as well to fix the Starfield freezing or crashing problem.

Try these fixes

You don’t have to try all the following troubleshooting methods: just work your way down the list until you find the one that fixes the Starfield freezing or crashing problem for you.

1. Check the minimum system requirements for Starfield
2. Install Starfield on an SSD instead of an HDD
3. Clean reinstall your graphics card driver
4. Set your discrete graphics card as the primary
5. Disable Steam Overlay
6. Verify your game files
7. Run Starfield as admin
8. Add Starfield to your antivirus exclusion list
9. Close other applications

1. Check the minimum system requirements for Starfield

Starfield has rather high requirements for your computer, especially when compared to other games. So if your Starfield freezes or crashes 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 Starfield to run smoothly.

Here are the requirements for your reference:

If you’re not sure how to check your computer specs, you can refer to this post here for more detailed information: How to Check Your PC’s Specifications

When you’re sure that your machine meets the system requirements to run the game, but Starfield still crashes, please move on to the other fixes below.

2. Install Starfield on an SSD instead of an HDD

As mentioned above, Starfield has such high requirements for players’ computers that an SSD is required for Starfield to be installed. So if your Starfield freezes or crashes easily, please make sure that it’s installed on an SSD instead of an HDD.

To tell which drive you have, please view the Task Manager:

1. Right-click the Windows taskbar and select Task Manager.
   
2. Click the second icon (Performance), then check the Type field.
   
3. To make sure that you have the best gaming experience with Starfield and are free from the pain of constant freezes and crashes, it’s highly recommended that you install the game on your SSD.

If your Starfield still freezes or crashes when you have it installed on the SSD, please move on to the other fixes below.

3. Clean reinstall your graphics card driver

An outdated or incorrect display card driver could also be the culprit to your Starfiled’s freezing or crashing problem, so if the above two methods don’t help to stop the freezes and crashes for your Starfield, it’s likely that you have a corrupted or outdated graphics driver. So you should do a clean installation of your graphics card driver to see if it helps.

3.1 Uninstall the old graphics card driver

1. On your keyboard, press the Windows key and the R key at the same time, then type devmgmt.msc and hit Enter.
   
2. Double-click to expand the Display adapters category, then right-click your display card and select Uninstall device.
   
3. Tick the box for Attempt to remove the driver for this device and click Uninstall.
4. Repeat the same to remove the driver for your other display card if you have one.
5. Then update your graphics card driver.

3.2 Update the new graphics card driver

There are mainly 2 ways you can update your graphics driver: manually or automatically.

Option 1: Update your graphics driver manually

If you’re a tech-savvy gamer, you can spend some time updating your GPU driver manually.

To do so, first visit the website of your GPU manufacturer:

• NVIDIA
• AMD
• Intel

Then search for your GPU model. Note that you should only download the latest driver installer that’s compatible with your operating system. Once downloaded, open the installer and follow the on-screen instructions to update.

Option 2: Update your graphics driver automatically (Recommended)

If you don’t have the time, patience or skills to update the 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 be troubled by the wrong driver you would be downloading, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing. Driver Easy handles it all.

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 steps (and you get full support and a 30-day money back guarantee):

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.)
   Note: You can do it for free if you like, but it’s partly manual.
4. Restart your PC for the changes to take effect.

Launch Starfield again and see if the latest graphics driver stops the freezes and crashes. If this fix doesn’t work for you, try the next fix, below.

4. Set your discrete graphics card as the primary

If you have a discrete graphics card, you can set it as the primary so Starfield can run more smoothly with a more powerful hardware device. To do so:

• I have an Nvidia display card
• I have an AMD display card

4.1 I have an Nvidia display card

1. Right-click on your desktop and select NVIDIA Control Panel.
   
2. Select Manage 3D settings on the left menu, and select Program Settings on the right panel. Then click the Add button.
3. Navigate to the folder where you install Starfield. (It’ll most likely be C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Starfield). Then select the executable file for Starfield.
4. Select High-performance NVIDIA processor for the Select the preferred graphics processor for this program option.
   
5. In the Specify the settings for this program: section, scroll down to find the Power management mode, then select Prefer maximum performance.
6. Click Apply to save the changes.

Then run Starfield again to see if the freezes and crashes still remain. If so, please move on to the next fix below.

4.2 I have an AMD display card

1. Right click on your desktop and select AMD Radeon Settings
   
2. Select System.
   
3. Select Switchable Graphics.
   
4. Click Installed Profile Applications if Starfield is not shown in Running Applications. Click the .exe for Starfielf and select High Performance.
   

Then run Starfield again to see if the freezes and crashes still remain. If so, please move on to the next fix below.

5. Disable Steam Overlay

Having Steam Overlay enabled consumes more of your system resources, which could result in a low frame rate or performance issues like freezing or crashing. So it’s also suggested to disable the Overlay. To do so:

1. Open your Steam software and click Steam on the top left corner. Select Settings.
   
2. Navigate to the In-Game tab, and uncheck these boxes to disable the overlay feature. Click OK to save the changes.
   

Then run Starfield again to see if the freezes and crashes still happen. If the problem remains, please move on to the other fixes below.

6. Verify your game files

Corrupted or missing game files will also cause your Starfield to crash or freeze from time to time. To see if this is the case, you can verify your game files:

1. Launch the Steam app and navigate to the LIBRARY tab, then right-click Startfield and select Properties.
   
2. Click Installed Files, and click Verify Integrity of game files.
   
3. Then wait for the process to be done – it could take several minutes.
4. When the verification is done, launch Starfield again to see if it stops freezing and crashing now. If not, please move on to the next fix.

7. Run Starfield as admin

If Starfield lacks administrative privileges, which ensure that you have full rights to do anything it needs on your computer, it’ll fail to launch properly as well. To check if that’s your case, you can try running it as an administrator:

1. Right-click your Steam desktop icon and select Properties.
   
2. Select the Compatibility tab. Tick the box for Run this program as an administrator. Then click Apply > OK to save the changes.
   
3. You may also want to tick the box for Run this program in compatibility mode for: then select Windows 8 from the dropdown list.
   

Now open Starfield again (it should be opened with administrative permission), to see if it still freezes or crashes. If the problem remains still, please move on to the next fix.

8. Add Starfield to your antivirus exclusion list

Freezing or crashing Starfield 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 Steam.

Since Steam consumes a lot of memory and CPU usage when you’re playing a game, many third-party antivirus applications may regard it as a potential threat and Steam may not run as expected. You can try adding Steam as an exception to your third-party antivirus application. 

9. Close other applications

If there are many resource-hungry applications running in the background, Starfield may freeze, stutter, or even crash. So before you start gaming, make sure to close all unneeded applications.

1. Right-click any empty space on the taskbar and select Task Manager.
   
2. Select each resource-hogging application and click End Task to close them one by one.
   

Then run Starfield now to see if the freezing and crashing stops.

Thanks for reading such a long post, and we sincerely hope that one of the fixes above helps to stop your Starfield from freezing or crashing. If you have any other suggestions that work well for you, please feel free to leave a comment. 🙂

• game crash
• games