PC Keeps Crashing While Gaming? Why and 12 Quick Fixes

Your PC keeps crashing while playing Valorant, Fortnite or other games? PC keeps freezing while gaming? PC crashes when starting games? Or the PC is just crashing randomly while running any game? Alright, if you’re experiencing a similar frustrating problem with your Windows PC crashing while gaming, land on this page to easily tackle it. 

Why does my PC keep crashing when I play games?

Before you take an action, learn about the reasons that may do you a great favor. Some common factors leading to PC keeps crashing while gaming are listed as follows:

Software issues：

1. Game files get broken during download or installation.
2. Third-party applications conflict with your game.
3. Graphics card drivers are unstable or incompatible.
4. Certain system files are corrupted on PC.
5. Any viruses or malwares infect the computer.
6. Anti-virus programs block the game from working fine.

Hardware issues:

1. Your PC’s specs don’t meet the system requirements of your game.
2. Overlocking GPU or CPU interferes with the game’s performance.
3. Computer resources like Power Supply Unit (PSU) are insufficient.
4. RAM sticks are faulty or improperly installed.
5. Hardware components are overheating or not supported by PC motherboards.

Now you can do a basic troubleshooting based on the above reasons. Once you fail to solve the PC keeps crashing when playing games problem by yourself, read on for the right guide.

 

Before fix: Recover lost game data from crashed PC

There is an essential point that you cannot ignore: a crashed PC may result in game data loss. Before fixing PC keeps crashing while gaming, in order to recover your lost game progress or prevent game files from a more severe loss, it’s strongly recommended to adopt a piece of dedicated game data recovery software at the first hand.

The most trustworthy program that supports crashed PC recovery must be Cisdem Data Recovery. With its exceptional support of file formats, in addition to game files, this feature-packed tool can also restore missing files of pictures, audios, documents, emails, archives and more than 1000 types from a crashing computer. It’s capable of retrieving data even from a frozen PC that won’t boot up.

Just free download Cisdem Data Recovery and get back missing game data with no hassles:

Free Download Windows 11/10/8/7

Steps to recover game data from a crashed PC:

1. Install and launch Cisdem on your PC.
2. Select Crashed PC Recovery and click on “Go to Recover”.
3. Prepare a USB drive, connect it with your PC, select it and click Create to create a bootable drive.
4. Wait for the creating process to complete.
5. Reboot your PC while pressing F2 to enter BIOS, set it to boot up from “Removable Devices” (the USB bootable drive created just now), and press F10 to save and exit.
6. After booting, choose and scan the exact PC hard drive from which you have to recover missing game data.
7. When scanning done, select the wanted game files and click Recover to revert them back to your PC.

 

12 ways to fix PC keeps crashing while gaming

After the necessary crashed PC recovery, it’s time to deal with the PC keeps crashing when playing games trouble, exempting from future worries. Here are altogether 12 fixes to try out, at least one of which can suit your needs.

Fix 1: Make sure your PC meets the game's system requirements

If the PC’s hardware specs are too low to run your game, PC crashing while gaming seems inevitable. So the first step is to make sure that your PC meets the minimum system requirements of your game. Navigate to the game’s official website to figure out its requirements, and then compare them with your PC’s spec. This is how to check PC spec on Windows 11 or 10:

1. Press Windows+R to open Run box.
2. Input dxdiag > click OK to open DirectX Diagnostic Tool.
3. From System and Display tab, check the relevant specs.

In case of no suitable PC hardware, upgrade your Windows OS or purchase a new gaming PC.

 

Fix 2: Downgrade graphics drivers

Graphics drivers on PC usually play a key role in the display and screen of your game. That’s why a problematic graphics driver is also a culprit in PC keeps crashing while gaming issue. While most bloggers are talking about updating drivers to the newest versions, they are totally misleading because upgraded drivers will contain more bugs. 

The fact is that it’s better to go for the previous versions of drivers, which are more stable and consistent for games to run normally.

1. Press Windows+X to open Power User Menu > select Device Manager.
2. Locate the graphics driver that needs to be downgraded > right-click on it > choose Properties.
3. Go to Driver tab > click Roll Back Driver button. If this button is disabled, it means your Windows has no previous driver to roll back to, so proceed to other fixes.
4. Follow up the subsequent prompts to restore the graphics driver installed earlier.
5. At final, the PC will restart automatically and verify if your problem has been resolved.

 

Fix 3: Disable Windows automatic update

Likewise, an updated Windows system can have a negative influence on your game performance as well. The solution is to disable the Windows automatic updates.

1. Press Windows+R to launch Run box.
2. Type services.msc > press Enter.
3. Find Windows Update > double-click on it.
4. Click the drop-down menu of Startup type > choose Disabled > click OK and Apply to confirm the change.

 

Fix 4: Avoid overheating

Inadequate cooling will lead to overheated components on PC, further causing crashes while gaming as the computer tries to protect itself from damage. Therefore, check the PC’s cooling system to see if there is an overheating issue. If yes, clean any dust buildup from vents and fans, meanwhile ensure the right amount of airflow within the case to cool down your PC. If your PC crashes when playing games without overheating, head over to other potential methods as following.

 

Fix 5: Prioritize computer resources for your game

Insufficient PC resources is another main concern for PC keeps crashing while gaming issue. When background apps or devices take up too much resources like CPU/GPU usage, your PC won’t have the ability to run games smoothly. Here 3 options will be explored about setting your game as high priority to use computer resources.

1# Do a clean boot

1. Search for msconfig > open System Configuration.
2. From Services tab, tick “Hide all Microsoft services” > click Disable all and then OK.
3. Switch to Startup tab > click Open Task Manager.
4. Choose each startup program and click Disable button to close them all.
5. Restart your Windows PC to see whether the crashes are over.

 

2# Enable Game Mode

1. Press Windows+I to open Settings > choose Game.
2. Go to Game Mode > enable Game Mode.

 

3# Disable Windows sound devices

1. Search Device Manager and open it.
2. Scroll down to “Sound, video and game controllers” section > right-click on the sound driver > select Disable device.
3. Restart your computer to fix PC keeps crashing while gaming.

 

Fix 6: Troubleshoot PSU issues

Can a PSU cause games to crash on your PC? Likely yes. Generally speaking, computers games belong to those programs which are heavy-loaded. During intense gaming sessions, the PC is prone to get unstable or not enough power supplies, so that it might keep crashing or freezing.

To troubleshoot PSU issues, what you should do is launch a demanding game that puts your computer under full load. If this leads to a PC shutdown or restart, your PC crashes while gaming trouble is resulted from defective PSU. Then you’re obliged to prepare a new PSU to provide sufficient power for every hardware component of your PC.

 

Fix 7: Perform SFC scan

Computer crashes while playing games can be also caused by any system error occurred on the local hard disk. It’s a good try to run System File Checker (SFC), which scans your PC for corrupted or missing system files and fixes the errors if required.

1. Run Command Prompt as administrator.
2. Type the command: sfc/scannow > press Enter.
3. Wait for the system scan to complete.
4. Restart your machine and check if PC keeps crashing while gaming is solved.

 

Fix 8: Check RAM

Provided that your PC is short of RAM (random-access memory), system failures such as crashing and freezing tend to happen more frequently. So this method is to run a memory check. If unluckily you do see an error, consider changing your RAM tools or adding new memory cards.

1. Press Windows+R to initiate Run box > type mdsched.exe > press Enter.
2. Select “Restart now and check for problems”.
3. Your PC will reboot when the diagnosis process is done.
4. If no result is available on the desktop, press Windows+X and click Event Viewer.
5. Go to Windows Logs > System > Find.
6. In the Find window, input “memory diagnostic” > click Find Next.
7. Verify if there are any errors showed.

 

Fix 9: Scan for virus

Virus or malware infection is also one major factor that makes PC crash during gaming. Then running your anti-virus app to scan for any threats could be worth a shot. Taking Microsoft Defender Antivirus on Windows 11/10 for example, here is the workflow to remove viruses and fix PC keeps crashing while gaming.

1. Search Windows Security on PC > open it.
2. Choose Virus & threat protection > click Quick scan to scan and kill any viruses.
3. After the scan is finished, go back to check if your games can be played smoothly.

 

Fix 10: Add an exclusion in anti-virus program

Though anti-virus tools can block possible threats from your computer, sometimes they may classify games as malware by mistake and conduct scans actively during gaming, thus causing a crashed PC when you play games. A proven trick is to add the game as an exception and exclude it from scans.

1. Open Windows Security and go to Virus & threat protection again.
2. Click Manage settings.
3. Scroll down to Exclusions > click Add or remove exclusions.
4. Continue to click Add an exclusion > select Process > type the name of your game.
5. Replay your game to see if PC still keeps crashing.

That’s all it takes to handle PC keeps crashing while gaming issue. Thanks for reading. Hope this page has helped you out successfully.