MW3: How To Fix Campaign Crashing

The Modern Warfare 3 campaign supplies an incredible experience for players to enjoy; however, it's impossible to relish the greatness of a game if it keeps crashing. This article will cover some remedies to game crashes within Modern Warfare 3, hopefully leading to you being able to experience the game as intended! 

MW3 Campaign Crashing/Black Screen Fix

It's imperative that you check your system requirements match or reach above the minimum hardware specifications. From personal experience, small amounts of memory have led to the crashing of Call of Duty titles. For example, if you have 8GB of slow and outdated (≤2133mhz) RAM, it's likely your game will crash at times. 

It's recommended that if you surpass the minimum system requirements, you heavily tweak your settings to match your PC hardware appropriately. The typical player doesn't understand what "Ambient Occlusion" involves and might be ignorant about lowering this setting. Therefore, check our best system setting guide out here. 

MW3 Keeps Crashing - Verify File Integrity

There's a slight chance your Modern Warfare 3 has corrupt files, leading to the game crashing. This will be specific to players experiencing a crash at certain moments in the game, such as picking up a specific weapon or trying to progress past a certain point.

To verify your file integrity on Steam:

1. Open the Steam Client and enter your games library 
2. Locate "Call of Duty" and right-click on the game
3. Select "properties" and then "installed files."
4. Within installed files, select "Verify Integrity of Files." 
5. Let Steam work its magic. It will inform you of any missing/corrupt game files.

To verify your file integrity on Battlenet:

1. Open Battlenet and select Call of Duty
2. Navigate to the settings cog next to the "PLAY" button 
3. Select "Scan and Repair" 
4. Battlenet will scan/repair for missing and corrupt files and install them

This will likely fix your issues; however, we have a few more fixes below.

MW3 Campaign Crashing Fix - SSD/HDD 

Players who are using an HDD will likely suffer the consequences in 2023. Games are becoming harder to run and more reliant on faster technology, so if you're using an outdated HDD, it's likely your hard drive is the issue. 

If your loyalties lay within your outdated HDD, free some space on the drive. HDDs often run slower when full of data and files. Freeing some space could make the difference between game crashes and continuation.

Those using an SSD won't likely have this issue, although if your SSD is full of storage, ensure you free some breathing space. After freeing space, continue to try to play the campaign. If it crashes again, follow our previous steps and then try reinstalling the game. 

MW3 Keeps Crashing - GPU Drivers 

Players rocking outdated graphics card drivers will experience in-game issues that could lead to crashes. Where this is slightly abnormal, it can still happen depending on the current update of your drivers. 

To update your GPU drivers, follow these simple instructions:

1. Head to the search bar and search "Device Manager."
2. Within the device manager, select "Display Adapters."
3. Right-click on your GPU, then select "Update Driver."
4. Then select "Search automatically for drivers."
5. Follow the prompts until the driver is updated.

Alternatively, you can download your specific GPU drivers from the manufacturer's website. For example, if you own an NVIDIA GPU, head to NVIDIA Official Drivers, fill in your GPU information, and you will be provided with the most recent driver update. 

If none of these fixes have helped, unfortunately, you'll have to stick it out until the developers release a patch. Despite this being frustrating, it's likely better than spending more money on PC hardware that might not even fix the issue.