[2025] Call of Duty PC problems & fixes List [BO6, WZ, MWIII, MWII]

Launch issues? Packet burst and stutters? Maybe game runs slower than it should? The solution is here!
Most importantly, no placebo, just the solutions, or what you should try to do!

The original thread can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1938090/discussions/0/4346607305578476525/

Introduction

If you're looking for this guide in different languages, take a look!

🇧🇷 Portuguese Brazilian guide:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3277542174

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You are free to contribute your results, and specially the fixes that you know of, but PLEASE. Don't send placebo. I am NOT gonna add placebo information into this.

And please, DON'T JUST DO EVERYTHING IN THIS LIST.

Do what's related to your problem, and that's it. You have no reason to follow packet burst fixes if you're just trying to fix the game not launching.

But then how do I use this guide?

Funny you ask, it's simple! There will be a list of problems with the games, and all you need to do is snoop around, find what's related to your problem! Yes, I am repeating myself, you'd be surprised how often those words are ignored. 😀
How do I browse the list you ask, keep reading down below, but for starters;

Here's how to find the configuration files, should you need them:

Windows+R & copy-pasting what's inside the quotes should quickly get you to the files below.
Configuration Files location: "%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Call of Duty\players"
File names for:
MWII/DMZ = options.3.cod22.cst
MWIII/Warzone = options.4.cod23.cst
BO6 = s.1.0.cod24.txt


Issues are being distributed and set on the list below like this:

Season - Games Affected - STATUS(will be KNOWN if confirmed by community) = Warning if devs acknowledge
Description
Answer:

---- ---- ----


PS: When the problem affects all games, " " will be used to refer to ALL of them.
That means Warzone/DMZ, MWII, MWIII and any future CODs on this client.

These problems happen NO MATTER THE PLATFORM! — Steam, battle.net and Xbox PC

The Basics

What are the basics for? I don't know. Performance problems, just basic stuff people don't know, stuff people don't do right, it's all here for you to make sure.

----------

The Very Obvious

Make sure your system meets the requirements for the game.
Make sure your CPU supports AVX2. No, seriously, literally every game wants it nowadays.
----------

Verify your game files, but please read the information below FIRST.
(PS: Call of Duty has in-game update patches, and thus, Steam, battle.net & Xbox PC will NOT recognize those new/updated files from the in-game patches, and consider them invalid/corrupted.
You do not need to KEEP repeatedly verifying your game files, and can even skip doing this at all, if you trust your game is fine.)
Make sure your NVIDIA/AMD GPU drivers are updated, and that COD is actually using your Dedicated GPU.[www.intel.com]
Make sure your Windows is updated. and you have HAGS enabled[devblogs.microsoft.com].
Make sure you're actually playing COD on a Windows Administrator account, not a User account.[www.quora.com] No. DON'T run COD nor Steam as an Administrator, simply use an Administrator account. Running as admin is a bandaid fix.
Follow-up to the suggestion above, in the game's folder open cod.exe's Properties, and disable ALL Compatibility options.

Performance basics:

PS: This unlikely to, if at all, to fix any performance issues that are caused by the problems found in the actual list, and are just normal tips...that can probably help even in other games!

- Enable Game Mode in Windows, THEN change Power Plan to Balanced. Power Plan will automatically switch from Balanced whenever you're playing COD or other games to a better power plan. As long as you didn't uninstall Game Bar for no reason.
- Make sure your monitor is connected to your GPU instead of the Motherboard, and the game is using your Dedicated GPU on Windows, only applies to people WITH an iGPU.
- For COD, here's the gist, nicely put:
it's fine to disable SSR. It's a very poor implementation and tends to not only be unnecessarily taxing, but also worsen visuals/not make any beneficial difference.
Variable Rate Shading is also a highlight of more FPS for negligible, or very, very small visual differences.
Fullscreen Exclusive is purely placebo due to the game running in DirectX12. You won't see any difference between Borderless and Exclusive when it comes to performance, that's a problem from almost a decade ago.
Use the benchmark to test your performance. You can access it by going to Call of Duty HQ > Game's Custom Games and Benchmark.

List Summary

CLICK TO JUMP to a section of the guide.
Just CLICK THE LINK TO JUMP to the problem, underneath the icons, and you'll be straight on the issue.

— — —
- Game refuses to LAUNCH/PLAY.

— —
- Performance/Packet Loss 1 - CPU Cores for game may be wrong

— —
- Performance/Packet Loss 2 - CPU Time bursts


- Crashes - DMZ Spotter Scope AMD Bug


- Performance/Packet Loss 3 - MWII Menus and Firing Range lower than normal FPS

— —
- Performance/Packet Loss 4 - VRAM Scale Packet Bursts

— — —
- Shaders not Pre-loading Bug

—
- Performance/Packet Loss 4 - ReBar Stutter Bug

— — —
- Performance/Packet Loss 5 - On-Demand Texture Streaming can't be turned OFF

The List Vol.1

 MWII Launch -  - KNOWN
Attempting to PLAY the game in any platform, the game refuses to launch no matter how many times the user attempts to start the game. 
Answer:

Solution 1

Some blacklisted software/app(or false-positive) have been detected/tried to touch something in the game and Call of Duty will refuse to start/is going to "crash"(it's not actually crashing jesus) until the detected software/app is closed..
You may need to restart your computer.
Unfortunately there's no list of the software readily available anywhere nor communicated by Activision, so YOU have to try whatever you can, if the list below doesn't help.
If this advice doesn't help, I don't know what will, if YOU won't look for the software yourself. This problem is entirely software blacklisting-related.
If you want a better explanation, see this comment.
List of things, software and services that are known(so far) to actively MAY PREVENT Call of Duty from launching if running/having previously run are:

• WeMod and any kind of cheat/trainer clients, even if in the background/unrelated to COD
  
• reWASD (>Needs to be uninstalled<) and other Input management software
  
• Cloudflare WARP or any VPN software, possibly even browser extensions of VPNs.
  
• OneDrive - Get rid of it or run it once, whatever your preference. Recommended getting rid of as there's literally no benefit to keeping it around if you don't use it.
  
• WireShark, GoodbyeDPI services or any network management tool of this kind.
  
• Non-official anti-cheats like FACEIT Anti-Cheat MIGHT cause issues.
  
• "BRAND" programs like Logitech, Corsair, etc.
  (NVIDIA, AMD and Intel DON'T COUNT/affect anything on this and will never be a problem)

Hint: The SERVICES can matter too!
If you don't know what that means, some programs like WARP have their own services running on the background in Windows, regardless if you have the program closed or not.
To see which ones may be currently running, press Win + R and type in "services.msc" to open the manager and find the possible culprit, just don't go randomly disabling things!

Solution 2

Did you perhaps install and play Call of Duty while installed in ANOTHER drive before?
Then a temporary solution for now, is that you need to grab randgrid.sys from your current Call of Duty installation, and put it back exactly where it was previously installed.
If you have no idea how the folder structure for Call of Duty works, you can simply...consult the one you already have. Just put randgrid.sys in the game's folder of THE DRIVE IT WAS PREVIOUSLY ON, making sure the folder name and structure is the same(you don't need to copy any other files, besides randgrid.sys).

Цитата допису LikeAyySir:

Essentially, have a empty Call Of Duty HQ folder on the drive it previously existed with only with the randgrid.sys in there so the game loads.

If this doesn't work, just...get rid of the randgrid.sys and verify your game files.
IMPORTANT UPDATE: The game's anti-cheat updates, and when you see that your game is no longer starting and you remember having done this, please, do update the randgrid.sys with the newest one. (Thank you LikeAyySir for the update)
You can try symbolic linking[www.howtogeek.com] so you don't have to manually update all the time, but I cannot confirm if it works, nor if it's safe to.

Hail Mary Solutions:

What is this? This is stuff I wouldn't recommend doing unless you really are completely out of ideas. Not that they're bad. I just would personally never tell anyone to do them.

• Delete your config folder. Make a backup just in-case. I don't know what files cause the problem. Mostly fixes black screens on startup?
  
• Search for cmd in Start Menu and start it as Administrator. Type in netsh winsock reset then press Enter. Restart your computer. This is most probable to fix post-update failures, if the anti-cheat wasn't updated.

---- ---- ----

MWII Launch -   - KNOWN
The game's RendererWorkerCount in its configuration files may be set incorrectly compared to the user's current CPU. This may cause a heavy loss on framerates, stutters and more.
Answer:

Open your Task Manager and take note of the CPU's name in the Performance tab. Search for it on Google.
Once you get the correct number from the examples below, replace RendererWorkerCount:1.0 = "number" with the number you found.

Examples:
Intel(newer CPUs): Use the # of Performance-cores that you found.
Intel(older CPUs): Use the Total Cores that you found.
AMD: Use the # of CPU Cores that you found.

---- ---- ----

MWII Launch -  - UNKNOWN
CPU-related stutters, intensified by the size of the map and the number of players. This problem presents a symptom where the CPU TIME has a big spike. This problem becomes more apparent depending on the GPU (the stronger the gpu, more cpu-related stutter). Very prominent on the Ryzen 7 3700X CPU. It is not known whether it affects other CPUs of the same generation as it is a very specific and poorly documented problem.
Answer:

If none of the previous or subsequent solutions work, the only way to solve the problem is to REPLACE the CPU with another one.
EDIT: Unverified Solution here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/1938090/discussions/0/4525638279394831032/

---- ---- ----

MWII Season 3 - MWII/DMZ - KNOWN
Players with AMD GPUs commonly crash when utilizing the spotter scope in certain situations.
Answer:

Do not use the spotter scope. Unfortunately this hasn't ever been patched, to my knowledge.

---- ---- ----

MWII Season 5 - MWII/DMZ - KNOWN
Players experience a enormous drop in performance in menus/firing range, but run the game perfectly fine during a match.
Answer:

There is currently no answer to this, as no one knows a solution.

---- ---- ----

MWIII Season 1 -  - KNOWN
Players with a large amount of VRAM available suffer packet bursts/performance losses and stuttering.
Strangely enough, it's also be some people's reason for packet loss/extrapolation/latency variation warnings.
Answer:

Lower the VRAM Memory Scale in the game's Graphics settings.
This depends entirely on how much VRAM your GPU has, and COD has no idea what to do with VRAM it isn't using.
It is recommended anyone with any GPU does this.

Lower it according to how much Call of Duty(White bar) Is actually using in the bar to the right.

---- ---- ----

MWIII Season ? -  - UNKNOWN
Shaders do not Preload on startup/launch until any 3D scene appears and framerate is high enough.
This problem affects Campaign, Multiplayer, Zombies and Warzone modes.
Answer:

Open up your Lobby/Social/Showcase/Weapons tab, or load up the game ONCE if you're in Campaign then back out.
As long as you're not alt-tabbed/low FPS, the game should start Pre-Loading your Shaders. Speed depends on user's CPU.

The List Vol.2

MWIII Season 2 -  - UNKNOWN
Significantly lower performance for players with certain ReBar-compatible cards.
AMD Cards = Affects all game modes.
NVIDIA Cards = Affects only Warzone.
Answer:

Go in the game's configuration file, and change the line GPUUploadHeaps:0.0 = "true" to "false".

---- ---- ----

MWIII Season 5 Reloaded -  - KNOWN
On-Demand Texture Streaming no longer has an OFF option, instead, it has Minimal and Optimized.
This can cause packet loss, among increased internet data usage, and more bandwidth usage, which may be not desired by most players. It's the MOST COMMON CAUSE of Packet Bursts for most people since the change.
Answer:

Here's a more in-depth exploration on the feature in this XclusiveAce video:

I recommend you only do the first, In-Game Settings step only, as it's almost essentially non-existant bandwidth usage after that.
But if it's not enough, do the second one, in the config files.

In-Game Settings:

This option can be found in Graphics > Quality. Change settings to match the image.

Game's Configuration Folder:

Go to players > yourID(it's usually the folder with the latest "Date modified") and open:
MWIII = gamerprofile.0.bASE.cst.
BO6 = g.1.0.l.txt

Find HTTPStreamLimitMBytes@0 = and change it from "1024" to "0".

Now save and close the text file, then right-click gamerprofile.0.bASE.cst, and make it Read-only.
(Be aware this makes changing other things inside the file while in-game impossible, take a look if you can!)
It should now nearly be NOT be utilizing the On-Demand Texture Streaming feature at all.

Be aware that you won't be able to see the text file changes in-game.

The End

Did you like the guide? Was it useful to you? Got one of your problems solved? I hope so! I made it out of frustration from misinformation and placebo changes that would continue to be spread around by others, and I just want people to have a great experience with the game like I do with my pretty low/mid-range machine!

Please rate the guide and favourite if it helped you to let others know! But most importantly, submit a bug report to let Activision know of these problems!
https://support.activision.com/options

[FreakyKat of Ill Repute]

Feel like I'm going crazy, I can't find s.1.0.cod24.txt . Can find 1 and 0 but not the regular txt.

[syndicate]

cant believe simply opening discord makes my game crash and never boot up even after completely closing it, i literally have to restart my pc and immediately boot up call of duty hoping it doesnt crash again. activision should learn how to write proper, working code first instead of making video games

[xPhillyFan]

For a Major game like COD, these issues shouldn't be occurring . Just refund and dont support the trash game

[I Forgot to Pick a Name]

I have already submitted a bug report for this, but I'm curious if anyone else is having this specific issue: When loading the game, sometimes all NVIDIA DLSS settings will be missing from the menu. Sometimes Frame Generation will appear, and sometimes DLSS will appear. Nothing in any forum or Reddit thread I've read has helped. Also, when those settings are not present, they are NOT ACTIVE and just visually hidden - the game runs substantially worse than when the settings are present. The ONLY resolution thus far has been to "try, try again". Repeatedly closing and reopening the game will eventually bring those settings back.

I am running an Intel i7-14900KF and an RTX 4070 TI Super, with all drivers, firmware, and Windows updates properly installed. I've tried messing with the configs, deleting them, deleting the folder they're in, a clean install of the game, verifying files, enabling/disabling HAGS, etc.

[Da-_-Reign]

i get s.1.0.cod24.txt and g.cod24.1.0.I.txt that pop up every single time game loads up, a game ends, i switch settings, etc.... how od i get this to stop happening?

[UJustActivatedMyAlu-card]

Jesus H Christ, the whole randgrid thing is fucking bullshit. it worked, thank you for that, but this is a fucking big ass studio, we shouldn't have to do this shit to get it to run.

[Naeem]

even major issue , you get less fps with steam version of game than battlenet or xbox app

[Brad Pikk]

Find HTTPStreamLimitMBytes@0 = and change it from "1024" to "0". Or change it to "1" if you don't trust it and don't mind using...just 1 MByte. this made my packet burst permanent/constant

[Mollensky]

none of this worked for me. the only fix i got some resulst was. factory reseting my pc. it works. but after relauching the game a couple more times or dont play the game for 5-8 hours and my problems back. with the packet burst and extrapolation in multiplayer and zombies menus. and ingame of course. and yet im wired.... fml

[yagizvsx]

By the way ı cannot change Upscaling/Sharpening for some fckn reason.