Black Ops 3 Windows 11 Crash Fix

Some people have complained online that Black Ops 3 is crashing on their Windows 11 machines, and I've encountered this myself. for some, it's as easy as verifying your file integrity, for some, you might need to reinstall your game, and for others, it might be more complicated, below will be some fixes that might fix your issue, and if none of these fixes works for you, i cannot assist, i will start with the easier methods and work down to the more technical fixes that can fix Black Ops 3 from crashing on your system, this guide is mostly tailored to the users on windows 11

EASIER FIXES

So, these fixes are the relatively easy ones you can try to fix Black Ops 3 crashing on your PC, as i stated, these fixes are mainly tailored to Windows 11, but can also work on Windows 10, i do not provide any kind of assistance on windows 7, 8 or 8.1 nor major support on windows 10

1: VERIFY YOUR FILE INTERGRITY

Most issues with games are that certain files are corrupted that is for your game. one of the easiest ways to fix that is verifying your game's file intergrity, which is quite easy through steam, to do this, Open up steam and browse to your game named Call of Duty: Black Ops 3. after that. Right click your game (or left click if you're left handed) and click PROPERITES at the very bottom. once here. click Installed Files and at the very bottom, there should be a button called Verify your game's file intergrity, click this and wait a few minutes, this process is automatic and steam will look through your game's files and automatically detect if any files are missing or damaged and with automatically delete and redownload and install these files if there is. once finished, try opening the game and see if it works for you

2: REINSTALL YOUR GAME

if the above fix did not fix your issue, your next step is to reinstall Black Ops 3. this process is a little more time consuming but can help fix your issue as well. to do this, right click the game, hover your mouse over the category named MANAGE, and click uninstall. wait for the game to uninstall and then reinstall the game, once finished, try launching the game, if the game still doesn't work. move over to INTERMEDIATE FIXES

INTERMEDIATE FIXES

This section will go over more intermediate fixes, which can help Black Ops 3 running on your Windows 11 Machine

3: RUN THE GAME IN COMPATIBILITY MODE
one fix a lot of people have reported working is running the game in compatibility mode. the mode with most success is Windows 8.1. To run the game in compatibility mode. right click the game again and go into manage, and click "BROWSE LOCAL FILES". once here, locate your "BlackOps3.exe" file. you can also find this manually, the common places are
C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Black Ops III OR D:\SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Call of Duty Black Ops III. now once here, right click the "BlackOps3.exe" file and click on Properties. this will open up a little window on your desktop. once here, click on compatibility and at the bottom, there should be a button called "change preferences for all users" do note that this action requires admin perms, if you do not have these, it's okay, just follow the steps below without the settings. once here however, click on Change Compatibility mode and set this to Windows 8.1, click apply then ok and try launching the game. if this still doesn't fixes your issue. follow step 4

4: RUN THE GAME AS ADMINISTRATOR
If compatibility mode did not fix your issue, you can try running the game as an administrator. this can fix your issue as well, right click on the "BlackOps3.exe" file once again, and redo the steps above, but instead of changing the compatibility mode, check the box that says "run this game as administrator" and hit apply and try again, if that didn't work, try running it with compatibility mode as well as see. if that did not fix your issue. move to step 5

5: DISABLE MSI AFTERBURNER
Some people have MSI afterburner installed on their machine alongside Rivatuner Statistics. this is used to overclock their PC's and see performance on their machines, if you do not have this installed, move over to step 6.
If you have MSI afterburner installed however, you can try disabling it, as MSI afterburner is known to cause issues in select games, now this shouldn't be an issue with Black Ops 3, but could cause issues regardless. you do not need to uninstall MSI afterburner, you just need to disable it, on your Windows 11 machine, there is a small little arrow pointing upwards in your taskbar located at the very right next to your microphone, time, date and volume. click this little arrow and look for a icon resembling a spaceship/plane. that is MSI Afterburner, to disable this. right click that little icon and hit Disable on the menu that pops up. once disabled, try launching the game again. if this did not fix your issue either, move over to step 6.

6: DISABLE YOUR OVERLAYS
another issues can be your other overlays if you have discord for example, even steam overlay can cause issues, you can try to disable these and see if your issue gets resolved, in this guide, i will only cover Steam and Discord. starting with steam

STEAM

To disable the steam overlay, head into your steam settings by clicking on the Steam icon at the very top left in your steam window that says steam, then click settings and move down to "in game". in here, these is a setting that says Activate Steam Overlay in games. disable this and try. if this did not fix your issue, try the discord method as well, if you do not use discord, move over to "ADVANCED FIXES"

DISCORD
Discord also has a overlay that can interfere, although this is highly unlikely, it's worth a shot as some people have reported this fixing their issue with Black Ops 3 Crashing

Open up discord, at the bottom left next to your name, there is a little cogwheel, click this button to open up the settings tab. once here. scroll down until you see "Game Overlay" and click that buttin, in here, at the top, there is a settings called "Enable in-game overlay." uncheck this settings (this should be greyed out) and try to launch the game. if this did not fix your issue, move on to "ADVANCED FIXES"

ADVANCED FIXES

So, All of the fixes we have tried have not worked, hopefully these will work, if they don't, sadly Black Ops 3 will not work with your machine, this might be due to unsupported hardware or another issue i cannot assist with

7: REINSTALL YOUR GRAPHICS DRIVERS
This fix personally fixed my issue with Black Ops 3 crashing for me, i have to do this every time i launch the game for some unknown reason, but it works for me, i cannot provide help for AMD graphics cards as i do not own one, but for NVIDIA cards. open up Geforce Experience OR The NVIDIA App, depending on which one you have. i personally use the new NVIDIA Beta App which can be downloaded for free. once here. locate the area where you update your drivers, if there's a driver update, install those and try, it could be as easy as updating your drivers but i assume in this guide you've already tried that, once here however, there should be a button called Reinstall. click this and reinstall your graphics drivers. wait for a little bit and the graphic drivers will reinstall, once reinstalled, you will be prompted to restart your PC, restart it and try to launch Black Ops 3. this fix personally fixed my issue with Black Ops 3 crashing. if this did not fix your issue. move over to step 8

8: INSTALL YUR WINDOWS UPDATES
another fix could be to simply update your windows, this is often does automatically, but sometimes, updates require manual confirmation. to see if you have any updates, open up the settings by hitting your windows key and click on settings, if you do not see it, search for settings in the search bar and open it up, once in your settings, navigate to the very bottom called Windows Update and see if there's any updates here, if you don't see any, hit the "Search for updates button and wait shortly" if there's no updates, double check by clicking the Advanced Options tab and then Optional Updates, if there's nothing here either, you can simply move over to step 9

9: DISABLE YOUR ANTIVIRUS
another issue could be your antivirus. there are a lot of options out there, i personally only use Windows Defender

To disable Windows Defender, open up the settings by hitting your windows key and click on settings, if you do not see it, search for settings in the search bar and open it up, once in your settings, navigate to Intergrity and Security which is indicated by a shield icon and click on Windows-Security located at the very top. this will open up another window, once here, click on Protection against viruses and threats and see if there's any files deleted by Windows Defender, if there is. unquarantine them and relaunch the games, if not, you can try clicking on settings for protection against viruses and threats and click on manage settings and disable the protection in realtime setting, this will have to be done every time you restart your computer as this will reenable every time your PC restarts. relaunch the game after this and if this did not fix your issue, move down to step 10

10: REINSTALL WINDOWS 11
this is a step that should be done as a last resort really, but I'm including it anyway. we have tried all the above steps and Black ops 3 still doesn't launch, so we need to reinstall Windows 11. to reinstall windows 11. head into the settings again as i explained above and click on the Windows Update feature again, once here, click on ADVANCED SETTINGS again, and in here, there should be a section called Recovery or Restore. click that and then on Restore this computer and follow the prompts, do note that this will delete ALL your files on the same drive you have windows on, so before you do this, i advise you STRONGLY to back up ALL of your important files to either a secondary harddrive, Portable Harddrive, USB or the cloud. once reinstalled, try to redownload Black Ops 3 and see if it works now. if not, there's only one thing left to do

11: DOWNGRADE TO WINDOWS 10
none of the steps above has worked and you need to downgrade to windows 10, this is essenstially the last step you need to take and before you do this, it's important to rethink if it's really worth it just to play Black Ops 3. if you bought Black Ops 3 within the last 14 days and have less than 2 hours played, you can always ask for a refund of the game. if you REALLY want to play Black Ops 3 however. follow these steps

1: Backup ALL of your important data and files. even if you did this in step 11: it's important to double check. i recommend backing up the most important files on your second drive as well, this shouldn't delete, but you can never be too safe.

2: Download the Windows 10 installation media
now you need to download the Windows 10 installation media which can be done here[www.microsoft.com] (if the hyperlink doesn't work, i provided the link below as well
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10

3: Create a Bootable USB
this step is a little tech savvy, but i'll walk you through it, if you want to follow the official microsoft guide, you can do that here[support.microsoft.com]
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/create-a-recovery-drive-abb4691b-5324-6d4a-8766-73fab304c246, i am copying this guide but it might be more convinient for you

1: In the search box on the taskbar, search for Create a recovery drive and then select it. You might be asked to enter an admin password or confirm your choice.

2: When the tool opens, make sure Back up system files to the recovery drive is selected and then select Next.

3: Connect a USB drive to your PC, select it, and then select Next. (MAKE SURE THE USB DRIVE IS ON 8GB OR MORE. PREFERABLY 16GB OR MORE)

4:Select Create. Many files need to be copied to the recovery drive, so this might take a while.

5: once done. plug in the bootable USB in a free USB Slot on your PC and restart your PC. you should see the Press any key to boot from CD or DVD. if this does not open. restart again and hit the corresponding key to change the boot drive that your Bios have

6: identify your language and follow the prompts on screen, once installed, reinstall Black ops 3 and it should work, if none of these fixes worked, black ops 3 is incompatible with your machine and you'll have to refund the game, and if that's the case, I'm really sorry for you

ps: i apologize for poor grammar and/or punctionation, english is not my first language, although i am fluent in it. best of luck to you and most importantly of all "THE NUMBERS MASON: WHAT DO THEY MEAN?"

EDIT!!!: this fix was provided by https://steamcommunity.com/id/mannit59 and said this and i quote "Hey guys I was facing this issue, it plagued me until I wiped my PC, prior to that I found that the cause was setting textures to extra, a spoofing driver called nefarious from DSX which must be disabled through device manager, as well as any sort of cheat engine/we mod running in the background. If you get the error steam must be running, you should close steam and launch it as an administrator followed by launching BO3 as an admin. I also used the following compatibility options: Optimize for windows 8, Disable Full screen optimizations, Override DPI Scaling, and running it as admin as previously said. Other than this launching windows in safe mode and testing the game is a good way to see if it is the game or it is a service that is affecting the game"

[marsmelon24]

doesn't crash on Linux but helpful guide for Windows users

[FM || Wxvae.]

Fuh yo linux

[snlr]

haven't crashed on linux yet

[Grandmaquil]

I've been trying to fix this and what fixed it for me was disabling the GOODBYEDPI service. to find issues with services turn every non microsoft service off on the system configuration app. or try turning off suspicious services that might be causing issues.

[temporalmonster2038]

i had that issue for months. its not that complicated as it turns out. i just ran steam and bo3 as admin and disabled nefarious for good measure. dont wipe ur os guys it doesnt help

[Durandal]

To add to what other people are saying: MAKE SURE NEFARIOUS IS NOT RUNNING IN TASK MANAGER. I was stumped because I thought I had disabled the services completely, but it was still running when I checked task manager. Once I ended the two Nefarious tasks I saw, BO3 works fine now.

[Uncle Pablo]

Hey guys I was facing this issue, it plagued me until I wiped my PC, prior to that I found that the cause was setting textures to extra, a spoofing driver called nefarious from DSX which must be disabled through device manager, as well as any sort of cheat engine/we mod running in the background. If you get the error steam must be running, you should close steam and launch it as an administrator followed by launching BO3 as an admin. I also used the following compatibility options: Optimize for windows 8, Disable Full screen optimizations, Override DPI Scaling, and running it as admin as previously said. Other than this launching windows in safe mode and testing the game is a good way to see if it is the game or it is a service that is affecting the game

My Specs:
58000x3d
4090
64GB DRR4
Game is installed on a gen4 nvme

[Benito Swagolini's Cumslut]

@Turtle3849 try closing steam entirely, and then reopening it, if you're running BO3 as admin, so does steam, if steam is running in normal perms, BO3 won't find it and therefore causes issues, it's weird but it should work

[SeriousGamer42]

Also try restarting your computer with no startup apps on

[Turtle3849]

I tried a lot of the stuff on the list, but it's now saying that: "Steam must be running to play this game."