Fix Call of Duty: Vanguard Crashing, Crash at Startup, Won’t Start, and Not Launching

The day has finally come when PC players can get their hands on the hottest COD title of the year – Vanguard. While the game is optimized well enough, there are some issues that can emerge during the beta, especially for PC where the game’s not tested yet. A lot of players who pre-ordered the game on PC were hoping to jump on the game today, but the crashing problem is preventing that. Players are reporting the Call of Duty: Vanguard crashing, crash at startup, won’t start, and not launching issues. Keep reading as we have outlined all the possible causes and solutions.  

How to Fix Call of Duty: Vanguard Crashing, Crash at Startup, Won’t Start, and Not Launching

There is no easy way to resolve the crashing at startup problem with games due to the sheer number of reasons that can cause the problem. In this post, we have tried to identify some of the main reasons behind the crashing problem with the game. We will also update the post on a weekly basis as we find more precise problems with the game and system configurations that may be leading to it. Here are the solutions you can try at the moment to fix Call of Duty: Vanguard crashing, crash at startup, won’t start, and not launching.    

Remove Battle.Net and Activation Friends

For some reason, the game seems to crash when you have too many friends online. You can verify if that’s the case with you. Observe if the game crashes when the online friends reach a certain limit say 50. If it happens over and over again. Removing some or a lot of friends may resolve the issue. It’s not the first time this has happened in a game. While, we don’t remember exactly which game, but we recently came across a similar issue. You could also try bringing your friends down to 150. One of the two solutions works to resolve the crashes. While it’s not a solution a lot of players would want to try, it’s worked for a lot of players and can possibly allow you to enjoy the beta, which is now extended by 2 whole days. Some players had to go down the friend list to as low as 8 friends before the game worked, so, not much of a solution, but we thought we will let the decision rest with you.

Force the Game to Run on DirectX 11

Switching back to DirectX 11 to play the game has worked for a lot of users. DirectX 11 is the more stable version, but you will have to sacrifice some features which DirectX 12 brings; however, not extreme. So, let’s force the game to run in DirectX 11 mode. Here are the steps.

1. Open Battle.Net Client on the PC.
2. Open the game COD Vanguard
3. Go to Options
4. Check Additional Command Line Arguments and type -d3d11
5. Exit and try playing the game.

Perform a Clean Boot before Launching the Game

With so many games, third-party software that forcefully injects itself between operations causes crash in the game. Hence, the first thing we must do to resolve the Vanguard crashing on startup or failed to launch error is suspend all unnecessary programs and then launch the game. Here are the steps you can follow.

1. Press Windows Key + R and type msconfig, hit Enter
2. Go to the Services tab
3. Check Hide all Microsoft services
4. Now, click Disable all
5. Go to the Startup tab and click on Open Task Manager
6. Disable one task at a time and restart the system.

Try launching the game, check if the error still occurs.

Disable Antivirus or Windows Firewall

Your antivirus or the Windows Firewall may be preventing the connection to the server. Disable the security applications to troubleshooting any issues. If the game launches after disabling the applications, you will need to whitelist the game in your antivirus or the Windows Defender and Firewall.  

Link Blizzard and Activation Accounts

Another reason you could be experiencing the crash on load is when the Activation and Blizzard account is not linked. Follow the linked guide to link your activation account with Steam, Blizzard, Xbox, and PlayStation. If you are getting the error message “Error: Disconnected from Server,” then, the cause is most likely not linking the accounts.

Disable Xbox Game Bar, Discord, and GeForce Experience Overlay

As a first step, disable the above features and software. If the problem still occurs ensure that the GeForce Experience is also disabled. Here are the steps.

Disable Discord Overlay

1. Launch the Discord app and click on the gear icon at the bottom.
2. Under App Settings, select Overlay
3. Toggle on the Enable in-game overlay
4. Click on the Games tab
5. Select Call of Duty: Vanguard
6. Toggle off the overlay.

Disable Xbox Game Bar

1. Press Windows Key + I and select Gaming
2. From the Game bar, toggle-off Record game clips, screenshots, and broadcast using Game bar

Disable GeForce Experience Overlay

1. Launch GeForce Experience and go to Settings
2. From the General tab, disable the In-Game Overlay
3. Restart the system and play the game.

Set Power Options to High Performance

Call of Duty titles are big and require a lot of resources and the power you supply to your system components is crucial. If you are playing the game on a laptop and have a balanced power setting, it may be causing the Vanguard crash at launch. Here are the steps to set it for High Performance.  

1. In the Windows Search, type Power Options
2. Click on the Additional power settings
3. Toggle on the High Performance

Set Windows to Provide the Best Performance

You have a performance option in Windows that plays a crucial role while playing games. Settings windows for the best performance and stop crashing and stuttering with games. Here are the steps you can follow to Adjust Windows for best performance.

1. Go to the Windows Search and type Performance
2. Click on Adjust the appearance and performance of Windows
3. You will have four toggle options, we suggest that you toggle on Adjust for best performance

Note: Once you have performed the above step, you may see some graphics issues, but the performance of your system will be increased. If you don’t want to keep the setting you can simply go back to the previous settings.

Disable the SysMain Service

SysMain is a service you would find on all operating systems since Windows 7. It’s better known as SuperFetch and has a bad reputation for interfering with games. It runs in the background and its job is to determine the applications you use mostly on the hard disc level. Here are the steps you can follow to disable it before launching the game.

1. Press Windows Key + R and type services.msc
2. Scroll-down and find SysMain
3. Right-click on SysMain and click on Stop
4. Right-click on SysMain and go to Properties
5. Set the startup type to Disabled.

Alter the Game Executable Properties

There are a bunch of settings in the game’s executable settings that can have an impact on the game’s permission on your system. Go to the install location of the game and find the executable. Once you have found the executable, here are the steps you can follow.

1. Right-click on the game’s executable
2. Go to the Compatibility tab and check Run this program as an administrator
3. Check Disable Fullscreen optimizations
4. Click on Change high DPI settings
5. Check Override high DPI scaling behavior. Scaling performed by: Application

Save the settings and exit.

Repair Game Files

Corrupt game files will definitely lead to Vanguard crashing. The crash can be in-game or at startup. Regardless of the launcher, you are using, it has a feature to scan for corrupt files and replace them with new ones. Here are the steps for Battle.Net.

Scan and Repair with Battle.Net Launcher

1. Open the Battle.net client using the desktop shortcut.
2. Open the game COD Vanguard by clicking on the icon.
3. Click Options > Scan and Repair > Start Scan.

Some Other Solutions to Fix COD: Vanguard Crash at Startup and Not Launching Issue

Here are some ways you can enhance the performance of the game to resolve the Vanguard Crash at Startup and Stuttering.

Set the Texture Quality to Medium – If you have set the texture quality to high that can also crash the game as it demands more resources or the game is poorly optimized at the moment. Set it to Medium and the game should not crash.

Don’t Use Multiple Monitors – COD titles have always had issues with multiple monitors even though the setting’s Display Mode has the option to use multiple monitors. We suggest that you play the game on a single monitor and set the setting to Fullscreen rather than Multiple-Monitors.

Tune Down the Game Settings – One of the first steps you should take when the game stutters or crashes is to limit the FPS. Allowing it to be flexible can make the game stable. Keep the FPS at 60 and try to play the game. Another aspect of graphics tuning is the Texture, reduce the texture settings and you will see most performance problems with the game improve.

Fullscreen, Windowed, and V-Sync – Running the game on Fullscreen consumes more resources, which can cause the game to crash. As such, try playing the game on Windowed Mode. But, if you are already playing on the Windowed mode, try setting it to Fullscreen Borderless and Vsync set at 60Hz.

As with most graphics settings, the above also depends on your particular system, so increase or decrease the settings to find the perfect balance.

Disable Crossplay – Sometimes the Crossplay can cause all sorts of errors with the game, especially when in beta. Hence, try and disable the Crossplay to check if that resolves the crash with Call of Duty: Vanguard.

Delete Battle.net Cache Files – Corrupt cache files on the launcher can also be causing the crash or stuttering. Here are the steps you can follow.

1. Close all the games running in Battle.net.
2. Open the Run dialogue by pressing Windows Key + R.
3. Type %programdata% and hit enter.
4. Open the folder named Blizzard Entertainment andgo to Battle.net > Cache.
5. Press Control + A, right-click and select Delete
6. Ensure every item in the folder is deleted.

That’s all we have in this guide to fix the Vanguard crash at startup and not launching issues. We have written this guide with the little time we had to test the game, so the post is not complete. We will update it during the open beta and the days leading up to the release, so do check back.