Stray is a delightful adventure game about the protagonist who is a cat lost in a cybercity. The cat must find its way back home through the dangers and mysteries that the city of androids presents. Stray is one of the most whitelisted games on Steam and is also available on PS4 and PS5. The game has a lot of puzzles as you would expect from an adventure game, but that’s after you are able to launch the game. While not a lot, there are a group of players who have been failing to launch the game. If you have run into issues such as Stray crashing on startup, the game not starting, or being stuck on the loading screen, there may be a few things you can do.
While the system requirements for the game are very minimum, it’s always a good thing to ensure that your PC supports the game. If it does not, the only option you have is to refund the game. If the system requirements are met, here are some things you can try to fix the issue.
How to Fix Crashing on Startup, Stuck, or Won’t Start Issues in Stray
Games can crash due to a range of issues such as outdated GPU drivers, in rare cases outdated OS, a problem with the game files, lack of admin access which can prevent certain operations of the game, resource hogging software running in the background, the game using the integrated GPU instead of dedicated, etc. We will address the most common problem that can lead to Stray crashing at startup or won’t launch issue.
Update the GPU Driver and the OS
It’s a gamer’s modus operandi to update the GPU and the OS regularly. New games come tuned to the latest software and failing to update may cause issues and errors such as Stray crashing at startup. So, before you try anything else, check if the OS is on the latest build and the GPU driver is updated.
Read Next: How Long to Beat Stray
Disable Steam Overlay
The second fix you must try is to disable the Steam Overlay. Some games do not pair well with Steam Overlay. You can disable the Steam overlay with global settings for all games or just for Stray. Here are the steps to disable Overlay for the game.
- Launch Steam client
- Click on Library and right-click on Stray
- Select Properties and uncheck Enable the Steam Overlay while in-game.
- Close Steam and check if the Stray in-game crash or crash at startup still occurs.
Disable MSI Afterburner
MSI Afterburner has been known to conflict with a lot of games leading to problems such as crashing and stuttering. If you have the software installed it’s possible that the game is crashing due to Afterburner, close the application and try to play the game.
Perform a Clean Boot
We start the game in a clean boot environment because it eliminates a few potential causes of Stray crashing at startup such as third-party software interfering with the game’s process, third-party software consuming too many resources on the PC, etc. Here are the steps you can follow to perform the clean boot.
- Press Windows Key + R and type msconfig, hit Enter
- Go to the Services tab
- Check Hide all Microsoft services (very important step)
- Now, click Disable all
- Go to the Startup tab and click on Open Task Manager
- Disable one task at a time and restart the system.
Verify Integrity of Game Files
If the game itself is corrupted that could also lead to crash at startup or mid-game crash with Stray. Here are the steps to check and repair corrupt files on Steam.
- Launch the Steam client
- From the LIBRARY, right-click on Stray and select Properties
- Go to LOCAL FILES and click on VERIFY INTEGRITY OF GAME FILES…
Disable Antivirus Software
Antivirus software causes a lot of problems and prevents games from launching. The only possible fix for this issue is to completely disable the antivirus software you are currently using. Disabling third-party antivirus software like K7 Total Security and Quickheal has a separate set of steps that you can find listed on their official website.
We will show you how to do it for the most popular antivirus software, Windows Defender here.
- Open Windows Settings up.
- Go to Privacy and Security.
- From the Security section, head over to Windows Security.
- Now, head over to Virus and threat protection.
- Under the Virus & threat protection settings section, click on Manage settings from the new window that pops up.
- Now, turn the radio button corresponding to Real-time protection off.
If the game starts to work after disabling the antivirus software, we suggest that you enable the software and set an exclusion for the game.
Run the Game with Admin Permission
- Go to your desktop and right-click on the Stray shortcut file and then click on the Properties option.
- Once opened, go to the Compatibility tab and check to mark the ‘Run this program as an administrator checkbox.
- And click on Apply and Ok to save changes.
Uninstall and Reinstall Game
If none of the above solutions have worked to fix the Stray crashing problem, your final solution apart from getting in touch with the devs is to reinstall the game. Quite often, verifying the game files does not fix some issues which can be resolved by reinstalling the game.
That’s all we have in this guide. We will update the post after we have experimented with the game and more solutions are available to use.