The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt Freezing & Crashing: How to Fix

Are you facing freezes while playing The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt? Follow our steps and get back to your game in no time! πŸ€–

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The game is the third in the series, and developers said that it’s not necessary to have played the previous games to enjoy Wild Hunt fully. Because the game is mainly developed for consoles, it has some bugs and issues that people are complaining about on Steam’s Dashboard of the game.

The major The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt issues affecting playersΒ are random crashes, freezes, black screens, and performance issues.

In this article, we’ll look out why Witcher 3 freezes and how to fix it in no time.

Why does Witcher 3 keep freezing and crashing?

There are several reasons that can explain why your Witcher game is freezing. To discover them, quickly check the list below:

  • Outdated drivers – If your graphics card drivers are out of date, you can experience issues such as freezing or crashing while trying to play your favorite masterpieces.
  • RAM-related issues – In case your computer does not have enough RAM, Witcher might frequently freeze. We recommend checking if your system meets the minimum requirements for running this game.
  • Corrupted game files – It is important to sometimes verify your game files, just so you ensure that are not corrupted.
  • Wrong graphics settings – In some cases, you’ll need to lower your in-game graphics settings.
  • Conflicting apps/programs – Other software on your computer, such as antivirus or firewall software, may interact with the game. You can try to temporarily disable them.

How can I fix The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt freezing?

Keep in mind that it is always a good idea to first verify if your system meets at least the game’s minimum specifications. In case your PC is not supporting these, you might experience annoying issues, such as game freezing errors.

Table of contents:

  1. Update your graphics card driver
  2. Verify the integrity of game files
  3. Disable background apps
  4. Adjust graphics settings
  5. Temporarily disable your antivirus software

1. Update your graphics card driver

Time needed: 4 minutes

Updating your graphics card driver to the latest version is the most efficient solution you can try in case of experiencing freezing issues.

  1. Press simultaneously on the Windows and X keys on your keyboard.

  2. Navigate to Device Manager.

    Open Device Manager through keyboard shortcut

  3. Search for the Display Adapters section, then double-click on it.

    Display Driver Settings for Adapters

  4. Once the section is expanded, look for your graphics card driver, then right-click on it. Then, choose to Update driver.

    Update Display adapters drivers

  5. Now, go for the Search automatically for drivers option.

  6. Wait a couple of minutes until the downloading and installing process is finished.

  7. Restart your PC and check if you managed to get rid of The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt freezing issue.

In order to save much more of your time, we strongly recommend avoiding the manual steps, by using an automatic tool to update your drivers instead.

PC HelpSoft is one of the most popular software on the market, that will automatically scan for outdated or missing drivers, then update them in no time.

Plus, if you choose to use it, you won’t have to worry about not being able to find the latest version for your component. PC HelpSoft comes with a massive database from where it can identify the perfect option.

In case you’re a beginner, have no fear! PC HelpSoft is easy to use and intuitive, so you don’t need to be an expert to understand its interface.

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2. Verify the integrity of game files

  1. Open your Steam client.
  2. Navigate to Library.Open Steam Library
  3. Look at the list shown in the left window pane, then right-click on our today’s game, then click on its Properties.
  4. Go to Local Files.
  5. Choose to Verify the integrity of game files.
  6. After the process is completed. relaunch Steam, then try to see if The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt is still freezing.

3. Disable background apps

  1. Hit the Windows key, type Task Manager, then open the first result.
  2. Make sure you’re in the Processes tab.
  3. Look for any app/program you don’t necessarily need, then click on it, and choose to End task.
  4. Repeat the process for all the apps/programs you don’t need.
  5. Launch the game and check if the issue is gone.

4. Adjust graphics settings

  1. Open the game, then go to Options.
  2. Now, navigate to Display.
  3. From the Display menu, choose Graphics.
  4. Now, adjust all the settings by turning them On or Off.

5. Temporarily disable your antivirus software

When experiencing game freezes, temporarily disabling antivirus software can be a troubleshooting step because some antivirus programs may interfere with the game’s performance.

Antivirus software is intended to safeguard your computer against dangerous software and other dangers.

It may scan game files in real-time or conduct background activities that use system resources and cause game freezes.

What is the chance to freeze Witcher?

Freeze is one of the critical effects demonstrated by a few weapons in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The following is a list of all things that affect the likelihood of freezing an opponent on a hit.

NameAvailabilityTypeEffects
Addan DeithMain campaignSilver
Sword
+3 – 10% Aard Sign intensity
+3 – 10% Axii Sign intensity
+10 – 25% Critical hit damage bonus
+1 – 4% Critical hit chance
+1% Chance to freeze
AshruneMain campaignSteel
Sword
+1 – 5% Critical hit damage bonus
+5% Chance to freeze
+1 – 3% Chance to dismember
+1 – 2% Bonus experience from humans and nonhumans
CarabellaMain campaignSteel
Sword
+5 – 14% Critical hit chance
+2% Chance to freeze
Deithwen (sword)Main campaignSilver
Sword
+5 – 20 Frost damage
+1% Chance to freeze
Greater Zoria runestoneMain campaignUpgrade+5% Chance to freeze
GwestogMain campaignSteel
Sword
+2 – 10% Quen Sign intensity
+2% Chance to freeze
+4 – 10% Chance to dismember
Lesser Zoria runestoneMain campaignUpgrade+2% Chance to freeze
LuneMain campaignSteel
Sword
+5 – 8% Aard Sign intensity
+4% Chance to freeze
MoonbladeMain campaignSilver
Sword
+1 – 5% Yrden Sign intensity
+10 – 15% Critical hit damage bonus
+1 – 5% Critical hit chance
+1% Chance to freeze
Reach of the DamnedMain campaignSilver
Sword
+2 – 10% Quen Sign intensity
+3 – 20% Axii Sign intensity
+13% Chance to freeze
+2 – 10% Chance to dismember
TlaregMain campaignSilver
Sword
+2 – 20% Igni Sign intensity
+12% Chance to freeze
+1% Bonus experience from monsters
Tor Zireael (sword)Main campaignSilver
Sword
+20 – 25% Igni Sign intensity
+5 – 15% Quen Sign intensity
+20% Chance to freeze
+1 – 2% Chance for instant kill
Wild Hunt warrior’s swordMain campaignSteel
Sword
+25% Critical hit damage bonus
+1% Chance to freeze
Wild Hunt warrior’s sword (magic)Main campaignSteel
Sword
+25% Critical hit damage bonus
+1% Chance to freeze
+2 random item effects
Wild Hunt warrior’s sword (master)Main campaignSteel
Sword
+1 random item effects
Wild Hunt warrior’s sword – enhanced (magic)Main campaignSteel
Sword
+25% Critical hit damage bonus
+2% Chance to freeze
+2 random item effects
Wild Hunt warrior’s sword – enhanced (master)Main campaignSteel
Sword
+25% Critical hit damage bonus
+2% Chance to freeze
+1 random item effects
Wild Hunt warrior’s sword – mastercraftedMain campaignSteel
Sword
+50% Critical hit damage bonus
+5% Chance to freeze

Wild Hunt warrior’s sword – mastercrafted (magic)
Main campaignSteel
Sword
+50% Critical hit damage bonus
+5% Chance to freeze
+2 random item effects

Related articles:

We hope that our guide helped you fix The Witcher 3 Wild Hunt freezing issue without effort.

Are you still facing questions related to this topic? Feel free to use the comment section listed below.

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11 Comments
  1. Dereks89 says

    Managed to fix crashes with this, you are awesome guys.

  2. Sjoerd says

    Installed form CD’s on W7 PC. Game won’t start when hitting PLAY button in GOG game window.
    in taskbar it show witcher3.exe for some seconds, and it disappears.
    In witcher crash log it complains about:
    Red Engine Crash Log
    ————————————–
    Build: Not Set [ Compiled May 20 2015 ]

    Crash reason: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (3221225477), Error reading location 0xad7215e4

    Crashed Thread:

    Thread ID: 3644

    callstack:
    Scaleform::Render::Matrix2x4::Prepend() + 0xafe66 – (0)

  3. Crimson says

    is there a fix for witcher dvd rom version freezing on installation, not going further then 1 a 2 % even tho it says estimated time 2 mins??

    1. Crimson says

      It is on 1a2 % installation progress now for the past 6 hours

    2. erich says

      yeah I have the same problem during install, just bought the game and I cant play cause it crashes during install.. what a effing joke! I get stuck on the second disc at the same place each time and I have to do a hard reboot to get out of it.. such a mission

  4. Akshay says

    I am too getting the same issue as Sjoerd reported. Any fix for this?

    Red Engine Crash Log
    ————————————–
    Build: Not Set [ Compiled May 20 2015 ]

    Crash reason: EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION (3221225477), Error reading location 0x94b615e4

    Crashed Thread:

    Thread ID: 7096

    1. daws64 says

      am having same issue as akshay and sjoerd

      1. Itsme says

        Your system doesn’t meet the minimum specs.

  5. zaynism says

    why every time i open this game i get disk not inserted but the game still open…how to fix this…is this normal?

  6. luis jordan says

    I am having the freezing trouble but I am not on steam, I play it on my ps4 and this happens to me more than just a few minutes, when I’m riding on Roach or even just walking, it freezes and the frame rate will just drop, few seconds later its okay and then I take another step or gallop and boom, it happens all over again. Please help I put 80 hours in this game.

  7. Amir says

    when i run the game after few seconds the game closed and the message is : the witcher 3 has stopped working . please help me how to fix this problem .

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