Why won't my games run as they should?

Ian SkiyGuy95 · Nov 3, 2022

Hello, Microsoft community! So, like many other people and questions on here, I'm having troubles running my games on my laptop. This all began when I bought and installed Fallout 4. The Launcher opened up just fine, I set my correct resolution and graphics settings to allow for best gameplay optimization, and what happens? The game opens up in "full screen" when it's really a window taking up a portion of the screen, i hit "Alt-Enter" to Fullscreen it as it's loading and then it crashes on me. Not unknown to me due to Bethesda's reputation for not optimizing games in the past, IE Fallout3.

I know Steam isn't Microsoft, but I figured I should include ALL the details to provide a clear picture of the problem.

Then the strangest thing happens. All of my other previous, WORKING JUST FINE, GAMES start either crashing or minimizing to the desktop and refusing to run in full screen. Every single one of my games. I tried the recommended steam fixes; I tried other things. I flushed steam's cache, I made sure all my AMD drivers were up to date, I consolidated files on my computer to not be as so widespread. ALL of these fixes failed after 24 hours. I'd uninstall and reinstall steam and games, and the same thing happened. the game would work for as long as i ran it, but if I exited and left my computer idle for a few hours the crashes and minimizes would begin to happen again. I've contacted the company who sold me the laptop. They've not been the best at getting back to me.

But I have to know, is this a software issue? a hardware issue? I've not downloaded any malware and I'll be having my laptop inspected by microcenter, but really, I just want my computer working again. I'm sick and tired of these hoops I'm having to jump thru just to enjoy gaming on what was advertised as a gaming laptop. The strangest part? ALL of my other programs work and run smoothly, I've had no issues or glitches, it's JUST the games specifically.

Even RuneScape, a game I have set to windowed and low graphics settings, will crash on me after 10-15 minutes of gameplay, no error message will appear, it'll just freeze up, wait a few moments, then crash again. I've not even associated my RuneScape with my Steam account although i know it's a possibility.

:)

SwordofWhedon

Another thing you should do is verify that the fans on your graphics card are working. Typically when you start a game, the graphics card will ramp itself up and that may be causing it to hang.

Ian SkiyGuy95

Hey man, so i tried all these fixes, short of reinstalling windows 11 or reimaging, as I haven't a blank USB. I forgot to mention this problem started after I updated windows after fallout 4 crashed the first time. I did the command prompt thing, found corrupted files and fixed them. Guess what? the crashes kept coming back. So, could a Microsoft update have caused these issues?

JosefLBohorquez

Hi and thanks for reaching Microsoft Xbox gamer's community. My name is Josef.
I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft Xbox user like you.

Hope you're doing great today despite this Ian.

I don't think that this could be a hardware issue. But we can try to isolate the problem a bit more
Try this, if one doesn't work proceed with the next solution:

A. Open task manager > select the startup tab > disable all the programs listed there temporarily
Restart the PC and try again

B. Do a clean boot in your PC and try again (is like option A but deeper)

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/how-t...

C. Create a new local administrator user in your PC and try from there
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/cre...

D. Run the SFC tool to find and repair possible system corruptions

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

D. Perform an in-place upgrade for your system (don't worry your content will remain)

If you're on Windows 11:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

Windows 10:
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

Obsessive Power

Hi,

I find it really odd that these 'independent advisors' haven't asked one of the most important questions that should be asked when looking at an issue with PCs and that is the system specs. What's yours?

Also, reinstalling Windows should be the absolute last thing you should do. I've been building my own PCs for the past 20 years and I've hardly ever had to reinstall Windows. It sounds to me like there is something wrong with your graphics driver. But since you haven't told us your specs, we have little to go on when it comes to diagnosing your problem.

I can tell you now, your issue probably isn't Windows related. Please provide your system specs.

JosefLBohorquez

That could be a possibility, in that case try removing the latest Windows update to see if that helps in your case.

If needed use this article:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/rec...

Why won't my games run as they should?