Does The Outer Worlds crash on your PC so often that it is all but unplayable? If the answer is “yes,” don’t panic – you’re not alone. Although this problem can be hard to tackle sometimes, there’re still a few useful fixes for you to try. Now let’s dig in and see what’s what.
Check your PC specs first
To anyone kind of hooked on video games, crashing errors seem as much familiar as they’re unwelcome. When it’s time to launch a newly installed game, furrow your brows, hold your breath, and cross your fingers – just hope everything goes off without a hitch; otherwise, an unexpected crashing problem can drive you nuts because it’s somewhat tricky to nail down the root causes. But there’s one concrete thing you should do before downloading a new game: check your PC specs to verify that your computer satisfies the system requirements for that game.
After finding out the information about your computer, compare it with the system requirements for The Outer Worlds. And we’ve already found them for you:
Minimum System Requirements
| Operating System | Windows 7 (SP1) 64bit |
| CPU | Intel Core i3-3225 or AMD Phenom II X6 1100T |
| RAM | 4GB |
| GPU | Nvidia GTX 650 Ti or AMD HD 7850 |
| HDD Space | 40GB |
Recommended System Requirements
| Operating System | Windows 10 64bit |
| CPU | Intel Core i7-7700K or Ryzen 5 1600 |
| RAM | 8GB |
| GPU | GeForce GTX 1060 6GB or Radeon RX 470 |
| HDD Space | 40GB |
If unfortunately your gear is not up for running this game, then you should consider upgrading some of the out-dated hardware components; but if you’re pretty sure that your computer is up to scratch, read on and check out the solutions below.
8 Fixes for The Outer Worlds crashing
Here are 8 fixes that have proved useful to many players. You may not need to try them all; just work your way down the list until you find the one that does the trick.
Fix 1: Close unnecessary gaming overlays
Fix 2: Update your graphics card drivers
Fix 3: Throttle your in-game FPS to 60
Fix 4: Install the Windows10 N 1903 media feature pack
Fix 5: Run the game as an administrator
Fix 6: Stop overclocking your computer
Fix 7: Do some basic check on your system files
Fix 8: Wait for new game patches
Fix 1: Close unnecessary gaming overlays
It’s still unknown whether The Outer Worlds conflicts with any specific gaming overlays, but to rule them out as potential culprits, you should shut down unnecessary overlays including the Xbox app, Steam, MSI Afterburner, Epic Games, etc. It should be better if you can play the game in a simpler and more stable PC environment because in that case, more resources will be allocated to The Outer Worlds so it can run better. More importantly, the possibility of software clashes will also be minimized.
Aside from gaming overlays, you should also disable other unnecessary programs running in the background. Here’s how:
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and X at the same time, then click Task Manager.
2) In the Task Manager window, on the Processes tab, select the program you want to shut down and click End task. (If it’s a program you’re using, e.g. Microsoft Word, make sure you save any unsaved work first.)
3) (This is optional.) You can also turn off some Windows features relating to gameplay, just in case:
On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and S at the same time to invoke the search box (you may also see it on the taskbar). Type in game mode and click Game Mode settings.
4) On the Game Mode tab, in the results pane, move the toggle under Game Mode to Off.
5) Go to the Game bar tab, and turn off this feature.
6) On the Captures tab, toggle off the option under Record in the background while I’m playing a game and Record audio when I record a game.
Now launch The Outer Worlds and see whether it can run properly. If it continues to crash, then move on to the next fix below.
Fix 2: Update your graphics card drivers
Your crashing issue in The Outer Worlds may be caused by outdated or corrupt graphics card drivers (aka video drivers). To check if that’s the root cause, you should try updating your video drivers to a relatively new and stable version first.
Usually, you can get the latest driver from your video card’s manufacturer (such as Nvidia, AMD, Intel) and then install it by yourself. However, you’ll need some computer skills and patience to update your driver this way, because you need to find exactly the right driver online, download it and install it step by step. If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to update your device drivers manually, you can do it automatically with Driver Easy.
Driver Easy will automatically recognize your system and find the correct drivers for it. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running, you don’t need to risk downloading and installing the wrong driver, and you don’t need to worry about making a mistake when installing. Driver Easy takes care of everything.
You can update your drivers automatically with either the FREE or the Pro version of Driver Easy. But with the Pro version it takes just 2 clicks:
1) Download and install Driver Easy.
2) Run Driver Easy and click the Scan Now button. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any problem drivers.
3) Click the Update button next to a flagged driver (say your graphics card driver) to automatically download the correct version of that driver, then you can manually install it (you can do this with the FREE version).
Or click Update All to automatically download and install the correct version of all the drivers that are missing or out of date on your system. (This requires the Pro version which comes with full support and a 30-day money back guarantee. You’ll be prompted to upgrade when you click Update All.)
Run The Outer Worlds and wait to see if the crashing error reoccurs. If it does, give Fix 3 a try.
Fix 3: Throttle your in-game FPS to 60
According to many players, blocking the FPS in The Outer Worlds to 60 helped them mitigate or even resolve the problem. However, if you cannot open the game at all, then maybe you should turn to other fixes and get it to start running. After that, follow the steps below to set a 60 FPS cap to make your game operate more stably.
To throttle your in-game FPS:
1) Launch The Outer Worlds.
2) Head over to the Settings window. Scroll down until you find the DISPLAY section, and set Frame Rate Limit to 60 FPS. To save the change, click APPLY.
Wait to see if you still have constant crashes with The Outer Worlds. If your problem remains, then please proceed to the next fix.
Fix 4: Install the Windows 10 N 1903 media feature pack
If you’re using one of the Windows 10 N editions, you should download and install the 1903 media feature pack for the media functionality to work properly. This feature pack includes media-related technologies such as Windows Media Player and those required for certain apps (e.g. the Game bar). As reported by many players, installing/reinstalling this pack helped them resolve the problem so it’s definitely worth a shot.
You should perform the following steps to download and install the Windows 10 N 1903 media feature pack:
1) Visit the download page of the Windows 10 N 1903 media feature pack.
2) Under Downloads, select Media Feature Pack – Version 1903 (May 2019).
Click Confirm.
3) Under Media Feature – Version 1903 (May 2019), click 32-bit Download or 64-bit Download based on your Windows version.
4) Wait for the download process to be complete. Then, double-click on that downloaded file and follow the onscreen instructions to install the feature pack.
After the pack has been installed, you should restart your computer for the changes to be fully implemented.
Check to see whether your crashing problem reoccurs or not. If it does, you should try Fix 5.
Fix 5: Run the game as an administrator
This quick fix is more like a general solution for all the games that cannot be launched properly, and it’s very easy to apply. As long as you have the administrative privileges to run the game, you should give this fix a try.
1) Locate the executable file of The Outer Worlds in your PC. Right-click on it and select Properties.
2) In the Properties window, on the Compatibility tab, select Run this program as an administrator. Then click Apply > OK.
Now you should be able to run The Outer Worlds under administrator privileges permanently. If you want to revert this configuration, simply uncheck Run this program as an administrator.
If this fix didn’t help, please move on to the next one.
Fix 6: Stop overclocking your computer
To anyone in pursuit of ultimate gaming experience, it’s quite common to speed up the CPU/GPU a notch or two. Usually, it won’t cause you much trouble; just don’t push them too hard – otherwise, the overclocking may undermine the stability of your PC, raising the risks of game crashes and even hardware malfunction (such as overheat).
If you’re now overclocking your computer, try to stop it for a while and see whether that resolves your crashing problem in The Outer Worlds. If possible, underclock your GPU a bit and then turn down/off some of the in-game graphics settings. That will release some burden from your hardware and enable the game to run more fluidly, but it’s not essential.
Fix 7: Do some basic check on your system files
It’s possible that some of the system files in your PC have been damaged and hence gave rise to crashing in The Outer Worlds. To check for such problems, here are at least two things you should do:
1. Scan with System File Checker
System File Checker (sfc) is a Windows utility that identifies and repairs corrupted system files:
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time to open the Run dialog box. Type cmd and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run Command Prompt as administrator.
2) When Windows asks for permission to make changes to your device, click Yes.
3) In the Command Prompt, type the following command (note that there’s a space between sfc and /):
sfc /scannow
After you finish entering the command, hit Enter on your keyboard. Then the sfc tool will begin to scan all system files and repair the corrupted or missing ones.
4) Wait until the verification process completes. Then restart your computer for the changes to take effect.
If, after running sfc you still experience the crashing issue, try running dism.exe as described below.
2. Scan with dism.exe
Deployment Image Servicing and Management (DISM) is an in-built Windows tool that can identify if your Windows installation is corrupt, and repair it if it is:
1) On your keyboard, press the Windows logo key and R at the same time to open the Run dialog box. Type cmd and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter to run Command Prompt as administrator.
If prompted for consent, click Yes.
2) In Command Prompt, type the following command (note that there’s a space to the left of each slash “/”):
dism.exe /online /cleanup-image /restorehealth
After that, hit Enter on your keyboard. Then the DISM tool will begin to scan for any problems and try to fix them.
Wait for the process to complete. Then, reboot your computer, launch The Outer Worlds, and see if it keeps crashing. If it does, then maybe you should just wait for some game patches to fix the bugs.
Fix 8: Wait for new game patches
This method may seem rather passive, but if the root cause doesn’t really lie in your gaming machine, then you should probably just wait for some new updates to get the problem fixed. Of course, if you’d like to do something else, you can also forward your problem to the developer or look for other solutions on related forums.
Hopefully this post helped you resolve the crashing issue in The Outer Worlds. If you have any follow-up questions or ideas, please feel free to leave a comment below. You’re also welcome to share more useful solutions with us. Thanks for reading!