[Solved] Cold War Stuck on Loading Screen – PC & Console

Since the update of Black Ops Cold War, players have found that they can’t even get into the main screen. It’s just stuck on the loading screen. Although the root cause is unclear, troubleshooting the internet and verifying game files seem to decrease the load time. Read on for more details.

Try these fixes

Not all the solutions are necessary, so just work the list down until you find the one that solves your problem.

1. Scan and repair your game files
2. Update your network adapter driver
3. Improve your network connection
4. Link Blizzard account to Activision
5. Make sure all your content packs are installed (Xbox)

1. Scan and repair your game files

Corrupted or damaged game files can cause a wide variety of problems and errors. But you can use the repair tool to fix these issues. To scan and repair the game files, follow the instructions below:

1) Open your Battle.net launcher.

2) Select Call of Duty: BOCW from the panel on the left.

3) Click Options and select Scan and Repair from the drop-down menu. It will start verifying your game files. Simply wait for the process to complete.

Now try to launch your game to check if your problem persists. If you still get past the loading screen, don’t worry. There are a few other fixes to try.

2. Update your network adapter driver

For some users, they can’t get past the loading screen and also get an error message saying that “The server is not available”. (The screenshot is shown below. )

This indicates that your connection is unstable or the server is under maintenance. To isolate the problem, you can first check the server status. If there are no reports on the server side, it’s time to troubleshoot your own network.

A slow or unstable connection can be caused by your outdated or corrupt network adapter driver. And that may also be the reason why it takes forever to load into the main screen. To solve the problem, you should update your network adapter driver.

How to update a network adapter driver

To get a new network adapter driver, you can download it from the manufacturer’s official website. This requires a certain level of computer knowledge as you need to know the specifications of your PC.

If you don’t have the time, patience or computer skills to update your network adapter driver manually, you can, instead, do it automatically with Driver Easy. It’ll detect any outdated drivers, then download, and install the latest drivers for you – direct from the manufacturer. You don’t need to know exactly what system your computer is running or risk downloading and installing the wrong drivers.

1) Download and install Driver Easy.

2) Click Scan Now. Driver Easy will then scan your computer and detect any devices with missing or outdated drivers.

3) Click Update All. Driver Easy will then download and update all your outdated and missing device drivers, giving you the latest version of each, direct from the device manufacturer.
(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. If you don’t want to upgrade to the Pro version, you can also update your drivers with the FREE version. All you need to do is to download them one at a time and manually install them.)

After updating your drivers, restart your PC and then try to launch Black Ops Cold War to check if your problem has been resolved. If the problem persists, attempt to update your graphics driver as it also affects your gameplay.

3. Improve your network connection

There are several ways to speed up your internet connection:

1) Use an ethernet cable.
2) If you have to use a wifi connection, make sure to restart your router or modem if you haven’t done this in a while. 
3) Reduce the amount of devices connected to the same network.

To significantly improve your network connection, you should close those bandwidth hogging applications by following the instructions below:

1) On your keyboard, press the Windows + R keys simultaneously to open the Run dialog box.

2) Type resmon and press Enter to open the Resource Monitor.

3) Select the Network tab, which will show you all the network activity on your computer.

The Processes With Network Activity window is composed of five columns:

• Image: the name of the application
• PID: short for process identifier, it shows you the process ID number
• Send (B/sec): the average number of bytes per second the app sent in the last minute
• Receive (B/sec): the average number of bytes per second the app received in the last minute
• Total (B/sec): total bytes per second the app used in the last minute

4) Find an application that’s using way too much bandwidth, right-click it and select End Process. (Note that you should not close the applications which are significant for your system. If you are not familiar with a certain application, select Search Online to access the information.)

After you’ve done these, you should be able to notice drastic improvements on your connection. Then you can test if it mitigates your problem by clicking on the Play button. If you still can’t boot up the game, proceed to the next fix.

4. Link Blizzard account to Activision

Some players reported that when they can’t get past the loading screen, they tried going offline and online but would be told that they needed a cod account to play the game. This sounds so strange but you can solve your issue by making sure that your Activision and Blizzard accounts are linked:

1) Go to Activision‘s website and login. Once you’re logged into your account, click PROFILE located on the top-right corner.

2) In the ACCOUNT LINKING section, find your profile and link it with your Battle.net account.

3) Select CONTINUE. You’ll be taken back to the Blizzard website to complete the account linking process.

If this didn’t solve your problem, try the next fix below.

5. Make sure all your content packs are installed (Xbox)

For Xbox players, you need to download all the content packs to access the full game. You may notice that all the game items are installed but not the content packs. If that’s your case, follow the instructions below to download and install content packs for cold war:

1) Navigate to your game. Select Manage game and add-ons from the menu.

2) You will find that all the game items are installed except the content packs. Simply select Select all > Save changes.

When all the content packs are installed, start playing your game and you should be able to get into the main screen.

However, if nothing else has worked for you, give VPNs a try. By connecting to a local VPN server, you’re able to avoid bandwidth throttling, get the minimum amount of ping, and thus improve your gameplay. But be advised: lots of problems may arise if you use a free VPN. Therefore, to secure your network and maximize your gaming experience, we suggest you use a paid VPN.

Below are some VPN apps we would like to recommend:

• NordVPN (30-day money-back guarantee)
• Surfshark (7-day free trial available)
• CyberGhost (free trial available)

Hopefully this post helped! Feel free to leave us a comment below if you have further questions.