Dark Souls 3 PC Crashes, Errors, Freezes, Low FPS, Game Fixes

Possible solutions and fixes for Dark Souls 3 crashes, errors, freezes and other related issues.

PC ports don’t set the best example for smooth, ironed out copies and Dark Souls 3 isn’t an exception. The random Dark Souls 3 PC crashes, bugs, freezes and other game-breaking issues will frustrate you but you can resolve these with simple workarounds.

Dark Souls 3 PC Crashes At Tutorial Boss Bonfire
As you know, Dark Souls 3 starts with a brief tutorial that pits you against some easy to defeat enemies and a giant boss that is not so easy to defeat, especially if the game keeps crashing while you attack. The problem gets worse beyond the tutorial boss fight.

So what can you do? The game normally crashes about every 3 to 5 minutes into the tutorial so if you are an AMD user make sure you have updated your drivers because that seems to help.

If that doesn’t work, tune down your lighting and Dark Souls 3 crashes will improve. This gets to show that there is nothing wrong with your hardware specs, these are just technical issues that need to be fixed with an update.

Dark Souls 3 PC Crashes at Higher Resolution
Dark Souls 3 crashes on higher resolutions – 1440p, 4K. There is a simple solution to this, turned down your screen resolution to 1080p. Going to 1440p incurs an increase in performance requirements of over 60% and causes the problem for many users.

PlayStation 4 Controller Doesn’t Work
Well, if you find it easy to play Dark Souls 3 PC with a PS4 controller then you’re not alone. However, there are some issues reported. PS4 controller either doesn’t work entirely or the only thing you can do is run while all the other buttons don’t register.

There are some solutions you can try here. First, try using a tool called InputMapper that will help bridge the gap between your DS4 and PC. You can download it right now for free.

The second solution is checking “Hide Controller” in the DS4 UI. Another thing you can try is disabling other devices in your windows Controllers list. Apparently Dark Souls 3 faces issues if more than one device is enabled at a time.

You can also check out the workarounds mentioned here for fixes.

Dark Souls 3 200MB File Size in Japan
Dark Souls 3 buyers in Japan are currently facing some issues after buying Global Keys for the game. The install size is showing only 200MB which isn’t playable, the 200MB is actually a bonus soundtrack of Dark Souls 3. If you are in Japan and facing the same problem, then try this:

Change Your Steam Client Language to Japanese and select install on the same 200MB file. Said file will allocate and download full 17GB of data.

There is one problem though, this fix will work but once you download and run the game it will be in Japanese. So you paying for a Global Key doesn’t matter anymore.

You can go to Games Library and open Dark Souls 3 properties. You can change its language to English but  I suggest you backup your files before doing so. Changing your language may delete game files so you’ll need to redownload everything.

Dark Souls 3 Character Creation Keeps Spinning
Dark Souls 3 Character Creation has a problem as well. The character keeps spinning uncontrollably, disconnecting the mouse or Keyboard won’t work unless you disconnect your PS4 controller.  This will help it stop but you will have to play with keyboard and mouse until there this is a proper fix for this issue.

Dark Souls 3 60 Seconds Crash
Dark Souls 3 crashes every 60 seconds and if that is something you’re faced with, try expanding your virtual memory. Here’s how to do it in Windows 7 and Windows 8:

Windows 7

  • Click the Start button
  • Go to Control Panel
  • Select System and Maintenance and click System
  • Click Advanced system settings
  • Go to Advanced tab > Performance > Settings.
  • Click the Advanced tab >Virtual memory > Change
  • Click Custom and the Initial size (MB) and Maximum size

Windows 8.1

  • Go to My Computer Properties
  • Click on System and from Advanced System Settings > View Advanced tab
  • Click Settings displayed under Performance
  • Click Performance Options and Enter Advanced Tab
  • Click Change button under Virtual memory
  • Clear the Automatically manage paging file size for all drives check box.
  • Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.
  • Click Custom size, type a new size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, click Set, and then click OK.

Keep your motion Blur off.

Dark Souls 3 Low FPS on Nvidia Adaptor
Many Nvidia users are currently facing issues with frame rates. At 1080p max setting they are getting around 20-25 frames even after meeting the recommended system requirements. The problem isn’t with your hardware, it lies within the latest Nvidia driver update.

Revert back to Driver 314.22 of Nvidia that may help fix low framerate issues.

Dark Souls 3 White Screen

Upon launching the game it may crash and present a white screen. Open options.ini file and change its default resolution that may fix the problem for you.

You may need to go below 1080p which isn’t ideal by any means but it may run the game.

Character Won’t Move
If your character can’t perform any action but you can open and look through menus, move the camera around and turn your character, here’s a possible solution.

Try installing the game outside your standard Steam folder and run the game again. If the problem persists, consult “PlayStation 4 Controller Doesn’t Work” above if you’re using a controller.

Dark Souls 3 PC Crashes – (0xc000007b) error
The error usually occurs when your directx is not proper installed or .Net framework (C++ Visual) is not installed properly. The game installs them automatically when you try to launch the game for the first time. However, if you are still getting this error, you should try installing this tools manually from the game’s directory.

Restart your PC after installation and the problem should be resolved.

Dark Souls 3 PC Flickering Fix
Some users have reported that they are experiencing flickering when they boot up Dark Souls 3. First thing you should try is make sure that your screen’s refresh rate is same that of in-game (usually 60hz).

If that doesn’t work, find the xml configuration file at: C:\Users\WhatYoursName\AppData\Roaming\DarkSoulsIII
GraphicsConfig.XML. Open the file using a text editor and where it says Something, add “WindowScreen” in the tags so the final line will be: WindowScreen.

Performance Fix for GTX 5xxx Series or Similar GPUs
If you are using a GTX 580 or similar GPU and are having terrible FPS, you should try rolling back your drivers to 314.22 version. This seems to have fixed the issue for many users so it’s worth of a shot.

Dark Souls 3 PC Resolution Fix for TV Monitor Users
Many users have reported that they cannot save the resolution change in Dark Souls 3 on their tv monitors. Some have even reported that their screen gets stuck on top left corner after launch. As a workaround, you could try the following.

Go to your Geforce experience and in the games tab, click dark souls 3 and choose the optimize settings option. From here you can choose the custom resolution you want and resolve the issue. However, the settings will reset so you will have to do it every time before starting the game.

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Ali is a passionate RPG gamer. He believes that western RPGs still have a lot to learn from JRPGs. He is editor-in-chief at SegmentNext.com but that doesn't stop him from writing about his favorite video ...