You can always expect few loose ends when a blockbuster game launches so be ready to give some time to developers to fix all the outstanding issues with the game that gamers are experiencing.
Battlefield 3 is no different and even after the lengthy beta, has few loose ends that would be tightened soon. Wait would kill you so if you are experiencing any of these issues, you can temporary fix them by following the workarounds we have listed.
They shouldn’t be taken as permanent fix but for the time, until DICE releases a patch or updates Battlefield 3.
1# Doesn’t Install From Disc
When you put the Disc and try to install the game, Origin will start and try to download the game. Now, it may seem at first, it is downloading from the internet but in fact, it is downloading from the disc you put inside your disc drive.
If you have fast enough disc drive, it wouldn’t take long.
2# Looping Audio and Chopping – Audio Lag
If you are experiencing random audio lag and a transitional state between smooth and laggy gameplay, you may want to run the game in Stereo or you can go into sound manager settings and set the sound quality to 44K. You can do that by going into your playback devices > speaker properties > advanced. It will be drop down menu.
3# You should be logged-in as Administrator to Run This
If you come across this error, run origin as admin and re-launch the game using it. Or make a new admin account and install the game using it. Make sure you have user account control disabled in OS (Win7).
4# Low Performance On High-end graphics Card
If you are only experiencing issues with Battlefield 3 while all other games run fine on your high-end card, you should delete your old drivers and install the latest drivers – 285.62 Nvidia.
5# Game Won’t Start
Make sure you aren’t blocking the game. Disable your security programs and run Origin as admin. If possible, add BF3 exe to use admin privileges to start.
6# Release Check and Re-install
If Origin asks you to re-install the game again after you have already downloaded and installed the game. You may want to try repairing the game first.
7# Battlefield 3 Stopped Working
Repair your damn game 🙂 – Go into your Origin Client, right-click BF3, click Repair Install, and it will re-download and re-install the game with new patches and updates.
8# Can’t Log-in to Battlog.net
Make sure you haven’t added Battlelog dot net to trusted services in IE. Pull Battlelog out of trusted sites list and re-try. Or you can try using a different browser.
9# Origin Not Installed When Try To Install Battlefield 3
While you have origin installed. Fix is to manually uninstall origin and do a fresh install. To manually uninstall Origin, you will need to edit your system registry and remove the folders in a two-part process. This will remove all traces of Origin from your system.
To remove all the game folders:
- Open My Computer.
- Open your hard drive (by default, Originis installed on theC drive).
- Open the Program Files folder (Program Files (X86 for 64-bit).
- Right-click on theOriginfolder and choose Delete.
- A “Confirm Folder Delete ” window will appear; choose Yes.
Also in the Program Files folder, go to the InstallShield Installation Information. *If you cannot find this folder you may have to go to Tools > Folder Settings and click the setting to “SHOW hidden folders “.
- Right-click on the{EF7E931D-DC84-471B-8DB6-A83358095474} entry and choose Delete.
- A “Confirm Folder Delete” window will appear; choose Yes.
- When the folder is deleted, close the window.
- Right-click on yourRecycle Bin and choose Empty Recycle Bin.
Now you can remove the registry keys for the game:
- Click on Start and then click on Run…
- In the text line type regedit, then click OK.
- Click on File and then Export…
- Choose a location and name for the file (this will be your backup registry file).
- Click Save.
The next steps will all be performed in the left pane of the Registry Editor window:
- Click on the + next to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
- Click on the + next to SOFTWARE.
- For 64-bit systems, this should be Wow6432Node
- Click on the + next to Electronic Arts.
- Right-click onEA Corefolder and choose Delete.
- Click on the + next to Microsoft.
- Click on the + next to Windows.
- Click on the + next to Current Version.
- Click on the + next to Uninstall.
- Right-click on{EF7E931D-DC84-471B-8DB6-A83358095474}and choose Delete.
- A Confirm Key Delete window will appear, choose Yes.
If you also need to remove the cache associated with Origin, please do the following:
- Open My Computer.
- Double-click the C drive. (By default, this is where the cache folder is created. If you previously specified a different location for the cache folder, you will need to delete that custom folder.)
- Double-click the ProgramData folder.
- Double-click the Electronic Arts folder.
- Right-click on Originand choose Delete.
- A “Confirm Folder Delete” window will appear; choose Yes.
Origin has now been completely removed from your system.
10# Battlefield 3 Has Stopped Working. A problem caused the program to stop working correctly
Servers are over-loaded. I know you want to play the game but give developers a chance to adjust themselves to the unprecedented demand of the game. It will get fixed soon, probably sooner than our anticipation. It is one of those general day 1 issues.
11# Battlefield 3 Random Crashes
If your game is randomly crashing, repair the game – it will install an update which will resolve the issues that cause these crashes.
12# Battlefield 3 Graphics Bugs and Glitches
Before you jump into the game, make sure you have updated your video card drivers.
13# Kicked By Administrator – Punkbuster Fix
If you are getting random kicks out of the server with this message, you should know that Punkbuster is trolling you, unless you are cheating. You can fix it by following the workaround below:
- Go into your Origin games directory (mine was C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games)
- Copy the “pb” folder and the “pbsvc.exe” from the “Battlefield 3 BETA” folder, and pasted it in my “Battlefield 3” folder.
- Run the pbsvc.exe (it might be unnecessary but I did it anyway).
Restart the game and have fun!
14# Battlefield 3 Stutter Fix
Turn off Intel Hyper Threading in Bios to fix the issue. You will find the option to disable/enable Hyper Threading in Bios. If that sounds a bit scary, you can wait for DICE to resolve it in the next patch.
You can also try to run the game with one-cpu. I mean run the game by setting the affinity to one CPU. Open your Task Manager, click on the Battlefield 3 process and then on Set Affinity. Select only one CPU from the available and Press OK!/Apply.
Setting either of these settings can have diverse effects, good or bad. So try it if you know what you are doing.
15# Low Performance, Low Framerates
Again, if you have good enough system but are experiencing low performance than usual, you should try turning off Intel Hyper Threading in Bios or run the game with affinity set to 1. It would make the frame rates constant and remove the stuttering that you may experience in the single and multiplayer constantly otherwise.
16# How To Switch Back to Default Settings After a Screw-Up
Oh, this is important for most of us. We like to tweak around with new games in our attempt to optimize them to run perfect on our systems. In this attempt sometime we screw it up and the result is inability to start the game.
If this happens with Battlefield 3, delete the settings folder in my documents/battlefield 3 to reset to defaults and start fresh.
17# Battlefield 3 Crashes and Locks Up
Repair the game. Fix the installed game ^
18# 3D Vision Support
Wait for the patch – Battlefield 3 doesn’t support it on launch but will be after a patch as the engine is built to support 3D technology.
19# Battlefield 3 Xbox 360 Controller Support
Will be fixed down the road – That’s what the developer said.
20# Battlefield 3 Input Lag Fix
Go into nvidias control panel and set vsync to force off and max prerendered frames to 0.
21# Origin Network Couldn’t Be Reached
This issue may be caused by Winsock corruption and developer suggested, you can fix it by following the instructions below:
- Click on Start button.
- Type Cmd in the Start Search text box.
- Press Ctrl-Shift-Enter keyboard shortcut to run Command Prompt as Administrator. Allow elevation request. (you can right-click on the cmd.exe program and select “Run as Administrator” – that’s more direct).
- Type netsh winsock reset in the Command Prompt shell, and then press the Enter key.
- Restart the computer.
22# Battlefield 3 Freezes
23# How to Link EA/Origin Account To PSN
Go to help at Origin and select ‘Contact Us’. You will need to provide the following information:
- PSN ID
- Email for EA account
- Email for PSN ID account
- Birthdate associated with PSN ID account
24# Battlefield 3 White Screen When Loading Next Map
25# Battlefield 3 Multiplayer Port Forwarding
If you are experiencing connection issues of any sort, you can forward these ports and add Battlefield 3/origin to your firewall and security program’s exception lists. Ports are:
PC
- TCP: 80, 443, 9988, 20000-20100, 22990, 17502, 42127
- UDP: 3659, 14000-14016, 22990-23006, 25200-25300
Playstation 3
- TCP: 80, 443, 9988, 10000-10100, 17502, 42127
- UDP: 3659, 14000-14016
Xbox 360
- TCP: 53, 88, 3074
- UDP: 53, 88, 3074
26# Online Pass Check Failed – How To Add
Go to store, press triangle and it will let you input your code. Don’t try it when you are on Vodka/Tequila.
27# You Are Not Allowed To Log-in Battlelog
Because servers are too busy. No big deal, would be resolve by the next time you try, after waiting half a day.
28# My Weapons’ are not Visible When I respawn
Console specific. To resolve it, restart your console.
29# Battlefield 3 Lag Fix – Performance Issues
There can be several reason for the lag to occur when you are playing Battlefield 3. We can only snipe the general issues, so first, update your Nvidia and ATI graphics card drivers.
Close all background applications and hope, your internet connection isn’t the cause. If you end up troubleshooting your internet connection, refer to this guide.
30# Battlefield 3 Random Disconnects
Update your Punkbuster Manually. You can read the instructions here. Steps are:
- Download the PBSetup utility.
- Run it.
- Add BF3 to your list of PB games.
- Run a manual update.
31# Battlefield 3 Corrupt Shadows and Stuttering Fix
Don’t use Ultra Shadows – lower down the shadows if you are using Nvidia drivers 285.62.
32# Can’t Bind The Mouse Buttons ?
Enable Raw Mouse Input in options.
33# Game Freezes Then Crash To Desktop With ‘Stopped Working’ Error
Make sure you don’t have nVidia control panel or ATI Tray Tools FPS overlay enabled, exit the app to fix this issue.
34# Sluggish / Unresponsive Mouse
- Go here: C:\Users\YOU\Documents\Battlefield 3\settings
- Open PROF_SAVE_profile with notepad++ (can download for free)
Change the following variables:
GstInput.MouseSensitivity 0.050000
1st one is the normal mouse sensitivity. These variables can be edited to fix the mouse responsiveness:
- GstInput.Scheme0Sensitivity 0.000000
- GstInput.Scheme1Sensitivity 0.000000
- GstInput.Scheme2Sensitivity 0.000000
35# How To Play Battlefield 3 Using Steam Overlay
- Disable Origin’s overlay (click the gear/cog and go to the “in game” settings tab).
- In Steam, add Origin.exe as a non-steam game to your library.
- Launch the Origin shortcut from your Steam library, then launch BF3.
36# Long Map Load Times – Slow Loading Battlefield 3
- Open / Run: regedit.
- Navigate to: HKEY LOCAL MACHINE/SOFTWARE/WoW6432Node/EA Games
- Change the GDFBinary & InstallDir paths to C:Program Files (x86)Origin GamesBattlefield 3
- Try to launch the game and join game servers, and it should work.
Alternatively, you can buy a SSD drive, install BF3 & origin on there.
37# Stability Issues – Battlefield 3 Crashes During Install
Nvidia Freezes and Crashes
- Update to LATEST Nvidia Drivers
- Turn OFF – AA – DEFERED
- Turn OFF – VSYNC
- Turn OFF – Motion Blur
Nvidia Lockup and Freezes
- Download the latest bios for your video card for your card’s manufacturer’s website.
- Flash it.
- Reboot and that’s it. You have fixed the freezes and lock up issues.
AMD – Crash and Freeze
- Load up single player.
- Under options disable Anti Aliasing ( AA deferred )
- Disable AA post to be on the safe side.
- Download the latest drivers from your laptop manufacturer and install them. Multiplayer should work after that.
38# Battlefield 3 PC Lockup and Freeze With Looping Audio
It’s caused by Battlefield 3 bug with onboard sound card. Fix is to install a separate sound card and use that. Disable the default onboard sound card in BIOS.
39# “Battlefield 3 (BF3) Install Fails, Cannot Install”
Uninstall Microsoft C++ files from your system, and re-install them later after you Battlefield 3 is installed on your system.
40# Battlefield 3 Crashes To Desktop On Launch
- Repair your Battlefield 3 installation.
- Disable SLI or Crossfire.
- Disable anti-aliasing and filtering.
- Disable V-sync.
You can read our Battlefield 3 Tweak Guide to learn how you can run Battlefield 3 on optimum performance. If you face any other issue, let us know in comments and we will try to help you out.
