Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 – Fix Crashes, Sound Issues, Steam Errors & More

Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 (aka CoD : MW 2), which is without a doubt one of the most anticipated games of this year, has finally been released. The game is distributed via Steam and has been available since the 10th of November in some locations. There’s been a lot of pre-release buzz around this game specially regarding its supposedly flawed multiplayer component and non availability of dedicated servers. There’s also been a lot of criticism of the game’s relatively short single player campaign. Either way, here’s our routine troubleshooting article for CoD : MW 2. We hope to discuss various problems users may encounter with the game and possible fixes if any are available.

Please note that this is a work in progress –and this is a very early version. More issues/fixes will be listed as they are discovered.

How to manually edit game settings via configuration file (NEW)

While the game does allow you to change basic audio, video and control settings, hard core gamers would want to tweak the hell out of this game. You can do this by manually editing the configuration file. PC Confuguration settings are stored in:

InstallDir/Player/Settings.cfg

It’s highly recommended you backup the current file before making any changes – if something goes wrong simply restore the backup.

Could not locate resource errors and install issues

As you may already know, Modern Warfare 2 is distributed via Valve’s Steam content delivery platform. Some users have reported errors related to Steam – here’s a brief summary of them:

Sometimes you may encounter strange errors such as ‘could not locate arcadia.ff’ and the game might crash. Most such issues can be fixed by refreshing the game via Steam. To do this:

1. Open Steam client
2. Right click Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2
3. Click ‘Verify Game Cache’
4. Wait until operation completes.

If you run into ‘Failed to run install script’ error, try running the setup as administrator (Right click- run as Administrator).

Also if you receive the annoying “Incomplete Installation of Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare 2″, towards the end of setup try inserting DVD1 back into the drive.

Slow performance and stuttering intro movies

Sometimes you might experience stuttering and slow performance both with the game as well as intro movies. There could be many causes for this but try disabling ‘Sync Every Frame’ from the options menu – this has proven to help.

CoD : MW 2 sound issues – stuttering audio, noise or no sound

Thankfully not a lot of people have reported audio issues with the game ( it wasn’t quote the same with MW1).  However if you are experiencing any audio issues including stuttering, noise or skipping sounds, you may try lowering hardware sound acceleration level. You might also try the audio fix mention at the end of this article.

Corrupt textures, artifacts, graphics issues, etc

I’m not sure this is a common issue or not but this is my personal experience. I’ve found both CoD MW1 and MW2 run my graphics hardware on higher temperatures than during normal gaming. This has sometimes caused artifacting, corrupt textures and various other graphics glitches after few hours/minutes into the game. If you are experiencing similar issues, I suggest you re adjust fan speed (try speeding it up with an utility such as RivaTuner) of your VGA or opening the system casing to allow better ventilation (at least when you play the game).

Random crashes? Are you using a pirated release?

It is not secret now that the game has leaked online. Two groups from the warez scene have pre’d the game (Razor1911 (RZR) and SKIDROW) and it’s all over the internet. Razor1911’s release is a custom launcher which comes with SteamWorks in tact while SKIDROW claims to have removed Steam. Some folks have reported random crashes with RZR release but I have not personally tested this. Anyway to experience optimal, crash free performance and especially to enjoy the game’s multiplayer component, buying the game is encouraged.

Does this game require online activation? 

Essentially not a technical question but one of the most popular ones. Yes. Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 requires online activation to play both single player and multiplayer components (that is assuming you are using a legit, non-pirated copy). Online authentication is handled by SteamWorks protection by Valve software.

I pirated the game. Can I play online?

Possibly one of the most frequently asked questions. As mentioned above, you’ll have to by the game for full online multiplayer experience. Even multiplayer via emulated LAN such as via Hamachi does not seem to be possible with CoD MW 2 – pirates seem to be really screwed in this case.

Where are the saved games?

One thing i hate about Steam games is they store saved games in fukd up places where no one can find them. In this case, saved games are located in the following location:

X:\Steam\SteamApps\Common\Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2\Players

Fix Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 random crashes to desktop (CTD, black screen and more)

So far, we are not aware of any specific scenarios that always cause showstopper bugs. In this case, only some guidelines to minimize the possibility of crashes can be given. Please read the following – these probably won’t fix all of your problems but they sure as hell will help in one way or the other.

1. Install the latest DirectX runtime – Latest DirectX should be available in your Steam directory but if it’s not (or if you didn’t buy the game from Steam), you can download the latest monthly runtime from here. This is a standalone installer that will work in offline mode as well.
2. Install Microsoft Visual C++ runtime libraries – I’m not sure if this is an absolute necessity for this game but it’s required for most games nowadays (as demonstrated by the case with Dragon Age : Origins). You can download the required files from this link.
3. Update Video card drivers – Both NVIDIA and ATI have recent video drivers out – you should always try updating to the latest official driver version available for your hardware for best performance. If anything goes wrong, the option to rollback to previous release is always there.
   ATI Drivers: Download the latest ATI Catalyst drivers from this link: http://game.amd.com/us-en/drivers_catalyst.aspx
   NVIDIA Drivers: Download latest official NVIDIA drivers from this link: http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us
   For Beta ATI/NVIDIA drivers for Windows 7, XP and Vista, check out this page: http://downloads.guru3d.com/. If you are having video issues with official drivers, do not hesitate to give beta drivers a go. They are not always evil as the sound like.
4. Update sound card and motherboard drivers – Overlooked by many but an essential step to playing games crash free. Click Here to download 3DP Chip for Windows Vista/XP/7 – This program will automatically detect your hardware and search for updated drivers for them.

This post is a work in progress. Check back later for updates.

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