CS:GO crashing freezing and black screen issue in Windows 10 / 11

Just like any other game on your PC, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive can also crash, freeze on the startup, or stuck in a pitch-black screen. Counter-Strike is one of the low-resource fps games on the market, it even runs on a potato PC.  Though CSGO is a CPU-oriented game, system GPU also plays an important part. The black screen problem is associated with the GPU issues. Follow these easy solutions to fix the problem.

 

Fix 1 – Turn off Compatibility

If you run the game in compatibility mode for Windows 8 or 7, turn it off. CSGO is fully compatible with every version of Windows (Windows XP or after).

1. You must find the actual location of the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive game on your system.

2. Open File Explorer. If you know in which drive you have installed it, you can find it this way  –

SteamLibrary\steamapps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive

 

3. If you don’t know where you have installed CSGO, there is another way you can do this.

a. Open the Steam app.

b. Go to the “LIBRARY“, where you can find all your games in one place.

c. Now, find the “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” on the left-hand section.

d. Once you have found that, right-tap the game and click “Manage>“. Next, click on “Browse local files“.

 

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This will directly lead you to the location of the CSGO files.

4. However you have reached the location, look for the “csgo” application.

5. Now right-click that and click “Properties“.

 

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6. In the csgo Properties screen, head on to the “Compatibility” tab.

7. Here, make sure that you have unchecked the “Run this program in compatibility for:” box.



 

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8. Finally, just click “Apply” and “OK“.

 

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Once you have saved the changes, run CSGO using the desktop icon or directly from Steam. There won’t be any further issues.

 

Fix 2 – Delete the corrupted executable

If the main executable file itself is corrupted, you can delete that and launch the game.

1. On your Desktop, you can find the CSGO icon.

2. Once you have found that, select it and hit the “Delete” key from your keyboard.

 

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3. Deleting only the shortcut isn’t enough. Launch the Steam client.

4. Once it loads up, visit the “LIBRARY“.  All your purchased games are enlisted here.

5. Look for the “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” on the left-hand section.

6. Once you have found that, right-tap the game and click “Manage>“. Next, click on “Browse local files“.

 

 

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7. This directly leads to the local CSGO files on your computer.

8. Once you are in that location, select the “csgo” application and click on the bin icon to remove it from your computer.

 

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9. Coming back to the Steam page, select the “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” game and hit “Play“.

 

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Now, Steam will perform a scanning operation over the game files. Once it detects the missing executable file, it just re-downloads it and installs it in the same location.

This entire process may just take a few minutes. Once the game launches, test whether the game is working or not.

 

Fix 3 – Run an integrity check on CSGO files

The previous fix doesn’t fix the problem, you can run an integrity check on all the files and folders.

1. Open the Steam client on your computer.

2. Go to the “LIBRARY“.

3. Next, just right-click the “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” game and click “Properties“.

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4. If you tap the “LOCAL FILES” option from the left-hand pane, you can see several options associated with the local files.

5. To verify the game files, click on “Verify integrity of game files…“.

 

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Let Steam scan the game files and fix any corrupt files associated with CSGO.

 

Fix 4 – Rename the cfg folder

If the configuration folder for CSGO is corrupt, you can rename it.

1. Open the Steam client.

2. Then, visit the “LIBRARY“.  All your purchased games are enlisted here.

3. Look for the “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” on the left-hand section.

4. Once you have found that, right-tap the game and click “Manage>“. Next, click on “Browse local files“.

 

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5. Now, double-tap the “csgo” folder to open it.

6. Next, select the “cfg” folder and tap the “Rename” icon to rename it from your computer.

7. Then, rename it to “cfg.old“.

 

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Once you have removed the cfg folder, close everything.

Now, just run the game and check. It will automatically create a new cfg folder.

 

Fix 5 – Modify the Launch options

Set the CSGO to run under particular launch options.

1. Open the Steam app. Then, go to the “LIBRARY” from the menu bar.

2. Look for the “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive“. Then, right-click on it and click “Properties“.

 

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3. Now, go to the “General” tab.

4. Here, you can find the ‘LAUNCH OPTIONS‘ tab. Just copy-paste this there.

-autoconfig

If you have multiple launch options, make sure to add a space between them.

 

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After that, just launch Counter-Strike on your computer. You won’t see any black screen or crashing issues.

[

NOTE

If the previous modifier doesn’t work, you can paste this one into the launch options and run the game.

cl_disablehtmlmotd 1

]

 

Fix 6 – Stop the Steam Shared Pre-caching

Steam sometimes creates cache files for the games you most play (like – CSGO) on your PC.

1. Re-open the Steam client, if it isn’t already opened yet.

2. Then, click on the “Steam” option on the menu bar.

3. Next, tap “Settings” to open the Steam settings page.

 

Steam Settings

 

4. On the Steam Settings page, click on the last option on the left-hand side, “Shader Pre-Caching“.

5. Now, if you look on the right-hand pane, you can find the option “Enable Shader Pre-Caching“. Make sure that you have unchecked that.

6. After that, click “OK“.

 

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This disables the shader Pre-caching. But, you have to force exit the Steam app.

7. Close the Steam app. But, it carries on to run the Steam in the background.

8. Now, click on the upward arrow icon. You can find the “Steam” app icon there.

9. Next, right-click on the “Steam” app and click “Exit“.

 

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Once you have closed the app, relaunch Steam.

Run the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on your computer. This should help you resolve the problem of crashing, freezing, or black screen.

 

Fix 7 – Uninstall the display driver

Old, corrupted display drivers can cause this issue with the Counter-Strike. Try uninstalling it and installing the latest version of the display driver.

Additionally, if you have recently updated the display driver, uninstall that and reinstall an older driver.

Step 1 – Uninstall the driver

1. Just hold the Win key and the R keys together to invoke the Run box.

2. Then, write down this and click “OK“.

devmgmt.msc

 

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3. When it opens up the Device Manager, look for the display driver.

4. Just, right-tap the display driver and tap “Unisntall device“.

 

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5. You have to confirm your choice with another tap on “Uninstall“.

 

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Once Windows uninstalls the graphics card, the screen may turn unresponsive for a few seconds. But, everything should just go normal after a while.

 

Step 2  – Download the older driver

You can download and install the older driver with which the game was working normally.

1. Go to the NVIDIA official website to open the Official Advanced Driver page.

2. Here, you can specify which version of display driver you want. Set the specific product information from the apporaited boxes .

3. Then, click “Search” to search for the full list of display drivers.

 

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4. Here, you can see the list of drivers and their “Release Date“.

5. Choose a release date where the game was working correctly. Then, click on the game driver to download it.

 

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6. Once you have set the driver, click “Download” to download the standalone display driver package.

 

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7. When you have downloaded the update package, double-tap the driver package.

Now, wait until the package is extracted, then, it will be installed on your computer.

 

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Once the display driver is installed, close everything. Then, restart your computer.

 

Fix 8 – Stop the multi-core rendering

Multi-core rendering increases the FPS in CSGO. But, as CSGO isn’t a very intensive game. So, disable the multi core rendering.

1. Open the Steam app using the search box.



2. When you have opened the Steam client, head down to the “LIBRARY” section to find all your purchased games here.

3. Then launch “Counter-Strike: Global Offensive” .

 

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4. Once the game loads up, go to the “Options” on the top menu, click “Video” to access it.



 

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5. Here, you can go to the “Advanced video options“.

6. So, set the “Multicore Rendering” settings to “DISABLED“.

7. Once you have disabled the multicore rendering settings, click “APPLY CHANGES” to apply the change.

 

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This modification usually requires a game restart. So, exit the CSGO and relaunch the game. This way, you won’t face those issues.

 

Fix 9 – Disable Overclocking

CSGO can crash if you have overclocked your CPUs. Overclocking gives you more FPS, a competitive advantage in Counter-Strike. But, a low-end game like CSGO doesn’t require overclocking at all. This overclocking can actually cause trouble like game freezes, crashes, etc.

You can turn off the Overclocking feature in the system BIOS.

But, users can use the softwares to overclock the system like MSI AfterBurner, Asus GPU Tweak, and AMD OverDrive. You have to get rid of such apps.

1. Press the Windows key+R keys together.

2. Then, type this UTR-code and click “OK“.

appwiz.cpl

 

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3. When the Programs and Features page opens up, look for the overclocking app that you have installed [like- MSI Afterburner].

4. Now, right-click on the app and click on “Uninstall“.

 

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Just follow the steps as appear to complete the uninstallation process. But, restart your computer to save these modifications.

 

Fix 10 –  Uninstall and reinstall CSGO

If everything else fails, you can uninstall the Counter-Strike from your device and reinstall it.

1. You have to open the Steam client to uninstall the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive from your device.

2. So, open the Steam client and visit the “LIBRARY” pane.

3. On the left-hand pane, look for the “Countre-Strike: Global Offensive” game.

4. After that, right-click on the game and tap “Manage>” and tap “Uninstall“.

 

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5. When you are asked the ‘Would you like to uninstall Counter-Strike: Global Offensive’ message, click “Uninstall“.

 

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6. Once CSGO is uninstalled, you can reinstall the game from the same place.

 

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Once you have re-installed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on your computer, play the game and test.

This should have solved the problem.