SOLVED: How to Fix Destiny 2 PC Crashing – Solutions to Crashes, Instability, Bugs & Glitches

Destiny 2 has had some widespread issues since its PC launch. Many players are not having any issues, but myself and many others have experienced regular crashing since launch. This guide will help you fix those crashes. I’ve  spent a lot of time troubleshooting and researching the issues everyone has shared publicly on reddit or the Bungie forums. Below are all of the most common issues and solutions available!

SOLVED: Destiny 2 PC Crashing to Desktop every 5, 10, 20, 30 minutes (varies). Often gives “Destiny 2 has stopped working.” error message.

Symptoms: Destiny 2 PC will crash to the Windows desktop pretty reliably after playing somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes. The game will freeze, then soon after it will exit automatically to the desktop and Windows will display the message “Destiny 2 has stopped working.” Occasionally the error message won’t be displayed.  Sometimes it showed a message recommending I run the Scan and Repair utility. This crashing can happen at seemingly any time in game – any location or in game activity. Sometimes it happens after fast traveling or at the beginning or end of a cut scene. Other times it happens randomly while not doing much of anything.

Solutions: I’ll start by listing what worked for me, then list other possible solutions and troubleshooting steps that have worked for some other people.

Solution #1: Close These “Problem Programs”

Exit Destiny 2 and the Battle.net app. Then close and exit all unnessary programs running on your PC, including background and taskbar application.

• Solution #1a: For me, closing the following 5 programs were what finally fixed the crashing issues for me.  With them running I had regular crashes every 20 or so minutes without fail. This was tested repeatedly over many hours and different sessions. After closing all of them I played for the first time for hours with no issues.
  • Close / Exit these programs if you have them on your system:
  • Ultramon / Ultramon x64
  • Roccat Power Grid (Connectivity app to display PC status on another device)
  • Brother Printer status monitor and software
  • Dell Printer status monitor and software
  • Epson Printer software
    
• Solution #1b: Close and exit any other software that may be “hooking” into your PC games, and/or displaying an overlay:
  • Steam
  • Geforce Experience (Shadowplay)
  • AMD Gaming Evolved (Raptr)
  • MSI Afterburner (or other overclocking software)
  • Discord
  • OBS, Xsplit and other video recording applications
  • Antivirus programs (Windows Defender, AVG, Malwarebytes, etc – try temporarily disabling them to test)
• Solution #1c: The above programs are the first ones I would close and would be the most likely to be causing issues. In addition to the above programs, I would recommend closing all software you can just to eliminate as many variables as possible.
  • Check the tray in your Windows taskbar and close all of those programs (generally right clicking will give you an option to exit / quit.)
  • Hit CONTROL + SHIFT + ESCAPE on your keyboard to bring up the Windows Task Manager. Under the “Applications” tab, exit all programs that aren’t 100% critical to your computer. For more advanced users, also look at the “Processes” tab. By reading the description on the right you should be able to determine more processes you can close. For example you may be able to close some backup software that runs in the background. However if you aren’t sure what you’re doing this may cause temporary system instability until you next reboot.

Once you’ve closed all of the applications you can, especially the ones listed in Solution #1a and #1b above, test if your crashing issues are fixed by playing Destiny 2. For me, the problem was solved. It appears there is a conflict of some sort, my best guess is there is a video conflict with the application Ultramon or the Roccat Power Grid. It’s important to note that these programs have never caused instability or crashes in a wide variety of other games over several years, so I believe it is an issue with Destiny 2 itself.

Solution #2: Delete Destiny 2 CVARS.xml file (custom player settings file)

This is a solution offered officially by Bungie on their website and forums. It is very simple and definitely worth a quick try to see if it solves your issue.

• Solution #2: To clear the CVARS file:
  1. Close Destiny 2 and the close Battle.net application
  2. Open the following folder location on your computer: \Users\USER_NAME\Appdata\Roaming\Bungie\DestinyPC\prefs\
     • (Note the AppData folder is hidden in Windows by default. A quick way to open it is to click the Start button in Windows, in the search bar type in “%appdata%” without the quotes. Then you will be able to see the Bungie and other folders.)
  3. Select and delete the CVARS.xml file located in that folder
     • Note deleting this file will delete any keybinds and other custom settings you set in Destiny 2 such as video options.
  4. Relaunch Destiny 2 and test to see if it is still crashing on you.

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Solution #3: Disable Any Video / Gameplay Recording Programs

Right at launch the Destiny 2 player community was in an uproar because some players were getting banned. In the end it looked like those banned players were actually few in number and had been using exploits. However, during this time it became clear there was a possible issue of a conflict between Destiny 2 and any sort of “Overlay” or “Hook” software. The Destiny 2 devs state this is intended to stop cheating. They state certain programs may cause crashing, but won’t cause banning as originally feared.

• Solution #3: Close any Overlay / Hook programs and/or disable their Overlay features.
  • OBS
  • Xsplit
  • Geforce Experience
  • AMD Gaming Evolved / Raptr
  • MSI Afterburner
  • Steam overlay
  • Discord overlay
  • FRAPS
  • Any other program that overlays something on top of your games, like FPS counters or system data.
  • Any other video recording software such as Twitch or Youtube streaming applications.

Solution #4: Update Your Graphics Card (GPU) Drivers

This should be an easy one, and is something you will want to do anyway. Usually shortly after major game releases like Destiny 2, the graphics card companies Nvidia and AMD will release “game ready drivers.” These drivers include game specific fixes and optimizations. There are new drivers available after Destiny 2’s release, so be sure to update your GPU driver.

Solution #5: Run Windows Update

At one point Bungie mentioned running Windows update to help troubleshoot. Generally Windows not being updated won’t cause any issues, in games but its something to consider. In general it is a good idea to update Windows regularly anyway. It can protect against some malware, solve incompatibility issues, and other things.

Solution #6: Temporarily Turn Down Destiny 2 Video Settings

It may be simply that your graphics card or CPU are overheating from rendering Destiny 2’s graphics. Try turning down all video settings in Destiny 2 temporarily to test if this helps.

• Launch Destiny2
• Go to Destiny 2’s video options menu
  • Cap your framerate at 30 or 60
  • Set all options to Low or Off
  • Disable things like HDR, Wind Effects, Motion Blur
  • Turn off and/or lower Antialiasing, Ambient Occlusion, Anisotropic Filtering
• Play Destiny 2 and see if it is still crashing.

You may also want to monitor your graphics card temperature while playing Destiny 2 to see if overheating may be an issue.

Solution #7: Run Destiny 2 as Administrator (Windows launch option)

This can help avoid issues with Windows such as User Account Control. Sometimes when launching a game without full administrator privileges, it may have not get the full access to your system that it needs. This could possibly cause crashing in some cases. To run Destiny 2 as Administrator:

1. In Windows, open the folder where you installed Destiny 2. (
   • If you don’t remember where you installed Destiny 2, Open the Battle.net launcher and in the Destiny 2 section, click “Options” then “Show in Explorer” – this will open the folder.
2. Right click on “Destiny2.exe” and select Properties
3. Go to the Compatibility tab and check “Run this program as administrator”
4. Click OK
5. Repeat for the file “Destiny 2 Launcher.exe”

At least a few users on the Bungie forums have reported that this fixed crashing problems for them.

Solution # 8: Run the “Scan and Repair” option for Destiny 2 in the Battle.net Software and/or Reinstall

A couple of times when I crashed, the error message recommended that I run the Scan and Repair option. This is a common feature in modern programs – it will scan the downloaded game files and verify everything is where it should be and that there is no corruption.

I ran the repair option and when it didn’t work I also uninstalled and reinstalled Destiny 2 to a different hard drive completely. This solution didn’t work for me, but the developers recommend it for some and it is worth a shot.

Solution #9: Turn off GPU / CPU / RAM etc Overclocking

This is a general troubleshooting tip and should be one of the first things you try if you ever have problems with game or system stability. Temporarily turn off all of your Overclocking settings. For CPU, RAM and other system overclocking this is probably done in your BIOS settings. You will need to reboot your computer, hit the key when prompted to enter the BIOS, then find the Overclocking options. Modern computers have pretty good BIOS interfaces so it should be easy to turn off and on.

For GPU overclocking, this is probably done by software in Windows using a GPU program like MSI Afterburner or another software offered by your specific graphics card manufacturer like Gigabyte, EVGA, etc. If you have set overclocking, go into the options and turn it off.

It also might be a good idea to monitor your GPU and CPU temperatures while playing Destiny 2. If they overheat it can definitely cause crashing. Recommended temperatures vary by GPU and CPU so you will need to do more research on that elsewhere.

Conclusion – Did this Fix Your Crashing Problems?

Hopefully this helps some users fix their crashing problems. Destiny 2 looks and runs great for me now, after closing the “problem programs” mentioned in Solution #1a. However everyone’s system is different so you may end up needing to try multiple solutions.

If you need any help or have any extra information to share please post below in the comments!