mass-effect-freezesThe launch of Mass Effect 2, one of the most anticipated PC games of the year, was met with great reactions from the public but unfortunately quite a few of the gamers encounter different problems when playing the game, like freezes, crashes and black screens. I’ve tried to find out solutions for these annoying problems and below we’ll try together to fix Mass Effect 2 crashes and freezes.

First of all, before trying any fix listed above, make sure that your computer meets the Mass Effect 2 system requirements and that you have updated your video and sound card drivers to the latest drivers. If you meet all the requirements but still have problems and ME2 crashes or/and freezes, read on and maybe you’ll find a solution!

First of all, most of the users report that they have problems when trying to load Mass Effect 2 and the game freezes while loading. According to people from the Steam forums, there are a couple of things you could try to fix this:

1. “Right click on game, properties, local files, verify integrity of game files. Then Defrag them. After that you should launch the game using the Launcher first so you can set all your settings the best way (lowest possible). Make sure your signed into EA and Biowear and registered your game,” suggests fatray

2. You could also try to go to the set up of the game file in SteamApps/common/mass effect 2/Binaries and lower the video settings. Hopefully this will solve your problem!

3. For those running Mass Effect 2 in Windows 7 or Vista, disabling the User Account Control might also fix the problem. If it does not, it would be best to switch the UAC back on!

4. Finally, if none of these fixes work, try a solution suggested by Steam user jito643: Delete the local shader cache files by going to Steam\SteamApps\common\mass effect\Binaries\ MassEffectConfig.exe and under the Repair section click on “Delete Local Shader Cache Files”.

Did any of these solutions help you with the Mass Effect 2 freezes and crashes? Did you manage to find your own solution? Let us all know in the comment section below!

32 COMMENTS

  1. yeah i reckon this game still has few bugs in it. im running it on windows 7 with ati radeon 4890. occasionally it freezes and locks up requiring restart of pc. in some maps like rescue of tali it just happens so often it makes the game unplayable.

    • haha the same here, randomly freezes but on tali mission it happened 3 times already, thats why i went online to find a solution

  2. after installation i keep getting a ‘the application has failed to start correctly (0xc000007b)’ crash message. can anyone help? i meet the pc requirements, have net framework 3.5.1 and the latest drivers.

  3. There is no repair button. Exactly how is this fixed now if theres nothing there to click? Rescan doesn’t unlock it…. Help? Everything else I’ve done here, more than 7 times, so exactly what now….

  4. I found I could not create a new character as long as I had the add-ons installed. Had to delete the folder and completely reload the game. Since the add-ons come with the game when you buy it in the store, maybe many people did what I did and applied the add-ons before ever loading the game.

  5. Well I was able to make a new character “with” add-ons installed, and without, so that theory is not working for me here. There has to be something else blocking it from running. It simply crashes when it goes to the loading, halfway there or just going into the loading screens at all. I’m beyond the specs for this game, so I’m at a loss here. I’ll simply not play it.

  6. Like the 3rd guy, my PC also crashes at random points. I can play the game, but then suddenly whole PC just TURNS OFF. It acts like if I unplugged power. But ofc it’s plugged in. And no, this is not a problem with my power supply (btw, it’s ~620 W, Chieftec). I got no error before it, no BSOD so I have no clue what to do now.

  7. If you purchased the game through Steam I highly recommend giving the first fix a try (verify file integrity and defrag). I was having heaps of trouble with freeze-ups occurring during loading screens, but this solution worked like a charm.

  8. Broken record alert. Most of us (speaking for myself as well here) ‘have’ done the above, verifying and defragging, restarting to death, and no fixing has happened. How about an actual patch to fix the coding problem and we can actually play like the others, thanks. I’m very happy for you that it works for you, but what you are suggesting does not work for everyone. A patch will fix this. Bioware, where are you, and will you kindly help the people who need it? Thanks.

  9. I installed the game many times over, and still, every time I t ry to start a new game it crashes on loading screen. As soon as the loading screen apears, the masseffect relay thingie shows, and some green numbers apear on right top of it, and then it simply freezes. I can still hear music, but the only thing I can do is to ctrl+alt+del it away and it says “Not responding”… xC Pls Help!

    • that is the exsact same thing mine is doeing.. getting too see the relay, numbers, POW freeze, ctrl, alt, del. and it says it is not responding
      :S

  10. I’ve never seen green numbers appear, next time I try the game, I’ll look and see if I get the same reaction. Perhaps that will help with the bug testing or something! But the same reaction. Gets to a loading screen, music can be heard, but it just simply stops running, and yes, task manager is the ONLY way for it to get off the screen or to shut down, otherwise it just runs in its stalled form.

  11. The speculations appear to be sofisticated:
    at least xp sp3,vista,w7
    double core cpu(amust and will not work for single core ever)
    high end graphic card(7900,8800 and so on)
    If and only if these speculation met,some fixes may resolve the crash problems like the latest patch 1.0.1.

  12. Game ran fine the first time I got through, then the second time I tried to get through the game the game gets stuck at exactly the same point every time with EVERY save EXCEPT with the first save. (In this save I already visited the point before) It happens when I try to enter the Mad Prophet area on my way to the quarentine area. There are two paths in, every time when I get close to the Mad Prophet the game freezes. No errors, nothing. Music keeps running, and CPU usage skyrockets from 50 % to 100%. I’ve tried saving just before the area, doesn’t make a difference.. The rest of the game runs fine, but I need professor Solus to continue.

  13. If enemies are on the screen and a battle has started, the game will ALWAYS Freeze if I try to assign moves to the shortcuts (PC version). I can only assign moves (drag & drop) when there are no enemies on screen.

    This is extremely annoying, anyone else have this issue?

    This is literally the only thing that has ever made the game crash for me. Occasionally it will temporarily freeze on loading screens if I play in windowed mode but that’s it.

  14. Problem with ME2 ( 0xc000007b ) solved by installing C++ package located on install disk in folder software\Visual CRT

  15. My problem is when my character is walking, they will all of sudden stop walking for a few seconds, and after that they will start walking again. Any ideas what may cause that. I have plenty of RAM (3 gig), and a Geforce 9500 series graphics card.

  16. It ran fine for like the first four days I started playing but I haven’t been able to play at all today since it gives a blotchy screen, then black screen, which cannot be removed at all, anytime i try to enter an area or mission so I have to force restart the PC. It is strange since I have visited these locations already but now I cannot access them, I have been playing on highest settings and this is the first time I have gotten any problems and this one is really bad. Any ideas anyone?
    2Gb RAM, Geforce GTX 280 & Windows 7

  17. My game ran fine until at one specific point it causes my computer to crash and restart instantly. My PC is brand new with 4GB RAM, Asus EAH5770 1GB, Windows 7 Intel i5 CPU 3.33Ghz. Why is this happening and how can I fix it?

  18. i have tried this one and succeeded

    “Alright I have worked out what the problem is.
    The Mass Effect 2 Installer is a disgusting abomination that should never have even existed.
    To fix this problem, install Mass Effect 2 as usual, then extract the Movies.rar file from your Mass Effect 2 Disc 1 to where your Mass Effect 2 movies have been installed.
    The movies have not been entirely installed, which is why it won’t load properly.
    If you manually extract all the movies from the disc to your destination folder, it will all be in there properly and Mass Effect 2 won’t have any trouble loading.”

    worked for me
    you should try it

  19. Yeah something similar for me. What happens for me though is I’ll re-assign stuff AFTER a battle because I don’t like where something is annnnd..crash. Only has happened two times, just updated my drivers so we’ll see what happens.

  20. ME 1 and 2 worked perfectly (just a glitch here and there) until I updated my Windows 7 operating system to Service Pack 2. They both then crash on startup. I checked this by rolling it back to the original version of 7 and they worked fine again. There sounds like there may be several different problems here but this would certainly compound and complicate the issue. I’ve tried several work arounds but have not had any luck yet. That’s why I was looking here.

  21. hi guys just thought i would pass on that i was having HEAPS of trouble with me2 consistently crashing. It used to play fine and i had completed the game, but a few months later felt like playing again and WTF now suddenly crashes every time i go to a menu screen and other random places. I tried all the normal suggestions (steam version) verifying files, clearing cache. Then tried uninstall and reinstalling (through steam so had to download entire game AGAIN!) but no joy. Installed the latest driver for the NVidia GForce on my laptop, which then led to a NEW error message saying PhyEX not working (or something along those lines) but a restart resolved this. But game still crashing. I then tried windowed mode, in which the game would run (but in a tiny window – yuk, no thanks) and then i saw a thread on a windows help site about trying the game in compatability mode. I had recently install Windows 7, SP1 , so i changed the compatability for me2 to Windows 7 (sans SP1) and it solved the problem! I’m so relieved!

    So don’t forget windows compatability modes they are worth a try. Good luck fellow gamers. ^_^

  22. I had been playing ME for quite some time and when I installed SP 1 for windows 7 everytime I tried to start the game it would crash at the start where the video would play. After much trial and error I discovered that a video error was causing it. In my case this was EVGA Precision. As long as Precision was running a crash occurred. Turn Precision off and it runs fine. If you run Precision or perhaps another program with a screen display, this may cause your problem. Just close the programs.

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